sweeping out of the bill, everything relating to a temporary government for California and New Mexico. A bill which had previously passed the house of representatives, extending the revenue laws of the United States to California, was then taken up and passed by the senate.

Mr. Benton, on the 13th December, presented in the senate, a petition from citizens of New Mexico, praying for the organization of a territorial government, protesting against the dismemberment of their territory in favor of Texas, and containing the following clause on the subject of slavery:

"We do not desire to have domestic slavery within our borders, and until the time shall arrive for our admission into the Union as a state, we desire to be protected by Congress against its introduction among us."

After considerable debate, this petition was ordered to be printed, and referred to the appropriate committee.

Various propositions were introduced at this session to grant the aid of the national government to railroad communications, to be constructed between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but no definite action was had on either of these plans. A bill was reported in the senate, by Mr. Benton, from the committee on military affairs, authorizing and directing the secretary of the navy to enter into a contract, for a period not exceeding twenty years, with William H. Aspinwall, John L. Stephens, and Henry Chauncey, of New York, for the transportation, by steam, of the mails, naval and army supplies, &c., over a railroad to be constructed across the isthmus of Panama, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean; at a sum not exceeding three fourths of the amount now stipulated by law to be paid for the transportation of the mails alone from New York to Liv erpool. This bill, although pressed and debated until the last days of the session, failed to receive the support of a majority of the senate.

Mr. Benton also introduced in the senate a bill, which was not acted upon, providing for the location and construction of a central national railroad from the Pacific ocean at San Francisco, to the Mississippi river at St. Louis; with a branch to the tidewater of Columbia river - appropriating therefor, seventy-five per cent. of the proceeds of sales of the public lands in Oregon and California, and fifty per cent. of the amount of sales of all other public lands.

A convention of southern members of Congress, comprising a large portion of the members of both houses from the slaveholding states, which was held during this session, attracted considerable of the public attention. The motive for calling this convention arose mainly from the previous proceedings in the house of representatives at the present session, relating in part to the subject of slavery, and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, and in part to the question of the prohibition of slavery in the recently. acquired territories of California and New Mexico.

The first meeting was held in the senate chamber, on the 23d Decem.

ber, 1848, at which were present sixty-eight members of Congress. ExGovernor Metcalfe, senator from Kentucky, presided. Mr. Bayly, a member of the house, from Virginia, offered a series of resolutions, embracing essentially the principles of the Virginia resolutions of 1798. These resolutions of Mr. Bayly were referred to a committee of one member from each of the slaveholding states, which committee appointed a sub-committee of five, of whom Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, was chairman, to consider and report upon the subjects referred to them.

On the 15th of January, the convention again met, between eighty and ninety members attending; and Mr. Calhoun, from the committee of fifteen, reported" an address of the southern delegates to their constituents," - which paper, after giving a review of the constitutional provisions in relation to slavery, and the rights of the slaveholding states under that instrument, set forth the alleged infractions of these provisions by the northern or free states, and advised the south to be united among themselves in the present crisis, and to maintain an immovable attitude of readiness, if necessary, to defend their rights.

The address having been recommitted to the committee, the convention again met on the 22d of January, when Mr. Berrien, of Georgia, submitted an "address to the people of the United States," as a substitute for that of Mr. Calhoun; which substitute the convention, by a vote of twentyseven to thirty-four, refused to adopt. Mr. Calhoun's address was then adopted by a vote of forty-two yeas, to seventeen nays, and after being signed by forty-eight members, thirty thousand copies of it were published for distribution. Of the signers, two were whigs, and forty-six democrats. The principal acts of public importance passed at this session were as follows: to establish the home department, and to provide for an assistant secretary of the treasury, and a commissioner of the customs; to extend the revenue laws of the United States over the territory and waters of Upper California, and to create a collection district therein; to establish the territorial government of Minesota; to make arrangements for taking the seventh census; to authorize the coinage of twenty and one dollar gold pieces; requiring all moneys receivable from customs and from all other sources to be paid immediately into the treasury, without abatement or deduction; to cause the northern boundary line of the state of Iowa to be run and marked; to carry into effect certain stipulations of the treaty between the United States and Mexico; and a resolution authorizing the secretary of war to furnish arms and ammunition to emigrants to Oregon, California, and New Mexico.

A convention or treaty between the governments of the United States and Great Britain, " for the improvement of the communications by post between their respective territories," was signed in London on the 15th of December, 1848, by Lord Palmerston, on the part of the British government, and Mr. Bancroft, on the part of the United States. This was confirmed by the United States senate on the 5th of January, 1849.

In 1846, Mr. M'Lane, minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, having returned to the United States, George Bancroft was appointed in his place, and consequently resigned as secretary of the navy. To the latter office John Y. Mason was transferred from that of attorney-general, and Nathan Clifford, of Maine, succeeded Mr. Mason. In 1848, Mr. Clifford was appointed minister to Mexico, and was succeeded in the office of attorneygeneral by Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut.

The administration of Mr. Polk, which terminated on the 4th of March, 1849, was marked by measures and events of the most decided and important character on the interests of the country; among its most important features, was the war with Mexico, began, as we have seen, under circumstances which rendered it unpopular with a considerable portion of the people of the United States, but, in consequence of the unchecked triumphs of the American arms, and the unsurpassed valor and skill of the military and naval forces of the United States employed in Mexico, eventually became popular with the people, and was carried on and brought to a successful and honorable conclusion by the same administration which had commenced it. The advantages gained by this war, as claimed by the friends of the administration, were, the acquisition of the large and important territories of New Mexico and California, by which the area of the United States territory was greatly extended, and the boundary with Mexico permanently settled — the newly-acquired countries being of great value on account of their mineral wealth, and possessing important harbors on the Pacific ocean; also the elevation of the reputation of the people of the United States; and the Mexicans being taught by experience, their inferiority and inability to contend with their northern neighbors, will avoid causes of war on their own part, while their cession of territory to the United States will hasten the peopling and improvement of those portions of the continent of North America, which, under the dominion of the Spanish race, have hitherto lain waste and unoccupied. Those who disapproved of the war contend that a collision of arms might have been avoided by proper measures on the part of the administration of Mr. Polk, and that the advantages gained by the conquests of our army are more than counterbalanced by the sacrifice of more than twenty-five thousand lives of citizens of the United States, lost during the war, by battles, sickness, and other casualties, and at a cost of over one hundred millions of dollars.

The other prominent measures of Mr. Polk's administration were, the settlement of the Oregon boundary question with Great Britain; the establishment of an independent treasury system, by which the revenues of the nation are collected in gold and silver, or treasury-notes, without the aid of banks; and a revision of the tariff, by which the establishment of an advalorem system of duties on imports, accompanied with a warehouse system, has been effected; on the policy of which financial measures the American people have been, and still continue to be, divided in opinion.