han Jefferson Davis.
A native of Kentucky, born about 1806, he went in early youth with his father to Mississippi, then a Territory, and was appointed by President Monroe in 1822 to be a cadet at West Point.
He graduated with the first honors in 1828 as Brevet Second Lieut., and at his own request was placed in active service, being assigned to the command of General (then Colonel,) Zachary Taylor, who was stationed in the West.
In the frontier wars of the time young Davis distinguished himseAnglo-Saxon love of his ancestry, Mr. Stephens has since re-purchased the original estate, which comprised about two hundred and fifty acres, and has added to it about six hundred more.
Assisted by friends, he entered the University of Georgia in 1828, and in 1832 graduated at the head of his class.
In 1834 he commenced the study of the law, and in less than twelve months was engaged in one of the most important cases in the country.
His eloquence has ever had a powerful effect upon juries, e
, while Simon was yet a boy. In he came to Harrisburg and bound himself as an apprentice to the printing business as James Peacock.
Having completed his apprenticeship he went to Washington city, and was employed as a journeyman printer.
In 1824, his party — then in the ascendancy in the Congressional district--proposed to nominate him for Congress, an honor which he declined, as interfering with the enterprise in which he was then engaged.
He was appointed Adjutant General of the State in 1828, an office which he filled creditably and acceptable during Gov. Shultz's term; and in 1831, unsolicited, he was appointed by Gen. Jackson as a visitor to West Point.
He has always been prominent in the internal improvements of Pennsylvania, but not in matters of war.
Montgomery Blair, Postmaster General.
Judge Montgomery Blair resides at Montgomery Castle, near Silver Spring, Montgomery county.
Md. Judge Blair is a son of Francis P. Blair, well known in Gen. Jackson's time.
He g
onists in this body. --The people of Virginia were a moral and a law-abiding people, and before they would endorse the doctrine they must be convinced of the morality and the legality of the act. Mr. Calhoun never held to such a right — he said in the Senate that its exercise would be a breach of the compact — a violation of faith.
The Supreme Court of South Carolina had also denied the legality and constitutionality of the right in the case of McCrady.
The Legislature of South Carolina in 1828, in a provision said to have been written by Mr. Calhoun, also held the same doctrine.
The Constitution itself, which provides a method for its own amendment, plainly shows the absurdity of the right of secession.
Virginia was called upon to say to the Government-- you must not enforce your laws in this or that State, but you must enforce them in others; that you must collect your revenues in New York, but must not collect them in South Carolina.
He then read from the writings of Henry Cla
le to keep an eye upon the Catilines and Cæsars, North and South.
Alluding to the settlement of agitating questions in the past, he said that the men composing the former councils were made of very different stuff from men of these days.
Point an empty gun at Secessionists now, they would dodge.
They went down to Fortress Monroe, not to see if the guns were loaded, but to see if they were pointed towards the land.
Passing rapidly along in his argument, Mr. Rives touched upon the tariff of 1828, and the nullification of South Carolina.--The Union men said then as they said now.--South Carolina, stand back; General Jackson, stand back!
They thus acted as mediators, and saved the country.
The point he made, as the reporter understood it, was that if wise counsels could prevail, a similar result would follow the present efforts.
The argument that the best way to reconstruct the Union was for Virginia to go out of it, was answered by supposing the case of a little girl, five years ol
d 8,000 sacks of corn at their service.
The Legislature of Illinois adjourned on the 3d inst., after appropriating $3,000,000 for war purposes.
Prayers were offered in several New York city churches Sunday, for the health, life and happiness of Lieutenant General Scott.
The city of Detroit has been mulcted in $20,000 for leaving a sewer unprotected.
A dear lesson.
There are now no Cadets at West Point from the Confederate States, the last two having resigned last week.
R. L. King, formerly a Lieutenant in the U. S. Navy, died suddenly in New Orleans on the 30th ult.
Already 114 volunteer companies have tendered their services to the Governor of Tennessee.
Wm.Gibson, a resident of St. Louis for 40 years, died on the 3d inst.
A number of the "first ladies" in Chicago have offered their services as regiment nurses.
Jeff. Davis graduated at West Point in the class of 1828.
Gen. Scott will be seventy five years of age on the 13th of June.
Peter Francisco.
A relative of the celebrated American Samson, Peter Francisco, requests us to write a memoir of him. We would do so with much pleasure had we the materials, which, we should think, could be found nowhere so well as among the members of his own family, one of whom is the gentleman himself who makes the request.
We knew him, it is true, very well; but it was in the latter years of his life after he had become Sergeant-at-Arms.
This was about the year 1827 or 1828, we think.
At that time he retained much of his gigantic strength, and all his vivacity.
He was extremely good-humored and kind-hearted, delighted in the society of young people, especially of boys, and was full of anecdotes.
We do not recollect ever to have seen any old man enjoy life more heartily, or evince less disposition to quarrel with his lot. We have frequently seen him make exhibitions of his strength in a small way, for the amusement of the boys, with whom he was a prodigious favorite, but
ary negotiations by which Austria was detached from the French alliance, and united with England, against Napoleon.
He subsequently brought about the alliance of Murat, King of Naples, with Austria; but in 1515 exerted himself vainly to prevent the rupture which took place between the courts of Naples and Vienna, and resulted in the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne of the former State.
Elected in 1814 a Scottish representative Peer, he uniformly approved himself a decided Tory.
In 1828, he became minister of foreign affairs under Wellington.
In this position he departed widely from the system of Canning, inasmuch as he abetted the policy of Austria, conducted then by Metternich, his intimate friend.
Thus he disapproved of the battle of Navarino, although he had signed with France and Russia the first protocol in favor of Greece.
Upon the dissolution of the Wellington administration consequent upon the reform agitation, he went into the opposition, Jan. 16, 1830. He hence
ort Pickens.
This fort is a first class bastioned fort, built of New York granite, and situated on low ground on the east point of Santa Rosa Island.
Its walls are forty-five feet in height by twelve feet in thickness; it is embrasure for two tiers of guns, which are placed under bombproof casemates, besides having one tier of guns en barbette. The guns from this work radiate to every point of the horizon, with flank and enfilading fire at every angle of approach.
The work was commenced in 1828 and finished in 1853.
It cost the Federal Government nearly one million of dollars.
When on a war footing its garrison consists of 1,260 soldiers.
Its armament, only a portion of which is within its walls, consists of--
Guns.
Forty-two pounder iron guns63
Thirty-two-pounder iron guns17
Twenty-four-pounder iron guns49
Eighteen pounder iron guns5
Twelve pounder iron guns13
Brass field pieces6
Brass flank howitzers26
Heavy eight inch howitzers13
Thirteen-inch mortar1
Heavy
s of both forts opened upon her. For a time she replied with spirit, but the distance being very great, the firing soon ceased and the steamer retired beyond range.
Appointments to a Brigadier-Generalship.
Col. Thomas F. Drayton, the President of the Charleston and Savannah Railroad Company — under whose auspices the road has been built — has been appointed a Brigadier-General in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States. Gen. Drayton is a graduate of West Point, in the class of 1828, and was detailed as Lieutenant in the Sixth Infantry, in which regiment he served until 1836, when he became associated with the Charleston, Louisville and Cincinnati Railroad Company as Resident Engineer.
He served in this enterprise until 1838, since which time he has been engaged in planting.
Important if true, but very doubtful.
The Columbia South Carolinian says that a rumor has reached that city through passengers from the West that an interview took place in Tennessee last w
l sailed for Upernavic, on the voyage home, arriving there on the 15th of August, 1861, after passing through one hundred and fifty miles of field ice in Melville Bay.
Hans, an Esquimaux, on whom Dr. Kane placed great dependence, who is frequently mentioned in Dr. Kane's book, and who deserted that expedition while in the ice in the far North, was found at Cape York by the crew of the United States, and returned in the vessel to Upernavic, from whence he started with Dr. Kane.
The expedition went as far North as 81 degrees, 35 minutes; a latitude which is said to have been before reached only by Perry in 1827-8.
On the coldest day experienced the thermometer was down to 68 degrees below zero.
The vessel was provisioned for two years, and her returning now, without having had any serious disasters, inclines us to the belief that the party have made some important discoveries which they are not desirous of communicating here.
If so, it will be laid before the public ere long."
