After some doubt occasioned by the telegraphic news of last
week from the United States, it is now made clear that the Compro- mise Act suggested by Mr. Clay has failed in the Senate at Washington. There was not sufficient force in the Senate to come even to a provisional conclusion on the questions included in the Compromise Act, and they have been completely set aside for the present. The bill that was carried was only one to confer the customary rights on the territory of Utah—a single provision of the larger bill. Perhaps this result is not entirely to be regretted: it may save more muddling than if a plan of " compromise " had received such emphatic sanction. Measures for the extinction of slavery in the United States will be the better for being gradual, but the better also for being perfectly explicit and distinct.
Previous page
