Raftsman's Journal

GEN. WM. WALKER AND NICARAGUA.

From the Harrisburg Telegraph

The latest arrival from Nicaragua brings to this country the intelligence that peace will be shortly made between Walker and his enemies; that his affairs are in most flourishing condition, and that a large number of recruits from New York, New Orleans and California have been added to his forces. There now remains but little doubt that he will be able to permanently establish himself and his followers in that country, and retain possession of the Government. Settlers have been invited from all parts, and free farms offered to them. The decree of 1824, abolishing Slavery, has been repealed, and the importation of Slaves into Nicaragua is solicited. The soil, the climate and the productions—such as rice, sugar, cotton and tobacco—are suitable to Slave labor, and this is held to be necessary for the prosperity of the country, and the full development of its rich resources. A large quantity of the landed property, which belonged to the native inhabitants, has been confiscated to the use of the Government. Pierre Soule has purchased one of the confiscated estates, and a number of the remaining estates will be purchased by Southern Slaveholders, or by capitalists who are willing and able to purchase Slaves to stock them. If the future may be judged by the past, there will be an attempt made to annex Nicaragua during the administration of James Buchanan. The attempt to annex it to this country may be postponed until the eve of another Presidential election. The question of the extension of Slavery will then be used to elect Judge Douglas President, and will agitate the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to the Isthmus of Darien.— The South will present, as in the late election, an undivided front, and the North will be divided into two parties, Pro-Slavery and Anti-Slavery. A large portion of the Northern Democracy will act with the South. John Randolph declared that the South was as sure of the Northern Democrats as she was of her own negroes. Our large Atlantic cities will give their votes, money and influence to aid this alliance of the Southern Slaveholding Aristocracy and the Northern Democracy, composed of office-holders, office-hunters, ignorant and narrow-minded partisans, Roman Catholic Germans and Irish, gamblers, grog-sellers, and the obscene rabblement, whom they influence. Property is sensitive and trade is timid. Threats made by the South against the business and breeches-pockets of the merchants of our Northern cities, will at once frighten them into a coalition with the most corrupt and rancorous demagogues of the Democratic party.

As, in all probability, Gen. William Walker will be a conspicuous person in the history of the events of the next four years, and will be the first Senator elected from the State of Nicaragua, we condense a biographical sketch of him from a New Orleans paper, the Louisiana Courier. The writer of the sketch has been acquainted with Gen. Walker from his childhood, and has given some interesting particulars in regard to his relatives, his life and his personal appearance.

William Walker was born in Nashville, Tennessee. His father was a Scotch-man, from Glasgow, or its neighborhood. The name of his mother was Norvell. She was a native of Kentucky, and was a sister of John Norvell, once United States Senator from Michigan. John Norvell was a gentleman of talent, high character and pleasant and agreeable manners. He was a lawyer and politician.— He was appointed a Judge, was elected to the United States Senate, and was appointed U. S. District Attorney for Michigan by Gen. Zachary Taylor. Judge Norvell had a son in the U. S. Army, Captain Spencer Norvell, a most accomplished gentleman, and he had a daughter married to a Capt. Miller, of the U. S. Army. When on a visit to Niagara Falls it was reported that his daughter had fallen or thrown herself into the cataract. It was soon discovered that this was not true, but that she had eloped with a paramour. Her paramour and her place of concealment was unknown, but her conduct killed both her father and her brother. In less than a year after she eloped her paramour deserted her, and she returned home to Detroit to seek the protection and solicit the mercy of her afflicted family. She found an empty home and two graves, one filled with her heart-broken father, and the other with her gallant brother. They were too high strung to survive the disgrace she had brought upon her family. These unfortunate persons were the uncle and first-cousin of General Walker, of Nicaragua.

William Walker has received a liberal education. At school and college he was taciturn and studious. He was very proficient in the mathematics and exact sciences. After he graduated at the University of Nashville, he went to Edinburgh, and graduated in the Medical school of that city. He then went to Paris, attended a course of lectures on the medical science, and afterwards traveled through parts of Middle and Southern Europe. On his return to Nashville, he found that neither his taste nor his temperament fitted him for the practice of medicine, and he then emigrated to New Orleans, studied law and was admitted to the bar. He did not succeed in the profession. He then connected himself with the Crescent newspaper; and devoted himself with great earnestness and zeal to the labors of editorial life. This experiment was also unsuccessful, and he emigrated to California. He was for a while connected with the Press in California, and for some time practiced at the bar. Collecting around him a band of adventurous and restless men, he made a descent into, and attempted the conquest of, the Mexican province of Sonora. He was beaten in some engagements with the Mexicans, and driven back into California. Although his expedition failed, yet it is admitted that Walker displayed courage, fortitude and heroism, in the midst of great hardships, difficulties and dangers. Civil war broke out in Nicaragua. Walker collected as many followers as he could, sailed for that country, and joined one of the parties. The party he joined was victorious, and they owed their victory principally to his assistance. By degrees he has made himself sole ruler of the country. The native rulers have been deposed, banished and shot. Conspiracies against him have been detected and suppressed. Extensive confiscations of property have been made, and domestic foes and foreign invaders beaten in several decisive battles. A treaty was made by him with this country and diplomatic relations established. It is positively affirmed that there can be no doubt that he will maintain his position and power against any force the Central Americans can bring against him, while the great and rapid immigration from the United States will secure him against any danger from France and England.

Gen. Walker is now about thirty four years of age. His stature is diminutive; his hair whitish; his eyes grey; his cheeks and the portion of his face round his eyes covered with freckles; and his whole countenance tame and unprepossessing. He talks through his nose in a sing-song, monotonous tone of voice, and his manners are constrained and awkward. Although his exterior is not promising, yet it is said that Walker possesses stern determination and undaunted courage. These qualities are quite consistent with bad exteriors; for all have read, or heard, of the coarse features, clownish person and big copper nose of Oliver Cromwell, and we are all familiar with the long visage, lantern-jaws and erect bristles of Gen. Jackson. In temperament and mental disposition Walker is prone to be fanatical. If born and educated in the West of Scotland, he might have been a bigoted Presbyterian or Covenanter, willing to persecute any one who doubted the doctrine of pre-destination, or denied the orthodoxy of the Solemn League and Covenant. Born and educated in the South, he is a manifest-destiny man, willing to denounce, tar, feather, shoot or burn any one who disputes the doctrine that Slavery is a blessing, and most anxious to extend its blessings, and the dominion of Southern Slaveholders, over the West Indies and Central America. "Verily, the earth is the Saints', and the fullness thereof."