Vermont Phœnix

SLAVERY IN CALIFORNIA.—The Washington correspondent of the Tribune writes:

"Certainly one of the most important rumors of the day, if it is true, is that Mr. Benton has sent to California, by the last steamboat, another of his remarkable letters, addressed to the inhabitants of that territory. The first receipt to the Californians was taken out last Fall, by Col. Fremont, and advised them to set up a provisional government, without any provision as to Slavery. That document was probably published in San Francisco about the first of February last. From what I learn, I have reason to think that Mr. Benton now advises the people of California to insert a provision in this 'temporary system,' for the external exclusion of slavery from their soil, and that he advocates or rather commends it with all his characteristic energy and power. I cannot doubt that his recommendations will be followed. If this report is true, and I have no doubt at all of it, it goes to confirm the expectations of Senator Benton's warmest friends, and to indicate that he has ranged himself beside Clay, Haywood, and other wise and distinguished men of the slave States with Seward, Van Buren, and Webster of the free, not only to resist the extension but to provide for the eradication of American negro slavery."