Richmond Palladium

Propositions to Purchase a Peace.

Mr. Preston King, who is the Representative of the New York division of the Locofocos, made an effort to introduce a bill to purchase a peace with Mexico. The bill sets out with a preamble, that it is desirable an honorable peace should be concluded, and that the President has expressed his desire to settle the matters in dispute between us and Mexico; and to enable the President to do so, if opportunity be offered, it places thirty thousand dollars at his disposal to carry on the negotiation, and appropriates two millions of dollars to enable him to conclude the treaty, if it shall call for such expenditure. It is provided, however, that slavery shall not exist in any portion of the territory acquired by or to be annexed to the United States. Objection being made to the reception of the bill, Mr. King moved to suspend the rules to enable him to introduce it; but the motion for suspension was rejected by a majority of one vote. The negative vote was principally from the South; and hence it is concluded that but for the provision excluding slavery from the territory acquired, the motion to suspend would have been carried by a handsome majority. The vote, however, is to be regarded, says the National Intelligencer, as indicative of a decided prevalent desire on the part of the House to put a stop as early as practicable to the existing war.

The Washington Union remonstrates with its friends in Congress for introducing this proposition, which bodes "the renewal of the Missouri contest." It can scarcely, however, look at the question in any other than a party light. "The party," it tells us, "must continue united," and therefore it deprecates any such controversy, which "threatens to shiver them in pieces." Whether the country would suffer by the breaking up of "the party" is scarcely doubtful, though its dissolution on such a principle might not be without evil. But, so far, it is a party affair of the Locofocos altogether, who seem to be mistrustful of each other to a degree that portends anything but harmony among them. The Whigs, who have had no hand in bringing on the war, and who are in no sense responsible for the consequences of its continuance or its settlement, may look on the controversy between the branches of the party, with no wish to interfere between them. —(Balt. Patriot.