Alexandria Daily Advertiser

From Washington.

Extract of a letter from a correspondent--

'The President in his extreme anxiety to communicate to the House a letter from Governor Claiborne, on the subject of Louisiana, did not even stop to have it copied, but sent the original with a request that when they had done with it, they would return it. It seems to have been intended as a secret communication, and so sent to the Senate, but by some mistake it was read with open doors; it was then lent to the House and read in the same public manner. The House however, have refused to publish it, I therefore send you the substance, and in many instances the expression.--(New Orleans.)

"SIR--The tranquility in which I found this country is still uninterrupted. This season of festivity, and the change of Government, has given additional spirits to public amusement. If I have any political uneasiness, it arises from the great latitude of the powers with which I am vested. The anxiety attending the exercise of discretionary power, is always in a degree unpleasant.

I have found it a vain labor to attempt to renovate the old government. It has left the country in an inextricable confusion, particularly the judicial department. Many of the cases in court have been depending for twenty years; and corruption had put a seal upon them, but the introduction of the American principles of Jurisprudence will break the seal, as they have now become the subjects of enquiry by the correct rules of an enlightened judiciary. It was my wish that those causes should be commenced anew, but this I found impracticable, and as I am informed the written evidence appertaining to many of them cannot be obtained; and the translation of such evidence would together with the records, take years to effect.

Appeals from the governor's court formerly lay to the court at Havanna. I shall be under the necessity of deciding causes of magnitude in the last resort. I am reluctant to arrogate to myself a power, which the most haughty of my predecessors never exercised,

I have appointed seven judges for this city; whose jurisdiction extends to causes arising in it, of the value of 2000 dollars with the right of appeal to the Governor's court if above 500 dollars.

The arrangements made by General Wilkinson meet my entire approbation.

It would be expedient that provisions should be made for the government of the country as soon as possible, though I do not apprehend any public inconvenience from a short delay.

I found in the jail about 100 prisoners, some of whom had been confined from 10 to 13 years without any trial. It was my desire to set them free, but on enquiry of Mr. L'Aubat, I learned there had been an understanding respecting them with the Spanish government. I flatter myself some arrangement may be made to procure for these prisoners a general amnesty. For surely it will not be derogatory to a republican government to err on the side of mercy, and I should feel a pang if my country should be disgraced by the rattling of a single chain.

The expences incident to the possession and temporary government of our new country, I have reason to believe will fall within the amount which had been calculated for them; and the receipt of monies will be fully adequate to their extent.

The merchants and planters in this place live in a style of ease & affluence, but I am sorry to say they are totally destitute of information. Such has been their mode of living, and the abject state in which their government has placed them, that they discover an aversion to public concerns. A profound ignorance pervades the whole of them. Equal rights are pleasing to every man. The trial by jury, that invaluable right enjoyed by the American people, would at present be a great inconvenience and trouble to them. At present they have not a capacity to enjoy the full effect of a free constitution. The principles of an elective government they would not understand. A representative system would only bewilder them. I would recommend the adoption of some system of education, and that schools and seminaries of learning should be established.

It will be by the dissemination of knowledge amongst them that they will be rendered capable of enjoying and exercising the valuable rights of free citizens.'

N. Y. Herald.