UNITED STATES.

Otago Witness, Issue 359, 16 October 1858, Page 10

UNITED STATES.

(From the S. M. Herald, Sept. 2-t.)

By way of Panama, we have news to the 20th of June, being eleven days later than former advices.

The proceedings of the Vigilance Committee of New Orleans have terminated peaceably. The committee have laid down their arms,, but are not disbanded. The municipal elections passed oft' quietly. Girard Smith, the Know-Nothing* candidate, was elected Mayor ; the same party were also successful in the City Council by a small majority.

General Walker has been bound over in heavy bonds not to violate the neutrality laws for one year. The last news from Utah leads to the

belief that the Mormon difficulty will bs peaceably arranged.

Congress adjourned on the 14th., and on the 15th the President called an extra session of the Senate. On the 18th, Senator Mason's resolutions, as to the interference of British ships of war -with American vessels on the high seas, wore passed, and the Senate adjourned sine die. They are as follow :—: —

lleso'ved (as the judgment of the Senate), That Ameiican vessels on the high seas, iv time of peace, beting the Ameiicun flag, remain under the jurisdiction of the coun'ry to which they belong, and, theicfoie, any visitation, molestation, or detention of Mich vessels b\ lo cc, or by tho exhibition oi' foice, on the part of a foreign po.ver. is in derogation of the of liio United Stales.

Resolved, That the leeent and repeated violations of this immunit;,, coiithiiUcd by vessels of war belonging to the navy of Great Biitain in the Gulf of Mexico and the ac'j iccut seas, by filing' into, intenupting, and otheiwise detaining them on their voyage, reqtiiies, in the judg.nt-iit of the Senate, such unequivocal and final disposition of the subject by the Governments of Gioiu Btiuin and the United States, touching the lights, involved, as shall satisfy the just demands ot this. Government, and preclude hereafter the oi.oune.nce of like aggressions.

Resolved, That the Senate fully appioves the action of the E\ecutive in sending a naval force into the infested st.is.vith oiders "to protect all vessels of the United Stitr-s on the high seas ficn search or detention bj vessels of \\,u of any othsr irition." An'l it is the opinion of the Senate that, if it become nccpss.uy, additional legislation should be supplied in aid ot tie executive power as will make such piotection effectual.

On the 13th the House passed the fifteen million appropriation bill, and concurred with the report of the committee of conference in navy bill, reducing sloops-of-war to seven, and substituting small steamers for the China seas.

The New Orleans pipers contain lamentable accounts of the disaster acca-sioned by the recent storms and overflowing of the rivers in the States. The Delta says: — "Jt would be difficult to record in detail the disasters which have been produced by the elements, in ililterent sections of the Union during the last month. In Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, whole villages have been swept away by tornados, involving the loss of many lives and immense destruction of property. — In Virginia, Maryland, aivl elsewhere, unprecedented hailstorms have destroyed the crops oi' the fanner. But when it comes to dollars and cents, the Mississippi Valley has suffered more than all the balance of the country combwud. — From the Balize to the Upper Mississippi we hear oi' nothing but disaster. Tho damage to the sugar and cotton interests in our own State is almost incalculable, while in Mississippi ;niil Tenne^ee the 10.-& in cotton alone, amounts, to millions, from the overflow which is now devastating the plantations on the great father of waters. We also bear of overflows on nearly all the tributary streams. The htest account-, state that every building in Cairo, it is believed, will be washed away. The whole town was under water. The great Yazoo Tan has given way, and the entire valley would, undoubtedly, be entirely deluged. Thousands of feet of the track of the Illinois Central Railroad ha\c been carried away. Mound City is threatened with an overflow. The water is still rising at this point. All the upper streams are pouring out floods. The river rose twenty-nine inches during the forty-eight hours ending at six o'clock on the nigh f of the 12th. It is now about four and a half feet below the highest mark reached in the great freshet of 18-14. Tho Upper Mhsk-,ippi is still rising. At Dubuque. the head-water of the Illinois, the river is again swelling. The Missouri was falling at Boouville on .Saturday, but there is now an additional rise coming from abo\e. " Cairo, June 15. — The water is still rising, and is now sweeping over the Ohio levee. Mound City is under water. The depot grounds, which is the highest point ia the city, are covered four or five inches deep."