FROM OUR CINCINNATI CORRESPONDENT.

CINCINNATI, O., July 24, '55.

POLITICS IN OHIO

Have at length reached a more definite form, than they have ever been since she has been a State. We have now but parties in the field for the coming election in October. The , under the broad, Flag of Freedom, and the under the Black Flag of Despotism. There is some talk however of rallying the disaffected Know Nothings, and forming a State ticket, delegates to meet at Columbus on the 9th of August.—The of this city is the chief advocate of this movement. A mass meeting was called a week since, but it lacked leaders—it lacked spirit—it wanted an object—men desired to know what was to be done or gained—and left in disgust, feeling fully satisfied with the Republican nominations on the 13th July.

Even in this Southern city, Chase and his friends will have an immense vote, which will probably astonish our Northern friends. If the dissatisfied Know Nothings should have the temerity to make a ticket, composed of pro-slavery men, we venture to predict it will be the smallest party ever formed in Ohio; inasmuch as the great body of Know Nothings are anti-slavery and will sustain the nominations of the 13th.

"WHEN THE GODS DESTROY, THEY FIRST MAKE
MAD,"

Appears about to be verified in the experience of Democracy (?) in Ohio. Its organ, the , is mad; he raved like fury as soon as the telegraph informed him of the doings at Columbus. He has been raving ever since.—But sober men only laugh at the poor creature. Salmon P. Chase has come in for his share of abuse, so has Mr. Blackwell, a private merchant of our city, But they outlive it all, and will do. The course of the in this matter, reminds one of a figure used in Bunyan's Pilgrim, where "one holy man, clothed in a garment of spotless purity, was envied and hated by a wicked one, who continually threw mud at the other, but it did not stick. So the vile slanders of this slave-catcher do not, cannot hurt Mr. Chase, but make his character more distinct than ever. His noble stand for the last six years in the Senate, make us proud of him. May God spare his life for many years. He may live to occupy the White House at Washington. Who can tell?

OUR COLORED PEOPLE.

At the last election many colored men voted. Out Constitution only forbids and , and we have many shades between these colors, and their votes cannot be legally refused. Are they not native Americans? Are they not attached to the soil where first they breathed the breath of life? Our colored schools have made satisfactory progress within the past few years. The last public exhibition was held in Greenwood Hall, where the children acquitted themselves nobly. Their singing was said to excel that of any equal number of white children.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Continue in fine working order; and its travel is as good as ever. It well repays all the investments. They are about connecting this city with Charleston, S. C., with iron bands.—Surely when this is done, we shan't hear of the Palmetto State threatening to dissolve the Union. Our worthy citizen, John Jolliffe, has made a trip there on business, and was politely requested by the slaveholders to leave; but he told them he came on business, and would not leave until he had finished; this took them all aback; they were confounded; and when he said, "Gentleman, I'm an abolitionists to the core of my heart," they were amazed, apologized, and politely withdrew. They found in our friend a true-hearted gentleman. Won't this teach South Carolina's sons that at least some abolitionists are true gentlemen?

OUR SISTER STATE, KENTUCKY,

Is making rapid strides in learning salutary lessons to rid herself of the curse of slavery.—She begins to suspect a State may exist, and even prosper, without the peculiar institution.—She looks across the Ohio and sees our beautiful State thriving and blossoming as the rose.—She knows the price of our land is four fold greater than hers. She begins to think one freeman can do more work than two slaves.—Cassius M. ClayClay, Cassius Marcellus

Kentucky free-labor advocate Cassius Marcellus Clay (1810–1903) inherited seventeen slaves and extensive farm acreage in 1828. As a Whig representative in the state legislature, Clay began expounding an economic indictment of slavery. In 1843 he freed his slaves and hired them as free laborers. At the same time, he launched a campaign for gradual abolition addressed largely to the state’s non-slaveholding whites. In June 1845 Clay launched a weekly newspaper, the True American, in Lexington, to advocate the formation of a moderate antislavery party in Kentucky. After local residents forcibly dismantled his press and shipped it to Cincinnati, Clay published the True American in Louisville. Clay joined the U.S. Army in the Mexican-American War, a move denounced by abolitionists, who generally applauded Clay. At that time Clay sold the newspaper to John C. Vaughan, who suspended it in September 1846. Clay provided crucial financial support and physical protection to John G. Fee’s abolitionist colony at Berea in the 1850s. He served as U.S. ambassador to Russia (1861–69) and remained active in Kentucky politics during and after Reconstruction. David L. Smiley, Lion of White Hall: The Life of Cassius M. Clay (Madison, Wisc., 1962); Asa Earle Martin, The Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky Prior to 1850 (1918; New York, 1970), 112; Stanley Harrold, The Abolitionists and the South, 1831–1861 (Lexington, Ky., 1995), 28–29, 32–33, 40–41, 132–33; DAB, 4:169–70. has been diligently lecturing throughout his native State, and to crowded audiences. Just think of it! To-day's (the best daily we have here) says the citizens of Rockcastle County, held a meeting on the 11th of July, and "Resolved that Cassius M. Clay, John G. Fee, and all other abolition speakers from in this County." The noble hero notified the committee, who handed him the resolution that he and John G. Fee would both address the people on Saturday the 21st inst.: and true to their word, they both did, in a Baptist Church at Scaffold Cove. Was not this "bearding the lion in his den?" So "free speech triumphed in Kentucky. May it ever triumph in Kentucky and in all the world."

CINCINNATUSCincinnatus (pseudonym)

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P. S.—John Patton, County Commissioner, (a staunch Democrat) was yesterday turned out of office and fined $400. His offence was robbing the public Treasury. He signed a contract for a bridge for $700, which only cost $110! Glorious Democracy, is it not, which has fleeced the people of Ohio so long?