From Washington.
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.]A South Carolina member thinks it not improbable that the Commissioners sent to his State from other Southern States may succeed in inducing her to postpone secession until early in January. Hon. Mr. Lamar telegraphs from Mississippi that separate State secession is certain. The same comes from a prominent citizen of Alabama.
Wade's speech yesterday was listened to by an immense audience. He was violent as usual in regard to slavery, but took care to guard his position by saying that he spoke only for himself and not for the other Senators belonging to his party. He was very pompous in his manner, but his pomposity dwindled into pitiable embarrassment when Senator Powell, of Kentucky, demanded to know whether he sustained Gov. Dennison in refusing to deliver up a fugitive from justice. I believe that everybody on the floor of the Senate and in the galleries, whether friend or foe, felt sorry for him, so completely was he overthrown by a plain, simple question.
Curtis, of Iowa, made a speech in the Crisis Committee yesterday, declaring that the Constitution did not recognize property in slaves, and that the Republican party would never consent to hold such an opinion or to act upon it. This is the point which Southern members of the Committee will press, and if it is not agreed to by a majority of the Northern members the Committee will dissolve and another be formed. Reuben Davis left the Committee last night, satisfied, as he told the House, that the Northern members were unwilling to yield anything to the South.
A friend tells me he was in Warrenton a night or two ago, at a large party consisting exclusively of gentlemen, and that Robt. E. Scott, Esq., was the only one of the number who was not for instant disunion. Per contra, I hear of a public meeting last night in Fredericksburg, at which Mr. Elliott Braxton said that any Southern Senator or Member of Congress who deserted his post at this time ought to be shot the moment he crosses the Potomac.
The House is now wrangling over Crawford's resolution, which affirms that the Constitution does recognize property in slaves; and I judge, from present appearances, that there is not a disposition on either side of the House to "face the music;" for this is the test question, an affirmation of which from the North must be had before any adjustment can be commenced, much less concluded.
In the prayer offered this morning by the Chaplain of the House, it was plain that the reverend gentleman thought that God was already interposing to prevent a dissolution of the Republic. Zed.
