The Daily Dispatch: January 5, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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From Washington.

[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.] Although the papers of this morning smell strongly of gunpowder, there are indications the other way. Baker and the Abolition Governors of New York and Pennsylvania talk largely of coercion; but at the same time advocate the repeal of all Personal Liberty bills, and Packer goes so far as to urge the right of the slave-owner to retain his property during a temporary sojourn in or while passing through the State. This is what New Jersey has always permitted, and shows a return of the right spirit. Again, the Northern Democrats, who were supposed to be warping round to the coercion views of Lincoln, exhibited yesterday in the House a kinder disposition than at any time during the session; declaring their earnest desire to fight for the rights of the South, if Southern members would give them just ground to fight upon. Moreover, General Lane has received hundreds of letters from Iowa and other Northwestern States, cordially endorsing his anti-coercion speech, and saying that the Northwest has no idea of being cut off from the South and tied to New England. Evidently, the intelligent property holders of the North are awaking to a sense of the danger which awaits them in case of disunion. Already grievously taxed by the agrarian hordes, to whose wishes all legislation is conformed, (John Cochrane, of New York, pays $2,000 tax on his house alone,) they see that separation from the South will bind them hand and foot to the Abolition power, and leave them completely at the mercy of the mob.

On the other hand, Seward now declares he has no proposal of any sort to offer, and the President evinces a fixed intention to "pitch" into South Carolina. So we may look for hostilities at any moment. Once begun, the war will inevitably become sectional. Neutrality in either section will be impossible.

Private dispatches were received yesterday by Alabama members, asserting that the returns showed a majority of 15 for immediate secession, instead of 10 majority for co-operation, as stated in the papers of day before yesterday.

A number of members of the Virginia Legislature are here. They come mainly from the northwestern part of the State, and report the people there entirely sound in their devotion to the cause of the South. Gen. August, of your city, after spending a few days here, has gone on to Baltimore.

Hamlin has certainly negro blood in his veins. I have seen a letter from a gentleman of high character in New Hampshire, giving the pedigree of Hamlin. His grandfather was a mulatto, and commanded a mixed company of negroes and Indians during the Revolution. He pocketed the pay of his company, sold the wine and other luxuries provided for the sick, and left the army in disgrace. One of Hamlin's uncles, or great uncles, was named Africa. There is a legend in the family to the effect that when Hannibal was an infant, in the cradle, his nurse overheard one of the relatives, who was the a gazing at the baby, exclaim, "For God's sake! will this d — d black blood never get out of the veins of our family." Members of Congress who served with Hamlin, when he was in the House, say they always knew he had a streak of negro in him. This is pleasant. Zed.