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From Our Regular New-York Correspondent.
# Matters and Things in New-York.
NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 1854.
The election has been past more than a week, and yet there is as much doubt about the Governor elect as on the evening of last Tuesday; whilst there is a strong determination to contest the inauguration of Fernando Wood as Mayor, notwithstanding his apparent plurality of several hundred. Frauds exist, without doubt, and if a sufficient number can be discovered to set him aside, it will be done. To do this, would afford great satisfaction to a large majority of the people, for however pure he may be, the community are terribly incredulous, and would be most happy to have some other man to rule over them, and were the election to take place over again to-morrow, Barker would be elected by thousands. I give the above as the opinion prevalent here without taking myself any interest in the matter, sufficient to bias that opinion one way or the other.
The temperance movement, the anti-slavery sentiment, the woman's rights mania, as independent issues, have been overridden by this American question in the main; though they each have cropped out in certain localities in pretty abundant fields. The individual discovered in the fence, instead of turning out to be a negro, has proved to be an Irishman; and the great anxiety now felt is not to run negroes into Canada, where the seasons are too inclement for their happiness, or give them when caught a jury trial where the jury is sworn to find the facts as they are, as it is to free the country from the domineering influence said to be exercised by foreigners, treading the measure prescribed by a foreign potentate. It is true that along with this feeling goes an utter contempt and indifference for Douglas & Co., but still the great question is the American question, and in that all others are absorbed. This opinion, or rather fact, is proved by the returns received from Massachusetts, where the above programme seems to have been carried out, however injudicious the nominations may have been. We see then the Administration deserted by the entire North, and the same destiny awaits it, no doubt, from the South where the American spirit is quite as prevalent as elsewhere, and where he has all along been looked upon with suspicion.
Marine accidents are becoming so frequent, that almost every week some new horror is chronicled for our perusal. The Arctic went down with its hundreds of lives. The steamer Jewess, and its cargo, has gone to fill the relentless maw of the ocean; and yesterday the New Era stranded at Long Branch, almost within cannon's sound of the Battery. By this melancholy event no doubt two hundred German emigrants have lost their lives, though by the latest accounts definite information had not reached us of all the particulars. It seems that the vessel was making New York harbor, in a dense fog, when she struck, and of course has been rolling and thumping upon the shore since yesterday morning, overwhelmed by breakers so obstinate and fatal that no boat was able to live an instant near the vessel, much less reach the shore through a boiling surf, that breaks constantly with a voice like Niagara, upon this whole line of coast. The shore yesterday was lined with fishermen and boats, who, when the fog lifted, could plainly see the vessel, and sometimes hear the wail of the unfortunate victims on board, and yet were unable to afford the slightest assistance, except to those whom the undertow permitted the breakers to cast almost lifeless upon the sands at their feet. Strong arms, stout hearts, and life-boats were as futile as gossamer in a whirlwind; no sooner were the boats launched than they were capsized, and the heroic inmates themselves threatened with destruction. Steam tug-boats from the outer bay cruised in search of the vessel, and though they found her, were unable to afford any relief whatever, owing to an entire want of life-boats on board, an impossibility of approach within aiding distance without collision and destruction. So from last accounts one by one of the sufferers were falling from the shrouds, the masts and the rigging, into the angry waters below, which during the long and dreadful night had been clamoring for the sacrifice. By this time the vessel has no doubt gone to pieces, and all that were left this morning, have perished in the deep. The captain and a part of the crew went off for the purpose of obtaining aid in the early part of the distress, and although they reached shore in safety, a part of them were capsized in the attempt to return and aid the passengers. It is said that a large number of the emigrants, were actually drowned in the hold of the ship, immediately after she struck.
In the money market, there is almost as much uncertainty as in the count for election. Accounts from the West report a general want of confidence, in all private bankers, and a run upon the fraternity, which closes their doors just about as suddenly as a clam closes his shell when he is disturbed by the fisherman's paddle. Four or five years ago the Democracy of Ohio, and the Western States generally where they carried the rule, decided that the Hydra heads, (the State Banks) children of the old monster, (the United States Bank) strangled long since, should also be suffocated or bled to death. Few of them were left at the last writing, and private bankers have run off with deposits to a large amount, leaving those who trusted them in the suds. Smead, of the Citizens' Bank of Cincinnati, is now in Europe, whilst his old friend P. B. Manchester is no where. Accounts from Sturgis & Ellis look gloomy, whilst those of Goodman & Co. may take an unfortunate turn. In nearly every commercial town in Ohio, private bankers have failed.
