January 4, 1871, Mr. Sumner’s resolution was taken up, and passed without a division: also, February 15th, another, calling on the Secretary of the Navy for “a copy of the instructions to the commander of the Tennessee on her present cruise; also, the names of the United States ships-of-war in the waters of the island of San Domingo since the commencement of the recent negotiations with Dominica, together with the armaments of such ships.” NEW YEAR’S DAY. ARTICLE IN THE NEW YORK INDEPENDENT, JANUARY 5, 1871. The Old Year is dead. Hail to the New! How alike! How unlike! Each is a measure of time,--the Old belonging to the infinite Past, the New to the infinite Future. But each has its own trials and its own triumphs. Be it our aspiration to smooth the trials and assure the triumphs before us! Sorrow and grief there must be. May they be tempered with mercy, and may we bear them with submission! Work and effort there must be; for such is the condition of life. And then there is Duty always, which we are justly told is “more than life.” What is life where duty fails? Companion with all is Hope, with too flickering sunshine. All these will be surely ours in the New Year, as they were during the year that has passed. Looking beyond the microcosm of individual life to the macrocosm of the world, other trials and triumphs are before us. God grant that the triumphs may surpass the trials, making the New Year an epoch in human progress! Unhappily, we are not yet relieved from anxiety on account of the Rebellion. Though Reconstruction is in our statute-book, it is not yet established in the universal heart of the Nation, as it must be before peace can be permanently assured. There are painful reports from States lately in rebellion, showing that life is unsafe and society disorganized. North Carolina is always considered less mercurial and violent than her Southern neighbor, with whom the Rebellion began; but this slow and staid State is now disturbed by bad spirits, menacing revolution and blood. A private letter says: “I am assured, by men who know, that blood will be spilt, if Congress does not interfere. The excitement of ’61 bore no comparison to this.” In certain counties the Ku-Klux-Klan so far dominates that to be a Unionist is to brave death. Nor is this evil spirit confined to North Carolina. It shows itself in other States, and threatens to extend. Alas, that, after all the terrible sacrifices of these latter days, we should be called to this new experience!