A complimentary public dinner was given to Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON at Wilmington, on the 16th of November, by his political friends. Mr. CLAYTON, in reply to a complimentary toast, made an extended and eloquent speech, mainly in vindication of the administration of Gen. TAYLOR from the reproach which political opponents had thrown upon it. He showed that in proposing to admit California as a State, and to organize the territories of New Mexico and Utah as States, with such constitutions as their inhabitants might see fit to frame, Gen. TAYLOR only followed the recommendations which had been made by President POLK in 1848, which had been approved by Mr. CALHOUN in 1847, and which had then received the support of the great body of the political friends of both those statesmen. And yet his course was most bitterly opposed by the very persons who had previously approved the same principles. Mr. CLAYTON said he did not believe, and he never had believed, that there was any danger of disunion from the adoption of General Taylor's recommendations, and he ridiculed the clamor and the apprehension, that had been aroused upon the subject. The greatest obstruction both to the President and the country, arose out of the attempt to embody all the measures on the subject in a single bill; and yet the effort had been made to throw the blame of its failure upon the President and his Cabinet. His death showed the groundlessness of the charge, for the omnibus immediately failed. Mr. CLAYTON went on at considerable length to review the policy, both foreign and domestic, of the late administration, and to vindicate it from all the slanders and obloquy heaped upon it. He afterward, in response to a remark nominating General SCOTT as the next candidate for the Presidency, gave a glowing and eloquent sketch of the life and military career of that eminent soldier. Hon. JOEL R. POINSETT has written a letter to his fellow-citizens of South Carolina, remonstrating earnestly against the scheme of secession which they seem inclined to adopt. He vindicates each of the Compromise measures from the objections urged against it, and insists that there is no such thing under the Constitution as a right of secession. Such a step could only result in the injury and ruin of South Carolina, and he therefore earnestly exhorts them not to venture upon it. A letter from Hon. RICHARD RUSH, formerly U. S. Minister in France, has also been published, condemning very severely the anti-slavery agitation of the day, and urging the necessity of concession and harmony in order to the preservation of the Union.