Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1852-10-29

What mad Gen. Pierce done that we should Vio-
late out principles and support himf He would
say nothing of his private character; such course
would be to descend from his own position, and
be beneath the dignity of the great wing party
He would speak of him as a politician. He had
served in Congress nine years, and what had he
done, and what measures of good had he proposed
during that entire period2
He asked of the Democrats present, to deny it If
they dared, and he would be glad to show him the
proof, or stand corrected. mo one answered.)
Gen. Pierce had advocated nothing of general
utility and he asserted boldly, and challenged con-
tradiction, that Gen. Pierce had opposed every
great and Western measure during that whole pc
Rod. (Still no answer.) Pierce had voted against
River and Harbor bills, had voted against pen
sons, had voted to let the poor widow of the peo
pies President go home, and permit her remnant
of property to be sold by the sheriff, rather than
give her the poor pittance of her husbands sala-
~ for one year. Pierce had boasted too, that he
was the only North, who had had nerve
enough TO vote alcays against all pensions whatso-
ever. Would the sons of the hardy pioneers, who
had periled all in the peils of Western life, sane
ton such conduct as thisl Were they prepared to
say, no matter what services had been performed
by the poor soldier of his country still if he die
poor, his family must starve, rather than give him,
or them, the poor pension as a small compensation
for constitution shattered in his countrys cause,
and life Offered up in her cause! He thought not
He knew the people of the West, and he knew
that gratitude to the soldier and the pioneers was
principle ever warm in the hearts of the descen-
dants of the hunters Of Kentucky.
ocGe hat
question: Nonel No not one! His fame was his
country's, his achievements were her history
From Maine to the Rio Grande, from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, and even in the mountain go!ges OF
Mexico-yes in the very palace of her prtnces-the
name and achievements of Winfield Scott were
common rs household words. Up to 1886, the men
for the Presidency had been men of the country,
known to all. In 1886, they had taken step down
stairs; in 1914, they had gotten into the cellar; in
1852, they had gotten under the cellar, in nominat
ing franklin Perce-a man unknown to fame, who
had done nothing and who deserved nothing at the
hands of the America people.
| He had almost vowed, in 1874, that he would
never again put his foot upon the soil of Virginia.
He had been so mortified at her course, when her
great son-Henry Clay-had been before her, the
man second only to Washington in the hearts of his
countrymen-who was the greatest statesman in the
| history of our country, and whose fame was world
wide and not the property only Of our Union or our
age, but belonged to the world and was legacy to
posterty-that he had felt thatshe was so unnatu-
raj mother, that he would see her nomore. Vir-
GINA no longer deserved the name of mother OF
statesmen and Presidents, unless she would revoke
her action and embrace her son. She had voted
for Van Buren,. discarding her own son, Harrison;
she had voted for Polk, over Clay, in 1914 and in
1913, she had voted against her gallant son, the Ia
mented Taylor. Would she forever prove herself
the unnatural mother, and discard and devour her
| own children. Had not her vote for Van Buren,
lSckened her of northern men with southen princi-
piles, and would she discard her gallant son or
would she not profit by the past and right herself
and honor the son whom all others delight to honor
He claimed Virginia his grandmother and he
wanted to her do her duty to her children Next
to Kentucky, he loved Virginia and he hoped that,
when he returned to the distant West and was
again in the quiet of his family, he would hear
first, on the telegraphic flash, the glorious news
that Old Virginia had redeemed herself had revn-
Dictated her right to be called the mother of Pres-
dents, and had determined to stand by herself, to
do justice to her distinguished and show to the
world that Virginia, like the Roman mother of old,
would continue to point to her sons (Presidents)
and exclaim: "These are my jewels"