Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-11-25
Trhas been well remarked, that it not unfro.

quently occurs that under the speclous guises
of so called democracy, the mostinsidious and
demoralizing of oligarchies spring up, and hold
sway. II. de Tocqueville, in his democracy in
America, " takes frequent occasion to. point out
to the reader the almost insuperable obstacles
which intervene between popular sentiment
and its unequivOcal representation. Prominent
among these are enumerated the susceptibility
of the people, in the absence of educational adj
vantages, to be mislead in the means ofsarriying
at fair expression of the public voice by the
stragetic devices of the intelligent Numerous
citations made by him, which we cannot
now call to mind, showing how it is possible
that the absolute wishes of the people may be
entirely frustrated, and the opinions and wishes
of few made to appear to the world as the
vox populi. It was on this theory of the great
Frenchmen, superadded to his own experience,
that made the late Mr.. Benton the bitter enemy
of all political conventions. It is well known
that in enumerating three places into which he
never permitted himself to enter, he designated
political convention as the chiefest of them ALL
He had, he said, never been in gambling hell,
brothel or political convention His expe-
rience was, that such conventions, in large
majority of cases, were the packed juries of
PartisaRs, whose nominations and verdicts were
"foregonc conclusions" rejecting the manufac-
tured opinion of politicians, instead of the fresh
and unsullied sentiments of the people.
Wepropose to ask the people of this Congress
sional district to consider how far these opinions
are being corroberated in the efforts now on foot
to defeat Sherrard Clemens from the represents
tiveship of the district in the next Congress
hnY of
to be, sunk out of sight in the consideration of
aquestion like this under similar phases. We
have before us, the case of man elected, for
all practical purposes we may say, unanimously
to represent US. He is elected to represent a
certain political sentiment in connection with
the general good of his people in all practical
advantages arising out of such position. He
takes his seat, votes and acts throughout the
session in allmatters wherein his representative
ship is involved strictly in accordance with that
political sentiment which placed him there. In
no case does his votes, his speeches or his gene
ralrepresentatiye character deviate from what
is generally received as the public sentiment of
his constituency. His constituency, by their
majority, have no exceptions to take to his
course. They, in short, endorse him.
This being the case in the example before, us,
Sherrard Clemens-we come to the precedent
ohtainine among his constituency, of giving to-
every such representa- alive the beneti of second
term. IN tie present instance, it isiwelllknown
2toiour people, that very strong effort is being
made TO ovCrturn this precedent, and along
with it to efFectually and forever overturn
Mr.. Clemens. Now it is true, and We
wish TO consider and admit all that is ad
kt,,, AZ.
any Office as matter of right,-that he is
simply the creation of the popular will to serve
it for the time being-and that the popular voice
has the right, clear and 1unimpeachable, to say
without giyinga reason why, who shall next
serve them in similar position. Customs and
precedents are nothing they are mere secon-
dairy and subordinate considerations at all times
to that first and great consideration popu-
lar pleasure. When custom contravenes the
public good it should be at once sunk in the
rubbish Of the thousand and one obsolete Gus
toms which have preceded it This is the
theory of all true democracy. And now we
come to the great questiOn-is it the popular
wish of this district that Mr. Clemens should
not have the benefit of precedent which has
heretofore accrued to his predecessors second
teFmP Do all theisurroundings of the move
made agaiusthim betoken that it is, of and from
tho people3 Has it the car. marks of a popular
nprising2 From whence did it originate and
,howY Didit come from some remote-somc
far off out of the way portion of the district,
which considered itself passed over and neg
rlectedin the representativeship of Mr.. Clemens
Did it come from abroad or from homeS
FtomshoRei That's where it came from. IN
natural enough, is it not, voters of this county,
we ask your Has it been your will, and have
yonmade it known to those who are now OK.
pressing it, that you arc tired of having the
representative from your Immediate midst that
you are so Indifferent to the supposed adyan.
tagss of having representative acquainted with
you and your interests, that you, for the mere
excitement of the thing, are willing to have a
convention, and run the risk Of losing the two
years Of unexpired representation which prece-
dent has given your The:peOple of the other
end of the district, through one of their papers,
yeelready said that they were not DESTROYS
of change, if twas merely TO substitute one
river county man for another. If it was to be