Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-05-28

We reco!lect TO have read an aFuce cai'cu
"uuestions that can never be answered"-the
object Of which was to inculcate the futility OF
endeayoring to surInise what might have been
If so and so in the events Of the worlds history
had turned out different from what they did
AS, for instance, what would have been the re-
suit if Hannibal had not diiiy.dallied his pre-
cious time away after he had fought and won
the famous battle of Canae? And again, what
would have been the consequence if Rome had
always rerna;ned the Capital Of the Roman En-
p,re. instead of having it removed to CONSTANT
nope? md again, if William OF Holland ana
his Queen had been so modest as TO have shyed
the dangers OF assuming the English crown al
ter the death of the last OF the Stuart dynasty
And again, if George the third had not been
the IDIOT he was, but instead, been smart enough
to have seen the result of his war with Amerl-
ca. and 50 have avoided it; and if Napoleon
had won the battle of Waterloo; or, if Wash
peton had been killed ere the battle Of York
town: if Burr had been elected President of the
United States the time he pressed Jefferson SO
closely.
These are all nice ponts-iine themes for
fire side speculaton-hut MS they were never
conceived III .ltIc WOluD Oh " NOH So
like all nonentties, have no dcfnahle shape
We have had these often called to our mind by
the labored efforts of some of the intense South
ern papers, to show that if the North had never
intermeddngy put in her tongue about the
morality or immortality, the cxpediency or in
cxpediency of the niger trade, or the 'pe-
culiar institution" in any shape, that in all pro-
liability, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and
Delaware certainly, would have been free states.
That it was the persistent kissing and frowning
OF the North, year in and year out, preaching
and publishing dogrDatic opinions about the
scriptural relations of master and slave, and
arrogating to themselves to calculate its advan-
tages in dollars and cents-that it was all these
combined that made the South hold on to all of
tho "pecuar institution" she ever had, and
every once and awhile make an attempt for
more.
We never Ind bit of faith in all this suppo-
stion about what might have been. There is
no possible shape in which the physical or NOR
al economy Of this world could be carried on
but what there would always be plenty of peo-
pie to set up denurrers, and say If 50 and so
had not BEEN why such and such benefits wonld
have ensued Very likely they might. 1t is
quite likely that if Eve had never eaten the APP
plc, the ground never would have been cursed
tho thorns and thistIcs never would have jagged
us-nor would we have been obliged to eat
bread by the sweat of our brow. We must
take things in this world as they happen; ne
must estimate events, their causes and consc-
quemces, through the media of common sense
and cultivated reason which Providence has
furnished u.s. 1t is these tests which we must
bring to bear upon all subjects submitted to
our judgements, and is these we must apply to
these questions and dogmatc theories of the
fre-caters who claim that would-be philanthro-
pists are answerable for the present condition of
the great overshadowing niggcr question. We,
for our part never fancied the efforts of the So
called philanthropists. There was too much of
the zeal not according to knowledge mixed with
them. The efforts of such men rs the English
Thompson or the American Garrison have been
unproductive because they have been mere bald,
purblind theories based upon total misconceP-
ton of the practical conditions which surroun-
ded the relations of the Anglo Saxon and the
Negro races They have sought to obviate the
necessities of stubborn facts by applications Of
pseudo philanthropy, and Of course their labors,
like those of Sysiphus of DID, have been con-
slant, wenrisome, unavatling up hill But
it is somewhat amusing to see how persons
who have claimed such dire results from the
constant agitation of this question now advocat-
ing the policy that they do. In the very same
breath that they berate the agitatOrs of this
question they exert themselves elaborately to
show the blissful results of great awakening
which is going on in the Southern mind on the
subject, caused by these same agitations. For
instance, n very worthy set of magnates assem-
bied down in Montgomery, Ala, the other day,
where they proceeded to discuss the feasibility
orrc opening the slave trade. The feasibility,
we want it understood, was the only question
entertained by the Convention. OF course, in
such body, there could be no division of senti-
ment upon any other aspect of the question:
The mere possibility was the only difficulty,
: To the end desired, Mr.. Yancy delivered himself
ofa we'll got up speech Now, it seems to us,
that ifin very deed, new and beneficial ava
kening has been superinduced in the Southern
mind on this subject by TRADES and crusades
from the North then are we very silly to be ut