Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1859-12-05
Union OF Disunion.
The whole auestlon In a Nut.holl.

~ Extract from RleAdeE IN the N l. Sout1cEl
The Constitution provides the mode of
electing President ofsthe United Statcsi
and under that Constitution -four of the Jfrst
flee Presidents were elected from the Slave
States-nay, from a single Slave State,
VIRGINIA.! Did the North, or the nom
Slayeholding States, object to this? Far
from it. They were CoRstitutionGUy elect
ed; and if from the foundation of the Gov
eminent to this day, every President had
come from the Slave States, the North
knows too we'll what allegiance to the Con-
Stitution requires, and what obedience to
Law demands, even to mnrmur against
what is Constitutional. 1t so happens that
the nOn-SlaYeholding States have furnish
cd six of our thirteen Presidents; bnt if
each and every one of them had come from
the Slave States, does any sane man be-
lieve, that if Coustitutionally and legally
elected, the people of the North would
have entertained n thought, or breathed ~
whisper against the integrity of the Union
because Constitutional majority of the
people had thought proper to look solely to
the South for our Presidents? Most assn
redly not. There is nothing in the whole
history of the North which would warrant
any person, we care not where "raiscd, y
rs they say in Virginia, to insinuate suspi-
cion even, that the nOn-Slavcho gliding States
would ever Objectto the Inauguration to the
Presidency of any person duly elected to
that high station in conformity to the Con-
stitution and the Law. And we speak not
only our own sentiments, but the sentiments
of all the citizens fthe Free States, when
VIC say, that if in 1860 or at any other pc
Rod, Governor Wise or one of his Negro
Drivers should be constitutionally elected
to the Presidency, the whole North, would
as READILY and as promptly shoulder their
muskets if need be, in order to secure his
peaccable Inauguration into Office. us we
would if the person to be inaugurated,
were William II. Seward. Such at ali
events, are the sentiments of the Republic
can Party in regard to their duty under the
Constitution and the Laws; and we doubt
not but the Democracy, would, under such
circumstances, prove themselves equally
loyal to the Constitution and to the Nation
atty of our Government.
How utterly idle then, how supremacy
ridiculous, how contemplate and how all
solutely disgraceful to all concerned, is the
cownrdly and braggadocio threat put forth
by certain Presses and madmcn at the
South, that if William II. Seward should
be constitutionally and lawfully elected TO
the Presidency in 1860, they will not per-
nit him TO be inauguratcd! or they will Sc
ccde from the Union !! The simple fact that
such threats may be made with IMMUNITY,
and that men who ordinarily are not fools,
should listen to them, and entertain fears
that they may be carried into execution,
carries us buck to the qucstion-What is
Il Republic? Is it 81 Nation? Is it cnti-
tied to the allegiance of its subjects? Or
is Il Republic nothing but au apology for
Government, in which neither the Consti-
ton nor the Laws, are binding upon the
people; and which a miScrably small and
staggering minority, may, at their plea
sure, destroy, if by their bullying and.
swaggcr they cannot control and direct it?
The time has arrived for determining
these questions and as we said some DAYS
since, thousands and tons of thousands of
voters, who, heretofore, have not been in
favor of Stewards election, because they
have preferred some other good man. now
feel that it is due to themselves and TO the
country, to the country to hiring this qucs-
ton to an issue. The threat has been
gravcly made and reiterated from Mason
and Dixon's line to the shores of the Gulf
of Mexico. Traitors have boldly avowed
their contemplated treason, and their pur-
pose TO override the Constitution and the
Laws. Now then, let us test the strength
OF our Government, says every friend of
law and order throughout the North and
the way to do it, is to prove that we are
neither towards nor traitors, by clcctinC
to the Presidency the vary man who, we
are gravely told, shall not be inmtgurafed,
crsn II C0n3tjtutionuiiy elected! Few men
like to be bullied and threatened and
least of all, do the people of the Free
States, stomach such medicine They
have too much self-rcspect to meet threat
by threat or bullying by braggadocio; bnt
rs certainly rs the Sun shines, so certain
is it, that these threats of disunion if the
People of the North dare to exercise their
constitutional rights in the Presidential
Election of 1860, have very greatly in
creased the number of Stewards friends i'll
all the Free States; and in all human pro-
liability, render his election to the Presi-
dency in November next, an absolute GER
tainty Let the traitors of the South who
thus threaten the destruction of our Gov
ernmcnt, ponder well what We have writ
ten. They have rendered Stewards election
all but certainty: and when elected, IRE of
the North, will take care that he, or any
other person duly elected shall be duly
inauguratcd; and that his authority shall
be respected and obeyed from the Banks
of the st. Johns to the Rio Grnnde, and
from the Atlantic TO the Pacific coast
Dombey j. Son still in the Oyster Bus