Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-11-01

Senator Seward. 1t will be remembered that
over year ago, at the time of its utterance,
we published this speech for the avowcd pur-
pose Of letting our people see how grossly Mr..
Stewards words had been garbled, distorted and
perverted by the partisan sheets Of this and
other places. For this purpose, VIC reproduce
the speech this morning. And now that we
have gone to the trouble and expense of re-
producing it, we ask from each and every one
of our readers, not only careful second read
ing and examination, but careful preservation
of the speech for future reference. 1t isa duty
which intelligent men owe not less to them
selves than to the public men of their country,
that they never should content themselves with
garbled, distorted, ca parte quotations and ex-
plantations, when for the same price and with
but trile more of time and mental exertlon,
they can read and interpret the thoughts of our
leSding men upon great cardinal issues in the
order and fullness of their utterance We have
endeayored, so far as limited space and
ability would permit, to give leading thoughts
upon leading topics full and fair publication,
accompanying them generally with comments
of our own, intended to be at the service of the
reader for what they were worth. But it seems
to US in regard to the speeches and expressions
of the leading men of one of the great political
parties of our country, that in this community
there is no chance of their ever having hear
ing in their own defence. unless we open up
our columns to them. Like the poor, despised
and abused class of whom Solomon speaks
''they have no helper" When they speak or
write it seems inevitable that their words should
be wrested from their obvious meaning in their
legitimate context, and turned against them to
subserve purposes of partisan hate. All ave-
nues of explanation or rather of publication are
closed against them. They are jecrcd de-
nouced insulted and oltentilnes execrated with
out the slightest chance of being allowed to
speak for themselves.
Thus it has been with Senator Seward and
his speech at Rochester. Not one in fifty Of his
defamers-of those who, day after day, con-
spire to make his name odious in sections of
the country where he can have no redress, ever
have allowed his speech to reach the people
On the contrary, they have parcelled it out in
disiointed fragments, emphasized and itallcsed it
to suit the taste of the latitude Of publication.
When it was first pronounced it Rochester,
during the New York Gubernatorial campaign,
it was seized upon by the entire troupe of big
ana little Administration organs, and made the
daily and weekly text for abuse of the most
scandalous and vindictive kind. The Richmond
Wing, the Louisville Journal and a few more
Southern Opposition prints, to their honor be
it recorded, have had the candor and manliness
to como out and rebut these Interpretations,
and to accord to Mr.. Stewards words their plain
aud obvious meaning. With these few excepS
tons, however, the speech of Mr.. Seward re-
mains to the great body of the Southern and
Southwestern people, as effectualy hidden as
the lost Arts Of the Mngi and as superstitious>
" terrible as Macaulny makes out the memory
of Oliver Cromwell, to the Irish peasantry of
Leinster and Munster.
And now. that Browns riot has occurred Just
in the uich of time before important elections,
in important States, and in order to gather force
for the coming Presidential campaign these
partisan prints return to their garbled extracts
as "the dog returns to its vomit." From the
hills and valleys of our section of the State
como up the little and big Heeklies, with blood
thirsty big lines about Seward and mis- speech,
about Brown and his riot, splashed aud dashed
all over their sheets. One says that Steward
advised and urged the necessity for just such
instructions in so many words, in his speech
at Rochester" Another says that Steward
proclaimed an irrepressiblc conflict between the
Northern and Southern people," And of this
character are all their comments All filled and
running over with the very gall of bitterness.
Now what chance for enlightened and lust
public opinion Of his craftsmanship has such a
man as Mr.. Seward among the readers of these
papers2 They can brand him as devil incar
nate-as relentless 6cnd-as Cataline-as n
Judas, or anything else that they please. He is
Powerless within the scope OF their circulation
and influence. He cannot reach where thew
reach, and there is no hope that many of their
readers will ever think else than but what he is
some fierce, ill-shaped, begrimmed gorgon, or
some relentless, thirsting Nero, who would I'D.
die while Rome was in flames. Many, we say,
of these unsophisticated people, who have their
political religion doled out to them in weekly
allowances, through some small dismal channel,
will, in all likelihood 90 down to their orovoc