Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-03-14
Wednesday Morning, March ID, go
a DAY or two ago there appeared in tho

a DAY or two ago there appeared in tho
Onion, letter from one Thomas J. stea-
ley, at Tyler Court House, headed aud iu-
troducsd by the editors as 'lettes from
an old Wing, repudiating the appointment
!. of electors by the Opposition Convention,
heldat Richmond"
In this letter Mr. Stealey refuses the ap-
pointneut rendered him, for the reason that
hereafter he expects to give his Influence,
whatever it may be, and support to the
Democratic party" He considers that the
contest is now fairly and squarely between
the two great parties of the country,
and that all third parties are powerless to
divert the attention and sympathy of the
people from one or the other of these par
ties. After giving some history of the
decline and fall of the Wing party he pro-
ceeds to the body of his discourse-the
great moving issue upon which the two
parties of the country are split, and the
one upon which he thinks the Democracy
are sound and the Republicans unsouud.
He says:
It is said, however, that the Democratic
party is sectional; that it advocates see
tional questions aud interests.
This charge, it seems to me, is founded
more IN prejudice and hatred than in truth
and reason. Y
If to advocate and maintain. fundament-
nj laws of government and society be Sec
tionalism, then indeed is that charge true,
and the same might be said of any party
animated bya love of truth and country
in its advocacy of organic laws. Those
who object to the democratic party be-
cause of its hostility to the proposition
that Hthere is an irrepresSible conflict be-
tween opposing and enduring interests"
and because it maintains the converse of
that doctrine, can not have thoroughly in
vestigated the subject. Do not the COM
mercial statistics of the country demon
strate the fact that the institution of slave
labor in the United States is q normal and
subsidiary one, and that the system Of free
labor IN the non sE1VehoidIl9 iStCteI is out an
ezrerimeat, ,0hich as vet has not been subject
ed to ats severest trial Does NOT oil history
JhotO that the rise, progress and liability Of
all government depends upon SLAVE or forced
labor in sowe foTmS Vas IL not the great
lever Which enabled the Northern Stdfc5 to
rise an po,1sr, realh and gredtmeSs? Are
not the Thousands Of the so-cdlied free labor
erS of those States forced to (,0hich is merely
polite name given 10 3laye) labor By the iner-
ord6Ls La,c of neceSsity9 And Is NOT the E1ry
universal IN its application to the same subject
.cherever found, and in all shapes and foTJuS9
A general knowledge of the subject, hui
manity and interest of those who regulate
it in the Southern States, has induced
them to temper and soften the rigors Of
that Law, so that those who are compelled
TO obey it never suffer want and hunger.
The italics in this extract arc ours. We
have thought the sentences deserving of
that special prominence. We wish to di-
rect particular attention to the doctrine
therein set forth, for it must be recollerted
that Mr.. Thos. ]. Stealey is giving his reH-
sons why the Democratic party are sound
sndthe Republican party unsound, aud why
he finds it congenial with his feelings to
hold to the one and condemn the other
Mr.. Stealey believes (take notice. that "free
labor is but an experiment" He believes
that "history shows that the rise, progress
and stability of all governments depends
upon slave or forced labor" He believes
that "so-called free laborers" are only po-
litely so called, out of respect to their
feelings, and that they are really and truly
slaves. He believes, and he asks the
question if it is not so, that this thing of
salutary forced or slave labor, is the
"law universal" And he complaccntly
announces to the benighted hocdes Of free
labor, that the South moved by consider
atoms of "humanity and interest" has
been "iuduced to temper and soften the
rigor of this law, so that those sOho are COM
PEELED to obey IL neuer suffer rant and hun
ger" That's to say, the South apprecia-
ting with true sagacity, the real position
which labor was intended by the "univer-
sal law" to occupy, have mercifuly set
about devising a plan by which the con-
! dition of labor shall be rendered as tolera-
BILE burden as possible upon the neck of
the laborer, by seeing to the fact that he
gets his food, lodging and clothes, from the
cradle to the grave.
We,haye thus been at some pains to set
out Mr. ,,stealey's philosophical remuneration
of further sympathy or cooperation with
the Opposition elements. We call the
attention of all readers to it, for it is
worthy of marked notice. It is worthy
e of their attention, because it is represent
tative letter. 1t represents, to our mind,
exactly the secret and kernel of the change
of heart, which has .overtuken Mr.. stealey.
When man comes to believe like Mr..
stealey, that slavery is the natural status
of labor, or, to use his own words, that
'the rise, progress and stability of all
governments depend upon slaves or
forced labor in some form" and that
L.. Liz. q h,,, o.no.;..o..n l..