Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-03-21
tFor the Intelligeneer.l
Sectional StrIfe-No. 8.

Sectional StrIfe-No. 8.
Aessrs EGs.-If the subscriber pauscs in
the pursuits and pleasures of private life,
to address his fellow-ctizens, it is from an
overmastering conviction that the pro-
slavery spirit ''has increased, is increasing,
and ought to be diminished BE it re-
membercd that we of the North are the
defendants in this casei our Southern
neighbors are the plaintiffs, the aggressors,
! the invaders. Overt acts" says Mr..
Toombs of Georgia, 1--WE will not wait for
overt acts. We shall consider the election
of a black Republican President as suffi-
cicnt We will never suffer the army and
navy to pass into such hRuds.' No! no! Mr..
| TOombs. we are we'll aware of your inten-
tiOns. You and your compcers have told
us so often, that there can be no mistake.
"DuIlcr must we be than the fat weed that
grows on Lethe's wharf" five could doubt
as to your intentions. But wiser men, and
more discreet than you are, would issue
their cdicts in language less hcctoring, less
| impcrious. You allow US the very largest
| liberty of thought, word and action, when
we choose TO think, act and speak i'll favor
of slavery. Then, if we choose to think,
act and speak upon our own convictions of
right and duty, you might bring the conse-
uuences to our attention in language n
| little less offensive to ''eHrs polite" You
might use some circumlocution. You
might introduce the subject of swords,
sabres, guns, muskets, bayonets, cannonsr
carbnes, shells and mortars little more
obliquely. The substance, il is true, would
be the same; but the substance being the
same the manner often becomes important.
When you flourish your whip and clank
| your chains in the eyes and ears OF your
sable bondman, little rs the poor wretch
al. -
of physical force is on your side; but VIXEN
you look across the Potomac and the Ohio,
and talk to sixteen millions of the Cnnca-
sian race, the tables are turned, the supe-
riority of physical force is not with you,
and it never will be with you. Can you
not so far overcome your invctcTatc habits
ns to change your tone little, when
speaking to us2
The passions Of the reading public are
not for n moment suffered to COOL during
the progress of this ebony controversy.
| Our symyathies are often reused. Every
| Southern man has brothers interest in
our hearts except rs he may have forfeited
it, by individual crime or personal unwor-
thiness We listen to their moving COM
plants. We are appalled, by the never
ending, still beginning din, which comes
from the South, on this sorrowtul subject.
We begin unconsciously to rise to the res
cue. But the history of the last eight
years rushes into our minds, and our illu-
sions vanish we cannot forget how the
party which is now rapidly becoming an
ultra pro-slavery party, in 1852, obtained
power. 1t was by resolving in National
| Convention, to resist all attempts to renew,
either in or out of Congress, the agitation
of the slavery question, under whatever
color or pretext the attempt might be made
Does the English language afford words
more appropriate to declare that as tar as
this great and influential party was con-
ccrned, the agitation of the slavery question
was a thing of the past, that the legisla-
ton of 1850 was Il finality. The Nation
heard them and believed. Yet in December
| 1853 when the public mind was sleeping
us calmly as a summer lake, they reused it
| to tempest by deliberate attempt TO con-
quer for slavery n, territory which had been
dedicated, tabooed, made sacrO-sanct to
liberty Did not the same party in their
national convention of 1886, at least infer
entially and by most cogent implication
renew to the people of Kansas and Nebras-
ka the original pledge contained in their
organic act, that they should be left "Per-
fectly free" to form and regulate their own
domestic institutions in their own way,
without the interference of Congress2-
1
| iured people to form free institutions been
met with the most determined opposition
| in Congress? Has not the national Execu-
| tive soIemnly declared that every inch OF
their territory, is as much slave territory
as that of South Carolina and Georgia? Is
no the aspect of the majority in the Ma
tional Senate as we'll as that of the Prcsi-
dent aud of the Southern delegation in the
House of Representatives, hostile to those
territories in the highest degree? Is not
the language OF those men, concerning the
territories in question, loud, stern, and
mcnacing? Have not Executive vctoes
been interposed, on two late mcmora-
BILE occasions to nullify their efforts in IA
vor of freedom? Mr.. Douglas may twist
stand out. If in 1852 he and his
| friends were opposed to the tinality and
| non agitation resolution, why did they not
oppose it in the Baltimore CouTeution?-
| Suppose that in 1852 the friends ofGeRcrNl
Scott had asserted thatas soonas the DEM
ocrats got into power, they would RECON-
meuce the slavery agitation and repeal the
! Missouri compromise. What strength Of
lungs would have heen sufficient to repel
| the VILE ISLANDER, with adequate vehc-
mcnce7 How triumohantly would they
| have held up this nOn-agitntion resolution
| as complete refUtation? Or if they had
acknowledged the sable but not soft i'm
parchment, could that, hitherto obscure
| and insignificant individual, Mr.. Franklin
| Pierce have been elected? Or in 1856 in
| stead of passing their non-intervcntion
| and nou-interferencc resolution, they had
| boldly proclaimed the woody and ebony
Il