Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-03-15

umn5, q State Republican convention VIII
meet in this city to- send delegates to- the
Chicago Convention. These delegates
will be admitted to thEt Convention on a
full equality with the delegates from those
States certain to vote for the nominees. of
that Convention. They will be entitled to
cast the fifteen votes of the State for any
of the candidates who will be before the
> Convention, on the same terms that they
would be if the fifteen votes represented
possible majority of all the voters of the
State, instead of meagre minority
There will be no difference made between
them and the delegates. from Ohio, New
York or New England, or anywhere else.
There will be perfect equality. And SO
we may likewise say of the delegates from
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Mis-
souri,, and from any other slave States
.where there are Republicans, and where
there will be Republican electoral ticket
The Convention which meets on the I'd
, of May here, will then have an important
duty to perform. These votes, to the full
extent of their numerical strength, will
just be as potent in influencing nomina-
ton as will those of any other State. And
this being the case, it seems to us that the
vote ought to he cast judiciously, and in
strict harmony with that condition of
things by which the border slave States
nre surrounded. It seems to US that the
border States of Delaware, Maryland, Nir-
GINA and Kentucky cannot fail to recog-
nize that they have, in some degree, per-
sonal, as we'll IS political duty to per-
form in casting their votes. They owe
personal duty towards that man who has
been their leader in tho great struggle
which they have been aud are now making
for the rights of free speech and free
press upon the soil of those States, to-
wards the man who has SO eloquentiy and
unfinchingiy lead the way, and inch by
inch combatted the resistance which slave
State Republicans have met with in their
attempts TO exercise their constitutional
privileges Cassius NJ. Clay, in the I'M
daunted perseverance, and pluck, as we'll
as in the distinguished ability with which
he has prepared the way for Republican
principles upon Southern soil, has made
the honored name which he bears, doubly
dear one to the slave State Republicans.
There has been no risk too great for him
to run in defence of his and their political
rights to canvass the question of slavery
at the same places and by the same meth
DDS. that other persons canvass it. To
Yindicate these political rights. he has
made every sacrifice that man could
make He has sacrificed position, pros
poets, health, means, and almost life itself.
In defence of these rights he has, rs it
were, for years slept on his arms, and car
ried his life constantly in his hand. He
hes fought his way by blood and by argu-
ment, by moral suasion and physical force,
until at last he has wrested un unwilling
truce from his enemies. 1t is but trte
and easy matter to say that Republicanism,
in its present advanced state in the border
slave States, owes more to the physical
and moral courage of Cassius N. Clay,
than it does to all other men combined in
the South. He is its representative man
and Gag bearer, and to him it looks more
naturally, than it does to any other South
ern man.
:. Nanifestly then the border slave States
owe Cassius N. Clay a duty in the votes
which they shall cast in the Chicago Con-
vention, and what is that duty? AT this
time it seems to be almost certain that the
-hoice for President will be from some
State north of Mason Dixons line. The
strong probabilities are that Mr.. Seward
will be that man. If this shall turn out
t5sbe, the case, as we think Beyond a doubt
it will, every consideration of policy as
we'll as Of right, will urge upon the Con-
vention to select their candidate for the
Vice Presidency from the south side OF the
line. The Convention will not and ought
not, we think, to forget the lesson of 1856,
when both their candidates were selected
from Northern States. It was continually
referred to by the enemies Of Fremont and
Dayton, as proof of their sectional princi-
pies Trifing, contemplate and uutenable
as the charge was, yet it was not without
its effect. And now in this coming CAM
paign the came charge, with the same
effects, will, no doubt, occur again. if the
same kind Of selections are made. There
fore it is for this Convention to improve
upon the lesson of experience, and TO dis
tribute the two nominations in such a
manner that this cateb-penny outcry will
be forever hushed. 1t is ia their power to
oft. They have good md trne man at
the South "a strictly representative Of their
principles as any man at the North He
has been to Republicanism in the South
end South West what alr. Seward has been