Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-01-17

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publican form OF government. Universal
Suffrage and the abSenee of standing
army are essential t6fhe republican syss
tenn. The world has vet to see self
sustaining State Of dat kind, or even any
confederation of such States, except our
own Canada leans6h Great Britain not
and Swiiaerl9nl is guaranteed
by interested monafehiea1 States. Our
own experiment has tins far been success
ful; because, by'lhe continual addition of
new States, the infuence of each of the
members of the Union Is constantly re-.
strained and reduced.S No, one, of course,
can ltoreteil the way aud manner of travel;
but history indicutes with unerring GER
racies would reach. ESsutiousness would
render life intulerIblo; aud they woplda
sooner or later purchase tranquility aud
domestic safety by the. sanetiOn and sur
render of liberty. and gfeld themselves up
to the protection ofimiliAapy despotism. {
Indulge me, sir, in Cd q two details un-
der this head. First, tits only sixty days
since this disunion movement began. al
ready those who are engaged in it have
conVassed with pHrtentlous freedom the
possible recon mbinAtionS6ft the States when
discovered, and the feasible alliances of
those denominations With European M
tiOhs alliances us unnatural, and which
would prove ultimately rs pestilentfal to
society here us that of tie TInsralans with
the Spaniard, who promised them revenge
upon their aucient nemies, the Aztecs. q
Secondly. This disunion movement ari-
ses partly out of "a dispute over the cOvU-
mon domain of the United States. Hith-
erLO the Union has confined this contro-
versy within the bounds of political debate
BY referring it with all other national ones,
to the arbitramcnt of the ballot box
Does any one suppose that disunion would
transfer the whole domain to either party,
or that any other umpire than war would,
after dissolution, be invoked? .-tk
Thirdly. This movement arises in an
other view, out of the relation of African
slaves to the domestic population of the
country. Freedom is to them, MS to nil
mankind, the chief object of DESIRE
Hitherto, under the operations of the I'm
ion, they have practically yfrswained ignor-
ant of the controversy, especially of its
bearing on themselves. Can we hope that
hngrant civil war shall rage amoug our
selves in their very presence, and yet they
remain stupid aud idle spectators? Does
history furnish us any satisfactory in
strnctiOn upon the horrors of civil war,
among people SO brave, SO skilled in
arms, so earnest in conviction, and SO in-
tent in purpose as we are? Is it u mere
chimerN which suggests andggrnvati0n of
those horrors beyond endurance, when, oil
either side there shall occur the interVen-
tion Of an uprising terocious African slave
population of four, or. six. perhaps twenty
nlillions2 ss t5=lEe5... sF5s
The opinions of mankind change, and
with them the policies of nations One
hU0 nRl. -
European States were engaged in trans
ferring negro slaves from. -4ie4,-tU-t this
FhGmfspheFe. To-day all thosa States are
firmly set in hostility to the extension aud
even to the practice of slavery. OPPOSE
ttou to it takes two forms; one Euro
pean. which is simple, direct abolition,
effected, if need be, by compulsion; tho
other American, which seeks TO arrest tue
African slave trade, and resist the entrance
of domestic slavery into Territories where
it is yet unknown, while it leaves the
disposition of existing slavery to the con-
siderate action of the States by which it
is retained. 1t is the Union that restricts
the opposition to slavery in this country
within these limits. If dissolution prevail
what guarantee shall there be against the
full Development here os the fearful and
uncomprOmising hostility to slavery which
elsewhere pervades the world. and of
which the recent invasion of Virginia was
an illustrntion2
Alr. President, have designedly dwelt
so long on the probable effects of dis,
union upon the safety Of the American
people as to leave me little time to con-
slider the other evils which must follow in
its train. But practically, tho loss of safe
tyi involves every other form of public ca
lamity. When once the guardian angel
has taken its flight, everything is lost.
Dissolution would not only arrest, but
extinguish the greatness of our country.
Even if separate cOnTederacies could exist
and endure, they could severally preserve
no share of the common prestige of=the
Union. If the constellation is to be bro
Ken up, the stars, whether scattered widely
apart or grouped in smaller clusters, will
.thenceforth send forth feeble glimnering
and lurid lights. Norwrl great achieve
mcnts be possible for the new confedera-
cies. Dissolution would RiguaIize its trf-
u.EPh by acts of wautonness which would
shock and astound the world. II would
provinctaliZe Mount Vernon AMI give this
Capitol over to desolation ut the very mo-
ment when the dome is rising over our
heads that was to be crowned with the
statue of Liberty. After this there Would
remain for disunion no act of. stupkndous
intnmy to be committed. No petty eonfed-
erncy that shall follow the United States
can pfolong, or even renew the uhjesttc
drama Of national progress. R4rhaps it is
to be arrested because its subIimityis in
capable of continuance. Let it be SO, if
we have indeed become degenerate After
Washington, and the inIlexibIe Adams,
Henry, aud the peerless Hamilton Jeffer-
son, and the majestic Clay, Webster, and
the acute Calhoun, jackson, the modest
Taylor, and Scott, who rises in greatness
under the burden of years, and Fralklip,
and Fulton, and Whitney, and Morse, have
al performed their parts, let the curtain
fall
While listening to these debates, IhAve
sometimes forgotten myself in making
their contrasted effects upon the pagewho
stands upon the dais before I
me, and the venerable Secretary who sits
behind him. The yonth exhibits fntanse