Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-04-12
About 81 UltImatnnl.


matuin by our Convention would be but the
forerunner OF an Ordinance Of Secession.
Every Intelligent man knows that any pro-
position that may be made by our Conven-
tion would necessarily be Of character
that would preclude all possibility of its
acceptance by the free States; that it
would therefore be rejected; and that the
next step, the way having been thus pre-
pared, would be the passage of an ordi-
nance, because, as would be averred, there
would be an end to all hopes Of an adjust
ment. II this is the position our State is
to assume, We shall soon deprive ourselves
Of the respect, as We already have Of the
sympathy, Of all the States by which We
are surrounded, This bullying. domineer-
ing attitude i'll becomes the Old Dominion,
and proud As We may be Of her past, We
may yet have cause to blush at her record
in history. Every day brings us fresh ev-
licences that the surrounding States are
becoming disguised with our egotistic, ar
rOgaut assumption of right to dictate
to the Government and the rest of the
States. We should not forget that other
States have rights as well as we. We
should not forget that they have some
little selE-respcct. and We should remem-
Der that they have as much right, aud
reason too, to make demands upon the
Government as We have. The seee-
ded States even express contempt for
Virginia on account of her quibbliug and
hair splitting, and not joining them at
onee--the border Slave States complain
because she is trying, without consulting
them, to drag them after her Into ruin;
the non-slaveholding States have good
reason to feel indignant at the iusOleut
attitude we assume towards them; and
thus, under the direction Of some of her
"wise and virtuous" citizens-Pryor, for
instance, and John b. PlOyd-we are be-
coming the butt of the whole country.
The people of the free States are ma
king up their minds that If we cannot re.
linquish little Of our insoleuee they don't
care whether We go out Of the Union or
not. We notice almost every day such
expresSions of feeling in lhe Northern
PrsSs-ueWsnapergo oil grades and shades
Of politics. Thus the philadelphia NorM
AmerieaH. a very moderate, conservative
paper, has this TO sayi and in saying 1t
speaks the mind of two-thirds of the .peo-
pie, not only Of Pennsylvania, bnt of the
whole North:
We are heartily sick and weary
Of all this humbug. Our government
must have an active existence and decis-
i've power. Virginia must acknowledge it
Internationally the same as PENNSYLVANIA
or Ohio, or she must pack up her duds and
go AFTER tho conspiratOrs ut Montgomery,
WHO despise while they seek to use her
We have all respected the Old Dominion
II is the grave of Washington. The great
est and the best of all our statesmen
have been produced by tho grand old com!
monwealth. We feel that sue ought to be
with us, and remain forever attached to
the government founded by her sons.
But If she Is determined IL be peryerse,
and to be forever provoking us with her
petulHnces. We shall not be sorry to no
well rid Of her. Ultimatums will be of no
more use than the iifth wheel would be to
coach, and If the secession leaders adopt
any such, 1t will only be RpeCious device
to lead the State moro sorely ont Of the
Union There seems to be some strange
delusiOn resting upon the newspapers In
the border slave States. They suppose
that the government at Washington Is in
advance of the people in its movements,
when the truth Is that the whole North ia
thoroughly aroused aud clamUrous for &C.
ton. We cannot be half as much dis.
graeeI by any failure of what we attempt,
a. We have been already by the manner 10
which we have permitted the national SOW
ereignty to be insulted and defied.
Now, the Union is worth every whit as
much to us as 1t is to the Northern States.
We can NO more prosper out Of it, than
they could, aud they know It For Yir- !
Ginia, then, to undertake to drive them in
to eOaxing her to remain in the Union,
would be an amusing farce, If ii did not
threaten TO end in so terrible tragedy.
But while, unfortunately, all this is too
true, while such is the attitude we now
hold toward our sister States, II Is one
that does the people Of Virginia great In
lustist. Il IS a false assumption OF the
real sentiment and position Of the State.
The meu who inspire this sort Of feeling
abroad, are not representative men-that
is, they do not represent the great .aajori-
y, though they do represent meaeer.
desperate faction. Virginia Is understood
70 mean what Wise, and Mason, and HUI
ter says she means. Nothing could be
mere unjust to our people. nut II is, aud
always has been. their mi1fostune to be led
and represented and ruled by men who
had no more alRliation with ana sympathy
Tor the masses ofzths State, than If they
had been born and reared on the soil and
under the influence Of despoiism
TRE accounts from Charleston says that
great preparations arc being made 10 pre-