Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-04-11
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The Position OF Some PrOfessed linton
Men In the Virginia Convention
Horace Greeley writes a Letter to
Geo. w. Summers.
10 tie Hon. Go. IT. S.nalaers, Of ITyginta:
SIR: AS one who, though claiming M
place in your regard, feels that interest in
you naturally excited by past years of CON
current political action aud fond hopes,
long cherished on my part, of your ud-
vancenent to positions of wider useful
ness and greater eminence, claim tho
right to address you on the position taken
by Virgiuia, through her Convention.
whereof you nre a leading member, upon
tue distractions which now aflict our
common country. And, though very much
IN earnest, trust you will have no cause
TO complain that assume to be familiar
or fail 20 be respectful -
We shall readily agree that Slavery is
at the bottom of all our National troubles;
and when add that accept your speech
IA the Constitutional Convention of your
state nearly thirty years ago, as in the
main full and forcibIe expression of my
own views on that theme, shall have dis
posed of all needful prelimiuaries. That
speechprovest that you are inst as well aware
us 0m that it is Slavery, and nothing
but Slavery, that has dragged Virginia
down from the proud position sue long
held OF tirst among onr family of States
TO the fifth rank, which she is certain to
exchange for q lower under each SUCCEED
ing census. In 1870, Illinois will have
passed her, and perhaps Indiana also:
probably twenty years hence, Missouri.
iowa and Wisconsin will have done like.
wise. Aud you know that neither Pro-
tective Tariffs, nor Internal improvements.
nor any form of IFederal bounty have
done this-that Slavery alone is. as YOU
have so forcibly depicted it, the oversGad-
owing curse of Virginia, deprivlng her
people OF decent roads, of common schools,
OF manufacturing and mineral deveiop.
ment, and every other element of ranid
and bencficeut progress. And you have
no more doubt than have ri claim to
Know only by your public rec0rd) that if
Slavery were expelled from your State to
morrow, the value of her oiIwould there
by be trehled, the aggregate of her wealth
increased, and her population doubled
within the next twenty years. When,
therefore, you try to say what will be sat-
isiactory to the natural and earnest advo.
Gates of Free Trade, eternal Slavery, and
all that have made Virginia what she is,
you wrong yourself without deceiving
them They know that you are acting n
part, and you feel that they cannot deem
it n creditNble one.
For the first time, 1 think, Mr. Summers.
yon supported last Fall an electoral ticket
that was successful. At all events, Vir-
ginia then for tho first time voted against
her old Bourbons who have so long rid
den her to rnin in the name of Democracy.
The platform on which you won that
triumph was siGapiE g 71hs Uhioa, the Con-
StnlttIo1 0Rd the enforcement Of he iGtrs..'--
Have you since stood firmly on that plat.
form2 Are you not now desertCr from
it2
The people of Yirginin elected You, nad
majority of like faith, to the present
Convention. They did it because they be-
licved you faithful to the union, and the
lmPlhrn6le enemy of secession. Have yon
justified that confidence2 Is your pres
ent attitude at all consistent with it?-
1t so, then the friends of the Union in
tue free States have been grossly deceive
ed. They naturally exuited over your
successi yet that success has PROV
ed n great disaster. Had a majority of
red-hot seccssionists been chosen, the Con-
vention would have long since attempted
to take Virginia out of the Union. But
you were compelled by the net which call
ed your body into being to submit any
Ordinance of Secession to the People
they would have voted it down by fifty
thousand majority, and that would have
exploded the bubble. But you Union ma
jority has wasted weeks in hair-splitting
talk, while the Secessionists have steadily
acted; you have waveringly held hn equi-
vocal position, while they have had def
mite purpose, aud marched straight toward
their object; and the necessary result is
that they are far stronger to-day, and their
Z 1,n, A.. !
rfed the State at your late election. And
IT the Union shall be finally wrecked; very
much of the blame will justly fall ON the
shilly-shally Unionists in the Virginia
Convention.
Mr.. Summersl the Union is quite as inn
portant to the South ds the North, to Vir-
ginfn as 70 New York, and you know it
When, therefore, you talk-as in the never
ending conclusions of your Convention
of "the grievances" of the South, and of
"the guaranties" you will require of the
North, you talk MS becomes Secessionists
only, and in such manner as to play Cli-
rectly into their hands. We are not in
want of broken victuals up this way, and
will not accept the Union rs boon con-
fcrred upon US by your charity or a reward
magnanimously given us for our ,docility.
II you expect the North to don the white
sheet and sit on the stool of repentance for
her past resistance to Slavery Extension.
you deceive yourselves TO our common
peril And when you talk of '.the with
drawal9 of the GulfStates from the Union,
as if that were the exercise of n conceded
constitutional right, you do your best to
show that the professions under which
you carried the State for Bell and Everett
were hollow aud that yourselves, In con-
slstency with your present views, ought to
have voted for Breckenridge and Lane.
Your resolves assert,t that the Union has
no righttto use q fortress erected by itself,
ON gronnd expressly eeded to and paid Tor
by u, ''to intimidate State, or constrain
IT'S free action Can you really mean
tntsf Suppose Massachusetts or ConnGc-
ucut had seeded during the War of 1912,
and assumed 70 nnke mace with the Rrit