Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-05-14

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One Of yourselves, having n common
interest with you in the welfare of our
country. and State, respectfully and ear
ncstly invites your attention to a few
facts, and to some suggestions in reference
thereto. And first, let us for n moment,
candidly look ut some of
TUE DolNcs OF OUR RECENT STATE con-
vEHTION
On the 4th of February last, the people
OF Virginia voted by majority of more
than fifty thousand, that any net of the
Convention, that might change our rela-
tIons with the government of the United
States, should liAve no legal effect whut-
ever, unless it should be ratified bv a
majority of tho voters at the polls. The
Convention on the 18th Of April, passed
~ sO-callcd Ordinance of Secession: md
Immediately, and before the people could
know anything of this action, and more
than a month hefore they could vote upon
1t, the authorities at Richmond assumed
to decide the whole question, by commit.
ting fragrant nets Of war upon the United
States-and afterwards, by fJrbiddins tho
election of Representatives from this State
to the Congress of the United States; and
still more recently, by assuming to turn
over" this sCUmm0nwealtll-he armies
her revcnne-hcr pcople-to the su-calIed
Confederate Statesi The very question
which the people of Western Virginia,
not six weeks before, by practically
unanimous vote, had most soIemnly de-
creed, that the people uf the whole State
should alone decide; this Convention, in
utter defiance of all authority, lawlcssly
undertook to determine! The verv,thing
which a majority of them were elected
not to do, they ucting in direct and pal
pabte violation of all law, arbitrarily and
dcspotically assumed to do! Acts like
these find their most fitting illustration
/ III the c,ISe of the master, who of his mere
| pleasure, transfers his slaves from one
| plantation to another, or in the case Of the
merchant when he wheels off his cattle by
the car loud, to market! Surely no
freeman needs to be told that MS the case
now stands, the doings uf the Convention
are of no more binding authority tlinn
would have been tho decree by any ono
I hundred men, ip the Convention nr ont of
/ it, that tile people 0f this Commonwealth
should all forthwith quit their homes and
take up their residence i'll tho South Sea
! Islands!
But the manner of these nets, was, If
possible, even moro Infamous thnn the
acts themselve$-tleyw were done in secret
| session. Never before did body claim.
ing toibe representative, assume to pass
upon measures more vitality affecting the
rights of the people. Never before in
Virginia, were the people so carefully ex.
Guided from ull inspection of the acts of
their own servants. The people are shut
out-thc ConspiratOrs are within. 1t is a
! reckless game, with whule common
weaith-ancient and rennwned-as the
stake. 1t is soon played, and we-our
| fOrtunes-our children our all, are han
ded over to 1.-THE chief control Of" the
winners-l desperate political Hdventurer
and his trHitnrOus Hssnciatesi There 1cas
Il Nirginia whose very faults were out.
t spoken and frank, and which scorned all
unmanly disguises 1t was reserved for
tho majority of this Convention-with
their Union-lovinG professions and their
! UniUn-hating GCts-tu exhibit another and
hitherto unknown typo of character among
us; that of mean dfssimulation and hy-
! pucrNcy!
Nor was there my, the slightest reason,
for this insane precipitation. The Gcm-
eral Government had done Virginia no
wrong There is hardly man among us,
who, six months ago, did mt think and
sny that the Union uf these States is the
chief source whence flows our unparal.
leled prosperity ut home, and our respect
abroad The authorities Of the Union had
neither performed nor threatened n single
act hostile to the rights or interests Of our
Ipeople. But the simple truth is this
and history will SO write it-life,long
ofhcG.hbldCrs and place-hunters, faiing
longer to rule the country, determined to-
Tuinit. As wreckers display false signals
to the benightcd and storm, driven vessel,
tempting her on to ruin that they may
seize the sp9il, SO thcse men have sought
to hurl the nation into revolution
which, thnugh it would ruin millions,
would upheavo them into power. And
Virginia secessionists, thrustiug their
hands into other peoples quarrcis, have
been duped into inviting, to their own
soil and homes, the fearful rayages of u
wal. neither instigated nor desired by our
people!
Nnr does tho pretended submission of
tho question of Secession to the vote OF
the people, ut all relieve the above stute-
mont of the case If this was done in
good faith, why did the Convention itself
assume in advance to decide the only
l9uestion nominally referred to the peuple?
ltit was not in guod faith, why mock us
with the saQdo,o after the Substance is
gone, telling us, as the organ of the body
does. for once dealing frankly in this bI-
siness, that this pretended election is
nero "matter of form, and not Of con;
test" Polls are tn be opened in every
camp of Nirginia troops ,plethcr in or
ont OF the STAT" thus Uovertly providing
that our destinies as people shall be
yutcd upon and decided, not by our own
citizens alone. but by thousands of others,
and ut the point of the bayonct!
Western Virginians! what say you of
these dninSs ut Richmond for the last few
weeks? The infammatory appeaI-tbe
hittcr insnlfinn, fnIlnts hnnr,ad ,,r,r,r, ,.,,,.