Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-01-09

prom the n. Y. Times, wa.hlnctup Correspondence
The Recent Action OF the South-Po-
SltIOn OF the NOrth-DeterminntIO
10 SuStRIl the Government, etc.
wAsMSGToS, Jan. I, 1861.
il requires = watchFul eye TO keep pace
with the rapidly changing phases of the
great political issues nav agitating the
country. While statesmen and the Press
are Engaged III earnest discussion of the
question whether force ought 10 be en-
Ployed for the maiutninuure of the Union,
/ the silent march OF events is surely adj
I yaHcing the hour when secession must
fall to pieces of its own weight. The ac-
ton Of the South, itself, during the last
/ ten days, has entirely changed the aspect
Of affairs. Within that time, our Southern
brethren, speaking through their Senators
aud Representatives in Congress, havc de-
clared in most positive terms, that the
hour for compromise is past. and that the
I Slave States are settled in determination
to break up tue Union. In pursuance of
this policy of defiance, South Carolina has
I seized upon n vessel OF the limited Srates,
and taken possession OF Federal forts
Georgia, too, without even waiting for her
I own Legislative act of secession, has fol-
lowed suit, and seized tho United States
forts at Savannah. The effect of these
movements on the Northern mind has
been to wipe out all party considerations,
dispose of all propositions for compromise
aud concession. aud bring the people face
to face with the single iuquiry-"Shall the
, Union be broken up, or shall We preserve
It ht every hIzard?'
! In the presence Of this state Of facts, it
! is II waste of time to discuss measures of
adjustment by Congress. The people of
the Free States understand this, and we
find thcm declaring with remarkable
Immunity that the Government SAaH he
7 maintained at no nStter what cost, and
their representatives in the State LegisIa-
I lures are Offering millions of money and
I tens of thousands of men for the vindica-
! ton of that resolve. Meantime the North
has discovered that the evils of the South
are i'll great part imaginary, and the COM
/ plaints based upon them are chiefly mere
! pretexts to which they are not disposed to
/ give willing ear any longer. Certainly
! they are determined not to admit these
| prete1ts as solid reasons for disunion.
The united front presented by the North,
together with the better tone of the Exec
J utlNe curing tue last few days, has work.
/ ell another important change in the aspect
of the absorbing question. Bear in mind
that there are two classes of secession
leaders. The frst-of whom Senator
| Wigfall and Jefferson Davis are types-are
fully prepared to accept all tue consequent
ces of Separate State action" including
loss of mail service, withdrawal of Fedrr-
nj protection, closing of Federal Courts,
and II blockade of their ports, involv-
! ing the necessity for civil wnr-initiated
by the South ngains' the General
aforementioned the necessity of ma
king application for European aid to
raise such blockade. But by far the larger
body OF secession leaders have only fol-
I lowed WigfAll aud Davis thus far for the
purpose of wringing from the reluctant
| North II recognition of the absolute right
of property in slaves, which involves all
that the most ultra of them demand, aud
which would enable them to recover their
lost control of the reins of Government.
All thia they expected to accomplish
through the agency of n party to be built
up in the Free States upon the ruins of
commercial prosperity, and upon the Pc
cuniary distress of laborers thrown out of
employ. They expected to destroy utterly
the credit Of tue Government, demoralize
the people, and force us to find an escape
from impending material ills, by acceding
20 the demands of Slavery.