Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-08-01

The whole people understand the origin
and Immediate cause of our misfortunes.
The unbribled ambition of few men, un-
fortunately too great in the confidence of
the South, iudulging in the delusive hope
of great Southern Empire, and, by new
commercial relations, making the cities of
Charleston and Savannah and New Orleans
the commercial rivals of New York and
Philadelphia and Boston, suggested the
policy of Southern Confederacy; and the
leading statesmen, whose power was to be
increased, seizing upon the intempernte
opinions of few fnnatical men of the
North on the question of slavery, ins Jired
the Southern mind with the belief that the
North meditated an assault on the domes
tic policy of the South, and an invasion of
their Constitutional rights, and thus en-
shared the Southern people into the whirl-
pool of revolution, and aroused such
storm of public rage rs might only be sa-
tiated by Overturning Union which they
themselves, and their fathers, for more
than three generations, had believed 10 be
the very palladium of their safety.
That the new movement should assr ne
q strong tendency to consolidate GOVERN
ment and sympathy with European Pow
ers, is but natural, ignoring the people,
and giving supremacy to violence and
| force, basing the government on the sover-
eighty of the States, instead of the sover-
eighty OF the people, and eagerly courting
alliance with European Powers, its tenden-
cies are but too manifest-despotic Europe
is to be invited into the councils of hith-
| ertO free America; so that the contest in
which we are engaged not only involves
the integrity and honor of the Republic,
but the old issue, whether the position SO
,f
liberty shall be abandoned-that the mon
archies of Europe shall not be permitted
to interfere in controlling the political af-
fairs of this continent.
To recognize secession, or acquiesce in
the right of peaceful revolution is an end
to the government, destroying the founda-
tion of the public faith on which it rests.
| What State would aid in the construction
of forts or arsenals, or other works of ma
tional necessity, within the limits of other
States, with the right of secession or ac-
quiescence in revolution the established
policy of the government? To maintain
the URion by an appeal to arms, or submit
to total national ruin, is the only alternh-
| tive. Could brave and free people, con-
trolled by sentiments of justice and hon
or, hesitate in their choice2 The one line
of policy, even il success did not equal
the justice of the cause, would vindicnte
the honor of States loyal to the Union: land
stand upon the record of history rs SOL
emn protest against the right of one of its
| parts to destroy its integrity. The other
| could only be attended by unmixed dis
honoraud misfortune. You might, indeed,
reconstruct the government, but the very
necessity for reconstruction would impair,
if it did not entirely overthrow, the sOver-
eighty and equality of the States-the
| bulwHrk of our constitutional liberty.
Therefore, sir, every consideration of
honor, of justice, and of self preservation,
compels this appeal to arms. In my judg-
ment an overwhelming majority of the peo-
Pile of the free States, would not only have
defended the Constitutional rights of the
South while in the Union, but would have
made sacrifice upon sacrifice. even of opin-
| ion, to preserve the old fraternal relations
and save us from the horrors of civil war,
but secession has left us no alternative
1t has appealed to the sword; and bitter
rs may be our grief, dark and gloomy as
may be the future, we cannot escape the
issue. The sword must decide the contest.
a generation, twelve mouths ago the most
happy and peaceful aud prosperous thnt
the world has ever seen, may be sacrificed
by the mad ambition of the hour. But, if
public liberty shall be upheld, the sucri-
fees of this generation, its shame and sor-
row and tears, may rebound to the stnbii-
ty and enduring honor of the Republic
As generations of the past have been, so
ours may be sacrificed for the happiness
and prosperity of the future.
But, sir, cannot suppress my astonish- :
ment that the Representatives of any part
of the people of the Great West, whose in
terests are so indissolubly united with the
free navigation of the Mississippi river,
should doubt the overwhelming necessity
of maintaining the Union at every hazard.
So far as material interests are concerned,
no States have so direct au interest in the
permuneucy of the Union as the States of
Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowannd
Missouri. To them, the great waters that
empty into the Gulf of Mexico are the
life -blood-the sources of progress, of
prosperity, and of power. Cut Off their
direct trade with the islands of the Gulf,
the West Indies, and the coast of Mexico
and South America, and confine it by te-
dious inland transportation to the commer-
cial marts of the Atlantic coast, and the
prosperity of that most fertile region, con-
sidered in extent, upon the face of the
globe, must languish, and the promise of
its unexampled grandeur, involved in the
perpetuatiou of the Union, mast forever
fail
Recognize, sir, the Southern Confedera-
cy, and you place the navigation of the
Mississippi, and with 1t the prosperity of
the whole West, at the mercy OF a foreign
government. 1t may be said that mutual
interests will produce treaties of mutual
advantage. But, sir, can the people OF the
West consent that the source of their pros
perity shall be held by so frail a tenure :?
will they ask u foreign government TO
grant them by treaty that which is their
inf.llibIo right, a gift of nature, secured
by the treasure and courage of their fn-
thers? Can they now chatter with a for
eign government for treaties to maintain
those rights? If they wosId, sir, they
would not have the courage to viudf-
cate those treaties if broken No, sir; n
right existing in nature, sustained by every
consideration of Justice and sanctioned by
national compacts, cannot be the further
| subject of treaty. 1t is a right which the