Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-09-01
john, s. carI.Ie.
From &c CIncInnatI Commercial

John s. CarIIIe.
From the Cincinnati Commercial.
We are reminded daily of the fact that
John S. CaIlile is the representative of
Western Virginia in the Senate of the
United States. His name seems to be one
of the few immortal that ttare not born to
die" His constituents are desperately de-
termined to keep it before the people. Not
a war meeting is held, nor political con-
ventiou assembled from the Panhandle to
the Kanawha, in which it is not conspicu-
Gus. 1t is pronounced in the espeeches. 1t
is iterated in the resolutions. 1t is de-
nounced in both.
Byron awoke one morning to find him
self famous. The pilgrimage of Childe Har-
old was the royal progress ofgeuius to the
Immortality of song. Carlile awoke 10 find
himself infamous. His pilgrimage to Indi-
annapolis was the progress of an apostate
to the Immortality OF treason. Yet there
is nothing in common between the Singer
and Senator but the suddenness of their
notoriety. The one was an hereditary
aristocrat, but democrat in everything
else. The other Is a democrat by the acci-
dent OF birth. but an aristocrat in all
things bat the accident. The former sided
with popular revolutions for the political
and social emancipation of mankind; the
latter sympathizes with mith military
revolution which has human bondage for
its corner stone, and tho aristocracy of
class for his destination. Tho frat was the
poet of liberty; the latter is the politician
of ofslavery.
The history of public men furnishes few
parallels to the success which has crowned
the Senator's hopes for unpopularity. A
year ago no man stood fairer before the
people of the new State. His talents, his
eloqnence, his persuasive aud courteous ad
dress, had marked him as q rising man.
Only the opportunity was wanting. The
inhabitants of Jerusalem believed that no
good thing could come out of Nazareth and
Western Virginia is the Nazareth of Rich
mond. Carlile might have Been fourfold
as talented and eloquent and persuasive as
he is, but he would have remained a Naz
arine. He might have become toleraGle
Legislator, and struggled up to a seat in
the lower House OF Congress, but the aris-
tocratic planters from the Potomac TO the
Roanoke, and from Lynchburg to York
town, would have made certain thnt no
upstart from West of the Alleghanies re-
presented their interests and oVershadowed
their influence in the upper House. A
native of Britain had US lair chance for
the Roman Consulship as native of Vest
ern Virginia for seat in the Senate.
The opportunity came to Mr.. Carlile.-
His choice lay between loyalty to the Gov
ernment, with chance for distinction iu
the new State, and disloyalty to the Gov
ernment with q subordinate position in the
new Confederacy. Whatever may have
been his sympathies, his interests decided
him in favor of the former. The people at
tributed to a lofty patriotism what would
have been more correctly ascribed to am
bition. His course once determined, ener-
getio action was necessary to make him
secure in it. Men are never so much in
earnest as when committed to a position of
danger. Western Virginia swarmed with
disloyGl people, who derived their iuspira-
tion from the Richmond Examiner and the
incendiarism of Gov. Wise. Armed bands
were concentrating along the Tygart VAL
| ley and the Kanawha rivers. Bridges were
burned, telegraphs interrupted, and rail-
road tracks tern up. Regiments were FL
| ing through the mountain gorges to rein
force aud hold the positions taken by
the disloyal citizens. 1t was time
for action. Carlile, juat returned from
Richmond, where he had been throttled by
the traitors for-whon, with catholic af-
fectation of magnaninity, he now pro-
fesses to cherish ''no resentments," was as
ardent in his desire for Federal protection
as he now is jealous in abuse of it. He
welcomed the armies of the Union to the
| shore of Virginia; he followed them in
their marches from Wheeling to the passes
of the Alleghanies; he urged the most
ultra measures upon the officers in COM
mand; he would have treason punished
with the forfeiture of life and property; he
would have the BushWhackers of the
mountains hunted down as Claverhouse
HUNTED the Scottish Coyenauters among
the moors and morasses beyond the Tweed.
Rut the time had not come for such a
policy. Cancellation was FIRST to be tried.
The disaffected were arrested, put upon
| their osths, and dismissed, greatly to his
disgust.
No man in Western Virginia was then
considered more Internationally for the
Union than Mr.. 0arlile. Neither Pietpout,
nor Wiley, nor DIR. Hall, nor Farnsworth,
nor j. b. Blair, nor any man who moulded
| public opinion by his influence, breathed
i 4 6ercer feryor of patriotism. Till he was
elected Senator, no one heard Mr.. Carlile
/ talk of the Divine origin of Slavery, or the
| SUPERIOR condition of the black slave oi
4 Virginia over the white laborer of Man
1 chester and Sheffield. he did not stop to
\ ask whether the soldiers from Ohio and In
diana were Abolitionists, or Republicans
or democrats. He welcomed them as pa
triots come to rescue his State and his oWu
neck from the power of the Southern Con-
4 federacy. When traitors were summarily
shot. houses burned and property taken, as
i was frequently the cese-no man heard oil
lMr. Carlile adjusting his speetaelss, and
making q deliberate and solemn investiga-
tion OF the Constitution to see whether
there was q clause there that would coTel
1.-THE case. He saw the necessity of the act
War was to him then and there almost {
i personal interest. Negroes ran of will
the army, and StamPeded Into PsnnSylTs