Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-02-28
asInsIne.r. Tuft-Hunters.n

EVERY once and awhile newspaper ar
tieles fall under orr eye, that call to mind
3 remark of Daniel Webster's. The SOuth-
eyn Pres. was published in Washington
City during the disunion agitation of
ls50-5I. 1t was the organ of Mr.. Call
houu and his confederates. Its principal
writer was New England man.-we have
forgotten his nsme,-snd his principal tar
get was Webster. Nothing too bad could
be said of Webster by bis New England
countrymau. He was an Abolitionisti all
his Union speeches were simply so much
Abolition cant he was unworthy the con-
fdeuce:of the Southern people, and they
ought never to think of giving him any Of
their votes in the Presidential Conventions
then approaching.
1t was never known that all this abuse
ever rufled the feelings of Mr.. Webster
further than to cause him to say in a letter
to a Southern friend, that the least trust
worthy men known to him in the country
were the editors Of pro-slaTery papers in
the South, who were born and educated in
the North. They were "insiucere tuft-
hunters' was one of his expressions. And
a tuft-hunter is person who runs after
supposed Influential people and bepraises
them at all fitting and uniting oPportuui-
ties; in other words, toady. When such
men left home in the North they left it with
the knowledge that the educational pTiTil-
eyes which they had enjoyed, that the pros
peritY which their States enjoyed, was ow-
ing to the great solid, free foundations in
which society was laid around them.
They left home knowing that their people
were good peoPle-were iutelligent-were
patriotic; that they did not coyet any mans
property, whether the property consisted
in slaves or anything else. They LEFT know
ing that labor was honored among their
friends, kinsmeu and acquaintances, and
that where it was not houored State could
never bo great and prosperous. They
knew that cities, towns-institutious of
learniug-of chsrity-of fine arts-were
the results of the free, diversified industry
of free States.
With all this knowledge, the men whom
Webster describes, came to the slave States,
and identified themselves with newspa-
pers. Their first effort was to undo them
selves to unman themselYes-turn their
backs upon their education-their associ-
atious-upon all that they knew to be true.
This effort being successfully over, any
thing else was easy to them. 1t was easy
afterward to write libels by the yard about
the Northern people; to cater and toady
Gd nGuseam to every low prejudice against
their couutrymen. There was nothing that
any slave State man could say about the
brethren of these editors, that the editor
could not chime in with and add some
thing worse. He could berate them day
by day without a blush. as Abolitionists-
and make his readers believe that they
ought to be watched above all people on
the face of the earth. 1t was such men
Webster alluded to, as being responsible
for SO much of the ignorant misconception
and prejudice which the people of the
South entertained for the people of the
North.
The race CT such editors is well nigh
extinct. Such Of them as are in Sc
essIia are now paying the penalty
Ia ruinsd occupations. Such OF them
as are not there continue, of course,
to ply the aame old trade. They
still write about the Abolitionists. Morn
ing. noon aud night it Is the burthen OF
their song. tt is no uncommon thing TO
see half dozen articles about the Adolf
tiouists in their columns to one about the
rebels. The same old stale leader is
vamped and revamped day after day. II
fool Lovejoy in Congress, says fool thing,
the editor seizes it up. and seems to thank
God for the gracious tit-bit. 1t gives him
chance to write an article about the
Abolitionists. After he is done with his
article aud for fear it might not be read, he
writes another article about the Northern
fanatics; and apparently for fear neither of
them will be read he scatters some para
graphs about the Abolitionists all through
his paper. II the printers still wnnt
copy, he scissors ont IN article from
Aedary's ..crisis" or some other sheet like
i. about the AbolitiOnists. He never can
have enough in the paper on that subject.
And yet the man all the time is as hol-
low-besrted as a drum on the subject. 1t
don't make any odds to him what he ad-
Iocstes, for as Webster said he is an ain
sincere tuft-huuter."
MoRE secesh paper was exchanged for
specie on Roanoke Island after its cantnre