Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-07-20

OF the riot, Fernando w oOuJ Wuo WAS us
prime mover and ruling spirit, laid down
ten distinct leading propositions, each max
ing against the var, and each of which he
declared his purpose upon other occa-
sions to "elucidate and maintain" The
first of his theses is that the war should
cease, inasmuch as there is no coerciVe
military power in the federal government
as against the States, which are sovereign
and in possession of all power not delega-
ted. If power of coercion exists at all,
"it is legal and not military" If, also,
wisdom and knowledge exists at all in
this statement, it is surely not legal, but
after the manner of war, and beyond rea.
son.
The federal government no power against
the state2 Very likely it has not. 1t has
had no occasion TO exercise any suchpower,
or to claim any, aud never need have.
Does not Fernando Wood know well
enough, what everybody else knows, that
the very substance of the change made
from the old articles of confederation to
the present plan of the constitution, was
in precisely this thing, that the general
government should thencefOrth enforce its
authority through its own officers directly
upon the people, aud not as before through
the medium of State organizations The
awkwardness of conflict with the local
governments was thus expressly guarded
against, and the independent power OF the
general administration established. 1t
was this which made the change from u
mere league of nations, to government
over one nation. The federal and state
governments are now distinguished from.
each other, not by any difference between
their relations to the individual citizen,
which is in both cases direct aud imme-
diate, but by the different classes OF sub
iects with winch they are appointed to deal.
49, people nf iha South will rasnme the
performance of all their individual, per
sonal duties towards the government at
Washington, they will be allowed to do
nearly as they please with their state gov
ernments, as they always have. If they
continue to refuse to discharge them, the
authority to which they owe personal al
legiauce will continue, We trust, to apply
personal pressure of penalty upon them
until they yield. The coercion at the
SOnLh is upon the inhabitants there, upon
that portion of the national Population,
and although the cooperation of the gov
ernments of the southern states in this
process might be very desirable, it is by
no means essential.
But Fernando Wood goes on to assert
that it coerciVe power exists at all, it is
not military, bull illegal" 1t is legal in
deed What sort of power is that? Have
we any laws that execute themselves, and
that need no force behind them in case they
are resisted? When legal process issues
from either state or federal authority, to
which voluntary obedience is not render
ed, what follows? This is the very use Of
the militasy arm, in matters of internal ad.
ministration, 10 sustain and back up legal.
ity. And this is precisely what is being
now attempted at the South by the Union
army. In ordinary cases, the executive
officers of the civil courts arc able, with
the help of the force they can summon, to
overcome any resistance. No one, We. take
it, supPoses that this could have been SC
managed at the South at any time since the
rebellion broke out. The military is called
into aid because there is ga combination
against the laws" too powerful for thu
handling Of the Federal Courts. This il
all. The application of military power i
nothing hostile to, nor really different from
the legal powers, that bear on the case.
is only causing the law to be law, and tc
be respected as such.
Any different theory from this, as is easy
to see, dissolves all our nationality and
leaves the republic no more than voluu
tary association, as Perishable at the vii
of any of US as members of village lyceum
-st'l .--
The RiehmOnd wing and the New
frOm vielEsburR.
awe told you SO on the d day of Ma!
last" is the language of Ike Richmou'
Wing 10 its issue Of July 9Th. WStold yOl
all about Yieksburg that far back.
But JEFF did not take it's advice and nov
il pitches into him for keeping men OF IN
capacity In commend. a'3 ,.
The RAGg promises to be a sort of Cop.
perhead paper on Jea's hands. Here is the
concluding portion Of it, article of the 9Th
instant: W Lolzss
Rall the troops nowor until lately scat
tered far and wide, under Bragg, Pember-
ton, Holmes, Magruder and Kirby Smith,
and that army placed under the COMMAND
of general Of proved abity-Ghd such
one has been lett in idleness for nearly .
yeAr-it cannot be doubted that affairs ia
the Southeast would have worn IN very DIFF
ferene aspect There il Disposition just