Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-05-13

4 it, when It protested against their demands
they broke the party into pieces. The
-hallucination of the man who entertains
the idea that the rebels will lay down their
arms, consent to.a reconstruction of the
1 Union, and political cohabitation in the
democratic Wigwams and around the, old
party camp-fires, is as insane as an inhab-
liant of Bedlam, and should be put into a
straight jacket.
| With the rebels Democracy is as much a
tthing of'the past as the fossils Of the ante
Edel1vian period. They recognize the i'm
mense distance that the drift of events has
carried them from the old landmarks Of
party, and they hout and ieer at the propo-
siti0us upon which the feeble minded pol
liticians of'the old party in the North base
the hope of reconstruction. We repeat
that with these rebels the aim is indepeud-
ence first and conquest afterward. The
old Government must go under. It has
become Ftabolitionized;" that is, it can no
longer be made the vehicle of their ambi-
tious projects for political power. 1t must
be crushed, because it's underlying princi-
pies are at war with their interests. To
make war upon the North-to carry FIRE
aud sword into our towns and cities, in
the language of the Rebel, is what they
hope for. 90
tits because these things are so-it is
because these rebels will not have peace
that does not involve revenge and the ruin
of the North, that. talk of peace becomes
criminal. To prate of peace, 10 work for
peace, when there is no peace, and no dis
position for it on the part of our enemies,
is to involve the common safety of the peo-
pie of the free States in tremendous peril.
Every man who induces soldier to desert;
every man who discourages enlistments !;
every man who wilfnlly misinterprets the
objects for which the war is prosecuted :.
any man who in any way exerts his infu-
ence to weaken the power of the Govern
meut as directed toward the suppression of
the rebellion, does by so much cooperate
with these rebels, and by so much aid
them in the fulfllment of their hope to
overrun Yankee cities and villages, wrest
the plow from the hands of the farmer,
drive our women and children into exile,
expose the whole community to the havoc
and waste of merciless war, and make our
peaceful and'prosperous country the thea
tre of all that is horrible and disastrous in
the movements of bloody aud murderous
soldiery.
There is no escaping this individual re-
spousibility by giving it collective or.
partisan character. The general safety,
without regard to administrations, poll.
tics or politicians, be they good or bad,
demands that every man shall stand by the
armies, encourage them with words of
cheer, supply them with all needful assist
ance that may be properly afforded outside
of their military provision, and reinforce
them with numbers whenever numbers are
required to give them strength to cope
with the enemy. To support the Govern
ment, or the Administration which repre-
sents it and acts for 1t temporarily, how
ever private judgment may decide upon its
measures, is an equal obligation. 1t is so
because the common veal depends upon its
efficiency and ITS efficiency. to large de-
gree, depends upon the counteuance and
support of the people. The man who fails
to come up to this mark-who takes refuge
behind constitutional reservations-who
sets up his private judgement as a shield
for his action-who era wis into the rusty
armor of couservatism-and, whatever be
his motive. thereby weakens the collective
force of the people, as exerted through the
military arm of the Government for the
suppression of the rebellion, is not only
its assassin, but an instrument for the de-
struction of the general welfare OF the peo-
pie ofthe loyal States
- HH