Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-09-09
Progress In tho Border states.

the rapid change and progress of opinion
throughout the country on the slavery
question. limo other places is this progress
SO marked as in the border slave States
the old haunts of despotic pro-sIavety
opinion. The change is wonderful beyond
all anticipation. And it is going on each
day with accelerated speed. AS speei=
men of it we may quote the following ex-
tract from a speech of Gov. johnson, Of
Tennessee, at meeting held in Nashville
last Saturday evening week: "a. -
WSIayery was cancer on our socie-
ty and the scalpel of the statesman
should be used not simply TO pare away
the exterior and leave tie roots to pro-
psgate the disease anew, but to remove
it altogether. Let us destroy the cause
ofour domestic dissensions and this bloody
civil war. 1t is neither wise nor just to
compromise with an evil SO gigantic. He
avoWed himself unequivocally for the re-
moval of Slavery :. the sooner it can be eff
fected the better. Some Inconvenience
might, most likely would, follow, tempor-
arily, but these would be more than COM
pensated, by the grand impulse given to
all our interests by the substitution of free
for slave labor. He was for immediate
6IQhQClphLlOu1 II ue CO0A0 S0S 49, a. eAAAS
could not be obtained he was for gradual
emancipation but emancipation at, all.
events.
"He invoked the people to cast off the
slavish fear which had hitherto sealed their
lips on this question, and speak and act
henceforth as freemen should. The slave
aristocracy had long held its foot upon
their necks and exacted heavy tribute from
them, even to robbing them of free speech.
Let the era of freedom be henceforth pro-
claimed to the non-slaVeholderso of Tennes-
see" 1sst -''
This is strange doctriueto come from
State but lately under the domination of
those who proclaimed their intention of
building an empire, on the corner stone of
slavery, and spreading it over the continent
as the great controlling interest of Ameri-
can civilization, How soon have the vain
glorious promises and expectations of its
friends been cut short! How entirely have
all their designs been reversed. How
must they feel when they survey the work
of their hands-the ruin they have
wrought What must they thiHk when
they look over West Yirginia-oyer Mis-
souri-oyer Kentucky and Maryland, and
now over TENNESSEE Their was-to-be
empire is turLtng to ashes in their hands.
Slavery is going out rapidly in the old
places where it SO lately held sway. Not
a foot of new territory is it getting not a
foot will it ever get. Its day is over and
its race is rua. Henceforward its destruc-
tionwill bevery rapid. Every border State
is a new missionary ground where the
people turn about vindictively and iayenge
ON the institution all the despotism they
have suffered at its hands, in times
past, including the scourge aud curse of Sc
cession. Before this war is over it will BIZ
found that the most relentless foes Of
slavery are the people of the border States
We doubt whether there is a people in thu
Union to-day who more heartily detes
slavery than the people of West Virginia
They are long ways ahead oftthose VIII
fatter themselves they are representing
public opinion. Webelieve that if it wa
left to the people of Western Virginia Il
say whether slavery should not be wiped
out at once all over this Union, that theil
overwhelming verdict would be, t'wipe tn,
accursed thing out" The people OF. Yves
Virginia owe 1t nothing but detestation.-
All the days of our lives it has been moth
ing but despotism over our minds;
blood-sucker on our prosperity and clOI
and a hindrance, a shame and disgrace
in all our relations Of life. We never ha
anything but its shadow among us here, i
West Virginia, yet look how bleak it ha
left everything now that the shadow ha
been lifted. Look at our sparse popula
tion and how backward and ignorant 1t il
Look how more than western, lin everythin
ike progress, the interior is. When "
think of what we are, after our long nigt
of slavery, and what we might to day. hav
been, had we never been cursed with it,
it any wonder that the people want Il
curse extirpated from the land I 1t is
philosophy easy to be understood why sue
men as Gov. johnson abominate Slavery
Men who have felt its despotism over then
selves and those around them, such as a
men have in the Slave States who dared t
question its sway, can not do else tia
abomlnate 1t. Several years ago an articl
consending for the freedom OF; speech o
the slavery question here in our. mtds
came. near costing us the destruction {
our establishment. Many times we hay
been threatened by mobs for showing, th
figures and facts as between West Virgini
and our Eastern Virginia masters. Man
men who would be ashamed 10 be rsmem
bered now of their conduct, warned .
that we were undertaking hopeless tas
in calling fol redress of our grievance
In the expected Convention of 1866. on
e.. ar.;,las m tha ne,v stata onest;orl 4;