Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-01-26
FROM III, Nl,AaIl. Cr,nu,",ej ualoD.
nc NeaI cau.e Of lhs RehslIIon

The HehI Cause OF the AebellIon'
Without the help Of the abolition war
upon the SOCIAL ORDER Of the South, SeceT-
sion would never have been attempted
komyriil, Jowndi.
It seems TO be iayoritS employment
With some Union newspapers to lay the
burden, or at least half the odium Of our
civil war, upon the Anti-slHvery party
Editors who, through mistaken party zeal,
thus divert the attention Of the people from
! the original and rsa! traitors, in our humble
opinion, do great injury to the cause Of the
nation To say that the rebels have been
proroid to treason, by Republicans and
anti'savery men, is greatly to palliAte, il
no. to justify their Infamous crimes. 1t is
virtually saying to the revoIted States, that
they are aySugiug themselves Of repeated
and aggravated insults in making war upon
the Union, the Constitution, and the laws
of the land The history Of this de.
plorabS controversy for many years fas-
tens the guilt and responsibility Of the war
upon the heads Ui political faction at the
South, who were fully determined to rule
or ruin the nation. The "war upon the
social order OF the South, of which the
Journal speaks, WAS myth as unSubStan-
rtial as a HossamerS shadow. Slavery
ptospered under 1t, and slaves increased in
value. The number of fugitive slaves in
1860 was only one Gdish Of one per cent,
in all the slave States; and 1t is believed
that far the greater part Of these escaped
to places Of refuge ia the South, Senator
Hammond, of South Carolina, in a speech
made in that State, October -, 1858, bore
the following testimony to the actual con-
diton OF slavery
"The rock OF Gibraltar does not stand
30 frm on its basis AS our slave system.
IN tbs very YuGrttr Of a
century our I!aUs' bare dOTbtsi in auai6trs,
and Saeh slave has more than dOHtIti IN UalEs.
The VgFy negro Who, as prime lAb0Isr,
would have brought S4OO in ls4s, would
now, with thirty years upon him, sell fOr
$500.
Mr. A. H. Stephens used language equal.
ly as strong on the same point, in a speech
delivered in 1859, ia which be said that be
"did not believe that slavery had sustained
any injury by these agitRtions. On the
contrary it had been greatly strengthened
aud fortified by the action Of the Govern.
ment.'
We are convinced that the declaration Of
the Journal is in opposition to the lestimo.
ny OF history, rs to the true origin, and
fountain. head Of the Southern, or as it
might more appropriately be styled the
Cotton State rebellion. For more than
generation treason aud disunion, and the
establishment Of u Southern slave Oonfed.
eracy had a ioregone conclusion with the
politicians Of the Calhoun school TO be en-
braced the moment the democratic spirit Of
the couutry should eXpel them from pow.
er. R. b. Rhett said in the Secession Con-
venuOn OF South CArolina:
"The secession of South Carolina is rot
the event of a day. It is not anything
produced by Mr.. Lincoln, or by the non
execution Of the fugitive slave law. 1t is
a matter which has been gathering head
for twenty years
In the same Convention Mr.. Parker
said:
"ltis no spasmodic effort that has come
Juddeuly upon US, but it has been gradu.
ally eliminating for a long series Of
years
1t the same time Mr.. Keitt said
al have been engaged in the movement
ever since entered political life"
And Mr., Iuglis said
"Most of US have had this matter under
consideration for the last twenty years"
Hon. Edward Everett said that he was
"well aware partly from facts within his
personal knowledge, that leading Southern
politicians lad for thirty years been resolv
ed TO break up the Union as sOou as they
ceased TO control the United States Gov
erument"
In 1893, Chief Justice Marshall in let.
ter to Washington, dated at Richmond, said:
"To me it seems that there are men who
will hold power by any means, rather than
not hold II, and who would prefer a disso-
luton OF the Union, to the continuance Of
an Administration not their Of own party
Whatt correct Picturche drew Of Breck-
inridge and JEFF, Davis
That Quick.eyed aud lion.hear,ed old
man, Andrew Jackson, was so firmly con-
viuced that Calhoun aud the Southern pro.
slavery politicians meant diSunion, and the
Establishment Of aSouthern Slave Conted-
eracy, ,::tha; he said they had attempted re.
bellion, FIRST under the tariff pre,eZt, and
that the next time it would bs the negro
question"
According TO General Jackson, these trRi-
tors were determined to find prets1t. The
Journal, in former days, wore a high repu-
tation for its able advocacy Of the tariff /;
but what would the Journal say Of the
fairness and truth Of the historian who
would assert that, without the help of
the tariff war upon the planting interests
Of the South, secession would never have
been attempted Yet this assertion would
be easier to prove, in our humble opinion,
than the one which the Journal actually
makes. 10 the same number OF the Journal
from which we have taken the paragraph
which is at the head Of this article, we fad
the following paragraph in az editorial:
"T'is leading iaIHrgRG hare drocsf MGt
tRn rebellion wdI not pSseipHdtsd, but had
btta the rork of tie last thirty years since the
isyi Of nul!ifediiOH. We have in addition
to this the confessions OF The IaGer, a paper
published in London under the influence Of
1 Il