Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-08-01
stenhen. a.n h.t.


markable protest and warning of A. H.
Stephens. the present Vice President of
the bogus Gonfederscy, given during the
debate on the secession ordinance in the
Convention of Georgia, in, January, 1851;
but the picture he drew of the conse-
quences of the act oil treason then proposed
and alters contaminated, is so fully realized
in the present experiences of the South,
that we reproduce it for second time.
He said -..,-,.--ss.-.-...--zzs.=a,l4
"That this step once taken could never
be recalled, aud all the baleful and with
eriug consequences that must follow las
they would see) will rest on the Conven-
ton for all coming time. When we and
our posterity shall see our lovely South
desolated by the demon of war, which this
act of yours will inevitably invite and call
forth when our green fields of waving
harvests shall be trodden down by the
murderous soldiery and fiery car of war
sweeping over our land, our temples of JUS
tice laid in ashes, all the horrors and des-
olation of war upon us-who but this Con-
vention will be held responsible for it?
| And who but him who shall have given his
vote for this unwise and i'll timed measure
las honestly think and believe shall be
held to strict account for this suicidal act
by the present generation, and probably
cursed and execrated by posterity for all
coming time. for the wide and desolating
ruin that will inevitably follow this act
which you now propose to Perpetrate
"Pa1se, entreat you, and consider for
q moment, what reasons you can give that
will satisfy yourselves in calmer moments
what reasons you can give to yonr fel
| low sufferers in the calamity that it will
bring upon us. What reason can you give
4 to the nations of the earth to justify it2-
They will be the calm and deliberate judges
| in the case, and to what cause, one overt
act, can you name or point, on which to
| rest the plea of Justification? What right
has the North assaulted? What interest of
the South has been invaded? What JUS
tice has been denied, aud what claim
founded in justice and right has been with
held? Can either of you, to-day, name
any governmental act of wrong, deliber-
ately and purposely done by the Govern
ment of Washington, of which the South
has right to complaint I challenge the
answer? 1ar .....,. ~. b.
az II Now for you to attempt to
overthrow such a Government as this, I'M
der which we have lived for more than
three quarters of eentury-in which we
have gained our wealth, our standing as q
nation, our domestic safety, while the ele
ments OF peril are around US, with peace
and tranquility, accompanied with un.
bounded prosperity and rights unassailed
lis the heigth of madness, folly and wick
edness, to which I do neither lend my
sanction nor my vote"
For the truth of the prediction, we have
only to look ut Eastern and Northern vir-
ginia. Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Mis-
sissippi, Louisiana, AMI portions of other
States. Georgia has up to this time meas
urably escaped, but the hour has now
come when the men thus addressed and
their constituents, will feel more of the
consequences named by Stephens, unless
their treason is repudinted. Their "mad.
ness, folly and wicksdness'' viii not go
unpublished. " 80