Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-08-15

sacrifices to insure it. Then why shall il
be long withheld? Let US know, 80 soon
as may be, the most that the Rebel Chiefs
will do to secure Peace; let US next ascer-
tain what is the "ultimatum" on our side;
and if the difference between these is ma
terial, let as fight all the harder, till one
side or the other is ready to make the
needful concessions. 1t is high time mat
tiers were coming to point.
We have no sympathy with the shud-
dering dread that our Government may,
by listening to propositions from the reb-
els, virtually acknowledge their indepen-
dence. Etiquette is the disease of little
minds; great souls are never troubled by it,
When Mcclellan, at the head of $50 900
brave soldiers, lay four months cooped up
and virtually besieged in Washington and
its enViron5 by less than so, 900 rebels, we
practically acknowledged their indepen-
dence Infinitely more than we should by
receiving their Commissioners and listen
ing to their propositions If anybody ar
CUES that we acknowledge them by treat
ing with them, we may simply leave such
soPhistry to be answered by Grant, Sher-
man, and Farragut, who appear to have
considerable skill in that sort OF logic.
We learn from another source that our
Government never heard nor understood
hhnb L. uGSlESu " NlSlL " hSh-
iDgton on a Peace mission; nor do they be-
lieve it now. Were he ever to evince such
a desire we feel coonfident that he mot his
gunboat) would be heartily welcomed
What makes the above extract from Mr..
Greeley's article all the more curious is
that there is one in the N. Y. Herald of the
same date, from Bennett, just to match; the
only difference being in the way the two
articles are worded. 1t would seem as if
Greeley and Bennett had had one of those
meetings in an eating saloon of which Cos
siping correspondents speak occasionally
in their New York letters. Bennett takes the
ground that we have now "the rebellion
on the hip" and that the administration
can we'll afford to try the magnaDimous
experiment of opening the door to negOtis
atoms for peace"
"President Lincoln, therefore, in our opin-
ion, will establish claim to great sagacity
and wisdom as a statesman and as poll
ticiau in taking the initiative in behalf of
peace by dispatching three commissioners
| to Richmond with the overtures suggested.
If they fail, this turbulent and demoraliz-
ing peace ia ction of the North will be dis
armed; if they succeed in an armistice we
may safely hail it as the end of the war,
and of the reign of JEFF. Davis, and the
end of his Southern confederacy."
Now the truth oil all this foolish and
wicked talk of both Greeley and Bennett lies
here, and amounts to just this-viz-that
there is a sincere desire on the part of all
right thinking people in the North, and, we
presume, in the South also, for peace-but
what sort of peace2 We all know that the
Southern leaders in the very nature of
things cannot and would not give ear to
peace that would not substantially justi-
fly them by its concessions and agreements
in the eyes of the world for having gone in.
to the rebellion, and that would not by
its terms ever after estop the loyal
states, in fact history itself, from speaking
reproachfully of those whom we now call
rebels. If we understand Mr.. Greeley's
views as heretofore expressed in his paper
and his book on the rebellion and its causes
and probable intentions, they are that
this rebellion was wholly causeless, and is
and will be without warrant, excuse or
even mitigation on the pages of impartial
history. We believe this. So do all whose
hearts are truly in the Union cause
What then remains for US but the con-
quest Of this rebellion or to be conquered
by it. We can make no terms With
| it that will not at once involve the
moral subjugation of the loyal states in the
eyes of the world, and that will not at once
forfeit in our own eyes ss well as those of
the rebels all claim to self respect. If this
rebellion is too much for the loyal States
| to withstand, let the fact be at once con-
coded or be further demonstrated, if it is
thought necessary, and its independence
acknowledged. But let US have no miser-
able and abasing schemes which shall look
to the surrendering of the loyal States into
the possession of the rebellion, by granting
to slavery that dominancy over these, States
and this continent for which it went to war
Better by far, when it is discovered that
such schemes are the only way to restore
the Union, to let it go apart. The time is
not at hand, and we trust in God that it is
very far off, when we shall be called upon
to choose between such alternatives, but in
view of such talk as we have quoted from
the proverbially uncertain and mischief
making pen of Horace Greeley, it is well
that loyal men should take counsel with
their own hearts, and with each other, an
ascertain which it is that they prefer, sur
render to the Shareholders rebellion, with
all its heatheuish brutalities, over the
minds and bodies of white and black men ,
or the separation and retalnance from it
of at least piece of country where men
can live in freedom, their self-respect