Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-11-04
THREE working days yet remain betc


misglving as to the election of Mr.. Lincoln
We believe his success is better assured
than that of any candidate since TIT
,lavs of $40. The october election'
indicated very clearly the drift OF PuOlis
sentiment. The verdict of the people tnel
vos virtually decision in advance OF me
election next Tuesday. Most men VINO
~o,ed the Union ticket in this and Other
States so understood the matter. 1t is mol
likely that any considerable number Of
people meant anything else than general
1epudintion of the whole copperhesd party
INCLUDING both its platform and its csndi-
dates. II is hard to see how man could
be opposed to copperhead candidates for
local Offices in October, and not be quite
as much opposed to their national candi'
dates in November.
1t is not to he disguised that the Amer
1csp people are alarmed at what might
happen from Trusting the Copperhesd par
tv with power. And it is this alarm that
is cementiDg them together. Their in
stincts detect error and danger in all the
present surroundings, as we'll as in the past
record of the Chicago party. The sdmon-
ition of Stephen a. Douglas finds con-
slant echo iu the apprehenslons of the
people, not because he uttered it, but be-
cause it at once commended itself to their
common sense when uttered. That adj
uonf,ion was that in this contest there
could be but two parties, one for the couu-
try and the other for the rebellion-or, as
he concisely put it, "only patriots and
traitors" The more We reflect upon this
expression the more we are impressed with
its truth and its deep significance. WhsteV-
er doubt there might have been at first
of its reliability as fundamental
dogma in this contest, has been fairly re-
moved by the course of the leaders whom
Dir. Douglas doubtless had in his eye at the
time of his speech. He knew the afhlis-
ton that existed between that large fac
ton in his own party which had conspired
with the South to crush him and his prin-
eiples, and the prime movers in the rebel
lion. He knew that their sympathies were
wholly with the seceders, and that there
was no prospect of their ever doing any
thing to help an administration, that had
come into power upon platform OF prici-
pies scarcely more Objectionable to tho
South than his own, put down the conspi
racy SO long matured among his deadly
personal and political enemies for the
overthrow of the government. Mr.. Doug
las knew and felt that the rebellion had q
reach far beyond the slave states. He
know what q hold Southern ideas had upon
the Democratic leaders of the North, espe-
cially as regards common hatred for the
Puritauism of New England and the gen
eral and growing anti-slavery feeling of the
whole North. He knew that the South
could safely count upon the ultimate CO.
operation, under some pretext or an other
of those free state leaders who shared il
their autipathies, for the reason that rathe
than see him President of the United State
they had rent in twain their own party
and were then, at the time of his speech
secretly rejoiced to see the apparent rui
that was coming upon the country throug
the success of their opponents. Does an
rejecting man suppose that Mr.. Dougla
did not know what leader like Jesse /
Bright would necessarily do2 or an otht
one like George E. Pugh, who ha
deserted him at the last hour? or an othe
one like Vallandigham, whom he had see
in daily conclave with the principal cor
spirators, and whose project to quarter th
American Union, announced in the Hous
OF Representatives, in February, 1861
was familiar to his recollection Nj
Douglas knew how intense was the ha
tired of nearly all the Democratic leader
to their successful competitors, and ho'
strongly they were committed to til
Southern leaders, He knew that Frank
lin Pierce, Attorney General Black, and a
such men, would US naturally grayitat
toward the rebellion in their sympathie
as the needle towards the poles. Heno
knowing all these persons, and the ineN
itableness of their ultimate position,
throw out to the country his immortal al
mouition. which was that We should b
ware of these leaders; that we should NJ
be led aside on any p.etext; that in Il
nature of things there could be but thOi
who, on the one hand, were willing to ra
ly round the Government, seeing and CO
ring TO know only the one great fact thl
it was assaulted by would be destroyer
and, on the other, those who were eth,
actively or Passively willing to allow it I
be assaulted.
Ever since this war began there has bee
a contest going on between these two ole
ments. Through the power of that lead
ership which Mr.. Douglas so clearly dl.
cerned, great numbers of people have bee