Weekly national intelligencer., 1864-02-25

:
become liable to be treated traitors they their aders
and sbettors They lose all claim to tho protection OF The
laws and, still emphscally 10 the right to exercise
any privilege of national citizenship They can hold no
Office State Federal which mples allegiance TO the
Government they abure renounce all right 10 give
vote either State national affairs where the qualihca
ton demands national citizenship they enemies
while in srms to be met in mortal conflict; when sub
dued they are cuprts dependent upon the cemsncy or
the justice of the Government.
1t was to avoid these conclusions as have said, that
the authors of this movement have been careful to vail
their proceeding under the official proclamation OF the
right of secession
They have found it difficult task to reconcile tho i'm
petuous ashness Of their with this theory Seces
sion, If honestly conceived to be right and honestly
pursued would have sought at least preliminary parey
in convention. II would have moved slowly along
through all the customary forms of debate 1t would have
published manifesto OF its motives for the separation and
calmly laid down the law which defined its privilege, and
have shown the unity Of the Southern people IN The
belief oft None Of these things has it dene. The con-
ductor Of the proceeding began in paroxysm OF lmpetu
enthusiasm asserted their purpose in general muster
of their forces put every State in arms, and furnished
their magazines of boasted of their prowess with
threats of of the Capital and OF invasion and
conquest of the North gorfed themselves with the I'M
agnation of unlimited control the sympathy and
interest of foreign Powers which they confidently con-
ten plated prompt and Irresistible allies Their Ian
guage was not only that of arrogant dctaon but of
and bloody defiance They rushed forward with pre-
cpitation which seemed and no doubt intended to
preclude all reflection inquiry into the merits Of the
cause There was the gimmer of predetermined
every step that taken Their first act was to
close the against the recovery of debts which was
sufficiently explained in the sequel by the conscation OF
all moneys due to Northern creditors. The Charleston
Mercury, exutng in the approach OF the day Tor assem-
bling the State Convention macousy spoke OF secession
as quasi war;" which would justify, what it CON-
mended, the sequestraton of all property in the South
belonging to Northern citizens They seized the national
forts and arsenas wherever they could lay their hands on
them; insuted the nation and disgraced themselves by
contemplate act of contrved teachey n comprising the
surrender of the army in Texas by the completely OF its
own officers They want money and they seize the mint
at New Orleans arms and they seize the manufactory
at Harpers Ferry ships and naval stores and
they orcby take of the navy yard at Gospor
and pounce upon cutters private steamers and
merchant vessels at their moorngs they exhor and
encourage officers of the navy to whom the nation had
conded the guardianship Of its honor and its fag to be-
tray that sacred trust by act too base to find express
sion n the vocabulary of execraton All these things
DONE for tho most part in the States where they were
perpetrated before they had laid the msy ounda
ton of an ordinance of secession and DONE too by the
orders and assistance who have weared the public
ear with the ceaseless vaunt of their chivalry
Senators and Cabinet Ministers, well officers of
the army navy did not scrupe to retain their posts
for no other than the advantage it them in
striking more aud deadly blow at the heart of the
Government which had elevated them to these honors
History in its most revolving chapters, does not furnish
Al tLa .laraI h.k 49,
ness of this wicked zeal to destroy Per6dy would
to have risen to the rank OF cardinal virtue anta Wis
morbi, uti tabes civium anmos invaserat"
I hese acts let repeat, chiefly the orerunners
of the deed Of secession perpetrated in time OF peace,
aud whilst the National Government yet in the hands
Of the perperators helpless compliant and almost will
ing accessory to their design when the small national
army and navy were scattered far and wide when that
unframed military power which sleeps in the bosom OF The
Republic and which peril had yet awakened could not
possibly have been arrayed to meet the emergency when
the public mind pased by the sudden siupor which
this incredible outrage had cast upon it. In these ccum
stances was the peaceful process of secession set foot
and the deceived Of the Southern States stimulated
into that unnatural frenzy which wildly hurried them into
treason from which retreat soon became impossible
When this drama Of Secession came to the stage of it's
formal enactment the passage Of the accession ordinances
~ was cnhrhcterzeu Dy ouy
those have described, because they implicated greater
number Of actors and spread over wider surface.
Whilst of the States, perhaps majority Of them
were n earnest in their resolve to secede the most i'm
portant States not and if the people in these bad
been left the free expression of their wish they would
have refused The Convention Of Virginia had been elected
by vote which largely against secession, and the
Legislature which authorized that Convention had taken
care to provide that ordinance Of secession should
any effect unless ratified by subsequent expression Of the
popular will in the regular election When the Conven
ton assembled at Richmond there majority Of its
members opposed to the ordinance The that were
enacted in the sequence Of the proceeding by which that
majority was reduced TO minority only partially
known to the country Whilst the sessions open
the public observation the majority held it's ground but
amidst what pers and appliances every nhabitant Of
Richmond at that time knows The best Of the State
and there many who had dared to speak in the Con-
venton in favor Of the Unon exposed the groses
insults from the mob that allied the obbies aud by whom
they wcrs pursued with hoongs and threats their
dwellings STILL vote could be got sufficient to carry
the public and manage their work in secret session From
that day affairs took turn. The Community Of Rich
mond was filed with strife. The friends f the Union
both in the Convention and out Of ia large number of
plunged into the deepest anxiety and alarm
They felt that the lost and that the sentiment
Of the majority Of the State would be overrued Quares
Ardent and reckless distempereS with