Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-07-23

Ject oil burning the mansions OF 0OVernO r5'
Letcher, the ex. Governor of Virginia, was
burned out of house aud home by the
Union troops. Whereupon Bradford, Gov
ernor of Maryland, was burned out of house
Examiner philosophically discusses these
conhagrations, and rejoices 10 the latter
as an act of righteous retaliation; but it is
still unsatisfed. Are Governors, it an
grily asks, the only sufferers whose indig
mites are to be avenged2 Why should
not private rebels, whose property has
been destroyed, have the satisfaction OF
knowing that the property of private 10y
alists has been destroyed in return2 Re-
ally, we should not have supposed that the
rebel editor, who is the hardest TO satisfy,
would have found any occasion for this
gratuitous grumbling. For we have not
found over scrupulousness or fastidious
squeamishness to have been peculiarities
of rebel raids. On the other hand, when
ever the rough riders of the Confederate
army have ventured upon visit to the re-
giOns of civilization, so far from suffering
themselves by Il false delicacy to be did
died out of the sweets of their interesting
situation, we have noticed that they inva-|
riably steal all the property possible, and
that whatever they cannot carry off it is
their constant wont to destroy, from geese
to greenbacks. We certainly do not think
that the rebel Generals do not deserve to
be thus lectured, or that they require any
Indictment to acts of cruelty and outrage.
Soldiers who invariably sigualize their
victories by massacre can safely be left
to the impulses of their native ferocity.
But the Examiner goes on to put a solil-
oquy into the mouth OF a private and hum.
BILE Rebel (who is supposed to be much
injured in his mind) to this effect: "Whose
family is to suffer for what my family has
suffered Or is it true, as our enemies
say, that this Southern country is an aris-
tocratic country? What, then, am l, and
what am | fighting for 2" dangerous
questions" continues the Examiner, "and
perilous line of reflection |" We think so
too! We can easily imagine some high
private ofthe Confederate Army, who never
owned a negro and who has no hope of
owning one, wounded perhaps, and certain
ly hungry, foot sore and ragged, and in
continual peril of his life, moodily dream
ing over his exceedingly unpleasant situa-
ton, aud asking himself with savage sort
of self-contempt, what he is fighting for
1t has never been his sweet satisfaction to
fog his own black within an inch of his
utterly miserable life. He has never en-
own sons, or of conducting his own daugh.
tiers to the auction block and inevitable
prostitution. His name figures upon no
boxes of tobacco, nor are his initials to be
read npon bursting bales of cotton. He
is white but he ia q poor white. He is
mere trash in spite of his oolorless cheek,
his straight nose and his straighter hair.
He has no interest in this war except the
qualification of senseless passion Whcih
his superiors have dextrously incised He
is their slave for the purpose of fighting,
just as the negro is their slave for the
purpose of field work. Victory will bring
him nothing but little passing plumber,
| and defeat will leave him still hanging
| loosely upon the skirts of an intensely
| artificial society. The whole matter can
be stated with simple logic. This is a war
waged for the support of slavery. 1t is,
therefore, war waged for the benefit of
| Shareholders. Men who own no slaves
have, therefore, the pleasing consciousness
that theyaare jeoparding their lives and
sacrificing their personal comfort for the
| sake of mere handfuI of aristocrats. who
think that they have made a wonderful
concession when they admit that a poor
white man is just q little higher in the
scale of society than negro. Well NAV
they ask what they are fighting for2 And
1 n
gerous question: perilous line of reflec-
tion."
at is true, as our enemies say, that this
Southern country is an aristocratic coun-
try2" asks The Examiner with amusing sim.
plicity. Truel alasl nothing was ever truer
in this world of petted and coddled aud
organized mendacitiesl Here you have
society constructed of several millions
of slaves other millions of poor whites,
and mere hand full, com paratively, of
| shareholders, who manage public matters,
levy taxes, go 10 war, impress soldiers, ali
at their own sweet will and yet The En-
aminer wants to know if The Southern coun-
| try is an aristocratic country Well, then.
what should we call i'll A 3, democratic
country Pray what then is Democracy?
How much of it have they in South Caro-.
lina2 how much in Yirginia7-how much
democracy, taat a sensible man can con-
slider without horse laugh at such naked
and preposterous pretensions
We can fully agree with The Examiner
IN its conclusions. and can well enough
understand its fears. We have ALWAYS
said that this war naturally resolved itself
into contrast between the aristocratic
and democratic elements of society. Men
are at liberty to adopt what political doc.
trines they please from the rigidist abso.
lutism to the purest democracy; but when
they undertake to carry on an aristocratic
government under the forms of democracy,
the grieyous Inconsistency will sooner or
later lead to noisome and bloody explo.
sion. The popular theories which the
Constitution seeks to reduce to beneRceut
and consistent practice, are naturally hate
full to the Man Owner. The success of the
Rebellion will be triumph of an aristocracy,
After that, The Examiner may be sure that
Editors and Negroes will be of small &C.
count in Virginia.