Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-10-18
ORAwEoRDsvI11E, Ga, Sept. %.

GENELEMEN-You will please excuse me
fornot answering your letter of the 14th
inst. sooner. l have been absent nearly a
week on visit to my brother in Sparta,
who has been quite out OF health for some
time. Your letter L found here on my re-
turn home yesterday. The delay of my
reply, thus occasioned, regret.
Without further delay or apology allow
me now to say to you that no person living
can possibly feel more ardent desire for
an cad to be put to this unnatural and mer-
ciless war upon honorable and just terms
than do. But really do not see that it
is in my power or yours, or that of any
number of persons iu our position, to in
augurate any movement that will even tend
to aid in bringing about a result that we
and so many more desire.
The movement by our Legislature at Its
last session, at the suggestion Of the Execu-
tive, on this subject, was by authority
properly constituted for such q purpose.
That movement, in my judgment, was
timely, judicious and in the right direc-
tion. Nor has IL been without results.
The organization of that party at the North
to which you refer may justly be claimed
as part of the fruits of it. These, it is to
be hoped, will he followed by others of q
more marked character, if all in both Sec
tions who sincerely desire peace upon cor
rect terms will give that movement, thus
inaugurated, all the aid in their power.
The resolutions of the Georgia Legisla-
ture, at its last session, upon the subject of
peace, in my Judgment, embodied and set
forth very clearly those principles upon
which alone there can be permanent peace
between the different sections of this ex-
tensive, once happy and prosperous, but
not distracted country. O8F
Easy and perfect solutions to all present
troubles, and those far more grievous ones
which loom in prospect, and portentously
threaten in the coming future, is nothing
more than the simple recognition of the fun
damental principle and truth upon which
all American Constitutional liberty is
founded, aud upon the maintenance ofwhich
alone 1t can be preserved-that is, the SOW
areignty, the Ultimate absolute sovereignty
of the States. This doctrine our Legisla-
ture announced to the people at the North
and to the world. Il is the only key, note
to peace-peFmanent, lasting peace-con-
sistent with the security of the public lib
erty. Z ~ Oh on Es. h.
The old Confederation was formed upon
this principle. The old Union was after
ward formed upon this principle. No
league can ever be formed or maintained
between any State, North or South, secure
ing public liberty, upon any other princi'
pie.
The whole frame work Of American in
stitntious, which in so short time had
won the admiration of the world, and to
which we were indebted for such an IN.
paralleled career of prosperity and happi-
ness, was formed upon this principle. All
our present troubles sprung from a depar-
tnre from this principle, from q violation
of this essential law of our political organ.
ization.
In l77e our ancestors and the an
cestsrs of those who are Rsgiug
the unholy crusade against rs together
proclaimed the great and eternal truth for
the maintenance of which they Jointly
pledged their lives, their fortunes and their
sacred honor, that Governments are iusti-
tuted among men, deriving their just pow
ers from the consent of the governed, aud
that whenever any form of Government
becomes destructive of those ends for
which il was formed, It is the right of the
people to alter or abolish il and institute
a new Government, laying its foundations
on such principles, aud organizing its
powers in such q form Rs to them seem
most likely to effect their safety and hap
lPiness. tiz,as $50 Il l--f
Il is needless to state here that by "Peo-
plen and "goverued," !" in this annunciation
is meant Communities aud bodies of men
capable of organizing aud main timing 6
Government, not individual members o.
society. The consent OF the governed re-
fers to the will Of the mass of the commu
nifty or State in its organised form, an6
expressed through its legitimate and prop
u -.