Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-08-19

Je0eF8OQ Davis QOMuf WIN hOCo hSb EGHAA1S
the utter impossibility of the South exist
ing as a common Confederacy at the end
of the var, assuming peace on the
basis Of separation to be among the pos
bilities. Thatsthe North with its over
shadoWing anti-slaYery element, and its
ten thousand agreements for unity, would
hold together, seems 70 our mind as indis-
putable as that the day follows the night
and the night the day. Bot in the South
there can hereafter be no rest and no peace
save in the generous and forgiving bosom
of the Union. God, in His providence,
seems to have ordained that. that which is
to end this war, and to give us endless
peace, is the profound love of our people
for the Union, and the manifest impossi-
bility of establishing any other Govern
ment on this part of the American Cont
nent but one that is based upon the prin-
ciples that comprise our existing system.
Assuming it, therefore, as fact admitted,
that there can be no dissolution of the
American Union, either as a condition or
asian incident of peace, S5hy then shall zoe
not hare peace? And it is this inquiry that
we propose to meet. Everybody is anxious
nay eager-taat this war should cease.
The only question is how to begin the
consideration of the momentous problem.
The first, if not the only obstacle, is that
of slavery. And here we meet the stern
est opposition, from the rebels, but not from
the Southern people. They have long age
realized that but for slavery there would
have been no war, and that the slave once
made free can never again be put in chains.
More than this. They are finally brought
to contemplate the stupendous truth that
the colored man will work better, if paid
by his employer, than if whipped or in
Al, -, III prnnOai-
tions still contested and doubted, but 80
clear of solution that very few years will
ix and fasten them among the facts of his
tory. But the question remains, What rs
to be done with slavery, or what ia left of
slavery for it must not be forgotten that
many of our very best patriots sturdily
contend that Mr.. Lincoln's proclamation
of emancipation has not set free all the
slaves of the South. 1t was Congress that
did the great work here in the District, and
the people that did it in West Virginia,
Missouri, and Maryland. 1t was the army,
in its conquering advance, that did 1t In
other quarters, by attracting to its support,
or by being forced to maintain thousands
of human beings deserted by their flying
masters, and it was that further policy of
the Government by which the negroes were
ard are formally invited to enter the ser
free, on the principle that he who fights
for his country shall not go unrewarded or
unforgotten. But these several cases do
not cover the objections that live in the
minds of some of our wisest Union states
men against the proclamation of emanct-
patton, which was the act of the President
alone And here will come the conflict
between opposing theorists and thinkers.
Surprising the national authority to be re-
established, and the national unity to be
reassumed, may not this complication be
solely entrusted to the people and the ma
tional courts2 Nay, at the VeTy last, must
il not go there?
We have now to deal with facts, and not
with sophisms. In the forefront Of
mighty peril menacing our individual pros
perity and national existence, some of the
most cherished convictions may have to be
changed or surrendered. When Mr.. Lin
coin was elected President, he enuuciated
his willingness to do anything consistent
with national honor to recall the insurgents
and to spread peace over the land. At this
moment his inaugural address ia the best
index of peace that any party could desire,
unless, indeed, it may be those who re.
garded it as an impeachment to war. Never
shall we forget how Judge Douglas con-
strued that inaugural. He hailed it as a
message of eminent Cancellation; and such
was in fact the reading of it by all save
the men who desired to see the i'm
pending conflict spread, so that dis
union might be coDsummated. Nearly
every word since uttered or printed by Mr..
Lincoln has been in cUnsonance with this
original declaration. 1t is true events have
suggested changes as to politics and mea'
sures. Everybody has amended his opin.
| ions and his actions since the inaugural of
President Lincoln, when this war was es q.
sentlal to the public good, except only the
rebels and their sympathizers. All des-
pots are consistent in one thing the asser-
ii on and enforcement of their own will
But, in this country, he who resolves that
the Union must be restored cannot stand on
the idea of making that master obligation
subordinate to any other thing. the moment
he does so, he ceases to be patriot. he
falsely presupposes that there may be
better condition in the event of separa-
ton. Woe be to our country If the
statesman who adheres to what are
called "records" or platforms" and in
this dread hour seek to make q mans
former pledges to the Republican or
the Democratic party the memorable guide
of the action of our representatives in Con-
gress or the Executive Departments. Woe,
we add, unuttersble woe, if such teachers
are to educate our people for the future, or
to dictate to armies or ADMINISTRATIONS
And, that we may not be misunderstood in
those words, we say that we find almoss
as much danger in the exacting demands
of those who call themselves ultra Repub-
licans as in those who call themselves Ill
ira Democrats. We would not insult Sen
ator Wade, of Ohio, or Henry Winter Da-
Wis, of Maryland, by comparing or con-
4 tHa kkav, vvfk ba Wall
Woods, but with their grave relations to the
Union party, and their close connections
with it, it is our deliberate and sorrowful
ind nnnant tint THAR Ia ta m nifeatn has dina