Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-11-30

tdt0f-IHe AeOeL COHgTeSS 4ISSuyHY 70
Form Powerful Central Despotism.
Prom the Macon (Ga.) Intelligence, NoT.s. .
Anticipating the operations of the Con-
federate Congress, we call the attention of
the Southern press to q matter of vital
| interest, which concerns our safety as q
people-to wit, the secret sessions of Con-
\ gress. There is so much that is danger.
Gus to the liberties of the people and so
lupjust in the irregular workings Of secret
| legislation that it has become absolutely
necessary to use all available opposition
to prevent the offensive practice. That
there is nothing advantageous TO the cOun.
try gained by orr Congress legislating in
secret session is evident In the fact that
the enemy, with their perfect system OF
espionage, quickly learn all the plans that
are proposed, aud, by promptly acting
upon their knowledge, they have, and will
continue, to apply it to our detriment.
Our internal enemies, the harpies and
heartless spectators of the land, manage
Ito discover the legislation Of secret ses-
sions, aud thus Furnished with u 1HSlo
Vr knowledge with which they enrich
themselves and ruin the masses. Many
radical changes will be agitsted by the
next Congress, and as that body is chiefly
made up of men who have decided military
predictions, which they have absorbed
during their military career, we fear they
will essay to make a strong government,
and cast round the structure of Onr con-
federacy q great and powerful central
despotism, which will seek to dispense
with all trammels that have hitherto been
the safeguards of our freedom, and invest.
ed with republican beauty the simple
structure on which our palladium of lib
erty is placed. 81
| Already the alarm has been sounded
| that unwise men are on the bRttlements of
our Confederate halls of legislation. They
threaten to destroy not only the rights
and liberties of the citizen, but the priv.
leges of the soldier. We have been the
sport of military domination so long that
Legislators anticipate success and the plan
dts of the army in their attacks upon civil
liberty. They presume that, by inuring
the mind to constant encroachments,
small in themselves, but immense and in.
calculably dangerous in the aggregate, the
people will become familiariZed to the des-
potlsm that they hope to establish in the
temple we are erecting. Already the in
discretion of some of the more sanguine
has intimated the course they have deter:
mined upon. Some, by insinuation, and
others in unmistaksbIe sentences, have
said that a dictator is needed for the
country and that the Capitalization of
power under such a head is foregone
conclusion. e,sf -.s-s ,e
A DICTATOR, then, is the first and absorb
ing object of these men. They have touched
the matter lightly during the past two SEES.
sions, and merely sounded the public tone.
By famiIiarizing the people TO it gradually
it is Invested of much OF it's terrible hid
eousuess. By manipulating With the mystery
of secret sessions on the subject they hope
to still the voice ofthe people, and by the
sudden display of foisting military dicta-
tor upon the country they expect to over
whelm all opposition and oblige the peo-
pie to submit to that which is accomplish
ed, presuming that they will succumb as
they did to the outrages of the Coascrip.
ton act. This species of legislation can
not be submitted TO. The vital interests of
the Confederacy are not in the hands Of
safe men and wise senator's, when such
treason to the civil principles of the repub.
lie is perpetrated; therefore it is a matter
of serious interest to the people that this
questioned despotic government especially
shall not be agitated in secret sessions,
where men dare to perpetrate deeds the
preliminary discussion of which they fear
before the people.
Further tampering with the currency,
the sweeping CONSUMPTION that threatens
all classes, will doubtless be debated by
the wise men in whose keeping is placed
our sacred rights and liberties. That in
the intoxication of supreme power, and in
| subsection to their dictatorial will, these
may be the sport and plaything of passion
ate and selE-willed men in secret council,
is subject whose Importance we must
feel intensely, and act upon for veal or
woe. That no further encroachments will
be submitted to is evident from the ex-
pressed tone of the people, who have al
ready suffered too mach.
| We are we'll aware, too that the restric.
ton of the press Is under serious consider
alton by this body of Law. givers 1t is
plainly evident that the object of any fur
Their legislation on this triple mailed power
ofthe realm is to prevent any Influences
from being effectively operated against
the mad schemes of establishing an auto.
cratic military dictatorship. At the pres
ent moment there is not q battalion Of men
engaged in the printing business, and we
do not believe there are one hundred and
fifty able-bodied men now exempted by
the press who could make q campaign
Then it is evident that the printers do
not constitute the object of the wholesale
| destruction that threatens; but it is the
free spoken power of the press that they
\ are determined to curtail.
There is moral cowardice exhibited in
| this promise of censorship and suppress
sion which is painful TO contemplate. A
number of the leaders on this question
have declared on more than one occasion,
their intentions Of ostracism, and, forget.
ful that they were made by the very means
they now. would strangle. and destroy,
they are furious in their clamor for the an.
initiation of the press. Conscious that
their designs are unjust, and aware that
irreyocable contempt and odium would at.
tsch' to their actions, they are the advo.
Gates of secret sessions-in the dark thew
would assail oHr liberties and assassinate
our rights rs freemen. Let the people |
hurl defiance at these political thugs and