Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-12-03

that is for the individually OF the Union
itself-or else those who prosecute It for
the overthrow of the Union, must have won
such advantages and obtained such con-
cessions as would have materially altered
the "Union as 1t Was,n and made our fu-
ture policy radically different as respects
the whole theory OF the government. The
South had determined that slavery should
be dominant in our politics, and the bred
Scott decision had affirmed that allIparts Of
the public domain not made freely actual
local legislation, as ia the case of the free
States, was slave territory, just as much as
the regularly recognised slave states. The
Republican party took an appeal from this
decision in 1860, aud the people sustained
the appeal and reversed, the decision of
Judge fancy. They decreed that freedom
was the rule in the settlement and governs
ment of our Territories and not the ex-
oeption. and that slavery was exclusively
creature of local law, and could have no
Fexistence outside of statutory protection.
The South, in its turn, took an appeal from
this decision Of the free States, but not to
the ballot box, and thus this war began.
How was it possible to stop it without ar
irving at a decision of some sort2 Ne
Cessarily the question in issue, viz:-
whether this great land was to be slave
empire, ruled by slave oligarchy, or
Q free republic, ruled by tresdom-
loving people, had to be decided, and de.
cision carried with It radical innovations
as regards the future legislation of the
country. For our part we feel thankful in
the belief that when this war stops we
shall see better Union than "the Uuion
as it was" Who can certainly tell what
the "UuiOp as it was" really meansR At the
breaking out of this war the country was
called upon to decide what it understood
by that expression. We had no tradi-
tional policy that like the unwritten usages
of Great Britain, had become SO solidi6ed
as to enable US legitimAtely to speak of
1.-THE Union as 1t was" Those who, before
the election, used the exposition as catch
word aud asa ''gIisteriug generality" meant
q return to the old pro slavery ideas-a
return to all the old contentious whether
freedom or slavery was rightfully dominant
under our constitutions return to pro-
scription of Anti.slaVery men aud ideas,
and to the patronage and promotion Of
such ideas as those that Aourlshed under
the reigns OF Pierce and Buchanan. twas
the pro- slavery sentiment of the free
States-the old element that aforetime ca
tered to the South, and did all its dirty work
for Office sake, and that passed gag resolu.
lions in Congress. burned anti. slavery news.
papers, and mObbed men for opinions sake
in the South, that clamored for ttths UGion
as it was" All they understood and all
they desired by the expression was re.
instatement OF Southern ideas in power at
Washington aud all over the North.
We feel thankful that the desires OF
such men never can be realized. This
Union, were it to be simply such an one as
the men alluded to desire, would not be
worth all the blood aud treasure which it
is costing. The men who are rallying in
the name of liberty and dying in the belief
of a glorious martyrdom in the cause of
freedom, would be Knocked, and our gal
liant dead would have died In vain.
But as Mr.. Stephens has said 10 his let.
ter, all efforts for the restoration of such q
Union as the pro slavery remnant at the
North desire, are vain. Aud not alone
for the reasons which we have given.
The most Intelligent men of this country are
DESTROYS TO see the pernieioas hetesy Of
State rights, as expouuded by thesouthsrn
leaders for 80 many yeArs in aud out Of
Congress. forever condemned aud crushed
out. We are to be what we have never felt,
thatwe were during the pasta nationality.
And we are to have central Government
that shall be something more thPn, the
government Of q mere State, and it will
not be in the power ofany disaffected gov
ernor to iuterpose himself between the ma
tiOnal authority aud the execution of the
national laws, as 1t has been in the past
The present ideas of the people of the free
States are not less distinct and positive as
regards this view than in regard to slR.
very. When this war ends it will not be
a question of debate as to the souuduess
or unsoundness of the Virginia resolutions
of 1913 and 90. We will not have q. class
of professional politicians successfully
finessing themselves into public life simply
through their ability, like the Cadmian
scholar, to find a new expression for the
same meaning, and to refine terms already
many times refined. the only result of
which is to evolve new Bophistries for the
seduction and disafsction of the people.
We will not have men disoardiug the name
of Americans when they 60 abroad and cal.
ling thamaalvaa Snntharnars. Yirriniansi or