The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-11-05
me Southern RouFbons.

among MS many utteEanCeS OF nOta-
BILE character, has left one on record to
the effect that although you should bray
a fool in the mortar with a pestle, yet
Will his foolishness not depart from
him. We are not infrequently remind
ed of this proverb of the great writer
and observer Of ancient times, when
reading our Southern exchanges. One
will think that the results of the war
had been we'll calculated TO sift the
wheat from the chair and separate the
gold from the dposs in the South, and
70 give, the men of that section clear,
calm and rational views of their own
proper status as compared with that of
the balance of the country. But ap-
parently such is by no means the case.
True, there has been some Improvement.
We do not see, for instance, the claim
any longer made that one Southerner
Is equal to i've Northern men, and we
do not presume that the majority Of the
Southern people think SO any longer,
but in other respects the leaders speak
and write as II their views OF the impor-
tance of the South had undergone no
change whatever. The Richmond Wig
is not one of the extreme papers of the
South. As.eomPared with some others,
1t is rather mild in its tone. And yet
its editorials are nearly always obJec-
: tionable, because Of that constant air of
pretension and egotism in respect
toSall things virgInIan and South
ern. The last number before us
has an article on "our Future" in
which, AFTER quoting from "the unseen
but not forgotten captive" as the ed
itor calls him, ''who languishes within
the walls of Fortress Monroe" to
the effect that the South will
recover the pecuniRry losses of
the war in ten years, goes on TO show
that the North has been going to politi-
cal wreck and ruin since losing the
moulding and directing influence of
tho South in the Government. The
writer intimntes that the North is in
capable of proper notions of govern
ment without the South. He remarks
that there have been at the North, since
the termination OF the war, "manifesta-
lions of feeling, developments Of policy,
and changes in theory and practice
more startling even than the events of
the war; 1.-THE spirit of change" he
says, "has come upon the nation in
consequence of the exclusion from
'.poHeT of tho only stable and conserva-
''tivs elements It possessed, those exist
''lng in the South, and It will go madly
''and blindly along, without rudder or
compass, until those elements are
"agaln called into play"
1t has been the bane OF the Southern
people, both before the war and since,
chat they have given their ears and their
confidence TO such leaders as this writer
in the Rhig. In so doing, they have
become warped and prejudiced in their
minds to such an extent as to seem en-
tirely incapable OF discerning their own
best interests. It Is the use of such
Language as we have quoted, and the
adoption of 1t by the Southern people
In all their public demonstrations and
elections, that has satisfied the North
that the time has not come
when such rebellious egotism and
conceit can be safely restored to
power in the Government. It natur-
ally begets resentment in the feelings
OF the Northern people, because 1t
eVinces that same old implacable con-
tempt for them that contributed SO
largely in 1860 to sectionalize the North
and to call into power an anti. Southern
and anti-slavery party. There is de-
termination everywhere dominant in
the loyal States that such offensive
pretension as stin holds sway through
out the South shall not again mould
the policy of the Government, but that
it shall be reduced to subordination.
And until the leading men OF that Sec
ton learn to write and speak a Lam
guage bsfitting their overthrown and
Eepudiated ideas of government, the
elections at the North will result Just
as they have within the last few weeks.
The sympathizers among US with such
words as We have quoted can never
prevail again In our own seperate State
councils, no more than the authors OF
them at the South can prevail in the
national councils at Washington. The
day is gone by for either class to control
public sentiment in the loyal States.
It1sagreat pity, for themselves, that
the people Of the South cannot see the
inevitable tendency OF their present as
sumptions. It would be to their adj
vantage If they could realize that they
are playing at an uneven and losing
game. Apparently they have never
yet appreciated that in the future they
cannot be dominant element in the
nation. As we read their newspapers
and their speeches we are reminded of
the letters and utterances once and
awhile put forth by the dethroned and
poWerloss BourbOns of Europe, who
dream OF the past and ignore the pres
ent, and who look forward to a restora.
tiOn OF their families and regimes with
patience and confidence that would
be admirable If 1t were not so insanely
toolish. And yet their dreams and ut
teranoes are not more impossible Ofre-
altEation than those of the Southern
leaders. When King Bomba regains
power in Italy, and the representatives
Ofthe late Louis Philippe in France, the
men who have heretofore controlled tho
South, and, through the South, the ma
ton, may expect TO repossess this Gov
eminent, but not until then
A RIcHDIoND preacher announces his
readiness to go on a tour to any part of
the world to solicit aid for the churches