The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-03-24
The Address and the InielligenCer.
Wheeling, March %.

Ihe address ana the hhteihseheH
The editor of the IaielEgencer has APP
parently had enough of the personal
controversy which he originated. He
is forced at last to attempt an editorial
reply to the Address, Unlike old Jack
Falstatf, who would not give reason
upon compulsion, though reasons were
as plenty as black berries, he has been
coerced into trying to make some show,
at least of argument in defence of our
radical Legislature
Aud what does it amount too The
editor presumes too much on the fact
that the readers of his paper have had.
no opportunity to see the Address itself.
He has not published it He is even
careful not to make any extracts from
it But with admirable assurance, he
assumes that it contains whatever 1t
suits him to answer. 1t is always an
easy task to reply TO the arguments
which you manufacture for your adver
sary. We have heretofore said that we
had no faith III the statements of the
Intelliqencer as to either facts or argu
ments, and the editorial in question is
we think, striking Justification of oul
remark 1t is, from beginning to end, a
misstatement of the principles and ar
guments of the Address.
1.-The ground" says the editor, ION
which the sophistries of this ingenious
paper are constructed, is that the per-
sons who left their homes in our midst
and embarking in the rebellion, waged
a cruel war against rs for the overthrow
of the Government, did no lrrong legally
,eere guilty Of no crime morally" Now
this is sheer invention there is no such
ground taken in the Address We eau
not cite the whole Address TO show thai
there is no sentiment like this in it, but
we ask the readers of the IntelHgsncsT
to look at the Address aud. jud &c for
themselves. We will cheerfuliS furnish
them with copies, if they will call for
them; and they, as we'll as We, have IL
terests at stake in the questions which
it discusses
The Address does, however, maintain
that, of those who aided the rebellion
some were less guilty than the others,
aud this proposition, which no one will
dispute, is the one which the editor has
thus perverted
The Editor also informs his readers
that the Address maintains the rebellion
to have been, "in the light of the Consti-
futon, a very triiing matter-a mere
difference of opinion, the right to
which under the Constitution must not
be questioned We need not tell our
readers that there is not word of truth
in all this The Editor, in a previous
passage, even marks the words difference
of opinion as a quotation, to induce his
readers to suppose that he Was copying
from the Address Bnt there are no such
in that paper to copy
Again, the readers of the htelIigencer
are Informed that the Address, in rela
tion to the rebellion, advances the doc.
trine that There was no great plinci.
pie involved. No great results at stake
nothing which might effect the forms
OF government on this continent for
twice ten centuries Simply political
difference Simply feud in which one
party was. as likely to be right as an
other But this is not even plausible
The Editor has drawn
upon his own fancy for the arguments
which he here imputes to the Address
As we have already said, he presumes roo
TAR upon the ignorance of his readers
rbe only reply which his assertions ad-
nit of, is TO ask them to read the Adj.
lresS itself
Referring to our State Constitution
the Editor says II is Strange that these
men can lind no meaning in that instru-
'neht bat protection of traitors in their
enueaVors to destroy it Practically it
has been destroyed by the Legislature
and not by the traitors who were in arms
against 1T. The authors of the Addr,ss
are opposed to ats being DESTROYED by
either. No attempt has been mada hr
the Editor to show that the registration
act, the test oaths, the acts infrinrino
upon the freedom of discussion. the
light of trial by jury, and the right to
.esort to the Courts for the redress of
my wrongs we may sustain, are not vio-
atoms of the Constitution. Is the act
constituting the proconsulship of the