The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-09-10
From the Detroit Post.
The LnSfIOn1ICr

caused less sadness among his friends
and admirers and less rejoicing among
his enemies than the letter in which he
has renounced aud recanted his life
long opinions. He is weary with tho
strife. He has taken of his harness.
He desires to rest iii the midst of tho
battle. There is something better than
freedom for him, something more de-
sirable than cOntending with the forces
OF evil. The Constitution as it Is, is the
supreme good AS we'll as tho supreme
| law. Tho 0miObility of the Southern
| people restored to their power, tho en-
lightcnnent of public opinion, u loose
and easy confidence in the ability of
! things to take care of themselves and to
como out right in the end, have dis
pleased his earnest devotion to great
principles that guined their present
fOothold only by the labor and the Wig
ilance which alone can protect them in
tho future from tho eternal warfare of
the wrong. Tho grand army OF free
dom, of which he hns been one of the
most beloved aud most trusted leaders,
are full of grief AS they SEQ HIM fall out
the ranks overcome by tho dclusions
that hnve wrecked other Spl0ndi,l men,
They will leave him behind; they will
| march without him. Tho deadly enc
mics OF their cause welcome him with
shouts and open their ranks to receive
him, and his deserted but still uncon-
quered comrades will march forward to
the goal which is yet before them. The
truth they mnintnin, the principle
which inspires them have not changed
1t is the same when Mr.. Bcrchcr diStOrtS
1t, ms when he proclaimed it in all it's
power. Among all the sophistries
which gild his apology for unfaithful-
ness, there is one truth that shines with
pure and unmistaknble light. "The
war;" says Mr.. Beecher, "has changed
not alone institutions but idens. We
have entered new era ofliberty. The
style of thought Is freer and more no.
bic. The young men of our times are
regenerated. The great army has been
school and hundreds OF thousands of
men are gone home to preach truer
and nobler vicw of human rights. All
the industrial interests of society nre
moving with increased wisdom toward
intelligence and liberty"
These words are rich with meaning:
and their utmost suggestivcness, their
palpable, signal, indisputnble but un-
| will come from the refusal of the hum
dreds and hundreds of thousands of
young men and old men to follow him
| after the strange gods to which he has
consecrnted the magnificent intellectual
and personal endOwnents that have
served SO ettectually and nobly the
cause of the right. Before this terrible
experience, before the nation had made
these agonizing sacrifices to freedom,
before the best and nObleSt of the land
had paid such prices for the cause they
love, before 1t had thus become en-
| shrined in hundreds of thousands of
hearts, the detection of such n leader
would have been moral disaster that
ycMrs could not have repaired. But the
experiences of treachery in high places,
| tho knowledge forced upon the Ameri-
can people by the TepOSe and the loss of
confidence In one leader after another
have taught them, first and foremost, n
profound faith in their cause, and next,
reliance upon themselves which
neither trusted President nor an un-
worthy friend can for II moment dis
turb, much less overthrow. Neither
tho cooling of the proselyte's zeal, nor
the loss of the disciples friendship,
nor admiration for the statesman s
craft, can now da8zlo and mislead the
men they taught the truth and taught
them to love It above all other consid-
erntiOns. Tho seed that was sown fell
upon fertilo soil. They cannot tcnr IN
tho thrifty vines. New life Is pulsating
with manly vigor through the great
party into which such mon ns Seward
and BeeCher helped to breath it. They
cannot poison it, they cannot stifle it.
| 1t has grown beyond even their great
names and their once great influence.
The party they have forsakon look
with grief upon the lives Of these men,
thus wasted, AS it were, in but n mo-
nent oft time. Regulations which wero
magnificent fabrics built up into no.
blest proportions by patience and by
| skill disappear like enchanted palaces
in night. 1t is hard now to conceive
that they have done so much for hui
mnnity and freedom; that their lives
have been SO full of promise and SO
ample in accomplislllnent; that they
have not beenspent in
"Dropplng buckets into empty wells
Ana growing old in drawing nothing out"
Among all the'great pleaders for the
oppressed, Mr.. Beecher has proclaimed
will almost unequalled olonuenco not
only the rights of man, but tho impos.
sibility of trusting to the uIlseliish ness
of those who Withhold them. None
knows better than he that power is
never voluntarily yielded; that when
ever tho masses have obtained their
rights, thoy have eXtorted them from
those who retained them. None but
he has from tho abundance of his wit,
his imagination, his resources of Ian
gungo and tho magic of his personal
presence launched sneer and illustra-
ton, invective and appeal with such
effect, against the pretexts of tyranny
the suggestion of timidity, and the in.
dolonce of the Indifferent that in time
ny willing muster, disgusted with
his own oppression, and Gu.
lightened by experience with
slavery. He seems to have forgotten il
all. He abandons millions Of the pool
and despised whose wrongs were once
the theme and Inspiration of his eio
9uence to the I" chances " of the future
To- the "chances" TINT they may be hon
estly dealt with. To the "ohances
that they may be elevated by thos,
who have them, and educated by thos,
who know tho value of ignorance TO