The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-09-22
FT01n HdTl0eT'8 WeekllI

spectacle Tor the World TO COuGeln-
PIate--The Closing OF Mr.. Seward's
nIustrIous Career.
From Hdper's Weekly.
So melancholy a spectacle as that of
the President of the United States pass
ing through the country and passion
ately denonncing Congress and some of
his fellow citizens by name, was never
before known in our history. Invited
as President to participate in a public
ceremony, he surrounds himself with
the chief civil officers of the Govern
ment, and the two great heroes of the
war, and then insists that hel may
stump the country as he goes, in his
private capacity. We defy any man to
read the speeches uttered by the Presi-
dent without wincing with mortifica-
ton. Thewhole thing would be mex
presslb IDLY comical If it were not too
painful. The insanity, the vanity; the
incredible balderdash aof these
performances would set the whole
country shaking with laughter
except for the fict that the speaker is
the President of the United States, and
the man who gravely expresses his
profound admiration and delight in the
spectacle is William Henry Seward.
The story of this progress reads like an
incident of the lower empire in its low
est days. A man might justly tremble
for his country If he did not feel the
deep disgust and unutterable indigna-
ton of the honest people all around
him. If the elections had been held on
the day the President reached Chicago,
the Union ticket would have swept
every State. AS it is, this Presidential
progress has unquestionably carried
the autumn elections for the Union
party. For there is not a thoughtful
man. who does not ask himself, with
startling emphasis, how any, policy
could be safe in such hands ,,f
We have but incidentally mentioned
the saddest part of the whole, and that
is the part played by Mr.. Seward. It
is not anger, nor disgust, with which
his words are read and his conduct In
his extraordinary performance contem-
| platedy by those TO whom in other years
his name was pride and his words
were inspiration. Such men-and they
are the only true friends he has ever
had or will have in the country-have
! looked on in inexpressible sorrow and
CONSERVATION. What more they have
felt, what more they are justified by
| the truth in feeling, there is no occasion
to express in words. t' 80
It has been Mr.. Seward's hard fortune
cruel for himself, mournfnl for those
who honored him as political chiefs
are always honored--to be tried beyond
his power. Weinr not of those who
hold him willfully treacherous to hu-
I
/ lieve In ourselves and to count all who
differ as faithless. Nor do we explain
his course by any motive SO poor as
desire of revenge upon the party which
/ did not make him President in 1850.
Men act from mixed motives, and the
balance of moral perception once dis
.turbed, ever so slightly, is not readily
recovered. s aD9 .if
i Mr.. Seward was made for calmer
times aud purely political arena. He
| neither believed in the war before it
came, mon understood it when it burst.
The Union saved by the sword is a
Union I cannot comprehend, - he said,
ate. BE did not understandiit II then, 1e
understands 1t still less now. AT once a
doctrinaire aud an Optimist, he accepts
i a form for fact, and refuses to believe
In an actual event which seems to him
illogical, however it mSy burn and
] bruise the country.
At the close OF the great campaign oi
1860, Mr.. Seward, who had laid aside
| his natural and bitter dfsappO pOintment
| to work for the success,o OF Mr.. Lincoln,
passed Through the West making a
series ofspeeches, SO varied, SO power
| ful, and so persuasive that they win
endure among the pureSt illustrations
OF American eloquence. Crossing the
i line of the Free States he carried the
banner Of Repub blican equality of rights
mp 70 the very citadel Of. the enemy
and at Sc. Josephs, upon slave soil in
Missouri, be made as mastery and lofty
a plea as ever fell from his lips. Re
turning TO the Increased love and adj
mfration OF his friends, he was never
so great rs onithe day of Mr.. Lincoln &
elections Had he died then his name
would have been chief among Amefi-
can statesmen for insight into The neees-
i sary conditions Of American eiYiljza-
~ n.
the inspiration Of those, younger in
years, who were to carry on his work,
i Wen, the work renains, and there
are the younger men to dioit9 But theii
hearts are as the hearts of soldiers who
win tho victory after their chief has
falien. ~. =. {.
Bonnels 4 ave become so small thai
they 6dts ess d IS hive crowns, tIifee.
nanuV-niecgr ba1nfY fnrind 0Tfte IaF0r