The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-03-01

perfect use of all our limbs. i know
how trying it is to be denied representa-
ton in Congress while we are paying
our proportion of tie taxes; how an
noying it is. to, be even partially under
military rule, and how injurious It'll
to the general interest of business OF
the country to be without post offices
and mail communications, to say mo-
thing of divers other matters on the
long list of our present inconveniences
and privations. All these, however, we
must patiently bear and endure for
season with quiet and repose; we may
get well, may get once more on our
feet again. One thing is certain that
bad hpmor, ill temper Inhibited either
in restlessness or grumbling, will not
hasten it, h5'A Et'3ie a. ~
Next to this another great duty we
owe to ourselves is the exercise of a
liberal spirit of forbearance among our
selves. The first step toward local or
general harmony is the bRnishment
from our breasts OF every feeling and
sentiment calculated to stir, the dis
cords of the past, Nothing could be
more injurions or mischievous to the
future Of this country than the agita-
ton at present of questions that divi-
led the people anterior to or during the
existence of thealate war. On no occa-
sion, and especially in the bestowment
of office, ought such differences OF
opinion in; the past ever tn. be men
toned, either for or against any one
otherwise entitled to confidence. These
ideas orsenLiments of other times and
circumstances are not the germs from
which hopeful organization can now
arise. ~ - l ILL., sss.-S
:, Let all differences of opinion touch
ing errors or supposed errors of the
head or heart on the part of any in the
past, growing out of these matters, be
at once in the deep ocean of oblivion
forever buried, Let there be nolcrimi-
nation or recrimination on account OF
acts of other days, no canvassing OF
past conduct or motives. Great disas-
ters are upon us and upon the whole
country, and without Inquiry how
these Originated, at whose door the
fault should be laid, let us now, as
common sharers of common mistor-
tunes, on all occasions consult as to the
best means, under the circumstances as
we find them, to secure the best ends
toward future eamelioration. Good gov
ernment is what we want. This should
be the leading desire and the controll-
ing object with all, and need not as
sure you, if this can be attained, that
our desolated fields, our barns, our
villages and cities, now in ruins, will
soon, like the Ph9nix, rise again from
their ashes, and all our waste places
as the rose. 74.s-.5.. -s.ss .a,,.4 10 q J.,
This view should also be borne in
mind, that whatever differences of
opinion existed before the late fury of
the war, they sprung mainly from DIFF
Eerences as to the best man TO be used,
and the best line of policy to be pur-
sued to secure the great controlling OBJ
iect of all, which was good government.
Whatever may be said of the loyalty
or disloyalty of any in the late most la
mentable conflict ofIarms, think L
may venture safely to say that there
was, on the part of the great mass OF
the people of Georgia, and of the entire
South, no disloyalty to me principies M
of the Constitution of the United States,
to that system of representative Gov
ernment, of delegated and limited pow
ers, that establishment in new phase
on this continent of all the essentials of
England's Magma Clarta, for the pro-
lection and security of life, liberty and
property, with the additional recogni-
lion of the principle, as u fundamental
truth, that all political power resides in
the people. With us it was simply n
question as to whore our all le6innce NYn1
due in the maintenance of these prtnct-
pies, which authority was paramount
on the last resort, State or Federal.
AS for myself, can affirm that no
sentimentof disloyalty to those great
principles ofselfgov governmentrecogniz
and einbodied innthe Constitution OF
the United States, ever beator throbbed
in breast or heart of mine. To their
maintenance my whole soul was ever
enlisted, and to this end my whole life
has heretofore been devoted, and Will
continue to be the rest of my days, God
willing. Indevotion to these principles
I Weld to no man living. This much
can say for myself. May not say the
same for you and for the great mass of
the people of Georgia, and for the great
mass of the people of the entire Southf
Whatever, differences existed among
us arise from differences as to
the best and surest means of securing
the great end which was the object OF
all. 1t was with this view and this pur-
pose that secession was tried. That has
Jailed, Instead of bettering our condi-
ton, instead of establi fishing our liberty
upon surer foundation, we have, IN
the war that ensued, come wei, nlgn
losing the whole of the rich Inheritance
with which we set out. This is one OF
the sad realizations of tho present.
In this, too, we are but illustrating
the teachings of history. Wars, and
civil wars especially, always menace
liberty; they seldom advance it, while
thew usually end in its entire over
throw and destruction. Ours stopped
lust short of such1a catastrophe. Our
onlyfalternatiYe now is either to give
mn all hopes of Unconstitutional liberty or
retrace our steps and to look for its vim
dication and maintenance IN the forums
or reason and Justice, Instead of on the
arena of arms; IN the conrts ana nails
of LEGISLATION, instead of on the fields of
battle. / am frank and candid in set
ting YOU right here. Our surest hopes.
in nv Judgment, of these ends are in
the restoration policy of the President
ofthe United States. have little hope
for liberty, little hope for the success Of
the great American eXperimentjo OF self
government, but in, the success of the
present efforts for the restoration OF the
States to their former practical relations
ina common Government under the
Constitution of the United States. We
are without an encouraging smile on
this line in the history OF the mother
country, in the history of our ancestors,
from whom we derived great measure
the brincipl to which we are SO much
The 6truest friends Of liberty in Eng
land. once in 1912, abandoned the
forum OF. reason, and appealed, as we
did, to the sword, as the surest means,
in their judgment, of advancing their
cause. This was after they had made
great progress under the lead of Coke,
Hampden, Falkland and others, in the
advancement of liberal .principlesi
manyrusurpations had been checked,
many OF the prerogatives of the Grown
had been curtailed; the petition of right
had been sanctioned, ship money had
been abandoned, courts-martiaI had
been d6ne tawayl with, ihabeas corpus
had been re-estnbi high, Courts OF
Commission and Star Chamber bad
been abolished.i5 Many other great
abuses of power bad been corrected
and other Reforms established. Bat,
not satisfied with these, and not salts
lied with the peaceful working of rea-