The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-09-20
From the Louisville Journal.
R;rst Guu Of the Conflict.

First TN OIL inc SOuutCts
Our dispatches from Indianapolis say
a man was killed there by a mob and
several others wounded, in front Of the
hotel where the President and his party
were stopping. 1t is the first gun OF the
conflict The shadows of the coming
night begin to lengthen, to grow darker
and more gloomy. The men who were
shot at Indianapolis we've, of conrse,
fred at by their own neighbors, their
fellow towasmen We may see in those
murderous assaults, as in vivid ana
bloody mirror, miniature picture or
what is in reserve for US through the
progress of the causes now in operation,
unless those causes are arrested py the
great bulk of respectable citizens, with
out reference to party lines. The In
dianapolis riot is foretaste of what the
people in every considerable town, and
in every county of the Northern States
NAV expect, unless the great mass OF
good men resolve that the unhealthy ex-
elements now existing and dali y In
creasing shall cease. If no efforts are
put forth by men who have a substantial
interest in maintaining peace and order
to check the headlong fury OF unscrupu-
lous demagogues who are perpetually
pouring oil upon the flames, how long
will it be before the very worst elements
of society will be in the ascendency !
How long before fanatical assassins, too
bigoted, too brutal, and too stupid ever
to have had thought beyond their
own evil passions, will seek to rouse the
vengeance of the mob against those who
differ from them in opinions. to waylay
and assassinate them One disRraSeful
deed bepetS another. In ono village
tlloIo may be a majority on one side in
the next, majority on the other. In
one State the masses may favor one side;
in another, and an adjoining State, they
may favor the other side. Itseems to be
natural for unthinking persons, carried
away by their heated imaginations and
by ideas Of their own certain infallibili-
ty, to look only upon one side of ques-
ton, to ignore views from any other
stand point, and to regard nothing but
immediate consequences
The President is threatened with i'm
parchment. If, under the circumstances
this should be actually attempted, there
can be no question that it would be re-
garded by o respectable majority in
many of the States, and by large ma
jority in many other States, as high
handed, extra-judicial, unconstitutional
and revolutionary measure. We strongly
incline to believe that such step would
be received by majority of the whole
voting population of the United States
as an unjustifable, national outrage. 1t
would naturally, almost unavoidably,
lead to a divided authority. a divided
allegiance; to a house of York and a
house of Lancaster; each side anathema-
tizing the other; the partizans of each
shooting and hanging those of the other;
divided States, cities, counties, villages
and neighborhoods, friends and relatives
and fellow citizens, and kindling such
fires in the human heart as such feuds
have never failed to light up. Each
side would denounce the other as trai-
torous, and its adherents as traitors.
Each would declare that treason must
be made odious;" each would be very
likely to take grounds in favor of an ex-
treme course in the spirit of retaliation,
and not few would favor the extermi.
nStion of the enemy" In Boston, the
adherents of the Presidential or consti.
tutional party would be seized, impris
oned, shot. In New York the Radicals
would share similar fate; and thus the
fires of consuming vengeance would
rape over the whole country, till the
consumption should make it desolate
till nothing should remain but black
ened and bleeding country, covered with
plague spots, afflicted with famine and
disease, with prowling gangs of men in
pursuit Of flying fugitiyes, with ships
rotting at the wharves, with railroads
torn up and all business smitten with
paralysis and death. In one State the
majority would overcome the minority
and establish State government recog-
nizing one of the parties In the general
government, aad in another State the
majority would establish State govern
ment recognizing the opposite party IN
the National Government. Innumerable
guerrilIas would run at large, acknowl-
edging allegiance 90 10 party, and max
ing friends with each by turns, as should
best serve their purposes for piunder.
Parties would at length crystalize around
military ehieftaiRs, the wretched people
would cry out in the bitterness of their
pCdOO Wa S-J
sort of government that should relieve
them from their intolerable miseries.
They would pray for rest as Ajax prayed
for light, and il the horrible phantas-
magoIia of blood every vestige OF free
dom and republican institutions would
disappear, and military despotism-per-
haps several military despotisms-arise
upon the widespread ruins of the Re-
public.
What, We again ask, will the people Of
any party gain by civil commissions
They will gain-wbite slavery. They
win gain poverty, consuming, fever
stricken, plague-haunted poverty. They
will lose-their liberties, their lives,
their property. The cheerful hum OF
business and Of industry will forsake the
land. They will lose the common bless
ings of civilized society. They will lose
every thing that makes life desirable.
Let them remember the advice of the
great bard-"beware Of the entrance to
a quarrel and such quarrel as the