The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-02-27

eyes, that did the Federal Government
before graphing with the Shareholders
rebellion. And yet, from frst to last,
the Democratic Journals and canvassers
represented the war for the Union as
waged by Mr.. Lincoln and the Repub-
Hcans, and assumed that the rebels
we're assailed and standing on the de-
fensive!
10. Democratic protests and remon-
strances, public and private, against
the war as cruel, fratricidal, wicked,
revolving, abhorrent, &c, were abund-
ant throughout the struggle; not one
of them, so far as we can recollect, adj
dressed TO the rebel chiefs, but all as
suming that Mr.. Lincoln and the Re-
publicans were waging hostilities need
lessly If not wantOnly, and might have
an honorable peace whenever they
would. Thomas II. Seymour, of Con-
necucut, was the author of one of the
earliest of these paralyzing missives
and he was nominated by acclamation
by the Democrats of Connecticut as their
candidate for Governor in 1868, and his
election enthusiastically supported by
the party.
II. In this city, one of our Democrat
ic journals, the Daily Nelcs, was an
open, unqualified contemn ner of the war
on our side and champion of the rebel
lion, from first to last. 1t did its ut
most to prevent enlistment in the Union
armies. eulogised the rebel chiefs, and
proclaimed that they could never be
subdued; systematically magnified
their successes, and denied or belittIed
their reverses; and was well under
stood to be their stipendary and tool.
In full view of these facts, its editor
was in 1862 made the regular Demo-
cratic candidate for Congress ia one of
our strong Democratic districts, run
ming on the same ticket with Governor
Il lTI-Wa
vote of his party; and he has since been
chosen by that party to a seat in our
State Senate.
u. AS to the propositions, speeches,
acts and votes OF Vallandigham, Bay
ard, Bright, May, Josh Allen, Jack
Rogers, and other Democrats in Con-
gress, including Benjamin G. Harris's
vaunt that the rebellion never could
nor ought to be put down, We leave
them to Mr. Ashley, or whoever shall
see htto answer Messrs. Winfield and
Hunter, not according to their folly.
OF these gentlemen. One of the very
foremost Democrats in his district Is
Tor was) General Archibald @. Niven,
who, very early in the war, wrote a
letter to a nephew who meditated en-
listment to fight for the Union, urging
him not to do SO, and representing the
war on our side as cruelty oppressive
and unjust. That letter was publish
ed; and thereupou General Niven was
made the Democratic candidate for
Senator in Mr.. Winield's precise dis
trlct, and received the full Democratic
vote, by which he was returned elected;
but the Senate, on a contest, gave the
seat to his Republican competitor,
Judge Low.
We might multiply such facts to in
hnity but need weT Suffice it that,
as the result of a most anxious, intent
contemplation of the history of our
great struggle, +7e do most undoubtedly
believe that the Democrats as party,
were not at heart for the Union in its
terrible struggle with secession-that
they did not rejoice at its Triumphs nor
deplore its defeats. We do not say that
a majority of them wished the Union
permanently dissolved; we know, and
have often stated, that they did not
but they believed that Union defeats
and disasters would discredit and de-
stroy the Republican ascendancy, and
that they would thereupon come into
power and coax the rebels back into
the Union by all manner ofconcessions
and prostrations to the slave power.
could, or should, be saved otherwise
than by letting the Shareholders have
their way in it; and the road to this,
they realized, lay not through Union
victories, but the contrary.
Firmly grounded in this conviction,
are we at liberty to proclaim it? Do
we deserve to be knocked down and
stamped on whenever we say what we
believer or only 10 be branded as
liars? What say you, Messrs. Win
field and Hunter?