The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-08-01
Mheeliug Register.
Thursday Morning, 4,
The IntelIixcneer on West Virginia.

~ shown in his vote declaring the
Government of Virginia illegal, and by
implication assailing the legitimacy Of
the new State. It's first method of
defence was equally remarkable for
fitness aud effectiveness. 1t consisted
Of a ponderous arraignment of the
Democratic party, rs if its short-com
ings could palliate those of Mr.. HUB-
BARD. We pointed out the absurdity of
such defence, and are glad to award
the IRteliigeRcer credit for realizing the
folly of its position. In abandoning lts
former line of argument, the Radical
organ shows more discretion, than Ill its
selection uf new one.
The action of Congress, in declaring
the Government of Virginia illegal, is
justified 10y the usual stuff about
loyalty" and rebellion, and the irrecOn-
cilability OF that deelaiation with the
legitimacy of West Virginia is mildly
termed ''technicality."
Even if it were true that the Virginia
Government, whose legality Congress
has denied, had not, prior to peace, adj
hered to the Union, the assumption of
the IatslligeRccr would be dangerous
and false. Give Congress the power to
abolish state Government for disloy-
atty, and the right TO determine when a
State becomes disloyal, and the result
would he that States would lose all
permanence, dignity and stability.
They might exist or perish with each
successive majority. Indeed, the same
majority has already admitted and de
MED the legality of the same Govern
meuts. Sanction the principle laid
down by our neighbor, and what is
State to-day may become the territory
of tomorrow. not because of treason,
but by the dictation of majority; no
State Government will be anything
more than u mere political igais JatHWs,
the ftful and capricious result of Con-
gressienal rottenness and gas.
In this connection, We republish the
following extract from q selected arti-
Gle which appeared in yesterdays RIG
ISTER:
Suppose that during the rebellion
each State OF the Union, in its turn,
had been Overrun by the confederate
arms and compelled to submit to the
confederate government; that under
the protection of that government an
ordinance of secession had been adopt
ed i'm each State, Il confederate flag
floating over its capital, and a cOnfed-
crate Legislature assembled within it;
that this state of things had continued
long enough 10 prevent the election of
a Union State government for at least
one term, aud that afterwards and final
ly the cause of the Union and the Con-
stitution had triumphed, and the rebel
lion been suppressed, as is now the case.
what would have been the legal aud
constitutional result of those facts
Wsuld it have been that all the States
had committed suicide, that there were
no lawful State governments, and there
fore no lawful States, aud therefore no
TRiOH' W0uld the triumph of the
Union arms have given force and vital
ity only To ordinances of secession, and
have reduced the Constitution and the
Union TO nullity'
PerpleXed by the absurdities involved
in the State suicide theory" our neigh
Dor has given expression to what ortho-
dox Radicals will call an outrageous
herrsy He will not admit that "the
original municipal status" of the South
ern States "has been destroyed" "They
are" we are told, merely restrained of
their former privileges TO participate
in the exercise of power over those who
have reduced their armed rebellion"
aud have not " lost, as States, their ulti-
mate capacity for such participation" !"
We confess our inability to make the
distinction. If Congress may RESTRAIN"
State, it may make that restrain per-
petual, and in such case the ultimate
capacity" doesn't strike us as being
specially valuable. The robbers victim,
plnndered and stripped in the midst of a
forest, is, we presume, merely "re-
strained of his privileges" while his
nakedneSs and hunger remind him of
his ultimate capacity" to wear his
clothes and eat the food his lost money
would have bought. ~ the same time
that ultimate capacity" doesn't feed
or warm him, and so does the ultimate
capacity" of the Southern States fail to
bring back to them those essentials of
existence of which they have been
robbed.
Leaving our neigh6Or to make his way
at leisure out of the fogs into which he
has wandered, we desire to notice an
other feature of the case, not altogether
nninrpOrtant. Unfortunately for the
prosperity of his argument, the Virginia
Government, which the last Recon-
structiOn Bill prOclaims illegal, was
'disloyaF neither in origin nor charac-
ter. 1t was not the Richmond Govern
ment which LETCHER ornainented, but
it was the Wheeling-Alexandria Gov
ernment that had PIERPOINT for its fig-
uTe-head. 1t was the eminently pure
and superlstively 'loyaP Government
that was "vindicated and restored" by
the faithful in this city in June, 1861,
and to which, and about which, so much
vigorous swearing was done by so many
of the suspected, under the suasion OF
bayonets, in the early days of the war.
Many of our readers can recollect
when it would have been made safer to
question the divinity of LINCOLN, or
shout for JEFF. DAVIS in this section,
than to doubt the legality and infalli-
bility of that splendid production OF
patriotism and PIERPoNT, the restored
government of Virginia. 1t was the