The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-01-31
Extract from Hon. &. l.. Vnlinndig-
hams Letter TO vi. NJ. Pomeroy, Of
the In Crosse Democrat.

As to your second lnquiry-the prop
able 'sresult if the radical scheme be
carried out or attempted'-pardon me
A little Latin: "De Cdrthagine sdtius est
siIere qaam tas non deere" Only gener-
al results, at the most, can be foreseen
by the wisest of mortals, and in these
dark times when every lesson of history,
and every law of God, of man, of polit-
ical economy and of finance, seems to be
broken with impunity, and when every
folly or treachery, or cowardice, or all
three together, thwart the wisest, most
honest, most patriotic plans for the pub
lie good, have ceased even to speculate
as to the future; much less do l venture
to prophesy. Yet | think that had tho
programme for the political campaign
of 1866, as agreed upon formally, at
Washington in April and May last been
honestly, courageously and vigorously
carried out, instead of being set aside
for that combination of procured abor-
ton and accidental miscarriage, the
Philadelphia Convention, of August IA,
we should have had as great victory
i'm the fall elections, rs we suffered de-
cisive defeat. As it is, | fear that the
last hope of the reaction persisted then,
and that the Great American Revoln-
ton of 1861" must now go on uncheck.
ed, till either it shall have overturned
totally in form, as already substantially
in fact, that grand old Federal Republic
which our fathers set up, substituting in
its stead imperialistic despotism under
the shadow of the name and form and
the cant Of free institutions; or have
precipitated counter revolution
through which by the expiation of fire
and blood and suffering it may be the
American people shall recover that
light, free, cheap system of government
which they so eagerly and recklessly
have thrown away. All this, indeed.
was implied by the late civil WARRIOR
the Unionn-when it commenced; and |,
for one, have no new quarrel with radi-
calism and its opponents for striving to
attain the natural, legitimate and inev-
table results Of changing our system
from a government of consent to gov
ernment of coercion Of force. At the
same time am not prepared to compete
with them in the race of radicalism;
and if l were, should aim at that
which alone could command success; to
tout -Herod Herod," and go at one. bound
so far beyond its present demands, that
even Republican radicalism would stand
achast. l should cut under so deep
that no slower deep" could be found or
fathomed. For, in good soOth, am not
one of those who tlelude themselves
with the vain notion that by yielding
one-half the other can be made secure.
Such "sops to Cerberus' never silence
the triple headed dog of fanaticism.
And there is but one way to deal with a
revolutions: either to go with it totally,
and ahead of it, or fight il every inch
And crush it. We hitherto have not so
fought the battle, and by consequence
we have gone down before the bold,
dashing charge of the Black Knight
with his visor up. Aad so it has ever
been; and so it will ever be, world with
out end. cannot add 4men: it sticks
in NV throat" For still l would re-
member the sublime old Roman maxim,
and never despair Of the Republic; for
even now, with more than eight mil
lions of paper money, having no other
basis than credit upon credit, fonr-ply,
and a taxation, State and Federal, Cor
Imperial quite equal in amount, / am
not sure that a blessed stranding' in
the way of finance might not, at any
moment, prove the very salvation OF
the ship in her last lurch. For, rs N.
Guizot in his History of Cromwell,
profoundly observes: ut is by exhaus-
tion and necessity that God imposes jus-
tice and good sense upon nations