The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-04-03
From Richmond.


The Wing of Monday has an article
on "the colored vote" in which it calls
upon the orthodox (rebel) population
to look after the negroes more energet-
ically and efficiently than they are do
ing, if they expect to secure their votes. |
We quote as follows from its article:
"All are agreed that if we would not
give the field entirely up to the clam
orous but cunning and hard working |
factions presided over by two or three
mendicant adventures, we will have to |
take steps to combine the white and
cOlored vote. But while all talk in this
strain, we hear of no practical measures
10 bring about this important result.
When we look around us we see the
"loyalists," so-called, straining every
nerve TO consolidate and carry the me-
gro vote. t. this end they are work
Ing day and night. II is their sole bust
ness, and they follow 1t up most diligent-
". Night afler night they have meet
tngs and musterings, haranGues and
sermons, singing and praying-ali look
ing to politicalres ults. The superstitions
OF the colored people are awaited OF,
and religion and Radicalism are jun
bled together. What the mock philan-
thropists delight in calling the "emo-
tiOnal nature of the negro is played
upon, and an enthusiasm resem bling
Tiellee is aroused. These mass meetings,
committee meetings, and meetings OF
the different societies, all have political
significance 1t begins to be whispered
about that under the inspiration ofcun-
ming white leaders, a secret political
society or league has been formed, the
object of which is to coerce the whole
negro vote. This league is said to have
mysteries and penaIties-the one to al
lure, the other TO Brighten the colored
O.. T.
that those who do not join Will
be dealt with In some harsh
and mysterious manner, and that
those who join and betray the order
Will be dealt with after IA fearful fash
ion 1t is said that the cunning white
send their agents and emmissaries
through the whole State to open COM
munication with the colored people
with view TO concerted action, and
that they offer good pay TO the more in
telligent cOlored men in this city to go
on these missions. Those who refuse
to join the league, and those who are
disinclined to leave their business to go
about on proselytiug expeditions, are
threatened. There is reason TO believe
that many OF the better class of col
ored people who desire to cooperate
with the mass OF white voters and to
choose their candidates from among
our most respectable and cultivated
gOOned into this secret league"
There is, We suppose, considerable
mixture OF fact and fancy in the above.
We have no doubt that Messrs. Hunni-
cult & Co., the people who denounce
Union men like Governor Peirpoint as
traitors, are laboring indefatigably and
fanatically for the procurement OF the
negro vote for candidates OF their own
stripe. Old Virginia needs the ascend
ancy OF men OF the Bolts, Stearns,
Peirpoint and John Lewis ol,-men
who have rational purposes in view,-
men who are not mere cormorants on
the body polite, men who have been
ried in the fire and found pure metal.
When Robespierre said "perish the col
onies rather than principle" the echo
was 40, the cursed ungodIiness
OF such zeal" When any class
OF men make the main
element of their energy hatred of all
who oppose them, and are all on fire
with species ofdemoniacnl inspiration,
they become "blind leaders of the
blind, +" and we are afraid Messrs. Hun
nicutt & Co., belong to this class.
These men are intent, if possible, upon
the overthrow of what they call the
PeirPoint government, and in this we
wish them the very smallest modicum
ofsuccess. But as Henry Ward Beecher
once said about Wendell Phillips
during the war, when he was raving
against Mr.. Lincoln, so we can say OF
these men: LET him alone: he has his
uses: he is the coal of fire that is needed
on the back OF the turtle: his Impracti-
cability will quicken thought and ma
ture ways and means" We have not
his exact words before us, but the Ian
guage quoted expresses the idea put
forth in one of his speeches. According
to Buckle, civilization Is often pi-
oneeFed by the violent and unserupu-
lous, and matured and per Iected by the
moderate and conscientious. Messrs
Hunnicutt & Co. may be the violent
and unit men, as regards the ultimate
OF what is now in embryo, and yet be
the Goals OF fire that are to quicken,
develope, and extort wholesome con-
cessious from those who are their ex-
treme antipodes. One thing certain, the
rebels would not have acted in the
matter OF safe reconstruction until
doom's day had 1t not been they were
acted upon in very coerciye way by
the late Congressional bill. They were
''rowled" to the work by that meas
ure, and now they are being stirred up
to new ideas and efforts by the
fierce ambition of Hunnicutt &
Co, and the end will be, in all
probability, that the negro will get a
fostering cultivation and care from
them that he otherwise would not have
received. We look for good to grow
out ofthe competition that is going on
in regard to him. The process will be
sort of liberal education to the Afri-
can mind, and the race will grow intel
lectually all the faster. Seeing that he
is Of such Importance, the darkey will
naturally be inspired with the self.re-
sPect incident to the enfranchised
status, and begin to take himself up
with view to meeting his response
bilities. a year or two's experience
and participation in so much political
activity will work changes in the race
that we can scarcely appreciate now.
The Connecticut election on Tuesday
was exceedingly close. The Democrats
carried it by a majority of 700. Last