The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-09-28

Lry were enBa6eQy IN our DlDle OOCleEy,
our tract societies, our missionary So
cieties, not saying anything about our
vast commerce flowing from one part OF
the nation to the other. If the religions,
moral and social ties were all weak, we
would bind this country together. But
what was our surprise to see the day after
the Presidential election, before the re-
suit was known, the stars and stripes
hauled down in the city of Charleston,
and the stars and bars, with the rattle
snake upon 1t lifted in its place. When
we looked at the morning papers We read
that it was declared by those men there
that for thirty years they had been educa.
ting their people for that same purpose,
and that if they were not taught then
they never would be. In a very short
time all the Southern States passed ordin-
ances of secession, and formed their pro-
yisiQnal government at Montgomery, Ala
bama. The Legislature of Virginia. by
some legerdemain, was called together.
One of the ostensible objects was to con-
slider the French proposition to make
the james River Canal. No sooner dld
they get together than the Convention oil
Virginia was called to take into consider
alton the state of the country. Though
. L
of the State into that Convention, though
though more than two thirds Of the dele
gates were Union men, and more than
two-thirds of the popular vote cast IN the
State was for the preservation OF the
Union, yet that Convention had scarcely
been in session twenty days when the or
dinance of secession was passed, and we
were told that Virginia, with all its mem
cries and all its glory, as they said, must
join the cotton Contederacy. Then 1t was
good men all over the country looked
into each others faces, while they were
claiming on the other side that the Govern
ment was mere rope of sand, and asked
each other if this were indeed trne. The
President at Washington, under the ad-
vice of his Attorney General, said that
whilo secession was unconstitutional there
was no power in the Constitution to pre-
vent it. Then it was that volunteer. com
panies began to spring up throughout Nir-
ginia. Little f:tnppenny'' politicians be-
came captains, and rallied the boys to
their flag. They were going to join the
great Confederacy, and they ''were going
with their State" In short time the
politicians of larger cast began 10
show their hands. A company gathered
in Wheeling and others elsewhere. They
made their headquarters at Grafton, but
no sooner had they heard thata regiment
of boys in blue from the city of Wheel
ing had started after them than they ske-
daddled to Phillippa, and at the first gun,
with General Kelley at the head of our
few volunteer forces, they fled into the
mountains. Then the dividing lines began
to be drawn,-rebel sympathizers on the
one hand and the true Union men on the
other.
At the conclusion of the war these gen.
tlemen said they had laid down their arms
because they were overpowered and de-
sired to come back and be good citizens.
need not follow them through the vari-
Gus meanderings of politics since that
time, but last spring we nominated can
didates for the Presidency and Vice
Presidency at Chicago. 1t was the unan'
imous outburst of the American people
for Grant and Colfax. Afterwards Con
vention was called at the city of New
| York, headed by Belmont. After four
| days hard work, after setting aside every
candidate that had been prominently
before them, they nominated Horatio
Seymour and Francis p. Blair, and for
the first time in the history of such con-
ventions in this country, they published
their proceedings without saying who
were the members of that Convention.
Was it because thOy had not money to
pay the printer? Because they had not
time? Why was it? 1t was because
from the eleven States that went into the
rebellion there were in that Convention
1873 delegates, and not one of them was a
| Union man during the war. Every one oil
them was either a Confederate officer OF
held high civil position in the Confederate
Government. We might suppose, by a
very great stretch of allowance, this
omission was by mistake, but in n Dem
ocratic Convention afterwards held in
| West Virginia precisely the same thing
occurred. A motion was there made to
publish the names of those who were
members of that Convention. That mo-
ton was laid on the table. Why? For
the same reason that the names were not
published ut New York. More than two
thirds of the members OF that Convention
were gentlemen who had been in the rebel
army or otherwise connected with the
rebel service. Some wore their button-
less grey conts, old and tattered, as
badges of honor, and as tho uniform they
intended to honor.
These facts appeal to the mind of every
rejecting man in the community. He
must see there is something here these
gentlemen are ashamed of which they
seek to keep from the public eye.
Immediately on the adjournment OF the
New York Convention, as the members
wele returning home, meeting was held
| in Richmond. They had adopted plat
| form declaring the rebellion over and the
cause lost. Henry A. Wise, one of their
principal speakers at this meeting, declared
the Convention had lied, that the cause
was not lost, but that it lived and had
more vigor to-day than it had il the re-
bellion. Governor Vance, of North Car
olinu, another of the speakers, declared
that in the election of Seymour and Blair
they would gain all they had lost by the
rebellion. Wade Hampton went to Lex
ington TO sec General Lee, and in the
presence of the students at Washington
College he declared his compatriots of
the Confederacy had not died in vain, but
in the establishment of great cause,
which would live in the election of Sey-
mour and Blair. This same man went to
South Carolina and there in giving an
account of his stewardship said he was n
member of the committee that made the
Platform, and as such had only asked
that three words should be put in that
Platform. They were that all the acts of
Congress for reconstructing the South
were Unconstitutional, null and void"
This was all he asked, and all the South
desired; and to make good this declara-
ton the Convention pledged themselves.
1t may be interesting to inquire what is
that influenced these Southern men to
bring about this great rebellion. That
cause consisted in few dogmas of gov
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