The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-09-30
THROWING ASIDE THE MASK.
open Threat OF Another war---The
southern Construction of the
Constitution or Revolution.

=
Under the title or "The Constitution
or Revolution" the Mobile Re9tster OF
Septembef 21st says:
"Don,t be alarmed at this caption, ye
who are afraid 10 open your mouths SO
much as to chirp, lest Radical liars py
speech and pen follow their calling anu
wallow in their inevitable mire. Ihls
caption is at bottom, and should De
boldly pronounced.and on top, the key
note Of the struggle for the liberty OF
the nation, with .usurpers and constttu-
tion-breakers. We say 1t should be-
otherwise the American people have
ceased to deserve to be free. Tyrants
know instinctively when that period OF
emasculation arrives in the history OF
a people, and the sword and the yoke
are ever at hand to take advantage OF
It. Say what you please about taxa
ton, unheard of profigacy In the pubic
expenditures, the infamies OF recon
strnction, and that dark catalogue
of public sins which will blacken
the fams OF the Radical adminis-
traitors Of this era on the pages
of history, the vital thread In the
tangled web of the times Is that
which Is resisting the strain OF revolu-
ltionists and usurpers upon the liberty
of the people. The Constitution repre-
sents that thread, and all this vast tur-
MOL of energy of mind and body from
one ocean to tho other, and from the
lakes to the Gulf, Is but the Keeling to
and fro OF the armies that fight for the
liberty embodied in the Constitution on
the one side, and for the power of des-
potism to annIhilate that Constitution
on the other. What sense Is there In
fearing to read the word revolution"
at the head OF Southern Democratic
paper, when for nearly eight years the
nation has been rocking in the throes of
| f1ar 51f mi FinFn finpaY
Grant and Colfax elected, and the High
Priests of the Usurpers assured OF power
for another four years, and this reyolu.
ton against constitutional liberty Will
have been completed. The question
Will then be, shall Its hateful fruits pc
accepted in perpetulty2 Will race of
men that has never long submitted to
tyranny, a nation made up of the fight
ing bloods of the civilized world, SUBJ
nit to the rule OF the sword In the
hands of the Puritan, and agree TO
have their rights and liberties measured
and despotic and lawless Parlia-
ment? We trust not and we hope
not. We are not limiting now at
another Southern "rebellion;n we are
not thinking OF a second experiment
of secession, and of arraying a weak
section panoplied only by a Just cause
against stronger one, armed with the
sword, and strong in numbers and or
ganized power. We are not dreaming
of making contest upon an issue. SO
false, that one-half of the friends of
constitutional liberty will be found
fighting against conviction and princi-
pie on the side of tyranny. We speak
Of the American people, for the cause
OF Southern liberty has become the
cause of American Liberty. The Con-
stitution, which has been struck down
to commit murder on the States OF the
South and to enslave its people, cannot
survive as q divided unity for the pro-
lection OF the liberty OF tho North. Sweet
and bitter water cannot flow from the
same fountain, nor can the same gov
eminent dispense the blessings of free
dom and the curses of slavery on the
two sides of geographical boundary.
i It is, therefore, q common American
question. And 1t is whether that peo-
pie will endure any government that
Is founded by usurpation upon the
ruins of the political fabric which their
fathers fought for, reared and transmit
ted to them as their most precious inner.
I'itRnce. Thatsuch is the banquet to which
argument. John Quincy Adams hasjust
fixed the demonstration in the compass
OF a nut shell, when he quoted the late
1 leader OF the Radical partY-the dead
Stevens, as saying "there were only
| tIpo damned fools in the Radical party
.
of the Rump Congress were constitu-
tional." That Congress has openly de-
parted from, violated and legislated
''outsIde the Constitution" in the pas
sage of nearly forty acts. Indeed 1t has
become fashionable not only to "spit
upon the Constitution" but openly to
deride 1t, and to laugh in the face OF
every honest man who appeals to 1t.
So defiant are the usurpers, and SO con-
temptuous of the spirit and intelligence
of the peoplei The time comes apac9 to
determine whether the people deserve
this contempt. We do not read the
temper of the nation Alright if they do.
We see the old fires OF freedom burn
ing brightly in the North and East and
West as they did in the best days of the
Republic, and, besides, we read what
they will do in the history of a blood
that tells but one story from the days OF
the Rarons, down through the Hamp-
dens to the. present era. The American
constitution can not die without a
struggle. So enormous political
change WINS never yet made without the
effusion OF blood. We, therefore, only
assert the inevitable when we repeat,
1.-The Constitution or Revolution"