The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-02-17

those services are appreciated wherever
the INTELLIGENCERi is known, not only
within the State but far beyond It's linn
It's. 1thas happened to him to occupy
the position which he has SO long filled
with marked ability, during a period
when great and fundamental political
changes were occurring. Through
all those changes no man labor
ed more constantly or with more
singleness of purpose for the
political and material welfare of
the people with whom his lot had been
cast, and to inculcate broad and gener-
GUS principles respecting the dignity of
labor and the equal rights Of all men.
His labors are inseparably connected
with all that is notable in our West
Virginia history since 1856; aud it is not
too much to say that the loyalty of the
people of Northwestern Virginia at the
time the rebellion broke out, as we'll as
the subsequent reorganization OF the
State government and the formation OF
a separate State, were due very largely
to the influence of Mr.. Campbell's pen
as exercised through the columns of
the INTELLIGENCER. In his retirement
now after dozen most laborious years
in the service of our people, in health
very much broken by the severity of
his labors, we are sure that Mr.. Camp
bell carries with him the grateful re-
membrance of those whom he has
been SO largely instrumental in bene.
fitting,
In this connection it may not be in
appropriate to say that while we can
not promise TO make the INTELLIGEN-
GER more than it has been under the
management Of our predecessor, we
shall try to keep it up to the high stand
ard it has hitherto maintained. AS the
wants OF our patrons may require still
further improvements in the paper, we
shall endeavor to supply those wants.
In the general advance of public senti.
ment towards the broadcast humanity
and the highest civilization, we trust
we shall not be found a laggard. We
are about entering upon what promises
to be one of the greatest political strug-
giles that has ever taken place In this
country. The spirit of the rebellion
two years and a half ago appeared to be
broken, rs its military power was
crushed. But through the treachery
and wickedness of the man who un-
happily for the country yields the ex-
eCutive power of the Government, the
ideas and purposes out of which the re-
bellion grew have been animated with
new life. The conflict of ideas which
would have ended with the con-
tIict of arms and in the same way,
had Andrew johnson not been
where he is, has been transferred to the
political field and forum. II RACES to-
day in Congress and throughout the
country with greater bitterness than
ever before. The President, on the
one hand, leads and represents, both in
purpose and spirit, those who revolted
against the Government, and seeks in
their interest to prevent the recon-
structiOn of the rebelIious States till
after the next presidential election.
The majority party in Congress repre-
sents the purpose of that portion of the
people of the United States who resist
ed the attempt to break up the Govern
ment, vino were finally successful, so
far as the arbitrament of arms could
decide, i'll Overthrowing the revolt, and
who seek the speedy and permanent
restoration of those States to their place
in the Union. Believing that the prin-
ciples represented and advocated by
the Republican majority in Congress,
as distinguished from those which an
innate Mr.. johnson and the party whose
leader he seeks to be, are the only prin-
ciples on which the country can be
thoroughly pacified and made free and
prosperous in all its parts, we shall
constantly labor with such zeal and
capacity as we may possess to uphold
the hands of Congress in its endeavors
to maintain government in the Uni
ted States under which the rights of
all persons guiltless of crime shall be
equal and equally protected. We shall
labor with like constancy and zeal to
promote in our own state the success
of those principles which are essential
in securing to our people the fruits OF
the war and in maintaining the gov
eminent of the State in the hands of
its friends.