Wheeling times and advertiser. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1839-1849, 1845-08-14
VIRGINIA NO5

VIRGINIA NO ,.
An examination ot the whole debates i'm the
OF 1929 has failed To produce To us
one argument why representation through the
state should not he uniform and based upon
the population alone. 1t is AN axiom, a self
propo ,ition, requiring no proofand add
no argument. AZ is ai essential quail
~ Of a free government with out which gov
eminent ceases TO b. tree. ANY other basis of
representation gives tire minority power To rule
and regulate the majority. The establishment
OF this principle was the main grounds OF the
revolutionary measures adopted by our anccs-
tors. They had no quarrel with the king oil
England, nor was it from the power of the
King alone that they wished to relieve them
selves. Had the government to which they
were a colony been confided to the hands of the
Lords OF England, self appointed or elected by
a uthe-oi the people, our fore fathers would
have been no better satisfied. They severed
themselves from England because as colonies
they were governed by a power which they
were allowed no agency in creating. They
were amcnable TO laws which they had no hand
in training; and we in Western Virginia are
amenable 10 laws which We cannot make or
unrnake, because we are not represented, be-
cause a majority of the people are in a~legisla-
tive mlnority-the legislative majority acting
under a constitution which, without u rccur-
renee 10 and action on first principles, protects
them from any apprehension of the power of
the people and gives them the privilege to
dole out blessings or pour curses upon the ma
Jonty, as they i'll their august will and pleasure
shall deem eXpedient.
This has been considered i'm all other states
arr,'among all other people, as just and ample
grounds Tor recurrence To first principles or
revolution Ii is robbing the freeman of a
natural right which he cannot surrender and
be a freeman, OF a right that is admitted by all
other protested republicans to be malienable.
Though the majority may for q time be delud-
ed into a surrender Of il by the false, artificial
and vicious institutions of society framed of
the relics of monarchical power, they will rise
at last and assert and enforce their proper and
jus, right. That honesty is the best policy is
admitted by all to be in social life a maxim of
unequalled worth. 1t is not the less SO in our
political relations. The majority of the com
mumlty soon grow restless under oppression.
They ask, then demand, then force their rights
and the longer they are withheld the more
deeply they are invaded, the more stern the
retribution.
The friends of the present system of repre-
seh'atlon have. not even the poor excuse for
perslsting in il, that iii is in the term used By
ireemen, legal. 1t is commended and admitted
III all our Tree governments that all power
emanates from the people. They posses
sed originally all the rights which gov
ernments can possess. They can delegate no
powers which they do not themselves possess,
and no power is legal or binding upon the peo-
pie which they did not delegate. To contend
thatany other is binding would be to go behind
the English constitution TO the darkest ages of
despotism. The power now exerted BY our
constitution Is not and never was delegated by
the peoPle-lt Is not a compact made by all for
the good OF all. The House of Burgesses was
created by the King of England and constitu-
ted Dy ms authority of persons elected by the
ireehoiders possessed gilmore than one hundred
acres oil unimproved land or fifty acres of i'm
proved land, while Virginia was in colonial
duress. This was a minority, clearly, Of the
g eecRRgglSSii ,h IN d 115sa whep 9n NiH5E 5ais 6 s%ff Hn4ss. the
was dissolved by the authority that created il.
inc crown, and they became private citizens
III warren; the same persons assembled with
out authority or election, declared themselv yes
q |colVenuoi"arld went on to pass laws. The
people submitted, and in Nav and June they
met again as before, passed an election law
reducing the amount of freehold required for
suffrage one half. The electors thus c~onstitu.
ted elected members of a convention which
met In lTI6 and adopted the old constitution
without any change in suffrage. Under ,ha
~ "hD hO uBDbIllblllIltlll IT,
garding the rights ofthe people, The presen
constitution was adopted by a convention call
ed together under a law passed by the lepisla
lure, a body constituted, as we have stated
winch provided representatives not represent
ing equally the people. Thus have the au
thority and wishes of the people been disre
garded or never consulted. They have neve
had an opportunity of acting upon the law
under which they live, they have thus neve
been allowed a voice III framing them. Thou
sands upon thousands of abuses have at differ
ent times crept into the legislative, judicia
anu executive departments o~fgovernment, an
where they have seemed to affect the interest
OF the eastern freeholders they have been cor
rccted; but others have been suffered to exis
or were only amended i'm a degree to satisf,
the public mind or to calm excitement int
which the intelligent and thinking had rouse,
it.
/, AT the time of the adoption of the old con
%stitution which succeeded in retaining the oil
freehold feature only because the trainers feaI
/, ed to alarm the freeholders by any change @
representation or suffrage, Mr.. Jefferson ad
monished the members of the legislatures {
seek a change as early as possible, equalizin
the representation upon the sole basis of no
pulation and abolishing the property qualiGca
ton. In 1870 a memorial was laid before In
Legislature asking this change in the represen
tation. 1t was continued year after year wit
an increasing perseverance and but littl
change obtained except to strike off some q
the surplus representatives. about Williams
burgh, until the meeting of the Stanton Con
vcn.iOn of 1916. At the next session. i'm ordc
TO avoid a convention by the people, the basi
oi white population ~wasadopted for the Senate
The inequality was again felt in 1890, by th
time the a~ppoTtionment had taken full effect
Another excitement followed and the friend
OF reform and equality, the friends of our re
publican institutions assembled again a
Stanton, and after long aud perscvering el
lorts these friends procured the convention O
1923,
A LEG ONER TIE TRACES Tho oil