Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1850-06-03
From the Enquirer
z VII H0o 11T17HF7tT'
ADDRESS OF HENRY A. WISE, ESQ.

northampton.
| FELLOW CITIZENS The call of a Convention
to reform the Constitution of the State of Viz
GINA is now certain, and you will soon be re-
quired by the Governor to elect tmo persons to
represent you IN that body. am already cam
dldate for one OF the seats to be filled BY your
voices. and have announced myself thus early in
order to anticipate all caucus nominations and
all personal intrigues, and expressly to assert
the privilege aud to honor the custom of teclar-
ing. ones self ID candidate for popular suffrage,
without waiting to know either what will be
the current OF popular feeling and sentiment, or
what one'S oCn particular friends can be pot to do
for him in the name Of all the sovereign people,
| am candidate for the sake of principles
which cherish far more sacredly than do E.
ven popular favor or public honors am indie
pendent OF ali persons, parties caucases or fac
tons; and, II cannot be allowed to promote
these principles desire not to be elected To
preventall misunderstanding, and. especially,
all Misrepresentation. present to YOU a brief OF
my opinions and will discuss them fully before
you III person
LIST. hold that YOU, the sovereign people, are
absolute IN your right, power and authority to
organize or reform yoIr State Constitution of
government as you may will. The work is yours
without exception or qualification, and YOU may
of absolute right order it to be done in YOUR own
way, and your representatives in the Cenven
ton F" i'll be bound to obey you no matter how
your will may be made known, with all their
might and influence-by their votes, by their
debates, by their thoughts, by their deeds in
doors and out OF doors. You will be the prin-
cipals, and your representatives will be but
your mere trustees and agents, and they will be
bound to obey you with hearty good will and
good taIth--or they ought not to attempt or ask
10 represent you at all.
Promising thus; proceed to the great cues
lions OF constitutional reform.
2ndly. hold that free mental instruction is a
right Of all the people, rich and poor, for their
children. male and female land that it is the
duty OF the State to make Free Schools, primary,
academic and collegiate, constitutional provision
That property chiefly ought to be taxed Tor their
support. That Literary funds as a charitu to
poor children ought TIC be abolished. And that
the people themselves ought to elect their own
School Commissioners and Teachers and that
they themselves, ought to lay their own taxes
TOR Schools in such mode as they may choose.
TO be regulated by law.
3dly. hold that the Legislative Executive
and Judiciary Departments ought to be not only
separate and distinct from each other. but mel
Their ought to be appointed or elected by the O.
Their.
4thly. I hold tina, the only true element of
feP' "e'tstatoH III tae Legislature IS me 1E1 or the
people. That property, whether it consists of
houses and lands, or carriages and cash. or an
OK or an ass; or maid servant, or a man ser
want, or OF anything that is mans, hasiag no
1c1H fsas no right as such TO be represented NOR
ally, the o,rner of it has the right only to have
It protected by the constitution and the law
That representation ought to be fairly and equal
ly as possible apporioned among the LEGAL cottys
OF the State, those who are endowed by the
Creator with reason, free will and conscience.
and by the Constitution with political entity and
the franchise of suffrage. That the will of the
majority OF legal voters. subject only TO the Con
s'tut1onal guarantees OF protection to inorities of
persons and to property, ought TO give the law to
the State. That mnorities Of persons, represent
e. and property, unrepres ented, are entitled to
Coast,tut'onM guarantees Of protection, and the
majority III Convention is bound to provide them
That they can be easily provided and can be
made ample and certain securities against all
unequal burthens and oppression upon minor
ity or upon property.
That our present representation in the Legs
iature-based as it is, practically on slures, Who
have no political voice or entity, on carriages.
which are In many instances but extravagant
luxuries and Oh licenses to sell whiskey. vhicl.
are human curses-is not only fundamepta]ly
arlstocralc and anti-republican, bit it has pror-
ed utterly futile and fallaeious in protecting the
State from an onerous debt ef fifteen millions Ct
dollars tor local works of minor importance or
value to any, and of no value to the Underwater
region, while it deorades our brethren in the
Western portion of the State by its inyidious in
equality. | am convinced that an egrepious
mistake was made by the Chesapeake people in
the Convention which formed the presen. Con-
s'llutlon, by not uniting cordially and on equal
terms with their natural allies the people of the
valley and the Trans-Alleghany. Had they
done SO, the State of Virginia would have been
fifty years i'll advance of what she is now. For
the last twenty years, ever since the date of the
present Constitution, we have been year after
year deserted In the Legislature by the Piedmont
section, with whom we did unite on the mixed
basis, because they deemed it their interest to
obtain legislative bounties for works of no ad-
vantage to lis and Of doubtful advantage 10 the
State, by Clog rolling" with the transmontane
representation TO make mud turnp;kes' Neither
the East noF the West nor the State at large, has
been adequately benefited and yet we are bur-
dened With adebt Of fifteen millions Of dollarsi
attribute thus entirely to the mi1ed basis, which
IS the fruitful mother of the perncious offspring
OF "log rolling" which is the mother in regular
succession OF large and comparatively pro6tless
public debt
Inc west has been compelled 70 resort to clog
rolling" and to other allies than ourselves, 10
get its outlets to the ocean of trade as best il
could, and has been obliged to foreeo its natural
and rational desire for works of enlarged and
State importance for mere local Improvements
and we have been heavily taxed without the
least present or remote benefit. If we must be
taxed let 1t be Tor something, not for nothing =
for works to reach saltwater not for COUNTY
Court roads in the West, not for half constructed
railroads tending rather towards Baltimore than
our own seaports; not for State works to be
stopped above the falls of James River Invoke
you, for our own sakes, as we'll as theirs and the
States to make the West not only free and equal
but traterna with ourselves, They have the
toci of Western trade, the back country, the
Big Bend of the Ohio River, the minerals the
stock Cravings; and we have the Chesapeake
Bay with its rivers and harbors and Hampton
Roads, its sites for cities and its mar,s for com.
merce: Steam is fast dispensing with the old
sail ship AtlaEtic turnpike from New York to