Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1851-04-29


is the sentiment and determination Of the
East, and it may now be regarded as the
fixed and settled determination OF this body
In this aspect then bow can the mixed ba-
sis afford any protection to property 1t
assumes that property can only find sesur-
ity by being allowed to participate on equal
terms with persons in the partnership Of
government, and yet it wholly disregards
property 10 the sources from which this
power oil government is derived 1t gives
power to sections and districts, because Of
the existence Of property in these sections
and districts, and yet vests the means OF
controlling that very power in those who
have no interest in that property. deny
that in any State where universal Suffrage
prevails; where you permit those to con-
troll your representation who have not
property themselves, that you can upon
any arbitrary principle Of giving power to
districts, have that property represented
With any effect, in your legislative hail.
1t is an idle delusion. 1t is refined soph-
istry under which power and not protec-
ton is sought Property to have AN ac-
tive and potential Voice in your represen-
tative chamber must be able to speak at
the polls. If you divorce power and prop
erty there lit is divorce a riculo matri-
monii--never to be united again as an ac-
tive element in the same structure Of gov
eminent If you strip it of its influence
there--if you extinguish its voice at the
only point where representative power is
created, it is idle to speak of it as existing
in your representative system at all.
To show in all its proper coloring the
utter futility of this as scheme for the
protection of property would require per-
haps more intimate knowledge of the So
cial condition of the East than | am at
this time possessed of. Nevertheless /
believe the facts which shall lay before
this committee may be sufficient for my
present purpose as an illustration of my
views, and will here call to my aid por
ton Of the argument of the gentleman from
the city of Richmond, (Air. Meredith }
which ought of itself to bring kim to the
same conclusion to which | have arrived
lie tells us Ct quote his own language
"that property needs protection against
persons,-tbat the interests Of property
and persons are not Identical that in eve
ny community there are persons who hold
property and u larger number who do not
hold it, and their interests are inimical and
conflicting nearly to that extent He
then informs us shat our own statistics
disclose the remarkable fact that out of a
white population of 500, 1874 there are only
1873. 454 owning land, including minors,
women and non residents, and that there
are less than one fourth Of the entire white
population of the State on the taxable
list" Now supposing this to be an aecu-
rate picture Of the Of the condition Of things
in Eastern Virginia, and no man ought to
understand the social condition of that sec
ton of the State better than he hoes, up
on what baseless foundation does this
system ofproperty representation rest p
There is a hostility he says between those
who own and those who do not own prop
erty--the owners OF property are only one
fourth of the population--those who do
not own property are liable to be outnum.
bered and so outvoted at pleasure, by those
who do not own it. suffrage is to be uni
versal and without q property qualification
and upon this universal Suffrage by
which those owning none Of the property
may elect whom they please, he proposes
to erect a property representation |
ask that acute gentleman how he can re-
concile such propositions or how he can
expect us 20 yield our assent to incongrui-
ties so glazing?
Mr.. GooDE. Those statistics apply to
the State at large rot to the East.
Mr. FAULKNER Admit it. But I pre-
sumo the gentleman would hardly institute a
comparison between the East and West upon
that aspect of this question. One Of the
most striking characteristics of the West
ern portion Of the State is the equal dis
tribution Of wealth amongst its people, and
one of the most melancholy facts as it re-
CARDS the East, is its very unequal dstri-
button here, as shall have occasion in a
few moments ia develop. But taking even
these general statistics as the basis Of my
reasoning. Here is but one fourth having
an interest in property. With what SEM
biance of argument can he ask me, the
representative of a large tax-paying dis
trict in the Valley to surrender the inter
ests Of my people to an unchecked Eastern
vote, resting as their representative power
in the General Assembly must do upon
population, one fourth of whom only he
tells us have any interest in property. |
cannot imagine fact better calculated to
arouse my constituents than to suppose it
possible that could trample upon all the
safeguards of popular government and
surrender their interests to an unrestrain-
ed minority resting upon basis like this,
and all to carry out the miserable impos-
ture ola pretended representation of prop
orty.
But let us proceed a step further into
an examination of Eastern statistics
When heard the gentleman from Gooch-
land tMr. Leake,l some days ago common
ting in such feryid language upon the mon
strosity, in any community of permitting
those who ouly pay third of the taxes
to control the interests of that community,
it occurred to me that | would ask the au-
ditor to furnish me some details of The
county of Goochland, that might be ena-
bled to see how the principle of that gem
tleman We're practically carried cut in his
own county.
The following is the result with which