Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1853-05-13
Mr. Wootton,s Speech.

city Tuesday night by referring to the circum
stances under which he had become a candi.
date. The position was one, he said,which h,
had not sought nor desired but he had moi
felt himself at liberty TO decline call made
under the circumstances attending his nomina.
ton, and he should shrink from no responsible
ity nor duty which il imposed. The times de-
manded of every true Wing. and every we'll
wisher of the country, The sacrifice OF every
personal consideration which might obsiruot
the consecration of whatever capacity aud en-.
crgy he possessed 10 the public good. Late
events and the movements Of the party in OPP.
position. bad excited in the minds of dispass.
ionate and rejecting men just and lively ap-
prehenson that the fundamental principles of
our government were about to be subverted
by the insane plots and antiques OF selfish pol
iticians
Civil government, he said, was instituted
for the protection of rights, not for their bes-
towal. 1t was designed TO guard and defend
mankind in the possession and enjoyment OF
such rights as they derived from nature and
from the common Consent OF the whole-to dc
fend the weak against the powerful the viz
iuous from the vicious, the few from the ma.
ny. Our republican government was not
that of the many for the good ofthe few, nor
that Of the few for the good of the many, but
that of the whole for the good of the whole
Every attempt TO appropriate privileges to
themselves by one portion. to the exclusion Of
another, was blow struck at the vital cen.
tire of our system. Especially was this the
case, with regard TO the great primary and
paramount principle of popular representa-
lion, which was designed TO secure equal rights
and privileges 10 all in the administration of
the government.
But what.he asked had we seen on the part of
the dominant party in this State A deliberate
and avowed altemp, had, recently for the first
time, been made by them, so to arrange the
congressional districts as to deprive the mnori-
ty of all voice in the government, and rob them
of those equal rights which had been acquired
for them by the blood of their revolutionary
fathersand guranteed by the solemn attachments
Of the constitution and the laws With a spirit
of intolerance and n craving for power with
out precedent and without principle, they had
not only driven from the public service men
who had for years performed important func
,iops without the slightest impeachment of their
official conduct, but they had endeavo' ed by
artifce and irekery TO silence the voice Of six
ty thousand ireemen, and etfectualy debar
them from any participation in the honors or
control of the government. And this they
they had taken,to support constitution whose
provisions were directly opposed to the schem,
whereby they sought to accomplish it. Tha
constitution required that the congressional
districts should DO composed of contiguou,
counties be compact aid should con
tain as nearly as possible equal federal mum
bers. Let any man take the map of Virginii
and mark out the districts as they were forme,
by the democratic majority in the last Legis
laure--let him observe the great disparity o
federal population and the cunning combina
ton, by which each district was sought to b.
made safe to the party in power,and reconcile
it. if he could, with the positive inunctions o
the fundamental law. and tho sacred sanction
of the representative oath. He appealed t,
the people, of whatever party division, to know
whether they were willing to tolerate and en-
courage procedure so Ubiquitous and DANCE
rons as this. II concerned all parties alik
that The integrity of our representative system
and henvioabity OF the constitution shout,
be preserved.
He next adverted to the party movement
increasing the power of the state in the man
agement ofjoint stock companies. He argue,
to show that the object of this measure, as o
the other, was party advantage-that it, too
was in violation of the spirit of our -constiu
ton and laws, which held sacred and intangi
BILE the validity OF contracts. and that it TO,
could not but be seriously detrimental TO thu
pubic interest In regard to the banks,i it wa.
an attempt to get possession Of the captal q
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