Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-05-11
EVILS OF SLAVERY.

ruin upon the great mass OF your people!
Much applause.
EVILS OF SLAVERY.
Nor do its ills stop there, for the Jealousy
of those who own these slaves has denied
you rightful representation in your own
Legislature. To be sure, :he people OF
Virginia, as the people OF nil the Southern
Stutes, are deluied with the idea that
they are equal with any of the other white
men in tic other Stutes-thnt you have
equal political rights / mean. Dcluded,
because you have, l believe, i'll this State,
what is called uuivcrsa! suffrage. Every
white man OF the age of twcnty-one years.
can throw his ballot, but what does it
amount to, when it takes, as heard from
YOUR able report. forty thousand in this
! section OF the State TO bear down in the
political scale, ten thousand who Fortunate
/ iy live upon the sands of the Chesapeake ?
! Is there anything here, in Western Vr-
/ cinin, that makes man less than man
| OF Eastern VirginiaI Do you ncknowl-
! edge your iDferiority? These Democrats
i who live in your midst. who pro-
| claim everywhere the rights of these
| people, are they ready to- admit that it
| takes four of them to lie equal TO one man
or thesenshore2 [Loudrcpiics of"Ncver''
! "Nol"1 You can attribute this enforced
| inferiority, this disqualification, this dis
| franvhiscmeut-youc can trS &C 1t TO no other
source than to ;hs Jealousy of the slave
| holder, who is not content TO own his
slave, but must make slaves of his fellow
white men by disquniifying them, in order
| that he may he the more secure in the en-
| ioymcut OF that kind OF property.
i Virginia is not the only instance. Look
at your sister State OF Maryland. The
| city Of Baltimore has one half of the free
! white people of Maryland within her bor-
| der, and yet she has hut one Senator in
the Legislature OF Maryland, against thirty
odd; she has hut fen Representatives out
of seyeuty-fve; so that it requires ten
white men in the city of Baltimore to
equal one on the seaboGrd, where there Is
nothing but nigGcrs and hlackbirds.-
! Much laughter and great applause!
say that this qualification. this dis
! franchscmrni Of the free white men of the
! Slave States is deemed necessary by this
! oiigarchy for it3 security.
It breeds caste. Having nm inferior
race in your midst, il is m easy Transition
TO have another graduation; and they give
10 limited extent, to the non slavehold-
ers, political power, depriying the ne
grocs of il altogether, nS they should =
| But there is no white man upon the soil
of the United States that has not right to
claim equal privileges with any other
white man; and when any institution finds
it necessary for its own security to rob
white men Of their dearest privileges, theu
| say it is time for those who nave been 80
disrranchiscd to consider among them
selves what is best TO be done. [Great
applause.]
Evcn in the new State of Missouri, this
institution has worked ont its fatal and
certain effect There, there is a constitu-
tionai provision to this effect: that q
county having 81 certain ratio shall have
one representative, but if it has double or
treble thnt ratio, it is not to have two or
three Representatives, hut it falls of, ana
it requires n higher ratio to give it see
ond representative. The city of st. Louis,
with twenty-fnur times the ratio required
for small county, or spArsely settled
icountY-with twenty.foGr times the ratio,
has only twelve representatives; so that
YOU see it requires absolutely two men to
have the same political weight there that
one white man enjoys in another county.
This is done because the SHAREHOLDERS un-
derstanh the operation of these laws
! They know that where white men cOngre-
gate in manufacturing establishments, or
where dense population comes together,
slavery cannot exist, and therefore they
! djsfranchise those counties which have
large populations-reduce them down
make it necessary that they should have a
double and treble ratio in order to have Il
representation in the Legislature.
This is the certain and never failing eff
feet of the institution, because tits jealous.
Because the owners of slaves are jealous
of those who do not own them, they re-
ouire different and additional guarantees
for their safety; and if it is necessary for
their safety, they require that the free
utation which they are in justice entitled
to. Is there a white man-is there n ma
tive born Yirginian-is there any man in
Virginia who is not ready to cry aloud
against this atrocity2 Which of these
Democrats can look man in the face and
60 thnL fnr thn secrriLy. of this propcrty