The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-07-07

| United States, and who has been or may
hereafter be honorably discharged there
| from.
1t must be evident to any person who
thinks at all that if this law be enforced
| in some of the counties within the limits
of this State there can be no elections
held. In several of the counties at least
nineteen twentieths of the citizens would
be excluded from the polls under the
operation Of that oath. 1t excludes not
only those who have borne arms in sup
port of the rebellion, but all who have
rendered any assistance, however trivial
| in its character, to the Southern cause
The man whose son was conscripted into
the rebel army, aud who gave to that
son an article of clething, nights lodg-
ing or a morsel of food, cannot take the
prescribed oath without committing per-
jury, and is disfranchised forever 1t is
| impossible to restore civil law in that
way, and it is mockery to call that a
republican form of government wherein
oue-twentieth or one-tenth of the people
| select the officers and administer the
government.
The law is as plainly in violation OF
| the constitution of the State rs it is I'M
polite and unwise. In the first place it
attempts to impose other qualifications
for electors than those fixed by the con-
stitution, thus altering that instrument
| in one of its most fundamental and vital
points. With equal justice and legality
could the Legislature pass an act taking
the privilege of voting in this State away
from the white race entirely, and bestOw
ing it upon the negroes, or declaring that
the government in each county should be
administered forever by special and Sc
lect committee Of one-tenth of the inhab-
itants, or do any other preposterous
thing. The right of suffrage is the most
sacred one the American freeman enjoys;
when that is tempered with or taken
away, he is freeman no longer. Hence
it is that this right is SO jealously guard
ed that it is not left subject to the ca.
price of the Legislature, but it is regnla-
ted and established by an article in the
constitution. which governs both the
Legislature and the people. If it were
not so, any political party that happened,
no matter by what means, to obtain con
troll of tia Legislature could disfranchse
all its opponents and secure for itself Il
perpetuity in office. In fact this is really
the object aimed at by the test oath of
which we are speaking But the consti
| tuition of the State wisely interferes with
the contamination of the iniquitiOus
scheme and, by bestowing the right of
suffrage upon the white male citizens of
the State, of sound mind, twenty-One
years of age and unconvicted of treason,
felony or bribery in an election, and who
shall have resided one year in the State
and thirty days in the county in which
he offers to vote, it protects the liberty
of the people and prevents. such en-
croachments upon their rights as that
attempted by the last Legislature. This
| test oath DISTINGUISHES citizens without
conviction of treason, and in cases where
such conviction would be impossible.
But there is also another ground upon
which the test oath bill is in violation
of the Constitution 1t was passed on
the 25th of February, 1865, and is intend
ed to punish individuals for otfenses
committed ever since the late rebellion
began, as far back as the spring of 1861,
OF even farther if the prejudices of the
officers of the election were disposed to
80 construe it. 1t thus has all the char
acteristics of an er post yfacto law, which,
according to the "Bill of Rights" set
forth in the second article of the Consti-
tuition, the Legislature has no power to
pass Such law is the essence of tyran-
nv. 1t inflicts a punishment which was
unknown and not threatened at the time
the offence was committed, and thus at
tempts to establish here one of the
worst and most unreasonable outrages
ever committed by despots Upon the
same principle, the Legislature may,
next winter, pass an act infiicting the
death penalty upon individuals for
deeds done to-day which are at this time,
80 far as the existing laws are concerned
perfectly innocent and legal. 1t is to
prevent the commission of legislative
crimes of this kind that the Constitution
forbids the passage of an er post tacto
law, and even places that prohibition in
the Bill of Rights" as one Of its most
sacred and imperative provisions.
If then, this test oath law be in viola
ton of the Constitution of the State (and
we do not see how anybody who has ever
read the Constitution can doubt it,) what
is the duty of the people concerning it {!
Simply this disregard it, The supervi-
sor or inspector of elections who attempts
to enforce it does so at his own peril
Should any citizen entitled to vote by the
Constitution of West Virginia be de-
barred from that privilegein consequence