The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-09-23
For the Registerl
The Right Of Suffrage II t. Dearest
Right Of the Ereeun6n

Right 0f the Ereeu13n
The first section Of the third article OF
the constitution of this State prescribes
the qualifications of a voter therein
The right to vote. is the Highest and
dearest right of the freeman To take
from him that right, for any real or i'm
aginary offence heretofore orNhich may
be hereafter committed, is the severest
punishment that can be imposed upon
him. The right to vote carries with it
the right to hold office in this State. Ev-
erv sane citizen OF this Stateof twenty
one years of age and upwafds, Except
the felon or one under nsictiaa of bri-
berry at an election,) has this nndoubted
right to vote and hold Office scared to
him by the constitution, and we maintain
it cannot be taken from him by ordinary
legislation.
The opinion is too well settled TO re-
quire argument, or to produce iauthorl-
ties that an act of Congress orofa State
Legislature, in violation of the Federal
or State constitution, is rOid al: initio-a
dead letter upoa the statute book, and
binding upon none. No law writer OF
any respectability, in America 3r Eng
land, ever asserted a contrary opinion
Indeed il has become so universal as to
make it next to written law. Ut is the
"stare decisis" of both hemispheres, and
has never been denied until now. Sure
" Mr.. Attorney General E. B. Hall and
MIR. pro tenn Judge Nat Harrison will de-
serve we'll of their friends if they can
upturn these long established decisions.
Be this as it may, they have placed
themselves in Il position to be sharply
dealt with by those who believe that
constitutions are the supreme laws of
the country, and cannot be changed by
ordinary or partisan Legislation. =
The acts familiarly known rs the per
sonal liberty bills, passed by . number
of the Northern States-tO nullify the
fugitive slave law, and which the South
ern Seccs5ionists maintained on the floor
of Congress was a casus bcll and justified
secession, were openly and boldly met by
Republican members of the highest legal
ability, who took the broad ground that
these acts were ,cholly roid-that they
were violations of the Constitution of
the United States, and had 10 binding
validity whatever, and that they were
mere scare crows-and quoted authori-
ties and decisions that acts passed by
Stat, legislatures in violation ofthe Con-
stitution of the United StateswTe ,Oid
alb initio. This was acceptedas conclu-
sive authority then, and we apprehend
no unprejudiced mind will believe other
wise now. We so understood the law, aud
opposed secession Us q remedy for these
Unconstitutional enactments. We main-
tanned then as we do now, that the Con-
stitution is the supreme law of the land,
and no legislative enactmelits. could
override, or set il aside. But IN the
phrenzy of the moment, the exsted and
maddened Southerner sought yto break
il in pieces by unconstitutional enact
ments, and in 50 doing, brought upon
the country the most disastrous civil
war known to history-producing re-
suits which all now regret, and which Is
an argument written in blood, conclusive
and final, against unconstitutional acts.
1t is an automatic principle In all free
Governments, that no government can
long be permanent without fixed laws to
govern it, and no people long remain
prosperous and happy, who disregard
those laws The study and aim OF the
law.maker should be to make laws pur-
suant to the Constitution, and not to vi
olate it, in spirit, or letter: Many per-
sous believe that courts make laws. This
is mistake they neither make nor un-
make laws. They only decide lrhat the
lair is. An act passed in violation of the
Constitution is no la,e at all-and no Judge,
or Other lar officer, can give it binding
force. The right to vote in thisState, is
fixed by the fundamental law, and no
act of the legislature thereof gan take
away that right. LEWIS
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