The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-01-30
alluded to was long ago dissolved. The
members of the firm never agreed very
we'll together. e
Qualifications Of Voters.

Virginia:
GENTLEMEN; The constitution of our
new State, declares "that all white male
citizens of the State shall be entitled to
vote at all elections, in the election dis
tricts in which they reside" 1872
Query: Can any citizen, by any test
oath, or by other way, or continuance,
not named in the Constitution, be depriv-
ed of his right to vote, or, in other words,
can you constitutionally take from the
citizen his right to vote, without first
taking from him his citizenship, OF that
which makes him a citizen!
Again; Is citizenship, or the right to
vote, right or franchise, which the Leg
islature can at its pleasure, gire to any, or
take aray from any1
If this right is given, or conferred and
defined by the constitution, can the Legis-
lature take it way; or if the constitution
makes me citizen, can the Legislature
unmake me, or if the constitution clothes
me with citizenship, can the Legislature
unclOthe me!
What is the difference, or is there
difference, between constitutionallaw and
right, and law and right by mere enact
ment of the Legislature, and which is it.
self, the creature of the same cOnstitu-
ton? Can the stream rise above its
source or fountain!
But again: This Constitution pro-
vides. that in time of war, insurrection,
or public danger" every citizen may be
required to make oath to support the
Constitution of the United States, and
the Constitution of this State, Oh pain OF
suspension of his right to vote, or to hold
Office seeing then, that this Constitution
has provided what oath may be de-
manded of the voter in time of war,
instruction or public danger, can the
Legislature in such contingency add an
other OF different oath or disability from
that the Constitution has prescribed in
such case? If it can, it seems to me to
follow, that it can alter, add to, or
change the Constitution at pleasure, and
that the Constitution can guarantee no
right to the citizen which the Legisla-
ture may not take away, Butisit not true,
that Constitutions are made to limit and
restrain Legislative power and authority
as well as that of Governors and Judges.
Again: If the Constitution gives and
guarantees citizenship, with the
right of voting, can one be deprived or
denied such right without trial and
Judgment by judicialitribunals
Is not the State, and every citizen of
the State, interested in seeing that no
voter is deprived of this right contrary
to law and the Constitution This gives
you the reason why thus address you
Breaches of the Constitution and infrac-
tons of the rights of the private citizen,
are more injurious to the State than the
loss of many elections. The one can be
repaired, the other cannot. If the highest
forms of law can be broken or disregarded
at pleasure, Constitutions are worse than
waste paper, and the rights of the citizens
and the safety of the State are at the
mercy of the winds. Bills OF right
are declared, and Constitutions are
made, to define and limit the powers
of government, i'll its legislative as well
as in it's executive and judicial depart
ments, and also to create or to define GER
tain rights and liberties on the part of
the people, with the highest guarantee
the body polite can give, namely by
making the same part and parcel OF the
VERY ORGANISM of the State. When the
organism of the body is diseased or rup-
tured, the body will soon fall Why are
we now engaged in this terrible war
against the South! Is it not to enforce
what the North supposes to be its consti-
tutional right and the South's cOnstitu-
tional obligation!
Gentleman let us beware, let us not
sap, or undermine the great bulwarks of
freedom, because of temporary uneasi-
ness or alarm; but the truth is, the great
er or more real our supposed danger may
be, with its consequent excitement, the
greater is the necessity for caution and
deliberatiOn on the part of the Legisla-
ture. A CITIZEN.