The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-05-08
FROM UPsHUR COUNTY.
Radical Intolerance-Mob Spirit OF
the Borenan-Harris Pariy-Discus-
sion OF the Issue Gagged.

BUCKHANNON, W. Va,
May 3, 1866
Editors of the Register:
A few days ago call was issued for
meeting ofthe opponents Of the Constitt
tional Amendment and Registratio
Law TO be held in this place, on May 2t
1866. On yesterday, the appointed day
a vast crowd of the citizens of this an
adjoining counties assembled here TO
the purpose of hearing a discussion o
the issues involved in the present can
vass. AT the ringing of.the bell they
repaired to the Court House to find tn,
meeting packed and in process of ORGAN
ization, through the influence of prom
inent radicals. Men wearing the United
States uniform had been induced to be
lieve that the purpose of the meeting
was solely to advance the interests o.
those lately in rebellion against the
government and had unwillingly be
come the tools Of cowardly demagogues
to stife the discussion proposed An in.
vitation, addressed to the opponents OF
the constitutional amendment and the
registration law, was appropriated by
the friends of these measures, and with
threats by which they sought to fright.
en- with arms which, in their hands
were as harmless as their threats they
attempted to deter the denunciation OF
Legislative iniquity and avert the ex.
posure of radical corruption and radical
.infamy At the first stroke of the bell
a band of returned Federal soldiers
headed by such creatures as Pinnell
Farnsworth, Phillips and Poundstone
rushed into the court room, filed it and
excluded by their presence the conserva.
tives, whose meeting it was, with the
sickly grin that always accompanies
hereditary idocy, with the shrinking
cowardly front that marks the guilty
but unconvicted thief
Dan. Farnsworth proceeded TO move
the organization of the meeting by the
appointment of one Col Darnel, as Pres
ident This motion carrying, d S. Pin.
nell, a pedlar of pills, pukes and pare
goric, suggested that the pork dealer
aforesaid be requested to explain the
object of the meeting. n. H. Taft, Esq
Chairman Of the Conservative Executive
Committee for Upshur county, here in
terposed few remarks deprecating the
cOwardly advantage taken to prevent
by the aid of mob violence, the accom-.
plishment of the legitimate purposes OF
the meeting, and appealing to the audi,
ence to award patient hearing to the
speakers from a distance, Messrs Lane
and Walker, who had been invited to ad
dress them. He was, of course, inter
rupted by the howls of an hundred blat
ant agents of radical intolerance, who al
concerted signals, would raise such de
moniac yells as would have done credit
to carnival Of fiends When they hat
succeeded in silencing Mr.. Taft, they
heard with applause, the wall OF theil
superior in infamy, the pill pedlar, to the
effect that the Union people of the
county should not permit life.lon rebels
and men from other States to address
them; that the soldiers who had fought
four years to preserve the Government
should not be seduced from their patri
otto integrity by the sophisms of Ian,
guagei very complimentary to the intel.
ligence of the sOldiers;) that before any
one of these men would be- heard be
must give satisfactory evidence Of his
loyalty. that he must have voted tor
LincOlh and consistently supported his
administrative acts, IL which event lac
would he permitted 10 address the
audience for one half hour in elaboration
Of his views the remainder of the day,
(sOme four or I've hours TO be used by
the Radical orators in refutation
OF whatever he might advance
This attempt at arbitrary dictatien was
indignantly spurned by Col. Lane, who
succeeded in gaining the attention of
the audience for few moments He
made an appeal 10 their Justice aud man
hood IN behalf Of free speech aud fair
play, which told so powerfully that the
radical leaders gave a signal for howl
from the bounds and lu the tumult and
confusion of that phTenzied mob, whose
yeils were INVOKED to drown the words
that we're pleading for the right The
impossibility OF fair play before that au.
dierce was thoroughly demonstrated
IL the meantime. the crowd without
largely exceeding that within the house,
" Here clamoring for the invited speakers
to come out Of doors and speak to men
who 1ere willing to hear aud protect
them. First IN one and then in another
quarter of the room some generous radi
cal woDld rise and lift his voice above
the din in behalf of fair play TO the men
who stood almost alone npOn the stand
as the representatives OF conservatism
and as often would that armed and or.
ganized band of friendly fanatics stifie
bv their threats and yells the manly mt
terauces Of the noble souls who plead for
Justice The odium Of their infamy was
now fastened upon the authors OF this
glaring iniquity By Mr. Fl. g Walker,
who arose and offered an equitable al.
rangement of the disputed terms Of dis
cussion aud made its acceptance depend
on the manhood and honor OF those he
addressed He proposed that Colonel
Lane be heard for one hour, to
be followed for the same time
By radical speaker his speech to be
succeeded by 8 conservative address
three quarters of an hour in length and
then the remainder Of the day, undis
turbed possession of the stand audience
Court House and square TO be given
over to the radicals or, if this were not
acceptable, he proposed to refer the pre-
liminaries Of discussion to a committee
composed of an equal number of the
friends of each party, whose arrange
ment should be adopted As we'll might
he have invoked the generosity of wild
and maddened maniacs as we'll might
be have appealed to the nobility OF in
furiated brute instinct, working out the