The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-09-24
A Plain Case Plainly Put.

The rebel sheet in this city, very ap-
propriately, comes to the rescue of
Judge Harrison, of the Clarksburg Cir
cult, and defends his recent decision in
the Hampshire Court, concerning the
registration of voters. The argument
ofthe defence is this: The test oath for
voters was not authorized by the Con-
stitutiou when the registry law was
passed; that part of the registry law
prescribing that oath was therefore null
and void; and being a nullity from the
beginning no, subsequent change in the
Constitution could give it force. That
we believe is an exact statement oftheir
point.
Now, we submit: 1t had never been
decided by any competent tribunal that
the test oath for voters was not author
lied by the Constitution when incorpo-
rated in the registry law. But to give
these fellows the full advantage of their
argument: Surprising the incorpora-
ton of the test oath in the registry law
was unauthorized, we call attention to
the fact that everything else in that law
0Hs authorized by the Constitution; and
therefore aCGs in force from the day of
its passage, and therefore was in force
when Judge Harrison's decision was
rendered. There is not even pretence
of denying this, either on the part of
Judge Harrison or his allies. That law
made it the duty of the registrar to reg
lister those "entitled to vote" 1t did
not specify who was entitled, because
the Constitution specifies that and emu
merates the classes excluded. Take the
registry law without the test oath, then,
as these gentlemen claim to have it, and
we find that the registrar in determin-
ing who are voters, is to be governed by
the constitutional provision, not as it
may have been at some former period,
but precisely as it is at the moment he
executes the law. Since the twenty
fourth day of last May the Constitution
has contained a provision that no
person who, since the first day of June,
1861, has given or shall give voluntary
aid or assistance to the rebellion against
the United States, shall be allowed to
vote at any election in this State. The
registrar, therefore, had no more au-
thority on the day Judge Harrison's
| order was made, to register as a voter
any person who had voluntarily en-
gagged in the rebellion, than he had to
register minor, or pauper, an idiot, a
| nonresident, a convicted traitor or
felon for they are all placed by the Con-
stitution in precisely the same category.
Judge Harrison had exactly the same
authority to command the registration
of any person belonging to either of the
classes named, rs to command the reg
istration of a person who had notori-
Ously given voluntary aid to the rebel
lion and who confesses the fact by de-
claring he "could not" swear to the
contrary.
The truth is, Judge Harrison's action
in this fmatter involves SO gross and
palpable a violation of the obligation
of his high Office that it meets unqunli-
fed condemnation from every body,
but rebels and copperheads. One
of the Judges of the higher Court
was so astonished on readingit that he
forgot the usual reticence of the Bench
and declared the decision an absurdity;
that he could not conceive how any
Judge could reach such a conclusion
except by jumping at it; and added
that, while before the ratification of the
Amendment there might have been
some excuse for such action, now there
was none whatever.
And when Judge Harrison goes still
further, and compels the registrar, for
honestly doing his duty under the plain
requirements of the Constitution they
both have sworn to obey, to pay the
costs of rebel prosecutions, his action
becomes still more reprehensible. We
would be glad to believe it was only
the result of ignorance, but are compel
led to say the surroundings do not
leave room for even this much charity.
Resolutions OF the Right RinG---VVhat