The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1866-10-11

Many of these old gentlemen pay IN.
or sfr hundred dollars tax, and yet IN.
! this arbitrary power are prohibited from
voting. |. for one, cannot endorse a "a.
of men who agree to such action n
county officers.
cannot support Mr.. Kitchen, forth
reasons that he endorses the Radjcai
Congress, which forced Negro Suffyaqs
on the District of Columbia, against the
expressed wish of the people. He !.
also in favor of the Constitution
Amendment, because it fixes the trua
status of the American citizen. Mr..
says my record is already we'll KNOW
to the people of this Congressional Dis
triet. and of the State. It is found in
my declarations at home and abroad
before the war, during the war, and
since the war;" Now, what was hi.
record at the beginning of the war. He
was then a true Union man, and was in
that great Union meeting held in Mar.
tinsburg on the 18th of May, 1861, when
the large Court Hall, with its galleries
was so crowded that many stood in the
entrance beyond the front doors, where
the true Union men put forth the fol.
lowing resolutions:
/. We do therefore Resolcc, That We
the body of the County of Berkeley
here assembled, representing, we verify
believe, the sentiments of our people
will on the 23d inst. cast our votes
against the Ordinance Of Secession.
. That we have never yet agreed to
break our allegiance to that Constitution
which was signed by George Washing.
ton, framed by James Madison, ad-
ministered by jefferson, Judicially ey-
jackson, defended by Webster, and
lived for by Clay.
8. That we have never known Vir.
ginia save as State in the United
States, and all our feelings of State
pride are indelibly associated with her,
as bright star in the constellation of
glorious and united country.
4. That we have lived happily under
the great Government of States United
and if that Government has oppressed
us by any of its acts, Legislative, Elk.
ecutive, or Judicial, during its existence
as one great General Government we do
not know it.
5. That we owe no allegiance to the
North or the South, to Abraham Lin
coin or to Jefferson Davis. We would
wish to live and die in United Re-
public of Free States, but if we cannot
we ask to choose our masters.
| Now, is it possible after all of this,
that that Constitution never fixed the
true status of the American citizen.
George Washington never knew it
when he signed it, Madison never knew
it when he framed it, Jefferson never
knew it when he administered it, Mar
shall, jackson, Clay and Webster never
knew when they defended it, and the
true Union men never knew it when
they put forth those resolutions. Now
think Mr.. Kitchen is in honor bound
to inform the true Union men of this
county how he found it out that it never
can citizen, or has he been informed by
those who have settled in our county as
missionaries from the school of Wendell
Phillips, who has denounced the Consti-
tuition of the United States as "a cove
nance of the Devil, and league of Hell, y
because it refuses to fix the true status
. of the American citizen by not putting
the white and black races on political
q and social equality. 1t is my opinion
that is what Mr.. Kitchen means by the
true status of an American citizen
Il. e., the political and social equality OF
the white and black races. | wish to
, ask the citizens of Berkeley county
. who is the rebel. The man who refuses
a to break his allegiance to the Consti'
! tuition of our fathers, or the man who is
o willing to do it by an amendment which
a forces Negro Suffrage on ten of the
+ States, which is unnecessary ,ungenerous
and uncalled for. Call me what you
: please, gentlemen, ! am no Rebel, neithel
a Radical Rebel or Southern Rebel, but
I A TRUE UNION NAN.