The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-03-12

| Washington, and whom they follow
as the flock of sheep do the shepherd,
gravely proposed last September to seiz
upon three hundred and ninety -four mi
lion acres of land in the Southern State:
Twenty four times as much as the VIII oil
territory ofWest Virginia contains, an,
appropriate it to the support of tn
freedmen aud the payment of the ma
tional debt This is his plan for INA
turing the conditions of permanen
peace" 1t is manifest that he too doe
not contemplate for generations to com,
| the restoration ofthe Union. And thes,
are the great leaders of the radical party
| Are they or their party unionists or dis
unionists They know very we'll thai
the maintenance of the Union under the
constitution, will be the downfall of the
party throughout the country, just as
the restoration of harmony and free gov
ernment here will prov Q the downfall
OF the same party in West Virginia.
They do not intend, if they can prevent
it, to let these feHdS subside The as
tendency of their party depends upon
keeping them alive and they are dis
unionists, because they value the per-
petuation Of their own power, more than
they do the constitution or the Union.
We have high authority for saying
there are disunionists in the North, as
we'll as in the South.
But it is said that if these test oaths
are repealed, and the constitutional
amendment rejected, disloyal men will
obtain the control of the State Govern
ment and this is the main argument
which is relied upon to vindicate these
measures Has it then come to this ;
Must we abolish free elections, because
we dare not trnst the people of West
Virginia to vote Must we put our
whole confidence in these members of
the Legislature who tell us: I'VE only
are loyal-give us the power of the State,
for the people cannot be relied upon g.
Shall we suppress the freedom of cleo
tions of speech and of the press, upon such
pretence as this, and to make such men
our masters !
Apprehensions have been artfully ex'
cited that there is danger of the State
government passing into disloyal hands,
but this is a mere pretext, used by these
men to keep themselves in power. An
overwhelming majority of the people of
West Virginia are, and always have
been true to the Union and the State
The disloyal element, (unless we count
as disloyal all who are opposed to rad
icaI misrule,) cannot obtain the ascend
ency by means of free elections, for the
simple reason that they have not votes
enough All our elections show this TO
be the fact When the secession ordi.
nance was put to vote in May, 1861,
there were about thirty seven thousand
votes against il, in what is now the
State of West Virginia. The majority
AGAINST il was twenty-five thousand,
and NOT one fourth of the vote given was
ia ITS favor. More than three tourths of
our voters were loyal at that time
When the amended constitution of West
Virginia, including the provision to
abolish slavery which was proposed by
Congress, was voted upon in March.
1868, the vote stood %, ,32l in its favor, to
572 against it. Here then we have over
twenty-eight thousand loyal votes, for,
though some loyal men did not vote for
this constitution, it cannot be supposed
that the votes which were given for il
were disloyal Governor BoremaE, in
May, 1868, received 25,797 votes, and the
loyalty of these votes, we presume, will
not be disputed. At the Presidential
election i'll November 1864, Mr.. Lincoln
received 23,l52 votes, and General Nc.
Clelan l0,435. Certainly thirty thons-
and of these votes were loyal, and we
believe a much larger number were so
But Mr.. Lincoln himself received ma
jority of the whole vote of the State; for
we cannot estimate the whole number of
voters now in the State, possessing the
qualifications required by the first sec
tion Of the third article of our constitu-
ton, to exceed fOrty-One thousand, in
Guiding disloyal votes and all, and 20
5Ol are therefore "A majority of all the
votes that could be given. The truth is,
that the disloyal vote of the State
is too small to justify any apprehen-
sion that they could control our cleo
tiOns, if they were free Wo do not be-
lieve that the leaders of the radical fac
ton in the State seriously apprehend
anything Of the kind, though they use
the argument and have used it with
some effect, to frighten loyal men into
their support. This argument, with the
of all who are opposed to
them and their measures as disloyal, and |
the appeal to the natural feelings OF ma
Lightly and revenge which too often rule |
the human heart, have constituted their
political capital
In conclusion fellow citizens, we would
again appeal to you, in all sober earnest
ness, to exert yourselves in this crisis of
cur affairs. Register yOurselves-ergsn-
ize-vOte. Let these men see that they
have exhausted the patience and reused
the indignation Of tho people by. their
revolutionary measures We have ev-
erythiDg at stake. Let men Of all par
ties, Democrats, Wings and Republicans
if they have the interest Of the State at
heart, and value their own liberties,
unite and exert themselves to put an end
to this system of misgovernment before
it has been fastened upon us forever.
For the furtherance and completion of
such an organization as is necessary TO
secure and preserve constitutional lib
erty in this State, we earnestly recon-.
mend the people Of the several counties
to appoint, in such manner as they may
deem best, delegates to represent their
ia the State Convention TO be
held at Clarksburg, Harrison county, on
Thursday, April 18th
By order of the Committee,
ID. LAMB. Chm.
Wheeling, March 10, 1866.