The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-10-31

indicted for larceny or other crime,
convicted and sentenced, upon allega-
tion of deprivation of liberty without
due process of law, we may bring the
case before the Federal tribunals for
revision and reversal. So, too, If o
murderer be arrested, tried, convicted
and sentenced to be hung, he may claim
the protection of the new constitution
al provision, allege that State is about
to deprive him of life without due pro-
cess of law, and arrest all further pro-
ceedings until the Federal Government
shall have inquired whether State has
o right to punish its own citizens for
an infraction of its own laws, and
have granted permission to the State
tribunals to proceed. Under such .
system the liberties of the people
could not long be maintained.
As already remarked, free govern
ments can be preserved only by keeping
the power near the people, to be exer-
cised through local agencies. Under this
new system, State and local authority
would not at once disappear. For some
time they would contest jurisdiction
with the Federal Government; but the
inevitable and constantly increasing
tendency would be for the control of
domestic affairs to steal away from
the people, the States and local munich
pal bodies, and centralize and concen-
trate in the hands of the Federal Gov
ernment, and rs party conflicts intensl-
fled and party victories alternated, the
power would be more and more mex
orably used by tho dominant party to
punish its enemies, reward its friends
and strengthen and perpetuate its hold
upon the power and patronage OF the
Government. Be assured if this new
provision be engrafted in the Constitu-
ton, it will, in time, change the entire
structure and texture of our Govern
ment, and sweep away all the guaran-
tees of safety devised and provided
by our patriotic sires of the revolution.
1t is impossible to maintain our wise
and happy form of Government without
the independence and SOW
ereipnty of the States within their ap-
propriate and constitutional spheres.
They are of primary and vital import
anee. The States may exist and per-
form their functions without the Union
or the Federal Government. The Union
and the Federal Government cannot
exist without the States, and they
must be States Of equality-equal in
dignity, equal in rights, equal in power,
equal in the control, absolute and un-
of all things pertaining to
their internal and local policy and in
terests.
REPRESENTATION.
Another blow which the proposed
aims at the Government
which our fathers founded, is in the
change of the basis of representation.
This wonld be of very pernicious effect.
Aggregate population is the true basis
IF representation. No matter how the
elective franchise be disposed OF, wheth-
Or exercised by few or many, all classes
,f the community are represented. The
interests of all classes Of people in the
same community are so interviewer and
that they cannot be separa-
ted. whoever wields the representa-
tive power must do it for the good
,r i'll of all, perhaps not precisely in
The same degree, but he cannot use it
80 largely to benefit one class without
TO some extent benefiting all, or to
njure and oppress one class without to
, greater or less extent injuring and
all.
There are always, even in this coun-
.ry where the right of suffrage is most
widely extended, large numbers who
10 not vote at all, whose interests,
nevertheless, are cared for, and whose
numbers being computed in the appor-
tionment Of representation, widen the
of the representative assem-
Dlies. Such are all persons under q
years of age, females Of all ages aud
foreigners. Why are they
not permitted to votei And, not be-
ing permitted, why are they counted
in fixing the ratio Of representation !
They are not allowed to vote because
they are not supposed to be sufficient.
ly instructed in political economy and
government affairs to be intrusted with
the elective franchise. They are COM
puted in fixing the ratio because they
are part of the same community with
those who do vote, having interests
in common with them, and their in
fuence ought to be left in shaping
the laws by which their rights of life,
liberty and property are to be deter
mined and although they do not vote,
their influence is felt and their inter-
ests are cared for, precisely because
they are counted in fixing the rela-
tive weight of the communities to
which they belong in the legislative
although their voices are
not directly held in determining who
shall represent them.
RELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE STATES
1t is not true, as is constantly alleged,
that the relative strength of the States
which were in rebellion will be increas-
ed by the results of war if they are
not allowed representation in the ma
tianal councils. The present ratio Of
is adjusted by the census
of 1860, and cannot be changed until
after the census Of 1870. Till that
time, therefore, the relative strength
of the several States Of our country
must remain precisely as it was under
the census of 1860. After the census Of
1870, the positive and relative strength
of the Southern States in Congress and
the Electoral College will both be di-
even if the no-voting black
be included in the basis. In
lS6O three-fifths of all the black pOpu-
lation of the Southern States was
counted. The census of 1870 will show
the whole of the non-voting black popu-
lation to be less than three-ffths of
1860.
BLACKS AND FOREIGNERS.
Nor is it true that vote in the South
will outweigha vote in the North, if the
negro population be includ-
ed in the basis ofrepIesentation. If the
proposed amendment be adopted all the
black population Of the
North will be counted. The great pre-
of unnaturalized, and con-
non-voting foreigners, is in
Northern and Northwestern States.
They and their families number hun
dreds of thousands, perhaps millions,
and yet they are all counted in fixing
the rate Of representation. That is
right. / do not object to it. They are
part of the community. They help to