The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-11-03

| The Standard is much pleased at the sue
cess of the Radicals in West Virginia. 1t
would gladly hail a similar victory in North
Carolina, produced by similar agency-the
disfranchisement of our best citizens.-Sen-
| tineL
The Standard maintains unf1inchingly the
celebrated declaration of Andrew johnson,
that if there be but five thousand loyal men
in State they are entitled to govern and
control it. We know the fact that Andrew
johnson still adheres to this declaration He
has not retracted or even qualified it, and he
repeated it to the writer of this with much
emphasis in July last.
| It is not true that the " best citizens" are
DISTINGUISHED in West Virginia. The worst
citizens are distranchised, and the best only
are allowed to vote. No NAN is a good cit
| izen who does not submit Internationally to
the national authority. The Editors of the
Sentinel and those for whom they speak are
our worst citizens. They are still rebellious.
They still hate the Union. They are not yet
fit to govern. They need to be governed
The safety, repose, and prosperity of the
country require that they should be govern
| ed until such time as they give unmistakable
evidence that they regret the part they took
in the rebellion, and that they are sincerely
submissive and loyal to the national author
| ity. Our "6est citizens, socially, personally,
| and politically, are the unconditional Union
| men. If they are to be kept under ban,
and regarded as outcasts on account of their
Union principles, then we say to the North
J ern people, spread pail over the graves of
your three hundred thousand dead, destroy
your national securities of three thousand mil
lions of dollars make a bonfire of your flag
and of al! your archives, and blot the proud
name of the United States from the roll of
nations. There are but two parties in the
United States-the party for and the party
against the Union. There can be no middle
ground. He who is not openly and unmis-
takably for the Union is against it, and is a
public enemy.
The following is the clause in the Consti-
tuition of West Virginia restricting suffrage:
"No person who, since the first day of June.
1861 has given or shall give voluntary aid or as
sistance to the rebellion against the United
States shall be citizen of this State, or be al
lowed to vote at any election held therein unless
he has volunteered into the military or naval SER
vice of the United States and has been or shall be
hOnOraDly Q1ScnarSeQ tnerefrOm.'
This was ratified by the people of West
Virginia by the following vote Ratification
%, 157, Rejection 1921.
Previously to the formation of the State of
West Virginia the Confederate Congress pas
sed the following law:
"Be it enacted, That any citizen holding office
under the government of the United States after
the 31st July, 1861 shall be forever banshed from
the State, and be declared an alien enemy; and
that any citizen of Virginia hereafter under
taking to represent the State of Virginia i'm the
Congress of the United States, shall, In addition
to the above penalties, be considered guilty of
treason, and his property be liable to confsca-
tion."
If the Confederacy had succeeded, Union
men in the South would have been shot or
hanged, their property would have been con-
tiscated, and the miserable remnant would
have been driven out with jeers and curses to
their Yankee friends. The despotism over
body and mind which would have prevailed
In all these States, would have been the most
rigid and cr'1el that ever disgraced any civil
.sed people. We thank Heaven that the
stutpendous edifce, conceived in fraud and
sin, and based on the blood and tears of SO
man of our people who were forced to aid