The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-07-16
Miserable Trickery.

Miserable Trickery.
Every candid man who has heretofore
respected the Radical organs in this State
must feel his respect turn to disgust
when he contemplates the pitiful shifts
to which they are now resortiDg in order
to conceal the iniquities of their mas
tiers. Among the meanest of their de-
vices is the transparent sophistry by
which they attempt to hide the negro
suffrage tendencies of the Amendm emit
to the Federal Constitution With the
most unblushing effrontery they tell US
that by the Amendment "the question
Of suffrage is left just where it is, with
it may well bo asked, why does the
Amendment refer to that subject at all
designed, why are such consequences
entailed upon a failure to enfranchise
the negro9 According to the existing
basis of representation, State may, or
may not enfranchise her negroes, and
in either case the number of her repre-
sentatives in Congress will not be al
tered. But under the Amendment, negro
suffrage is to be the standard by
which representation is determined, and
our representation in Congress will in
crease or diminish just as we enfranchise
or disfranchise the blacks. In other
words, suffrage is now an indedendent
question, separate and distinct from that
of representation; under the Amend.
ment they will be closely and vitality
connected. Is this leaving the ques-
ton of suffrage just where it 2" While
the exclusion of negroes from the ballot
box is attended with decrease in the
representation of State, the disfran-
chisemeht of White men Is followed by no
such result The representation is not
to be reduced when political privileges
are denied for participation in the re-
bellion" Let South Carolina refuse the
elective franchise to twenty thousand Of
the curly heads and she loses representa-,
tive in Congress, but let her disfFanchise
an hundred thousand white voters, if |
she have so many, and no such loss re,
suits When a discrimination of this
kind Is mad making the vote of one
noslo OF more value than that o. half a
dozen whites. we hope we NAV Ina par.
dOned II we doubt whetb' Or srcb a motley
" leaves the quest ,os IF suffrage
just where 1t is t. tho ron,otsr copse-
q"eu0e: VI lis Amendment, its oh
noAio"S character is still more ap
Pal'%.v- Should it be adopted, Radical
New England will at once admit her
negroes to the ballot-box, because the
prepoudelance of the whites Is 80 great
as to guarantee the complete and easy
control of the blacks But II TO protect
her interests IN the National Leglsla.
tuies the south pursues the same course,
the proportion Of the black to the white
population is so great as to place her
completely at the mercy of the former
Negroes will vote, negroes will legislate.
Obeying fhe bidding of their leaaers,
following the example of then illustrl-
Gus predecessors in West Virginia, re-
flecting that white disfranehisepent
works no decrease of representation,
blacks of the pure type and whites of
the mongrel, Stokes and Hamilton
breed, will unite to abridge the political
privileges of all who participated in the
rebellion: Unless the Infusion of the
African element work an improvement
in Radical law making, our own lsgisla
tive history will repeat itself
South Carolina will have her test
oaths, Texas will rejoice in. the blessings
of registration law; Georgia will per-
haps ornament her legislation with IAN
act to prevent the obstruction of public
justice" like that which adorns our
statute books; Alabama will ratify a
Constitutional Amendment, ~ did West
Virginia in May last, and all the luxn,
ries OF Atrcic-Yankee government will
be enjoyed by the entire South under the
operations of 4 constitutional provision
which leaves the question of suffrage,
Just where it is. If we supposed the
denials, by the Radical press, of the
negro suffrage tendencies of the Consti-
tutional Amendment, were upintention,
al perversions of the truth, resulting
from Ignorance, we should only express
those sentiments of pity which irrespon
sible, dwelling iubecility always
evokes. But when journals whose char
acter and standing preclude such an ex