The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-06-01
A Plea for the Legislaiure-Imporiant
Rebels and Copper
heads Should not be Taxed.

RoMINEs' MILL, May Goth I566.
Editors of the Register
am a reader of your paper, and re-
gret to see the many hard things pub
lshed in its columns against our late
wise and patiotic Legislature There is
a bitter complaint about the test oath,
the registration law and other aOts OF
that character. bnt am inclined to
think there is no reasonable cause to
justify the complaints so frequently met
with in the REGISTER. Those laws were
all enacted through kindness to rebels
and copperheads, so called, and intended
for their good and tor the protection of
the good Union loving people of the
State Our wise Legislature has done
nobly as far as they went in their enact
ments, But they might have passed
other laws which believe would have
an equally salutary effect on the future
prosperity of our new State. | am in
favor of law being enacted to prohibit
all rebels and cOpperheads, so-called,
from paying taxes, This State right
fully belongs to the loyal people thereof,
and no rebel or copperhead, so-called,
should be permitted to exercise the
privilege of paying revenue into our
loyal treasury. Their names should all
be stricken from the Commissioners
books and no one be allowed to pay tax
unless he is loyal at both ends and
sound in the middle. Why, these rebels,
so.called, eft" us and tried to defeat
our new State scheme, and would carry
us back to- old Virginia, and then claim
the right to pay taxes like the good
Union loving people; This will never
do Disfranchise them all, | say, from
tax paying | know very well they
would raise a howl at such a law, and
call it unconstitutional and er post fdcto
and say where there is no law there is
no transgression, and all that kind Of
stuff but that matters not The rebels
and cOpperheads, sO-called, are hard to
please, and always ready to complain.
If our rnlers. have tho peace and pros.
perity of our new State at heart, and de.
sire the development of its vast re
sources. they will at the next session of
our Legislature enact a law to strike the
name of every rebel and copperhead,
so called, from the list Of tax payers,
and by so doing wipe from the bright
escutcheons of the State, that great
stigma, to wit: Rebel and Copperhead
tax payers They might adopt the plan
of the registration law-appoint board
in each county, and registrar in every
township, whose duty should be to see
every one suspected Of disloyalty,
search them and search their houses,
their Kitchens smoke-houses and all the
other little out.houses to see if there are
any marks or signs of disloyalty percep-
tible, and TO have the power to hunt up,
as witnesses, those old women, who
can be found in every neighborhood,
whose heads are perfect registers of ali
the title tattle of the neighborhood
and who are always ready to furnish
heresay evidence against those they
don't like. The evidence of these old
women would be very important. Then
require the registrar to make full re-
port to the county board for their i'm
partial decision, and the whole proceed.
ings be submitted to his Exeellency, the
Governor, for final investigation. There
are high minded and honorable Union
men in every township of the State who
would perform those duties admirably
and the expense would be trihing.
RADICAL