The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-10-28

tives. OF the ninety-six Radicals sew
enteen are negroes. The seventy-nine
white Radicals, with only one or two
exceptions, are strangers to Alabama,
and are in no way identified with her
people or her prosperity. keffer, Buck
ley, Miller, Stanwood, &C., representing
the very worst elements of Massachu-
setts, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, &c.
will have the controlling influence in
the so-called Convention. And they are
political adventurers who are to frame
a Constitution for the noble State of
Alabamaw
Here is food for reflection. To what
are We drifting; when, in the name of
republican liberty. we permit govern
ernments to be formed for States by the
most ignorant and degraded portion of
the population, and exclude from all
participation in the formation of their
institutions the intelligent, cultivated
aud experienced class most to be af
fected, and through whose intelligence
the governments to be formed can alone
be expected to survivei When
negroes, who were but recently
slaves, without education and unaccus-
toned to thought or responsibility, are
permitted to sit as delegates in consti-
tutional conventions aud make laws for
superior and accomplished race, the
prospect is indeed gloomy. Yet these
astounding facts now stare us in the
face, and demand the solemn considera-
tion ofthe American people, not only in
the South, where the heaviest evils of
such policy will fall, but also of the
people of the North, who will inevita-
bly, be involved in the recoil which
must sooner or later ensue. 1t is impOs-
sible that the deplorable consequences
of the establishments of negro gov ern-
ments in the South, in which the in
ferior race is made the governing class,
should not be felt to greater or less
extent from one extremity of the coun-
try to the other. What will be the ex-
tent of these evils it is impossible to
predict, but the plaineSt teachings of
common sense assure rs that they will
be evil and evil only.
Those who are rushing this scheme on
to its frightful contamination are deaf
to all entreaty and advice. They see
nothing but the prospect of retaining
political power through the agency OF
negro votes and the disfranchisement Of
white men. They do not comprehend
the wasteness of the ruin they are bring
ing dowa both upon others and them
selves; they reGklessly disregard the
lessons which craftsmanship has
taught, as we'll as the promptings of
magnanimity, and shamelessly bid de-
fiauce to the opinions of all enlightened
men throughout the world.
What sort of constitutions can be ex-
pect. d from conventions in which ne
Croes and such white men as are will
ling to act with them as equals are the
controlling spirits and have overwhelm-
ing majorities! Can anything but
malice, stupidity and ignorance be
looked for. and will not the best inter-
ests of society be monstrously sacri-
feed
No such spectacle of political mad
ness has ever been exhibited to the
world, and nothing more disgraceful
could be conceived. 1t is almost in
credible that men of education, who
profess to have high sense of the
honor and dignity of the nation, and a
pride in it's glory and prosperity; who
claim TO have some Difference for the
opinions of mankind, and to be entitled
TO respect, should become so warped in
their judgments, and so brutalized in
their nature, as the Radical leaders have
become. The thirst for power, aud
fanatical spirit, has reduced them to the
disgraceful position in which they now
stand, before the world, and unless they
are hurled from power they will make
this Government the scof and the con-
tempt of the nations.
As the negro Radical party has Sc
cured the control of the Convention, we
shall doubtless soon have some indica-
tions of the policy which will be pur-
sued in Alabama. If the deliberations
of the Convention are not characterized
throug hout by vindictiveness, and iSno-
rance of the necessities of the country,
and are not controlled by a
disgusting spirit of sycophaucy to
the negro population; aud if the disa-
bilities imposed upon all who were con-
nected with the rebellion are not sweep
ing and oppressive, we shall be greatly