Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-08-29
Virginia Cannot Vote.

We find the following going the round
of the Radical press. At the time it wa
written and published Gen. BLAIR was nea
two thousand miles distant from the city i
which he was said to be speaking:
"Frank Blair is addressing the Democrat
of Alexandra, Virginia. As the Y Virginian
cannot uote at the Presidential election it woul
at first sight seem superf1uous to cleo
tioneer among them; but perhaps he con
siders his chance OF being elected by tn
vote of Virginia as good as 1t Is in the res
of the country after all."-Kdnsas City Jotu
nal, august 13.
s"The Virginians cannot vote at the Pres
idential election"-that grand old Com
monwealth, the mother OF statesmen and q
States, cannot, under Radical rule, be al
lowed her vote in the choice of the Chic
Magistrate of the Nation, and the fact
made one of scof and derision.
| When the dark clouds of war rolled u
in the political horizon, this same State Q
/ Virginia made an effort to roll them back
by compromise. The Peace Congress
which she proposed, met in Washington
and the terms of adjustment were settle,
in manner that secured to each State ant
each section their full rights under tn
Constitution. Congress, then in session
paid no heed to its recommendations, al
though they were concurred in by the del
egates nominated by Governor DENNIsol
and other Abolition Governors from
States ruled by the party then, as now
in possession of the Government. Thi
effort at peace was met by the declaration
Of a United States Senator that without {
little blood-letting the Union would not b.
worth preserving. Had the proposition o
the Peace Congress, first inaugurated BY
Virginia, been adopted by Congress, ther'
would have been no war-hundreds o
thousands of those brave men slain in thu
fratricidal combat would now be alive-tht
thousands of millions of treasure expended
and stolen, which go to make up the fear.
full national debt now hanging over the
people as an incubus on their industry
would have been saved. Virginia at thai
time was strongly opposed to secession, and
even during the war many of her people
wavered not in their attachment to the
Union. During the entire contest, the
State had Governor and Legislature
recognized as '1oyal' by the Radical Con-
gress and the Executive Department.
That Legislature gave its assent to the di-
vision of the State into two parts, and to
that consent the State OF West Virginia
owes its existence. The same Legislature,
still acknowledged as the law making
power of the State of Virginia, gave its
consent to the Constitutional amendment
declaring that slavery or involuntary servi-
tude, except in punishment of crime,
whereof the party was first duly convicted,
should no longer have an existence in the
Republic. Thus, during the entire war
Virginia was State, and as such part OF
the Union, yet as soon as the war closed,
and the verdict rendered that the Union
could not be discovered, Virginia is de-
clared out of the Union, and is not allowed
to vote at Presidential election.
Alabama, North and South Carolina.
Georgia and other States, who were almost
as a unit in favor of the success of the
troops of LEE, BEAUREGARD and JOHN
sToN, are. now, under Radical mis-
rule, declared voters tor President,
and the votes of these States are to
becounted in the Electoral College, while
The men of Virginia, who stood true to the
Union and suffered privation, are disfran-
,hised, and the State that gave as free
gift to the Union nearly the entire soil of
Ohio, and all that of Indiana. Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin and other States, to
ave the Republic from permanent and po-
itical ruin, cannot vote for President.
The State that gave birth to WASHING
TON, and gave him to the colonies to fight
he battles of the Revolution, which no
living man could have done so well-the
'tate that gave to the Republic and the
world, that first of American statesmen,
vho drafted the Declaration of Indepen-
ence-the State that produced q MADISON,
MONROE, LEE, HENRY and others Of the
brightest names of American history, in the
truggle for American Independence, is not
llowed to cast her vote for President, be-
ause the soil she voluntarily surrendered |
o Congress to pay the debts OF the great |
truggle, is now erected into States, aud |
hose States are misrepresented in Con-
'ress by men who claim that Virginia is |
ut of the Union, and Virginia cannot vote
Or President.
One, and the most prominent of the
auses of the separation of the American
olonies from Great Britain, was the fact
hat Parliament taxed the people without
flowing them representation in that |
odv. The American Congress taxes the
tat of Virginia, but refus to admit ner
in the lower branch of that |
ody, and, although the Constitution lays
own as riGltswhich no change of the
can effect that no State can
e deprived Of its equal representation
nth other States in the Senate, yet the |
idicals in that body, fearful of losi e 4
heir party, refuse to give Virginia and
ther States a voice in either branch of
congress.
While the people of Virginia are taxed
while they are forced to obey laws that
hey had no hand in making, the people of
hat State--secesh and anti-secesh-.:loyal"
nd disloyal, are told that they cannot vote
or President-that the vote OF Virginia |
will not be counted in the great contest
his fall, and thus, to all intents, is the
ancient Dominion" treated as if out of the
Jnion-and her people held, as are those
# ireland and Hungary held by England
md Austria, as If they had no rights that
he conquerors were bound to respect. In
his, the enlightened Nineteenth Century,
white people, supposed to be governed
~ written Constitution, and boasting
heir descent from the famed Anglo-Saxon
ace, are treated as political slaves, their
very Constitutional right disregarded.
"Can such things be,
And overcome us like summers cloud.
Without our special wonder ?"