The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1868-07-01

admitted to suffrage though denied it BY Il
: constitution, and 10000 white men ha,
been debarred suffrage, though allowed it b
, the constitution without the authority Of Stat
law, and based upon a suffrage reprobate
!, by the laws, traditions, and constitution ,
the State he has sanctioned the assemblin
OF SUCH convention, in violation Of the Ia,
of the State, declares it to be treason agains
the State to establish, without authority
the Legislature, any government within il
limits separate from the existing government
or holding or executing in such usurped GOV
eminent any Office, or protesting allegianc
or fidelity to it, or resisting the execution q
the laws under color Of its authority la,
older than the Federal Constitution and b
has, without any State law sanctioning tn
assemblage Of such convention, or makin
appropriation Of money to pay its expenses
put his hand into the treasury Of the State
and without and against law and constitution
appropriated it to the uses Of that conven
ton.
/ What gives greater weight to these usur
pations is, thatit is done in the interest o
the paper submitted as a constitution for Vir
GINA by the convention, though it is just t.
General Schofeld to say, he himself has con
demned it's wholesale prescription
BY that constitution, power is also distrib
uted that majority of the Legislature viii
be elected by negro CONSTITUENCIES. Every
negro may vote, and thus 100000 ignorant
voters be admitted, while over 10000 Of the
intelligent whites are prescribed from suf
| frage. Offices are open only to those WIG
can take the "sron clad" oath. Taxation fol-
free shoots alone may be imposed to the extent
Of one per cent. to be laid by those who d.
not pay, and to be paid by those, many Of
whom have no voice in laying them. All
judges are elected by the General Assembly,
which will be under negro control.
All this is to be inaugurated in the Oldest
Commonwealth in the Union, with settled
loyal govarnment, under military orders-to
establish the supremacy Of negro barRarism
in the land where Augro-American civili-
zation was graded, and had aourished since
May II, 1607-t9 make the homes of her
founders Of American liberty tho scene Of
an AFRICAN carnival.
AM / not right in saying that every State
may take alarm when nsurpation, with un-
holy hand has seized the sovereignty of
Stats, hurled it from its honorcd seat, driven
it into exile, to make way for the idol Of ne
gro DONNA zion !?
Only one pretext has ever been advanced
for this appalling outrage upon our rights as
freemen, and that is the duty Of the United
States 8 to guarantee to every State repub-
lican form Of government"
On this point allow me to add few words !;
It is obvious that the gparantor has no duty
to perform if the beneficiary has the thing
guaranteed. A "nasterly inactivity" is then
duty; action becomes intrusion aad imper-
tinent
Can Congress deny that the ssrostored gov
eminent" is republican in form? It's consti-
tuition has a more democratic cast than any
Of the original States had at the foundation
Of the government certainly it has a more
enlarged basis Of suffrage. Why should the
guarantor be SO eager to profer its guarantee
to Virginia who possesses the subject of the
guarantee in better form than when the OBJ
legation was incurred, eighty years ago?
/. And if the conscience. Of the guarantor
should reply that Virginia never had repub-
lican form of government, the assertion is
met by the language of the Federalist, (No.
21,) cited with approval by Judge Story, 6
Com on Con. chapter A, page 681:)
"But the authority extends no further than
to guarantee Of . republican form Of GOV
eminent, which supposes a pre-eristing gov-
ernnsent Of q form which is to be guaranteed.
AS long, therefore, as the existing republican
forms are continued by the States they are
guaranteed by the Federal Constitution"
The Federalist thus asserts that the States
then had republican forms. What amaze
ment our fathers would have felt had the in
timation been suggested that no one of the
States then in Convention were republics
and had they been told that the guarantor
then constituted would feel his first duty to
be to upturn the social edifce of each or any
State, and to destroy their existing forms Of
government.
The form of government was republican
as distinguished fron, the kingly and aristo-
cratic On what basis of suffrage, on what
social polity the frame work rested was not
aoithsn the guaranty. History shows these
were pertinaciously kept beyond the intrusive
reach Of the guarantor, against whom these
States were jealousy anxious to be guaranteed
Had the guarantee been considered as inyolv-
| ing an Interfering by the guarantor with the
existing State governments, every reader Of
history knows that the Constitution would not
have been adopted, and this Union would new
er have been formed.
Did limited suffrage make our Constitution
unrepublican? IF SO, hoa strange that Vir.
GINA, who could have changed it, did not pre-
| viously do 50, and scould not for forty years
! after the Constitution was adopted! How
strange that persistently censuring restricted
suffrage, Virginia should be supposed to have
asked the United States by this guaranty tc
destroy it.! And how strange, if this system
Of suffrage was regarded within the meaning
Of that clause to be unrepubllcan, that the
Constitution should, without dissent, base
representation in the House of Congress on
that very suffrage, and the other upon Leg
islature elected under that very system
Did slavery make our farm Of Government
unrepublican7 If so, then the guaranty
bound the United States to abolish it. How
remiss the guarantor has been these eighty
years! And how strange that States eage1
to save that institution from the reach Of the
Federal power should be supposed to hav'
| o.tad q ousrantv nv that pnuer to DESTROY it