Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1868-03-26
SPEEE CH OF
MOSES WALTON, ESQ.,,
IN THE VIRGINIA STATE CONVENTION
FEB. Is 1868,
On the Question Of Suffrage.

On the 8ueSIion OF Suffrage.
The subject of the elective franchise be-
ing under consideration, Mr.. WALTON ad-
dressed the Convention in substance as
follows
Mr.. PRESIDENT w hen [ submitted
the motion few days since for an extern
sion of the time allowed for the discussion
of the subject of suffrage, in behalf Of the
Committee, specially entrusted with that
matter, | had no expectation of EN- barking
in this debate H
Since that time, however, the debate
has taken SO wide a range and embraced
so vast Il number Of topics, that have
yielded IN my purpose to a sense OF duty
to Il generous, contiiing constituency
who have clothed me with high repre-
sentative tyust, aud the solicitations of
those associated with me in this BODY
. The idea seems 0 prevail among many
members of this Convention that it is IN
cumbent upon them to vindicate their
right to suffrage and their capacity to use
it by speech upon this subject With
this view | do not sympathise, but if [
did, | would be constrained to recognize
the wide distinction between thu members
on that and this side of this house Your
failure involved no risk, while our attempts
may be to our disadvantage and involve
the loss Of our rights We speak, sir, in
a certain sense, with ropes around our
necks, and may be hoisted at any moment
for the bold and manly presentation OF our
views
This is fitting commentary upon the
anomalous condition of the times.
I~come, sir, from section OF the State
where slavery has never existed to any
considerable extent; where the white man
prcdominates, not only in intelligence, in
experience and in material wealth, but
also i'll Numbers
/ desire to enter the firm and earnest
protest of the white men of the great Val
ley of Virginia, stretching from the banks
of the Potomac in the North to the Ten
nessee line in the South w est, against the
great wrong Of universal negro suffrage,
which you propose to infict alike upon
them and the people Of the East.
Whatever opinion you may have enter
tanned or may now entertain IN regard to
the conduct of that people during the war,
you must at least concede to them intense
devotion to principle, love Of liberty,
and spirit of self-sacriGce and heroic
form their earnestness and their single
heartedness in that mighty struggle.
Since the surrender at Appomattox and
the cessation of hostilities, they have
shown their submission to the Government
in every form in which free government
desiring and willing to recognize them
as citizens, as brothers, of a common orig
an, common synepatlties, common interests,
and common history, could ask, and more
than this it were not right they should
accord.
They have accepted the terms Of amnes-
ty offered by the Proclamation Of the Pre-
sidcnt, they have taken the oath Of ale
glance, and they have recognized their OBJ
legations to the Government, both State
and Federal. by the full discharge of all
the faxes assessed against them, notwitl-
standing the fact that they have been de-
prived of the correlative right of represen-
tation. a..t
They have not, however. renowned the
right of private Judgment, of conscience,
and their birth-right of liberty
n They have not forgotten, nor are they
able to forget, amid all their calanities
and misfortunes, the immortal lessons of
freedom taught them by Hampton, by
Sydney by Locke. by Magma Charta :"
the Petition of right, BY the Bill Of Rights
of Virgins adopted by the sages Of 1776,
readopted and reafhrmed by every success
sive Convention which has ever assembled
in this Commonwealth, and which even
you, with all your disposition to change
for the mere sake of change, and in order
that yeu may obliterate every principle
and sentiment and feeling which is dis
tinctively Virginian, however much you
have marred, have not been able to destroy
They believe with Mr.. Douglass that
this Government was made by white men,
for the benefit Of white men and their pos
terity forever" They believe with Mr..
Lincoln that ''there is physical differ
ence between the black and the white ra-
ces," (which will forever forbid the two
races from living together on terms of So
cial and political equality"
Entertaining these views, it is eminent
ly proper that |, as their organ and repre-
sentative, should give them utterance in
this hall, and sustain them by whatever
argument aud reason IwaF-be able to ad-
vance, in the brief period aIlotted to me in
this discussion
For the purposes Of my argument [ shall
waive any consideration Except perhaps
incidentally of the question of the consti-
tutionality of the Reconstruction Acts =
With.a like design, and to come at once to
the marrow and pith of the subject, | shall
also decline to enter into that wide field
which has been so fully explored by the
ethnologist, in his Investigations into the
question of races. nor will | embarrass the
question Immediately before US by stop
ping to inquire whether any. and if SO,