The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-04-18

which has not the means to travel.
TIE VIRGINIA CONvENT1ON I.
ORDERED By CONGRESS TO
FRAME A STATE CONSTITUTION.
One Hundred and Fourth Day.
FRIDAY, April IL, 1858.
The Convention met at IL O'Clock.
Prayer by the chaplain.
ENDORSEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION.
Mr.ALLAN, from the special committee
on the engrossment of the Constitution,
submitted the following:
| fsResolued, That the Committee on En-
| crossing the Constitution be instructed to
| procure the engrossing of the same, on the
most economical terms and in the most ex:
peditious Manner
| This was adopted. 800 III.
/ FIRST VISIT OF GENERAL sCHoFIELD.
Pending the discussion on the above,
General Schofeld entered the hall, accom-
panied by Colonels Campbell, 'Wherry, and
Mallory, of his staff, and was escorted to
the Speakers stand. Upon being intro
duced to the Convention, he said
Mr.. President and Gentlemen of the Con-
vention,-lt affords me much pleasure to
! congratulate you upon the near approach
of the termination of your long and ardu-
Gus labors. have watched your progress
with interest, and at times with no little
anxiety. Representing, as you do, every
shade of political opinion, every extreme OF
interest, policy, and purpose, it is not strange
that you should have found in the course Of
your deliberations difficulties which seemed
almost insurmountable, and which could
only have been overcome by long, patient
j and persevering labor. have not hesitated
to say to you, through those gentlemen Of
your body who have been pleased from time
to time to ask my opinion upon the subjects
presented for your consideration, that there
were certain provisions proposed to be en-
grated into this Constitution which, in my
1 Judgment, if adopted, would prove fatal tt
that instrument. | refer more particularly
! to the extended acknowledgements and dis
qualifications for office not provided for BY
the acts of Congress. You have wisely, as
4 I think, determined, so far as disfran'
chisements are concerned, to leave the sub
4 ject as ordained by Congress. In other
words, to frame your Constitution in this
important particular upon the basis laid
Z down by your friends in Congress. There
only remains, so far as I am aware, a sim
gle provision that regard as seriously OBJ.
jectionable. l refer to that portion which
prescribes the qualifications for office, and
which believe will be, if allowed to re,
main in its present form, detrimental in its
effect upon the adoption of the Constitution
1t is practically impossible to carry on o
government in Virginia predicated upon
that basis.
have been now for more than yeal
administering the laws, in accordance with
the reconstruction acts of Congress, in this
| State. / have had to select and appoint
| registering officers, as well as civil officers
in the different counties throughout the
State. In some of the counties have been
able to find one, and only one, in some two,
and in some three men of either race who
could read and write, and who could at the
same time take the oath Of office. There
are, [ believe, in Virginia some counties
which will require, to carry on the govern
ment, thirty OF more civil officers, such as
magistrates, sheriffs, constables, overseers
Of the poor, &c. You cannot find in these
counties IL sufficient number of men who are
capable of filling the offices, and who can
take the oath you have prescribed here.
They pay very limited salary, and even
! the common laborer could not afford to come
from abroad for the purpose Of filling them
| | have no hesitation in saying that | believe
it impossible to inauSurate u government
upon that basis.
l have heretofore abstained from any at
tempt to exercise the slightest influence over
your actions, las you will remember at the
commencement of your session | even re-
felred to yourselves the question of the re-
turns and qualifications of members leay-
ing you free to adopt such course as you
should deem wise and proper. Now, how
ever, my duty, it would seem, requires me
to convey to you what conceive to be the
effect of such a law, its practical bearing
upon the political affairs of the country,
| and upon the interests, if you please, Of the
party to which you belong. That provision.
if left in the Constitution, will, / believe, be
! not only opposed to the wishes of your
friends, but will be fatal to the Constitu-
ton, and, perhaps, fatal to yourselves.
cannot, Of course, say that all the other
provisions, aside from that, are such as
would have thought best and wisest under
all the circumstances. presume that no
person could say that Of any Constitution
| in the United States all being more or less
the result of compromises made between the
opinions of hundred or more men, and
may not in every particular please any
one; but as far as can see, your Consti-
tuition, in all essential particulars, is neither
better nor worse than the Constitution of any
of the States now in the Union. Whether
the Government established under it will
prove good or bad will simply depend upon
the kind of men you elect to fill the differ
emit offices. If good men are elected, you
will have good government if bad, you
will certainly have bad one. Especially
| is this true of the men you elect to form the
first Legislature. That Legislature will
have work to do scarcely less important
than that devolving upon the Convention
1t will be necessary to modify the code of
laws to. correspond with the new order OF
political principles on which the Constitu-
ton itself is based. The manner in which
that work is to be done, and also the neces-
sity which may exist for future changes,
and the mode prescribed for making them,
should determine the qualifications of those
elected to that body. | say, then, that
whether your Government organized under
this Constitution will be good one or O
bad one is to be determined by the qualif-
cations ofssthe men elected to carry it on.
| In this view of the case, you should have
left open the widest field from which
| to choose these men and l have no
doubt that both parties will exert their
utmost strength, and put forward their best
and ablest men, to inaugurate the new