The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-09-17
THE RADICALS
AND
Foreign-Born Citizens.
Their Know Nothing Ha-
tred.
An Old Citizen Refused Il Vote
Because He isan IriSlhInan.


Mr.. CLANCY is an Irishman. by birth
but came to this country when he wa
but six years of age, has lived in Har
rison county for the past ten years, i!
naturalized, and has every qualifica
tion required by the Constitution ant
laws of this State of voter.
The Registrar refused to enroll hi'
name, and assigned as his reason for re
fuSing, that, the County Board Of Reg
iStratioR had instructed him not to register
CLANCY, becduse1he did register him, oth
er Lrishmen rould apply"
The Registrar admitted that he knct
CLANCY tras qualified roter and that HI
ought to be registered, but that he had re-
ceived instructions not to register him
In Harrison county there are between
two and three hundred naturalized citi,
zens who are unregistered, irho can com.
ply with all the requirements Of the lar
They have made application to the
Township Registrars and have been re.
fused the right of having their names
registered. These men have been re-
fused the privilege of vsting,solely be-
cause of their foreign birth.
The reader may make his own COM
ments.
| We here annex an article written by
General THOMAS HARRIS, a leader and
stumper of the Radical party Of this
State. The article was published as
editorial in his paper, the Radical or.
gan Of Richie county:
The Catholic Irish have been pro-
verbal for their uniform adherence to
the Democratic party, and the idea that
the newfangled Conservative, or Ma
tional Union party is but the prolonga-
tion of the tail of that same old kite has
secured them with about equal unanim-
ity TO that party. Their party aflinitles
before the rebellion secured their sympa-
thies very generally with the rebellion,
for it was the Democratic party that
rebelled.
The elections during the war, as we'll
as the recent elections, demonstrate the
fact that this portion of our population
was, as q rule, the enemies of our Gov
ernment-constituting in our cities the
most ignorant and degraded class of
their population; degraded not only by
ignorance, but by intemperance and
vicious habits; their votes are always
solid against us. 1t is useless to attempt
to reason with this class of our popula-
tiou; it is worse than useless to think of
educating them up to the correct views
of our institutions and the principles
involved in loyalty to these institutions;
they are, intellectually, slaves to the
Catholic Hierarchy, and tools of
the priesthood. Their bishops and
their priests own them, soul, body,
mind, and we had well nigh said estate;
and they can only vote as these
shall dictate. 1t is easy therefore to
see that their votes will always be cast
in the direction that Jesuitical priests
may think best calculated to result to
the injury Of free institutions, and to
secure their final overthrow. Believing
that the Pope is Christ's vicar on earth,
and that he has a rightful claim to ali
I
they cannot but be the enemies of free
institutions of government which locate
the sovereign temporal, or civil power,
not in the Pope, but in the people; and
whatever they may profess to the con-
trary they cannot but desire the over
throw of form of government that
more than any other tends to release
men from bondage, of whatever charac-
ter, and educates them to stand up III
the dignity of free, intelligent beings
responsible only to their God.
This is the true secret of the unanim-
ity of the Catholic vote, and it will,
just as long as the Roman Catholic
priests lord it over the cOnsciences OF
men, be cast against us. The question
then is as to how this vote may be best
counteracted. ln our cities, IN Wheel
ing or Parkersburg for instance, we
might rid ourselves of it to some extent,
by combination of loyal men, who
own capital and employ labor, against
this class of our citizens. 1t would be
perfectly legitimate and proper to give
the preference to loyal men.
But there is q chartered company
holding control of our State, that cm-
ploys n vast amount of labor, and that
being under rebel control, discriminates
against loyal laborers; we mean the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.
How is this influence to be counter
acted' We know of no place, except
Martinsburg, where that company has
gang of loyal employees, and the
late election has shown how easy it is
t. tiud an excuse for employing these
on election day, where they shall be
deprived of the privilege of voting.
The loyal people of this State must
protect themselves against all disloyal
combinations and influences; and we
suggest that it may become necessary, as
an offset to this Catholic vote, to en-
franchise the colored men of the State.
1t is true they are ignorant, We fear too
ignorant, to use this precious privilege
ljudiciously; but then they nro not a
whit more ignorant than the Catholic
Irish, as q class, and far less given to
drunkenness and disregard of law. We
throw out this suggestion for the con-
sideration of our people, constituting,
as it does, the only practicable way oi
offsetting the Irish vote.