Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1869-01-26
THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTION
Letter Of the Virginia Committee to the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
10 the Judiciary Committee Of the United States
Senate: .l.a@-s -=.,f kf.I - - =

senate judiciary Committee.
To the Judiciary Committee of the United States
Senate na45 Tss slel o 'o'' - :
On behalf of the delegation of citizens. Of
Virginia, and IN accordance with the request OF
your committee, We beg leave respectfully to
submit, IN the form of amendments to House
Dill l. 4S5, now under your consideration, such
notifications OF the constitution proposed by
the late convention as in our opinion viii, under
all the circumstances, lead to its acceptance by
the people of Virginia s,r + ~. :. q .5lg =
LIZ Is due to 'candor to say in this connection
that those who sent US here expressed, as we
believe, the real feelings and purposes of the
people OF Virginia when they declared, while
the conviction of the undersigned, and, as they
believe, of the people of Virginia generally,
remains unchanged, that the freedmen of the
Southern States, in their present uneducated
condition, are not prepared for the intelligent
exercise OF the elective franchise and the per
torrance OF other duties connected with public
affairs, and are therefore, at this time, unsafe
depositaries of political power yet, in view of
the verdict OF public opinion in favor of their
being allowed to exercise the right of suffrage
as expressed IN the recent elections, the under
signed are prepared, and they believe the ma
Jority OF the people of Virginia are prepared, to
surrender their opposition to its Incorporation
into their fundamental law as an offering on the
altar OF peace and in the hope that union and
harmony may be restored on the basis Of I'M
lversal suffrage and universal amnesty" -
Taking it, then, to be established as the policy
of this Government to require in Virginia a
constitutional recognition and enforcement, of
of the civil and political equality of all men be-
fore the law, We have, in the amendments pro-
posed, inserted all the provisions locking to that
result which Congress has heretofore deemed
proper and we have left undisturbed all the
provisions of the proposed constitution in any
manner relating to that subject r
The first modification of the proposed consti-
tuition suggested by US is to strike from it all
those features of disfranchisement and disqual
ifcation, and all those elements of bitterness
and strife, political, sectional, and sectarian,
which, In our judgment, are wholly incompati-
BILE with good government and good feeling and
tend to perpetuate alterations and discords,
which all good citizens must deprecate. The
power of State to subject any of It's citizens to
disabilities for offences against the United States
has been seriously questioned. 1t seems to be
conceded that for the parpose of the punish
ment no such power exists, and that disqualih
cations and acknowledgements are only admissi
BILE as'measures of precaution and safety. -
In this point of view it is worthy of considera-
ton that since the close Of the war the people
of Virginia have been living without dsfran
chisement or disability of any kind under az
government whose legislative and judicial de.
partments and whose local organizations have
been in the hands of the very classes whom it
is sought by the proposed constitution to ex-
cude from every position of trust in the State
We Claim With confidence that the result has
been that the supremacy OF law and order has
been as fully maintained, and that the functions
OF good government have been as we'll perform
ed In Virginia as in any State in the Union. -
1t is believed that article three, section one
paragraph four, would disfranchise not less than
ten or fifteen thousand voters in the State in
Guiding all those whom the people have been
accustomed to trust in public employments.
Article three, section seven,s would disaualify
for every position Of public trust not less than
ninety five out of every hundred of the white
people OF Virginia who would otherwise be
eligible, and would In connection with section
three Of the same article extend the like dis
ability to serve upon juries. .u
1t is believed that there is no advocate of
universal negro suffrage who will not agree that
In its application to Virginia. at this time, it is
fearful experiment, requiring for its success
all the wisdom and experience that can be
brought to its management; and it is respect
fully submitted that TO exclade from participa
ton in State or local governments at this time
soIarge proportion ofthose who, by experience
in public affairs, are fitted to deal with this
great problem would be unwise and unsafe
We earnestly declare that, in our belief, it
would be wholly inconsistent with domestic
tranquility, public order, OR the security of the
the white population of Virginia.
The provision Of article eleven relating to
church property is an attempt to reverse the
settled policy of Virginia, which restricts the
owershlp of church property In amount, and
confines strictly to the local religious congrega-
ton. The purpose is to enable ecclesiastical
bodies outside Of Virginia, in opposition to
the legislation of the State and against it's
judicial decisions, to take the churches Of Vir
ginia from the local congregations who built
them. The provision opens controversy full
of all the combined bitterness of party, and sec
ton, and sect, over every Presbyterian and
Methodist Church building in Virginia
The next modification suggested by US is to
strike from the proposed constitution, and thus
to leave to legislative enactment or modification,
the whole OF the cumbrous machinery for local
organization, government, and policy; which, in
our Judgment, is clearly untitled to the condi-
ton of the State, and if fixed in the constitu-
ton will be cause of embarrassment and diff
fculty and strife seriously affecting the public
peace and the harmony and good order of
society
/ The population of Virginia is very sparsely
and unedually distributed over the territory of
the State, and the physical and geographical
features Of the country are such as to render
wholly impracticable any arbitrary plan of sub
division for local purposes. The most we have
been able to do thus far is to make the counties
the units of local government, and to give to
the county courts, composed of all the county
Justices the control and direction Of the local
government and police.
La view of the introduction into our system
of SO large political element so unequally dis
tributed as to result in the complete predomi
nance of the whole white race In one section Of
the State, and of the colored race In another
section, we are very earnestly OF opinion that
any system of local government and police
engrafted upon the constitution, and placed
under the absolute control of limited districts,
will naturally incur the di+trust and excite the
apprehensons of the local minority, and tend
to collisions calculated to impair personal Sc
curity and endanger the public peace.
The difficulties surround the subjects of local
taxation and education, in regard to which we
are satisfied that the proposed system will be
found unequal and inefficient In its operation,
and in its results ntolerably expensive and op
pressive.
The solution of these difficulties which we
propose, is to strike the whole of this system
from the constitution and leave it to the Legis
lature, in which all localities, interests, and
classes, will be fully represented, to regulate the
whole subject by laws, which will be al all times
open to modification and improvement, such as
experience may suggest or the public interest
may require.
The next modification proposed by us is to
10 omit no N rPi1t-