The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-10-18
The Position of Messrs. Campbell md
Hubbard.

Hubbard.
Four years ago the present Republican
candidates for the Legislature from Ohio
county were advocating the proscrip'
tive system. They declared it to bC
right, necessary and lawful. They
were active in educating the Republi
can party up to the mark, and by theil
ceaseless exertions aided largely il
uniting all portions of the party il
favor of the Constitutional Amendment
and the Test Oath system. But when
prescription began to have its free
course other men reaped the benefits
FOREMAN and his gang out maneuvred
the HUBBARD-CAMPBELL faction and
drove them away from the public
trough. The latter.day Republicans
assumed the leadership and appropri
ated the spoils. The original JACOBS
stood the exclusion as long as possible
But the election of FOREMAN to the
United States Senate was the last straw
that broke the cameps back (no pun
intended.) Then it began to be discov'
cred that the policy of disfranchisement
was essentially wrong, Itwas anti-Re
publican, and more than this, it was
running the material interests of the
State. Then came the "new move
ment" of which we have heard so much
which has already resulted in the nom.
ination of two of its originators for the
Legislature, and which still pushes them
steadily in the direction of the Cover
nor's chair and the United States Senate
One feature of this business strikes
US as very singular. Messrs. HUBBARD
and CAMPBELL have denounced the
whole proscriptive system and yet pro-
pose to repeal but part of it. They
go back upon the masses whom they
educated into prescription, so far as to
say that the principle is abominable,
and yet they propose to retain the most
dangerous feature, which is the regis
tration law. This is little short of an
insult to the intelligence of the Repub-
licans who under their teaching voted
to sustain the party in all it's disabling
measures. 1t assures them that ques-
tiSns of expediency, or self-interest,
enter largely into the policy of these
experimenting leaders, and that they
are prepared to adopt any idea or reject
any principle, no matter at what sacrifice
of consistency, in order to gain tenn
porary personal advantage.
But it is not difficulG to see why
Messrs. HUBBARD and CAMPBELL want
to maintain the registration law. A
confession of its abuses, they think,
will enable them to supplant those who
new administer it, and then the proper
management of its powers will enable
to rise and reign in papetuo. The reg
istration law is very bad thing and a
very dangerous thing under STEVENSON,
but it would be very proper and a
very beneficial affair under CAMPBELL
and HUBBARD.
We are free to say that if the regis
tration law is to remain in force, we
would just about as soon see the pres
ent set of officials prostituting 1t to
their own advantage, as any other.
Probably it would be better thus, for
STEVENSON & Co, having been tatten-
ing upon the spoils for nearly a year,
are that much nearer to satiatiop than
the new crowd, whose appetites, shar-
pened and aggravated by long fasting,
would be almost Unsuitable.
Let us get rid of the whole registra.
ton system. While it remains, con.
tending factions will fight over it, as
they are now fighting, and the people
will suffer under it, as they are now
suffering. Let us so effectually settle the
whole question as to drive partisan
wrangles out of the field entirely, and
compel those who would succeed in
politics to deserve success. Too long
have elections been carried by the regis
tration machine.