The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-10-14
Prescription in Pocahonlas.

We have received from Pocahontas
county some facts in relation to the
enormities now being perpetrated in
that county in the way of disfranchise'
ment. The extreme Radical candidate
for. the House ef Delegates from the
District of Pecahontas and Webster,
one CHARLES MORRISON, is President OF
the Board of Registration in Pocabon
tas. He is bitter and unscrupulous
man, and is said to be the creature OF
CYRUS NEwLIN, q notorious demagogue
in that region. A Conservative Repub'
lican named BARLOW is the opponent
of MORRISON, and as the Democrats are
RAINING no candidate, was likely to
win the race.
Now what course does the registrar
MORRISON, adopti In order to secure
his own election he has summoned be-
fore his Board, for disfrauchisement,
some sixty-fve persons. friends of his
opponent, nearly all of whom are Re-
publicans, and all of whom have been
on the registration books three or four
years. In other words he is just using
his Office to secure his own election
Republicans and Democrats alike are to
be disfranchised for the crime of failing
to vote for him as their next delegate.
The registered vote in Pocahontas is
light at best. Tho Same is true of Web.
ster. In both counties the work Of pro
scription has been carried on until the
number Of votes is suspiciousIy y, scan-
dalously small. The same course of re-
newed disfranchisement which has
been begun in Pocahontas has also been
inaugurated in Webster. About one
half the voters in that county have
been notified to "prove their loyalty"
or in plain English, have been assured
that they are to be permitted to vote no
longer.
The Governor, it will be remembered,
has pledged himself to remove any reg
istrar who shall become candidate, A
large number of registrars throughout
the State have become candidates with
ont being removed. This in Poca-
hontas is merely another instance Of
the unreliable character of Guberna-
tOrial pledges in this State.
In the prescription which has been
going on this Fail the disfranchisement
Of the Republicans is leading feature.
Not only arc the Democrats being
stricken off in the same sweeping and
iniquitious manner as heretofore, but
the heads of ebstreperous Republicans,
who want to call halt in the work of
prescription, are dropping beneath the
registration axe. The Democratic
voters are rather used to it.
For four years they have seen
others of their political faith
disfranchised unjustly and by
wholesale, and they have be-
become accustomed to the reflection
that the same fate is likely to befall
them at any time. With the Ropubli-
cans the case is different. They have
acquired they the notion that their
rights were safe. They are discovering
their mistakes, and those of them who
are about to be made the victims Of
registration wrath are fully as noisy
and demenstVatjvc in their Indignation
as the Democrats have ever been. Now
that the power of the Governor aud his
registrars to destroy the franchises of
the people OF both parties appears so
clearly, it is to be hoped that measures
will be promptly set on foot to apply
the proper remedy at the next session of
the Legislature.