The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1869-01-28
THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTION.
LETTER OF THE VIRGINIA COMMITTEE T.
THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.

LETTER OF THE VIRGINIA COMMITTEE TO
THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.
To the Judiciary Committee Of the tn.tsd
States Senate:
On behalf of the declaration 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 bill 1,4S5, now under your considera-
ton, such notifications of the constitution
proposed by the late convention as in our
opinion will, under all the circumstances,
lead to its acceptance by the people of Viz
ginia.
1t is due to candor to say in this connec
ton 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 freed
men of the southern States, in their present
hneducated condition, are not prepared for
the intelligent exercise of the elective fran
chise and the performance of other dnties
connected with public affairs, and are there
fore, at this time, unsafe depositaries of po-
litical power; yet, in view Of the verdict OF
public opinion in favor of their being al,
lowed to exercise the right Of suffrage, as ex-
pressed 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 lncorpora-
ton 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 universal am nesty.'
Taking it, then, to be established as the
policy Of this Government to require in Vir-
ginia constitutional recognition and enforce
ment Of the civil and political equality Of all
men before the law, we have in the amend
ments proposed inserted all the provisions
looking 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.
The first modification of the proposed con-
stitution suggested by us is to strike from it
all those features of Acknowledgement and
disqualification, and all those elements of bit
terness and strife, political, sectional, and sec
tartan, which in our judgment, are wholly in.
compatible with good government and good
feeling, and tend to perpetu.e alterations and
discords, which all good citizens mnst depre-
cate. The power of State to subject any
Of its citizens to disabilities for offences
against the United States has been seriously
questioned. 1t seems to be conceded that
for the purpose of punishment no such pow
err exists, and that disqualifcations and dis
Embellishments are only admissible as meas
urcs of precaution and safety.
In this point Of view it is worthy of con
sideration that since the close Of the war the
people of Virginia have been living without
distranchisement or disability Of any kline
under government whose Legislative ane
judicial departments and whose local organi
cations have been in the hands of the very
ella sses whom it is sought by the proposed
constitution to exclude 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 maintain
cd, and that the functions OF good govern
ment have been as we'll performed in Virgin;
as in any State in the Union.
1t is believed that article three, section one
paragraph four, would dissanchise not les
than ten or fifteen thousand rioters IN tn