The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-09-29

to be free to to merit. With the Repub.
licans it has been sufficient to know tha
this oath strengthened their party BY
gratifying the greed Of those vhs
wantedto control the school fund anG
direct our educational system. By the
Democrats the Lawyers Oath has al
ways been regarded as an unlawful pun
ishment, an ez post facto law, bill Of
attainder, driving competent men from
the practice Of their profession and
giving a monopoly of counsel fees to g
favored few. 1t has always been ssfh-
cient for the Republicans to9know thai
this oath strengthened the party, by
compelling htigants to employ lot OF
pettifogging demagogues to look after
their cases, who in turn would organize
Republican victories in their respec'
tive counties. By the Democrats the
Voters Oath has always been regarded
as an uawar-anted and most ubiquitous
enactment, Furnishing men for crime
without legal trial, and subverting the
provisions of the constitution that were
designed for the protection of the citi-
zen. 1t has always been sufficient for
the Republicans to know that this Oath
was productive of Rspublican nlajori.
ties. Beyond this they have neither
inquired nor cared. By the Depocrats
the registration law has always been re-
garded as an arbitrary and fraudulent
measure, not contemplated by the Con
stitution, designed for a partisan pur-
pose and. although ostensibly enacted
to protect our class, yet capable of being
used to prescribe any class that might
be obnoxious to the off GERS of the, law
and to enfranchise any that might se-
cure their favor. 1t was sufficient for
the Republicans to know that the regis
tration law elected Republican local
offices, Legislators, Judges, Governors,
Congressman and United States Senat-
ors.s Whether it accomplished that re.
salt through the medium of "lOyap
voters or of rebel voters, was question
about which they have never felt con-
cerned.
Now that the question of repeating
some of these measures is agitating
the State, aud now that the repeal of
all of them has become as certain as
anything in the near future can be, the
same considerations that divided the
parties with regard to their enactment
and enforcement separate them widely
upon the question of repeal. The lib
eral Republicans are diligently de-
mauding that a part Of these measures
may be repealed, not that justice may
be done, private rights respected or the
authority of the Constitution revived,
but simply aud solely to SO purge and
purify their party, that its days may be
long in the laad. The proscriptive Re-
publicans, equally oblivious to justice,
right and constitutional sanctity, insist
that these measures shall be continued,
as the only means of perpetuating the
power of their party. The Democrats,
on the other hand, demand the removal
of all disabilities because they are now
and always have been collection of
detestable outrages upon the rights of
the people, the welfare of the State,
and the constitution of the country.
Let their repeal hurt or help whom 1t
may, partisan considerations have no
right to stand between an 0dious sys-
tenn of Injustice and its immediate ab0-
lition. We hear men discussing this
great question as if the prosperity and
liberty of the people were nothing; the
perpetuity of this or that party organl-
zation everything. Away with such
abominable doctrine. Parties are mere
| instruments for expressing the popular
will and yindicating popular rights,
The man who would make the success
of his party the pretext for suppressing
the one or tramplisg upon the other, is
the enemy of society, and deserves
neither encouragement nor toleration.
Look at the various propositions now
before the people for reforming the Re-
publican party, for that is what they
mean, through the "let up" movement
1t is proposed to repeal the Suitor's Oath;
it is proposed to repeal the Teachers s
Oath; it is proposed to repeal the Law
yer's Oath, but the Voters Oath, through
which all other obnoxious oaths may be
re enacted within twelve months after
their repeal, is to be retained in force.
The registration law, through which
the most dastardly enormities are daily
committed, as the liberal Republicans
confess, are to be continued upon the
statute books. If it be amended in any
respect, the amendment is net to take
effect until the State election in 1870.
In the meantime the Same rascals who
are now harassing the people by their
manipulation Of the law, are 70 retain
control of the franchises of the State.
They are to be allowed to work out
the purposes of the ambitious dems-
gogues whose facile tools they are.
The complaints of leading rebels
are to be quieted with the lib
erty Of suing and of practising law,
but the thousands Of the rank and file
who have no power for harm are to be
kept in their political degradation; the
disfranchisement of Union men will be
ontinued as it is now being continued,
and we shall have the wonderful spec.
tacle of a party that processes to desire
a liberal Government working its way
to that result through the most savage
and sweeping outrages upon the right of
suffrage which have ever been witnes-
sed in our State. The election of 1870,