Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1869-01-20
THEYTRGINA CONSTITUTION.
letter of the Richmond Conference
committee TO the Senate Judiciary
Committee.

&
Committee.
To the Judiciary Commute of the United States
Senate
On behalf of the delegation Of citizens oil
Virginia, and in accordance with the request
of your committee, We beg leave respectfully to
submit 10 tho form OF amendments to House
bill, l, ASS, now under your consideration sueh
notifications of the constitution proposed BY
the late convention as, in our opinion, will, un'
der all the circumstances, lead to its acceptance
| by the people of Virginia.
1t 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, re-
mains unchanged that the freedmen OF the
| Southern States, in their present uneduoateu
condition, are not prepared for the intelligent
exercise Of the elective franchise and the tn,
performance of other duties connected with
public affairs, and are therefore, at this time,
unsafe Repositories of political power; yet IN
view of the verdict OF public opinion IN 1avoI
| of their being allowed to exercise the right OF
suffrage, as expressed in the recent elections,
the undersigned are prepared, ard they be-
| ieve the majority OF the people OF Virginia are
prepared, to surrender their opposition to It's
| incorporation into their fundamental law,as an
| Offering on the altar Of peace, and in the hope
that union and harmony may De restored on the
basis of universal suffrage and universal amnes-
ty."
Taking it, then, to be established as the pol
lev of this Government to require In Virginia
constitutional recognition and enforcement OF
the civil and political equality Of all men be-
fore the law, we have in the amendments pro-
posed 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 if0m 1t
all those features Of distranchsement and dis
qualification, and all those elements OF bitter
ness and strife, political, sectional, and secta-
rian, which, in our Judgment are wholly IN
compatible with good government and good
| feeling, and tend to perpetuate alterations and
| discords, which all good citizens must depre-
cate. The power of State to subject any OF
| its citizens to disabilities for offences against
| the United States has been seriously question
1 u.
pose of punishment no such power exists, and
| that qualifications and acknowledgements are
| only admissible as measures OF precautlon and
safety. s.. :,
In this point of view it is worthy of consid-
Grafton that since the close Of the war the pee
pe of Virginia have been living without dis
reimbursement or disability Of any kind, under
government whose legislative and judicial
departments and whole local organizations
have been in the hands OF the very classes
whom it is sought by the proposed constitution
to exclude from every position OF trust IN the
State. We claim with confidence that the re-
suit has been that the supremacy of law and
order has been as fully maintained and that the
| functions Of good government have been as
well performed in Virginia as in any State of
| the Union.
1t is believed that article three, section one,
paragraph four, would dlslranchise not less
than ten or fifteen thousand voters in the
State, including all those whom the people
have been accustomed to trust in public en-
Payments.
Article three. section seven, would diSqualiiy
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 Oh INC SdnG dlliClC CAtCuu iuC llhO us
ability TO serve upon lurles.
1t is believed that there is no advocate OF
universal negro suffrage who will not agree
that in It's application to Virginia, at this time,
it is fearful experiment, requiring for It's sue
cess all the wisdom and experience that can be
brought to its management and it IS respect
fully submitted that to exclude from partlclpa-
ton In State or local governments at this time
so large n proportion Of those who, by eXpe-
rience in public affairs, are fitted to deal with
this great problem, would be unwise and un-
safe.
We earnestly declare that in our belief it
would be wholly Inconsistent with domestic
tranquility, public order, or the security OF the
lives, liberty, or property of the great body of
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
ownership Of church property in amount, and
confines 1t strictly to the focal religious congre-
CATION. The purpose is to enable "ecccsiasti-
cal bodies outside Of Virginia, in opposition
to the legislation of the State, and against its
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
section 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 modllica-
ton the whole of the cumbrous machinery for
local organization, government, and police,
which, in our judgment, is clearly untitled to
the condition of the State, and if fixed in the
constitution will be a cause of embarrassment
and difficulty and strife, seriously affecting the
public peace and the harmony and good order
of society.
The population of Virginia is very sparsely
and unequally distributed over the territory Of
the State, and the physical and geographical
features of the country are such as to render
wholly impracticablo any srbitrary plan of sub
division for local purposes. The most we have
been able to do, thus far, is to make the coun-
ties the units of local government, and to give
to the county courts, composed OF all the coun
ty justices, the control and direction of the
local government and police.
In view of the introduction into our system