The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-11-28
The Amendment sOf 1866.

the Constitution OF West Virginia re-
lates to the manner Of amending the
Constitution by a Convention called, in
pursuance of law, for that purpose, and
provides concerning the acts and ordl-
nances of the said Convention that,
''in no event, shall they, by any shift or
device, be made to have any RETROSPECT
tive operation or effect" The first sec
ton of Article II declares that no cr
post facto law shall be passed. In the
second section Of Article XII. which
prescribes the manner Of amending the
Constitution by legislative action and
ratification by the people, there are no
express words of limitation as to the
nature of the amendments that may be
made, but it is plain that the prohibI-
ton of er post facto or retrospective leg
islation is as applicable to amendments
made in this manner as by Constitu-
tional Convention, or to acts OF the
LEGISLATURE. No amendment, be it
proposed or adopted in what manner 1t
may, can, "by any shift or device, be
made to have any retrospective opera
ton or effect"
If then, the supposed constitutional
amendment of 1866 had gone through
the necessary and prescribed form OF
adoption, if it had been submitted "to
the voters of the State" (Which 1t was
noD and been formally ratified BY
them, it would still be liable TO be
treated as nullity because OF its retro
spective operation. Pretending to 60
into effect on the 24th day OF May,
1866, it provided that no person should
vote who had given aid or assistance to
the rebellion "since the lst day of June
1861" five years prior to Its adoption
Not content with imposing the penalty
of acknowledgements upon thooc who
should thereafter violate the law by rem
dering aid or assistance TO the rebel
lion, it went back five years in search
of victims, and made an otfense punish.
able in manner in which it was not
legally punishable when committed,
thus filling in every respect the legal
definition of an rr post .fact9 law. 1t
went further back than the history OF
the State, and attempted to punish men
under State law for offenses committed
two years before the State was formed.
It's friends have also claimed for it that
it gave validity to the preceding acts Of
disfranchisement passed by the Legisla-
ture, the test oath of February %, 1865,
and the Registration law of February
26, 1866.
II the amendment has not been held
to have "a retrospective operation and
effect, there is no meaning in the words.
It's whole action has been retrospective.
The war was over and peace had been
obtained one year before the pretended
adoption of the measure 1t looked to
the past only, and, under cover of the
authority it conferred, thousands Of
citizens were punished by disfranchise-
ment for acts done long before the con-
stitutional amendment was dreamed of.
If this amendment were void for no
other reason, it seems to US that this
alone should be sufficient to set it aside.
The adoption Of such measure is ex-
pressly forbidden by the constitution
itself: the BILL Of Rights" secured by
that instrument positively forbids the
enactment of such a law; the Consti
tuition of the United States prohibits
such legislation; and the common sense
of every citizen will declare it void
While the Radicals held power in
West Virginia, they found this system
necessary in order to crush out the ma
jority and stife the expression OF the
popular will. Happily, they have at
last been overthrown, and the Demo
cracy, having nothing to fear from the
free voice of the people and desiring to
carry out to its fullest extent the ftlnda-
mental idea of Republican Govern
ment and let the people rule, will, as
speedily and unceremonlously as posi-
bic, lop off from the constitution this
excrescence which has not and never
had any root, and never was incorpor,
ated into the substance OF our organic
law. 1t is merely fungus, the work
Of parasites, and not living branch
of the tree. We give it a quasi vitality
and validity by arguing that it should
be formally repealed. 1t was fraud
in the beginning and has been chsrac-
terized by fraud in all its operations, and
We only dignity and give to the past
conduct and legislation of the Radical
party under this amendment some
shadow of legality and right when we
talk about the necessity of going
through the long process of constitu-
tional amendment, in order to get rid of
Acknowledgement and make our State
government, Republican in form