The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-06-15
Tho Democratic Platform and White
90 Mans Suffrage.

The Democratic Platform and White
Mans Suffrage.
There IL no feature, we presume, IN
Inc platform adopted by the Charleston
Convention to which any candid mind
ofahy political sentiment consciously
object; but there is one feature IN it
which we desire to commend particu-
larly TO the attention of every one who
proposes to be the advocate of a liberal
government in this State, and it is that
which declares that Ito wipe out the .
injustice and the disgrace incident to
the disfranchisement in our midst OF
twenty-five thousand men OF our own
race, while negroes exercise the elective
franchise without hinderance or condl-
ton. we demand a free ballot for white
men and the immediate enactment Of
such measures as will secure it.
1t will be conceded by all candid men
that the acknowledgements that now
rest upon twenty-five thousand free citi-
zens of this State were not imposed to
aid in the prosecution OF the war or the
preservation of the Union. They were
imposed year after the war had closed
and when the weapons of sectional
strife should have been made into pillow
shares and pruning hooks, and the voice
of the turtle have been heard through
all our land. They were made too 10y a
partisan Legislature for the unworthy
purpose of perpetuating party ascend
ancv in the State by a system of despot-
ism unheard of before in any govern
ment pretending to be Republican III
its form. They have rested upon the
people and been the subjects of bitter
strife and arrangement for five years OF
pretended peace, and they will remain
there for indefinite years to come for
the same purpose if LETT to the
decision of the party that en-
acted them. We desire, therefore,
we repeat, To present to all liberal
minds in this State this particular
feature of the Charleston platform upon
which we are now commenting, and to
invoke their endorsement, and their
support Of the party that favors its
unqualified adoption. We want and
demand clean white vote in West
Virginia. By the Fifteenth Amend
ment and the late law TO enforce
it, every negro has been adj
mitted To the ballot by the
very party that have disfrancbised
thousands of our white people, and
their pretentions now toward favorlng
a repeal of these obnoxious laws
through the agency of the FLICK
amendment are simply designed TO de
ceive and cheat the liberal minded pOr
ton of their party ont of their con
timed support. There is no half way
ground upon this question where
trickery politicians or timid men can
take their position. They must
be Tor us or against us on this
Issue; and no man who rretends to
be a "let up at the same time
that be throws the weight of his influ-
ence and his vote in favor Of the party
that has perpetrated and maintained
the wrong for five years can be con
ceded the candor and fairness which
liberal and just men have the right 10
claim.
Upon the liberal and comprehensive
platform, therefore, adopted 1T Cliar;es-
ton, and the success OF the Conservative
parry which sustain- it, depend the hes!
interests OF this State and the restored
liberties Of the people, and we invoke
the favorable consideration of all liberal
minded men of all shades of party.