The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-03-09

speech of Hon. III. G.. Davis, of
Mineral County, on Regis
tration Reform, i'm the Sem
ate Of West Virginia, Febru-
ary 26th, 1870.
Senate Bill No. 1O7, amending the law
SO as to require the registration OF all
persons taking an oath that they have
not aided the rebellion, and to prohibit
the Boards from striking of, except
upsn legal proof after due notice, being
under consideration,
Mr.. DAVIS said that this bill,
as is well known to Senators
who have taken the trouble to read 1t,
makes but two changes. One OF these
is that no man shall be stricken from
the registration lists without proof
against him. The registrars in our
neighborhood require a man to prove
his innocence. They do not attempt to
prove him guilty. doubt if Mr.. Presi-
dent could prove his loyalty If his name
was stricken from the lists, aud yet none
of us doubt it. There is also slight
change in the form of the oath. When
party spirit ran high men were stricken
from the registration lists and cannot
vote to. day, though they may have car
ried muskets and knapsacks IN the
Union army.
We owe it to the country and to our
selves to make this change. We are
continuing prescription iu the face OF
the wishes of our own State and IN op-
position to the demands of public SEN
timent. Other States have thrown
aside their war policy. We are contin-
uing ours in force. We are the last to
abandon these measures of distranchlse-
ment and come up to the ideas ofa liberal
and progressive age. Five years after
the close of the war, when the last. ex-
cuse and the last vestigs of excuse for
prescription has past away, we deny to
thousands of our fellow-citizens the
dearest right known to men, the right
to the ballot.
Can we call our system fair, can we
call it equal, can we call it Republican,
when under it large classes of men, rep
resenting the intelligence, controlling
the wealth and bearing largely the tax.
alton burdens of the State, are denied
all voice in the Government we compel
them to supportf
WhaU has been the experience OF
other States with this odious and anti
Republican policyf Maryland tried it,
but the mere fact of wholesale disfrap-
chisement worked up public sentiment
within her limits that has etfectually
driven from power the men who pro-
scribed and prosecuted her people.
Tennessee tried it, and 80 completely
fortified was her prOscriptive policy,
that it seemed to defy attack; yet its
very strength was its weakness, and
the party which relied on that policy
for perpetuation is now so shattered and
ruined that it is scarcely recognized as
a voting power in the State. Virginia
by an overwhelming majority has re-
jected the Test Oath system, and if the
last election in our State had any mean
ing, it meant that the people of West
Virginia, tired, sick and disgusted with
this whole system of disfranchisement,
demand a thorough and substantial
reform, and my word for it they are
bound to have it.
Let me read you what Horace Gree
ley says, and he is pretty good Repub-
lean authority:
Every year one thousand of your
rebels die, and one thousand (or more)
| Of their sous become of age. You can't
disfranchise them. You have now five
thousand majority. Six years at fur
thest will convert this into rebel ma
jority of one thousand. TEEN the rebels
will be enfranchised in spite of you.
Go your own way, and see II
the rebels dou't have you under foot in
less than six years.
IL speak from wide experience, when
tell you that your house is built on the
sand Every year will see the passions
of the war cool, and the demand for
amnesty strengthened. Now you can
amnesty the rebels. Soon the question
will be, shall they amnesty youf Look
at Kentucky and Maryland and read
your certain fate in theirs"
That's the voice of one of your lead
ers one year ago. Now let us see how
his predictions are verified. In 1864 the
Republican majority was between
twelve and thirteen Thousand, in 1866
it was about six Thousand and last fall
the vote was very nearly equal. the
day Greeley predicted is upon you. The
people are demanding change, and
that change you must give them.
| Senator Brownlow has spoken to the
same effect in favor of the removal of
political restrictions. Governor Wells
has taken q still more advanced posi-
tion lathe same direction. The whole
Republican party of the North has
sought safety in pledges of liberality;
your President himself has so. far recog-
nized the signs of the times as to com.
NIT his Administration against the
continuance of these unjust political
discriminations.
Congress is maturing measures for
wiping out all political. disabilities and
making freemen of all American citi-
zens. In other countries the spiritsof
progress is awake. In England, in
France and Russia, the rights of men
are being recognized, the wrongs of
government are being corrected. While
the whole world moves, shall West
| Virginia persist in standing still
In presenting this bill we are keeping
far within the limits allowed by the
lNOuS'llublOH. Ii HAS uoou RIdNoly QutS'
toned whether under that instrument
You can disfrauchise men for treason
without trial and conviction by due
process of law. The Republican party
would set mp Boards of registration,
three men in each county, to consider,
try and determine, often without
charge, evidence or notice, the guilt OF
innocence Of their fellow citizens in re-
gard TO one of the gravest criaaes known
to the law. Since the voice of power, q
minority power, has decreed that
these Boards shall act as Courts, prose.
cutors and executioners, we demand OF
your Justice the fair limitations con.
tanned in this bill. We ask that the
township registrar be deprived Of the
arbitrary power now welded by him
and which he so often converts into ar.
biuary despotism. We ask that he
be made merely ministerial
officer, who shall enroll any
citizen taking an oath in conformity
with. the terms of the Constitution,
We fnrther ask that Won limit the ire.