The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-10-08
Steyenson's Interpretation OF the
Registry Law,

Inc bOaruS Oi heSlStration tHrOuSh
out the State seem to have been under |
orders from the Governor to restore no |
man to the list Of voters who had pre- /
viously been stricken off When q man
had once been deprived Of his right to
vote. whether wrongfully or in accor-
dance with the law made no difference,
he was TO be forever excluded. The 7
evidence that this was in accordance
With instructions from Governor SrEy-
ESsoN is found in the uniformity OF the
practice. In every county from which
we have yet heard, the Boards OF Reg.
istration last Monday refused to hear
the case of any man previously stricken
off, but who applied for restoration.
In Marion county. the Liberahist says
When Jonathan Musgrave applied
to be registered the President Of the
Board said Il, az an honest man
know that your name ought'to be upon
the Register, but | am sorry to say, we
cannot place it there"
In Richie county, an argument was
made before the Board by r. g. BLAIR,
ESQ, upon the right Of these men to
have their cases re-opened and consider
ed BY the Board. In Barbour, in Ber-
kelley and in Wood, there was the same
determination manifested to forever de
prive OF their right to vote those whom
any former Board Of Registration had
stricken from the list, and it is absurd
to suppose that in all these counties the
Boards would have so violently pervert-
ed the plain letter and spirit OF the
registry law, without the positive orders
Of the Governor.
1t is difficult TO find in the law the
slightest foundation for such course.
The 34th section OF the registry law
provides for the meetings OF the Board,
the summoning Of voters to appear and
the striking off OF those whom the
Board may deem illegally registered,
and concludes in these words, "and no
person so stricken from the register OF
voters shall afterwards be registered,
except upon application 10 the Board Of
Registration, as provided for in the next
section" The next, 18th, section pro-
yides for the meeting Of the Board on
the First Monday in October, to hear
appeals from decisions Of township re-
gistrars, to determine the cases Of those
who have been summoned, and to hear
original applications for the registration
OF those who can show good cause for
having failed to apply at the proper
time. 1t omits to specify that they shall
hear applications from those who have
formerly been stricken from the list,
but certainly no lawyer can be found
who will contend that the Board is
thereby debarred from hearing cases OF
this kind, or that, once DISTINGUISHED
bv the action of the Board, the citizen
must forever remain so. The exception
contained in the words we have itali-
cised above in the conclusion of the
34th section, means only that the citizen
stricken off by the Board cannot have
his name restored by tie township reg
istrar, or by any other power inferior to
the Board itself; and we cannot see any
sense in that construction Of the 35th sec
ton that would prohibit the Board from
hearing cases Of appeal from the de
cision of former Board.
Suppose that man who had not
resided one year in the State were regis
tered by the township registrar. The
Board of Registration finds it out, mott
fes him to appear, and finding that he
is not at this time legally qualified,
strikes his name from the list Under
the construction which has been given
to the 35th section of the law, in
Richie, Marion, Wood and other
counties, that man could never acquire
right to vote, though he might live
in the State fifty years. True, he
could not, under the law, be placed
upon the list by any power inferior to
that which struck him of; but that the
Board Of Registration could not restore
his name to the list. il monstrous
absurdity.
And yet, upon such miserable quib-
BILE as that, Governor STEVENSON
has kept from registration hundreds of
legally qualified white men who were
stricken off two years ago when BORE
MAN thought it necessary to elect him
self United States Senator. In fact,
there are many circumstances which 90
to prove that STEVENSON is playing the
same game and with the same end in
view as that which FOREMAN so shame
fully inaugurated These men who are
disfranchised are all Democrats, or
Conservative men, and he is well as
sured they would contribute nothing to
his elevation if restored to their right
to vote; hence their continued denial Of
registration for which they are as legal
ly qualified and to which they have as
incontestible a right AZ he has him.
self.
Public Meetings.
81