The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-04-27
That Modest Game OF Rndicai
Trickery.

We alluded yesterday TO the modest
game Of trickerv which it is the intcn-
ton of the Radical party in this State
to play off upon the people in the COM
inc elections, in order to retain the
power they have so long and so shame
tullv abused. Having for four years
imposed upon twenty-five thousand
white people the most mtolcrablc OPP
pressions, and denied them liberties
which they have granted to every negro
in the land, they now step forward with
long and sanctiROniouS faces, and pro-
pose to escape the merited punishment
their crime deserves, by promising to
reverse these tyrannical laws and repair
the wrongs committed upon helpless
and indignant freemen. For Instance
the Wellsburg Herald, whose Radical
claws have never rested rs softly
as velvet upon the nccks of our dis
franchised people, now steps forward
with the following very compIacent and
magnanimous smile upon its face
an regard to the prOscriptive laws,
it is now pretty well understood that
there is no considerable body Of people
of anv sort in favor of retaining them
on the statute book any longer than 1t
will take to legislate them Oft, and the
Republicans by their liberalitv hereto
fore in that regard, may safely he relied
upon 10 do it without the assistance of
the men for whose wholesome restraint
they were originally enacted. The Re
pubicans will attend to that at the next
election of their own accord.
This is decidedly refreshing The
editors eyes are opened to the vision
that his odious proscriptive laws have
become 40 revolving to the people that
they will no longer permit them to dis
grace the statute books, and he steps
forward like a converted sinner,
with the modest and liberal PROPOSE
tons of his party to remove the foul
stains as "soon as they en-, be icgislated
Of" But how soon can they be "legislated
OFF, and who riveted these cruel man
acles upon the limbs of our people which
il takes two wears of honest legislation
10 strike off? The Radicals did it, and
they will be removed only when an
outraged people shall cxpel from power
those who forged them.
But another Radical paper, the State
Journal, is equally pious in It's cOnces-
sions and liberia" in its promises. 1t
starts out, however, with proposition
which is so VIGOROUSLY untrue, that the
public can hardly place any reliance in
its conversion or in its pledgs. 1t says;
The Registration law and the disfran
chisement of rebels were war measure.
To characterize this declaration in the
mildest ofterms is to pronounce 1t an In
excusable misrepresentation. The Regis
tration law was not passed until Febru
ary. lS66. and the DISTINGUISHING clause Of
the constitution was not adopted by the
people until May 1864 year after
the war had closedl So far, therefore
from these being war measures, they
were shameless partizan measures en-
acted for no purpose under the sun but
TO perpetuate their hold upon the Gov,
ernment by sitting the voice of the
people. They have been retained as
such to the present day, and will be con,
tinued as such under Radical rule for
indefinite time, although'Shc STATE Jour
nal, in another part of its article, ven
lures the assertion that there is now
happily no occasion for the discussion
"of rebel enfranchisement or negro
suffrage. They arc things Of the past.
There may be no occasion to discuss
NEGRO suffrage" for although that II
expressly excluded by the State
Constitution, vet the Radicals
will register every one of then
and make them vote! But to say that
their shameless laws DISTINGUISHING
twenty-five thousand white men are q
question of the past" and to be closed
from public agitation, is simply Radi