The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-02-02
From the Record.

The solemn silence maintained by the
IntelliJeRcer upon allpractical measures
before the Legislature for the relief ei
onr prescribed citizens, shows the sin
cerity of its "let up" professions. On
September Goth, 1869, that paper, then
in the full glory of its "new departure"
replied to an objecting Clarksburg cor
respondent in this wise:
"Haviug fought the war to a success
full end. to maintain and enforce the
idea ;hat all the adult males ehouid be
citizens, and all the citizens have equal
rights under the Government-an idea
which is the very life blood of Republi-
canism-we find ourselves now in o
time of profound peace and perfect Sc
cuIity, denying to class of intelIi.
gent, moral, law ObeyiDg, tax-paylns
citizens the privilege of earning live.
lihOod in the vocations for which it was
their misfortune to be educated-the
only vocations unhappiIy for which
many of them are fitted; withholding
the right of the same class to appeal for
Justice in the courts (that universal
asylum of justice iu every civilized
country,) we at the same time having
complete political control of those
courts, high and low.
Then We deny the class Of citizens de
scIibed, who are often among the larg
est property holders IN their counties,
all voice in the selection of their Off
GERS, from highest to lowest, who levy
the taxes and control their disburse.
ments. Aud to enforce this exclusion
we maintain feature of registration
which puts the control of suffrage in the
hands of irresponsible and sometimes
unscrupulous agents who do not always
stop with those who are excluded by
law, but who to crafty personal diSlikes or
mrcenary ends deprire Of the ballot men o
their opn political faith who hare
a right TO rote under the ldp
And the practical operation Of this
restriction on suffrage in many counties is
TO put the entire control Of taration, dis
bursement and representation in the hands
of one hdlf one fourth, one eighth, and
eren less, Of the tar paying citizens Of the
county. Now these are facts which we
canuot ignore. This, we are sorry to
say, is the real condition, stated with
out prejudice or concealment, in which
this year of grace 1869 finds us. These
are the things which our correspondent
would have continued perpetually-for
he does not contemplate, much less
name, any period when be would termiD.
ate them. A beliefin the infallibilty of
this policy for all time to come is what
he means by the "true faith;" and to
doubt either the justice or the wisdom
of its continuance. forever, is, in his
code, to "crimipally surrender our
principles Why, Sill, this is not Repub-
licanism. Try the word by any defni-
tion that ever existod-try it as defined
in every national platform of the party
from 1856 to 1868, and this is not Re-
publicanism. 1t isanytbing else. And
so it is not 50 strange that we find the
early Republicans, with whom the
name represents principles, seeking to
return TO a platform which embodies
the genuine and only RepublicaDism;
while aruOHg the fercest advocates Of
continued un Republican discrimina'
tions and the most intoleraut denuncia-
don of others, will be found some whose
loyalty at the opening of the rebellion
was of the weakest and shakiest de-
scription. 1t IL not for them to lay
down a creed as the true faith" for
such Republicans as issued the Ohio
county address. Rebuke from that
quarter is not relished.