The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-02-01
WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 1. 1871
The Constitutional Convention.

tional Conye ntion is aetuated solely oy
a desire TO have a new deal OF offices,
to vacate certain places now held by
Radicals, and nut in Office everywhere
those whom the people, including those
now and heretofore DISTINGUISHED, may
select. In this ohr neighbor is very
much mistaken. Desirable and just as
such a consunmation would be, it is by
no means the only, nor is il the chief
reason why Constitutional Convention
should be held. The Democratic
party in West Virginia has never been
20 hide. bound and pfoscriptire in the
hestowal Of office as its Radical or
ponent has been. Under Radical
auspices every man suspected OF Dem
ocratic tendencies has been hunted
down, and either debarred or ousted
from position. Not even the slightest
crumb of official patronage has ever
been bestowed upon a Democrat that
Radicals have had It in their powerto
refuse. No Democrat has ever been
permitted to fill any Office, no matter
how humble or unimportant, when 1t
has been in the .poyfr Of the Radicals
to place in it a man Of their own poIltl-
cal faith. And this prescription would
have been more -tolerable and more
easily excused. if the, political parties
in the State had been more evenly d.
vided in point Of numbers and intefli-
gence, or il the ascendeucy of the Radl-
cal party had been attained by fair and
proper means. But being, as had al
ways been conceded, largely IN the
minority, representing much less than
one-half of the citizeps OF the State,
holding its power BY virtue OF not per-
hitting its opponents TO vote, thlswhoie-
sale and minute prescription of Demo
Gratis has been all the more nnlustiti-
able. The men now in Office IN many of.
the counties in West Virginia and IN
nearly all of the Judicial Circuits, are
there in opposition to the popular will.
They do not represent the freely ex-
pressed choice of the people. They
are not the men whom a majority
of the citizens want. At all.
events, even if these men
are the very" best that can be
found for the positiona they occupy,
if any one Of them representative
wishes of the people, he or they
need have no fear Of Constitutional
Convention or of an election at which
the people will have an opportunity OF
expressing their choice. The officers
whom the, people waptwill be reelected
those whom they do not want will be
permitted to retire to the obscurity from
which they were dug up during war
times. a
And, as we have already intimated,
we have no idea that in this choice OF
officers, the Democratic party OF
the State will prove as pro-
scriptive and intolerant as the Radi-
Gals have been. We have no idea that
marty service and adherence to party
faith will be demanded as Indispensable
PREREQUISITES for Office This has not
been the case where the Democracy has
already had an opportunity of mani
testing it's course in that respect. In
stances of the election OF Radicals to
positions of trust influence and import
ance by Democratic votes, will readily
be brought to mind by any one familiar
with the party politics of the
State. Only yesterday, in the
same copy OF the hatslLigeneer in which
the editor pleads so pitifully for the
retention in office for just little while
Of those Radicals whose places would
be vacated by Constitutional Conven-
lion. he Classics 1.-The new Democratic
Senator" as "a Radical Of the first
water" and points with triumph, in
substantiation Of his claim, to the fact
that Mr.. DAVIS voted for the reglstra-
ton law and other favorite measures Of
the Radical party. The Charleston
Journal than which there is mo more
bitterly partisan paper in the State,
virtually claims Mr.. DAVIS as the RAD,
cal candidate; .intimates that has oPpo-
napts for senatorial honors were trying
to prescribe him "on account of his
Union record and service during the
war" and suggests that the, Radical
caucus shall take care that he is not
injured thereby. 1t seems to us that
in view Of this and numerous other in
stances Of Democratic disregard OF par
tisanship in office, the claim that we
want a Constitutional Convention. solely
for the sake Of Office is reduced to an
absurdity; though there is abundant
reason for the belief that Radicals OPP
nose the convention simply for the sake
of holding on, a few years longer 70 the
Offices obtainssby disfranchisement,
The Constitutional Convention is
urged for other. and more important