The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-03-22
CHARLES ON.
The Inevitable Negro Again-Farns-
vorth's Ferinade ON Free Sch 0ois
salaries OF State Ohlcers.

revive the controversy about the "imag-
mary negro" &C.. which we bad all
thought was finally settled on Saturday.
Mr.. Wilson, of Harrison, moved to
refer to the people as a separate propo-
sition to be voted upon at the time OF
voting upon the adoption or rejection
of the new Constitution, the proposition
to insert the word white among the
qualifications necessary to entitle the
citizen to eligibility to office. This
would have resulted in transferring to
the popular forum the controversy that
has ragged in the Convention during the
past three days, and Democratic orators
on different sides OF the question at
issue would have had an opportunity to
fill the tortured air during the ensuing
campaign with highly wrought pro-
testations upon the subject. The good
sense of the Convention, however, saw
the danger and averted it by laying Mr..
Wilson's motion upon the table without
debate.
Mr.. Mathews, OF Greenbrier, then
moved to instruct the Revisory Com
mittee to 80 change the language OF tbe
section relating to the eligibility OF
citizens to office as to reopen the old
controversy, but this too was laid upon
the table by a very decisive vote,
The question is thus disposed of, let
us hope, finally, by permitting the pro-
vision of the present Constitution In
relation to this matter to remain un-
changed. mo person. except citizens
entitled to vote" are eligible to Office.
By. virtue of the Fifteenth Amendment
and under this provision of the State
Constitution negroes have been eligible
to Office in West Virginia during the
past two years. No one Of them has
ever been elected in this State, and
there is no reasonable probability that
any ever will be. II they could not be
elected while twenty thousand white
citizens were disfranchised, there is not
much chance of their being put in
office now that free and full popular
vote is allowed. Nor has the African
made rapid strides toward the social
equality which some gentlemen have
predicted as the inevitable re-
suit OF making him eligible TO
Office. There has been no more
miscegenatiou than before that is
appreeiable to an ordinary observer;
the lovely daughters Of honest and
respectable white men have not to any
extraordinary extent thrown themselves
into the arms OF dusky suitors; and
pure Caucasian blood Still flows in the
veins of our legislators and officers Of
State. Until some practical tendency
toward the evil results that have been
predicted is observed, it may be well to
leave the Constitution as it has been
and now is, and the Legislature has
ample power to protect itself from a
swarm of Ethiopian members when the
sky falls or o majority Of the white
people OF West Virginia become fit sub
jects for the lunatic asylum. Under
the Constitutional provision that mo
persons except citizens entitled to vote"
may be eligible to Office, the Legislature
may prescribe almost any qualification
it pleases, for there is a broad difference
between the language of the Constitu-
ton as it now stands and that which
was proposed and which would have
invested "AN citizens entitled to vote"
with the right to hold any office to
which they might happen to be chosen.
But, begging pardon for DEPRESSION
which is foreign to the purpose ofthese
letters, let us return to the proceedings
of the Convention.
The report of the Committee Of the
Whole upon the Executive Department
was taken up for consideration in Con-
vention. Several unimportant amend
ments were made. The salary of the
State Auditor was very properly in.
creased to two thousand dollars per
year. Several Intellectual attempts
we're made to reduce the Governor 8
salary but it stands unchanged at twenty.
seven hundred dollars, without any
allowance for house rent or for any
other purpose. An effort was made to
increase the salary Of the State Super
iptendent OF Free Schools to two thou.
sand dollars, or, in lieu of this, allow
him fifteen hundred dollars salary and
provide for the payment OF his travelling
expenses. The most prominent advo-
Gates Of this change were Messrs. Will
son, of Harrison, Byrne, OF Clay, and
Pendleton, Of Brooke. Each ofthese gen.
tlemen presented his views very forcibly
and very earnestly indeed but without
avail. Hagans, Of Monongalia, Hay
mond. OF Marion, and Farnsworth, Of
Upshur, resisted the movement and
sundry gentlemen who had promised
their constituents to create cheap gov
ernment thought this a good place to
put their false notions of economy into
practice. The truth is, the State Super
intendent OF Free Schools is very made
quately paid, when We co ,sider the high
order OF talent and education that is
necessary to properly qualify the man
who fills that station. The public
schools demand the services Of a first
rate man and he cannot be obtained by
the payment of second rate salary.
l sincerely hope that the Convention
may yet reconsider its action upon this
subject and fix the salary Of the State
Superintendent at decent living rate
The report was finally passed by the
Convention and referred to the revisory
committee.
During the debate upon the salary Of
the State Superintendent Of Free
Schools, Mr.. Farnsworth made an
egregious donkey of himself (if such an
expression is allowable where the work
was done long ago. by commenting