The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-02-19

Debate upon the Power Of the Con'
stitutiOn I'm time Of Wharf.-The Con-
ventfOn does not believe In
Military Necessity-A Grammatical
Correction.
CHARLESTON, February 9.-Tbe
Convention is now fairly launched,
floating out upon space, and it remains
to be seen whether the crew is suffi
GENTLY trained, or the officers sufficient
" we'll skilled to anchor in .fe har,
Dor. The subject under consideration
10 dav was the Bill Of Rights, and 10
discussion was ELECTED until the 10th
section was taken up, which read as
follows:
1.-THE provisions OF the Constitution
of the United States, and Of this State,
apply as we'll in time OF war az in time
OF peace, and any departure therefrom,
or violation thereof, under the plea OF
necessity, or any other plea, is subver
sive of good government, and tends 10
anarchy aud despotism."
This brought j. Marshall Hagans on
his legs. And, by the way, did you
ever know man who spelled his name
in this way who was not consummate
asst If there be any such, Hsgans Is
certainly not the man, for he is a living
illustration OF the fact that the old
couplet of Leigh Hunt is true:
"Nature abhors vacuum, tits said,
And yet TO eve. dandy gives head
He arose in his place TO oppose this
section. 1t was a mere dd captand'tm
declaration injected, as it were, into the
instrument, by he knew not whom nor for
what purpose, and while he recognized
the principles enunciated to be true, it
was wholly unnecessary and useless to
embody them in the organic law. 1t was
matter Of history that in times Of war
AMI public danger, the party in power
ALWAYS construed the Constitution to
suit their own purposes. He did
not want to refer to the past but
wanted it TO be buried out of sight. but
in the past the Constitution of the
United States has been violated to save
the life OF the nation, and the Constitu-
ton OF the Confederate States was
VIGOROUSLY violated before it had been
adopted q year.
Mr.. Faulkner replied in his usually
clear and incisive manner. He thought
Mr.. HIS vision was certainly obscured.
The section contained a great and grand
fundamental principle. and he thanked
the committee for having proposed it.
Is was but an endorsement oil the
luminous decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States in Mllligau g
case, which had properly been called
second Magma Charta, which declared
that in times OF war no less than in
peace, the Constitution ,oas the supreme
law OF the land, and could not be
violated with impunity.
Hagans rejoined: This was q new
proposition to our people. and he could
see no reason for its adoption. 1t was
injected, go to speak, and was mere
clap,trap. He again alluded to the
unhappy past" to which he is so fond
of referring, and maintained that he
wanted to secure all the rights Of the
people; but this provision contained
an insinuation that the constitution had
been construed wrong in the past All
went down in times OF war,
and were worth nothing. He wanted
to forgive and forget the past, although
there was blood upon it. But there
was a past which the gentlemen could
not rob the peg pie OF, and while ne did
not desire to refer to it, he thought the
q reflection on those who had
held up the arms OF the Union, &c,
&c, in similar strain.
Mr.. Woods replied, and if ever q
poor boy was literally demolished. it
j