Martinsburg weekly independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1873-1875, 1874-09-19
LETTER or in. ALEXANDER
TO The Voters of Berkeley County:

been earnestly and repeatedly So
licited within the past fortnight by
quite number OF you, embracing
| in that number some Of my mos
highly-esteemed personal and pos
litieal friends, to lend my name at
an independent candidate for the
Legislature, and many Of you hav-
ing given the further manifesto
| ton Of the earnestness of your de-
sire by publicly announcing my
name in he columns Of the Mar
tinsburg INDEPENDENT, / do not
feel at liberty further to resist your
appeals. And whilst / do not
covet Legislative honors, and can
not forbear expressing regret that
your appeals were not as persist :
emily addressed tOsOme other more
worthy and ADLER representative
man than myself, | nevertheless
feel constrained by the importuni-
ties of many citizens, actuated /
trust, by the prompting5 Of honest
motives, true principles, and patri-
site desires, humbly to submit my
self as candidate for your honest
support; and should the people,
whose verdict / shall most cheer
fully abide, for / believe in the
right of the people to determine !;
the government belongs to the
people, and not the people to the
government, although they owe
allegiance to it. And / say, should
majority of the qualified voters
OF the county on the thirteenth day
of next month, in the exercise of
their untrammeled suffrage, thro'
the ordeal of that silent, yet con-
elusive arbiter, the ballot box give
the stamp ofapproval to the wishes
of those who have called me into
the canvass, by electing me to a
seat in the next House of Dele
gates, | shall endeavor to justify
their confidence and esteem by
prompt, faithful and efficient dis
charge of Representative duty, so
far as my feeble qualifications may
befit.
And, now, my feIlow-citizens,a al
though not yet commissioned with
the discharge of Legislative duty,
| am nevertheless before you as
candidate for representative trust;
and therefore feel it my duty to
deal fairly with you, by making
frank avowal of the sentiments /
entertain, and the principles by
which | shall be governed in the
event of my election. I would be
unworthy the trusts my friends
propose to confide in me; unwor-
thy the confidence and kindness
they have ever shown; unworthy
of my State, and of your suffrage,
ifI should forbear making an open
avowal ofmy honestly-entertained
santiraepts and early espoused Pc
litlcalr'principles. My political
faith, as first formed, was Whig. of
the Clay a I'd Webster school. With
that time-honored party / main
tanned my identity to the period
of its disintegration. From that
period | held no utilization, in
partisan sense, with any party, up
TO the eve OF the outbreak Of cur
unpleasant civil strife, when / be
came nominaliy identified with
the great Union parry Of the coun-
try, retaining still, the cardinal fea-
lures of nay former political creed,
embodying the principles embrace
ed in what has been so emiuently
styled, "The broad, comprehen-
sive, patriotic and national policy"
of the Wing party. Principles
which / have hitherto and shall
ever cherish in the spirit of unsul-
lied devotion to my country, the
honor and maintenance of her free
institutions, with the full and free
enjoyment of the inviolable rights
and blessings thereby secured, as
sacred to every citizen without re-
gard to nativity, race or creed.
Within this sphere or radii, and
in common with you all, l feel es-
pecially interested in the material
growth and prosperity of my State
the proper development fits nat
ural resources, the extension and
completion Of its works Of neces-
sary Improvement, and of securing
the largest possible 4egree of hap
piness and prosperity to its citi-
zens.
l hold it to be the imperative
duty of every one commissioned
with the discharge of representa-
tive duty in the Legislature from
any county district or local COM
munity, to be governed rather by
the expressed wishes and known
wants, or interests Of his constitu-
ents, than by any selfish interest,
personal or party consideration
Utterly ignoring all these, it is
his first and ever present duty
steadily to look to and earnestly
labor for the welfare of his constit-
uents and the promotion of the
public good; thus subscribing the