The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-10-28
BENJAMIN WILSON.

can vsss for Congress becomes daily more
and more apparent. The columns of the
Inteihgencer are daily filed with the
weakest political broth that ever was
served up to hungry people. Not con
tented with the bloody shirt in the ab
stract, 1t seeks to array the Republican
congressional candidate in that CORY gar.
ment and send him forth, like young
matadore. to enrage the bulls and bovines
of the Republican herd into the requisite
passion for making another desperate
onslaught upon the Democracy. Pea
contra, Col. WILSON is held up by the
Intell,gencsr as the very impersonatlon d
southern war claims, financial lunacy and
religious intolerance. These change:
have been rung so often in this
can vass that it would seem super
huous to make serious refutstion of the
charges so lsvishly made by the
Truthful JAMES who does the heavy
work for tho InteLligsacer. In order,
however, that the mtell,geneer may have
no room for csvil on these subjects, we
propose to state some matters OF fact in
regard to these attacks. In what we
shall say upon these matters we speak by
authority.
l. In regard TO the assertion that Col
WILSON ,otU vote for the payment o.
Southern claims. This statement has
been so often denied and retuted by Col
WILSON upon the stump that it is un.
necessary to say anything further about
it. We know that he is opposed TO the
payment of all claims not strictly and
specifically payable under the law as it
now stands, enacted by a Republican
Congress.
1t Is true that he offered several bills
for payment of claims growing out OF
the war. One of these was for damages
to the Fsirmont and Gsuley Turnpike
during the war, and the other was for
damages to the Southern Methodist
Church, in Clsrksburg, occupied as a
barracks for soldiers. The equity Of
both these bills was endorsed by Re-
publican Legislature, by joint resolution,
upon similar proposition by Republi-
can representatives. But it makes a
vast difference to our pious friend of the
Intelligsncer, whether bill Is intro
duceG by Republican or Democrat.
But Col WILSON did get an sppro
priation for this district which no pre-
ceding Representative ever succeeded in
obtaining, namely, an APPROPRIATION OF
$500 for the improvement of the Little
Kanawha river. Our Republican friends
find great mares nest in this appro.
priation, because the counties of Gilmer,
Calhoun and Writ, along the river,
manifested their appreciation of it by an
increased Democratic majority.
2. The school question:. The silliest OF all
the manufactured lies of the campaign
is the assertion that Col. WILSON is
opposed to the public school system,
and that he favors division of the
school fund. The facts are the best
refutation of this campaign lie. The
amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, passed by the last Demo-
cratic House of Representatives, and
killed in the Senate by amendments, makes
it forever impossible 10 establish any
form of religion by any state, or to
make any division OF the public school
funds or lands given to states
tor educational purposes, among religious
denominations or sects. And the vote on
that amendment shows that Col. WILSON
cotsd for II, as did also WOoDBURN, Re-
publican Catholic from Nevada. But it
does not need this vote to show Col
Wilson'S position upon the public
school question. His record in the Con-
stitutional Convention at Charleston, in
1872, is yet fresh in the minds ofthe peo-
ple. who will remember that he was one
OF the most advanced thinkers, upon that
question, in the Convention.
3. The Financial Question-lt is not
necessary to say anything upon
this question, except that Col WILSON'S
views upon the finances were endorsed
by the people of bis district two years
a 70. and there has certainly been moth
ing in the action of the Republican party,
or in the condition of the country at
large, since that time, to cause change
in their views, or in his. Ii the people
OIL tUls ulSlTlCI aIO III ioNoA Va sAS 'N@'-'~
diste enforcement Of the resumption act,
the continued decentralization Of silver,
ofeontinuing and perpetustlng the sys-
tenn of finance by the Republicans, which
has already cost the country
hundereds of millions of dollars,
and if continued will cost them many
more-if they favor these things, Col.
Wilson is not the man for them to vote
for, as their next Congressman. They
ought to vote for CHARLES +. SCoTT,
who will undoubtedly repeat at Wash
ington, and on larger scale, his vote
on the "STAHL's REGISTER FRAUD" about
which our Republican friends had SO
much to say In the late canvass until they
discovered SCoTT's hands tarred with
that stick.