Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-02-22

ferocity completely needless OF the
consequences. Fathomless falsehood
was resorted to for the purpose of fir
ing the Republican heart. The law,
il was impudently declared, must not
be trusted to or respected. One of the
most conspicuous politicians in West
Virginia, who still occupies an excep-
t~ionally influential position in the
councils of the Hanna partys publicly
warned "the Republicans that if they
rely on the form of the law in this
matter, they will lose the Legislature
and a United States Senator at the
same time : Even shot guns
might be a lawful remedy for some
things"
His words are accurately quoted,
and are strikingly similar to the in
cendiary m~outhings of the Kentucky
Republican leaders which resulted in
the cruel and cowardly assassination
of Governor Goebel.
But that was not all. Republican
officialdom made itself most fully re-
sponsible for the preachment of vio-
lence and bloodshed. Gov. Atkinson
publicly and persistently threatened
tLUt thV o0SVooAol PROSECUTION vi Lie
Democratic claims in the courts Of the
State and the Legislature would not
be tolerated without trouble" and he
let it be known that il the House
of Delegates did not award the dispu-
ted seats in it's membership as he
chose, he would order out the State
troops and support with bayonets the
"rump' House whior Delegate Old,
field, OF Mcdowell county, in a speech
in the House of Delegates. admitted
had been arranged for. All of which
is in exact consonance with the mill
tary despotism and reign of terror
Taylor has established in Kentucky.
Then the Attorney General of West
Virginia, in asserting his disposition
to exclude Democrats from the House
of Delegates, declared, in a Charleston
Republican newspaper, that he would
keep them out even if it should be
necessary to use military force" In
another newspaper a lew days later
he was quoted as using this language:
Rather than permit the Democrats to
gain control of the Legislature. l
would see the State of West Virginia
plunged into civil war" This same
Acknowledgement, E. P. Rucker. sworn
to support and execute the laws, said
in an argument to the committee on
privileges and elections, as we are in
formed, that unless that committee
did his. bidding, the State militia would
be called out and the capitol ruiz in
blood.
U. S. Collector A. B. White. n of
the prominent Federal officials who
led the fight for Scott, in a speech be-
fore the Republican caucus. advised in.
the f~iercest language the resort to
force and violence. This inciter of
strife and sedition is now the candi-
late of the Elkins-Scott machine for
Governor of West Virginia.
Keep in mind that these were not
the vaporings of mere bar-room toughs
or staggering loafers of the street
corne but the repeated declarations
of the highest and most influential Of
fiicials in the State, who persist in
making it plain that neither the laws
nor human life should prevent them
from accomplishing their ends. Moth
ing could be more natural than that
hot-headed underlings, under the in
fuences of such examples, should be
inflamed to the pitch when the pulling
of a trigger seemed a light thing. At
Frankfort the bloody work of the as
sassin capped the climax of infamy. to
the horror of the world. At Charles
ton it VT ranains for incendiarism