Year: 1868

|


CLARKsBURG, w. Va, Oct. 8, 1868.


Our County Board of Registration is


still in session. 1t is ignorant, unscru-


pulous and vicious. From the first, ia


stead of facilitating the registration OF


the qualified voters of the county, Its


object has palpably been to hinder and
delay. Its conduct thus far has been
SO partisan, unfair aHd unjust that the
respectable men of its own party do


not, at least publicly, uphold it, and
many of them freely and openly
condemn and censure. Such open, un-
disguised trickery and fraud is some
what novel in Harrison county. The
effect of the experiment upsn the intel
ligent and virtuous of the Radicals of
our county is yet to be- seen. 1t is con-
fidently believed, however, that the
action of this Board will recoil upon
the party tricksters who procured the
appointment of such men to sit in judg-
ment upon the franchises of our citi-
zens. ss..~


Time and your space win not permit
detail of the infamies of this Board.
Let this suffice. They have struck from
the list of registered voters the names
of perhaps twenty qualified voters, and
in no case has witness been called and
examined by them against any man
whose name has been erased, and on the
other hand, the notified voter in every
Instance has proven that during the
rebellion he was a peaceable, law-abid-
ing citizen, and offered to take the test
oath prescribed in the registration law.
Each of these men, the Board said,
were charged with disloyalty and nothing
else. They were not charged with rem
dering "aid and assistance to the rebel
lion," and it was not pretended that
either of them had done so. DisloyGlty
alone was the charge, and ia no case did
the Board even call witness to
sustain it, and in each case the victim
lied citizen proved by respectable
witnesses that he was at home daring
the war and was peaceable, law-abid-
ing citizen, and then offered to take the
test oath aud answer under oath any
question the Board might PROFOUND.
The Board refused to swear them-said
the law forbid them doing so-said the
law was harsh law-it was an unjust
law-they did not make it, and if men,
bers of the Legislature would have
voted against it-but it being the law
it was their duty enforce it, and off
went the head of the citizen voter upon
mere suspicion of disloyalty, without
one scintilla of evidence to even justify
the suspicion. Such has been the con-
duct and such the silly sayings of this
Board. Whether they be knaves or
fools, is now bootless inquiry. 1t is
highly probable they are compound of
both. But Governor FOREMAN should
look to this. They are his appointees.
He has the power of removal. This
Board is alone responsible to him. He
alone can right the wrongs done to
the citizen by its agency.


1t is not yet too late. He can remove
these riciouS or Incompetent men, and ap-
point otkers who will do justice to our
citizens. Will he do it 7 If he do not,
being advised of their arbitrary and IL
legal acts, he will be presumed to en-
dorse, and will justly be held response
BILE for all they do. Please send copy
of your paper containing this article to
the Governor. If His Excellency shall
doubt fact here stated, and will init
mate it through you or otherwise and
in the meantime discover disposition
to 10 our people speedy justice, he will
forthwith be furnished with such evil
dence as he will not doubt. The writer
of this article has known Governor
FOREMAN long. He may not agree with
you touching some elements of his char
acter; and he begs leave, through the
columns of your paper, to appeal to the
Governors sense of justice and fairness.
1t is not the law, but the unjust man.
ner of its execution that is complained
of now. 1t is the duty of the Governor
to see that the laws be faithfully execut.
ed. Under the arbitrary rulings of this
law not less, and perhaps more than two
hundred, citizens of Harrison county,
qualified under the Constitution and
this registration larc to vote at the ensu-
ing election, have been, up to this time,
denied the right to register.