Year: 1869

HUBBARD and CAMPBELL profess to de-
sire, how far will that repeal 60 toward
harmonizing the people, and stopping
that "emigration from the State, "
which these gentlemen assure rs dis
frauchisement "tends to produce" The
main trouble of all, the chief cause Will
still remain. The registration law will
continue in force. Three men in every
county will have, as now, irresponsible
control over the question of suffrage
They can make and unmake voters at
their pleasure. They can disfranchise
by wholesale without charge, notice,
evidence, trial or offense. From their
decision there can be no appeal, nor
can they be held responsible to GRIM
inal prosecution before the Courts.
They will be responsible to nobody but
the Governor. Should they fail to pro-
ocribe with sufficient vigor, he can re-
place them with men who will do his
bidding. The franchises of the people
will continue to be held at the mercy
and often sacrificed at the bidding OF
one man or at most of three.


There is no room to doubt that the
regis stration law will continue to be
thus abused. 1t is liable to gross abuse
as all admit, and the men who manage
it are still using it to serve their own
ambition or that of demagogues whose
creatures they are. They respect the
rights of no man, however "loyal,"
whose vote they cannot control. In
Jefferson county some of the most
prominent Union men, the leading Re-
publicans, have been summoned for dis
franchisement because they have re-
fused to support the ultra proscriptive
ticket. In Pocahontas county, the Rad
icsl candidate for the Legislature Is a
county registrar, and he is busily dis
franchising the Republicans of the
county who are supporting for the
Legislature another Republican, who
favors the removal of all political dis
abilities. A similar state of affairs ex-
lists in Lewis, Clay, Webster, Nicholas,
Fayette, Greenbrier, Hampshire and
other counties throughout the State.
Suppose the registration machine ae-
complishes its work. Suppose the pro-
scriptive candidates are elected from
those counties. They will continue the
law in force, possibly make it more
stringent, and when the next election
comes around if there is opposition to
their reelection they will repeat the
disfranchisement of their opponents
and SO on until change is made.


The tide of emigration, now 80 strong,
will be increased. Every disfranchised
man who can sell his property will
leave. The labor needed to build up the
State will be driven out. Disfranchise-
ment and depopulation will go hand in
hand, until all the best elements are
forced out. The repeal of the Lawyers,
Suitor's and Teachers Oaths will not
stop the exodus. A comparatively small
portion of the disfranchised will be ben
eftted thereby, at least in such measure
as will reconcile them to the loss Of their
votes. The great mass of them will be-
come discon tented, useless citizens be-
cause they are denied all voice in the
Government which they are forced
to support. Give them imme-
date redress by restoring to them
the ballot, and the trouble is ended at
once. But the attempt to harmonic
and satisfy them with minor relief
while the chief cause of their distress
continues to operate, is like trying to
reconcile a man to his own murder by
promising not to scalp him.


The people understand very well why
HUBBARD & Co. proposed to repeal the
minor Oaths to which we have referred.
They are throwing tub to the whale.
Personal and partisan interests have a
vast deal more to do with their course
than a regard for the public veal. We
cannot forget that their professed "let
up" movement was only started after
Democratic ascendency in Ohio county
became a fixed fact. And as one neces-
sity has forced all the concessions al
ready made, so another necessity, be-
gotten by the fear of losing the State,
compels these gentlemen now to lock
the wheels of their movement by insist
ing upon maintaining the registration
law. Assure these gentlemen that one
half the dsfranchised voters are pre-
pared to vote the Republican ticket
with their names at its head, and their
opposition to "rebel suffrage" as they