Year: 1876

b


secured to the greatest number. Certainly


no one will deny that the working class


constitute very lnrge majority Of the


voting population. This being the case,


these citizens should have y correspond
ing preponderAnce in administering pub


lie affairs. Knowing, then, as we do


our rights in this matter, we would be
cruelty unjust TO ourselves and wanting
in self-respect, if we fail in the future to


enforce and maintain those rights. i
have the honor, Senators, TO represent


upon this floor in part . constituence,
chiefly composed of farmers, mechanics,
and day-laborers. They gave me seat


here because 1 was brother worker, and
they expect me to defend their honor and


interest to the letter, which have IN my


humble way tried to do. }.


And now, Senators, will you send me


back to that constituency, those care


worn sons of toll, with the sad intelli.
gence that you have weighed them in
the balance, ard haye found them want.
ing; yea to such degree that not one OF
our farmers coald be trusted even TO ad-
Just the burden Of taxation to their
shoulders? 1t is preposterous; it is ab.
surd, and I will not believe it until by
your votes you will it SO to be.


Senators, I impIore you by all that is
sacred and just, and by the memory Of
the hagdships and privations that the
many thousands of the laboring class
have to endure, not to do this; but, On
the other hama, commission me by your
action on this occasion to impart to them,
when 1 90 to my home, the joyful news
that their virtue, their intelligence and
their honesty have been fully acknowl-
edged and recognized here to-day BY
placing some of their number upon the
commission TO equalize the land assess
ments of this State. Fs


Senators, 1 would also have you to
understand that / am not talking to-day
in the interests of suppllants and beg
gars. do not occupy an attitude that
kind. | am here in the advocacy of the
inherent rights of as brave, as honest,
and as intelligent a class OF people as
walks on Gods footstool, and am COM
missioned by them to say to you, that
they bend the knee to none but God, and
in their present demand, through me,
they ask nothing but what is justly due
to them; and if this be denied them they
will but consider the manner and form of
redress in the future, for they know how
to redress their wrongs as we'll as to as
sert their rights. -..-..


Mr.. President, I wish that what I
have said on this occasion might reach
the home of every working man in West
Virginia, not because it has been elo-
quenty and forcibly said. but because it
is the truth, and the werds l have ad-
dressed to you to-day have been dictated
by heart full ofsympathy for my broth.
er workers, and with hope that they
would encourage my comrades every
where to rise up in their might, and in
their might swear BY their manhood and
selfrespect that in this land of freedom
they have no superiors in the discharge
Of the duty Of the citizen, and that in all
future :ime their voices shall be heard in
the official positions of the the country in
proportion to their numbers. ....-.


When I,spoke few moments ago Of the
workingmen oi the State, no longer sub
mitting TO taxation without represents.
tion," l did rot mean to say that they
were not voters, that they did not have
voice in electing the members of the
Legislature and other State officers, but
/ simply meant that one or more of their
number should have q place upon all
such boards as that contemplated by this
bill, and should thus be in a position di-
rectly and not through another to rep
resent and protect the great farming in
terest of the State. have presented
this matter to you in II plain yet | hope,
intelligent form. 1t is for you to decide
and l only wish to add in conclusion
that an imperative sense of justice and
right constrains me to project against
the confirmation of all his Excellency's
appointees, not that they sIelnot homes.
and intelligent gentlemen. but simply
because they are not directly connected
with the great agricultural interest of
the State, upon which the burden of taxa
tlon must necessarily rest. Discharge
your duty, gentlemen, as right and your
conscience dictate, and tho adverse to my
proposition | humbly submit, and as
tiller of the soil with renewed energy in
my declining years will try and send the
plowshare deeper into the bosom OF
mother earth that she may yield agrester
abundance, and thus we may be enabled
the more easily to bear the burdens Of
government Senrtors, / am done and
[ would be contented to retire from pub.
lie life Tor ever, could l but know that
anything that have said on this occasion
would in the slightest degree promote the
interest-poIitical or otherwise-of a
class of our citizens whose honesty and
integrity all must admit, and upon whose
labor and efforts the prosperity and hap
piuess ofthe people OF West Virginia so
much depend.