Year: 1870

view of the Radical party is among the
possibilities, and that when the regis
trstion power in West Virginia falls
into the hands of such man, Radical
rule in this State is at an end.
Under the present administrators oil
| the registration law the number OF eiti-
zens disfranchised in this State is tar
greater than is generally supposed
There are nearly as many men disfran-
chised, who under the Constitution are
entitled to vote, as there are persons 10
the State who aided the rebellion. The
number Of DISTINGUISHED Union men al
most equals the number of fdisffanchised
rebels, and in both classes of the dis


franshised may be found our heaviest
Taxpayers, our most intelligent men,
and our very best citizens. l estimate
that there are in this State 80, ,OOO white
male citizens over the sge of 2l years.
The auditors report shows over 81 600,
but every one knows that there are
numbers of voters in every community
whom, for some reason or other, the
assessor does not reach. infer from
that report the accuracy of my estimate.
The number of registered votes in the
State is about 81 900. This woald leave
$4,000 disfranchised persons. Deduct
| from this the number who aided the re-
bellion, say $4,000, an exceedingly large
estimate, as may readily be seen, and
there remain Is, 900 constitutional voters
in the State who are denied participa-
ton in our elections by the unjust and
arbitrary operations of the registration
law. That is the extent to which the
iniquity has already been carried. Let
your Governor be a candidate for re-
election and he and his Boards will have
this matter entirely in their own hands.
How much farther the injustice may be
carried can only be ascertained by those
who understand the necessity for fur
ther prescription. Il submit it to you as
lust and reasonable men, ought there
not to be some remedy for these notori-
GUS abusesi Not only must this state
of things, while it lasts, make q mock
cry of free government, but it must
ultimately destroy any party that be-
comes responsible for it. If you can be
careless about fair administration OF
the laws, you may yet consider the
question of political expediency. Many
of your own leaders, many of your own
papers, have warned you of the conse-
quences of this policy, and if, for the
sake of justice, you will not grant this
request, then Iadd my warning to theirs
that the very partisan end at which
you aim will be signally defeated.


Can you 60 before the people on the
issues you have madei You have
taken the ballot from the hand Of the
white man, you have placed it in the
hand of the negro. Aiding the enfran
chisement of the blacks, you have com
mitted yourselves to the movement now
going on to force them into the jury
box, to place them side by side will
your own race at the hotel table and
in the railroad car, and to mIngle theiI
children with the white children OF the
country in the classes of your public
schools. After thus laboring to degrade
your own race, and to elevate an igno-
rant, an alien and iHferior people
what must be the popular verdict on
your course, especially if you now per
sist in your refusal to make the white
Uuionist of the State the equal of thC
negro at the ballot boxi


But there is a question of cost con
nected with this system of registration
or rather with this system of disfran.
chisement. The cost of driving loya
white voters from the polls, as set forth
in the registration expenses from 1866
to the present, is as follows: