The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

The Intelligencer.
Letter from Hon. Daniel Foley,
On the Present State of Political Disabilities
in West Virginia,
To H. R. Howard, Esq., Chairman of
the Democratic and Conservative Exe-
cutive Committee of Mason County:

DEAR SIR:--Your letter of the 2d
inst. communicating the annexed reso-
lution of your committee, and pro-
posing to me the following Interro-
gatories, is at hand.

Resolved, That before deciding to
take initiatory steps toward nominat-
ing a candidate for the legislature, that
the following interrogatories be pro-
pounded to you, (me) your answers to
which will determine whether we will
make a nomination in opposition to
you."

1st. If elected will you advocate the
repeal in as speedy a manner as possi-
ble of the "Suitors' Test Oath, the
Voter's Test Oath, the 'Teacher's Test
Oath,' the 'Lawyer's Test Oath,' and all
other proscriptive measures imposed
upon a portion of the citizens of this
State for acts growing out of the late
rebellion?"

2d. Will you vote and use your in-
fluence in good faith for the modifica-
tion of the registration law, so as to
make the township registrars and coun-
ty Board of Registration elective by the
people?'

3d. Will you vote and give your in-
fluence to secure the passage of a joint
resolution to so amend the State Con-
stitution as to give the right of suffrage
to those of our fellow citizens who have
been disfranchised by reason of partici-
pation or sympathy with the late rebel-
ion? Else, will you vote and labor in
good faith to have a State Convention
called at as early a day as possible to
consider and carry out the above meas-
ures,"

Your letter concludes with
the fol-
lowing request:

'Please give your views at length in
answer to the above interrogatories by
next Monday noon."

Believing that your communication
was dictated and addressed to me in
good faith, I shall proceed to answer
the interrogatories in that spirit of can-
dor and good faith with which I have
no doubt they were propounded.

The convention by which I was nom-
inated adopted a platform in the fol-
lowing words:

PLATFORM.

Whereas, The signs of the times
indicate that a decided change has
been, and is now going on in public
opinion all over the country, in respect
to the permanent disfranchisement of
those who stand implicated in the re-
bellion. We have seen that the Gov-
Government has granted them general am-
nesty, and, following its example, that
such States as Missouri and Tennessee,
which were not long ago more rigid
than our own, have greatly relaxed
the rigor of their test oaths and mate-
rially enlarged the scope of their elec-
tive franchise.

AND WHEREAS, It is also as near
certain as anything in the future can
be, that the day of complete enfran-
chisement for all men without regard
to race or color, is close at hand. This
is the manifest tendency of the times,
and very soon we must all accept the
fact, willingly or otherwise.

AND WHEREAS, There is scarcely a
doubt of the ratification of the 15th
Amendment to the Federal Constitu-
tion, which amendment forbids all po-
litical discrimination in any of the
States on account of race or color.

AND WHEREAS, We believe that the
test oaths that were adopted in this State
during and at the close of the war, were in
the main necessary, if not absolutely in-
dispensable. They protected the weak
and exposed counties against the pro-
scription and aggression that must
have followed a return of the disloyal
element to power and influence. And
in addition they have served well
throughout the whole State, as a part
of the great moral lesson taught by the
war. And while we do not forget the
responsibility of the rebellion itself for
the abuse of power, both in the way of
precept and example, nor ignore the
provocations that have tended to ex-
cite passionate executions of the law,
yet we cannot on that account, lose
sight of the great truth that the just
province of all law is the protection of
society and not the punishment of the
offender. And, therefore, no rigor, or
semblance of persecution, is excusable
after the public safety is reasonably
assured.

AND WHEREAS, Our information as
regards the safety of the loyal people
at this time, even in the most exposed
counties, impresses us with the belief
that we can afford to inaugurate the
necessary steps for discontinuing eve-
rything known as war legislation.

Therefore,

Resolved, That while we do not ad-
vocate an instant abrogation of the dis-
franchising clause of our Constitution.
for that is impossible, yet we do favor
prompt steps by our next Legislature
towards putting it in process of re-
peal--a process, by the way, that will
consume two years from next winter.
And in the meantime, we hope to see
the next Legislature take early oppor-
tunity to do away with the test oaths
now resting upon lawyers, suitors and
school teachers.

Resolved, That while expressing our
earnest attachment to the plan of guard-
ing the purity of the ballot box by a
registration of all the qualified voters
of the State, yet we will receive with
satisfaction such a modification of ex-
isting features in our present law as will
provide for the election of the Regis-
trars by the people, and in such a man-
ner, also, as will secure the minority
one representative in every County
Board.

Resolved, That we believe a gradually
liberalized policy like this not only
just and right of itself, but in keeping
with the grand record of patriotism
and statesmanship made by the Repub-
lican party throughout a contest un-
paralleled for its extent and bitterness.
We believe that in consistency with
this record of our party at large
throughout the country, we cannot
longer afford to keep a large body of
our fellow citizens perpetually disfran-
chised, and thereby perpetually dis-
affected.

Resolved, That every consideration
that can appeal to us from the better
instincts of our human nature in favor
of that mercy toward the erring which
we all need, down to the best interests
of our State and country, prompt us to
lay before the people of this county,
this platform of Principles, and ask
them to unite with us in giving them
effect.

W. W. HARPER,
F. W. SISSON,
W. H. POWELL
D. C. FORBES,
A. LOWTHER,
Committee.

I approved and endorsed that plat-
form before my nomination, and if
elected, I shall regard it as my duty to
advocate the early adoption of all the
measures indicated. This I think is a
full answer to all your enquiries; and
here I should close my reply, but for
your request for my views at length,"
&c.

Most of the restrictive measures al-
luded to were passed during the pen-
dency of the late rebel war. A war
was waged against the government and
people of the United States by a strong
and powerful belligerent organization
commonly called the Southern Con-
federacy,' for the avowed purpose of
severing or dissolving the Union.

West Virginia has just been organized
and admitted into the Union as a
separate State, on an equal footing
with the other States. A large number
of her inhabitants, and in many coun-
ties a great majority were arrayed, di-
rectly or indirectly, in hostility, as well
against the Government of the State, as
against the United States. They were
enemies to the State, and of course it
was neither proper, wise or just, that
they should be allowed a voice in
forming the laws, or admitted to any
positions which might give them an in-
fluence in the administration of the
State Government. It was, therefore,
not only considered necessary by the
loyal people of the State, but absolute-
ly indispensable, that all that class of
persons should be disfranchised, and
made ineligible to hold any office of
public trust or confidence,--hence the
passage of the restrictive laws referred
to; all of which, I cordially endorsed
and approved, (except the suitor's test
oath, as measures imperatively de-
manded by the exigencies of the times.
But I did not, nor do
now believe
that any considerable portion of loyal
citizens ever desired or intended, that
those measures should be perpetuated
beyond the time when the reasons
which required and dictated their adop-
tion should cease to exist. Has that
time arrived?--is the question now pre-
sented for consideration. It includes,
in its scope, all the points raised in
your interrogatories.

The rebellion was suppressed, and
the Government organization by which
it had been so long sustained, was an-
hilated four years ago. Since then
there has existed nowhere in the Un-
ited States any organized rebellion. The
Governments of all the rebel States,
except three have been reconstructed,
in accordance with the laws of the
United States, and are in peaceable and
successful operation; and the progress
of the work in the other three States is
such, that their reconstruction, on a
like basis, may now be treated as an
accomplished fact. The laws of the
United States are now quietly submit-
ted to, and efficiently enforced in all
parts of the Union, and the 'great char-
ter' of our liberties has been so amend-
ed as to render hopeless any future at-
tempt to dissolve the Union by Seces-
sion, or other like political heresy; so it
may justly be said, that the Union is
re-established on a broader and more
substantial basis than it rested on be-
fore the war. West Virginia has been
so repeatedly recognized by every de-
partment of Government that its con-
tinued existence as a State can no longer
be questioned by the most sceptical. It
stands upon as firm and permanent a
foundation as any other State nor is it
probable that an effort will be made by
any class of citizens, to disturb the
status. By virtue of the constitution
and laws of the United States, the dis-
franchised persons residing within its
limits are citizens of the State. They
are amenable to the same laws, subject
to the same system of taxation as oth-
er citizens, and equally liable to be
called upon to discharge many public
duties. Every general law affects them
in the same manner and to the same
extent as it affects others. As a class,
or so far as my observation extends.
they are as obedient to the laws, and
discharge such public duties as they
are required to perform with as much
promptness as other persons. They
are as much interested as we are in a
just, faithful, wise and economical ad-
ministration of the Government,--State
as well as national. In my judgment
their self-interest, if no higher mo-
tive exists, is an ample guarantee
for their future loyalty. It is proba-
bly true, that many of their late lead-
ers are still disaffected, and inimical in
their feelings and sentiments to the
government, but their number is so
small, that their evil machinations, if
any they have; will be unavailing with
the masses, who are believed to be well
disposed.

In my opinion there are no grounds
to apprehend the inauguration of an-
other civil war, nor is a foreign war im-
minent, but in the latter event, does any
one doubt, that the late rebels, as a
class, would rally to the flag of the
Union with as much alacrity as most of
their other fellow-citizens? If these
opinions and views are well founded,
it follows, as a matter of course, that
we cannot justly longer withhold from
them such political and civil rights and
privileges as are enjoyed by the rest of
the community.

At the commencement of the war,
during its continuance, and until the
complete restoration of law and order,
I was in favor of adopting and main-
taining strong and thorough measures
against those engaged in the rebellion-
including such measures as denied
them the exercise of all political rights
and powers, until the work of restora-
tion was perfected. Regarding that
work now as an accomplished fact, I
am equally in favor of a complete, not
a partial or gradual, removal of all po-
litical disabilities, and of the enfran-
chisement of the disfranchised; so that
nothing shall remain in our State Con-
stitution, or on our statute books, to
keep us in remembrance of the late
terrible conflict.

Respectfully Yours, &c.,
D. FOLEY.

President Grant at Washington, Pa.
From the Pittsburgh Commercial of Yesterday.

President Grant, accompanied by his
family and members of his staff, also
by Senators Scott and Cameron and
others, will arrive in Pittsburgh, by
special car, on Tuesday, on his way to
Washington, Pa., to pay a short visit
to Hon. Wm. McKennan, a relative.
but probably between the hours of
twelve and one. It is possible, however,
that he will closely follow the fast
train, which reaches the Union Depot
at eight and a half o'clock in the morn-
ing, in which event he will probably
participate in the ceremonies of laying
the corner stone of the Humboldt
Monument. The President makes this
visit in fulfillment of an old engage-
ment, and it was to have been made
last week, the original arrangement
being that he should reach Pittsburgh
on Saturday morning and proceed at
once to Washington, but the death of
Secretary Rawlins prevented it.

A Rangoon (India) Gazette tells a
story of a fisherman of Prome who late-
ly met with his death in the following
manner: He had hooked a small fish,
and, wishing to free his hands for the
adjustment of his tackle, placed it be-
tween his teeth. The fish made a
spring down his throat and stuck in his
gullet, defying all the fisherman's ef-
forts to draw it out. He at once started
for his house to procure assistance, but
on the way he dropped and died. After
his death it was found that there were
several spines on the back of the fish,
and that the fisherman's efforts to pull
it out had only served to fasten these
more firmly in his throat.

It is probable that President Grant
will be absent from Washington about
two weeks.