Berkeley And Jefferson Intelligencer

To Mr. OSBORN SPRIGG.

SIR,

I OBSERVE of late that you have become quite profuse with your pen I should have supposed that interest and good policy would have induced you to be as silent as possible, especially respecting your conduct as a member of the last General Assembly : As I have not time nor am I at present sufficiently well informed respecting the contents of your last address to the people. I shall now only notice yours of the 12th ult. You complain of a charge being circulated against you of having voted in the last general Assembly in favor of representing two fifths of the Negroes in the senate of this State. Knowing that your vote upon that occasion stands recorded upon the journals of the house, you have not dared to deny the fact, but have come forward attempting to gloss over and justify your conduct; the justification however which you have been able to offer. can never go down with an honest man or a sound republican. The following is a correct statement of your conduct in the business: During the last session of our Assembly, a bill was brought forward to divide the State into twenty four Senatorial districts, founded upon the principle of representing two fifths of the Negroes, When a motion was made by Mr. Shelley in which he was supported not only by the federalists, but also by about thirty of your political friends, to have the bill sent back to the committee which brought it in, with instructions to amend it so as to exclude the Negroes entirely and to give an equal and republican representation to the white inhabitants alone, you opposed its being recommitted or amended, but voted for the bill in the shape in which it was first introduced, giving to two-fifths of the Negroes a representation in our Senate. Now I wish to be informed, what honest or justifiable reason could induce any man who pretends to be a republican, to vote in favor of so absurd and tyrannical a principle. Is not equal representation the very soul of a republican government? A violation of this principle is aiming at the very vitals of republicanism. In every government where the representative principle exists in the smallest degree, it ought to be cherished as the natural guardian of the rights and liberties of the people. Inequality of representation has been the source of innumerable evils to the British government, Regardless of these truths, you have voted in favor of a principle, giving to a man who may be possessed of twenty Negroes, as much influence in our government as nine other citizens- each of whom may be as honest as respectable, and as independent in circumstances, as this slave holder. surely you cannot expect to justify a principle of this kind. And I believe the true reason of its being brought forward during the last session, may be gathered from the following considerations : It is well known. that a difference of interests and disposition exists between the inhabitants below and those above the ridge. In the lower parts of the state there are many influential characters possessing large landed estates. who at the same time are deeply involved in debt. and it is neither their interest or wish that lands should be sold for the payment of debts. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the western counties, are generally opposed to this unjust. and aristocratic principle, Hence one cause of all that anxiety and exertions made use of by the eastern members in the Legislature to maintain their present undue power and influence over the western representatives. It is observable that the western influence is rapidly increasing, and as there is at present no established principle of representation in the senate, the eastern people, fearing least we may take advantage of these circumstances to secure our just proportion of influence in the government, they are become anxious to fix us down by some more permanently established principle. As there are five negroes below, for one which is above the ridge, they could think of no principle so completely adopted to their purpose, as that of negro representation. By this regulation, the eastern counties would have been entitled to seventeen senators, while those west of the ridge. would have been entitled to only seven. Now by way of excusing your conduct. you tell us, that you knew that a large majority of the members were determined to accede to no other principle. and therefore you determined to vote with them. If they were dishonest enough to reject an equitable and just principle and to adopt another which was the reverse, this surely can be no excuse for your having done so too. Besides, although they acted unjustly, yet they acted agreeably to their own interest ; but you voted contrary to justice, and also to the interest of your constituents. You have wished to make us believe that by adopting the principle of negro representation and having the number of senators west of the ridge augmented to seven we would derive a very considerable advantage but in this I cannot agree with you, for it cannot be presumed that these seven would be more able to obviate and keep down the interest and influence of the seventeen members from below the ridge. than our present number of four is to check the power and influence of their twenty Thus you have attempted to fix us down by a principle as corrupt. as it is despotic, without the smallest prospects of being benefited by it in any way. You further go on to excuse your conduct, by telling us that the principle of negro representation is recognised by the federal constitution, but in reply to this. I can tell you, that I believe such a principle would never have appeared in that instrument, had it not been for the selfish and aristocratic disposition of the negro-holders of Virginia, and of the rest of the southern states; thus wherever we meet it we find it to be a branch of the same old trunk, and it ought to be avoided as a deadly poison. Upon the whole, I think the motives of your conduct in this business are very inexplicable, especially upon any solid grounds. The reasons which you have assigned are by no means satisfactory. Why you should so far desert the interest of the western inhabitants as to join with the eastern members in their attempts to pin us down to an eternal deprivation of our rights, and that too by a principle so absurd and aristocratical as that of negro representation, cannot be justly accounted for. I should have supposed it better to let matters exist as they are, than to have supported such a measure, especially as we have evident prospects of bettering ourselves before it be long, and that too upon, more proper principles. Our influence in the legislature, as I observed before, is rapidly increasing and unless it should be checked by the establishment of some unfair and aristocratical regulation, we shall soon enjoy our just proportion of weight, at least in the Senate. It appears that the number of those who upon that occasion voted in favor of the principle of negro representation amounted to seventy-two, the number of those who voted against it to fifty-two, so that the majority was not so very great. Thus it appears that if you and ten of those who voted with you, had been honest enough. you might have secured to us an equitable and republican representation in the Senate. The only reason which I can assign for your conduct in this business. is this I believe you were anxious to gain the favour of those conspicuous characters residing in the lower counties they pretend to be violent republicans. but are in fact the greatest aristocrats in the United States, You supposed that by caressing these great personages you were likely to arrive at preferment I shall now conclude by telling you I can never confide in a person who would sacrifice the dearest and most genuine republican interests in order to secure his own sinister and selfish views. I rather think that you have been guilty of a conduct of this kind, and until I have more substantial reasons to believe the contrary I can never vote for you.

A REPUBLICAN