The Daily Dispatch: October 22, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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Ineligibility of officers of the army for Congress.

--As our readers have seen, by a card in our advertising columns, Col. G. W. Randolph has withdrawn his acceptance of an invitation to become a candidate for the House of Representatives, having, upon examination of the permanent Constitution of the Confederate States, come to the conclusion that it does not permit officers of the army to sit in Congress. The provision of the Constitution which he quotes is as follows:--‘"No person holding any office under the Confederate States, shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office."’ This is certainly as explicit as it well can be. Col. Randolph observes that, although commissioned by the Governor of Virginia, yet he is in the service of the Confederate States, and therefore within the spirit, if not the letter, of the above prohibition. The delicate sense of honor, and the sound judgment which dictated this conclusion, are what we might expect from one who is as true a soldier as Virginia has in her camps, and as able a statesman as adorns her councils.

This decision of Mr. Randolph, an eminent jurist, against his own eligibility to Congress, will probably suggest to other military officers who have been named in connexion with that position, and who, like Mr. Randolph, have had no opportunity heretofore of examining the permanent Constitution, to withdraw their names from the canvass, or resign their commissions in the army.