The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-08-26

A Virginia paper says:-"Those who cry down
Virginia, and cry out that she is going behind
hand, know but little about her position, and
her spirit" We wish We could think So We
should rejoice to believe that Che beautiful
mother of so many beautiful daughters, was
buxom and blooming as one surrounded BY 30
many and so prosperous acknowledgement
be.
Next to our own State, We love the Old Do
mnion. We cannot forge. the great and good
men to whom she has given birth. We cannot
forget that we have been taught from infancy to
look to her, above all others, as the nurse divine
Of "fair women and brave men''-as the very
Why, In our younger days, the universal stand
ard by which everything was measured, was to
be found only in the cold country" and il was
adopted or rejected precisely as IL was thought
to conform to, or to depart from that standard.
We remember being once seriously asked by
an intel gent boy, "whether when people died
and went TO Heaven, they went to Old Virgin
ny1" so prevailing was the belief in its i'm
measurable superiority over all the rest Of ths
world, that, although 1t was conceded to be 4
little lower than the mansions
"Where those immortal shapes
| OF bright aerial spirits live insPhered,"
yet was il rsligiOusly believed Of all this world
to lie nearest to, and most resemble Heaven
We were constantly told Of the cruel fortune
which had driven US thence, and TO look upoI
/ IA
that, fresh and beautiful and Astounding as wa
the land of promise we had reached. il was tn
merest wilderness In comparison with the para
disc we had left.
Such were the lessons Of our childhood; AM
for the best and brightest portion Of our liz
Virginia was to Us an enchanted land. But eth
beautiful is vanished. and returns not" for We
too, have been in Already. We shall never for
GO. the bitter revulsion Of feeling We exPerien
ced when We traversed il few years since
nature. and everywhere the poisonous touch o
slavery had wasted its original brightness. ID
once fertile soil had been taxed year after yea
beyond its capacity to supply; giving to its prod
igal and erscting children from its impOvsrishe
bosom q constantly diminishing subsistence
while it received from their indolent hands n
nourishing and invigorating aliment to replenis
and refresh the fountains from which il flowed
la process Of time, worn out and exhausted,
was turned out like Lear, TO perish, for il Ia
parted with its substance and could give n
more. Everywhere the corroding tooth Of Dc
cay had eaten into its very heart. Eyerywher
diapidated houses. abandoned fields, an untid
and thrflless population, told Of the baleful pre-
sence Of an institution which, like the SiroccC
withers and consumes whatsoever it breathe
upon.
We trust our contemporary may be right, bu
the facts do not sustain him as We think We ca
show. 1t gives us no pleasure to record the de
cline Of any country, least Of all Of one endeare
to US by 50 many ties Of kindred, and hallowed
so many associations Of old renown. There
no sadder sight than to behold such a PeoPl
stationary or retrograding in the midst Of SUI
rounding progress-such country made desc
late, its unequalled resources wasted or unuse,
Yet this spectacle every one must behold VIII
looks upon Virginia now!
We think we can make this apparent to all.
In the commencement Of our career as an il
dependent nation, Virginia was the great an
powerful State Of the COnfederAcy. Ii had bee
the favorite colony Of the mother country.
was here that the great and noble sought inves
menis, and where they and their friends o
leaving their old homes most frequently -four
their new ones. The soil, the climate, its amp
bays, and beautiful rivers, presented Undue,
ments to emigrants sought for in vain elsewher
and they aOcked to its pastoral wales and teen
ing river banks. Now compare the POpulatio
: of this favored State with New York, Pennsy
vania and Massachusetts,, as exhibited in the 70
lowing table: