Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-09-15
Virginia.

short Of lhis.-PG. freeman.
-
Virginia.
A Virginia paper says :-"Those who cry
down Virginia, and cry out that she is GO
ing behind hand, know but little about her
position, and her spirit" We wish we could
think SO. We should rejoice to believe That
the beautiful mother of so many beautiful
daughters, was buxom and blooming as one
surrounded by 50 many and so prosperous
descendants-ought 10 be. ~.
Next TO our own State, we love the Old
Dominion. We cannot forget 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 bean-ideal Of all the So
cial and chivalric virtues. Why, in our
younger days, the universal standard by which
everything was measured. was TO be found
only in the 'old country" and it was adop.
ted or rejected precisely as it was thought
10 conform to, or 10 depart from that stan
dard.
We remember being once seriously asked
by an intelligent boy, whether when peo-
pie died and went to Heaven, they went TO
Old Virginny 7" So prevailing was the be-
lief in its unreasonable superiority over all
the rest Of the world, that, although it was
conceded to be a little lower than the man.
sions
Where those immortal shapes
OF bright aerial spirits live insphered,"
yet was it religiously 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 upon it as another expulsion from
another Eden-that, fresh and beautiful and
Astounding as was the land of promise we
had reached, it was the merest wilderness in
comparison with the paradise we had left.
Such were the lessons Of our childhood I;
and for the best and brightest portion Of our
life Virginia was TO US an enchanted land
But "ihe beautiful is vanished, and returns
NOT" for we, TOO, have been in Already. We
shall never forget the bitter revulsion Of feel
ing we experienced when we traversed il a
few years since. Everywhere were visible
the lavish bounty Of nature, and everywhere
the poisonous touch of slavery had wasted
its original brightness. Its once fertile soil
had been taxed yea. after year beyond its
Pacity to supply ; giving to its prodigal and
exactlng children from its impoverished boz
som a constantly diminishing subsistence,
while it received from their indolent hands
no nou'ishing and invigorating alimeDt to re-
plenisb and refresh the fountains from which
it flowed. In process Of time, worn out and
exhausted, it was turned out like Lear, to
perish, for it had parted with its substance
and could give no more. Everywhere the
corroding tooth of decay had eaten into its
very heart. Everywhere dilapidated houses,
ahandone1 fields an uniidv and thriftlesc M.
p%ulation, told of the baleful presence of an in
s~litution which, like the Sirocco, wlthers and
consumes whatsoever it breathes upon.
We trust our contemporary may be right,
but the facts do not sustain him as we think
we can show. Ii gives us no pleasure to re-
cord the decline of any country, least of all
OF one endeared TO us by so many ties OF kin.
dred, and hallowed by so many associations
of old renown. There is no sadder sight
than 10 behold such a people stationary or re-
trograding in the midst of surrounding pro.
gIess-such a country made d~esolate, its I'M
e~qualled resources wasted or unused. Yet
this spectacle every one must behold who
looks upon Virginia now!
We think we can make this apparent to
all.
In the commencement of our career as an
independent nation, Virginia was the great
and powerful State of the Confederacy. 1t
had been the ~tavorite colony Of the mother
country. 1t was here ,ha, the great and no.
BILE sought investments, and where they and
their friends on leaving their old homes most
frequently found their new ones. The soil,
the climate, its ample bays, and beautiful
rivers, presented inducements to emigrants
sought for in vain elsewhere, and they flock
ed to its pastoral Wales and teeming river
banks. Now compare the population of this
favored State with New York, Pennsylvania
and Massachusetts, as exhibited in the fol-
lowing table: