Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-01-24
To the Voters of the Counties of Elizabeth CI-
~, Warwick, S'rh, sna the City of will


Iain-burg.
DESTROYS ofretring wholly from public life.
shall not again be candidate to represent Won
in the General Assembly. | make the announce
nent thus early, that you may have ample time
for the selection OF my SUCCESSOR
10 dissolving tho public relations between us.
cannot let the occasion pass of rendering to Won
my hearty thanks for the privilege YOU have
granted me of vindicating, as your representa-
tive, the great interests of the commonwealth
The chief of those Interests undoubtedly is, the
internal improvements OF the State, aud that in
terestl have cherished with earnest zeal, and sus
tanned to the utmost of my humble abilities
While other constituencies around you have re-
CURED their representatives to bound their vision
by the narrow confines OF county, you have al
lowed yours, and indeed required him, to take
broader and more patriotic view of public .af-
fairs and to look to the general good OF the State
While they have forbidden their Delegates to
vote appropriations to public works. whose cor
tain effect would have been the development of
the resources of our State, aud the advance.
ment of her prosperity and power, you have
given me a carte blanche on that most important
subject. You have left me free to vote for what
pleased, and what amount pleased; aud for the
millions | have voted for the internal improve
inent OF the State, have never been questioned,
save by some very few-not dozen in al-who,
as | think, have much mistaken the true inter-
ests OF the commonwealth and their own |
would not have consented it is true, to serve YOU
on any other conditions, but it is alike true that
you would not have permitted me to represent
you on terms less honorable. For this gene
rosity, honorable alike to yourselves and TO me,
make to you my warmest Acknowledgements.
Awaiting myself of your enlightened liberuiiity
[ have given an unhesitating support to all mea-
sures which thought calculated to advance the
general interests of the State. I have advocated
and shall vote for the bill to establish line of
steamers between Norfolk and Antwerp, because
l regard the measure as presenting at least res.
pectable chance for the re-possession of a direct
foreign commerce, aud for the commercial indie
pendence of the State.
To the leading lines Of internal improvement
designed to connect with our seaboard our own
wide and fertile interior and the broader and rro-
life valleys ofthe great West, | have voted the
most liberal approprfations-and shall to the end
OF my representative term, continue to do so,
to the utmost dollar required for their compile
ton.
| have thus favored this policy of internal inns
provement, because | regard it as one of the great
instrumentalites of modern progress, and as in
dspenSabte 10 the rescue four State from the desi
ny ofa contemplate insignJicance and degrading
lnfcrlorit".
Most of the Atlantic States North of us have
tried the policy, and with results that should long
since have disarmed all nntagonism. Thrifty
agriculture, freshened commerce, prospecting
manufactures extension of trade in its numerous
ramifcations, and the increase of the general
wealth and comfort of the masses, have been the
invarable effects. South Carolina and Georgia,
South of us, have tested it, with similar re.
suits.
No State in the Union or the world, more JUS
titles and requires the application of this potent
agency than Virginia. No country the sun
shines upon is more blessed with all the elements
of agricultural, commercial and manufacturing
prosperity. Besides a. fertile soil, she possesses
Il mineral wealth, as boundless almost as the sea.
Iron aud coal, which form the basis of the wealth
OF SO many nations she has in abundance-inex-
haustible; gypsum enough she owns to fertize
every of laud within her far-s stretching IL
mits and salt she can furnish for the consump-
ton Of ten times her population. Her position,
in the very centre the seaboard, with fine eli.
mate, good harbors. and deepwatered ports, is the
very best for the trade of the South and the
West, and for direct trade with foreign nations,
while, in her extensive water power, she holds
the element of manufacturing Importance.
But these great natural advantages can be made
available only by ready lines of transit from the
interior to the seaboard; lin other words, by q
good system OF internal Improvements.
Looking, too, to our position of inferority in
respect to national wealth and consequence, we
are urged by irresistible Inducements to the em-
ployment of the internal improvement policy
Our agriculture is burdened with exhorbitant
transit charges and vexatiou and often ruinous
delays. We have manufactures. OF COM
merce, we have none worthy the name. The
whole foreign imports of this great State of ours,
are but half million-not much more than
ships load. We have consequently none of
that division of pursuit, which. after all, is the
great secret of general thrift and independence.
Our political power is rapidly on the wane. At
the commencement of our national era Virginia
stood in front of all her sisters: now she lags far
in the rear. States comparatively of yesterday are
at the outstrpping point Two decades since,
she spoke in the natioc:! councils through twenty
three representatives now she is heard through
the "still, small voice. of thirteen. Then, she
had twenty-three voters against aggression upon
southern rights--now she has but IA bakers
Dozen" Every consideration of pride, of inter-
est, and of duty. demands change.
With these views of our condition, and of the
bearing upon it of our internal improvements,
could not hesitate to give them my best sup
port.
shall vote the appropriations necessary to
complete the leading works already begun, be-
cause independent Of the general advantage to
the whoe State IL Is your Interest as taxpayers,
that the unfinished works be not only completed,
but completed with the least possible delay.
The debt of the State on which, by requisi-
ton of the New Constitution, an interest of
seven per cent must be annually raised is four
teen millions The real debt is not 50 much, by
several millions, if the State be credited, as
she ought to be, by the amount Of the guaran-
teed bonds of companies that shall punctuallv
pay the interest on their guaranteed debt, and
by her own productive six per cent stocks,
which are an offest to her aggregate indebted
ness. But the SUM on which, by the amended
constitution, per cent must be raised. is four
teen millions. The interest on this sum, at
seven per cent is S98O,OO0. This latter sum is
to be raised annually by taxation. Now theques-
ton is whether you will bear this annual tax
you and your posterity after you-until the one
per cent over six per cent shall extinguish the
.,.;x,oi,,,l e tI,a doht