Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-02-18

ana KNOW OF n05more chectual way of causing
panic, than 6y;stoPpilg the main public scor3s
Of the State sthe arOscsd prstere Of a cant 81
means.
Is Virginia destitute Of the means 10 carry ON
her leading lines of Improvement Can she not
supply them! She can. defantly declare to
any and to all disposed to dispute, her ability to
meet all deficiencies, TO pay all her debts, and
TO perform every State duty, and to construct
every State work appealing to her honor, her
energy, her interest or her will BIT the Gags
aud means edltnot Be supplied By iasuiag and
hacking State bonds IN the markst. Iiswell
that they cannot be-. 1t is time that the bad
practice of anticipating debts by issuing State
credit was stopped, or State credit will and must
sink and the public works will have to be stopped
If Virginia bonds are intrinsically below par at
all, it is mainly because they have been issued to
pay State debts and thereby aroii tttrotiOA The
new Constitution, in its funding system, never
intended that State bonds should be anything
else than the mere erideaee of debts-necer tint
they should Be the means resortef to for paying
| State debta. There is no royaIrOad to pay debts
/ in this country. If u pirate iHdiridWdl owes
money, hemust labor for his solyency; If a State
owes debt, it must exert the socersigH remedy
or taxation.
! The State debt may be secured by the bond,
it must be paid By taxes And the attempt to
pay public debts, or to aroid or postpone tG1d-
ton, by the hocus pocus and legerdemain Of
Legislative devices to holster public credit, will
always eud in dishonor and diScredit, and In
tallibiy bring upon tax payers largely more bur
thens, at last, than these Of prompt taxation
honestly and openly laid on, at first. Honest,
bona ttds taxation, wisely laid economically ap.
piled and expended, can alone insure public
credit and make State bonds bring par in the
market. All credit is sensitive and tender Nc
credit can stand the habituaI hawking of its
bonds. |, therefore, submit that it is most
polite to adrertise for loans, rather than to pur
sue the practice of putting the State bonds up
to bidders for sale They will realize more al
less loss and risk Means may thereby. ba In
fcreased, but the main reliance must be upon the
taxes.
Can Virginia bear more taxation9
maintain that her taxes are not as great us
they ought to be, in proportion to her wealth and
her necessities for taxation. The per cent upon
her taxable property, as 1t IL n0tc enumerated
and assessed, is not much, by 100 per cent, as
it will bear al patorem; not as much, by that
amount, as the State requires; and not as much
by more than that amount, as many States, Of
less wealth in proportion to population, are sue
tcessfully and prosperously taxed And the emu
lmeration and assessment of our taxable proper
ty are exceedingly defective, owing both to the
law and its execution. An amended law, proper
y executed, would produce larger amount Of
revenue, with less burthen to the people.
But has Virginia no resources besides taxationi
She has vast and inexhaustible sources of revc,
nue. untouched and unnoticGd She has an Eas
tern mine of wealth, part of her eminent do
main, public property, belonging to the State
which yields per annum more than five millions
of dollars to the individuals, and to the State moi
one cent of revenue, because it has heretofore
been wholly overlooked and neglected for fisca
State purposes. She has from the Potomac tc
Lynn Haven bay, from two miles up the Eastern
shore creeks to twenty miles up the Western
shore rivers, 65 miles from North to South, by
20 miles, say, from East to West, on the Chesa
Epeake bay; and from Chingoteague island to Cape
Charles, 70 miles from West to South, and from
the islands to the main land, fivcs miles, say, from
East to West, on the Atlantic front-in the whole
1000 miles of saltwater fundum covered witt
the matrix of oysters. Not less than fifty thous
land tons of licensed and other vessels are EN-
iployed in taking these Shell-tiSh from off thi:
State fundum. 77
The oysters are worth, in the market, not les,
than fifty cents, and, at the rocks where they
are TAKEN ut least twenty cents per. bushel. Each
ton takes about 80 bushels a trip, and about
eighteen trips are made, on an average. by eacf
vessel per arlnum. Thus, not less than % mil
lions of bushels of oysters are taken from the
Virginia tundum per annum, worth, at twenty
cents per buShel; the sum of So 100000 per an
nun. About one-sixth only are taken in, Yir
lginia bottoms and five-sixths in vessels chiefly
from Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York
This is property of the State, and sold at one
cent per bushel it would produce $2T0, 900 pei
annum Of revenue 4 system Of revenue law!
should be framed to regulate this trade and t.
provide:
A 1st. For monopoly of our own citizens il
the trade. 3D. To protect the reproduction o
the shell fish, by regulating the times, places
and manner OF taking them. Sd. To produce
revenue, by system of revenue cutters and in
4 spectors to superintend the catching and plant
ing of them, leyying tax on licenses to take
! them and plant them on the fundum of public
3 waters, 80 as not to interfere with the naviga
ton laws ofthe United States.
Labor in this trade is more productive thar
in the gold mines Of California, Hands can earn
from two to ten dollars per capita perdiem. A
tax of one cent per bushel would be lighteSt bur.
then oftaxation known in this or any other State
s land would Weld MT least one-fourth of one mil.
lionof dollars nett revenue With two small
tsteam cutters to cost not mare than fifteen thou
/ sand dollars each, and with inspectors for the
creeks and harbors to be paid out of fees of in
Spection, the whole system, could, under the or
dcrs of the Executive, be made effective and to
yield more and more revenue every year, as il
is demonStrable that the trade is indeStructible
The oyster is so reproductive and prolific that ii
yields two families fit for market every seven
years, and is incalculable in the numbers of its
spawn. am confident, from the data l have
collected, that in few years the State could be
made to realize half million of dollars of reve-
nue. per annum from the oyster rocks And be-
side the purposes of revenue these steamers
could be made subseryient to purposes of police,
very necessary to be provided for in other re-
poets of State policy.
Let it notbe said, then, that Virginia is lack
ing in recources, or that she need be oppressed
Eby taxation, or that public works must be stop
ped, or public credit suffer, when she has relief
so ready at hand as this remarkable andnegleet-
ed revenue, her own public property.
Whatever may have been the differences Of
opinions respecting the commencement of our
public works, there is no difference of opinion at
this day on the questions whether the leading
lines should be rapidly coupleted-whether tax
es should be laid amply sufficient to carry them
on economically; and, whether appropriations
should be made and applied under some regular