The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1856-08-20
Virginia.

Blue Ridge, facing tide.water the Val
ley, between the Blue Ridge and the AL
leghany Mountains; aud New Virginia,
or the Western Slope beyond the Alleg
hauy. Old Virginia-the dead empire,
with her worn-out lands, her cffetc popu.
lation, bearing great names with not
much beyond them, and the main seat
of the slave opulation-gives the law
to the whole State. The Valley, ex-
tending from north to south, with the
noble Shenandoah, the south branch of
the Potomac and the upper waters of
the James. and tho Great Kanawha of
tho Ohio, running along its fertile Dor.
ders, lisa great tract of productive coun.
try with fewer slaves, and inhabited by
people who rely upon something beside
their family names aud the reputation
Of their ancestors for livelihood while
Western Virginia, having few slaves at
all. is sparsely peopled with hardy,
slowly progressive population, who get
along as well as any provincial people
can be supposed to do under an uneasy
yoke, governed by masters Of whom they
care less. Freed from tho domination
of the slave breeders of Ola Virginia,
the people Of the Valley and New Vir.
ginia would do passably well, and grad
ually ameliorate their own condition
slave'brccding not boing with thom q
main source of support.
1t is well known that immense tracts
of wornout land have been abandoned in
the tide water counties; even the bio.
grapher of John Randolph of Roanoke,
the late High Garland, states that with.
in three miles Of tersburgh, on tho
Appomattox, there is now good deer
hunting in the woods growing over the
fine old agricultural estates of the
Blands the 3yrds, and other ouce re-
nowned families. That instance is o
specimen Of thousands Of others. De.
cayed ano ruined churches arc scattered
all over the country in waste places
where foxes bark and owls hoot grand
old houses, orce paatial in magnifcence,
are crum bling on deserted estates which
are advertised for sale at three to five
dollars an acre, where "thc ship timber
growing upon thom near tide.water will
twice pay the purchase money" OH
er places there are. once inclosed and
bearing proud crops Of corn, wheat and
tobacco, which now show but the dila.
pidatcd remains Of a quiet mansion and
numerous negro quarters, with a few
surrounding acres growing stinted crops
OF corn and sweet potatoes to feed the
slaves on which the effate descendants Of
the cavaliers rely for fine years crop
to supply the slave drivers" or slave.
buyers, and get a poor living at that.
Now and then on tho broad river bot
toms and other favored spots, a good
farm is seen, with an energetic, thriving
man upon it, who grows his corn, wheat
and tobacco as a Christian man should
do-the exception, not the rule. And
yet these people, with a big name OF
their back, are as proud in bearing and
chivalrous in language as the chief of q
Highland clan, with his tart an latter.
demallous about him, in the days of Old
Mortality, and sioop to no labor Of eth.
er head or hand short Of on Office under
Government Guano has improved the
agriculture of these folks a little Of late,
but if the bird deposits Of the Pacific
should fall off, the Lord help thenl they
would be worse off than ever. But for
guano, and the green peas and strawber-
res round about Norfolk for the early
New York markets, and the soft crabs
aud oysters of the Chesapeake which the
pestilent Yankees go after and buy,even
the Government patronage of that naval
station, could hardly savo its people from
starvation. These are the men who get
up Southern Commercial Conventions.
establish steamships, manufactures and
home consumption-by proclamation
and who now propose to reproduce in
Kansas the same curse which has do.
stroyed their native State.
In Washington's time, even after he
had retired from tho Presidency. his es.
tate of 5 900 acres on the Potomac pro-
duced thousands of bushels Of wheat nd
corn, tons Of tobacco and hay, and had
its hundreds Of cattle. horses. mules
sheep and swine Forty years ago when
the late Judge Rushrod lived there, the
fam had all run down, and aside from
his pay as Judge of the Supreme Court
of the United States, the estate would
yield him living; and noi0 what is it
A dilapidated show-place, where the pso-
pie, far and near, of our broad land, 20
on pilgrimage, and for peoping through
the grated doors of an absurd red brick
tomb to gaze upon tho marble sareopha.
gus of the Father Of his Country" pay
the mendicant nigger in attendance a
shilling sight The house itself is in
rufus its wings are torn away. its offices
burned down, it's once beautiful grounds
and garden laid waste aud even the
charred remains unremoved, while the
owner, still hearing the
honored name of Washington, not long
since put up the place to be raffled for
by showmen, in case Congress whom he
has for years Gap in hand solicited. should /
not buy the hundred acres embracing
homestead for two hundred thousand
dollars While all this is patent to the
eye, the grand old estates of the great
Virginians of the Revolution and our
early government are rarely koown or in
habitod, or if known, have passed into
utter desuetude, aud the very sites Of
their graves obliteraied.
Can the like of this be found apv. /