Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1857-08-03
81, rn,rrn,s sprrcn nowx a. GrrAaporrr.

planatory of the purposes and intentions OF th'
Homestead Aid Society, Of which he is th'
President and Agent We infer from these res
olutions that the people Of Gurandotte are :
sound, common sensed population, who know
and knowing ,lare to say what they think make
not only for their own immediate interests bu
that of the whole State, and especially of West
orn Virginia These opinions ise find more par
ticularly aet forth in an editorial article in the
Ubionist. paper printed in that place, which
speaks Of Mr. ThaycF's speech as embodying
''mOrc argument in the same length of time
than any speaker we Cthe editor) verattemptedtc
follow The fact is that the people Of that re-
gion Of country, as well as all over the Western
division of our State, arc beginning TO wake up
to their true interests. This they sec can only
be reached by al influx of populatiOn--Of the
right kind of population-which does not con-
sist of Captains and Colonies, but of bone and
sinew Iaborers-mcn who have the heart and the
hands to go to work and rid out the wilds and
open up the hills of our highly favored Western
Virginia. The people have seen that the stand
still. abstractionizcd policy, Which was inaugu-
rated in the early days of the commonwealth,
when it vas not thought necessary to DO more
than till enough ground to feed sparse popu-
Iation, will not do in this age Of the world. The
genius of the age does not allow that We shall
play the farce forever, Of the dog in the manger,
neither using nor permitting others to use the
almost unparalleled advantages which nature has
put in our hands. We must arouse ourselves
or we must give place TO those who will do the
work and reap the reward. 1t is useless and
ruinous for US to lazily prop ourselves against
the monuments Of our ancient fame, and like
the degenerate sons of energetic and useful
sires, call upon the world to reverence and
obey us for that in our history which is
past There is u race of politicians in our
State, and heaven be thanked they are di-
minishing daily, whose constant care it has been
to nibblc and gnnw away the vitality of the
State, by advocating n secluded aud exclusive
policy, adapted only to the agricultural and gra-
zing days Of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Splcn-
did farms. numbering thousands of acres, few
of them in each county, with baronial old resi-
dence in the midst Of parcel of cabins, about
which loll groups oflazy, doless serfs, have since
and before the days of Randolph, OF Roanoke,
been the beau ideal of Virginia fame, the bur-
lien and rilrain of her eloquence impose and IN
verse. With the stubborn inactivity Of the old
Normans Of England, they have prided them.
selves that so far as their eyes could reach, they
:onld dwell upon unbroSen forests, immense
racts Of highlands and lowlands, where, when
,tupefed and tired of the monotony of indoor
ifc, they could resort to seek the wild enjoy
nents of mi-barbarism.
Thin l. descriptive o"I, at oH,a'l aud cue
most favored class of citizens. From time i'm
memorial, almost, there have been scattered
through the mountains and valleys, poor de-
graded, ignorant sort of nomadic population, who
unknown 70 the outer world almost, have led
lie somewhat like those rovers who dwell hither
and thither over the steppes OF Russia. Many
Of tbs have seen them attired in even more thnn
rustic simplicity dwelling in little huts, leading
4 precautions existence, and ready at any moment
atthe sight of tax collector to pull up stakes and
pitch their tents somewhere else.
All this may have done very well for the age
when Virgil tuned his oaten reed to sing of the
pleasures and enyiabls fate Of those who far re.
moved from any trace Of art, could while away
the summers day ana the summers OIL tlvlT
lives, in reclining beneath the beech and lis
tenins to the lowing Of the herd. But all this
does not answer for this latter half Of the nine
teenth century The world is growing old, and
her children have increased many millions since
then, and all her children are TO be provided
for. And this mother of US all recognizes no
primogcuiture riShts-no traditions which give
ono man tho useless possession Of a township,
while his brother is csing out an existence upon
some narrow, barren ledge. 1t seems to Us but
poor philosophy, TO think that Providence ever
led the white man to our sho,es, drove out the
Indian from before his face, and blessed the
planting Of the colonies, to have them converted
to such uses.
When We think of all these things, we reason,
how idle and abOrtive are the efforts of thatrace
OF pigmy politicians who prey upon us, to
threaten and drive back all efforts for the settle
ment and Advancement of these waste places.
It is destiny, and all their vain denunciations
viii be UNDECIDED, when once the people come
to understand their true interests.
----as~oS-
THr most careless newspaper reader can
hardly fail to have his attention arrested by the