Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1857-09-12
internal Improyemeu ; and pemacosue .m.


Our readers will recollect that We published few
days since, an article from the New Orleans Buile-
tin, in which the disposition, common in the
South to neglect State interests and attend only to
those which concern the General Government was
deprecated in the warmest terms In no Southern State
has this disposition been strong, and so general
in Virginia. II has operated here more fatal
ly than in any other State whatever. It has
produced after swarm Of demagogue'
numerous the locusts Of Egypt, and quite
fatal. No sooner does brood die out than
another succeeds. The line seems destined 10
hold out ito the crack Of doom" They are in gen.
era, very ignorant They know nothing but
what they get from the partzsn newspapers OF the
day. Their whole attention is turned 10 federal
politics They have no time TO devote to the inter
ests OF the State. Enlightened men look to seat
in the Legislature or in Congress- as means Of fu-
ture usefulness These regard it as an end
E'ectioneering is, with them, great craftsmanship.
The man who can carry county, district, is
far greater man than he who establish n sys-I
TEN of policy. lie who can fastcn himself and his
family upon the public crib is greater statesman
than Clay Calhoun
About the time De Witt Clinton began to move in
the cause OF internal improvements in New York.
we began to think of continuing the James River
nal. IL had been recommended years before, but
Legislature had been always too busy President
making TO allow Of serious attention IN any such
matter IL was of importance, TO be sure, u unite
the waters of the Chesapeake and Ohio. Bot it
far more important to enact year, the
outons of '9S '99. The James River and Ohio con. |
necton would pour flood OF wealth into the |
State, but that was an affair of minor importance in
comparison with the nominating of n President
Virginia began to descend in the comparative scale,
but if she lost wealth and Influence she had the res
Olutions of ss, 30. Ht
Suppose the James River improvement had been
pushed through, when it first began in earnest in
1928. 1t ought to have been finished in 1880, and
thon, should have been the richest State IN the
whole Union, Our population would have been
double, our wealth great that by the time rail-
roads began to be fashionable we should have been
able to cover the whole face of the country with
perfect network Of them. We should have had
manufactures in every village in the State, our towns
would have grown to cities our villages would have
become towns, cities would have counted their
population by the hundred thousand, instead of 10
representatives should have had 80 and the Alb
oitonists of the North would not have been enabled
TO cite the diminuton of national representation
in proof of our decay in the clements Of prosperity
gotten hold Of the State and to them national and
State progress is death.
1t is to tfs pestferous race belonging almost excIu-
siVey tho denocra tic party that the present deplora
BILE state OF our relations TO the slavery question due
In the very spirit Of demag that party never
fails, upon every recurrence of an election to repre-
sent whoever may be opposed to them as tainted
with abolitionsm Those who make the charge
know it to be false; but it a temporary
purpose, and that is all that the demagogue who
never looks beyond the Hesh-pots, cares for The
consequence has BEEN that the people of the North
have been induced to believe that very large par
" in Virginia. composing at least two fifths Of the
population, is tainted with abolitionism. Could
there bs effectual method Of giving Haid and
comfort" to the cnemyS 1t has encouraged the
enemy to persevere. 1t has made abolition debates
and abolition agitation swallow up all subjects OF
importance besides. Formerly, a Southern man
would not condescend TO argue tae question in Con-
gress; now no other question can be argued at all
For the increase Of aboliGonisD, the Democratic
party is alone responsible, for they arc the dema-
gogue party. If they deny this, let them tell us
what party has been in the ascendant in Virginia
for thirty yearsY IL they did give it its present
Sis aud importance, who did Not the Wings
they have always been in the minority They could
do nothing. Not the American party, they had but
an ephemera existence scarcely a second in the
lifetime OF a State. II was the Democratic party
and their swarm Of demagogues II was they who
first began toagitate the subject-who hive kept IN
The agitation-who will renew it at the very next
election. They will be certain in order to carry IT,
20 charge everybody who differs with them with
aboIitionism. They have always done it, and they
will continue TO do it, though they know that agi
taton is the surest way to spread abolition sent
ments. We belize the whole Democratic party of
this State will support Walkers abolition schemes
ia Kansas, notwithstanding they protested readi-
ness to go To war IL Fremont were elected And this
is the fruit Of agitation
il the Democratic party has not been the cause OF
the present abolition ondancy, it has, at least
been unable 10 prevent it, II is therefore effste in
elective and fit for nothing but to grow fat upon
the public crib.
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