Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1858-05-08
Important DECISION.

'ly by the Court of Appeals of This State,
1t appears that John l.. Pondexier. dec d.,
left IA will providing that his slaves should
be allowed to choose between being man
unified and remaining in slavery, and
suit was brought by Bailey ct ais, ami
HoWIe Ell ais, against his executors. The
Court decided in favor of the appellants
Judge Daniel delivering the opinion, from
which we extract the following:
Under these circumstances | have con-
ceived itto be my duty TO regard the ques-
ton as one to be tested by the general and
acknowledged principles pertaining to the
subject, no: as one controlled by the influ-
ence of a special adjudication. And when
we so treat the question, it seems TO me
there can he no longer any serious Difficult
ty as to the proper solution. When we
assent to the general proposition as think
we must either do that our slaves have no
civil or social right, that they have no Ie-
gal capacity TO make, discharge, or assent
10 contract that though a master enter
into the forms Of an agreement with his
slave to manunil him, and the slave pro-
coed fully 10 perform all required OF him,
in the agreement, and that slave cannot
take anything unde. devise or will eX
cept his freedom we are led necessarily
to the conclusion that nothing short OF a
positive enactment or of legal decisions
having equal force, can demonstrate The
capacity Of slave 10 exercise an election,
in respect to his manumissiOn.
So il is decided by The highest legal trb-
unal of this Commonwealth that a slave
cannot cleo: 10 be free. The Law Journ-
al pays high compliment TO Jno. How
ard, Esq, one of the counsel for the ap-
pelIants, on the great cearness and abllh-
ly Of his argument.
HARD TIMES IN THE WEsT.-There is
little encouragement for emigranls in the
following extract, which is taken from a
letter written in Warren, Lake county i'll:
Here in the North West, so far as am
acquainted, the farmers have generally
paid large portion Of their debts TO the
merchants, and those that have held on to-
their grain will not have much surplus cash
after paying their debts, even if there Isl
some rise above the present prices, and
there seems 10 be general desire toI
"square off, and be out of debt, so that
when all the produce is marketed, II will
leave no money in the hands OF the pro-
ducers. Merchants, too, generally de-
cline credits, and farmers are averse to run
ming up store bills again, so that the only
resource is to SAGE what they have. This
they do by wearing old patched clothes,
and doing wilhou, such semi. necessaries
as tea, coffee, sugar and spices. Farmers
whose farms are worth from 10000 ST.
600, and whose crops last year were large,
have not been able TO buy their wives al
shiling- calico dress. or themselves more
than a pair Of denims overaIls to cover up
their rags and hold them on. These were
men who usually ran up store bills from
500 10 5000 per annum. This is not
exaggeraled; il is but fair statement OF
affairs in general here. Then again. farmers
have pull Gin few acres, and hired much less
help, for they cannot make their crops
par for hired help at any thing near The
present figures for grain. The whole class
of mechanics and lsborers are in the same
fix. They cannot buy Of the merchant I'll
they would, and generally would not il
they could. So all is dull-no trade, no
building, no improvement, and no energy.
ARREARS OF TAxEs.-An alarming in
crease in the arrearageS Of sherlils has
been developed in the report of the fl
nance committee 10 the late Legislature.
and the Richmond papers appeal strongly
to the voters and tax payers of the State
to elect more competent and responsible
men to this office.
"These arrears, including two years"
says the committee Of finance, "were, on
October ls,, 1853, S43,l40 In onIy one
wear they nearly doubled, and were on
October lsi, 1854, S95, 800 and, again,
Sl47,l5O, on the lst October, 1855, thus
increasing at the rate Of little less than
$4,000 per annum. This remarkable
fact can scarcely be due TO difficulty oil
collection, for these three years have been
a period Of unusual prosperity
The delinquent list has also alarmingly
increased .from S2O,7O0 in 1923, TO
500 ,430 in 1884, and S34 800 in 1854
5, though the rates Of taxation have been
the same for all these years. This in
crease is not merely on the captation tax,
but still more on the revenue tax.
From the report of the finance commit
tee, made to the House of Delegates in
February 1858, il appears that the uncol-
lected residues of revenue on the Isl oil
October, 1857, were three hundred and
nineteen thousand dollars.
A WONDERFUL WoMAN.--There is a