Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-02-10
me TAxEs uPos VIRarsIA MERcHANIs 90 %

especially those interested-Will have noted
paragraph in our Richmond letter yesterday,
stating that the numerous petitions and remon-
strances from the merchants throughout the
State, which, for long while have been aceu-
rnulatfng before the attention of our legislature,
were likely to be summariIy and adversely dis
posed Of. 1t viii be remembered that a short
time ago, we published synopsis Of the grieV-
ances complained of by the mercantile public
and that alter our publication of said synopsis,
a meeting of merchants was held here in order
to devise ways and means to BRING about some
amelioration of. the onerous system of assess
ment, by which they were made to pay so large
and unequal share of our State revenue. 1t
seems, however, that they are just as likely as
not, to get their trouble for their pains, and
nothing more. We hardly dared to expectany-
thing more than this althonghit would be hard
for us to define our reasons why, in so short
space as is allotted US at this writing. The
members of our legislature, for the most part,
have always represented an agricultural senti.
ment, and that sentiment, taking its cue from
the pastoral days of our colonial times, has
been always hostile to the interests Of MGR
chants and tradcsmen. 1t is an easy matter
for those well versedin the back history of this
State, and of the mother country, at the time of
its settlement, to appreciate why, or rather how
it was that all pursuits those looking to the
robe of State, or the "pridc and circumstance
of glorious war were held subordinate to the
old fendal system of agriculture. An agricul-
turist from the days whenfWilliam of Norman
DIV portioncd out to his ree-bootDg retainers the
whole of Britain, was synonym for all that,
was noble, chiyalrous and distinctive among
men. All grades of people even down to
those who rendered yillenage or mental SER
vices in return for their land tenure were rated
far above your wareslnen, who at small stands
or stalls, under some old fcudalist's castle, re-
tailed meagre stock of the veriest necessities
to the subordinates attached to the fortunes of
that particular demesne. Indeed, outside the
Shire towns, little OF nothing was done in mer-
chandising save through the hands of the then
much hated and prosecuted Jews, and they
transferred al the odium attaching to their out
lawcd caste to their particular calling, Almost
all those of Norman descent eschewcd anything
which squinted towards commerce, and conse-
quently such vocations came TO be the badge of
inferinrlty-ti,A followers of tinoso were allowed
but the fewest legal privileges and none socially.
This same distinctive and hautcur feeling, al
though greatly miigated, was dominant among
the early settlers of our State, comprising us its
immigration did, great number. of broken
down cavaliers outside nobility and chevaliers
of all recognizable standards of Legitimacy, cx-
cept the very ton itself
These men came out to tho Queens planta-
tons on the banks of the James river, pretty
much as thousands of our fellow-citizens went
out to California, intending to make fortune
and come back aud figure in high life for the
balance of their days. Here they came-go
tobacco lands which were valuable on James
river, but valueless at the Court Of Queen Bess,
and here, therefore, they staid, andtraded to-
baceo, first for their wives, and next for mig
gers Their commerce was given over to the
Dutch, and the stately EngIlShmen Immediately
set up as near after the style ofthcir old mother
as their circumstances would permit Thus was
set on foot in Virginia, those peculiar notions
of commerce. and exchange which from that
day to this have been distinguishing char
characteristic of our State. Thomas JcfTer-
son-M ldison, and later-Randolph mp
the spirit of the old cavaliers and renewed and
fostered tt-rcckoning cringing commerce as
greatly obnoxious to the Independence and
among American, and especially Yirginian,
yeomanry. This very question of taxes upon
carnmerce early brought New England and yir-
GINA into collision-an the very first Congress
witnessed hearty bouts of sarcasm and curlcd
lips-sneersand i'll concealed contumely which
the one section began to entertain for the other.
New England, settled BY. self-made scions of the
English "fourth or fifth estate, had all that
contempt for the trnppings aud insignia of orr
thodoxy in church and state which marked their
"Roupd head" and their praise God barebones''
ancestors. To sing psalms and turn an honest
penny speedily and effectually was their creed
and they had no sympathy with the 'squires and
small farmers from whom their Virginia breth-
ron had imbibed their ideas.
In this way then, has the ancient feeling of
shaping the policy of the Federal and State
Government to the nourishment of the agricul-
tural system been impressed upon Virginia, and
rs we believe to her bitter hurt It's the root
of MI her abstractionism all her strict con.