Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-11-26
YgsTERDAY morning, in oar leading article wo


general liability, which competent authorities
have pointed out, TO mistake private opinionf for
that of the public, in political matters. We
have sometimes thought, when from any occa-
sion our attention has been directed to this mat
ter, that for a man who had the years on his
head to give just weight to what he might say,
ard who was in every way competent to the
task, it would be both an appropriate and u bene-
fetal undertaking, to make practical applica-
ton of this theory, to what might be called the
Virginia system of politics. We do not propose
to attempt anything of the kind, because, to do
so we would require to have at hand great
deal of data, which, although more or less famil-
lar to us from past readings, we could not APP
ply with that exact precision necessary to the
fOrcible exposition of the whole mouldy and
musty regime, existing under Virginia demo
cratic politics. We believe that it could
be shown, taking the biographical record OF
each Congressional district 1--WE mean of the
politicians who have fgured) and that of the
State at large, from the days of the Tom Ritchic
Rnd Peter V. Daniel junta, that the State &
Virginia, while par excellence the democratic
State of the Union has been. with perhaps the
sarchical than any State in the Union. The ar
rangement of population has been peculiarly In
Viting to ambitious politicians. The people have
been always to large extent agricultural. Towns
and villages have partaken of the hue of the
rural districts-and except in one or two of the
prominent cities, have been almost entirely iden-
lied with agricultural pursuits and agricultu-
al character. The means of ingress and egreSs
o and from the interior parts of the State have
lways been, up to a late period, deficient. The
Influences of art and commerce were notabroad
With their train Of incidental intellectual devel
pements: The people retained, and in many
arts of the State still do retain, all that sus.
eptibility to the appliances of logic and rhetor-
which marks human character in it's unso-
histicated state. Two OF three colleges in the
astern portion of the State had the training OF
he politicians in their hands All these col
eges, especially that of William and Mary's,
Fere noted for the high Tory notions (if we
plight apply the term to American politics.,
rhich'they held Protesting a devotion to the
lenaOcrdtiG of the Greeks in its most intense
DUPLICATION under a representative system, they
noulded men to policy as oligarchical as that
e the thirty tyrants of Athens These men,
8 completely graduated in distractions and fin
sse in politics, as were the nobility and gentry
ouths of Oxford and Cambridge, in England,
the "divine right" principle, went forth to
he political districts of the State not to affiliate
With the people, not to sympathize with the
popular element, but to temper it from the
tart for theiripolltical ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Politics
las been profession in this State aud in South
Carolina more completely than it has been
slsewhere in this country. We have had more
skillful dialecticians and controversialists than
anywhere else. Many of them have risen high
-shed a lustre on their own names and that of
he, State, and have been justly noted for extra
ordinary attainments in the science of govern
nent Virginia has thus been the originator of
school or schools of politics and various have
been the engrafts and amendments which from
time to tune have been added. The constant
tendency has been towards metaphysical themes,
concerning which the people had notions and
conceptions but little less vague than the liter
airy world has in general of the doctrines of the
Ttalic sect of philosophers. Every district has
had its quota of these politicians who have
on the hastings and in congressional and legis-
lative documents, spoken and written their
several constituencies into confused and crude
sophisms. To manipulate and crate these the
cries and traditions before audiences from
school exhibitions up to Fourth of July audi
tories, has been the aspiration of youths-and
in their maturer years to add and subtract
thereto OF therefrom has been the goal of ambi-
ZION and the stepping stone to political conse-
quence. The people have fallen victims to
theories-they have stood still wondering, de-
liberating and theorizng, leaving the other states
to work out practical schemes of State great
ness in. all that pertains to commerce and the
arts and sciences. The Virginia system of
politics has tended to individualize commune
tics and even the whole State-and to constantly
present the spectacle of State great in political
.acumen but subordinate and retrogressive in
material developemcnt The interests of the
people have lapsed steadily population and
wealth have been emasculated-the politicians
have nibbled and shorn the natural fertility
down to sere and stunted stubble.
Taking, then, as we said, the data of each
district as offered in the records of the polite
ians, and which together form SO many provin-
cinl craeils and we Vonld have a more fhoFnn0h