Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-06-17
~. Ruin d IIarper,s Perrr

Ana lOllOWlG 70 Death or E9Elag
------r ------& S--
The Ruin ut HRrper's FERRY.
- We have this morning some additional
details of the evacuation of Harpef's Fer
ny by the Confederate troops; a..d of the
blowing Up aud burning up of the immense
F.. railroad and government property there
! Nh one can read the details of this vandal-
ism without melancholy feeling. Justto
think what years. of labor. and untold sums
-ofmoney, they have laid waste in few
hopFs. All their worthless lives would not
repay the sacrifice.
And all this for what! Is 1t that the
.ofE-scouesed vagabonds who had cOugre-
gated there might be better, or freer, or
happier menu Is lit that some additional
rights might be secured to them? MOL
who is such fool as to believe or assert
such thing? All of US know the kind of
men who left this city to go there. They
were the common loafers of the town; men
who numbered society with their presence,
aud whose lives were scarcely of apprectn-
HE value to themselves or the community.
wepresume thatthey were above the av-
erage of most of those who had cougrega-
ted at the Ferry. If so, what an army of
freemen fighting for liberty they must
have boon.
And what has the State of Virginia
gained by all this ruin and waste. Her
stock in the Baltimore Road by this act IS
all gOne-all swept away. But this is not
ALI. Her people are deprived of all the
great advantages they enjoyed from the
road. Millions will not express in figures
what they have Tossed and sacrificed on
account of the troops at Harper's Ferry.
Neither is this all. The whole country
along the line of the road, from Cumber-
land east, has been demoralized. The
people have been made to vote con-
trary to their wishes, have been impressed
Into repuisive service, have seen all their
rights and privileges invaded and trampled.
down like pearls under the feet of swine.
And all this for what? THAT the lust
for power of few slaveocrnts and auto
Gratis and despOts like JEFF. Davis, aud
Wise aud Pryor, and Wigfallnad TOOmbs,
might DO grntified. Aud Virginia has
been made the poor victim Of these design
ing and unpriucipied spoilsmen. And in
nocent Western Virginia has been made to
bear her heavy share OF their spoliation.
She has already been despOiIed to an ex-
tent that she can not SOON recover from.
Aud yet her and all our troubles have but
commenced. Our foes within our own
mist many of them worthless and reck-
lsss-are seeking but theil opportunity to
entail upon US still farther horrors and
yet more wide spread desolation.
But pitinble as is our condition, 1t is as
nothing compared with Eastern Virginia.
Soon she will be laid waste from border to
border, by the tramp of contending armies
The fields just ripening for the harvest, will
be drenchsd with blood, and all her indus
try will be paralized and ruined. Aud all
this she has incurred at the Instance Oft
miserable OligarChy OF South Carolina, and
the traitors aud cOnspirators of Montgom-
cry. She has for them Slapped her own life
blood-given up her people to the wild fu-
~ of civil war, and gone into such depths
of debt ms plummet never yet sounded
Bitter indeed will be tho end of all this
thing. When this rebellion shall have
been put down, as put down it will be al
whatever cost, one of the chief mourners,
dressed in deepest black, wasted through.
out all her system, will be this humilis-
ted, disgraced, bankrupt aud ruined Com
nOuwealth of ours. Fecfde VTrginia! will
be the taunt that will follow her name OF
the page of history.