Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-05-08

make good markets for farmers; the larger
the towns the better the markets, and the
more valuable the lands near them. The
Pennsylvania towns are larger and more
numerous than the Virginia towns, both in
the Valley and the West. The boast of
our West Virginia is the good city of
Wheeling. Would that she were six times
as large, that she might equal Pittsburgh,
and that she might grow FIVE times as fast,
that she might keep up with her.
We glory in Wheeling because she only,
in Virginia deserves to be called manu-
featuring town. For this her citizens de-
serve TO be crowued-not with laurel-but
with the solid gold of prosperity. But how
came it, that Wheeling, and next to her,
Wellsburg-Of all the towns in Virginia
should become manufacturing towns
Answer: They breathe the atmosphere Of
free States, almost touching them on both
sides. But again: Seeing that Wheeling,
as seat for manufactures, is equal to
Pittsbnrg, aud inferior to no town in Amer
lea, except Richmond; and that moreover,
she has almost no slaves Why is Wheel
ing SO far behind Pittsburg, aud compare
lively so slow in her growth? Answer:
She Is IN a country trhere sEavsTy Is established
6y Ear.
Thus it appears, fellow citizens. by in
fallible proof, that West Virginia in all her
parts and in all her interests has suffered
immensely from the institution of slavery.
The bad policy of the Legislature in former
times, in respect to roads and land surveys
west OF the Allegheny, did great injury to
the country. But after allowance is made
for this, a vast balance of injury is charge
BILE to slavery, and 70 nothing else. In the
great Valley, where these causes had little or
no operation, the effects of slavery are most
manifest and pernicious. In those parts
west OF the Allegheny, upon the Ohio and
its nAVigable waters, where want of roads
and disputed land titles did least injury
there, too, the corrosive touch OF slavery
has shown its cankerous effects.
We have not room for further extracts
from the pamphlet to-day. We might fill
our paper with paragraphs just as pointed,
and even more so, than these quoted above.
We cannot conclude, however, without re-
marking the fact. that in the last page, DR..
Ruffner introduces, almost in words. the
resolutions of Mr.. Batelle, offered in the
late Convention, and this is the more singu-
lar from the fact that Mr. Batelte never saw
Dr. Ruffners plan, yet see the resemblance
l. Let the further importation of slaves
into Western Virginia be prohibited by law.
| I'd. Let the expectation of slaves be
freely permitted, as heretofore, but with
this restriction, that children OF slaves,
born after certain day, shall not be ex-
ported at all after they are.tive years old nor
under that age, unless the slaves of the
same negro family be exported with them,
| Sd. Letth existing generation of slaves
remain in their present condition, but lei
their offspring, born after a certain day, be
emancipated at an age not exceeding TWEEN
ty-tive years.
This, then, is some of the advice given by
John Letcher, no longer ago than 1917, to
the self-same people of West Virginia whom
he new proposes to hunt and shoot lik,
wild beasts. Because our people read hi
advice aud have adopted it after long con
sidsratiOn, he sees proper. because he ha.
become pro-slavery secessionist, to tuflic
inhuman and barbarous vengeance upor
them. His course, however, only make
his arguments doubly strong, and prove
how vital it is to the best interests of Yves
Virginia that she should get rid of sys
TEN at once so destructive of her interests
aud so brutaliztng in its effects upon tn
minds of those who have followed its ad
vocacy until it has led them into rebel
lion.