Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-01-31

To the People Of Ohio County.
40 Intelligent observer OF the wishes ana
thoughts Of the people can doubt the fac,
that a large majority OF the citizens Of
ONO county are really and sincerely de=i-
ross OF new State. They are in favor +
"a because it is ,leis Interest TO be in favor
OF Il, fuzzy hnyc have H. interest autag-
onis,i. TO the uew State The only inter
est that could possibly he opposed 10 the
new State would be slavery interest
Ohio county has 70 slavery interest. S!av.
cry does not exist within her boundaries.
save in name. She has 10 more interest
in slavery than has Washington county,
Pa, upon her eastern border, or Belmont
county, Ohio. on Der western border. The
very name o: slavery will soon disappear
from her midst. 10 year OF two more
there will not be even the s.a ow left to
tell that the substance of slavery ever e1-
listed in the county Why, then, should
OHIO county be opposed to = new State {.
Tbs Is = question we desire TO push home
to the opponents OF new State. Some
day or other. when it is too late, perhaps,
they will be compelled to answer this
question to themselves. The tax gatheser.
who will 90 rouud gathering such burden
some taxes as were never before felt BY
any people in free country, will bring
the question home in an emphatic way to
every mind.
These taxes heavy as they have been in
times past, will be IN the future as d bar
OF iron to bunch Of feathers in weight
And they will be collected not for the use
OF the people who pay them. They will not
be expended in Western Virginia. They
will 90 to Richmond TO pay the debt which
tue Vraitorous wrelches there have brought
upon The State by their accursed treason
saI rebellion. There will be no escape
from these taxes. They will come as sure
as the SEASONS come. All things else
may fail.-prosperi.y- bust
ness, work OF every kind, but the visits
and the remorseless demands of tue
gatherer Of taxes for the Richmond traitors
and rebels, will not fail.
MOiG luau OuG IhhuEGt unions CT GtbI
have come upon Virginia within the last
two years. In all probability forty or fifty
more will be added before this rebellion is
over. The State owed debt Of upwards
OF forty millions previous TO the rebellion.
So that her entire debt will be scarcely less
than nCO hundred millions Of dollars in a few
months more. For years past, when our
debt was not even forty millions, Western
Virginia has been paying six hundred
thousand dollars per year into the Rich
ruond treasury as her proportion of the
State taxes. What she will have to pay in
the future is simply question of nrith-
metic.
Tue whole debt will be increased FIVE
told, and Western Virginia. annual proper
lion of taxes will be increased FIVE fold -
What will be the result? What has been
the result in times past? 1t requires no
prophet to argue from that which has been.
TO that which will be. Western Virginia
will become rapidly depopulated. Her all
ready waste places will be desolate, indeed
Her occupied places will soon know their &C.
cupants no more. Ofall parts of the coun-
try lying in the great track of civilization
from East to West, she will present the
hleakest aud most uuenviable picture
This city always stunted aud dwarfed in
its growth by the fact of its situation in q
state whichimmigration avoided on account
Of slavery, will come to stop, and soon
will commence the decline and decay of
relrogresson. It will not take long for
Wheeling to become what the people Of
this country understand by a..'yirg mia town
that is IA place where there is lull, and
sloth, and decay, aud poverty, nni no thrift
whatsoever.
Once let it go to the country that West
ern Virginia, when the boon of priceless
value was in her grasp, turned her back
upon it and tailed to know her greatest and
most momentous opportunity, and her fate
is sealed forever. These are considerations
which no Western Virginian, be he loyal CT
disloyal, can afford to trihe With or make
the sport of party. That public man, or
that politician, who. in such an hour as
this, for the sake of his promotion, trifeS
with or misleads the minds of the people,
will receive, as he deserves, the anathemas
of themselves and their children through
out all after time. This is the very turn
ing point in the whole future of Western
Virginia. With the New State she has the
prospect of boun,iful prosperity. With
out it nothing but bleak desolation awaits
her.
If we had gift to ask for the people
of this county, and OF West Virginia which
would be granted, and which would of all