Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-02-02

attending ih- admission Of nearly every
Stnte ever admitted into the Union sou will
find that there was "dictstiou"-Rs these
gentlemen would say, or as I would say
an exercise OF discretionary power-and
the reverse has been the exception So
much for these "COnstitutiouar arguments
that you hear men talk so much about
men who profess to have sueh a great love
for State rights and the institutions of the
South. Why, fellow citizens. you have
just listened To a gentleman who has spent
the greater part OF his lite in the extreme
South-wbo knows all about the institu-
ton OF slavery-who knows the adVan-
lagos and disadvantages OF the two sys-
tens Of labor in our country. You have
heard him speak tonight, aud have no
doubt you have heard men on the street
corners who are very loud on this subject
OF Hsboliuonizing the new State, when
perhaps negro never BACKED their boots
IN their lives. Laughter. Or if he had
blackrd them, genilemen. they never wouid
have paid him for il. Renewed laugh
ter.
Now having disposed OF these little Con-
stitntional matters the question arises, lcik
be N tie mferest of the people of West
Virginia 10 be admitted Es new Slater
contend it will; that it will benefit every
class Of people, and that it will benefit,
, FIRST, tie property holders of West Virgil
MIA. II you go down along the river 1.-THE
I Ohio) and ask the price of land on the two
sides, you will fiud that it is about ffty per
cent. higher on tbh Ohio side than it is on
/ tile Virginia shore II you will go along the
| Pennsylvania line you will find that on the
Pennsylvania side of the lne-a mere i'm
agtnary line-land is worth at least fifty
per cent. more than land of the same
| quality is wsrth on the Virginia side. The
real estate holder will be benefited, if we
make this State like Pennsylvauia aud
/ Ohio. He will be benefited directly and
| Immediately.
But, fellOw-citizens, he will he benefit
| ted in another way. In the old State Of
| Virginia, with the Legislature at Rich.
moud, it has been customary tor the Legis-
lnlure al each session to appropriate mil.
! lions OF money. have known one Legis.
latute to Appropriate $4,000, 900 They did
II by most Infamous system of log-rslIiug
! bargain and sale--as infamous as any ever
Practiced in the world. They would buy
a western man up by giving thousand or
fifteen hundred dollars in his county, and
| get him to vote seven or eight millions for
works OF internal Improvement In that
| ICY hhN l4E Bl=AAAu1G VI NliHlulH uau
| up debt of $4,000 900 before the break
| ing out Of the rebellion. Now, according
to the new State Constitution, the Lrgis.
lature is prohibited from creating any debt
TOR such 4 purpose. They cannot run you
IN debt This log roling-this thing of
bnylng up men of easy political virtue
| will be done away with. Every man who
has u cent Of property is interested in this;
for while man may he sitting quietly at
home, corrupt members of the Legislature
may be creating a debt which will be IA
mortgage ON everything he has got The
State debt OF Virginia has been created in
that way; and if you have suffered from
heavy taxation, or if you suffer from it
hereafter, it is because you have not got n
clause i'll your Constitution which prevents
the Legislature from creating great pub
lie dcbt.
The merchants of your city aud the Dor
der will be benefited, because the enor-
nous tax which they are made to pay on
their license is Inconsistent with the pro-
visions of the new Constitutions; and they
could thus compete more successfully with
rivals for trade from beyond our limits
.I/But you will be benefited by having all
Fover your State, IL system of free schools
You have very good system here in
wheeling; but outside uf this there is not
a county in Western Vlrgiuia that has free
schools. Aud what has been the RESULT
The result is that when you get out into
the sPWrsely peOplel mountain districts
there are many men who do not know how
to read and write. | am informed that
there was company mustered into the
service of the United States, from one OF
the interior counties, in which there was
not one single man who could sign his
r Z 81.
eminent which permits any such state OF
things as that to exist does not do its duty
by lis people. No popular government ca n
exist long in which the people are so pro.
tonndly ignorant as that. The people have
got to be enlightened. You have got to
educate them. The poor laboriug men in
Western Virginia are more interested in
this question than any other class. Unless
their children are educated they must grow
up to the same hard life of toll that their
fathers endured. Go any place in life and
who is it that has the hard work to do ? II
is always the uneducnted man. Go aboard
your steamboats,; it is the clerk aud cap.
tain and mate that know how to read and
write and attend to business. 1t is the
deck hands who do not Look on your
| railroads the same rule holds good. Look
all around you. The leading and business
men are the educated men, and the men
who work hard in the streets for their daily
bread, are the uueducated men. Give a
man AN education and you give him
chance. The State government of Virginia
has heretofore entirely neglected this mat
ter neglected it, especially throughout our
Western mountains in every possible way.
And while they have bestowed thousands
of dollars in the University of Virginia,
which they have kept rs a school to indoc-
trtnate the youth of the Southern country
with these States rights and secession
PrinclPles-whi!e they have bestowed hun
dreds OF thousands ofdollars on institutions
| of that sort in that part OF the State. tbev
have given nothing to Western Virginia for
any purpose. They gave $4,000 once to
the West Liberty Academy, aud when the
trustees came To apply for it, wouldn', let