Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-08-12
The Loyal Status OF Lewis County
Defended.
Eaitors InteNiqeneer

Editors IEtsEligsHesr:
In your daily issue OF Friday last, you
notice the leader OF the State Journal pub
lished at Grafton. in which reflections are
cast upon the loyalty of the county of Lew
is, which are calculated to do injustice to q
great majority of the people of our county,
so much so that / deem it my duty as
loyal citizen of said county to notice some
portion of the Journal mans article, which
otherwise would have gone unnOticed, had
not you have seen proper to have noticed
the article in your widely circulated daily,
thereby giving it prominence and doing in
Justice to ourselves demanding a response
| from as. The editor of the Journal Mr.
Shriuer) appears to be i'll pleased with the
success attending his efforts TO establish g
paper in the county of Lewis. Mr.. Shriner
came here eight months ago unsolicited, q
| perfect stranger to us all, and announced
his purpose of establishing paper. He took
possession of the Office of the Virginia Led
ger, defuoet rebel sheet, issued a prOspec-
| tus, following it Immediately With the first
number of the West Virginia State Journal
| Our loyal citizens subscribed for l., paid
| Sl.60 per year in advance; our. mer-
chants gave him job work and advertising.
| We bad doubts OF our ability to sustain q
paper for various reasons, among which,
the lack of mail communication with diff
ferent portions of our county, 800 Of our
citizens absent in the army and govern
ment employ. The press was liable to be
sold any day, under a trust deed that was
upon it. With all this We did our utmost
| to sustain the paper and extend its circu-
lation and would have succeeded, had Mr..
| Shriuer by a good moral character inspir-
ed our citizens with confidence, which l
am sorry TO say he did not possess.
Mr.. Editor HOurished, gloriously flourish
| ed for q few months. So long as advance
| pay was coming 10 ''the County of Lewis
was the most loyal of any county in the
! State !" "sent more soldiers to the field :"
Nv eston bound TO be the capital" &C., &c.
| But as mouey ceased to flow to his pockets,
murmurings and mutterings began to be
| beard in the columns of the Journal
Complaints of not being supported. Reb-
ell Rebel This cry of raw head and
bloody bones, began to be his key note; he
| abused the most loyal, even those who
| gave him his bread and butter. Gross and
obscene language, written daily under the
inspiration of bad whisky, iound its way
into the columns of his paper. We en-
| deaVored and succeeded, we thought,
in having a change of editors. Mr..
| Hall, the present associate editor of
the Journal, with funds furnished by
| come OF our OeSt anu most royal CltlEenSy
purchased Mr.. Shriner's interest in the es-
tablishment, not with the view of changing
in the least the political status of the pa
per, but simply to give it character, which
is about as essential in conducting q pa
per as brains. But contrary to all expeo-
tstions, Mr.. Hall kept Mr.. Shriner, cOnse-
quently, even with the new impulse given
the paper, by the generous contribution of
one hundred dollars, the paper closed
doors here, and now turns up in the town
of Grafton, where l hope the good people
will foster and nourish it. Thus you have
a brief history of the career of the State
Journal in the county OF Lewis. As to the
loyalty of the county of Lewis, it is unques-
tionRble. Look to the poll books 10 the
archives of our new: State. Look to her
roll of honor, her soldiers in the field.
| LEWIS.
WESTON, W. Va, Aug. 9Th, 1864.