The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-12-07
PresIdent's SIesanre,
e Law before onr rsaders this


We lay before our readers this morn
ing an accurate and readably prepared
copy of President Johnson's message.
We have not as YET been able to give IT
such careful reading as would enable
US to speak with confidence of the prop
ositiOns laid down and policy set forth.
It Will be apparent on even cursory
reading that it is an unusually clear
and well wriltenpaper. We hope TO be
qualified to refer TO it tomorrow more
inteIligentIy and in detail, than we feel
competent to do this morning from the
hasty reading given it.
Our Acknowledgements are due the
gentlemanly proprietors of the Pitts
burgh C6HlmeTcidl for the copy from
which we print 1t, with others, was
placed iut the express for us at Pittsburgh
Tuesday afternoon, and should have
reached US the same evening, but did
not come 70 hand until yesterday.
NJ
me Location OF the CapitaI.-cOnsider-
ed I'm General.
We took leave of the capital question
yesterday, after showing that the patron
age of the State Mt the seat of govern
ment can be but mere trifie-alto-
gether imperceptible in permanent in
fiuence on the progress and prosperity
OF thetown or city wherein 1t may be
located. We beg to suggest to our
country friends, further, that the pres
-ence of the capitol will not present other
attractious sufficient to realize their
high expectations. Let us try to appre-
ciate the fact that the Government of
the little State of West Virginia Is a
very plain and unpretending affair.
And "the world" being "too much
governed" in general, it is not desira-
BILE that the machinery of democratic
government in a little commonwealth
like ours should be anything but sim
pie and inexpensive. 1t is better that
the money which our people may be
able Cbut would hardly be willing) to
pay to support more grandeur, should
he applied to more practical and bene-
fetal uses. While the machinery of our
State Government is adequate to regu-
Int the domestic concerns of our young
commonwealth, it naturally possesses
much less for strangers. Do crowds
of people flock here because Wheel
ing is tho Capital of West Virginia?
Do they rush to the capitol and
throng the galleries, even when
the Legislature is in session.
Do wealthy people come here and build
fine residcnccs-du Eastern capitalists
lay out railroads terminating here-dO
others erect great mills and Innnufncto-
ries-or others build fine storehouses
and fill them with magnificent stocks
or others start new lines of steamers
rudiating from and converging to this
point-do great metropolitan papers
spring up as they have done in Chicago
and St. Louis-Or street railways line
every thoroughfhre-or do all the other
great enterprises that combine to make
ii city, centre in or upon Wheeling, be-
cause ii is the capital of the Seat of Gov
ernment of West VirginiaY Certainly
not. Why shonld they for such reasons
Whatevcrelementso OF greatness Wheel
ing attracts and is destined to in future,
win depend on very different causes
Let it not be said, this is true because
Wheeling is only the temporary Capt.
tai, and that only when tho Cdpital is
located permanently will it attract and
combine these clements of greatness.
We reply that for these the mere Capt.
tai has no attraction whatever, and
never can have. Sometimes passing
stranger visits the State House out OF
sheer curiosity to see what it is
like, or possibly. on business with
some of the offices. Our sher-
IFS go there to make their settle
ments with the auditor. A few others
visit it on BUSINESS, with the different
officers. And generally, we may say,
in passing, it is much more convenient
TO them here in the business metropolis
of the State thRn'it would, be away out
in the woods, twenty or thirty miles
from railroads, both because it Is more
accessible and because the transaction
of other business in the city enables
them to kill other birds with the same
stone. The same is equally true of the
members of the Legislature. 1t really
suits their convenience better to come
to Wheeling than to go to some little
out-oE-the-wny place where they have
no other business, nnd as their mileage
amounts to more than their travelling
expenses. the distance is not consid-
Grafton. Tho fact is they car come TO
Wheeling from either Parkersburg
md Hnrper's Ferry in less time and
vastly more pleasantly than they could
go to Buckhannon, or Weston, or Brnx-
ton C. H, over turnpikes, generally inn
passnblO in winter, aud never too well
furnished with means OF conveyance.
Whatever may DO true of Washing
ton City, or London, or Paris, our Capt.
tai viii attract very little attention
even among our own people. Its only
visitors will be visitors on business,
and they will moi bel multitude
very soon. The citizens of Wheel
ing are. very little more dis
tuIbed by the capitol in their
midst than they are by the military
headquarters and not nearly so much as
they were last Spring by the Provost
NIarshal's office.
We find no fault with these facts but
We submit to our imaginative friends
that as filcts they merit consideration.
a little examination will show that
few State capitals in. this country are
the chief cities Of theinnespectiveS States.
Compare Annapolis, the capital of
Maryland, with Baltimore the metro
polls; compare Harrisburg with Philn-
delphia or Pittsbnrg;-Albany with
New York city or Brooklyn; Columbus
with C;n.;rnoti Spr;pgtield with