The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-12-07

pectation doubtless that It would I'M
time become the grandest city. on the
continent. From that time to this the
whole patronage of the United States
Government has been lavished on it.
Millions on top of millions have been
expended there with unstinted liber-
ality-from the beginning to the pres
ent time, perhaps not less than FIVE
hundred millions of dollars-and yet
Washington City is to-day a mere pro-
vlncial town compared with New York
or Philadelphia or even Baltimore in
respect of the elements that constitute
great city. 1t has broad streets, mot
many ofthem, and even them the gov
eminent had TO pave 10 get from the
Capitol to the Presidents house y it has
magnificent public buildings (all built
by the government,) and that is all. It
has no commerce, no manufactures. 1t
is mere city of hotels. saloons, board
ing houses and shops, and all its popu-
lation from highest TO lowest depend
and live on the bounty of the Govern
ment, with about as poor and little inn
proved a country around it as can be
found anywhere. Remove the seat of
Government, and it would be speedily
deserted by nine .tenths of its popula-
ton. If this is all that could be made
of Washington, where more millions
have been spent by the Government
than the thousands that will ever be ex-
pended by this State on its capital, what
can we reasonably expect a mere capt.
tHl without business or trade ever to
become in this State.
We commend such facts as these, and
the lesson they teach, to our sanguine
and Imaginative friends in country
towns.
1t may be said by others, whose ex-
pectations are less towering, that it is
not desirable that the capital should be
a city-that commercial centres ought
not TO be political centres, if purity of
Legislation is to be preserved. Asa gem
eral proposition this may be true, but
we are not sure of it. 1t is doubtless
true as to such populous and wealthy
cities as New York, or Chicago, or
Philadelphia. But even in New York
and Pennsylvania movements are
making to remove the capitals from Al
bnny to New York City and from Har-
risburg to Philadelphia, because these
larger cities are the more convenient for
the State at large, being more central in
point of communication, although less
central geographically. We need not
fear that our State Will be so rich or our
metropolis so vast as to invite corrup-
tion for many years, and we are not
sure at any rate that there is more dam
ger of it in one place than another.
On the other hand it certainly re-
quires no argument or recitation of
facts in detail, to show that in practical
business convenience, city of at least
the magnitude of Wheeling offers deci-
ded advantages over small inland, and
probably for long while to come al
most inaccessible, village. The capital
is oflittlo Importance to the city, but the
city is of great utility to the capital, in
many particulars-one of which would
be the advantages of banks as connect
ed with the financial business in the
Auditors aud Treasurer's offices, in the
prompt execution of printing, especial
ly when the Legislature is in session,
and the furnishing of books and blanks
to the departments. This work cannot
be done in n small town unless tile
State incurs the expense of large es-
tablishment of its own-at an expense
ten times as great as the cost of its
work done by city establishment
kept up by other business. Then the
conveniences of decent hotels, boarding
houses, etc., for the officials, for the
Legislature, and for persons visiting
the Capital ON business, are worth con-
sidering. Probably if the Capital
should be located ut n place like Buck
harmon or Braxton, or even Weston or
Clarksburg, the streets would be SO
muddy that the officials and Legislators
would have TO wade, in bad weather,
from their lodgings to the Capitol, I'M
less they appropriated money and made
pavements ut the expense Of the State.
If it happened that the point selected
possessed other elements of growth,
these deficiencies could be supplied in
time, but why incur these inconvenien-
ces at all if there are no compromising
advantages to the State?
We all look forward to a time when
the resources of the State will be SO de-
veloped by the intelligent industry of
greatly increased population, that we
shall have large towns and cities at
many points; but this is anywhere
a gradual work; and struggling as we
are still under load of prejudices
against the features of free society
which accomplishes such magnificent
results in the new States of the North
west, and repulsing population as we
do by blind and unreIenting monopo-
~ of the soil, and considering too the
naturally inaccessible nature of our
territory to avenues of commerce and
communication, we should not as rea-
sonable men expect results for which
we cannot find adequate causes. The
of mineral wealth and
cannot precede popula-
ton. Cities are the outgrowth of
wealth and industry. So that all the
branches ofdevelopment must attend on |
one another and go hand in hand. But
our first great want, the foundation of
the StHte, is labor. 1t is 1.-THE people, :,
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