The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-01-31
WEST VIRGINIA.
Her Financial Condition and Future
Prospects.
From the PtttsbtrOh Commercial


Prospects.
Fromthe Pitsbtroh Commercial.
There is no State in the Union whose
record in reference to the rebellion cor
RESPONDS with that of West Virginia.
She alone, as part of State going into
the rebellion, took bold and decided
stand against it. The senseless and SER
vile sentiment, adopted by so many,
that they must follow the action OF state
authorities even when they were con-
| triry to their own conviction of right,
the people of West Virginia repudiated.
| And when their State attempted sepa-
ration from the Union, they. stuck to
the Union, though they had TO part
company with the rebellious part oil
their State. In due time and in regular
| form they were organized as separate
state. and incorporated with peculiar
honor into the Union Under free
constitution-the first fruits of the war,
| in that line West Virginia was declar-
ed by proclamation OF President Lin
coin to be State of the Union on the
10th of March, 1868. l,.
1t has acted and thrived as State ev-
er since. And according to the recent
message of Governor Boreman, It's con-
dition and prospects are every way
cheering. In extent, population ana
natural resources, it occupies a highly
respectable rank among the older States.
Its area is twenty-five Thousand square
miles-three times as large as Massa-
chusetts. Its populationis is over thIee
hundred and sixty thousand. Be-
fore the war it had only eighteen thous-
and slaves. The State is possessed OF
many advantages for agricultural pur-
suits. It's fine climate, broken surface
and excellent pasturage tit it admira-
bly, for stock growing on large
: ~ toll tla- tf1Isapra long
its western border 1t has the bene-
at of the Ohio river for three hundred
miles. The entire State is we'll supplied
with timber and water, and 1t contains
some of the most productive oil and salt
wells in the country. as an evidence
of the good condition and good govern
ment of our young neighbor State, the
receipts into the State Treasury during
the past year, according to the Cover
norfs message; were nearly $3.50, 600,
| while the expenses were but $3.50, 600, SO
that for extraordinary appropriations
II needed, the treasury Is able TO supply
nearly $40, 900. This presents a cheer
ing view of the working of loyalty and
| freedom compared with the effects pro-
duced in old Virginia by slavery and
rebellion. 1t appears, by the reports,
that west Virginia has stood by the
Union at some cost to herself, nearly
thirty-two thousand men having been
supplied to the armies OF the Union Dy
this brave young SMte. Many persons
in the earlier period of the rebellion LETT
their homes and their loyal neighoors,
to aid the cause of the enemy. 1t APP
pears from the Governors message that
these, since the collapse Of the Conted-
eracy, have occasioned considerable
difficulty in the State, both by dispu-
ting the authority of the new state over
certain counties, and by electing dis
| loval and impracticable members othe
| Legislature. The question about the
relations of the two counties, Jefferson
and Berkeley, was referred TO Congress,
and the committee to which 1t was as
| signed has reported that the counties
belong to West Virginia.
! : The measures .1nlttated IN tne olu
| State looking towards n reunion will
| not soon, If ever, be favorably regarded
| by the people of the new State: Under
| the old regime of slavery and aristoc-
1 racy. there was not the best Of feeling
| between the Western and Eastern sec
i tions of the State. And it is scarcely
/ probable that the young State viii now
/ have such q Yeneration for the old and
1 enfeebled one as to carry him, Anchlses
like. out of the ruins which be has him
self occasioned. By itself, We expect
the State of West Virginia to make
rapid progress in population, wealth
and everything that goes 10 form pup
lie prosperity. 1t has begun well py
aboiIshing slavery and blishing freS
schools, Its mineral and agricultural
resources are in the way Of rapid devel'
Stat e. people, territory, reson nrees
intAIIigenee, loyalty - and a State
we hope, 1t will always be. Suet
/ a neiGhbor, hearty and shomogene
/ ous. and tied to Ms by rivers Land arail
roads, we are glad to have