The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-11-20
FROM LEWIS COUNTY.
A Letter TO the Governor.
Facts for his August Consid.
Grafton.
West Virginia's Condition.
Result Of Bad Government.
The Lesson Of the Elections.
Historic Suggestions.
A Letter to the Governor.
West Virginia's Condition.
Result Of Bad Government.
Historic Suggestions.
An Instructive Document.
WESTON, November lS, 1867.

DEAR SIR wrote you, sometime dur
ing the early part of the summer, of the
evils which were likely to accrue to the
Republican party in this State, and to
yourself in particular, if you persisted
in your then and now line of policy,
and advised you to different course,
but you needed me not. To-day the
cry goes mp, from thousands, (then Re-
publisans,) that "our State lies pros
trate and impoverished by the Radical
rule which has governed and controlled
it from its birth" With the exception
of the counties lying in the triangle
from Grafton to Parkersburg and Wheel
ing on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
road, all is desolation and despair.
The people, dispirited and broken
hearted, and pressed to death for taxes,
have suffered their farms and lands to
grow up with filth, and their houses
and barns to decay and go to waste.
Truly the country presents a spectacle
for serious contemplation. Under your
proscriptive laws no Southern immi-
grants (sdre negroes) are allowed to
come into the State and be freemen, and
with all the inducements our State Com
missioner of Immigration can hold out
to the northerner and foreigner, none
come, whilst hundreds of our best citi-
Zens are leaving the State, driven out
by radical rule. Whilst, sir, you and
yonr party have held every branch of
government from the foundation of the
State up 10 the present, no great enter
prize or scheme has ever been inaugura-
ted or set upon foot by which to devel-
op cur resources, and build up the State.
Your messages, together with the stat
ute books of your lawmakers, exhibit
nothing but petty local and class lcgis-
lation, prescribing rebels and cORcoctiRg
test oaths TO Keep the thousands Of officers
pho are eating out the ritals of the people,
ia radical hands.
This State under q wise and liberal
policy, lowing to the military rule in
the Southern States,) could have, ere
this, doubled her adult population, and
started schemes sofinternal improvement,
which would have brought our thou
sands of acres of unimproved lands into
market, and given our people means for
developing the rich mines of wealth
which underlie our hills, and cover our
lowlands. But notwithstanding the
apparent hold of power which you
and your party, through your registrars,
seem at present to have, and the
much the people and the State have lost
by your miserable and suicidal policy,
do not despair of the change for the
better that is soon TO be brought about
by the sober judgment of the people.
The political surge which started on the
shores of our two great oceans, did not
stop, as you had supposed, in Maine and
California but has swept the Atlantic
coast, and is now lashing the lakes and
rivers of the mighty West. West Vir-
ginia, the child of the revolution, and
the monument of peoples devotion to
constitutional freedom, although borne
down at present by mat-admiRistration,
AND BE FREE!
The wave that ugtted Ben. Wade from
his easy chair will unseat Arthur l.
Boreman, The thousands of loyal free
men in this State whom you have de-
MED voice in the government over
them, because they chose to differ with
you in your miserable negro heresies,
and damnable State policy, and odiOus
taxation. and with the hundreds of
petty Offices and spies and pimps in
every county who~fret and fume, and
strut the streets, and roads, and by
paths, to demand money, (Which they
call taxes) and do your dirty work, 'riH
yet be heard!
Nat. Tyler, an obscure blacksmith, be-
came famous in English history for
knocking out the brains of petty tax
gatherer, engaged in the work of q ty-
rant. Haynau, the Austrian despot,
will ever be execrated and despised by
every civilized nation, and all mankind,
for his cruelty and oppression! John
Hampden aud Algernon Sydney and
Marco Bozzaris and John Sobieski will
never be forgotten whilst liberty has a
friend and freedom votary: Sir, these
are lessons of terrible warning, and
might be of use to aid you in preparing
your last message, to be addressed to q
radical legislature.
JOHN SMITg, SR.