The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-01
RATE OF SUBSCRIPTIONS.
The Debt OF vIrginin---who should
sPay it: NO.a.
Editors Intelligence,

have just read in your paper of yes
terday an article from the Richmond
Dispatch headed 1.-The State Debt-West
Virginia." 1t cannot be without its
use to notice ut this time some import
ant facts the editor discloses in his la
bored effort to fix third or more of
this debt upon West Virginia. He re-
counts, in the tone of injured innocence,
the losses sustained to the old State by
the "secession" and ''outrngeous dis
memberment," )" as he chooses to term it,
of West Virginia! Which party is re-
SponSible for what has been done? Old
Virginia "seceded" and left West Nir-
ginia exactly where Washington and
his associates placed her in lTS9, where
she has remained, having done no more
than the conduct of the old State COM
PEELED her to do in self preservation;
while the old State has revelled in car
nivals of treason and blood of her own
getting up, until reduced to the deplor-
able condition represented; and makes
the present striking differences in the
henlthiness and resources of the two
States one of the main reasons why we
ought to pay one-third of her debt
She made cruel war upon us because
We refused to go with her. She went
despite our earnest entreaties to stay,
and now wants us to pay for the dam
age she has sustained! He comedies
but fifty counties to our State, and in
SiSts we have nearly half of the terri
tory, one-third of the people and was
paying, in 1860, one-fourth of the taxes.
lfthiS were so. we would ask why all the
money the debt produced, amounting to
S43 00O, 900, except about 81 800, 600, was
expended on their half? lie makes our
territory to have contained in 1860, lS,-
3Sl slaves, valued by him at S9,ISO, 800,
which is $500 IA head; while the old State
had Az 6i7 slaves, valued by him al
S2136, ,325. 500, which is $500 head: which
latter, he says, yielded and paid in 1860
| II tax of S27O, 200; while the real estate
comprising the new State, the editor
| says, was valued in lS6Out only $S3, $685.
Gil 81, and paid into the State treas
| ury i'll 1860, ut 40 cents on the hundred
| dollars, the tax for that and previous
yearS-S33j, ,2li 56-which, with the tax
| payed on personal property in Ithese
counties Tor the same year, amounted
to rising of $500, 600, and about the same
amount for many years previous.
Now our people wish to know of the
editor why the S236, ;S2S, 500 worth o
slave property owned in old Virginia in
| 1850, payed into the State treasury only
S2TO,OOO tax, when the real estate oI
! West Virginia valued AT only SS3, $685.
GIL 81 paid into the treasury the same
year 1885 ,2l4 56i
There was then in 1860 in the old State
one hundred and yyty-twO millions, .tiUe
hundred and tLreMty thousand, TIN ee hun
dred and Gfty-MLIIe dollars and thirty
1tlne cents worth of slave property, ar
amount eQuallinE the whole amount Ol
taxable property in the counties in lS6(
which now comprise West Virginia
taken ut the editors valuation-thdi
| pad no tar at all; and at the same tims
II was n kind of property that com,
manded cash sooner than any other
and which required a large share of thG
legislation and large expenditure sfron
| the treasury TO regulate, govern anC
| protect. Nor was this monstrous in
iquity and injustice confined TO the yeal
! 1860; but had certainly existed during
the ten years previous, and proba
bly, during the whole period the State
debt was accruing.
Different facts from these must b,
shown before honor, Justice or equity
will adiHdge the payment of any par
of the debt by West Virginia. Ht
shows we were as much defrauded il
the levying of annual taxes which
went to pay the interest on the accu
mulating debt of ''ordinary" expense.
of the Government, as we were in thu
application of the money which tn,
debt produesd-- Nor need the Old Stat,
expect to Justify or even palliate thi.
unparnlleIed injustice, by showing tina
the counties now composing the New
State-whose people are all the whilt
in Il powerless and hopeless minority
and represented generally by men wht
were either dominated over, cajoled, O.
bought up by the Richmond dynasty
| enioyed like fraudulent exemption
| on the comparatively small pittance o
50, ,lS0, 500 worth of slave property, theI
owned mostly within the borders o
the New State, by their tools and allie.
mostly,- or that the Representative
that this class used to send To Rich
mond, concuyTetf with them in the ne
farious measures, or by pleading n sub
sequent annihilation of this species o
| property, which their causeless ant
voluntary treason produced.
| The editor shows but little Just dis
elimination when he likens the New
State to ian individual retiring from al
embarrassed co-partnership, and re
fusing to pay his share of its liabilities
The firm was sound and prosperous il
the winter of IS60-'6l, when the peoplt
of the Old State seized all the the assets
including the Literary fund, which tn,
Old Mother had been accommodating 10
nearly century, for the purpose o
educating her children-and plunged
into rebellion, leaving the people o
the New State no alternative but to fol
low, or remain where they were, ant
commence business anew themselves
though stripped of everything as the,
WERE They chose the latter, and, "A
events have proved, wisely
Until the editor and his friends cal
satisfactorily explain these things t,
the people of West Virginia, and tn
BondhoIders, 1 should advise the,
should make other provisions thant tn
one proposed, for the payment of tn
debt; especially that part allotted b,
them for West Virginia to pay.
Respectfully, G.. p.
December 26, 1866. rt
.1I
Buckwheat Cakes. s