The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-03
RATE OF SUBSCRIPTIONS.

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The Present Depressed, Price of Real
Estate I'm West Virginia I'm lEarke
abroad, in Many OF her Counties----
Her unfriendIy LeEtsIatIOn---HOw
Can is be RemedIed
| Editors InteLigeHcer:
Impressed, as you appear to be from
your bold and appropriate leader in to-
days paper, against our usury laws-of
the present unprogressive condition of
| our State-I had written the following,
| thinking to lay it before the Legisla-
| ture in the form of memorial. But the
timely and lit introduction you have
made OF the subject, has determined me
to ask for its publication as a continual
ton. . n
Though the evil, mentioned in the
| caption, has long existed this side the
Allegheny Mountains, it has been re-
| Gently greatly increased. When the
war closed West Virginia with her ex-
cellent Constitution, free institutions,
! and large natural resources, including
| petroleum oil, then fast enlightening
the world and intlaming all speculative
minds, and her central position, at
tracted more attention from capitalists
and emigrants than any other section of
the country. Her lands were sought
Dy persons from every quarter, and Of
ten at exaggerated prices. 1t was sup
posed that Virginia like the other States
| and the General Government, had
| never granted but one patent for the
! same piece Of land and had granted as
latter grants, only after a gem
eral survey and accurate location
had been made. And hence it was
thought by people abroad that whoever
held patent from the State of VIr-
ginia, with her seal and one of her for
mer Governors names attached, or
| could, by proper deeds, deduce title
through such a a-patent-muSt have a
perfect right. The numerous suuatters
holding or deriving mere color of title
through Junior patents, took advantage
of this excitement and deIusion, sold
large amounts of land to which they
had no title, at prices often above their
value with a good title, to persons
from all parts of the loyal States. The
numerous purchasers at length finding
| out the gross frauds practiced, have i'm
pressed the whole country with the
idea that it Is impossible to get a clear
title to lands in West Virginia; and so
strong is this conviction in the great
monetary centers of the country, as
New York, Philadelphia and Boston
that their real estate brokers refuse to
undertake the sale of West Virginia
lands, but dismiss with the assertion
there are no valid titles in that State"
For the truth of these facts think I
may appeal TO every person who has
lately had anything to do in an attempt
70 sell our land in those cities.
Assuming the facts to be so, every
one must see how vital it is to the pros
perity and~advancement of our Young
State to have this evil removed in the
speedieSt manner possible, consistently
with our organic laws. For we must
abroad in order to attain what the
State is capable of becoming. 1t is
neither blatant politicians, nor dema-
gogueS, nor professional men, nor coun-
try merchants, that have ever built up
State Capital, combined with free
intelligent labor, both wisely directed
to the development of its natural re-
sources, and manufacture of its raw
Observation-Disclosures in their natural
condition, as our coal, iron, salt, oil,
lumber, &c, while underlying or COW
erlng our mountains and valleys-so
as to tit them to the wants of others.
whowill purchase and pay us the cash.
This process, with the various agricul-
tural products our lands are capable
of yielding, when cleared, including
fruit, stock and wool growing, alone
can ever build up our State. Capital
and labor must be had to do it with
Neither of these are coming if they
have to buy LdCSnit, and be dragged
into the courts to commence with. They
will go where these baneS and
annoyauces to honest industry can be
avoided. The lUdIlts and necessities of
West VirginiG hare changed altogether.
The great purpose and business of the
people of many of our counties, while
part of the old State, seemed to have
been, to attend and run the courts, at
which all were either parties jurors or
witnesses, attend the hustings, support
a large corps of lawyers and
politicians, take out and trade in
junior patents, which the old
State was always anxious to grant
a graveyard or hill, sold Il half dozen
times before, but sure to tax and collect
of each the full value of the land, and
leave it to few negroes to do the work.
This state of things in Western Vir-
ginia suited East Virginia when, in late
years, slavery was the controlling pow
er to which all other things had to YIELD
She used it for the purpose of locating
junior patents upon, and deriving
quardruple revenue from, settling any
surplus of what she called her "poor
white trash" upon after fitting them
out with pockets full of junior patents,
and quartering decrepiI political SER
ones, fully schoeled in State rights, the
resolutions of 1873, aud the divine ORR
gin ofthe slave Institution.
Between the close of the Revolutionary
war in 11S3 and the year 1900, all the
lands between the Alleghauies and the
Ohio river had been granted once and
many, twice and thrice, to soldiers and
patriots who had participated in that
war, or the French and Indian war pre-
ceeding, and among them was General
Washington, who took up much of the
best agricultural lands. These lands
with the unappropriated portions OF
what was afterward organized into the
North Western Territory, belonged be-
fore our independence to the crown OF
England. Upon the establishment of
our Independence, they became technf-l
cally vested in Virginia, which in I7S3.
in consideration that the United colonies
had helped to wrench these from Eng
land, ceded the Northwestern Territory
to the United States. Prior to that date
for like consideration probably, she
put her waste and nnappropriatedn
lands, including what afterward be-
came the State of Kentucky, into the
market at two cents per acre-the loca-
tor paying the expense of surveying
patent, &c. This price for her waste
and unappropEiated'' lands remained
unchanged until the time of our separa-
ton in 1868. at the early period spoken
of, the hill lands now comprising por-I
tons of West Virginia sold for so cents
to 81 90 per acre But when the General
Government had driven off the Indians
from the rich lands of Ohio, and prt
these lands in the market, and the State
OF Ohio was formed as a free State,
capital and emigration turned its
course there and beyond, as it has ever
since leaving the less fertile lands of
West Virginia, cursed with the institu-
ton of slavery, with all its blighting
influences and deleterious accompanf-i
ments. These hill lands became com