Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1871-01-17
THE COUNTY SEAT.

We have but little disposition to follow in
the direction in which the Shepherdstown
Register would lead. Attempting to sustain
. desperate and ansuPPOFaable cause, it is
travelling the old oOurse always taken in such
oases Of diverting the mind from the real is
sues involved, and turning it upon matters en-
tiEely irrelevant. It proposes to discuss al
most any thing else than the real subject in
hand for the simple reason that that is the most
difficult Of all for management to suit its pur-
poses. They would say with FalstaE,
An you love meHal. no more Of that.
Its policy is easily summed up: The people
of the county having had their comfy seat
removed; at a time when they were entirely
helpless, from the centre Of the county where
it was originally established, to Shepherds
town on a side of the county, and 4 remote
and inaccessible point, propose, now that they
believe their voice will be heard, to restore
the old condition Of things. They appeal to
the Legislature of the State to do for them
this act of simple justice, and set forth the
reasons that should move them thereto. In.
stead of combining itself to this plain, single
matter, the Register has proceeded to discuss
almost every other possible subject. 1t says {:
''In the beginning it was our intention to con-
fine ourselves to the question in issue" We
are sorry that it ever abandoned such good in
teutions. No other issue thaS the removal of
the county seat ought ever to have been con-
sidered. And yet that is the very issue the
Register would rather not discuss 1t is both
dissgreeable and difficult. The stubborn, un-
ansWerable facts with which it abounds in
favor of the restoration of the county seat to
Its ancient location are dangerous. Like the
quilts of the POrcuPine they threatningly bristle
on every side and forbid approach. Hence
any diversion is n relief. If facts will not
serve the desired purpose, prejudicsr it is
thought, will. To this end, therefore, the
Register charges that an effort has been made
to defeat the Shenandoah Valley Railroad in
order to re-establish the county seat at Charles
town. We confess that we can see no proper
connection between these subjects and We
protest that this allegation comes with poor
grace from a portion of the county whose
course of conduct it is well known has ar
mencement in this county of that road, and
has thus postponed the realization of the mag
nifcent results which We believe will follow
Its construction. We have always been and
now are the open, consistent and warm adyo-
Gates of this splendid euterprize, and We have
not, if the Register has, SO mean al opinion
the people of Jefferson as to suppose that a
few dollars Of additional taxation for the res
tOration of the county seat to Charlestown will
ever cause them to abandon their settled in
tention to aid this road to the full extent to
which they have already pledged themselves
They are abuudantly able, and willing to &C,
cOmplish both of these undertakings
In its last number, and in further pursuit
Of the line of conduct it has adopted, and in
order to smother argument by prejudice, the
Register begs 'tO state the fact which deserves
the consideration Of the Legislature, that these
parties" referring to the friends of removal,
"haVe always industriOusly attacked our State,
and are unanimously favorable to a return of
Jefferson to the fold of Virginia"
Will the writer of the article referred to,
inform US what the State relations of the
county of Jefferson have to do with the 1ues-
tiOn of the removal Of the county seat from
ShepherdstOWn to CharlestOwn?
What has such n statement as this to do
with change of the county seat! Are not
the people of Jefferson eas much entitled to
have great wrong redrcssed whether they
are under the jurisdiction of West Virginia
or Virginia? Desperate, indeed, must be the
case Of the opposition to removal, when its
chosen organ resorts to such far-fetched and
irrelevant matter as this, in the way of Objec-
ton.