The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-12-07
THURSDAY EVENING, DEC. Z, 1871
rnE eovERNoR,s MESSAGE.

writer of this public document draws too |
much upon his imagination for assumed
facts, the Message is readable paper,
couched in language more carefully chosen
than the Governor frequently INDUCED in
during the past summer.
Its portentous length is a fine satire upon
the recommendation ION page 20) that the
General Assembly shall ''reduce the ex-
penses of printing, binding, stationery, &c.,
one-half;" especially when taken in con-
nection with the ominous threat page 1927
that on ''one or t,co other subjects shall
probably take an early occasion to express
my views to your
But to the matter of the Message: I'M
migration receives the opening notice. The
natural advantages of Virginia are again
recounted; and yet her twenty-four and
one-half millions of acres, one-third under
cultivation, only carry one and a quarter
millions of population, placing Virginia
once the first State in the Union--'tenh in
population and ticelfM in wealth."
"The causes which have produced this
result are not difficult of ascertainment"-
the Governor announces; but he refrains
from stating any one of them, or suggesting
aremedy.
We have no political axe on the legisla-
tive grindstone, and can therefore state
some of the causes" without .eopardiz-
ing our chances for election. Virginia is suf-
for,po Erov,, avha,,ct;on y,,orol ,1lvr;ool
and financial; the result of Democratic
pro-slavery, secession rule.
She was plunged headlong into debt;
and not satisfied with that, she was forced
to take more fatal plunge into the secthing
crater of secession, and made the theatre of
war, for an idea, that she might continue
the base Of supply for slaves to be driven
to the cotton fields of the South. The
same causes that operated to bring destruc-
ton upon our State, now, in another form,
operate to prevent revival.
-, 1t is very wen to talk of transporting
the immigrant from Europe to our shores, !"
to be tas well cared for and protected here
as there" and ''devising some plan by
which the immigrant, on his arrival, will
be properly cared for, protected and aided
until he is finally settled" 81
AS to the European emigrant, such pro-
vision is needed; but it must go step
further, he must be protected after he is
finally settled, and allowed to enjoy the
freedom he has travelled so far to enjoy !;
and not be denounced as "scum" by the
men who sit in places of trust, and robbed
on every hand by those who proAer aid in
tle guise of friends. 1000
There is strange hallucination about
this matter of immigration, disease which
dstracts our Governors attention, and APP
parently warps his Judgment.
Like too many others 1--WE except our ven
cradle commissioner General richardson
he strains his eyes towards transatlantic
countries, and oyerlooks the patent fact,
ito every sensible NAM that from our sis-
Ter States must come the immigrants who
are to advance Virgina's interests. There
is no other source whence so much brain,
energy and invested mot loaned) capital can
b. drawn and we can give a reason why
b the tide of immigration sets Westward, and
from Virginia. There is as complete des-
potism in Virginia as our imaginative Gov
error supposes is in the power Of President
Grant to inaugurate.i Even since the No
/. vember election, mechanics who had trans
planted industries and capital to operate,
from Northern States to Virginia, for no
less or greater crime than supporting re-
sponsible, intelligent representative who
was not Democrat, have had their entire
business custom Withdrawn, and even the
intelligent female teacher, whose friends
would not bow to Democratic behcsts, has
had her scholars taken from her..
Let Governor Walker tdenounce home
despotisIn, and when he has broken that
baleful seepter, he may, with some show
of reason. assume the role Of Don Quixotte
against despotism ~ general. Equalization
of taxes is dwelt upon at length, but the
Governors vision is at fault, we think,
here" taxation upon the real value of
property in the State is less than in any
other State in the Union, with two or three
exceptions" The city of New York is, of
course, one Of the exceptions ; and the
dazzling arithmetic Of Tweed & Co., has
caused the Governor to lose sight of the
fact. that in few States, if any, is there such
system Of assessment as in Virginia, es-
pecially as bearing upon the farmers, whose
every head Of stock and implement, is listed
for tax; and that the people are paying
road tax, without roads; railroad and
canal tax, without railroad and canal
transportation or at exhorbitant rates in
fact subject to annual imposts, without
present or even future consideration.
That lands in some counties are assessed
above, and in others below, their value, is
apparent. The alternative is presented to
organize State board Of equalization, or
order reassessment of lands. The latter
remedy will certainly be costly, and proba-
bly, Intellectual; wethereiore cordially COM