The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-07-21
10 Make and Rule d Capital.

~
,rhc scheme OF the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad to fx, the location OF the capital OF
West Virginia at Ciarksbnrg should indeed
a,arm the people OF that State. The out
break in the principal towns along the Bal
tirnorc and Ohio railroad suggests strong
reasons why the West Virginia capital
should be IN none Of those towns. The
government would be all the less safe in
those towns, for the reason that they are
never likely to grow to large cities, ana
therefore the railroad operatives would at
any time comprise controlling part OF tine
pan,,laf;on IN them. "A disturbance might
get Roadway, and occasion a great deai oi
damage before. it could be checked.
But this cause for preferring to place the
State capital further into the interior ana
on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad is not
40 strong as that other reason that tne balti-
more and Ohio Railroad Company is seek
iug TO get entire control over the Leglsta-
ture OF West Virginia. 1t would he q lam
entable thing II the Legislature was brought
under such subjection.f Not only would
the legislation-the. very State poiicy-be
controlled by the powerful corporation,
but the representative body would become
debauched, and no longer would It reflect
the opinions Of the people. The legislators
would only vote the wishes and opinions OF
the corporation, and the law-making body
become the railroad mirror to reflect what
ever that held before it.
We have seen something OF the terrible
effects OF this debauching OF legislature by
an unscrupulous railroad king. Never in
this land before this day has this process
been lr derstood. Men become treacherous
and sordid. Deceit, double-dealing, hypoc-
risy, faithlessness to their constituents,
their friends, and their own honor, destroy
all scruples, all moral sensibility, and SON.
vert the body Of which they are members
into an utterly Enthusiastically and disrePu-
table conclaye. Through their depravity
and treachery the very Government is en-
ployed by those who corrupted them for
their own ends, and the executive officers
have only to carry out the enactments OF
faithless lawmakers that are designed Tor
the good OF those who debased and de-
moralized them.
Ii West Virginia wants to see this state
OF things brought about in her government,
let her put her capital where her represent
atiyes will be brought directly under. this
malign influence.
1t may be said that Charleston is upon
great railway, the Chesapeake and Ohio.
True it is; but then that locality is hedged
in by local Interests OF grand magnitude.
They are SO powerful and SO completely
embalm the very heart OF the State that
there is no ground to fear that any influ-
ence there diffused will in the remotest de-.
gree be alien to the true welfare and public
spirit of West Virginia. All the doings OF
the Legislature must run so decidedly in
the line Of the public interests that there
would be little reason to fear that they
would meet any strong commencement, or
that any motive to thwart them should ex-
list.
West Virginia must make StGte-she
must establish State interests-State proper
love--State pride and State. policy; aye, she
must be every inch State, or be mere re-
corder and Iaborer-a mere tributary to.
others wealth and greatness, remaining her
self insignificant, witheno marks OF power
and dignity of her own, no local causes OF
pride at home or OF admiration from abroad