The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1888-08-02
STAUNTON. VIRGINIA. AUGUST 2, 1888.
Important Events.
IFor the VIRGIN1AN.l

Important Events.
IFor the VIRGINIANl
Mr. Editor There is more history il
these seventeen years, five months ant
five days than in any fifty from the land
ing at Jamestown to this moment.
On the 9th of November next forty
years ago. stage. driven by old jacob
Dull, rolled out in front of the Virginia
Hotel for ScOtsville, with thirteen mem
bers OF the Legislature of Virginia. VIM
Kinney, ESQ.,, senator Hugh W. SheffeJ
and j. Marshall McCue Jas B. Dormar
and James G. Paxton, Rockbridge Hiram
Martz and VIM. B. Yancey. of Rocking
ham !; Phillip Pittman. of Shenandoah
Benjamin Hiner, of Pendleton John
Byrd of Bath Douglas B. Layne, of AL.
legbany Sam Price, of Greenbrier, and
James M. Laidley, of Kanawha. The
canal was the medium of reaching Rich.
mond.
Asa Whitney, from New England. had
for years gone from one State capital to
another urging Legislatures to instruct
their servants at Washington to charter a
1rdnscontinentdl railraad. Having visited
Albany and Harrisburg he was found at
Richmond. The first international and
anti-international improvement fight,
proper, that ever occurred in Virginia
legislature, founded on series of five
resolutions endorsing his views-Col
Chas. Perrin, OF Nelson, chairman of the
committee-came off, and after fight of
three weeks, the Ants succeeded by two
votes, 50, 81.
The Code was revised at Warrenton
Springs in '49. and convention called to
change the constitution. That was eff
fected in the session of 80 80. Joe
johnson. OF Clarksburg, nominated in this
town, was elected Governor under the new.
The corner stone of the Washington
Monument was laid 22d Feb. '52, Presi-
cent Z. Taylor representing the Federal
Government, and the unwilling occurred
22d Fep. 1858, Gen. Scott representing the
General Government.
John Browns raid, the introduction to
| the Civil revolution, took place on Sabbath
night, the 10Th October, 1859. The con.
ventlon that decided to carry Virginia out
of the Union sat in the winter of 'G0-'61.
Four years of bloody war in which Vir-
glnla was the battlefield, was closed at
AppomattoX, and the bottom fell out of
Richmond Oh the 9Th day of April, 1865:
the termination of the seventeen years,
I he nd
gular as it may appear, Judge H. w. Shelf
fey aud Col. j. Marshall McCue are again
found occupying the same positions, the
former in the Speakers chair, with Hon.
A. BoliYer Christian in the Senate.
The territory of Virginia by an outrage
of The constitution, is disrupted, and
slavery abolished.
| Where will the careful historian, in any
period three times the length of the above,
find so many of the most important Incl
dents, so seriously affecting Virginia his
tory, as those enumerated? Echo an
swers schere.
'Fis q singular TACT that under the con-
sttution of 80 80, 10 counties entitled to
two, and Loudoun three. representatives,
Augusta has, for six years, been the only
one of the co. in which both OF the repre-
sentatives survive.
Another yet more singular fact is that
one OF them sympathized with Asa Whit
ney for years before he met him. when, at
first, nine out of ten deemed him fit
subject for a lunatic asylum-yet, on the
18th of April SO. this one sailed out Of
New York harbor. on the steamer Alaska,
Capt. Ro. Gray of Norfolk, for Aspnwall.
Had the good fortune. at Panama, to find
in the commandment of the Colorado, Capt.
VIM. H. Parker, who commanded our
mdddies at Richmond. Landed at San
Francisco on the Sd May. and on the 8th
at Sacramento, witnessed, as one of
10000, the contamination of Asa Whit
ney's dream, the driving of the lost spike
in the Union and Central Pacific railroad,
and as the first Eirglnian, that spanned
the continent from the Pacific to the Allan.
lantic was it mild stretch of imagination
to think his happy spirit was looking down
on me? And yet by letter promptly and
politely written me on 18th June, by J IS.
3. Estabrook, Esq, 2. M, Worchest ter,
Mass, he sends me an interesting sketch
OF Asa Whitney, who died in Washington
city in August 1872, and who not only saw
one, but three trans continental roads to
the Pacific. He as well deserves monu
ment as Eli Whitney, the inventor of the
cotton gin.
In that period referred to Wyndam Rob
inson was Governor in last of AS; John
B. Floyd up to Johnson's election ; Henry
A. Wise, after the Know Nothing cam.
paign, followed by Jno. Letcher and he by
VIM. Smith, the second time Governor.
Jas. French Strother, the first speaker
Col. Geo. W. Hopkins, of Washington
county, succeeded by his brother, Col
Henry l.. Hopkins, of Powhatan, he by
Maj. Oscar M. Crutchfeld. he by Gen
Kemper-one month, before going int
the army-and he by Judge Shelley.
, OCCASIONAL.
STAUNToN, July 26, 'SS,
NoTE.-For five weeks Col. McCue, tn,
Legislature in session at the time, was il
Columbia, S. c., where their Legislator,
and convention were both in session
Through resolution offered by Genera
McG-W, Of Barnville district, he WA
rendered seat on the floor of the Lowe
House. He was an eye witAess of thu
passage of the Act of Secession, and O
the illumination and bontires of the cit,
thereat, and in.rapid succession over tn
secession of five or six others of tn
States. During all that time he was writ
ing to friends both in the Legislature AM
convention, urging that Old Virginia
held to her moorings, with hope that tn
erring sisters might be brought back
Presently, on his return to Virginia, b
was met by Lincoln's Proclamation, tina
knocked out the last prop and then cefort
never faltered in his devotion to the South
r A prominent Democrat of the Valley re
e marked month or two ago that his part
r would be defeated On. the policy of Cleve