The morning call., 1891-12-27
THE GROWTH OF VIRGINIA.

THE GROWTH OF VIRGINIA.
The census bulletin on Virginia contains
interesting information. 1t shows that at
last the loss which the State suffered when
West Virginia was permitted to secede has
been made up. and that the Old Dominion
has resumed the march of progress which
was arrested by the war. In the year of
Lincoln's election Virginia cont tanned 1885,
31S souls; West Virginia's secession reduced
the number to ,225, 1913 in 1870; in 1880 it
had not quite recovered the population of
1869; now it shows up with / 1865, $50, and it
appears to be gaining at the rate of Q per
cent per decade.
Virginia is State with a history. The
oldest permanent English settlement in
North America was made within its Dor
ders, thirteen years before the landing Of
the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. From that
time for a century and three-quarters,
wealthy emigrants from England and men
OF family gave it the preference over other
colonies; while the Puritans went TO New
England, the cavaliers chose Virginia. 1t
possessed marvellous attractions. Its climate
is perfect, its soil fertile, its resources
varied. In colonial times its chief export
was tobacco besides that, it now produces
an admirable variety of wheat, cotton, corn,
splendid oak timber, coal, iron, and great
variety of fruits and vegetables. 1t is inter-
sected from north to south by the Blue
Ridge, the Alleghanies, and spurs of the
Cumberland Range; rivers, at short dis
tances from each other, drain the interior
counties. Over one-half its surface is clothed
with forest trees, which yary with altitude.
1t is net surprising that such a State
should have been more popular with new
settlers than the bleak hills of New England
or the uneXplored wiIds of New York and
Pennsylvania; so that, when the first GEN.
Sus was taken, Virginia lowered far above
its sister States. 1t then contained 747 coo
people, when Pennsylvania had only 43i, 900,
New York 340.0 GOO and Massachusetts, 37S,-
600. 1t held its supremacy for twenty years
then New York shot past it; but it retained
the second place until 1880, when PennsyL
vania surpassed it.
Its influence was even larger than its num-
beers could explain. That was due to the
fact that it had always been the choice of
the best class Of immigrants, and that it con-
tinued for forty years after the organization
of the United States to draw from the old
sources OF supply. The men who created
Virginia were cast in large mold, aud pos
sessed in an unusual degree the high char
acter aud broad intelligence which TIE
founders OF great States should possess.
When the other States grew Jealous of Vir-
ginia's area, she voluntarily gave all her ter
ritory beyond the Ohio to the General Gov
ernmen;, on the sole condition that slavery
should never pollute the soil she gave away.
In 1882. Faulkner of Virginia proposed the
abolition Of slavery in that State, and the
mi foil g. e
ton. 1t was not surprising that during
eight of the FIRST nine Presidential terms the
Office of President was filed by Virgjnian.
But the extension OF cotton planting
proved fatal to Virginia's progress. In 1870
the United States exported for the first
time million bales of cotton. That gave a
value to slave labor, and the Old Dominion
became breeding place for slaves. 1t was
never profitable. 1t is in evidence that
it was far more lucrative to raise hogs than
negroes, but the Nirgiuians realized the
fact too late. Their State, with soil i'm
poyerished by successive crops of tobacco.
became devoted to this new branch of in
dustry, and. matter of course, Northern
and foreign immigration ceased. In the
year that California was admitted to the
Union Virginia contained very nearly as
many people as it does now. The loss of
West Virginia will not account for so slow
a rate of progress.
The regeneration which the census bull
letin chronicles is singularly distributed.
OF the total increase Of population during
the decade, which is stated at 143, i15, one
third is in three counties, Henrico. which
contains the city of Richmond; Norfolk,
which contains the city OF that name, and
Roanoke, which is a purely agricultural
county with no important attractions, and
to which immigration must have been acct
dentally directed. Thirty-fve counties show
decreases; of these, two-HanOver and
Powhatan-are in close proximity to Rich
m0nd. and the others are chiefly on the
TANKS of the Allegheny Range. Virginia's
progress is at present hampered by the con-
dition of her finances, and the more the sub
ject is studied, the more justice there ap-
pears to be in Mr. Blaine's suggestion. that
as the United States took it out of the power
of the State TO pay her debts by dividing her
territory under the war power, and in de-
fance OF the Constitution, the General Gov
eminent ought now to help repair the injury
done.