stimulate the industry and enterprise of the people, augment the value of real property, enhance production in a tenfold degree, and increase in the same ratio all the subjects of taxation. Next in order stood the Valley Road, which constituted the connecting link between the Tennessee railroad and the Winchester and Potomac road. Mr. Stuart gave the reasons, why in his opinion, these works should be undertaken and paid for by the State, the last two entirely and the first in part. He traced the plan the State had been pursuing in regard to internal improvements since 1816, when the internal improvement fund was established and the Board of Public Works was chartered. This was the "compromise plan," whereby two-fifths of the capital of every company incorporated for the purpose of internal improvement should be subscribed by the State whenever three-fifths was subscribed by individuals. "No discretion was allowed to the Board," he declared. "The direction was mandatory; but in a very short time it was found that this principle operated most ruinously. The fund was frittered away in objects of a local character, to the exclusion of the more important improvements. This led in a very short time to the repeal of the famous compromise act. The mandatory direction to the board was rescinded, and they were not even allowed the discretion of subscribing to works of improvement. The whole subject was thrown back upon the Legislature, and so the subject stands to the present day. A legislative direction is always necessary to enable the board of public works to subscribe to any improvement. "At first," continued Mr. Stuart, "the Legislature, admonished by the evils of the compromise system, exercised with much caution this power of direction to the Board of Public Works; they scrutinized the character of the improvements narrowly, and looked to the condition of the fund with a jealous eye. But in a short time this caution was relaxed; legislative directions became more and more frequent to the board, until now we have in practice, though not by our laws, returned to the system of 1816. In other words, Sir, it is now regarded universally as a matter of right, that the State shall subscribe two-fifths, whenever individuals have fulfilled the condition precedent of subscribing three-fifths of the capital stock of any company. I have never known an instance of such an application having been successfully opposed. There may have been examples, but if there have been, I ask gentlemen to point to one; I know of none. "I am warranted, then, in assuming such to be the principle of the State on this subject, for such is its practice." He declared that the partnership principle, as then practiced, would inevitably bankrupt the Commonwealth; that it led to useless and unprofitable expenditures of public money; that it was unequal and unjust, and destroyed all discrimination as to the works to be undertaken; that the rich districts of the country then monopolized all the benefits of the fund, because they could afford to invest the three-fifths, whilst the West, whose resources were locked up, was left destitute of all the benefits of a judicious system of improvement, because it was too poor to subscribe. The report was ably discussed and aroused great interest, but the Legislature refused to adopt it. An act was passed, however, authorizing the turnpike to be built from Staunton to Parkersburg at the expense of the State, and one from Staunton to Winchester upon the basis of three-fifths of the cost being paid by the State and the rest by private subscriptions. At this session of the Legislature an act was passed, March 31st, 1838, for the establishment of an institution for the education of the deaf and the blind. It was provided that the school should be located at such place as the Legislature might by joint resolution select, and at the next session Staunton was chosen as the site. This school has been in successful operation ever since, and has been enlarged from time to time. It has large and beautiful grounds, the buildings are set in the midst of splendid oak trees, and it is one of the noblest charities of the State. CHAPTER V HARRISON AND TYLER ELECTED PRESIDENT AND VICE- HE election in 1840 resulted in the choice candidates. The two dominant parties were known as the Democratic party and the Whig party. The latter name was adopted in lieu of the National Republican party, and Nathan Sargent' says he was responsible for the new name. A number of men, he says, were about to publish a tri-weekly paper, to be called the Star-Spangled Banner, in the interest of the National Republican party, and Sargent suggested that they drop the name by which the opponents of the Jackson administration were then called, and adopt one that appealed to the masses. The term "Whig" was the name by which the patriots of the Revolution were known, and was synonymous with a friend of liberty and an opponent of arbitrary government. Accordingly, he wrote an article proposing the change, which appeared in the first number of the Star-Spangled Banner on February 11th, 1834, and that paper thereafter always referred to the party as the Whig party, and soon that name was generally adopted. On the other hand, Cole' says the opponents of Jackson in South Carolina adopted the name "Whigs." In 1841, Mr. Stuart was nominated as the Whig candidate for Congress by the convention which met at "Public Men and Events," Vol. I, page 262. 2The Whig Party in the South, page 18. Pattonsburg, in Botetourt County. The district was then composed of Augusta, Alleghany, Rockbridge, Botetourt, Roanoke, Montgomery and Floyd counties. Some years before his death he wrote an account of his canvass for Congress, which presents a strong contrast to the manner in which elections are now conducted. 1 "My competitor," says Mr. Stuart, "nominated by the Democrats, was James McDowell, of Rockbridge. He was a man of high tone, of great ability, and our families had been intimate for generations. His grandfather was the colonel, and my grandfather was the major of the Guilford Regiment that went from this part of the country in the Revolutionary War. The canvass was conducted on a plane of high courtesy, and at its close we were even better friends than at its beginning. "The public questions of 1841, which divided the people into parties, may be stated by saying that the Democrats insisted on State banks, a tariff for revenue only, and opposed internal improvements by the general government, and the distribution of the public lands under Mr. Clay's bill; while the Whigs favored a United States Bank, a protective tariff, a liberal system of internal improvements by the general government, and the distribution of the public lands for educational purposes. The canvass between McDowell and myself lasted six weeks, and we traveled in company on horseback over the district, which was one hundred and sixty miles long. The canvass would have been longer, but at its opening McDowell was absent in Mississippi. I waited a month for his return, and he not coming, I started out and opened at Fincastle, where Mr. John Letcher represented my competitor. I then went to Roanoke, and from there to Montgomery, where McDowell, who had returned, joined me, and we had a joint discussion of seven hours' duration. We agreed there upon our program: two hours each, an hour's rejoinder, and to close 1Staunton Vindicator, April 16, 1885. 2Afterwards Governor of Virginia. alternately. The congressional election in that day took place on the fourth day of April. "The congressional election was the first under President Harrison's administration, and I remember it was at Pulaski we received news of his death in Washington. In my opening in Fincastle I had said in my speech that in six weeks every bank in the country would be suspended. The statement excited considerable condemnation among some who heard it, and a staunch Whig came to me after the meeting and said he had intended to support me, but was not certain that he would now support a candidate who would make such wild and improbable statements in order to alarm the public mind. On our return to Botetourt, some weeks after, we received the first news by the stage that the banks of the country had suspended. I did not, however, have an opportunity to see my friend and ascertain if he had experienced a change of opinion. The news made a great change in Botetourt, and instead of its usual Democratic majority of five hundred, it only gave McDowell one hundred and sixty. "At the close of the congressional session in 1843, I came to the conclusion that I could not afford to remain in public life. The pay of congressmen in that day was eight dollars per day for the actual number of days the session lasted. It paid about $900.00 for the short session and about $1,400.00 for the long, giving an average of a little more than eleven hundred dollars a year. I had broken up my law practice to a large extent by my service in Congress, and had a growing family; so the pecuniary state of the case did not admit of my service longer." President Harrison was inaugurated on March 4th, 1841, as the ninth President of the United States. It was necessary that the tariff be revised to increase the revenue, that the currency be improved, and that provision be made to refund the public debt. The President, therefore, issued a proclamation for a meeting of Congress, in extra session, on May 31st, 1841; but he died on April 4th, 1841, one month after the day of his inauguration; and this was the |