Evidence Category: The Shepherdstown Register

As it Was and as it Is.
If anyone who was acquainted with Jefferson County in years that are gone, should now visit, he would think that the hands of the “Dial of Time” had been turned backwards, so great is the change from former times. He rides through the country and instead of the fertile and well cultivated fields covered with luxurious crops as of yore, he sees a great common overgrown with grass and weeds; the fences are all gone, the barns and outbuildings that ornamented the farms and indicated the thrift and taste of the owners, a heap of blackened ruins. The large, fat, sleek horses, the pride of the farmer, and the large wagons and new harness, superseded by a few old alabsided horses, bearing the brand “I. C.” and some patched up harness and old army wagons; the ploughs, harrows, &c., and those insumerable little conveniences that add so much to the cultivation of the soil and the economy of labor, be is told by the sad hearted possessor of the naked land, they have been destroyed by military orders. The happy, smiling faces that once greeted him, now wear a sad and care-worn expression, and the light, joyous heart is borne down with grief and the absence of former prosperity. The greasy, shining faces of the darkies that formerly were the chief laborers on the farms are no where observed pursuing their usual avocations, but are seen flocking around the towns and villages, spending their time in idleness and dressing in gewgaws and finery which contrasts sadly with their ashy hew, and enjoying their newly obtained freedom without thought of the future.

He visits Charlestown and inquires for his old friends that were formerly connected with the official business of the County, and is told that the venerable Chief Justice of the County is no more; that the accommodating clerk, who in the baleyon days of the Commonwealth, kept the records of the County, and “had every paper in its place,” had lost his occupation; that the eloquent and skillful lawyers whose learning gave such fame to the Jefferson bar, and the Honorable Dispenser of justice and equity, Judge Parker, were no longer engaged in such matters, but that others had taken their places and had charge of the interests of the County, that the County seat had been moved to Shepherdstown, and that his Honor, Judge L. P. W. Balch, now filled Parker’s chair, and that George Byers as Recorder, and Wm. A. Chapline as Clerk, have taken the place of Thomas Moore; that the regular monthly Courts had been dispensed with and a “Board of Supervisors” has assumed their functions. Change! Change! is the order of nature! But where is the smiling, jovial face of Samuel Stone, the Commissioner of Revenue? He too, like his old comrades, has lost his occupation and the name of the office itself is no more. We now have an Assessor.

He next visits the Court House and finds it a stable, and misses the papers in the clerk’s office, now stript of its furniture and torn to pieces. He finds the County Jail and many other private and public buildings in the same condition. He calls to mind that about six years ago in this very place (Charlestown) John Brown and his accomplices were tried and convicted of treason against the State for inciting her slaves to insurrection and arming them against her citizens, and forming a government contrary to the established one of Virginia. He remembers the impressions of the time and sees the “cloud no bigger than a man’s band” that afterwards led to the great revolution in the South and turns away in sorrow from the gloomy picture and passes on his way to our town, the new County seat, and is told that Jefferson is now in West Virginia. He appears satisfied; and turning his head he perceives the blackened walls of the beautiful residences of E. I. Lee and A. R. Boteler, and learns that they were destroyed by military orders.

But let the past be forgotten, and let nothing be done to recall it. Peace has again visited our land and let us do the things that belong unto Peace. Let everything be done to soothe the suffering of the last four years and do not estrange from us forever those persons that would unite heart and band with us in restoring the prosperity of the country. We know that many things were done while the war was raging that would not be done in times of peace, under military orders and from military necessity. But this is applicable to both parties and both should suffer alike for their offenses.

There must be mutual forgiveness and mutual forbearance, a burial of the animosities the was has engendered, and a hearty concurrence in all measures pertaining to the public good; and we would not be true to our country and to the interests of the community in which we live, unless we urge with all the ability we may possess, the restoration of good feelings amongst its citizens and the putting aside of all distrust. Let us not make every man an Ishmaelite, his band against every man and every man’s hand against him, but each be a friend to the other. Then indeed we may be in a short time able to say with feelings of pride, How changed! The terrible effects will have nearly disappeared and we become a happy and prosperous people.