Staunton Vindicator

To-morrow the Registration of the voters in District No. 1 and 2, Staunton, and No. 3, Middlebrook, will commence and be continued in these Districts until the 29th inst. We have, heretofore, endeavored to place before our people the necessity of their promptly register, one and all. We again appeal to them to come forward and register, to "the very last man." Many do not take the papers and can not therefore form correct conclusions on the subject, whole many express a great disinclination to Register. It is therefore not only imperatively our duty to register, but also to prevail upon the uninformed and disinclined to do so.

The Enquirer pithily and pointedly on this subject says:

"Let no man decline to register because he may, perchance, and not yet have made up his mind to vote in the elections that may be ordered. The act of registering will not require him to vote; but it will secure him the option of voting or not, as may seem expedient in the future. To refuse to register is to gag himself hereafter, whether he may then wish to vote or not. No man is wise enough in these times to know positively what it may be best to do months ahead. Hence it would be very foolish to lose the liberty of choice hereafter, by refusing to register now.

While those who are allowed registry, owe it as a duty to themselves and the Commonwealth, to avail themselves of the privilege, they also owe it as a peculiar duty to those of their fellow-citizens who are excluded. As one of this latter class, we call upon those who can vote, to take care of us too! Disappoint the miserable conspiracy of hungry demagogues and refuse party hacks, who are seeking to fasten themselves like vampires on the State, to suck out its life, and destroy both you and us!

It will be a terrible evil, from the effects of which it will take many years to recover to let the conduct of our State affairs pass into the hands of the utterly incompetent and venal men who are now seeking it, for what they hope to make out of it."

We would desire our readers to weigh well the subject and act from reason, rather than passion and prejudice and they will see that the course we have endeavored to point out to them is the right one.

Let each and all, who can, then do their duty, in this darkest hour of Virginia's history, and come forward like men who have something still to live and strive for and register themselves as voters. In no other way can they fully perform the duty they owe to themselves, to their disfranchised fellow Southrons, to their State and to posterity.

The Alexandria Gazette gives a report of the proceedings of the Immigration Convention recently held in that city, from which we learn that a series of resolutions were passed urging upon Landholders the great advantage to themselves of subdividing their lands into such sized parts as will meet the demands of those who would desire to settle among us and have not the means to buy and cultivate large tracts, and recommending the establishment of Agencies in the leading cities of this and foreign countries, with the belief that the proper information can thus be better spread before the people, and that the advantages which Virginia offers, thus made, known, will suffice to draw into our State a reliable voluntary immigration adopted to our need.

It is Generally conceded that our tracts of land are too large and yet there is a great indisposition among our people to divide up and sell in smaller tracts, although they may desire to sell the whole. This course may induce some little immigration, but not of a character to do a great deal of good. Virginia has many advantages over the far West, but with her indisposition to sell in tracts suited to the demands of immigrants, the 80 and 100 acre tracts will continue to carry immigration in that direction. To benefit ourselves and the State we must be willing to divide our lands and sell in small tracts suited to the demand, yet though satisfied of this it will require time to start our people on this progressive track.

There is one thing however which this convention recommends, which we think is practicable, that is, the formation of an organization to be called the "Virginia Land Company," to receive subscriptions of land at a fair valuation, to be disposed of to immigrants as may be required. There would be sufficient subscriptions of land, from every locality in the State, to show the practical advantages of selling in small parcels, to suit the demands of settlers, and the idea would thus be practically initiated, which is all that is needed.

We trust therefore that such a company may be organized to foster, by positive inducements, a healthy immigration which we so much need, but which, by our present course, we are daily repelling from us.