Wheeling Intelligencer
October 9, 1856
SALUTATORY.
The undersigned, having bought out the interest of Messrs. Pendleton & Beatty, have this day entered upon the charge of the Wheeling Intelligencer. It has always been our belief, from what newspaper experience we have had, that the old adage, "the least said is the soonest mended," was more than commonly applicable and appropriate to editorial salutatories. It is one thing to promise and another to perform. For this reason, and in order that our patrons may be agreeably disappointed, if it so happens that they should be disappointed at all, we propose to indicate very briefly what our intentions are. We propose to print an independent and liberal newspaper: one towards which all phases of public opinion can look for a fair representative of their views - one that will afford the widest reasonable scope to the subjects now agitating the public in political, social and commercial life. We wish to encourage a manly tenor of thought and speech, and we will ever be found standing up for all those rights gurranteed [sic] to our people as citizens of Virginia and the United States. We shall endeavor to do this, candidly and impartially, without fear or affection toward any party whatsoever.
Our leading wish is to make the Intelligencer eminently a reliable commercial journal - one that our citizens, our business men in the city, those doing business with the city, or those who are any way, directly or indirectly, interested in Northwestern Virginia, can at all times refer to as authority in matters of interest to them. - This will be our aim, and to this end we shall spare no pains or expense.
Wheeling and the country by which she is immediately surrounded have by position - by manufacturing and commercial facilities, claims upon a large amount of patronage hitherto enjoyed by cities less favorably situated. We are determined to zealously, indefatigably and yet truthfully advocate her claims. Situated as we are at the extreme North-West of a State embracing an area of more than sixty-seven thousand square miles; having interests which other parts of the State neither have nor can have, just as the different States under the federal government, we look upon it as our bounden duty to present and uphold these interests. The counties bordering upon the Ohio line always had a great commercial interest, while many of those of the interior and Eastern division have been more particularly interested in agriculture. Without becoming illiberal or sectional in any sense, or reckoning any part of our venerable commonwealth as other than common domain, it is a natural and rightful instinct, and as such it is expected of us, to advocate those interests in which we are immediately concerned. In conclusion, and as a general summary of what we have said, we desire and intend to print a paper which will commend the respect and patronage of all classes.
CAMPBELL & McDERMOT.