R. R. Howison, in his _History of Virginia_, published in 1848,
replying to the question whether the state has prospered: "As her
physical resources would warrant us in expecting: has she held her
place in the great march of American States during the present
century?" answers:
"It has long been the sad conviction of her most enlightened
children that these questions must be answered in the negative....
It must, therefore, be regarded as a truth, but too fully
established, that Virginia has fallen below her duty; that she has
been indolent while others have been laborious; that she has been
content to avoid a movement positively retrograde while others have
gone rapidly forward. Her motion compared with that of Massachusetts
and Ohio might, in familiar terms, be likened to the heavy stage
coach of the past century, competing with the fine steam car of the
present.
"For this sluggishness and imbecility many causes might be assigned,
... but there are three sources in which, as we believe, the evil
dispositions of our state so naturally flow that they ought to
receive special notice."