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Franklin Repository: July 27, 1859 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

The County Convention
(Column 1)

Summary: Brief article urges every man to attend the important County Convention of the People's Party.

[No Title]
(Column 2)

Summary: Criticism of the Spirit's distasteful attack on Col. McClure, and an excerpt from a democrat newspaper also criticising the Spirit.

Fiendish Malignity - Mr. McClure
(Column 2)

Summary: Assails the Valley Spirit's "imbecility and malice" in attacking Republican Alexander K. McClure.
(Names in announcement: Alexander K. McClure)

Full Text of Article:

The annals of decent journalism cannot furnish a parrallel [sic] for the mingled imbecility and malice with which the Spirit of last week assails Col. McClure. He is not in nomination for any public position--our party has as yet presented no candidate for the suffrages of the people--nor is he traversing the County asking to be made the candidate. If he should be presented to the voters of the county as our candidate for any responsible trust--as the Spirit seems to fear will be the case--it will be because our party desires him to be one of its standard bearers, and not because he has gone from one section of the County to another, as is usual with candidates, seeking the honors his political friends have to confer. He is a private citizen--pursuing his private calling--offending none, either personally or politically; and yet he is singled out by the Spirit for a torrent of personal malignity unapproached by any other partisan journal within our recollection. Had he been assailed politically, however unwarranted at this time, there might be some excuse for this act; but when he is assailed by cowardly innuendoes, as but a living mass of corruption, and as fit only for a felon's doom, the community is justly startled at the freedom with which the moral assassin seems to think his fiendish calling may be practiced with impunity.

We have never known such a feeling of condemnation to pervade this community as has been aroused by the flood of libels poured upon Col. McClure by that paper. Our citizens, as with one voice, both political friends and foes of Col. McClure, have spoken out in terms of fearless disapprobation. The leading men of the Democratic party have disavowed all responsibility for the unscrupulous libeler of the Spirit, and wash their hands of the indelible stain it would fasten upon their party, if endorsed by its good men.

Independent of the impolicy of such a malicious system of personal warfare upon one who has enjoyed the most decisive evidences of the confidence of the people, there are few men in the Democratic party whose sense of justice would not revolt at such infamous assaults upon the private character of any man; for that sense of the proprieties and common decencies of life is instinctive in the human breast, and can only fail to assert its power when the most fiendish depravity destroys every honest emotion of the soul. Such assaults, hurled upon a community where respect for personal reputation is proverbial, fall harmless at the feet of the intended victim, and recoil with terrible force upon those who aim them. They unite all citizens as one common brotherhood, as they would unite to guard against pestilence, to vindicate the object of the libeler's venom; because none is safe from his pestiferous breath.

We do not defend Col. McClure--he needs no defense in this community, where he is best known, and where he is appreciated as an honest, upright, liberal and useful citizen, and as a fearless but honorable politician. It is but just alike to himself and many ardent friends, however, to say, that he has now in his possession the most conclusive evidence of the utter falsity of the cowardly libels heaped upon him by the Spirit, and that he will promptly and unequivocally vindicate himself in a manner that will fully justify the confidence of his friends and command the respect of even his defamers.

We annex the following article from Forney's Press of yesterday:

The absence of personalities in the most of the newspapers published in Pennsylvania is one of the healthy signs of the times. Not many years ago most of our interior journals were occupied in great part by violent assaults upon the public men of their respective vicinities. We are glad to notice that a wholesome public opinion has cured this evil, and that although the divisions between great parties continue as strongly as ever, there is an active rivalry among editors to maintain courteous and kindly relations.

There are, it is true, exceptions to this rule, but they are as odious as they are rare. One of these exceptions we notice in a paper printed at Chambersburg, called the Valley Spirit--a late number of which contains a coarse and passionate attack upon Col A. K. McClure, late a representative in the Legislature for Franklin Co.

We are not of Col. McClure's party, and therefore do not speak of him from political affinity; but a somewhat intimate knowledge of his character, and a somewhat close observation of his course as a public man, impel us to declare that we wish Pennsylvania could boast of more such patriotic and public-spirited citizens. Bold in the expression of his opinions, and therefore well calculated to provoke enmity on the part of those who may be adverse to him, we do not know where there is to be found one in whom public trust can be more safely reposed, and who would go farther to sacrifice himself for the interests of his constituents. The idea that such a man could be guilty of anything mercenary or corrupt is an absurdity.

We have watched his career with some interest, and believe that if there is a true hearted Pennsylvanian and good citizen anywhere, that man is Col. A. K. McClure, of Franklin county.

He Is Still Sore
(Column 4)

Summary: Recounts the sound defeat McClure scored over Sansom in "this Assembly district" in the fall of 1857.
(Names in announcement: Alexander K. McClure, Capt. James B. Sansomof Fulton Co.)

State Senator
(Column 5)

Summary: Story responds to the Adams Co. Sentinel's fears that Franklin County will nominate Alexander K. McClure for the State Senate, and that his victory will bode ill for other counties. The Repository notes that no candidate has yet been placed in nomination and that it published recommendations for TWO candidates in its pages (not just McClure). It concludes that Franklin Republicans "do not mean in any degree to ignore the wishes or proferences of the other counties in the district."

Ward Meetings
(Column 5)

Summary: Notes the meeting of North Ward Republicans at Mr. Fisher's Hotel in Chambersburg on July 28. South Ward Republicans will meet on the same night at Taylor's Indian Queen Hotel.
(Names in announcement: Mr. Fisherhotel-keeper, Taylorproprietor of Indian Queen hotel)

The Legislature
(Column 5)

Summary: Writer, signed "A Voter," recommends Criswell for the legislature.
(Names in announcement: John H. Criswellof Scotland, Green township)

Fayetteville Female Seminary
(Column 5)

Summary: The writer "A Friend of Education," writes to express his general satisfaction with the performance of the Feyetteville Female Seminary.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. Kennedy)

Weir's Cave
(Column 6)

Summary: A recent resident of Chambersburg, uniditified, writes a travelogue of his experiences in Virginia's "Weir's Cave." Signed W.H.D.

Farewell Sermon
(Column 1)

Summary: Informs the public that the Rev. W.F. Eyster, who has resigned his pastoral position at the Chambersburg Lutheran Church to assume control of the Hagerstown Female Seminary, will preach his final sermon on July 31.
(Names in announcement: Rev. W.F. Eyster)

Choice Fruit
(Column 1)

Summary: Notes that Mr. Byden, a Loudon nurseryman, sent the Repository office a box of nice fruit, which they quickly enjoyed.
(Names in announcement: B.L. Ryder)

Camp Meetings
(Column 1)

Summary: Notice that the United Brethren in Christ intend to hold Camp meetings on the above properties in Franklin County.
(Names in announcement: Mr. Haynear Hockersbille, Mr. Sleighternear Rocky Spring, Mr. Yaukeynear New Guilford, James M. Bishop)

A Man As Is A Man
(Column 2)

Summary: Notes that Mr. Steake, who served as an adjutant under Winfield Scott at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, is outworking young men at haying despite his age of 71. The Repository admits that they reprinted the above details from the Valley Spirit, but gleefully adds that a neighbor of Mr. Steake called at the editor's office to add that "He has been a first rate whig all his life and never soiled his ticket with a locofoco name."
(Names in announcement: John Steake"who resides near Keefer's Store, in Letterkenny Township", )

Full Text of Article:

An old gentleman by the name of John Steake, who resides near Keefer's Store, in Letterkenny township and who is aged seventy one years, was engaged doing his days work in the hay field, last week, and not only keeping up with, but pushing, the stoutest hands in the field. He has worked through the entire hay and grain harvest every year for fifty five years successively, and expects to cradle through the present harvest with as much buoyancy of spirit, if not quite as much bodily strength, as he did half a century ago. This is what may well be called "a green old age."

We clip from the Spirit, of the 29th ult., the above. To which a friend, and neighbor of Mr. S., requests us to add: that the gentleman named by our contemporary fought under General Scott at Chippawa, and Lundy's Lane, and was, for one month an adjutant under Scott. But the best remains to be told. He has been a first rate Whig all his life and never soiled his ticket with a locofoco name.

Terrible Casualty from Burning Fluid
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports the gruesome story of how the young Miss Duke, living with the family of Daniel Trostle at the Western Hotel, burned to death when she attempted to fill a burning lamp with fuel, only to see it ignite her clothing. The named bystanders came to her aid, without effect.
(Names in announcement: Margaret Duke, Daniel Trostle, N. Sterlinghotel bartender, John Hardyboarder at hotel, Dr. J.C. Richards)

Painful Accident
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports the accident of John and Joseph Davidson, two young boys of New Guilford, while gathering huckleberries with a two-horse wagon. Both boys were badly hurt, with the nine-year-old Joseph in critical condition and thought certain to die.
(Names in announcement: John Davidson, Andrew Davidson, Joseph Davidson, James Davidson, Phares Duffield, Dr. Hartzellof Fayetteville)

The Binder's Assistant
(Column 3)

Summary: Article is a cheerleading promotion of the local Mr. McAleer's new invention, a farm implement called the binder's assistant, which sorts the grain cut by the reaper into bundles the size of a sheaf.
(Names in announcement: Charles H. McAleerof Hamilton Township, Jacob Leymaster)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: Wedding of July 4, held in Chambersburg. Both parties of Shippensburg.
(Names in announcement: Rev. F. Dyson, Eva Welsh, Samuel Croft)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: Death of the nineteen-year-old Franklin McGowan in Fayetteville. No cause of death given.
(Names in announcement: Franklin McGowan, )

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: Death of Mrs. S.S. Brownson, on July 25, at her residence in Mercersburg. She was the mother of Dr. Brownson, and 75 years of age.
(Names in announcement: Mrs. S.S. Brownson, Dr. B.S. Brownson)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: Death of the eleven-month-old George Richter, on July 23.
(Names in announcement: George Henry Richter, Henry Richter, Elizabeth Richter)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: Death of Mrs. Rutter, at age 88, on July 19.
(Names in announcement: Mrs. Margaret Rutter, )