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Franklin Repository: July 10, 1867 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Far Off Chats With Old Friends
(Column 5)

Summary: McClure details his passage from Denver to Sulphur Springs, a journey fraught with peril, both from the threat of the Indian attack and the severe weather.

The Spirit Travails
(Column 1)

Summary: The editors mock their rival at the Valley Spirit for the story he wrote chronicling his trip through the Shenandoah Valley, and chastise him for equating McCausland's raid on Chambersburg with the legitimate battles fought in Virginia.

Full Text of Article:

Our neighbor of the Spirit, two weeks ago, with a congenial company, went a gypsying down the valley. Having returned in safety--there being no war now--the traveler records his impressions for the benefit, doubtless, of such Democratic readers, as never saw the region or its people. To them the sketches will be serviceable. They can see, perched in an arm chair, what, for them who don't read the Spirit,--Republicans and War Democrats--is photographed on the mind's eye, our beautiful valley, blue-walled and green-carpeted, gleaming with gold and sparkling with streams, a very paradise for post-diluvians. They can fancy, too, the Arcadians of this happy valley "peaceably pursuing their lawful callings," "all toiling energetically for a living," and can rejoice, either that other sections of our land are so highly favored besides their own, or, that, if expedient, they may "change their location," and "settling on surplus lands" be welcomed as "practical farmers" by the natives. With pious thankfulness at the alternative, a good Democrat can now sleep peacefully. He can even resolve, should the radical air of this State become too sulphurous, to act on the thought; leave his native fields; forswear the upper valley; cross the dread Potomac; and fling himself into the "open arms" of the kindly dwellers of the slopes of Massanutten. Our neighbor has done good, therefore, as an explorer and historian, for, we have often been puzzled, when thinking where or modern Democrats should go, when the time comes that they discover how superfluous their so-called party is, how obsolete their tenets, how old fogy their practices and working beliefs! Like the Mormons, they must emigrate, and, as the newer school of enlightenment presses upon and around them, must again remove, until faith in man, as regard for woman with their compeers, will drive them into the Gulf, as into the Pacific. But, in the lower valley, they can have a brief respite; and, if, haply, they can buy the scenes of Stonewall Jackson's or of Early's victories, which our neighbor specially enumerates, for fifteen dollars an acre, they can be comforted with the thought that, here, at least, the associations of rock and tree are inspiriting and intercourse with man congenial.

Did it occur to our brother of the pencil and the quill, that the turnpike along which he bowled so cheerily, the fields so golden or verdant to his eye, were lately filled with thronging masses of men, whose trade was death, whose hands were [illeg] muskets and sabres who met in conflict and poured their mutual blood upon the slopes he so admired, and, dying, cursed the victor; did he, then, re-people the scene and look well on the picture? If he did, did he remember that the conflict was a causeless one, for those who provoked it; that, in a land where injury and remedy pulse as responsively, by the law of our constitution as attraction and repulsion among the spheres by the law of God, it was murder to shed loyal blood, and treason against Heaven as it was wrong to man? Did he even look closely at the plow-shares which those farmers, at the bidding of interest or the compulsion of necessity, were driving through the mould, to see whether the smith had beaten out all likeness to a sword? It is well that the iron which so lately swept in deadly circles over a patriot's head, should now vex the soil which enwraps his clay, because good may come of it for the innocent who will, one day, inhabit the land; but, it seems to us, it is full soon to grasp the unrepentant hand which wielded it to destruction, and now, sullenly, transforms it only under the compulsion of fate. The spirit of our contemporary's article is suggestive of his kindness of heart rather than the soundness of his judgement. We believe him loyal, at least, yet he condones treason before the traitor asks for it--without a word of reprobation for those who were the cause of the war and all its cruelties, he condemns, unsparingly, those who fought his own battles. He links, in a vain attempt at comparison, the honored name of Sheridan with the vandal McCausland, and stigmatizes the man who saved his readers from the incursions of thieving, marauding, rebels, as the counterpart of their most lawless chief! This is certainly error in judgement. One feature redeems the articles, however: they are bold ones. Had they appeared in that Wisconsin sheet which out-Herods the Memphis prints in its eulogies upon the "lost cause," they would be in keeping with their surroundings, but, when published in the town M'Causland burned, and the county Lee harried, they testify to a courage which would have set well on a commander, or to a contempt for his readers and followers that would have graced even the Veiled Prophet. Sheridan burned two thousand barns in a night; he stripped a circle of five miles, because an Aid had been shot! He did these things and is justified by orders, by circumstances, for doing them. He was ordered to lay waste the valley, that an army might not again come up it and, foraging in Pennsylvania, isolate the Capital from the North. As a soldier, he obeyed. The burning of Chambersburg preceded his act, and, alone, justified it. The death of young Meigs, shot while engaged as an Engineer in a topographical survey, was, simply, the last of a long series of similar murders perpetrated by the guerrillas of the valley, which, as they were violations of every law of war and humanity, had to be repressed by the sternest measures. Col. Tolles, the Chief Quartermaster of the Sixth Corps, was shot near Winchester, in his ambulance, when sick, unresisting and captured. Had Sheridan hung the inhabitants of the circle, Democrats might cry out, but to burn their barns, was depriving them only of their ill-gotten gains, which, filched from negroes' earnings, they were perverting to base ends.

But our General remembered, moreover, that he was a commander in war time, and, without orders, not for reprisal, retaliation or punishment, he was justified. War means killing, burning, destruction, whenever it will best gain the end. Wars, doubtless, are instigated by the Devil, but, when on hand, can be met only as they are waged. To lay the valley waste meant two things--it would save Pennsylvania and it would cripple Lee. Either is ample justification for Sheridan's work. Let the blame rest upon them who began the war. Had the Slaveholding conspirators appealed to the ballot rather than to arms, Sheridan would now be a Quartermaster on the Plains, and Grant a farmer in Missouri. We have no tears, accordingly, to mingle with the Spirit's effusion, nor any desire to hasten the day of reconstruction faster than the Congress of the nation, surveying the whole land from an eminence higher than a carriage seat, consulting interests other than those of a single narrow valley, and informants other than men who yet bear titles which designate them as former leaders of men who butchered and wantonly starved our brothers, may choose, in behalf of freedom and security to grant. Their time will be early enough for us and for the soldier who saved the land.

[No Title]
(Column 2)

Summary: The article calls on Congress to move "with prompt and decided action on the question of reconstruction" in the wake of President Johnson's efforts to nullify the measures passed during its last session.

[No Title]
(Column 2)

Summary: Announces the Pennsylvania State Library was formally opened in Harrisburg last Wednesday.

A Fact
(Column 2)

Summary: Relates that Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania all emerged from the war with diminished debts because the financial affairs of the states "were managed by men devotedly and enthusiastically loyal."

Far Off Chats With Old Friends
(Column 3)

Summary: In this installment, McClure describes life in Salt Lake City among the Mormons, which he casts as pleasant and without the social ills of the east.

Associate Judge
(Column 5)

Summary: In his letter, "Franklin" endorses Judge Paxton, the present incumbent, for re-election as Associate Judge.
(Names in announcement: Judge Paxton)

Trailer: Franklin

County Commissioners
(Column 6)

Summary: "Union" recommends Jacob Young, of Montgomery township, "as a suitable men for the office of County Commissioner."
(Names in announcement: Jacob Young)

Trailer: Union

Judge Williams
(Column 8)

Summary: The article applauds the nomination of Judge Williams for state supreme court, noting that the "Convention has complimented Allegheny County, and in doing so performed a wise thing."

Origin of Article: Pittsburg Dispatch

Editorial Comment: "The Pittsburg papers speak as follows of Judge Williams, the Republican candidate for Supreme Judge:"

Judge Sharswood In Favor Of Repudiation
(Column 8)

Summary: The article blasts Judge Sharswood's opinion favoring the repudiation of the national debt, labelling it "the most wicked blow struck" at the government.

Local Items--Our Pavements
(Column 1)

Summary: During Town Council's last meeting, states the piece, members of the body passed a resolution relative to pavement, gutters, and curbs, and instructed Street Commissioner Forbes to monitor their condition and report all that fail to reach the basic requirements spelled out in the ordinance.
(Names in announcement: Street Commissioner Forbes)

Local Items--The Fourth In Chambersburg
(Column 1)

Summary: Notes that several small celebrations were held throughout Chambersburg and its environs to mark the nation's independence.

Local Items--A Disgraceful Affair
(Column 1)

Summary: On July 4th, "a number of white rowdies from Hagerstown" attacked "two drunken" blacks on Main St. Frederick Householder, of Chambersburg, as also implicated in the incident. Although the origins of the violence were disputed, the men from Hagerstown were allowed to return home "unmolested." "Occurrences of this character should not be passed over thus lightly," proclaim the editors, "and all concerned should have been arrested and the guilty parties made to atone to the law."
(Names in announcement: Frederick Householder, Frederick Myers, Justice McElwain)

Lcoal Items--Storm
(Column 2)

Summary: Relates that a violent storm passed over Letterkenny township last Wednesday afternoon causing considerable damage to Jeremiah Ashway's property and crops and injuring his little daughter.
(Names in announcement: Jeremiah Ashway)

Local Items--Lamentable Accident
(Column 2)

Summary: Jacob Atwell lost his arm in an accident that occurred at Gettysburg on July 4th. Atwell, whose brother Samuel resides in Chambersburg, suffered the injury when his gun discharged prematurely while he was ramming down the charge in the middle of the salute on Cemetery Hill. Despite the seriousness of the accident, he is expected to live.
(Names in announcement: Jacob Atwell, Samuel Atwell)

Local Items--Harvest
(Column 2)

Summary: Farmers throughout Franklin are busily engaged in harvesting what is said to be "the best that has been raised in this county for many years."

Local Items--Dead
(Column 2)

Summary: Jacob Whetzel, who broke his leg in an accident while felling trees, died last Tuesday after suffering complications from the operation to amputate his limb.
(Names in announcement: Jacob Whetzel)

Local Items--War on the Dogs
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports that in the wake of the recent attacks in the county by mad dogs, several canines were poisoned last week.

Local Items--Call Accepted
(Column 2)

Summary: Rev. J. A. Kunkelman, pastor of Chambersburg's Lutheran Church, has accepted an offer to take charge of a congregation in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. A. Kunkelman)

Riot in Tennessee
(Column 3)

Summary: The article says a riot broke out during a rally by black and white "radicals" in Tennessee. The melee started when conservative whites and blacks confronted the radicals and shots rang out. Several people were injured in the fracas, at least four of them fatally.

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On July 3rd, Charles T. Bond, of Philadelphia, and Anna A. Storm were married by Rev. S. H. C. Smith.
(Names in announcement: Charles T. Bond, Anna A. Storm, Rev. S. H. C. Smith)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: On June 20th, Frederick Tritle died in Waynesboro. He was 25 years old.
(Names in announcement: Frederick Tritle)