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Franklin Repository: September 11, 1867 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Letter From Mrs. M. S. McClure
(Column 6)

Summary: The article contains an account of the McClure's trek west by the Repository editor's wife.

How the Matter Stands
(Column 1)

Summary: According to the editors, there is one key issue dividing the parties in the upcoming election: their respective views on reconstruction. The Republicans support a reconstruction policy to fashion the nation into "a perfect Republic," one in which "all men shall be entitled to the same right and privileges of citizenship." By contrast, the Democrats endorse a return to the pre-war status quo.

Full Text of Article:

The Fall campaign may now be considered as fairly commenced. Each party has held its convention, selected its candidates and declared anew the aims and purposes of its organization. Each appeals earnestly to the people for their support, insisting that in the triumph of the other would be involved more or less of shame and disgrace, as well as actual detriment to the public. It is not in the nature of things for both to be right. The gulf that separates political truth from political error is a wide one, and it rolls its ceaseless billows between these contending parties. One or other of them is certainly marshaling its forces on the side of error.

Which can it be?

It becomes each man who has a proper sense of his responsibilities to his government to answer this question for himself, before he enrolls with either; to make answer too, not in accordance with the promptings of bigotry or any mean personal considerations, but as truth itself directs. The issue is a plain one. True, each party charges upon the other that it equivocates and conceals somewhat of its purposes; but there is enough of the aims and purposes of both disclosed and confessed to enable any fair and intelligent voter to judge correctly between them. Besides each has a record, made during the years of our struggle with rebellion, which goes far to explain its true character, and which is a valuable help in detecting what, if any, are the concealed purposes it cherishes.

The issue, as we understand it, is whether this Union of ours, shattered and broken by a wicked rebellion, is in its reconstruction to be fashioned into a perfect Republic wherein all men shall be free, save those who are slaves by their own evil practices, and wherein all men shall be entitled to the same right and privileges of citizenship, or whether it is to be a re-cast of the old, in which all its flaws and imperfections, made even more unsightly by the operation are to appear. The result of the issue will be to fashion it one way or the other, and will commit the work either to those who have proved their devotion to their government by rendering it an unqualified support in the years when it was fearfully assailed by treason, or to those who proved their enmity to it, either by open and flagrant assault or by mean and guilty sympathy with its assailants. We state the issue fairly. On the one side it is proposed to restore the old order of things, notwithstanding the fact that the admitted changes of the last seven years would operate so as to make the old order more oppressive than ever, and to remove from us farther than ever the anticipated realization of a pure Democracy. Negro slavery is no longer a recognized institution in this land. By the most solemn enactment known it is forever abolished, and henceforth no slave can breathe our air. Those who were slaves are now freemen, and not only freemen but citizens, both by law and justice entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizens. Shall the rebellious communities, in many of which this class of population is numerically stronger than the white, be rebuilt into States, which by fundamental laws deny the common rights and privileges of citizenship to these freemen? Shall this government which by its organic law is required to guarantee a Republican form of government to each of the States, so far betray its subjects and forget its duty as to assist in or even allow the erection of States essentially opposed to this very principle? Shall the power and control of these reconstructed States, and possibly of the general government itself, be handed over the men who sought to destroy it? In a word, shall the Republic be true to itself, its history and its present life, or shall it be false to all? Democracy before the war found its allies in the men whose animosity towards the government has since deluged the country with blood, and brought sorrow into almost every habitation. She asks now in the name of a constitution which her friends defied, that they be restored to their former power, and good and true loyal men be made political serfs subject to them. She asks that harmonious relations be restored between the Union and "the rebellious States at the earliest practical moment" but seeks to build up those "States" into oligarchies and despotisms, because a majority of their people are opposed to her teachings and hostile to her ambition. She would transform this government from a pure democracy to a government founded on caste and prescription. In attempting this she has denied the teachings of her founders and forgotten her own sacred traditions. We arraign the Democratic party for a wicked ambition and lust for power, that has smothered out of her organization all that was ever in it of a pure and elevated patriotism. She is now a piratical craft upon the high seas with a flaunting lie at her mast head, and seeks to approach the object of her quest by deceit and fraud. Instead of being for democracy she is against it and is fighting in the interest of caste and against the interests of the whole people.

The Republican party on the other hand neither conceals its purposes nor denies any of its traditions. It too demands a speedy restoration of harmonious relations, but it insists that that restoration shall be on democratic principles; that it shall not work oppression or injustice to any of the citizens of the Republic; that it shall not be done in the interest of any class against the people; that it shall not be made so as to reward treason and punish loyalty, but that, on the contrary, it shall be so done as to correct what abuses existed before, and establish these States in conformity with the true spirit of our Republican institutions. The Republican party is essentially the party of the people. It had its origin in their oppression and sprang full armed to their relief. Its infancy and maturer years have all been given to the struggle for the vindication of their rights. Now that it is a giant and walks with the tread of a conqueror, it is true to the faith in which it grew and by which it strengthened. It asks nothing by way of favor, but demands what is right; it would impose no burdens, but will exact equal justice for all men; it does nothing for vengeance, but aims solely to promote the general good.

Such is the general character of the contending parties and such are their respective purposes. The one opposed to popular government in the true and liberal meaning of the phrase, and the other in heartiest sympathy with it; the one contending for the supremacy of classes, the other battling for the enfranchisement of all. The struggle has been a long one, the battles frequent and success not unvaried for either. The parties approach each other soon again for a renewal of the conflict. No man can be neutral in the fight. Indifference at such a time is criminal. Let each voter act upon an intelligent choice, with a full sense of his responsibilities as a freeman to determine for himself--whether his sympathies are with those who seek to maintain, support and defend a government of the people, by the people and for the people, or with those who desire to have it perish from the earth. In either case he can find his friends.

Danger Ahead
(Column 2)

Summary: The editors express their sympathy for the Democrats, who, as evidenced by the articles appearing in the Valley Spirit recently, actually believe they have a chance at victory in the approaching election.

Democracy in Council
(Column 3)

Summary: The article admits that the Democratic County Convention was conducted smoothly, but suggests that the false calm is a product of stagnation rather than harmony.
(Names in announcement: Col. Winger, SkinnerCapt., Armstrong, Shenafield, McLellan)

Full Text of Article:

The Franklin County Democracy again illustrated "its inexhaustible vitality" by meeting in convention on Tuesday, the 3d, as much through force of habit, we suspect, as anything else. It has got so used to meeting, resolving, nominating and getting whipped that it goes through the performance very much in the tread mill style. It travels a familiar round at a regular pace, and always stops just where it started in, without having accomplished any thing more than its own exhaustion. It is astonishing how some people can content themselves.

"Dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing out."

but it is nevertheless true that some do that very thing, else the Democracy would have followed the bucket to the bottom long ago and remained there.

We observed nothing peculiar about the convention. It was full and seemed to be harmonious. There was but little contest as to who should pull the empty bucket up this Fall, the matter evidently having been arranged before the convention met. Col. Winger is to turn the windlass, Capt. Skinner to steady the rope, Mr. Armstrong to look on and Mr. Shenafield to examine the bucket when raised, to make sure that there is nothing pointed merely as company for those who are expected to do the uninteresting labor. Mr. M'Lellan, as chairman, conducted the Convention through the performance of its business with a skill he acquired by practice in Republican assemblies, and which he still retains. Mr. Brewer did his part by repeating for the convention one of his early speeches, which by the way sounded as fresh as ever. Being of the self-adjusting kind it suited the occasion about as well as the one it was originally prepared for--a temperance celebration, we believe. The programme finished, the Convention, adjourned, by the unanimous consent of the members, and all quickly disappeared, each carrying with him the consoling thought that if the bucket didn't come up at all this time it wouldn't be his fault, and even if it was the loss wouldn't be a serious one.

[No Title]
(Column 3)

Summary: The piece notes that Col. Winger won the nomination to represent the Democratic party in the election for Assembly because of his "excessive antipathy to the negro. It was this quality of his head and heart that especially commended him to the favorable consideration of his new associates."
(Names in announcement: Col. Winger)

[No Title]
(Column 3)

Summary: Declaring President Johnson's amnesty proclamation the "boldest of his many mad attempts to circumvent Congress," the article condemns the Executive and avows he "must yet be taught that there is a slight difference between the prerogatives of the President of the United States and the Turkish Sultan."

[No Title]
(Column 3)

Summary: It is reported that President Johnson has appointed John M. Langston, "the celebrated colored lawyer," as head of the Freedmen's Bureau, the position formerly held by Gen. Howard. The editors speculate as to the response of Pennsylvania Democrats in light of their last convention.

Far Off Chats With Old Friends
(Column 4)

Summary: McClure describes his travels through the rugged expanses of the Montana Territory.

Trailer: A. K. M.

From the Interior
(Column 7)

Summary: In the article, "Stentor" praises the ticket selected by Franklin Republicans and contends the mountain people of the state support the Republican party. Stentor singles out Mrs. Swisshelm for criticism; apparently, he disapproves of Swisshelm's continued, but unwarranted, attacks on his character.

Trailer: Stentor

Local Items--Democratic Convention
(Column 1)

Summary: The article provides an account of the proceedings from the recent Democratic County Convention.
(Names in announcement: William McLellan, Jacob Smith, Andrew Lohr, James Gelwix, Milton A. Embich, George W. Skinner, John Goetz, William Reber, Leonard Leidy, Col. B. Frank Winger, Dr. J. H. McClintock, Alex Martin, D. K. Wunderlich, William Shenafield, Joseph Mower, John Brake, John GillanJr., Simon Bitner, John Lindsay, William Boyd, John Gilbert, William Brandt, George W. Brewer, Hugh Smith, Jacob C. Snyder, Major John S. Nimmon)

Local Items--High Water
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that heavy rainfall last week caused the Conococheague Creek and Falling Spring to elevate over their banks with great rapidity and suddenly flood sections of Chambersburg. Wolffstown, in particular, was the sight of much damage as the waters completely flooded the area. Also affected were the Lemnos Edge Tool Factory, the Woolen Mills, and several of the other factories situated along the streams, which were unable to resume operations for several days. The rainfall was so heavy that the dams Ebersole & McKee's and Brough's lower mill were broken.

Local Items--Opening of the Washington County Railroad
(Column 1)

Summary: Announces that the first train passed over the new route on the Washington County Railroad, from Weverton to Harper's Ferry--the only section of the railroad thus far completed.

Local Items--Grand Balloon Ascension
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that John A. Light, "the renowned and daring young 'Aeronaut,'" will attempt his seventy-seventh ascent in his balloon from the Diamond in Chambersburg on Sept. 19th. During the planned flight, Light will drop a dog with a parachute from the air.

Local Items--The Antietam Celebrations
(Column 2)

Summary: Relates that the dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery at Antietam will be held on September 17th. The piece notes that "at least one half of the Union soldiers slain at Antietam were natives of Pennsylvania."

Local Items--Highway Robbery
(Column 2)

Summary: William Small was mugged last Thursday morning on Washington St. between Second and the railroad by "two men supposed to be negroes." The assailants got away with $350 and a watch, which was recovered.
(Names in announcement: William Small)

Local Items--Sudden Death
(Column 2)

Summary: John Rhodes, "an old and esteemed resident," died suddenly on Monday morning while walking in his yard.
(Names in announcement: John Rhodes)

Local Items--Change of Name
(Column 2)

Summary: The Town Council changed the name of Main St. to Front St.

Local Items--A Good Appointment
(Column 2)

Summary: The article happily notes that James Kell, a former resident of Chambersburg, has been appointed by the Republican Convention of York county as Chairman of the County Committee.

Our Public Schools
(Column 3)

Summary: The article contains a copy of the official report issued by P. M. Shoemaker, Superintendent of the Common Schools. The report discusses the board's financial affairs and issues related to the curriculum.
(Names in announcement: Superintendent P. M. Shoemaker)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On August 31st, D. Brainerd Oaks and S. A. Carlile, youngest daughter of Thomas Carlile, were married by Rev. William Carlile.
(Names in announcement: D. Brainerd Oaks, S. A. Carlile, Thomas Carlile, Rev. Carlile)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Sept. 8th, Thaddeus Mahon and Mattie M. Robinson were married by Rev. S. H. C. Smith.
(Names in announcement: Thaddeus Mahon, Mattie M. Robinson, Rev. S. H. C. Smith)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Sept. 5th, Enes P. Reifsnider and Rebecca J. Elm were married by Rev. S. H. C. Smith.
(Names in announcement: Enes P. Reifsnider, Rebecca Elm, Rev. S. H. C. Smith)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Sept. 5th, Samuel Little and Hanna Maria Keefer were married by Rev. James Kennedy.
(Names in announcement: Samuel Little, Hanna Maria Keefer, Rev. James Kennedy)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On August 27th, John Saum and Anna George were married by Rev. P. S. Davis.
(Names in announcement: John Saum, Anna George, Rev. P. S. Davis)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Sept. 7th, William Stumbaugh and Mary E. Stair were married by Rev. P. S. Davis.
(Names in announcement: William Stumbaugh, Mary E. Stair, Rev. P. S. Davis)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On August 23rd, Lewis Miller, of Washington county, Md., and Sarah Remley were married by Rev. J. Dickson.
(Names in announcement: Lewis Miller, Sarah Remley, Rev. J. Dickson)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Sept. 3rd, John A. Noll and Maggie Honodle were married by Rev. J. Dickson.
(Names in announcement: John A. Noll, Maggie Honodle, Rev. J. Dickson)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Sept. 5th, Henry B. Snyder, of Lancaster county, and Charlotte A., daughter of Samuel Walk, were married by Rev. J. Dickson.
(Names in announcement: Henry B. Snyder, Charlotte A. Walk, Samuel Walk, Rev. J. Dickson)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: On Sept. 6th, Bessie C., infant daughter of William S. and Helen M. Stenger, died of "Cholera Infantum." She was 9 months old.
(Names in announcement: Bessie C. Stenger, William S. Stenger, Helen M. Stenger)