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Franklin Repository: 11 27, 1867 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The Political Lesson of 1867
(Column 1)

Summary: In his first editorial since departing for his tour of the Rocky Mountains, McClure laments the Republicans' poor performance in the recent elections. He asserts the results are a consequence of the public's reaction to rampant political corruption. Should the party's troubles continue in the Presidential election in 1868, he avows, it "would turn back the tide of progress" and lead to the "practical re-enslavement of the Freedmen."

Full Text of Article:

Editorial Correspondence of the Franklin Repository

UNION CITY, Montana T., Nov. 4, 1867:

Pennsylvania has faltered in her devotion to the great cause for which she gave 300,000 of her noblest sons as warriors. Full 50,000 martyred heroes, and the voice of mourning still heard in almost every household, attest the fidelity of her people to our free institutions. The State was not, therefore, lost because the people are any less loyal or patriotic now than when they gave their men and their treasure to sustain the government; nor is the result any criterion by which to judge future political struggles. Ohio, too, has fallen to a nominal majority for the Republican State ticket; given over the legislature and a U.S. Senator to Vallandigham and Pendleton, and defeated the Manhood Suffrage amendment by from 40,000 to 50,000 majority. Indiana has receded, in local elections, to a small Republican preponderance, and Iowa has fallen off 10,000 under the influence of local issues. New York will doubtless follow Pennsylvania and elect unimportant State officers and probably a legislature of the Democratic faith, and New Jersey cannot withstand this floodtide surging against her ever doubtful Republican supremacy. Massachusetts has vibrated in the political balance, but will save the State from the confederated hosts of free rum, bread and butter office holders and expectants, and Democracy. The States of the North-west will maintain the Republican supremacy, but light-polls and sumptuary laws will diminish the majorities. Thus, with California sacrificed to the struggles of mean ambition, we have the political record of 1867.

What are its lessons?

In view of the Presidential struggle just approaching this inquiry is one of the gravest import. If the contest of 1868 should be lost, then, indeed, shall we have made our sanguinary and victorious battle-fields "memorable in vain." With any triumph that would be achieved in the name of the Democracy, every devoted friend of the "Lost Cause" who has consistently nourished his implacable hatred of the government he sought to overthrow in blood, would be inspired with fresh hopes to subvert, by indirection, what he failed to subvert by crowning treason with honor, and clouding the triumphs of our heroic living, and the memory of our lamented dead, with lasting obloquy. It would turn back the tide of progress when upon the threshold of noblest fruition, and make the great Republic of the world recede, over the mute and eloquent graves of its defenders, to the practical re-enslavement of the Freedmen, and again stamp upon our escutcheon the blistering blots of inequality and caste. It would leave us a nation without honor, without faith, without credit, and justly without a place in the sympathy of the christian world.

The timid, the time-serving and the venal have each their ready explanations of the disaster in Pennsylvania, but all leave the great sore unprobed. The State was wantonly sacrificed to unvlishing venality and notorious incompetency. The last legislature prostituted the party's sacred citadel of power to groveling cupidity and unscrupulous ambition, and bartered its highest honors to be worn in consuming shame. Of nearly fifty who thus betrayed their responsible trusts, not half a score succeeded in attaining a re-nomination, and nearly or quite half who did, have been repudiated by outraged constituents. Of the thirty or more who violated pledges or instructions, not one returns to the legislature of 1868. But one Senator who aided in this crowning wrong, was re-nominated, and he was free from the imputation of violated faith, but he falls largely behind his ticket, and has plunged Erie county back more than enough to defeat Judge Williams for the Supreme Bench. Was not the public sacrifice too costly for mere personal vindication?

As is most natural, when the centre of Republican power was debauched, its streams coursed out their deadly poison into every portion of the State. Allegheny sacrificed 1,000 or more of her majority to overthrow a faithful Senator, while the perfidious acts of some of those who had been rewarded with her honors, paralyzed other thousands into inaction, even when her favorite candidate headed that ticket. The Blair district sacrificed two Senators on the altar of faction, reared by legislative wrongs. The Lycoming district--both Senator and Members--is thrown away in like manner. Philadelphia bowed to the importunities of inordinate greed and ambition rather than the wishes of the people, and she has sown to the wind and reaped the whirlwind. Franklin made a struggle to recover from her humiliating betrayal, but the contest was unequal and she was overborne; while Adams, under the same paralysis, added one-third to the Democratic majority. To all these mill-stones upon the neck of the Republican party must be added the confessed inefficiency of the campaign management, and it is wonderful that the State was not lost by thousands instead of hundreds.

These are unpalatable truths, and few there be who dare to tell them, while all must appreciate the fidelity of the painful picture. The guilty will smart under self-accusations, and complain earnestly, perhaps malignantly, because the fatal errors of the past are pointed out to save us from future disasters; but the day is near at hand when those who are faithful to truth, and to the honor and integrity of Republicanism will enjoy its confidence in Pennsylvania. I am one of those who can wait until the Republican party vindicates itself.

These errors are of the past. They cannot be undone, but fearful has been the atonement for them. The fact that such atonement has been sternly demanded, and retribution relentlessly adjudged against the guilty, proves that the Republican party is jealous of its fame, true to its sacred duties, and will resent, with its high seal of reprobation, every infraction of its purposes or stain upon its honor. Let the past, therefore, belong to the past. Its appaling errors are covered by its still more appaling retributions. The present and the future call Republicans to their sublimest duties. They have the Executive, the legislature and every department of power in Pennsylvania. They cannot but be admonished of the inexorable fiat of the People demanding Reform, and that fidelity shall mark the progress of Republican rule. The men of the new legislature have left their predecessors festering by the waysides behind them, consigned to rottenness by their constituents. They have been borne into power, over the marked dishonor of those who came before them, to retrieve the perfidy of the past, and clear the decks of the Republican ship for the last great struggle with our country's foes. It is expected of them that their record shall be blameless; faithful to every interest of the State and of the Republic, and such as the whole Republican party can commend with pride to the people when it shall come up for review. The coming State Convention will have stern duties to perform in this crisis. It should be uninfluenced by fear or favor. It cannot afford to yield to begging pretenders who are ever seeking empty endorsements to bolster wasted reputations. It should discard all personal interests, however worthy the claimants, and look solely to the great end to be attained. It should speak for men as it means, and as its principles and success demands; and, casting aside all the conflicts of those who seek to climb into place over its battlements, organize the Republican party for VICTORY, AND FOR DECISIVE VICTORY IN 1868!

It is claimed by many that the elections of 1867 demonstrate the issue of Manhood Suffrage in the States. I do not so regard it. It may be a question of years, but it is the destiny of irresistible progress. Either suffrage must become universal, without discrimination against citizens on account of race, or the advancing tide now coming up from the Southern States must recede back to intolerance and slavery. It was lost by nearly 50,000 in Ohio, and would to-day be voted down with a yell in Pennsylvania, but so was Emancipation rejected but five years ago, even with all the pressure of war to uphold it. The Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln made Ohio Democratic by 6,000 in 1862; made Indiana Democratic; made Horatio Seymour Governor of New York; made New Jersey elect a Peace Executive; made Pennsylvania lose her State ticket and one-third her loyal Congressmen, and emboldened our Supreme Court to attempt to nullify the conscription law--then the last hope of our fearfully imperiled nationality. On a direct issue, for or against Emancipation, the great Central States and Indiana would have given half a million adverse majority. How would they vote to-day? The same States would have voted even stronger against arming slaves, or free negroes. They now accept the negro as a soldier and accord him the credit that nearly 100,000 of our sable heroes, who died to save our free institutions, demand for their living comrades. Ohio, Democratic by 6,000 in 1862, was Republican by 100,000 in 1863, and Pennsylvania reversed the verdict of 1862, re-elected Gov. Curtin in 1863 by 16,000, and would have made it 50,000 had her soldiers not been disfranchised. The people of New York hurled back their rioters and faithless officers, and has since been up to every demand of progress. New Jersey now points with pride to the Republican Executive and Senators as fruits of her atonement for the error of 1862. Indiana, in her first election thereafter, gave her largest Republican majority.

Under the Reconstruction acts of Congress the freedmen are voters in every Rebel State, and among the most earnest advocates maintaining this right are many of the leading Southern soldiers and statesmen who are opposed to the policy of Congress. In those States Manhood Suffrage is an accomplished fact, and no party will ever advocate its restriction there. In New York there has been limited negro suffrage for many years--perhaps from the organization of the State. In several of the New England States it is an accepted policy that encounters no opposition from either party--its ablest advocate being the Boston Post, the New England organ of the Democracy. In the west, Iowa, and Nebraska have adopted it, and no one proposes to take a step backward, while the Chicago Times, the leading western organ of Democracy, demands that its party shall adopt Manhood Suffrage as part of its creed. In all the Territories the negroes vote, and it is indelibly written in the laws of progress that no future State will enter the Union with restricted suffrage on account of color. Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota (where it was barely defeated two years ago,) and Wisconsin are about to follow Iowa in accepting it; and Missouri will shortly be side by side with Tennessee in the advance march of justice. He who thinks that Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and New Jersey will stand still, or retrograde, while the world moves on around them, sadly misjudges the logic of events--Pennsylvania would not vote as fervently against it to-day as she would have voted against free schools but a little more than a quarter of a century ago, and the same regions that voted most overwhelmingly against free schools, would today vote most ferociously against impartial suffrage. With such a tide from every quarter sweeping against our great centres of political power, I think the race that voted with the whites for the framers of national constitution, and continued to vote for half a century in Pennsylvania, will vote again in every State within the next decade. It will not come by any arbitrary notion of the general government, but by the sober, steady advancement of the people. And when the Negroes become voters, they will be courted and harangued with tender sentiment, by Democratic leaders who now appeal to every base instinct to deny them the right of suffrage. The issue may be defeated for a time, and each defeat will but strengthen it. Men may fall who have the manhood to advocate it; but all who have abiding faith in the fidelity with which the people will perfect the mighty revolution now in progress in this nation, will look hopefully, confidently for this great consummation. It is founded on the principles of eternal justice that those who are governed, and taxed and required to defend the country's honor and flag with their lives, shall have a voice in their government, and it cannot fall without shattering our boasted structure of Universal Freedom.

I do not hope that the negro, when enfranchised, will always vote with those who have disenthralled him. As he advances under beneficient laws, he will accept the vices as well as the virtues of the superior race. While under the guidance of education most of them will appreciate and support the policy that elevated them, many others will gravitate through ignorance and prejudice and vice to lower strata disciples of Democracy. If we had universal suffrage now, the Five Points of New York, and the 4th Ward of Philadelphia, would vote more negroes than any other district in either of these cities, and how they would vote, Ben Wood and Billy M'Mullin would know. The Democratic resolvers against negro equality in Chambersburg would canvass Wolffstown with each returning election and gather the floating Africans in to vote the Democratic ticket, and it will not be denied that, under the natural inspirations of the Democracy, they would capture a liberal portion of them. But the race, as a race, would vindicate the wisdom of enfranchising them by commendable progress in intelligence, virtue and good citizenship. It is a humiliating reflection that in this struggle there are those of the ruling or white race, who confess themselves so poorly endowed by their Creator that they must demand discriminating laws to retard the negro from equality with them. There are those who make this claim justly, and they are entitled to sympathy, but the progress of the age cannot by arrested because of their misfortune. It is not their fault, as they show conclusively by their earnest appeals for protection, that they cannot compete with the negro in the race for social and personal distinction, and it is most natural that they should invoke the supreme might of the law to degrade the ignorant, homeless, down-trodden bondman beneath them; but the time has come when this people must open up unrestricted channels of advancement for every race and thus perfect their boasted column of Freedom, then he who falls upon this mighty column will be broken, and he upon whom it falls will be buried in oblivion. A.K.M.

Trailer: A. K. M.

Past and Future
(Column 3)

Summary: Praising Radical Republicans and their political vision, the editorial casts them as the heirs to the founding Fathers' legacy By contrast, the Democrats "have no policy for the future" and "would go back if they could to the local statutes of the South which authorized the sale of man on the auction block; which punished with the lash, at the whipping post, men, women and children; and imprisoned any who dared to teach the colored man to read the scriptures."

Full Text of Article:

Of all the vain conceits that possess the mind of the political demagogue, that is the most preposterous which assumes that the narrow boundaries that circumscribed the vision and faith of a party or a nation at any given period of its existence, must still be held as the true measure of its responsibilities and policy under totally different circumstances and times. The duties and responsibilities of American Statesmen at the time our Independence was won and our Government was organized, were met and discharged with ability and fidelity; and that, in the face of an opposition which bowed with obsequious deference to the wisdom and ability of George the III in his management of the Colonies of America. Our fathers of the Revolution impressed with a deep sense of the duties of the hour, dared to follow their conception of a free government to practical consummation. They gave to the world and to posterity a tangible form of the aspirations which had gone up to heaven from liberty loving souls, enthralled for centuries in the despotism of Europe or shut up in her prisons for conscience sake. We say they did and dared in the face of the tory predictions of anarchy and ruin which would follow the establishment of a Republic on the continent of America. The powerful government of the United States now vindicates their wisdom and their courage. Now while we render all due praise and honor to the noble men who launched our ship of state, and to those who true to the behests of freedom and progress guided her safely through storms of political strife up to our present crisis of National danger, we cannot forget the trials and dangers of the past, and ignore the fact that a departure from the fundamental principles of true republicanism--the political equality of all men--was the rock upon which the ship of state had well nigh stranded. And while our political opponents and conservative Republicans with want of wisdom unaccountable, would go back to the flesh pots of Egypt, and are murmuring against every step forward, we would intimate the fathers of the republic in courage and hope, while we reconstruct the great fabric on a foundation not to be shaken. Times change and its necessities change with them. The rivulets and brooks which commingle to form the great Mississippi at its head waters, need not the embankments and levees necessary to its restraint far down in the South. And the men that cry out "tyranny and despotism," at every measure of safety rendered necessary by the floods and waves of rebellion, which have rolled over the nation, would find their fit counterpart, if the small streams which form the great river should, when they have rolled down to Arkansas and Louisiana, lift their voices against the artificial banks, as a cruel constraint of their liberties and privileges, when far up in the North they formed their association.

The Democracy have no policy for the future; they would go back if they could to the local statutes of the South which authorized the sale of men on the auction block; which punished with the lash, at the whipping post, men, women and children; and imprisoned any who dared to teach the colored man to read the scriptures. They would now, that slavery is extinct, embalm its memories by holding in serfdom its late subjects. The odium that attached to the condition of a slave is to be perpetuated by political disabilities, and treason in its behalf made honorable by crowning the traitors with full eligibility to places of power in the government they had sworn to destroy. Like the Bourbons of France, they have learned nothing nor forgotten nothing during the terrible conflict through which we have passed, and after having conducted the nation go the verge of ruin by their mal-administration of the government, they imprudently come forward with awful denunciations of "wrath to come" if they are not permitted to frustrate the just policy which has been inaugurated by the Republican party, which saved the nation in the day of its calamity. We call on our contemporaries to sound the watchword of progress--go forward in the work of humanity, "cry aloud and spare not," until the people be aroused from the fearful lethargy which, during the late campaign, gave to the Democracy the symptoms of returning power.

A Tour Through the Rocky Mountains
(Column 4)

Summary: Writing on the "Indian Question," McClure vilifies the military officers charged with protecting settlers and maintaining the peace in the western territories, and notes that easterners fail to comprehend the gravity of the situation in the region. McClure calls for "radical changes" to the government's current Indian policy to achieve a lasting peace.

Trailer: A. K. M.

Coal In the Far Interior
(Column 7)

Summary: It has been determined, says the article, that coal deposits exist "along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, from the head waters of the Missouri to the Rio Grande, and beyond it--from Montana to the western border of New Mexico."

Local Items--Centenary
(Column 1)

Summary: The article provides an account of the proceedings at the Upper Path Presbyterian congregation's centenary celebration.

Local Items--Railroad from the Lakes to Washington
(Column 1)

Summary: Notes that a commission was formed to discuss the possibility of constructing a rail link from Franklin county to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The route would be part of an effort to connect the nation's capital with the western states.

Local Items--Sad Casualty--Another Soldier Gone
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that Augustus Youst, son of William Youst, of Green township, died on December 15th from injuries he suffered after being kicked by horse. Youst, 20, served "bravely" in the army, first with Company D, 21st Regt. Pa. Cavalry for six months, then with Company E (same regiment) for three years.
(Names in announcement: Augustus Youst, William Youst)

Local Items--Pedestrianism
(Column 1)

Summary: Notes that Seth Wilber Payne stopped in Chambersburg last Monday as part of his walking tour. Payne is expected to travel 1,000 miles; he is chronicling the adventure for publication in a monthly magazine called the Traveler. Additionally, F. W. Symons, a law student from New Jersey, will pass through town en route to Kansas as part of his excursion. He is expected to arrive shortly.

Local Items--Eldership
(Column 2)

Summary: Relates that the East Pennsylvania Eldership of the Church of God held its annual session in Newville, from December 13 to 20.
(Names in announcement: D. A. L. Laferty, A. Swartz, C. Price, W. S. Jones, O. Sigler, John Hunter)

Local Items--Serious Accident To Judge Ferguson
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports that Judge Ferguson suffered serious injuries when he fell into a sink hole last Saturday. Ferguson was rescued by Mr. Skinner, who brought him to his house. The judge broke his collar bone in the fall, but is doing well.
(Names in announcement: Judge Ferguson, Skinner)

Local Items--Accident
(Column 2)

Summary: While traveling along the turnpike, David Eby "met a severe and painful accident" after his wagon broke as he descended down a hill. Eby was thrown from the wagon, but managed to escape without serious injury.
(Names in announcement: David Eby)

Local Items--Religious
(Column 2)

Summary: Rev. J. A. Crawford will provide the sermon for the Thanksgiving meeting at the Lutheran Church tomorrow; the First Lutheran Church of Chambersburg has extended an offer to Rev. Mr. Magee, of Baltimore, to take charge of the congregation; Rev. Alfred Nevin, formerly of Chambersburg, has received a call to lead a Presbyterian congregation in Jacksonville, Florida.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. A. Crawford, Rev. Dr. Alfred Nevin)

Local Items--Roads
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports that the roads in Amberson's Valley underwent more work this past summer than it did in the previous five years. "It is being put in really good condition, considering the difficulties connected with making and keeping a road of the kind."

Local Items--Building Association
(Column 2)

Summary: The article states that the Chambersburg Building Association was permanently organized, and its officers selected, at a meeting last Wednesday.
(Names in announcement: George Eyster, William D. Guthrie, B. F. Nead, Calvin Gilbert, B. L. Maurer, Jacob Henninger, Dr. William H. Boyle)

Local Items--Attempt at Robbery
(Column 2)

Summary: Relates that a group of three men attempted to break into the houses of John Gordon and Dr. Edmund Culbertson last Saturday night; on Monday night an attempt was made to jimmy the lock on Jacob Shaffer's grocery store. No arrests have been made.
(Names in announcement: Dr. Edmund Culbertson, John Gordon, Jacob Shaffer)

Local Items--Newspaper Change
(Column 2)

Summary: John R. Gaff, editor and proprietor of the Greencastle Valley Echo, has sold the enterprise to Col. B. F. Winger. M. D. Reymer will assume editorial control of the journal, assisted by George E. Hollar.
(Names in announcement: John R. Gaff, Col. B. F. Winger, M. D. Reymer, George E. Hollar)

Local Items--Anniversary
(Column 2)

Summary: Informs readers that the McMurray Lodge, No. 119, I. O. G. T., will celebrate its second anniversary this Wednesday.
(Names in announcement: Col. D. W. Rowe, Rev. S. H. C. Smith)

Local Items--New Locomotive
(Column 2)

Summary: Announces that the Cumberland Valley Railroad has a new freight engine named the Gen. Tyler.

Local Items--Property Sold
(Column 3)

Summary: Reports that Adam Cook, of McConnellsburg, bought the residence of David Croft, on east King St., for $4,000.
(Names in announcement: Adam Cook, David Croft)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On Nov. 30th, David Agnew and Isabella Slaymaker, of Lancaster county, were married by Rev. J. Elliott.
(Names in announcement: David Agnew, Isabella Slaymaker, Rev. J. Elliott)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 14th, James W. Fallen and Mary A., daughter of John F. Johnson, of Cumberland county, were married by Rev. John B. Henry.
(Names in announcement: James W. Fallen, Mary A. Johnson, Rev. John H. Henry)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 10th, John C. Secrist and Charlotte A. Hoeflich were married by Rev. Calender.
(Names in announcement: John C. Secrist, Charlotte A. Hoeflich, Rev. Calender)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 20th, J. Thompson Parker and S. M. Brown were married by Rev. R. G. Ferguson.
(Names in announcement: J. Thompson Parker, S. M. Brown, Rev. R. G. Ferguson)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 18th, Joseph B. Shaffer, of Frederick County, Md., and Mary J. Prim were married by Rev. S. H. C. Smith.
(Names in announcement: Joseph B. Shaffer, Mary J. Prim, Rev. S. H. C. Smith)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 20th, Maj. John S. Nimmon and Sarah A. Flickinger were married by Rev. William A. West, assisted by I. N. Hays.
(Names in announcement: Maj. John S. Nimmon, Sarah A. Flickinger, Rev. William A. West, I. N. Hays)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 21st, Jonas Zimmerman, of Cumberland county, Md., and Anna Hege were married by Rev. Dr. Schneck.
(Names in announcement: Jonas Zimmerman, Anna Hege, Rev. Dr. Schneck)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 7th, John L. Landis and Catharine Lehman were married by Rev. G. Roth.
(Names in announcement: John L. Landis, Catharine Lehman, Rev. G. Roth)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 17th, Bella Grubb died in Mercersburg. She was 77 years old.
(Names in announcement: Bella Grubb)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 22nd, Susannah, consort of Capt. John Coble, died in St. Thomas township. She was 76 years old.
(Names in announcement: Capt. John Coble, Susannah Coble)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 15th, Jacob Walter, formerly of Waynesboro, died in Springfield, Ohio. He was 67 years old.
(Names in announcement: Jacob Walter)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: On Dec. 9th, James W. Holliday died in Dry Run. He was 79 years old.
(Names in announcement: James W. Holliday)