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Franklin Repository: April 15, 1868 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

A Railroad Meeting
(Column 01)

Summary: The article lauds the idea of a meeting amongst businessmen of Chambersburg to discuss a railroad connection in Waynesboro. It details why such a connection would be beneficial for the area.

Full Text of Article:

We are informed that the business men of Chambersburg contemplate, at an early day, assembling for the purpose of ascertaining what ought to be done, and what it is possible for them to do, in the matter of securing a connection with Waynesboro' by the railroad, during the present season.

We are glad that this is so, for, in our judgment, the step contemplated is a long one toward success in the movement. More of information, touching the state of the question which any projected enterprise presents, can be gained, by all interested, in an hour's free interchange of views at a general assembly, than weeks of broken, disjointed, piece-meal, chat will furnish, on the street or in private places of business. Aggregation, moreover, is power, as well to do as to will to do, and what the assembled eyes see to be desirable the united hands and hearts are able and wiling to try to accomplish. A meeting can do nothing but good, we are certain. Nor can too early a date be fixed for the council. The building of a road this summer, in the eastern half of the county, whereby that section will obtain the advantages of connection with eastern cities is as near a certainty as such things ever are. From Waynesboro to a junction somewhere, the energetic men, at the other end of the line, will push a road in the coming months of fair weather and it is now for Chambersburg, through her business men and capitalists, to determine whether they, wishing to have the terminus here, will afford the necessary and fair assistance which alone can bring it.

Let us see why they must make some positive efforts. The charter for the road specifies a terminus, northward, in the fields below Scotland - that route has been surveyed, and its cost learned - men's minds are accustomed to think of the route as thus laid down - interests are beginning to concentre upon that track, and its probable points of business - subscriptions for that line are shaping - inertia is growing fast into an obstacle to change to another point. Vigorous effort, it's true, would, on the part of Chambersburg, brush away these cobwebby reasons, but, without that effort, they determine the road.

Now, as there certainly will be a road, and its course is definitely fixed, at this writing, unless something be done to counteract past action and present tendencies, the meeting will be obliged to consider the reasons, if any, why they ought to work determinedly as they never have worked before since Chambersburg has been a town - to bring the radio to this point. The advocates of a junction here are simply embarrassed by the abundance of the reasons for it.

Chambersburg has much to gain by it. The section, which will be brought, in effect, to her corporate limits, by the speedy intercourse the road will afford, is one of the most populous, fertile and thriving, agricultural, districts of the State. The trade of those townships and villages will be secured to her in its present full amount and its future manifold increase. She has as much to lose - for, if a junction be made either up or down the valley, or both above and below, and the buyers be brought into close contact with our neighboring business centres of Carlisle and Hagerstown, all this trade will follow the convenience of its managers and leave our county town to be the receptacle for the butter and eggs of a brace of townships and nothing more.

But, the building of the road will be the proximate cause of the development of a measure of material wealth, in and for the county, which, we think, will astound even its owners when they come to view it as laid bare. We said, once before, when talking of this road and its advantages to the town and country, that the richness of the mineral wealth of the South Mountain District was incalculable - we reiterate our belief in its boundless extent. There is not more nor better iron ore, in the same area, any where in Pennsylvania, than lies at the foot, on the slopes, and in the ravines, of that mountain chain. Prospecting, rightly managed, will soon discover, in paying quantities, the lead and copper, whereof specimens now glitter on the writer's desk; pigments of every shade, and manganese, can be mined, in quantity, to-day. Who shall say what the scene these busy districts will present ten years hence, if only the locomotive make intercourse speedy and transportation cheap, and who can measure the prosperity of the town which will become, at once, the receiver of all of its products; and the source of all of its supplies?

We deem the action to be taken by this meeting vital - we hope the business men will vindicate, by their liberality and their energy, their right to the title of provident, courageous, men.

Since writing the foregoing we learn that the meeting will be held in the Court House during the second week of the Court. The evening will be announced in our next issue.

The Opening Campaign
(Column 01)

Summary: This article is a tirade against both the Democratic party and Andrew Johnson, characterizing him as a man without principles and a traitor to democracy.

Full Text of Article:

In the view of the great campaign upon which we are about to enter, and which will doubtless be contested with the very energy of despair on the part of the so-called Democracy, it would be the quintessence of folly in a people to ignore the past while preparing for the exigencies of the future. But at the same time it behooves the American people to scrutinize closely the history of the Democratic party, so that they can distinguish between the real Democracy when in its palmy days it bent its energies to the great task of taking care of the rights of the people, when they were threatened by aristocratic endeavors to make the rights and privileges of the many subservient to the interests and assumptions of the few, and the pseudo Democracy of the present day. There was a time when Democracy meant something. Since that time it has apostatized from its high and holy calling, acting by the people, through the people and for the people. It now shamelessly lends its aid to the interests of a defunct system of slavery, which, after threatening the dearest rights and interests of the people, has endeavored to pull down the mighty fabric of our fathers, so that an aristocratic, slave-breeding and slave-driving oligarchy may rule and control the laboring masses. The past, to which we would direct the attention of the people, lies within the memory of every voter. The record that the opposition has made, is the most unenviable that could well be imagined. Think of a great nation struggling for its life, for the interests of posterity and for the interests of the wide world; and then behold a part of its own children, reared under its benign influence, unwilling to depart the common household and cast their lot with those in open arms, yet whose every act and wish demonstrated to the most casual observer, nay to the enemy itself, where their sympathies were. The people cannot forget the party's record in regard to the ways and means of raising and supporting our army, managing our finances, and especially its contemptuous sneers at the valor of our own soldiers when periling their all, yea life itself, for the safety of their country.

When Andrew Johnson opposed the South, this party unblushingly denied him the Senate Hall to be used in the interests of the Union, but when Andrew Johnson turned his back upon his own record in behalf of freedom and right, this same party basely took him to its arms and now would fain crown him as a martyr to the cause of liberty. This same party which has so unmistakably evinced its sympathies with rebellion and traitors, will now, through its champions, profess great love for the Union - great reverence for the fathers of the Republic - undying devotion to the Constitution and most intense horror at the phantom of negro equality - yea all this, while seeking allies amongst rebels, belieing the very name which received its potency from devotion to the cause of freedom - and feeling in their hearts a deep sympathy with those who have mixed their blood with the African under the baneful influence of slavery. While these blatant demagogues feign to forget their speeches and actions during the war, let the people look up their old platforms and campaign documents, and confront them with their dark and traitorous record.

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: This short article attacks the Ku Klux Klan, calling it a form of continued guerilla rebellion. It also places part of the blame for the Klan on Andrew Johnson.

Full Text of Article:

That the rebels under the inspiration and encouragement of Andrew Johnson and engaged in another plot to defy the authority of the government and to keep the late rebel States in a condition of anarchy, can no longer be doubted. Their secret, oath-bound organization, known as the Ku Klux Klan, is the wickedest and most dangerous order that has ever existed in the country, and from every quarter of the South we have intelligence of the brutal murder of the Union men and negroes by the members of this clan. So frequent have these murders became, and so persistently and systematically are Union men persecuted, that Gen. Grant has felt it his duty to take action to suppress the organization. They should be crushed by armed forces at once. They are simply perpetuating the rebellion in the worst guerilla form, and there can be no peace in the South while they are tolerated.

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: The paper argues that the slogan of the Democratic Party has always been "vote early and vote often." The editors assert that party attempts to block state registry laws come from a desire to continue perpetrating fraud.

The Registry Law
(Column 03)

Summary: The recently passed Registry law requires voters in Pennsylvania to register before being able to vote. This article explains each section of the new law in close detail.

Full Text of Article:

We publish this week a careful synopsis of the new Registry Act, which sets forth all its essential features briefly and clearly, without being encumbered by the surplusage which always surrounds legislative enactments:

Section 1 provides that the Assessors, after receiving their transcripts from the County Commissioners, shall make a list of all white freemen above twenty-one years of age, who shall make claim to be qualified voters in their respective townships, wards, &c., and state opposite their names whether said voter is a housekeeper, and the number or place of residence; and if not a housekeeper the occupation, place of boarding; and if working for another, the name of his employer; and set opposite to his name the word "voter." And when a party claims to be a naturalized voter, he must exhibit his certificate to the Assessor, unless he shall have voted in the township, borough or wards at five preceding general elections. When a party has declared his intention to become a citizen, and means to be naturalized before the next election, the name shall be marked D. J.

Parties between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-two, claiming to vote by reason thereof, shall have the word "age" entered; and if said party has moved into the district since the last general election, the letter R shall be placed opposite the name. In all the above enumerated cases a tax shall be assessed against the person. To carry this law into effect it shall be the duty of the Commissioners of the respective counties of this Commonwealth, within sixty days after the passage of this Act, to cause alphabetical lists of the persons returned by the Assessors, as assessed in the several district for the present year, to be made out and placed in the hands of their respective Assessors, who shall, on or before the 1st of September next, ascertain the qualifications of the persons therein named, and their claims to vote as before mentioned, and return said lists to the Commissioners as hereinafter directed. This section further provides that all persons who were thus registered and permitted to vote at the next preceding election in October, shall, without further proof be placed on the list or registry, to be prepared for the election in November; but they and all others shall be subject to challenge as prescribed by the fourth Section of this Act.

Section 2 provides that when the lists of assessments are completed, as provided in section 1, and returned to the County Commissioners, they shall cause exact duplicates to be made, with all the observations therein noted, and placed in the hands of an Assessor, who shall, before the first of August next ensuing said assessment, put one copy on the door of the house where the election of the district is to be held and to retain the other for the inspection of every person resident in said district, free of charge, who may desire to inspect the same; and on the qualification of the one claiming the right to vote in said district, the Assessor shall add the claimants name, and mark opposite his name C. V., and immediately assess him with a tax. On the tenth day preceding the general election in October next, the Assessor shall produce the list in his possession to the Inspectors and Judge of election of the district, at a meeting to be held by them, as provided in section 3.

Section 3 requires the Inspectors and Judge of the election and the Assessor to attend at the place of holding the general elections for the respective election districts on the tenth day preceding the second Tuesday in October, and other succeeding days, from nine A. M. to six P. M., to hear proofs of the right of persons to vote whose names are contained in the Assessor's list, or who shall apply to have their names registered. And all those who have not previously voted in the election district, are required to make proof before this board of their right to vote in said district; and those applying to be registered, whose names have not been enrolled by the Assessor and marked "voter," must make like proof of their right to vote, whereupon the Assessor shall assess said person with a tax as required by law. The election officers shall cause duplicate copies of the lists thus corrected by them to be made out, one to be placed on the door of the house where the election is held, the other to be held by the Judge of the election for the inspection of citizens. It is further provided that persons claiming to be entitled to vote whose names have not been entered on the registry of the district in which they claim to be entitled to vote, shall produce, at least, one qualified voter of the election district to prove the residence of the claimant in the district for the period of, at least, ten days preceding the general election next ensuing. The witness shall subscribe an affidavit defining clearly where the residence of the person claiming to be a voter is. The person claiming the right to be registered shall also be required to subscribe an affidavit stating respectively when and where he was born, that he is a citizen of Pennsylvania and of the United States: if a naturalized citizen he shall state when, where and by what court he was naturalized, and shall present his certificate of naturalization for examination, unless he has been a voter in the said district for five years then next preceding. In the same manner is the claimant to be registered, required to prove that he regained lost citizenship, if he had lost the same, that he had not registered as a voter elsewhere, that he had paid tax within two years, &c. The affidavits of voters and witnesses shall be preserved by the board, and on the close of the election day they shall be placed in the ballot box with the other papers now required by law to be preserved therein; and if the board find that the applicants possess the legal qualifications of voters, they shall add their names to the list alphabetically with like effect as if the same had been done ten days before the election. The reception of the vote of any person not so registered, shall constitute a misdemeanor in the election officers so receiving it, and on conviction thereof they shall be subject to fine and imprisonment.

Section 4 provides that on election day it shall be lawful for any qualified citizen of the district, to challenge the vote of any person offering to vote, notwithstanding his name is contained on the registry, and his right to vote has been passed on by the election board, whereupon the same proof as is now required by law shall be publicly made and again acted upon by the board, and the vote admitted or rejected, according to the evidence. Naturalized citizens will be required to produce their naturalization certificates at the election, before voting, as required by existing laws, although the same may have been exhibited to the election board before registry. When such vote is received, the election officers shall write the word "voted" thereon, with the month and year and if any election officer of that or any other election district shall receive a second vote on the same day, by virtue of such certificate, the person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. And the officers of election who shall neglect or refuse to make the endorsement required upon said certificate shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Section 5 provides for the sealing and preserving of the registry lists, in the same manner now required by law as to the tally papers.

Section 6 provides that ten days before the election for Electors of President and Vice President of the United States, the board of election shall convene at the place of holding the general election, to hear applications of persons whose names have been omitted from the registry, and who claim the right to vote in the same manner as is provided for in the third section of this act.

Section 7 provides that at every special election provided by law, and at every city, ward, borough or township election, the registry required to be kept may be used as evidence of the persons entitled thereat to vote.

Section 8 prescribes the oath, and defines the power and duties of the boards of elections, consisting of the Assessors, Inspectors and Judges, and provides for their compensation.

Section 9 provides that on petition of five or more citizens of the county stating that they believe that frauds will be practiced at the election about to be held in any district, the Court of Common Pleas, or a Judge thereat on vacation, shall appoint two persons, judicious, sober, and intelligent citizens of the county, to act as overseers at said elections, with proper and necessary authority to prevent the same.

Section 10 provides for the punishment of any Prothonotary or Clerk of the Court who may fraudulently issue or furnish naturalization certificates.

Section 11 provides the penalty for any Assessor, election officer, or person appointed as overseer, who refuses or neglects to perform any duty enjoined by this act, without reasonable legal cause.

Section 12 provides the penalty and prescribes the mode of punishment to be inflicted upon any tax collector found guilty of issuing a receipt for taxes, said taxes not having been paid.

Section 13 provides the time for opening and closing the polls.

Section 14 directs the County Commissioners shall, at the expense of the county, furnish all blanks made necessary by this act.

Section 15 repeals all laws inconsistent with this act.

The experience of most of the States, to which our own is no exception, have long since established the imperfection of their election laws, and many of them have devised amendments to overcome them. The weakness of our own has been painfully illustrated by the enormous frauds which have attended most of our elections for years; and this effort of the legislature to lessen the opportunities for frauds and corruption should meet the approbation of all honest minded persons of both parties. That it will we have no more doubt than we have that it will meet with the bitter opposition of the Democratic leaders. Experience has made it a truism that whatever makes illegal voting impossible strikes at the root of the Democratic party, and we may safely predict that its leaders will exhaust all the epithets in their billingsgate storehouse in condemnation of this law. An equitable and just, and stringent law like this will make it impossible to vote upon fraudulent naturalization certificates, or to vote in more than one election district, and therefore the Democracy must denounce it: just as the criminal denounces the law which punishes his offenses against society, or the drunkard that which restrains the vending of intoxicating drinks. The same reasons confirm honest, right minded citizens in their conviction, that such laws are right and just, and should be sustained. The circumstances being altered alter the circumstances.

[No Title]
(Column 04)

Summary: The author comments that news from the South indicates increased economic activity among freedmen and cooperation from the white planters. This, he believes, indicates that if the freedmen are given fair treatment, economic equality will form naturally without the need for confiscation or legal restructuring.

Full Text of Article:

There is a hopeful indication from the South. From nearly every quarter comes the report that the negroes are showing a better disposition to work than at any previous time since the war closed. What is quite as good news, the planters are more ready to engage them and to fulfill their part of the contract. In some localities planters are intending to do very little, but even this will work to the advantage of the negroes, as they will be enabled to hire land and till it on their own account. Such intelligence as this is a confirmation of the opinion we have always entertained, that if the negroes had anything like fair-play from the whites, the question of labor and the ownership of land will settle themselves without the aid of confiscation or other legislative interference.

[No Title]
(Column 04)

Summary: The paper applauds General Meade's order to arrest everyone connected with the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida in an attempt to prevent "outrages."

Local News
(Column 01)

Summary: This list of recently-passed state laws that affect the local county includes discussion of railroad development and paying citizens back for damages incurred during the war.

Full Text of Article:

Quite a number of laws of a local character, applicable to this county, have been passed by the Legislature. Among them we notice the following, in addition to those already noticed:

An act making the law "relating to the liens of mechanics and others upon buildings" applicable to debts contracted for work done and materials furnished for or about the repair, alteration or addition to any house.

An act extending the time for commencing the construction of the Pennsylvania and Maryland Line turnpike.

An act authorizing the Scotland and Mont Alto Railroad Company, to extend said railroad from or near Mont Alto as far as to the Maryland State Line, passing near or through Waynesboro.

An act allowing five dollars for every wild cat, and one dollar for every fox, killed within the counties of Clarion and Franklin.

An act increasing the capital stock of the Greencastle and Middleburg turnpike road company to five hundred shares at $25 per share.

An act to incorporate to the Clay Lick turnpike road company.

An act submitting the question of the continuance or repeal of the road law of this county to a vote of the people at the next general election.

An act applying all sums of money arising under the Huckster law, approved May 18th, 1866, to the use of the county in which the licenses shall be granted.

An act incorporating the Franklin, Fulton and Huntingdon Railroad. This road is to commence at Mt. Union, Huntingdon county, pass through Fulton county, and intersect the Cumberland Valley Railroad. The Fulton Democrat says a considerable amount of money has already been subscribed, and there are fair hopes that this road will be built at no distant day.

An act for the relief of citizens of the counties of Adams, Franklin, Fulton, York, Perry and Cumberland, whose property was destroyed, damaged or appropriated for the public service and in the common defense in the war to suppress the rebellion.

Sale of Property
(Column 01)

Summary: The Rev. A. S. Foster of Connecticut purchased William S. Everett's residence "Federal Hill." Foster intends to make the residence the nucleus of a new female seminary. He has a distinguished record of teaching in women's schools. The paper applauds the endeavor.

On the Bench
(Column 01)

Summary: Col. D. Watson Rowe, recently appointed additional Law Judge for the district including Franklin, presided over the Fulton County Court last week in place of Judge King. He also presided over the opening of the court in Franklin. Rowe received excellent reviews. The paper thanks Gov. Geary for his wise appointment.
(Names in announcement: Col. D. Watson Rowe, Judge King)

I. O. O. F.
(Column 01)

Summary: Henry Bishop of Chambersburg Lodge No. 175, I. O. O. F., installed the following officers: Thad M. Mahon, George Remp, George Palmer, Joseph Martin, John Earhart, John King, Samuel Perry, P. W. Jacobs, J. L. P. Detrich, Frank Skinner, Allen Smith, John Strike, C. Henneberger, John Cook, David Forbes, William Robinson, D. A. Wertz, John Strike. A. J. White of Olive Branch Encampment, No. 13, I. O. O. F., installed the following officers: N. P. Grove, Frank Henderson, John S. Embich, David F. Leisher, W. H. Boyle, Jacob Spangler, P. H. Peiffer, John Strike, John Wood, Jacob Sheets, Jere Miller, J. Warren Seibert, Thomas Henneberger, Speakman Hicks.
(Names in announcement: Henry Bishop, Thad M. Mahon, George Remp, George Palmer, Joseph Martin, John Earhart, John King, Samuel Perry, P. W. Jacobs, J. L. P. Detrich, Frank Skinner, Allen Smith, John Strike, C. Henneberger, John Cook, David Forbes, William Robinson, D. A. Wertz, A. J. White, N. P. Grove, Frank Henderson, John S. Embich, David F. Leisher, W. H. Boyle, Jacob Spangler, P. H. Peiffer, John Wood, Jacob Sheets, Jere Miller, Warren Seibert, Thomas Henneberger, Speakman Hicks)

Temperance
(Column 01)

Summary: The quarterly session of the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of Pennsylvania will meet in Chambersburg in the hall of the Falling Spring Division No. 122. G. W. P. Pratt of Philadelphia will deliver a public address at the Court House in connection with the meeting.

The Bunyan Tableaux
(Column 02)

Summary: The Bunyan Tableaux is now on display at Repository Hall. All visitors have declared it "the most magnificent panorama" ever seen.

Important to Soldiers
(Column 02)

Summary: The legislature instructed all Recorders of Deeds in the various counties to record the discharges of all honorably discharged soldiers. This will prevent the problem of lost discharge papers.

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper advocates planting shade trees in Chambersburg, even if it means giving a $1 bonus to all who do so, or fining those who refuse.

Personal
(Column 02)

Summary: Rev. J. A. Kunkelman, former pastor of Chambersburg's First Lutheran Church, had been elected to succeed Rev. Dr. Krotel as pastor of St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. A. Kunkelman)

Religious
(Column 02)

Summary: The Rev. Irving Magee has been leading a religious revival at Chambersburg's First Lutheran Church that has been going on for several weeks. Twenty-one new members joined the church by certificate and fifty-two by confirmation. Three hundred and twenty-five have taken part in the revival.
(Names in announcement: Rev. Irving Magee)

Waynesboro Railroad
(Column 02)

Summary: The citizens of Waynesboro have subscribed over $40,000 for building a railroad from a point on the Cumberland Valley Railroad to Waynesboro.

Married
(Column 02)

Summary: Charles Pillsbury and Mrs. Sarah H. Kensler, both of Chambersburg, were married on April 2nd at the residence of John Jeffries by the Rev. J. A. Crawford.
(Names in announcement: Charles Pillsbury, Sarah H. Kensler, John Jeffries, Rev. J. A. Crawford)

Married
(Column 02)

Summary: Henry Bender of McConnellsburg and Mrs. Susan Philips of Chambersburg were married in Chambersburg on March 19th by the Rev. P. S. Davis.
(Names in announcement: Henry Bender, Susan Philips, Rev. P. S. Davis)

Married
(Column 02)

Summary: John W. Bender and Miss Mary E. Farner, both of Pleasant Hall, were married on April 7th by the Rev. P. S. Davis.
(Names in announcement: John W. Bender, Mary E. Farner, Rev. P. S. Davis)

Married
(Column 02)

Summary: Theopilus Stratten of Chambersburg and Miss Barbara E. Lawson of Shippensburg were married on April 2nd by the Rev. J. Hassler.
(Names in announcement: Theopilus Stratten, Barbara E. Lawson, Rev. J. Hassler)

Married
(Column 02)

Summary: Andrew Burgess and Miss Kate Beaver, both of Loudon, were married at Loudon on March 25th by the Rev. A. M. Whetstone.
(Names in announcement: Andrew Burgess, Kate Beaver, Rev. A. M. Whetstone)

Died
(Column 02)

Summary: William Largie Shirly, infant son of William H. and Martha Shirly, died in Guilford on March 8th.
(Names in announcement: William Largie Shirly, William H. Shirly, Martha Shirly)

Died
(Column 02)

Summary: Charles Neirider died in Metal on April 5th. He was 35 years old.
(Names in announcement: Charles Neirider)