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Franklin Repository: July 07, 1869 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Republican County Convention
(Column 01)

Summary: This table lists how many votes each district gets in the upcoming Republican Convention.

Full Text of Article:

At a meeting of the Republican Co. Committee, held in Chambersburg, on the 4th of May last, TUESDAY, THE 3D OF AUGUST NEXT, at 11 o'clock, A. M., was selected as the time for holding the County Nominating Convention, and SATURDAY, THE 31ST OF JULY, at the usual time and places, for the holding of the primary meetings.

The following resolution, establishing a basis of representation in the Convention, was adopted by the last County Convention:

Resolved, That the County Convention shall be composed as follows. Each district shall be entitled to three delegates, and one additional delegate for each one hundred Republican votes, or fractional part of one hundred votes exceeding fifty, and that the vote given at the Presidential election of 1868 shall be the basis of representation.

The following table gives the Republican vote of the several districts, and the number of delegates each is entitled to, with the number of delegates from each district under the old basis:

Districts. Rep. Vote. New Basis. Old Basis. Antrim.................. 583 9 9 Chamb'g / North Ward.... 397 7 4 South Ward.... 299 6 5 Concord................. 34 3 3 Dry Run................. 122 4 3 Fayetteville............ 255 6 4 Greenvillage............ 214 5 3 Guilford................ 225 5 4 Hamilton................ 128 4 3 Letterkenny............ 181 5 4 Lurgan................. 100 4 3 Loudon................. 97 4 3 Metal.................. 157 5 3 Montgomery............. 270 6 4 Orrstown................ 94 4 3 Peters.................. 165 5 3 Quincy.................. 265 6 5 Southampton............. 60 4 3 Sulphur Spring.......... 33 3 3 St. Thomas.............. 168 5 3 Washington.............. 388 7 6 Warren.................. 59 4 3 Welsh Run............... 157 5 3

S. F. GREENAWALT,
Chairman Republican County Committee.

Encouraging
(Column 01)

Summary: The Repository finds the Democrats' universal loathing of Grant as an encouraging sign. That, plus Grant's reduction of the national debt, have demonstrated to the author that Grant is not another Johnson.

Full Text of Article:

Perhaps the most and conclusive evidence of the success which has followed Grant's administration of the government is found in the bitterness with which the Democracy pursue and denounce it. If any Democratic journal has yet published anything in approval of a single one of his measures it has been our misfortune to fail to see it. We cannot, however, open a single paper of that political persuasion which does not teem with outrageous abuse and misrepresentation. All this means something if we but look for it. It means that Grant is truly Republican, and has disappointed the expectations of the Democracy, who hoped to see him apostatize as Johnson had done before him. If General Grant had not pledged himself in his inaugural address to administer the affairs of the government in accordance with the principles of the Republican party, and had followed in the steps of Johnson, the Democratic party would be as loud in his praises today as it is in his condemnation. That he did not do so is a sufficient reason for the course Democratic journals pursue. There could scarcely be anything more conclusive as to the success of his administration than this, "The Democratic party hates and fears him."

But there is a better reason than even Democratic hate why we should be satisfied with the President, and what he has done. During the campaign preceding his election the favorite count in the Democratic bill of indictment was the extravagance of the Republicans while in power. This was pressed from every cross roads, every corner grocery and every platform. Even the eternal nigger sunk into insignificance before it. We were charged with making the war debt, and squandering the taxes, which should go toward paying it, and not only this, but prophets were not lacking who predicted that Grant's election would increase the national debt and largely augment the expenses of the government.

But see how these false prophets have been brought to shame. Three months of Grant's administration have reduced the national debt $36,000,000, and the current expenses of the government to one half the sum of the last year of Johnson's administration. Now we look for these Democratic journals, which stand as sentinels on the watch tower of the Republic, and have such keen vision for Republican extravagance, to herald the healthy and gratifying condition of affairs under the new administration. Let us hear them proclaim their predictions false. Let them convince us of their determination to be just by calling out along their line the "all's well" of the Republic. We urge it as wise policy on their part. It will convince the people that though mistaken in their view of the Republican party, they were actuated by upright motives, and seek to subvert the best interests of the people. Are we destined to look in vain?

The healthful conditions of our finances, and the confidence which the people have learned to feel in the administration, arise from the most simple and natural causes, honesty and fidelity in the execution of public affairs. There have been no great or unexpected changes in the policy of the government. Retrenchment and Reform are the magical instruments which have wrought it all. They constitute a policy which is fully within the comprehension of the simplest mind in the country, and give the administration a strength and support which can only come from the masses of the people.

The Registry Law
(Column 01)

Summary: The paper attacks Judge Sharswood's decision to strike down the Registry Law designed to battle the general corruption in the Pennsylvania electoral system.

Full Text of Article:

The question of the constitutionality of the new Registry Law will be settled by a full bench of the Supreme Court, now in session in Philadelphia. The argument was taken up on Friday last, and a decision will be reached before long which will determine whether or not the people have a right to restrain fraud and corruption in elections, and to protect honest and legitimate voters in the exercise of the elective franchise. The elaborate opinion of Judge Sharswood, delivered a few weeks ago, to the effect that the law was unconstitutional surprised no one, at least no one who understood the intent of the law. We knew what his opinion would be from the moment the case was brought before him. It could not well have been otherwise. The law was framed and intended solely to prevent fraudulent voting at elections, and such a law is necessarily damaging to the Democratic party. The action of Judge Sharswood, in this matter, is to say the least a most remarkable spectacle, and the man who finds in the constitution of the State his warrant for legalizing fraud and corruption, wears the judicial ermine with exceedingly doubtful propriety. Our elections have for years been notoriously fraudulent, and both political parties have been justly charged with taking advantage of the loose and slip shod provisions of the law to swell their votes and to carry the election. Especially in Philadelphia is this the case, where it is but necessary for either party to hold a sufficient number of the voting precincts, and plenty of money on election day, to win. The new law was wisely and judiciously framed to prevent this, by rendering it well nigh impossible for any one, not a legal voter under the constitution, to deposit a ballot. It was a strong and earnest declaration of the people, through the Legislature, in favor of the purity of the ballot. Its provisions made no party discriminations whatever, but placed all men squarely on the same footing. Those who were entitled to a vote should be secured in their rights; those who were not should be retrained. One would naturally suppose that such a law would meet with universal approval. We are pained to say that it met universal and bitter opposition from the Democratic party. From the moment of its becoming a law it has not been able to muster a friend in that party. Every Democratic journal, of high or low degree, with disgusting and ill-concealed concern, made haste to assail it, and make themselves the champions and defenders of crime and corruption. It is too much to say that this party is afraid to submit its principles and candidates to the arbitrament of elections, protected against fraud and corruption by a wise and carefully constructed Registry Law? Judged by its acts and its record we think not, and we hold ourselves ready to condemn the law as earnestly as do the Democrats themselves, if in any particular it discriminates unfairly in favor of one party or the other.

We have refrained from discussing the argument of Judge Sharswood against the law, based on the position that it discriminates against the voters of Philadelphia, and therefore violates the constitution which provides that suffrage shall be equal and free. The Supreme Court have the question now before them, and will say whether such arguments, weighed in the balance of common sense and morality, shall avail to deprive the people of a measure to eminently just and needful as a Registry Law. In spite of the learned opinion we are sure they will not, unless they too, like Judge Sharswood, mean to aid the Democracy through fraud and corruption.

Republican County Convention
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper stresses the importance of primary elections, party unity, and the choice of excellent candidates in the upcoming campaign.

Something Wrong
(Column 02)

Summary: Addressing its Democratic readers, the Repository points out southern Democrats' attempts to court black votes. The article also reprints an address by Edward A. Pollard, a former advocate of secession.

Full Text of Article:

While the Northern Democracy are making a weak effort to prevent the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and are united in their denunciations of the negro, the late Virginia rebels are vigorously working among their former slaves and are trying to win their support in the ensuing election, by the use of such endearing terms as "colored voters" and "colored freedmen," the Staunton Spectator even going so far as to say "colored friends." Democrats of Pennsylvania, and especially Democrats of Franklin county, you who have been for so many years willing to do the bidding of your Southern masters, what say you to this? Will you submit to it? Why do you not in thunder tones denounce this effort at negro equality that is being made by the members of your own party? Democratic orators and Democratic journals in the South are daily beseeching these men, whom you have been taught to despise and hate, to join your party. Your papers dare not tell you this, but nevertheless it is so. You have been outrageously swindled, and are in no better condition than if you had never opposed the Radicals.

Read and reflect what Edward A. Pollard, one of the most able advocates of secession, says in an address to colored people of Virginia:

Now believe me, there are other rights which you want more than political rights. You want the right to have more than political rights. You want the right to have justice done you in the courts, to live in the severest eye of the law as every inch free. You should have it. You want something more than this - to be regarded practically not as "niggers" with tickets-of-leave, not as freemen by courtesy, or by any left-handed title, but as freemen in fee-simple and in full estate. You should have it. From a close study of the temper of the colored people of the South, I am, fully persuaded of one curious thing - that their uneasiness is not so much from a desire of political influence in the community - as witness their comparatively small ambition for office - as it is to be respected in their new estate. I know that there are newspapers who are constantly deriding your race; who have no other name for you but "nigger," or "colored cuss;" reporters who are always glad to barb a police item with such epithet, who make caricatures of your speeches, and "pints" of order and "notations." But a few weeks ago I noticed with pain and shame that when one of your race was hung in Richmond, the few untutored words he put up on the scaffold to the Savior of all mankind - words to which He who say on the circle of that day and held the winds in his hands deigned to incline the ear - were caricatured, and set down in the usual gibberish of the funny orthographers of the newspapers; and I afterward saw two white men at a hotel laughing over the dying speech of the poor wretch! Such an example of humor is hideous enough to have drawn the echo of a laugh from hell. But even in their lightest aspects, these derisions of your race do harm; they occasion resentment; and no wonder you sometimes burn with a sense of injustice, for I can testify that I have heard some colored men make better speeches than white reporters who went to ridicule them could possibly have done. The insults which you habitually receive - the manner in which you are looked down upon, and scorned, and travestied - are, I venture to say more galling to you, and more really the cause of your dissatisfaction than any want of suffrage and office. No brave man will thus insult you; no reflecting and good white citizen will thus wound you, and inflame with such wantonness the resentments of race. On the contrary, there are many in the ranks of your old masters who are observing your efforts at ascent and improvement, with thoughtful interest and with kindly sympathy; who are bidding you "God-speed" in the emancipation of your intellects - the great work that remains for yourselves; and who are wondering, piteously it maybe, but thoughtfully and tenderly, how you will work our the problem that God has placed in your hands. * * * * * * *

The white man of the South who would insult you, to whom you are still a "Nigger," who would have black and white justice in the courts, and who would make a cowardly reflection upon you for what he has lost in the war, is a dirty enemy. But on the supposition that there are decent and honorable white men in the South sufficient to put down this disgrace in their midst, willing to give you your proper rights, and treating with respect all your real endeavors for improvement - men who recognize in you a real cause of chivalry and a modern chapter of romance - who appreciate that the black man may yet bring back the reign of a truer chivalry in the South, opportunity for all fine and courageous spirits - men fit in every disposition to be your champions - I say on this supposition you are asked to give up your causes of resentment against the native whites of the South, and to abandon as well your false friendships with the North and your hopes there in the selfish and fleeting policy of an alien party. It is on this supposition that your whole density depends; and, if it fails, believe me you are indeed lost. No merely political party can ever save you. It must be done through the justice and humanity of the South itself; and take care lest in passion or in self-sufficiency you drive these good angels from your side.

A New Republican Journal
(Column 02)

Summary: M. A. Foltz proposes to publish a new Republican newspaper in Chambersburg. It will be called "The Public Opinion." The paper denounces the possibility of introducing division into the local Republican Party.

Killed on the Railroad
(Column 02)

Summary: Mrs. Klopper, "who for some time had been confined to the Almshouse of this county, on account of the deranged state of her mind," was run over by the cars and killed near Keedysville, Maryland.
(Names in announcement: Mrs. Klopper)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The Rev. William F. Eyster preached his farewll sermon in the Lutheran Church on June 27th. He has been chosen principal of the Hagerstown Female Seminary.
(Names in announcement: Rev. William F. Eyster)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: John Yost, formerly of Scotland, Franklin County, was killed in Illinois by the discharge of a gun. Yost left Franklin last spring, bidding farewell to many friends who now mourn his loss.
(Names in announcement: John Yost)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The Lutheran Sabbath School of Chambersburg held a picnic on Monday in Messersmith's woods. The school is one of the largest in the area and is flourishing under the direction of George R. Messersmith.
(Names in announcement: George R. Messersmith)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The citizens of Mercersburg are confident they will raise the $20,000 still needed to build their railroad. The editors hope Chambersburg will have a terminus, and assert that Chambersburg residents would subscribe money to the project if that were the case.

Card of Thanks
(Column 02)

Summary: David Townsend thanks the members of the Church of God for donations of needed articles.
(Names in announcement: David Townsend)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: Maj. C. B. Hefflefinger, formerly of Shippesnburg, was elected president at the second reunion of the 1st Minnesota Regiment, "composed of some of the best fighting material in the Army of the Potomac."
(Names in announcement: Maj. C. B. Hefflefinger)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: J. F. Cressner of Shippesnburg graduated at Pennsylvania College on Wednesday. His speech was on "Self Reliance."
(Names in announcement: J. F. Cressner)

Religious
(Column 02)

Summary: Rev. Bilheimer of Shippesnburg will preach in Chambersburg's Lutheran Church on Sunday.
(Names in announcement: Rev. Bilheimer)

New Post Office
(Column 03)

Summary: The Postmaster General has established a new post office at Greenwood, Franklin County. It will be called "Black's Gap." Robert Black was appointed postmaster.
(Names in announcement: Robert Black)

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: Capt. A. R. Davison of Nebraska has sent his friends in Antrim some samples of dried Buffalo meat.
(Names in announcement: Capt. A. R. Davison)

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: Greencastle is purchasing a town clock worth $1000 for $900.

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: The Repsoitory annaunces it will soon be publishing a complete history of the 126th Pa. Vols.

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: Shippesnburg plans to open a Council of the United Order of Mechanics.

Died
(Column 04)

Summary: Elizabeth Erskine Grove, wife of Thomas C. Grove, died in Mercersburg on June 1st. She was 42 years old.
(Names in announcement: Elizabeth Erskine Grove, Thomas C. Grove)