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Franklin Repository: April 13, 1870 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The Lesson
(Column 01)

Summary: The editor praises the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and congratulates blacks on their new-found political voice. At the same time, he denounces the Democrats for all the woes of slavery and ridicules their sudden kindness to blacks now that the latter have the vote. Finally, he predicts that blacks will always remain true to the Republicans.

Full Text of Article:

During the past week, quietly, unobtrusively and without excitement has been witnessed in several of the States the spectacle which establishes the fact that our government is in practice, as well as in theory, one of equal rights. Close upon the proclamation of the Secretary of State announcing the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment, came municipal elections in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and other States, and the recently enfranchised citizens mingled with their white brethren at the polls and deposited their ballots, the badges of their manhood. The elections passed off so quietly and orderly that in spite of the novelty of negroes voting except in the places where the elections were held, there was scarcely a feeling of curiosity, much less of excitement manifested.

And yet scarcely any other event in the history of our country ought to give greater satisfaction than this, and no other thing can be pointed to which so clearly proves the practice of our government to conform to the high standard of equal rights which we claim for it before other nations. It is hard to believe, now that the rights of the humblest no matter what his color or condition are freely conceded and protected too, that this end was reached through rivers of blood and years of fierce conflict; that a matter so eminently just and right should have been disputed at all, and that while freely admitting the principle in our declaration of rights we should have so obstinately and persistently resisted it in practice. But truth and right have triumphed in the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment and not only in our country but throughout the civilized world will this victory be felt. Human bondage may still exist, but its days are numbered. The end is no longer doubtful nor the result uncertain. Let us rejoice that four millions of slaves, enslaved because their skins were not so fair as ours, though of the whiteness of their hearts we could not judge, have been made freemen in one day, and not only made freemen, but armed also with the power to protect themselves in their freedom. A great monster of crime has been met and vanquished in our land, and the good results of its overthrow do not end with it. The spirit of evil is hundred-handed and in destroying slavery one of the hands has been cut off. It has lost so much power and is thereby so much less able to withstand the force of truth and right in every future conflict. With slavery destroyed, brutal ignorance and poverty must disappear. Abject want and besotted ignorance are incompatible with the condition of freemen. As these evils grow less, so do others depending upon them. Injustice, oppression and tyranny will still abound, but their shadows must grow smaller and smaller as the light of intelligence spreads, and the protection of the State is thrown around the citizen.

The colored race is armed with the ballot. Every colored male citizen has a voice and a vote in the framing of laws and the choice of rulers, with no restrictions except such as are imposed on the whites also, and may rightfully aspire to any position in the land. Though it required no prophetic vision to foretell the coming of this event, since the close of the war, one of the great political parties persistently refused to see it, and strove as if mad to build insuperable, obstacles between itself and the colored voters. Not satisfied that the war to perpetuate slavery was waged wholly by the Democratic party, and though it resulted in striking the chains off of every slave in the land, the Democracy of the North resisted step by step the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, and did not cease when it was morally certain of accomplishment. It is safe to assert that as a party the Democracy have never made a single record in favor of impartial justice and equal rights. On the contrary every department of the government under Democratic rule was subverted to the end of perpetuating and building up negro slavery. The Supreme Court inspired by the slave Democracy so far forgot the end of its being as to make the declaration that the negro had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and thus commit a government based on equal justice and equal rights to a policy of the blackest injustice and the foulest oppression. Nor did Congress or the Executive, under the same baleful influence, hesitate to make laws and execute them in pursuance of the same end.

But in spite of its long catalogue of wrongs and injustice to the colored race, universal suffrage is accomplished, and the Democratic party must face a million of newly made freemen with a freemans' weapons in their hands, and the fact seared into their memories that when they were powerless to help themselves and could only beg for justice it never ceased in its efforts to bind the chains of slavery tighter upon their limbs. To the Democracy the colored race owes nothing but hatred, life long unceasing hatred.--Words are powerless to describe the bitterness, the contempt, the scorn with which they spoke and wrote of the "despised race," and heaped insult upon servitude. Even their claim to humanity was denied. They were called beastlike, besotted, stupid, ignorant, only fit for a state of slavery. But why repeat these things? The greater the truth of these assertions, the greater their own crime, for, it was they who made them what they were, and it is too recent for them to be forgotten or denied. No wonder the Democracy stand paralyzed in presence of the Fifteenth Amendment. It is a two-edged sword which they have spent years in sharpening for their own destruction, and they fully perceive and appreciate the danger of their situation. One thing they have clearly resolved upon, and that is that the newly enfranchised citizens are a power, and, as such must be respected, but it is yet a little too soon, in the face of a century of party oppression, to take them to their embrace and tell them in glowing terms how they have always been the real friends of the black man. This will come, however, and we warn the colored voters now, that before the October election they will witness and be prepared to verify our prediction.--Why, mark the difference in their conduct, already, all over the country. The negroes vote without interference or impediment even in strong Democratic precincts. In New York, where but a few years ago the highly civilized Irish citizens murdered them in the streets by the hundred, their processions parade unmolested and respected, and none seem more anxious to protect their rights than the Democratic city authorities. Even the Spirit, which so loved to gather and publish every tit-bit of slander and shame against the negro, and did not hesitate to fabricate such when needed, is strangely silent now. Once there was scarcely a single issue of the paper which failed to detail, with disgusting minuteness, some brutal and horrible crime, either real or fictitious, perpetrated by a colored man, and always accompanied with the appeal to their readers that this was the kind of beast that the Radicals wished to make their political and social equal. But there is none of that now. The Spirit is as inoffensive as the most thorough Radical journal in the land. Other Democratic papers in this Congressional district pursue the same course. The Bedford Gazette, a willing, but weak imitation of Brick Pomeroy, has grown as gentle as a sucking dove.

In a short time these journals will begin to talk. They have not changed, but the circumstances have. They hate and despise the negro still, but the negro is not the helpless creature he once was. He is a man and stands forth armed with the badge of manhood. They despise the negro, but they respect his power. Hence they would conciliate it and if possible use it. The colored race cannot be deceived in this matter. The record the Democratic party has made through the long years of oppression and shame cannot be effaced in so short a time, and the minds of the newly enfranchised are wonderfully clear as to who their deliverers. They have already given abundant evidence of their proper understanding of the real situation, and we have no fear as to the manner they will exercise their newly acquired power. They are not vindictive, as their past history has established, but they are just.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: A number of members of the First Presbyterian Church wrote an open letter praising the service of Rev. J. Agnew Crawford. He recently turned down a more lucrative offer to stay in Chambersburg, where he is making less money than he should. The congregation members express their wish to retain him if at all possible.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. Agnew Crawford, John M'Dowell, C. W. M'Keehan, Jere Cook, J. S. Eby, William M'Lenegan, L. B. Kindline, George S. Eyster, Will S. Clark, Thomas M. Nelson, Thomas J. Grier, B. ChambersJr., G. W. Skinner, J. Logan Kennedy, E. W. Curriden, John W. Pauli, A. M. Linn, Jack M'Clellan, S. S. M'Lanahan, Enos B. Engle)

More About the Sneak Thieves
(Column 01)

Summary: Alfred and Collins, the two men arrested for theft at the Montgomery House, also stand accused of robbing Dr. Clugston's store in Doylesburg of $800. They had some of his property in their posession and the rest was recovered.
(Names in announcement: Alfred, Collins, Dr. Clugston)

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: An exhibition of drawings done by the students of John H. Grossman was held in the school room at Marion on April 8th. Addresses were delivered by a number of prominent individuals.
(Names in announcement: John H. Grossman, J. S. Smith, George L. Hoffman, W. Henry Weict, Benjamin F. Filson, A. J. Schaff)

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Rev. J. G. Schaff will hold religious services in his house on Sunday and Rev. J. P. Bishop will preach in the evening.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. G. Schaff, Rev. J. P. Bishop)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: Dr. E. Culbertson installed a number of officers of Chambersburg Lodge No. 175, I.O.O.F.
(Names in announcement: Dr. E. Culbertson, Samuel Z. Maxwell, A. W. Davison, T. M. Mahon, George W. Remp, T. John Erhart, Henry Bishop, John Sirike, W. W. Jacobs, John Suters, George Heart, John E. McCleary, Samuel G. Perry, P. C. Loudenslager, Charles Lindner, E. Loudenslager, C. Henneberger)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: Columbus Lodge No. 75, I.O.O.F., installed a number of officers on Thursday.
(Names in announcement: David Hyssong, Jacob B. Holtzworth, Dr. W. H. Boyle, George G. Seibert, A. J. White, M. A. Foltz, William Bradley, John Leisher, J. O. Copp, N. H. Greenwood, John Jeffries, Joseph McClintock, William Mong, F. G. Dittman, D. P. Harmony, Thomas Henneberger)

Temperance Lecture
(Column 02)

Summary: J. Everist Cathell, "the Boy Orator of the Potomac," will speak in the Court House on the subject of Total Abstinence. He is an agent of the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance and hopes to organize a chapter in Chambersburg.

A Just Act
(Column 02)

Summary: The Directors of the Poor, at their last meeting, increased the pay of the physician by $200. The paper endorses the move, and praises Dr. Boyle who presently holds the post.
(Names in announcement: Dr. Boyle)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: Dr. Clugston thanks Chief of Police Capt. Houser for helping aprehend the thieves and recovering the merchandise stolen from his store.
(Names in announcement: Capt. Houser, Dr. Clugston)

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: Three rowdy drunks abused an African American man on Market street last week.

Married
(Column 04)

Summary: Philip Reilly of Waynesboro and Mrs. Ellen Staley of Maryland were married on March 15th by the Rev. B. S. Schneck.
(Names in announcement: Philip Reilly, Ellen Staley, Rev. B. S. Schneck)

Married
(Column 04)

Summary: Daniel Werner and Miss Sarah C. Wilkeson, daughter of Jacob Wilkeson, both of Guilford, were married on April 5th by the Rev. B. S. Schneck.
(Names in announcement: Daniel Werner, Sarah C. Wilkeson, Jacob Wilkeson, Rev. B. S. Schneck)

Died
(Column 04)

Summary: Sarah Duncan died near Fayetteville on March 27th. She was 74 years old.
(Names in announcement: Sarah Duncan)