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Staunton Spectator: December 26, 1865 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

All Should Labor
(Column 7)

Summary: The article urges "all able-bodied" unemployed white men to take up agricultural labor, rather than "lounging about cities and villages in quest of clerkships."

Origin of Article: Richmond Republic

Full Text of Article:

We have already advised, says the Richmond Republic, all able-bodied men who are not out of employment to got to work on the farm, where there is a great demand for labor. The example set by most of the returned soldiers of General Lee's and Johnston's armies is worthy of general imitation. The large corn crop of the State is due in great measure, to their manly industry.--Young men who are lounging about cities and villages in quest of clerkships would do well to imitate the example of the greater number of returned soldiers. They would, besides, secure for themselves much larger pecuniary return than any clerkship, public or commercial, affords. If any of them cherish the delusion that labor is beneath the dignity of a gentleman, we have nothing to say to them. Such hopeless idiots are not to be reasoned with. The time has gone by when labor was the peculiar badge of the servile class. If labor was not respectable formally, it is necessary to make it so now. The South is never going to be regenerated if any considerable number of its white population sits with folded hands and spends its time in invoking foreign labor and denouncing the indolence of the blacks. It is no way to bring foreign labor here, to brand labor with disgrace, nor the best mode to cure negroes of laziness by showing them that the white people regard work as a special hardship.

Virginia cannot afford now to have a single drone in the hive. The idle man now is the enemy of his State, and ought to be treated as such. Indolence must now be the badge of degradation. Public sentiment should brand with disgrace every creature who, amidst universal poverty, insists upon being consumer and pensions himself upon the public industry. A more disgusting spectacle cannot be found than that of an able-bodied man looking up and down and old family mansion whose inmates are threatened with actual want, whilst broad acres spread around crying out for cultivation, but which he refuses to touch because labor is beneath the dignity of a gentleman. A gentleman indeed! Such an animal has not the faintest conception of what a gentleman means.

The Policy of Peace
(Column 01)

Summary: Argues that the U.S. should pursue a policy of peace toward "the Canadas" because the nation needs peace to restore commerce and "to work out, undisturbed, the mysterious fate of millions of freedmen in our midst."

Origin of Article: Richmond Enquirer

The True Policy of Virginia
(Column 02)

Summary: Calls on the legislators of Virginia to "take a practical view of the subject" and allow for roads and canals to be built, even if it requires capital from outside the state.

Full Text of Article:

In the report of J. W. Garret, the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, he says:

"The Baltimore and Ohio Company has increased its equipment to about three hundred locomotives and four thousand cars. Its capacity for business is now far beyond the ability of lines working in connection with it to dispose of the vast quantities of freight it brings to Baltimore. At this time more than seventy-five trains daily of passengers and freight pass over the main stem of the Baltimore and Ohio road upon the Baltimore division. The power of the Company, by its large additions of double track, and increase of facilities and equipment, with its additional branches, will be constantly enlarged. The direct outlets for this vast accumulation of traffic must follow."

Ponder it -- think of it -- 300 locomotives, 4000 cars, and more than 75 trains daily! Consider the vast business done upon that road, remember that Baltimore wished to run the road through this populous Valley, increasing with production, thirty years ago, and admire the wisdom of the "dog-in-the-manger" policy adopted by the Legislature of Virginia of that time! Will Virginia continue to act thus blindly, or will she welcome the construction of railroads and canals through the State, it matters not by whom?--We hope that our Legislators will take a practical view of this subject, and encourage other to invest largely in the construction of improvements in this State. We would like to see railroads running in all directions throughout Virginia, and would be glad to see them made by other people's capital. Virginia can protect herself by prescribing the conditions upon which she may grant the privileges to construct them. Let the roads and canals be built.

Events of Last Week
(Column 02)

Summary: Outlines four prominent political events, including the 13th amendment becoming law, all of which lead the author to conclude that a "collision" between "conservative" and "Jacobinal" Republicans is imminent.

The Pardon List
(Column 02)

Summary: A list of pardons granted to residents of Augusta, Rockingham, and Rockbridge.
(Names in announcement: Samuel KennerlyJr., Franklin Coiner, W. F. Smith, John R. Woods, B. F. Walker, R. Turk)

Small Pox
(Column 02)

Summary: Reports that "small pox" is raging in portions of the South "and will play its part in that extermination of the negroes, which politicians have provided for and ordained."

Local
(Column 01)

Summary: Reports that the "Freedmen and Freedwomen had a Fair" to raise money to build a church.

Local
(Column 01)

Summary: Reports a "considerable disturbance" on the streets on Christmas day.

Local-Wm. Hiden Shot
(Column 01)

Summary: William Hiden was shot by a man named Rice after Hiden assailed him with stones.
(Names in announcement: William Hiden, Rice)

Local-Barn Burnt
(Column 01)

Summary: Joseph Mitchell's barn was burnt on the 21st, and an "incendiary" is believed to be responsible.
(Names in announcement: Joseph T. Mitchell, Ab. Sawyer, Alex. W. Greever)

Local--Mr. Jno. P. Bledsoe
(Column 01)

Summary: Jno. Bledsoe, of Augusta, has been missing for more than a week since disappearing during a trip to Baltimore.
(Names in announcement: Jno. P. Bledsoe)

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: Fannie Messeasmith and Edward Floyd were married by the Rev. Mr. Jefferson on Dec. 21.
(Names in announcement: JeffersonRev., Edward Floyd, Fannie Messeasmith)

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: Sevilla Kountz and Jas. Kelley were married on Dec. 14 by Rev. George Shuey.
(Names in announcement: George ShueyRev., Jas. W. Kelley, Sevilla Kountz)

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: Nannie Layman and Henry Whitmore were married on Nov. 23 by Rev. Walker.
(Names in announcement: WalkerRev., Henry Whitmore, Nannie Layman)

Died
(Column 03)

Summary: Drusilla Fix died of typhoid fever on Nov. 16. She was 52.
(Names in announcement: Drusilla Fix, Henry Fix, Magdalene Fix)

Died
(Column 03)

Summary: Magdalene Fix died on September 1 at the age of 79. Fix was a member of the Lutheran church for 60 years.
(Names in announcement: Magdalene Fix, Henry Fix, Jacob GabbertEsq.)