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Staunton Spectator: January 28, 1868 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Unconstitutional Convention
(Column 03)

Summary: Account of proceedings of the ongoing state constitutional convention in Virginia.

Object of the Radicals
(Column 01)

Summary: Criticizes a proposal of the Radicals that would allow Southerners to take loyalty oaths in exchange for certain rights.

Full Text of Article:

The whole object of the Radicals North and South is to secure, by the action of Congress and of Southern State Conventions, the domination of the Radical party, regardless of right, justice and constitutional provisions. They will adopt any device to effect their object, one of which is the device to seduce white men in the South to co-operate with the negroes to enable them to rule the great body of the whites, --The Southern mongrel conventions in the South, says the Dispatch, are "considering a proposition for this purpose -- applicants for self-degradation are invited to come forward, confess to a committee, and avow their loyalty to reconstruction and Radicalism, and, no matter what their past offences, Congress is to be informed of their "conversion," and will at once make them as good as an African and clothe them with all the dignity and immunity enjoyed by that "man and brother." How many Virginians may enter upon that path of enduring infamy to themselves and their posterity remains to be seen!

In the mean time the people of Virginia should be hopeful and firm; trusting to the ultimate triumph of justice, and right, and that predominance of the superior race which can alone save the State from irretrievable ruin and degradation. Let it be remembered that, no community can hope for such a triumph unless they themselves preserve their honor, their virtue, and their unfaltering devotion to true loyalty to their creator, their country, and their fellow-men."

Rigid Economy
(Column 01)

Summary: Quotes an article from the Petersburg Index encouraging Southerners to spend only on the necessities of life, and to avoid borrowing.

Full Text of Article:

If there was a time when the virtue of economy should be practised now is that time. The people of the South are now in straitened circumstances, pecuniarily as well as politically, and they should govern their conduct accordingly. As the Petersburg Index says, "the sooner our people realize their poverty, and act upon it, the better. We know of those in our community whose lives seem to be one long chain of monetary vexations, but daily preside at tables groaning under superfluous dishes, and surrounded by families decked in the most costly, extravagant, and unnecessary adornments. --These things must be changed. Our people must appreciate their poverty. Hard times are upon us, and we must adapt our living to the times. Luxuries should not be permitted in our homes. Discard all that is unnecessary and useless. Cease to borrow money. Live within your income. Buy nothing on credit. Lay aside the superfluities of life. By adopting these rules, we may be enabled to weather the storm that is upon us. It may be that all our efforts shall fail. If so, ours will be the consolation of having done our full duty. Unless our people contract their expense within the narrowest limits, their financial ruin is an established fact. These are not the times for squandering and extravagance. RIGID ECONOMY should be the motto of every household."

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: The editors ask that the reporters at the State Constitutional Convention put the designation "Conservative" or "Radical" next to the names of white speakers, and "colored" or "negro" next to the names of black speakers, when preparing transcripts of the day's proceedings.

The New Reconstruction Bill
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper denounces House passage of the new Reconstruction Bill that will make Grant "military and absolute dictator."

Remarks of President Johnson
(Column 03)

Summary: Excerpts from a conversation with President Johnson, criticizing the New Reconstruction Bill as a revolutionary measure.

Full Text of Article:

The New York World publishes the substance of a long conversation had with the President by its Washington correspondent. We have space for only a few extracts. They will show, however, that the President is firm in the maintenance of his constitutional principles, and determined to perform the duties imposed upon him by the constitution.

He says that a decided change has taken place in the sentiments of the Northern people, and adds:

"One who held fast to a principle when a majority was arrayed against him is not likely to loosen his hold upon it when so much of the pressure has been removed."

He says

"The Radicals in Congress are desperate. They have made of that body a political monstrosity. While they will seek to hide their deformities with the cloak of patriotism, or strive to distract public attention from them by specious manoeuvres, they are becoming more and more convinced that the people see through it all. Having gone farther than they intended-- so far that they have overleaped all bounds save those of party and ambition -- retreat would be equivalent to hari kari. They keep on now, hoping to obtain by conquest in the South this year a power more than equivalent to their loss of prestige in the North. Perhap they trust by such a conquest to awe and subdue a majority in the north whom they are failing to lead. This extreme party, which is represented by men like Mr. Bingham, Mr. Boutwell, and Senator Sumner, is in a worse dilemma than ever party was before in the Republic."

In reference to the action of Congress on the New Reconstruction Bill which we published last week, and which the Lower House of Congress passed, on Tuesday last, by a vote of 123 to 45, the President says:

" These measures are of course revolutionary. The arguments used to defend them are clearly as fallacious as the assertion that black is white would be. A proposition to deprive, by mere act of Congress, the President of the United States of any portion of the authority vested in him as Commander in-Chief of the Army and Navy is a proposal to do direct violence to the Constitution." * * * * * *

" This bill assumes a right of Congress to do away with the President altogether, if it chooses, and make itself executor as well as legislator for the Government. Could any assumption be more arrogant, more dangerous and destructive in its tendency?" * * * *

"The attitude of the Executive has ever been one of defence or resistance. It is his plain, simple office, while seeing that all laws are put in force that conform to the Constitution, to see that no law obtains, so far as his veto or authority can prevent it from obtaining which does not conform to it. I repeat that he is obliged by his Solemn oath to defend that instrument from any and every assailment. "

In allusion to the bill which passed the Lower House of Congress two weeks since, requiring a majority of two-thirds of the Supreme Court to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional, he says:

"The Supreme Court is as much a separate and distinct branch of the Government as Congress or the Executive. What right has Congress to usurp the prerogative of the people in this case more than in the other?" * * *

"A majority of judges have always prevailed in all courts in England, France, and elsewhere, as well as in the United States. This is an attempt to strip the judicial branch of the Government of a right which it is competent to define and maintain."

In alluding again to the New Reconstruction Bill, he says:

"As I explained at the commencement, this so-called reconstruction bill is destined, if carried into effect, so as to increase and consolidate the military tyranny which has already come nigh to ruin the southern states, that no body of legislators not run nearly wild with a party idea could think of forcing it through."

After depicting the ruin the Radical party is bringing upon the country, he says:

"The measures of that party will, in my judgment, tend to repress for an indefinite period such a development of the resources of the south as had been accomplished before the war. It is grinding out and discouraging the property-holding and intelligent class of citizens to place all power, the whole conduct of affairs, in the hands of the negroes and the few native whites and northern adventurers who would share it with them."

"A revolution, such as these headlong spirits seem determined to precipitate, may have, if it is suffered to go on, an effect more damaging than that of the last civil war."

On the correspondent's understanding that it had been understood that the President had expressed his purpose to excercise all the authority vested in him by the constitution to repel these revolutionary measures, he said:

"The President," said Mr. Johnson, with a resolute gesture, has already expressed his intention to perform his duty. As to what that duty may involve ---" (laying his hand lightly on the table and drumming his fingers during the pause) "it would be rather premature, just now, even to suggest. We will leave special measures for special occasions when they arise. I have confidence in the good sense of the army, and certainly I believe in the people. I believe in the young men; they will not permit a revolution to be accomplished, even though," added the President, in a serious though not at all threatening tone, "it might be necessary for the people to take the matter into their own hand."

Resistance to Negro Rule
(Column 03)

Summary: Extract from the Enquirer and Examiner. Claims that it is the duty of southerners to never voluntarily "submit to the rule of the negro". By obeying the acts of the Convention only at the point of the bayonet, the South can eventually force the North to give in.

Full Text of Article:

From a long editorial of the Enquirer and Examiner, we take the following extract:

"It is the duty of the people of Virginia at once to take the ground that no order, ordinance, act, law, or deed done by the representatives of the secret negro leagues, whether in or out of Convention, shall be obeyed, respected, or heeded, unless under the compulsion of the fixed bayonets of the Federal soldiery. We must in no way, by indifference or implication, let the idea effect a lodgment upon the Northern mind that we will never submit to the rule of the negro. This crime against civilization which the bayonet has been invoked to uphold, nothing but the bayonet must enforce. Whenever that is withdrawn, it is the duty of the white man at once to assert and make good at all hazards the prerogatives of his race as rightfully the dominant one in the South. The work of such creatures as Underwood, Hunnicutt, Lindsey, and Bayne, must be swept away the very instant the soldier's inglorious duty of propping up a negro power terminates.

There must be no tribute to black Caesars (or Pompeys either) which the Soldier does not compel with his loaded musket at the breast of his disarmed white brother of the South. Black rulers, magistrates, legislators, and tax gatherers, must move with their obsequious body guards of Federal soldiers, in the old Dominion. Never shall it be said that the descendants of Washington, Henry, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and a host of other great Virginians submitted to be ruled by indicted incendiaries, and black and brown barbarians. The pages of history are brilliant with noble examples of the patient fortitude of a defeated people, proving in the end more than a match for the malignant and inhuman insults and outrages of their conquerors. The bayonet ruled in Hungary for twenty years, the people of that heroic nation never voluntarily surrendering a right, and at last compelled a baffled tyrant to give them all which they claimed. The Venetians proudly boast that, during more than half a century of Austrian rule, they never compromised their honor by a single act of voluntary submission to the will of the conqueror, and deliverance came to them at last. And none of these oppressed nations ever had thrust upon them by their conquerors a degradation half as infamous as negro rule, --the filthy, polluting, barbarous supremacy of an inferior and despised race, intended by God to be slaves."

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Bishop Doggett of the M. E. Church South will preach the funeral sermon of Mrs. Lucy J. Clarke, wife of the Rev. John L. Clarke in Staunton's Methodist Church.
(Names in announcement: Doggett, Lucy J. Clarke, Rev. John L. Clarke)

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Commissioners have been appointed for the Augusta election that will determine if the county is to subscribe $300,000 to the stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.

National Adversity
(Column 01)

Summary: Dr. C. R. Harris delivered a lecture before an audience of ladies and gentlemen at the Staunton Lyceum entitled "National Adversity." He argues that adversity breeds both vice and virtue, but that prosperity tends to produce only vice.
(Names in announcement: Dr. C. R. Harris)

Obituary
(Column 03)

Summary: Obituary for Lucy J. Clarke, wife of the Rev. J. L. Clarke of Staunton. She died at age 37 on January 8th "after she had patiently and unmurmuringly endured much affliction of body for some months." "In all the relations of life, as friend, daughter, sister, wife, it may be said of her, that she lacked nothing to complete the perfection of her character."
(Names in announcement: Lucy J. Clarke, Rev. J. L. Clarke)

Origin of Article: Rockingham Register

Marriages
(Column 04)

Summary: Thomas Copenhaner of Smythe County and Susan Carter of Staunton were married on January 22nd by the Rev. George B. Taylor.
(Names in announcement: Thomas Copenhaner, Susan Carter, Rev. George B. Taylor)

Marriages
(Column 04)

Summary: Capt. John H. Richardson, of the Virginia Central Railroad, and Miss Sallie Brown, daughter of Samuel B. Brown of Georgia, formerly of Staunton, were married on Januray 21st by the Rev. Mr. Baker.
(Names in announcement: Capt. John H. Richardson, Sallie Brown, Samuel B. Brown, Rev. Baker)

Marriages
(Column 04)

Summary: R. W. Cleveland of Staunton and Miss Alice T. Trowers of Charlottesville were married on January 22nd by the Rev. Dr. Broadus.
(Names in announcement: R. W. Cleveland, Alice T. Trowers, Rev. Broadus)

Marriages
(Column 04)

Summary: Harvey G. Gladwell and Mrs. Mary S. Traweek were married by the Rev. William E. Baker on January 26th.
(Names in announcement: Harvey G. Gladwell, Mary S. Traweek, Rev. William E. Baker)

Marriages
(Column 04)

Summary: John K. Myers of Rockbridge and Miss Mary E. Vanpelt of Augusta were married at Hebron Church on January 22nd by the Rev. T. L. Preston.
(Names in announcement: John K. Myers, Mary E. Vanpelt, Rev. T. L. Preston)

Marriages
(Column 04)

Summary: Jesse Root and Miss Sallie A. Sheets were married on December 31st at the house of the bride's father by the Rev. J. J. Engle.
(Names in announcement: Jesse Root, Sallie A. Sheets, Rev. J. J. Engle)

Marriages
(Column 04)

Summary: Charles W. Yates and Miss Maggie Pierce were married at the residence of the bride's father on January 16th by the Rev. J. J. Engle.
(Names in announcement: Charles W. Yates, Maggie Pierce, Rev. J. J. Engle)

Marriages
(Column 04)

Summary: Charles C. Dickenson and Miss Mary Ellen Jackson, both of Augusta, were married at New Hope by the Rev. J. J. Engle on January 22nd.
(Names in announcement: Charles C. Dickenson, Mary Ellen Jackson, Rev. J. J. Engle)

Deaths
(Column 04)

Summary: Mrs. Polly Lee, formerly of Rockingham, died at the residence of Mr. Sutliff D. Blake on January 13th.
(Names in announcement: Polly Lee, Sutliff D. Blake)

Deaths
(Column 04)

Summary: Mrs. Elizabeth Hall, wife of John Hall, died after a lingering illness of consumption and dropsy at her residence on South River on Januray 14th. She was 49 years old, and leaves a husband and eight children. "In her illness she earnestly sought the favor of God, until she obtained peace in Him, and was perfectly willing to change time for eternity."
(Names in announcement: Elizabeth Hall, John Hall)

Deaths
(Column 04)

Summary: Henry Peters died near Mt. Sidney on January 6th. He was 21 years old. "The deceased was a worthy young man, but had manifested no interest on the subject of religion until shortly before his illness, when he resolved to become a Christian. Indisposition prevented him from attending a meeting of interest in the vicinity, and disease soon prostrated him upon a bed of death. Yet in his illness he earnestly sought the favor of God until he obtained peace in believing, and was enabled to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. He exhorted his associates to attend to the interest of the soul in life and health. He leaves a widowed mother and little family to mourn his sudden and early death."
(Names in announcement: Henry Peters)

Deaths
(Column 04)

Summary: Miss Lizzie C. Hopewell died of dropsy at Mt. Solon on January 14th. She was 30 years old. "The subject of this notice died in the hope of a glorious immortality. She had been a consistent member of the Methodist Church for several years. Her life was so exemplary that when it was told her that she must die she calmly said 'I am ready.' Then said to her friends, 'death is not what you all think it is; I feel as though I am going on a pleasant visit.' Thus the Christian, nearing the chilly waters of death, is able to say: 'All is well'--'the Lord's will be done.' Her disposition was admirable, always ready to forgive, ready to do any act of kindness, and obedient to parents. Truly, her christian example is worthy of imitation. Thus another has been removed from the embrace of loved ones on earth, to sing and shine in the realms of immortal blessedness. Hence the strong basis for the blessed assurance which her friends are authorized to cherish, that their loss is her eternal gain."
(Names in announcement: Lizzie C. Hopewell)