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Staunton Spectator: March 3, 1868

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-Page 01-

Impeachment
(Column 07)
Summary: Reports that the House passed resolutions impeaching President Andrew Johnson.
Origin of Article: Dispatch
Insubordination
(Column 07)
Summary: The paper accuses Grant of insubordination for stating that army officers should not obey orders of the president that have not been sent through the commander-in-chief.
[No Title]
(Column 07)
Summary: Article encouraging Virginians to resist radicalism and the ongoing constitutional convention. Eventually Virginia may resemble Kentucky or Maryland "where there are such things as civil rights, where insolent and tyrannical soldiers are punished, and where a just retribution has overtaken the miserable Radical rable who for two years trampled the rights of the people under their feet like unclean swine."
Origin of Article: Enquirer

-Page 02-

Read It
(Column 01)
Summary: Encourages readers to read a publication of the Democratic State Convention of West Virginia.
Full Text of Article:

On our first page we insert at length one of the most remarkable publications of the day. -- It is the strongly impressive address recently adopted by the Democratic State Convention of West Virginia to the people. Call it rather an appeal to mankind, clothed in the solemn and cogent eloquence of mournful truth, calling all nations to witness the unspeakable sorrow, the unaccountable folly, and the immeasurable guilt of this, our own. The man who can read this without emotion must be lost to human sympathy; and if he could lay it down without a resolution to right these terrible wrongs, to correct these fearful errors, and to cease these multiplying abominations, his conscience must be torpid, his reason perverted, and his perception of truth so blinded that the spear of Ithuriel could not open his eyes. We commend the address especially to adherents of the usurping party of Congress.

The above, from the National Intelligencer, contains no ordinary commendation. We earnestly beg our readers, says the Fredericksburg News, not to neglect to read this long article, because it is long. We are on the imminent verge of the dreadfully solemn and desperately earnest work of delivering ourselves and our children from the domination of barbarism, by accomplishing our deliverance from the detestable designs of the demagogues and devils in the shape of Radicals. We verily believed the ark of civil and religious liberty for this whole country was the cause of the Confederacy. We opposed the war, because we thought that the time had come for us to make a new Constitution and compact, as our fathers did when the old Articles of Confederation failed in '87; and we vainly hoped it could be done without war. With the war and since the war, it has not been done, although the Constitution of our fathers is dead. A new one must be made, even if we have to wade through another French Revolution to its accomplishment. If dastardly fear or cowardly apathy or criminal indifference shall prevent us from defeating the coming Constitution made by those vile wretches in Richmond, then we shall deserve our fate, and the wrath of fate will adjudge our punishment the appropriate penalty of our vile apostacy from plain principle and base treason to manifest duty. -- We say then, stop sucking in moral poison from Yankee publications, but seek the truth and do it, and come up to the help of God and humanity in this great struggle.

Men of Virginia, awake! Arise to the height of this great argument and the terrible obligation which rests on every man to do his whole duty.


Mr. Jas. C. Southall's Speech
(Column 01)
Summary: An article, drawn from the Richmond Whig, praising the speech of Mr. Jas Southall, the representative from Augusta, Albermarle, and Louisa counties. Mr. Southall spoke against the Republican party, the whites who support them, and black suffrage.
Full Text of Article:

Mr. Jas C. Southall who represents in the State Convention the District composed of the counties of Augusta, Albemarle, and Louisa, on Monday, the 24th ult., delivered an able speech in the Convention on the suffrage question. The Richmond Whig says that it was one of the best, most carefully prepared and effective arguments against negro suffrage delivered in that body, and that it was a manly, outspoken protest of a Virginian of the highest type, who has always been moderate in his views, against the abomination of negro suffrage which Congress has concluded to impose upon us, with a view to the Africanization of our State. His argument against negro suffrage, while conclusive and to the point, was not couched in offensive language, nor was his condemnation of the Radicals, while as cutting as if he had used a Toledo blade, either coarse or unparliamentary. They wilted under it, but could not complain, because the truth, though unpalatable, was told them in courteous language.

The illustrations of the speaker were scholarly and striking, and the same may be said of the entire speech. He denounced the whites who are misleading the negroes to secure office as worse than Arnold or any of the others mentioned in history who took up arms against their native country. In this connection he showed that there is no Republican party proper in Virginia, as claimed, but only a negro party, as in the counties of Albemarle, Augusta and Louisa only nineteen whites voted the radical ticket, while in the city of Richmond, after a thorough canvass at the late election, even with a secret ballot, they could only muster fifty white voters.


[No Title]
(Column 01)
Summary: Article arguing that radicals and military subordinates have stripped the office of the presidency of its traditional power and grandeur.
General Thomas Discharged, and Why?
(Column 02)
Summary: The paper argues that General Thomas was arrested for attempting to carry out his duties as the new Secretary of War because Radicals feared he would challenge the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act in court. Meanwhile, Stanton has retaken his seat.
The Negro Party
(Column 02)
Summary: Claims that the "southern Radical party is merely a negro party", maintained by the votes of freedmen and supervised by white overseers.
Full Text of Article:

The Richmond Dispatch says that the fact is too palpable in the South to admit of debate that the southern Radical party is merely a negro party. The white overseers of plantations in the South were more numerous than the white Radicals in the same South are at this time. And the white Radicals are performing somewhat the same duties that were discharged formerly by the white overseers. They are overseeing the freedmen -- lecturing them about their duties -- telling them how they are to vote -- and how to discharge their obligations to their new masters, who claim their allegiance and their services by reason of having set them free, as their former masters did on the ground of having bought them. The new overseers are required to be as vigilant and as assiduous in their supervision of negroes as were their predecessors. They are afraid to leave them for a day without admonition: and that admonition always relates to their proper way of voting. The white Radical dreads more than anything else the probability that the negro will relapse into his natural weakness of attachment for the southern whites, with whom they were raised, and who always treated them kindly, and in whose service they were always so much better off than they are now.

* * * * * * * * *

Every Radical in any position to which he has been elected since the reconstruction laws, was elected exclusively by negroes. The whites, almost to a man, have voted against Radicals, and must continue to do so. It is impossible that the whites that now live can forswear their alliances and natural affinities and transfer their relations and communion to the black race. Those who enter the arena as Radicals must become associates and confidantes of the negroes if they expect to get any votes at all. This every man who has been returned as Radical has done, and this all who hereafter triumph must do.


-Page 03-

[No Title]
(Column 01)
Summary: Staunton's Presbyterian Church added 27 new members at communion on Sunday. 4 had certificates from other churches, and 23 made new professions.
[No Title]
(Column 01)
Summary: Dr. Sears, General Agent of the Peabody Association, made a $2,000 donation to the schools of Petersburg. The paper suggests he donated money in Staunton, so the schools would be under his close supervision.
(Names in announcement: Dr. Sears)
[No Title]
(Column 01)
Summary: The congregation of Staunton's M. E. Church South presented the Rev. John L. Clarke with a new set of clothes. They had given him an overcoat a few months earlier.
(Names in announcement: Rev. John L. Clarke)
[No Title]
(Column 01)
Summary: T. N. Argenbright of the Spectator and Virginia Hopkins, daughter of Dr. S. D. Hopkins, formerly of Albemarle, were married at the Staunton residence of the bride's father on February 26th by the Rev. John L. Clarke. "As Venus is the morning and evening star, so we hope that the star of happiness of this newly married couple, which now gilds the fair dawn of their bliss, may shine as brightly in the evening of their married life, after a long day of pleasant journeying together, with hand joined with hand and heart responsive to heart."
(Names in announcement: T. N. Argenbright, Virginia Hopkins, Dr. S. D. Hopkins, Rev. John L. Clarke)
Our Musical Association
(Column 01)
Summary: The Staunton Musical Association will give a concert Tuesday under the direction of Dr. Brown. The paper praises the band as a town institution, bringing entertainment to all of Augusta's citizens. 40 to 50 members belong to the organization.
(Names in announcement: Dr. Brown)
Daring Robbery
(Column 01)
Summary: Three disguised white men broke into, pillaged, and robbed the house of Mr. Kenney Sillings in Parnassus. Sillings, an old man suffering from rheumatism, was unable to defend his home. The men made off with $100 in specie and $35 in currency.
(Names in announcement: Kenney Sillings)
Virginia Express
(Column 02)
Summary: The paper praises the Virginia Express Company. It promises to aid Staunton's business by providing competition for existing express companies, helping bring affordable rates.
Staunton Lyceum
(Column 02)
Summary: The Lyceum debated whether great eras make great men, or great men make great eras. The next topic for discussion will be whether or not there should be a national restoration for the Jews. Rev. George B. Taylor was asked to repeat his lecture on "The Thinker."
(Names in announcement: Dr. C. R. Harris, Prof. J. L. Hewitt, Col. B. Christian, Y. H. Peyton, Prof. Jed Hotchkiss, Col. George Baylor, F. M. Young, Rev. John A. English, F. M. Young, John L. Clarke, Maj. J. M. Hanger, Capt. A. M. Pierce, Rev. George B. Taylor)
[No Title]
(Column 02)
Summary: Hugh W. Sheffey postpones Gen. Wise's address on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad so that more people will be able to hear it. Sheffey stresses the importance of completing the road.
(Names in announcement: Hugh W. Sheffey)
[No Title]
(Column 05)
Summary: "Augusta" stresses the importance of maintaining the county's road system because they ensure the flow of trade.
Marriages
(Column 05)
Summary: Samuel M. Woodward of Staunton and Miss Virginia Arnall, daughter of John T. Arnall, were married on February 25th by the Rev. William E. Baker.
(Names in announcement: Samuel M. Woodward, Virginia Arnall, John T. Arnall, Rev. William E. Baker)
Marriages
(Column 05)
Summary: Robert Tutwiler and Miss Susan Ann Wright, both of Augusta, were married near Naked Creek at the residence of the bride's father, Joseph W. Wright, on February 20th by the Rev. C. Beard.
(Names in announcement: Robert Tutwiler, Susan Ann Wright, Joseph W. Wright, Rev. C. Beard)
Marriages
(Column 05)
Summary: Alexander Livick and Miss Susan M. Spitler, both of Augusta, were married on February 27th by the Rev. T. L. Preston.
(Names in announcement: Alexander Livick, Susan M. Spitler, Rev. T. L. Preston)
Marriages
(Column 05)
Summary: John H. Hanger and Miss Mary H. Eidson, both of Augusta, were married on March 1st by the Rev. T. L. Preston.
(Names in announcement: John H. Hanger, Mary H. Eidson, Rev. T. L. Preston)
Marriages
(Column 05)
Summary: Clement H. Earhart and Minerva A. Landes, daughter of David Landes, were married on February 20th by the Rev. John Pinkerton.
(Names in announcement: Clement H. Earhart, Minerva A. Landes, David Landes, Rev. John Pinkerton)

-Page 04-

Approaching the End
(Column 03)
Summary: An article from the Baltimore Gazette argues that President Andrew Johnson is the last hope remaining to prevent the country from moving into the second phase of a vast revolution.
[No Title]
(Column 03)
Summary: Article reporting that there is a general sentiment in the South in favor of attracting immigrants from Europe.