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Staunton Spectator: September 15, 1868 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Virginia's Love for the Union
(Column 01)

Summary: Explains Virginia's secession in terms of a love for liberty and the Union. Claims that Virginia will demand the restoration of her rights in the Presidential election.

Full Text of Article:

"I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not honor more."

When Daniel Webster said that bitterer tears would be shed over the destruction of the temple of American liberty, than were ever shed over the ruins of Greece or of Rome, he uttered a sentiment, says the Petersburg Index, to which the heart of Virginia responded.

The most solemn hour, continues that journal, which any deliberative body were ever called upon to face, was that hour in which the Convention of Virginia were called upon to decide whether they would adhere to the North or the South, that hour in which Virginia was called upon to decide between coercion and secession -- between a new Declaration of Independence and an old love for the Union of our Fathers.

Right or wrong, Virginia had ever been accustomed to look upon the Union as her own offspring. She felt for it all that is combined of strength and constancy in parental affection, joined with parental pride. Her's was no selfish love; she had demonstrated it by the free gift to the government which she had founded of a domain, itself capable of becoming an empire in wealth, power, and population, the most royal gift that ever yet one State has bestowed upon another. The love of the Union and our common country, was with her a high, a noble and exalted sentiment. She stripped herself like the noble Lear of royalty, and wealth and power, to bestow them upon her children. Like Lear, too, she gave up all, all, save the one reservation -- her independence. Alas, that the parallel should hold good in this, that beggared and outcast, she sues in vain for admission into the household of her ungrateful daughters, while Jubal Early, who loved her as the noble loved his unhappy master, and who with others wept like a child when the ordinance of secession was passed, wanders an exile in a foreign land. Tell us not, wretched Radical, that you loved the Union as Virginia loved it. Give not, you miserable fanatic, the name of love to your rancorous hate -- to love such as Virginia felt in her generous, noble, and unselfish soul. You never knew -- you can never know it. Had you been capable of one magnanimous sentiment, you would never have canonized the miscreant John Brown, who brought fire and slaughter to her peaceful homes. Had you loved your country as Virginia loved it, as Clay, and Webster, and Wright, and Jackson loved it, as Horatio Seymour loves it, Virginia had never been driven to the cruel necessity of secession. It was you who forced the war upon her. It was you who forced upon her the dire choice between adherence to the government which she first established and which she loved -- and degradation and embracing her hands in kindred blood.

With twenty thousand old muskets, with half a pound of powder and two caps to each musket, she went out in the face of the cannon, and she said to the "Union," as Lovelace said to his weeping wife while he armed for battle, "I could not love you, dear, so much, loved I not honor more." You men of the North, if Virginia comes to you to-day a beggar, it is to beg the patrimony of which she has been robbed -- is is to beg the restitution of the rights of which the has been deprived -- the restitution of the Old Constitution. We anticipate your answer, and in November, with the tide of a great patriotism rising in your souls, you will dash aside the Radical and the Fanatic who deny them, and you will say, "the mother of States asks for her rights under the Constitution, and SHE SHALL HAVE THEM."

Expulsion of Negroes from the Georgia Legislature
(Column 01)

Summary: The article argues that the expulsion of African-Americans from the Georgia legislature was done under constitutional grounds, since blacks are not allowed to hold office in that state.

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper complains that although $1,600,000,000 has been raised through taxes since the war, the national credit still lags behind countries such as Austria, Turkey, and the South American republics.

Radical Economy
(Column 03)

Summary: The paper blasts the government for increasing the national debt since the end of the war. "For the purpose of forcing negro suffrage and negro equality upon the Southern people at the point of the bayonet, that the Radicals may be continued in power, twenty thousand troops are stationed South of the Potomac at a cost of forty millions per year."

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Maginley's and Carroll's circus has come to Staunton with good reviews and recommendations.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Work details are now raising and recurbing the pavement near the Court House under orders of the County Court.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Capt. Balthis is now engaged in thoroughly painting the interior of Staunton's Baptist Church.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Brian's Menagerie and Circus will be exhibiting in Staunton. The company's tents can accommodate 3,000 persons. The 20 animal dens will take up a space of 325 feet long.

Methodist Church
(Column 01)

Summary: Under a military order, the Methodist Church must hold services for both the Methodist Episcopal church North and the Methodist Episcopal church South.

Full Text of Article:

Under a military order -- for the military are now "running the churches" -- requiring that the Methodist churches in this county should be occupied alternately by the ministers of the M. E. church and the M. E. church South, Rev. E. P. Phelps of the former church held service in the Methodist church of this place on Sunday afternoon.

The practical effect of this military order will be to turn out of doors one half of the time a very large congregation of the M. E. Church, South, that the church may be occupied by the minister of the M. E. Church which has but one member in this place.

O tempora! O mores!

Augusta Springs
(Column 01)

Summary: A correspondent of the Enquirer and Examiner praises Augusta Springs for their curative properties, and for the quality of the service there.

Full Text of Article:

A correspondent of the Enquirer and Examiner, writing from the Augusta Springs in this county, speaks in very high terms of this popular watering place. We know the correspondent to be a man of character and distinction. He concludes a long and interesting letter as follows:

"Having observed the effects of the remarkable curative properties of the three mineral springs at this place upon a large number of invalids, and received for nearly a month the polite and kind attention of the gentlemen in charge of it, I should be ungrateful if I failed to warmly recommend it to the people of the South. I do not know a watering place in the mountains of Virginia where the visitor receives a larger return of comfort and enjoyment for the very moderate expenditures which he makes than here; and if its management hereafter is as liberal, excellent and well conducted as at present, the "Augusta Springs, so long known to the public as "Stribbling's" will become one of the most popular watering places in the State. Easy of access, situated in the midst of a fertile and beautiful country, nestling in the very midst of lofty mountains, and shaded by magnificent forest trees, it cannot fail to become a favorite resort of families from all parts of the South. During the present season it has been filled by a company second to none in the mountains for refinement and intelligence."

Mr. W. A. Pratt
(Column 01)

Summary: The paper welcomes W. A. Pratt, accomplished engineer and architect, to Staunton.
(Names in announcement: W. A. Pratt)

Willie Coffman
(Column 02)

Summary: Willie Coffman, the 2 year old blind pianist, has been performing in Staunton to rave reviews. The paper declares him the "most remarkable musical prodigy in the world." He plays with his fingers, wrists and elbows, and his performances have "excited the wonder, admiration, and astonishment of all who have witnessed them."
(Names in announcement: Willie Coffman)

Observations of a Philadelphia Lawyer
(Column 02)

Summary: Mr. "E. S.", a Philadelphia lawyer, remarks negatively on "negro labor" and positively on the excellent service at the Virginia Hotel.

Full Text of Article:

Mr. "E. S.," belonging to that class proverbial for astuteness -- "Philadelphia lawyers" -- who was on a recent visit to this place, wrote a long and well written letter to the Philadelphia City Item, under date of Staunton, August 29th. We have room for only two extracts. His observations seem not to have given him a very favorable opinion of negro labor. He says:

"From labor comes wealth, but that labor which bring gold into our coffers and wheat into our garners, needs must be real and substantial labor, well organized, well protected; and it must be honored labor. Such I find the white man's labor. The rising and setting sun mark out his hours of toil, and the brown face and hard burnt hands attest the severity of that toil. As an honest man I cannot so speak of negro labor. We of the North do not, may be, we will not see, the inefficiency of the present negro labor. You know well, Mr. Editor, that I hail from the Republican side of the political house and issues, and this because I can see no safe and middle path; but this must not deter me from telling the wholesome truths, palatable or impalatable to extremists. I do not see any real value in negro labor -- there is no certainty in it -- it is whimsical, peevish labor -- it is labor without toil -- it is labor to provide food for to-day and not for the morrow. It is labor which avoids husbandry, and seeks the comparative ease of town life. Pardon my touching on this theme -- it is not political, it is in the order of political economy. Permit me, in ending this subject, to illustrate, by a single instance of the many under my observation.-- On the way to Weyer's cave I saw a negro of the stalwart kind engaged in breaking limestone for turnpike repair. His was easy labor. Let me picture the operation. He was seated on a pile of stones chair high, in his hand a small hammer, with handle about twelve inches long a little larger than a tack hammer. WIth one hand he would take up a small stone about four inches square, and hold it till, with slow, light, and measured blows; he would leisurely reduce it into convenient size, and rest from his toil awhile, and then in like manner resume his labor. Our turnpike men would little relish such labor, and would not agree that the laborer was worthy of any hire. The work forcibly reminded me of cracking shell-barks in my boyish days.

We do not know that he is a musician, but suppose from the manner in which he thrums and tickles the ribs of the Proprietor of the Va. Hotel that he would make a fine performer with bone castanets. He says:

"The Virginia Hotel, in the hands of Mr. Scheffer, is perhaps unexcelled in that essential virtue which comes so near to godliness, cleanliness. The pure white sheets, table cloths and other hotel linen, give evidence of the tone which pervades in all departments of this hotel. The courteous host spares neither time, money, nor pleasing words to give fitting welcome to the coming guests, and thus makes them loth to part with such a clever host. The attendance is perfect in all respects, and while gilded ornament, costly mirrors, and burnished furniture may dazzle the guests of the Revere, Fifth Avenue, or Continental, there is with them all that absence of real home, which this Virginia house affords."

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: Benjamin Plant and Mrs. Mary Beck, and John B. Scherer and Miss Johanna Sullivan, all of Staunton, were married at St. Francis Church by Father J. Ambler Weed on September 8th.
(Names in announcement: Benjamin Plant, Mary Beck, John B. Scherer, Johanna Sullivan, Father J. Ambler Weed)

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: Lewellen A. S. Tillery of City County, Missouri, and Miss Louisa A. Cowger, daughter of Job Cowger, were married on September 10th at the residence of Jacob Neff by the Rev. John Pinkerton.
(Names in announcement: Lewellen A. S. Tillery, Louisa A. Cowger, Job Cowger, Rev. John Pinkerton)

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: Martin S. Shiplet and Miss Catherine E. Wright, daughter of the late William Wright, were married near Moscow on September 3rd by the Rev. Jacob Thomas.
(Names in announcement: Martin S. Shiplet, Catherine E. Wright, William Wright, Rev. Jacob Thomas)

Deaths
(Column 03)

Summary: Robert White died at his residence near Waynesborough on September 3rd. He was 72 years old.
(Names in announcement: Robert White)

Deaths
(Column 03)

Summary: John Newton died at his residence near Greenville on August 28th. He was 71 years old. "In all the relations of life, Mr. Newton exhibited qualities worthy of praise and emulation. His prudence and firmness, his high moral character and dignified deportment, won for him the respect of the entire community. For many years he was a Director of the Western Lunatic Asylum and a magistrate of his native county, and when he resigned the latter office, his excellent judgement and wise discretion commended him to his fellow-citizens as one worthy to act the part of counsellor and friend; as a citizen he was devoted to his county and his state; as a neighbor, he was kind and obliging. But it was within the sacred precincts of home that his character shone most brightly. There we found the hospitable Virginia gentleman; the devoted husband; the tender and indulgent father. Mr. Newton was a humble believer in Jesus Christ." S. S. Lambreth signed the above eulogy.
(Names in announcement: John Newton, S. S. Lambreth)