Search the Newspapers Browse Newspapers by Date Articles Indexed by Topic About the Newspapers Valley of the Shadow Home

Staunton Spectator: November 24, 1868 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Be Ready to Defeat the State Constitution
(Column 01)

Summary: The Norfolk Virginian asks Virginians to rouse themselves to defeat the constitution. If the constitution is passed, politics will intrude into daily life through such issues as mixed schooling.

Full Text of Article:

The Norfolk Virginian, with that vigilant and earnest patriotism which characterizes that able journal, calls upon the Press of the State to join it in rousing the people to a lively sense of the danger by which they are menaced, and says, with truth, that the loss of the Presidential election is a mere trifle to the stunning disaster of defeat incurred in the fight on the Constitution. The administration of Grant will be, for the most part, exterior to our daily life; but government, under the instrument now pending, would deal with us in our domestic as well as public relations. In evidence of which we must always bear in mind that the power of compelling attendance in mixed schools is lodged in the negro majority in the General Assembly. It says "no argument is necessary to show our people, at this day, that the new Constitution would, if put in force, make a Pandemonium of the State.--We all understand this. We have seen the bitter fruits of reconstruction in Arkansas, where martial law now prevails; in Louisiana, where a negro is suing the Convent of the Sacred Heart to compel admission for his daughter to the classes of its Female School, and, not to multiply these illustrations, in Tennessee, Brownlow has, in his own profane language, "organized hell." We can defeat the infamous system of law devised in Richmond. We have the numerical power, and it remains for the Executive Committee and the Press to see that our people do their duty. Let us look to it that the dreadful poppy-sleep of apathy does not fall upon us. Let us then, gentlemen of the Press, hoist the famous motto of Nelson -- "Virginia expects every man to do his duty," and beat to quarters in ample time to avoid the disaster of surprise in the coming action.

In the future, as in the past, that journal will find this an earnest colaborer with it in the endeavor to save Virginia from the evils consequent upon the adoption of the scalawag constitution.

Important Trial in Underwood's Court
(Column 01)

Summary: Discusses a Circuit Court case. The case is an appeal from a convicted criminal, charging that his conviction should be overturned because the presiding judge was unqualified to try him under the provisions of the 14th amendment.

Full Text of Article:

On Tuesday last, in the U.S. Circuit Court in Richmond, Judge Underwood presiding, was one of the most important cases ever tried in this State, the result of which may affect not only the judicial acts of the able, energetic, industrious, and seemingly indefatigable Judge of this Circuit, but also all the official acts of ninety-nine hundreds of all the officers in the State.

It will be remembered by the readers of this journal that some time since a negro in Lexington -- Caesar P. Griffin -- shot a son of Judge Brockenbrough, for which he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary for the term of two years by the Circuit Court of Rockbridge county -- Judge H. W. Sheffey presiding. The negro, Griffin, thus sentenced for unlawful shooting of Brockenbrough, sued out a writ of habeas corpus; hoping to secure his discharge in Underwood's Court on the plea that Judge Sheffey had no authority to act as Judge -- claiming that he has been disqualified since the 28th of July last, the date of the promulgation of the ratification of the 14th amendment of the Constitution of the U.S. which declares those ineligible to office who took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and afterwards participated in the rebellion.

In the trial of this case, the Commonwealth is represented by Attorney-General Bowden, Mr. Neeson and Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, and the prisoner by Messrs Bundy and L. H. Chandler.

On Wednesday, the Court was addressed by Mr. Bundy in behalf of the prisoner. On Thursday by Attorney-General Bowden and Gen. Johnson in behalf of the Commonwealth, who were replied to by Bundy in his second speech.

On Friday, Mr. Neeson submitted the closing argument in behalf of the Commonwealth, but not concluding by 3 o'clock, at which time the Court adjourned, he was allowed one hour on Monday morning, to which time the case was continued.

Right and Expediency of Resistance
(Column 03)

Summary: The Richmond Whig claims that the South has a right to resist Radical rule, but argues that it is not expedient for it to do so.

Full Text of Article:

The Richmond Whig of the 18th contained an editorial article discussing whether the people of the South had the right to resist, and, if so, whether it would be expedient to do so. As there is no one in the South contemplating, much less advocating, armed resistance, we do not see that there is any use in discussing the question, and might ask the Whig: Cui Bono? After establishing that they have the right to resist, it maintains that it would not be expedient to do so. The article concludes as follows:

"Is it worth what it would cost? We think not. We should sacrifice our all -- our homes, our fortunes, our lives -- and, worst of all, our women. We should involve in an indiscriminate ruin, the warm and generous friends we have at the North. We should gain no honor even in our fall. There is nothing left of the Republic worth a sensible man's fighting for. And if there were, we could not restore it. And even if the Republic were re-established to-morrow in its original perfection, it could not stand a month. There is not honesty enough for such a Government; -- nor confidence between individuals and sections sufficient enough to uphold it. -- A personal Government is a necessity of the situation. We may deplore it -- (the memory of lost freedom is too fresh not to excite a tear) -- but the sin and shame of it do not rest on us of the South. We have fully met the demands of honor and liberty by what we have done, and are entitled to our discharge.

Our conviction is that the South has gained much in having one man of honor to deal with rather than a mob of tyrants. They have no conscience, no sense of responsibility, of honor, of justice, or of humanity. This is the character of all mobs, great and small. What we know of General Grant induces the belief that he is a man of calmness and moderation; of honorable and patriotic impulses; firm in maintaining his sense of right, and free from vindicative passions. As his reputation as a statesman will depend on his success in promoting the welfare of the whole country, it is not an unreasonable expectation to restore the prosperity of the Southern States. At any rates, this strikes us as a far better reliance than the desperate expedient of resistance, with the certainty of failure, and converting the whole land into a Mexico or a hell."

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: The Alexandria Gazette argues that the best course of action for those who opposed Grant's election is to wait and hope that he will be a reasonable President.

Full Text of Article:

The Alexandria Gazette says that, after what has passed, there is nothing so becomes the men who honestly sought to prevent Grant's election as a "modest stillness." It is their duty to judge him, fairly and candidly, by his acts; not to meet him with prejudice or ill feeling; and to hope that he will administer the affairs of the government satisfactorily, and not in a spirit of oppression towards the South. -- This is all that ought to be expected. There is no need to be fawning on the footstool of power. A manly attitude is the correct and proper one. It will be appreciated by a high minded and honorable man. A contrary proceeding can only excite disgust and contempt. And we are happy to know, that the great body of the Conservatives, upon principle -- who had nothing to expect from the mere favors of government, if Mr. Seymour had been elected, and nothing to reproach themselves with for the manner in which they opposed the election of Gen. Grant, approve of and will pursue this course. We have lived long enough to know, that it is not the extremists -- the officious -- the violent -- in political affairs, who are most to be depended on, in times of disaster, disappointment, or upon failure to realize cherished hopes, for consistency and moral courage -- and for back bone. It is the boasting, the pretentious, the fire and fury men, who are the first to show "weak knees" -- the first to cry peccavi -- the first to cave in! -- Show us the men of moderate, but firm and determined views, and of calm judgments -- and we can trust them, and rely on them. The rest is "all but leather or prunella."

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: The Petersburg Express urges its readers to refrain from words of bitterness in reference to Congressional actions. Otherwise, the enemy might seize on these complaints and misrepresent them to justify their actions.

Full Text of Article:

The Petersburg Express says that the course of wisdom and prudence is to keep our souls in patience, and to refrain from words of bitterness, or that sharp animal version which stirs up the blood, in reference to future Congressional measures or action, based upon the doctrine of probabilities, however well founded. It will be full time enough, should the acts require them at our hands, to indite our criticisms and strictures, when they shall have been done, or intimated.

"In our powerless condition let us not give unnecessary cause of complaint to our enemies, who are already prone and eager to seize hold upon the most groundless charges and misrepresentations in order to justify their harsh and vindictive course.

The acknowledgment of our right of representation in a government which we are made to aid in supporting, is simply a question of time, and, as we confidently hope, of a time not of long duration.

[No Title]
(Column 03)

Summary: The Secretary of War has ordered Brevet Major E. S. Ewing, First Lieutenant, Thirty-Fourth United States Infantry, to report to Virginia for duty with the Freedmen's Bureau.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Many people crowded Staunton yesterday for Court Day. The auctioneers Cushing, Cease, Gladke, and Poe did good business.
(Names in announcement: Cushing, Cease, Gladke, Poe)

Valley Railroad Meetings
(Column 01)

Summary: List of dates, times, and places at which notable speakers will address the people of Augusta on the Valley Railroad.
(Names in announcement: Gen. John Echols, Maj. William M. Tate, Capt. James Bumgardner, Col. J. B. Baldwin, Maj. H. M. Bell, Col. M. G. Harman, Col. B. Christian, Capt. Jed. Hotchkiss, Capt. R. H. Catlett, Maj. J. M. McCue, Maj. Absalom Koiner, A. H. H. Stuart)

Staunton Lyceum
(Column 01)

Summary: The Staunton Lyceum decided the question "Are all statutory prohibitions binding on the conscience?" 6-5 in the affirmative. Next week they will debate the Valley Railroad.
(Names in announcement: Bumgardner, Skinner, Christian, Baylor, Ranson, Young, Latane, Hanger, Clarke, McCoy, Powers, Ryan)

Philomathesian
(Column 02)

Summary: The debating society reorganized and elected officers. Debaters were appointed to discuss the Valley Railroad at next week's meeting.
(Names in announcement: C. A. Richardson, James A. Hanger, Joseph E. Rollins, J. Fred Effinger, Oliver Rhodes, Sublett, Heber Ker)

Horse Stealing
(Column 02)

Summary: Jesse and James Seeley, of Augusta, were brought to Staunton in the custody of Joseph A. K. Beathe and John W. Jones of Highland, and charged with stealing horses from William Greever and Daniel Croft of Augusta. Croft pursued the thieves as far as McDowell before their captors took up the chase.
(Names in announcement: Jesse Seeley, James Seeley, Joseph A. K. Beathe, John W. Jones, William Greever, Daniel Croft)

Staunton Thespians
(Column 02)

Summary: The Staunton Thespians, boosted by new members, are preparing a new performance.

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: George W. Acord and Mrs. Elizabeth A. Spitler, both of Augusta, were married on November 18th by the Rev. J. W. Karicofe.
(Names in announcement: George W. Acord, Elizabeth A. Spitler, Rev. J. W. Karicofe)

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: John Wesley Coley and Miss Mary Francis Gibson, both of Augusta, were married in Staunton on November 19th by the Rev. George B. Taylor.
(Names in announcement: John Wesley Coley, Mary Francis Gibson, Rev. George B. Taylor)

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: William R. Marks and Annie M. Day were married in Staunton on November 12th by the Rev. George B. Taylor.
(Names in announcement: William R. Marks, Annie M. Day, Rev. George B. Taylor)

Married
(Column 03)

Summary: Charles P. Lambert of Alexandria and Miss S. Belle Burdette of Staunton were married on November 17th by the Rev. William E. Baker.
(Names in announcement: Charles P. Lambert, S. Belle Burdette, Rev. William E. Baker)

Deaths
(Column 03)

Summary: George H. Conklin, "well known and beloved in this community," passed away. "He was remarkable for his kindness of heart and inoffensiveness of character." "Specially was he kind and efficient in waiting upon and nursing the sick and it is probable his own death was hastened by such labor. What is better than all, he was an humble believer in Jesus." "His last illness was a very painful one, but he bore his sufferings with Christian patience and resignation."
(Names in announcement: George H. Conklin)

Deaths
(Column 03)

Summary: Mrs. Nancy Clayton, wife of William Clayton, died near Deerfield on November 14th. She was 61 years old. "Among the large circle of her acquaintances there was not one to controvert the fact of her being one of the best women known in that community. Her whole life seemed to justify, nay, demand the assertion that she was a friend to all; and if she had an enemy, or if any one, old or young, black or white, could be found who would even speak disrespectfully of her, the writer of this, though well acquainted with her history, has no knowledge of it. For many years she had been an exemplary member of the Presbyterian church, letting her light so shine that others seeing her good works might follow. Among the many brilliant traits of her character may be mentioned that of the meek Christian; the devoted wife; the untiring nurse in all cases, but especially around the bed of her aged and afflicted husband who, for at least six years has relied upon her kind hand almost as a child upon a mother. The kind friend to the orphan, and the charitable neighbor. Her illness, termed inflammation of the liver, lasted only six days, when she breathed her last, calmly and sweetly relying upon that Saviour in whom she had so long trusted."
(Names in announcement: Nancy Clayton, William Clayton)