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Valley Spirit: November 28, 1860 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

The State Election
(Column 01)

Summary: The official county-by-county vote totals for the presidential election.

Governors of States for 1861
(Column 01)

Summary: List of governors and their party affiliations.

The War of Races Begun
(Column 02)

Summary: A black man named Charles Sanderson was charged with assault and battery after he struck a street-car conductor. Sanderson had gotten on a car "especially set apart for white people" and sat down. When the conductor asked him to leave, Sanderson refused and stated that "he was just as good as any of the white trash in the car." When the conductor took hold of him, Sanderston struck the man in the head. During the court case, he stated that he was in a hurry and couldn't wait for the colored car. "He was committed for examination."

Origin of Article: New York World

A Most Valiant Dogberry
(Column 04)

Summary: Makes fun of James S. Brisbin, the publisher of the Centre Democrat, who wrote a letter to the governor of Virginia. In it, Brisbin said that he was ready to lead the freemen of the North into battle to crush disunion "'as the strong man crushes an egg shell in his hand.'"

Origin of Article: Patriot and Union

Lynch Law
(Column 05)

Summary: The rumor that a man was lynched for voting for Lincoln and uttering abolitionist doctrines isn't true. Instead, a Russian of "bad character" was hanged after he had stolen some money. The men who hanged him only intended to choke and frighten him, but they almost killed him.

Origin of Article: Frederick Examiner

Southern Emigration Westward
(Column 05)

Summary: An unprecedented number of Southerners are emigrating west and are taking a large number of slaves.

Origin of Article: Shelbyville (Tenn.) Expositor

Thrilling Incident at a Theatre
(Column 05)

Summary: During a performance of Taylour's "Lessons for Husbands" at the St. Louis Threatre, an actor counted all the stars on the flag and "exclaimed, with deep feeling, 'Thank God, they are all there.' The attitude and earnestness of the speaker, and the peculiar force of he remark, passed like an electric shock through the audience, and the house rose en masse and applauded most vociferously."

[none]
(Column 06)

Summary: 6,000 stand of arms passed South to an unknown location on the 12th and 7,000 passed through the following day.

Origin of Article: Fredericksburg (VA) Herald

News of the Week
(Column 01)

Summary: Financial panic has "spread to an alarming extent" as a result of Lincoln's election.

What Has Been Gained
(Column 02)

Summary: The Spirit hopes that the poor men who voted for Lincoln in hopes of better times will not forget the lesson the country is learning--voting for the Republicans is leading to financial panic.

Give Them Their Share
(Column 02)

Summary: Lincoln and the Republicans alone cannot be blamed for the current financial and political crisis. The Douglas Democrats also have to receive some share of the blame.

A Ball to the Prince
(Column 02)

Summary: It is stated that the Republicans in Congress plan on throwing a ball for John W. Forney, "the Prince of Traitors."

Let Pennsylvania Unite with Virginia to Save the Union
(Column 03)

Summary: Southern states will leave the Union if Northern states don't "strike from their statute books all laws that infringe the constitutional rights of the South." However, it appears that Virginia will stay in the Union and act as a mediator between the Union and the secessionists. The Spirit hopes that Pennsylvania will act in conjunction with Virginia to settle the key issues.

Full Text of Article:

We have watched with an anxious eye the movements now going on at the South. We believed that the election of Lincoln would induce some to the Southern States to withdraw from the Union. Our fears did not magnify the danger. A careful scrutiny of the doings of the people of certain Southern States, has satisfied us that the American Union will be smaller three months hence than it is now, unless the Northern States strike from their statute books all laws that infringe the constitutional rights of the South. It is plain that South Carolina and several other States are resolved on going out; and it is certain that if the North attempts to coerce them the whole South will unite in their defense.

But we do no yet despair of the Union. There is encouragement in the attitude of Virginia, that ancient and glorious commonwealth, which never losses sight of true principles and never swerves from the path of patriotism. Virginia, whilst firmly maintaining the constitutional rights of the section to which she belongs, will, we are told, remain in the Union and act as mediator between the North and the seceding Southern States. She will endeavor to obtain from the Northern States a repeal of their laws obstructing the reclamation of fugitive slaves; and these being repealed, she will use her influence to induce the seceding States to return to the Union. She proposes to herself a great and glorious mission, and confiding in her wisdom, her moderation and her patriotism, we believe that she will be successful.

The present would seem to be a proper time for the final adjustment of the questions in dispute between the North and the South. The quarrel has gone on too long already. Let the two sections sit down calmly together and talk over the points in issue, and if agreement is out of the question, let them peaceably separate. We do not believe that it is impossible for them to agree. The Northern people have apparently, but we think not really, gone crazy on the subject of slavery. Adroit politicians of mischievous propensities have caused the enactment of obnoxious laws which are unknown to three-fourths of the people in whose name they were enacted. How many, for instance, of the people of Pennsylvania, are aware that there is on the statute book of the State a law obstructing the recapture of runaway negroes? How many old Whigs are prepared to hear that this law was drafted by a Whig Senator? How many Democrats will learn without surprise that it was approved by a Democratic Governor? Yet all this is the fact.

Now in spite of this law, we venture to affirm that the people of Pennsylvania are not opposed to the recapture of runaway negroes and are not in favor of obstructing the execution of the fugitive slave law. They have in their midst more free negroes than they want; and they know very well that if they prevent the recapture of runaway negroes on their soil, the effect will be to increase largely the number of negroes in the State.

What then ought they to do? The answer is plain. They ought to demand of their Legislature the repeal of the obnoxious, irritating and unjust law alluded to. If they permit that law to stand unrepealed, now that their attention has been called to it, then it may justly be inferred that they sympathise with those Northern Disunionists who would rather break up the Union than carry out the provisions of the Federal Constitution.

Let this subject be agitated. Let the press, or at least the Democratic portion of it, speak out for repeal.--Let the people petition the Legislature to wipe out our nullifying law. Let Andrew G. Curtin, when he takes the Governor's chair, be called upon to show whether he stands with the slave-stealing Yankees who have settled in the Northern part of our State, or with the great body of the people of Pennsylvania, who respect that clause of the Constitution which provides that slaves who may run away "shall be delivered up." Let the various aspirants to the dignified position of United States Senator be compelled to show their hands. What say you Messrs. McClure, Stevens, Wilmot, Moorhead, and the rest of that host of Republican patriots who are willing to serve Pennsylvania in the Senate of the United States--Are you in favor of retaining in force a law which obstructs the execution of the fugitive slave law and practically denies to the people of the South a right guaranteed to them by the Constitution?

There will probably be a separation of one or more States from the Union before the obnoxious laws passed by some of the Northern States can possibly be repealed. But the separation will not be final if Pennsylvania, responding to the patriotic suggestions of Virginia, shall set her sister States of the North the example of repealing an act conceived in unreasonable hostility to the South, and beyond all question violative of the just rights of the people of fifteen sovereign States.

Kansas
(Column 04)

Summary: Montgomery, a former associate of John Brown, has been making trouble in Kansas again. The Spirit hopes that he is caught and hanged.

Begging a Notice
(Column 04)

Summary: The Spirit doesn't want to be drawn into any further quarrel with the Times, while the Times appears to want to "keep up the quarrel to the bitter end."

Repeal is the Issue
(Column 05)

Summary: Urges the Pennsylvania Legislature to repeal the law "making the master responsible for any tumult the slave-stealing and slave-rescuing abolitionists may create when the master attempts to retake his slave." Southern states will surely secede if such laws aren't removed from the books.

The Bank of Chambersburg
(Column 05)

Summary: Urges citizens of Franklin county not make a run on the Bank of Chambersburg, which the Spirit believes is in sound condition.

Douglas Disunionists
(Column 06)

Summary: John Forsyth, the editor of the Mobile (Alabama) Register, was a Douglas supporter who constantly accused Breckinridge of being a disunionist. Yet, shortly after Lincoln's election, Forsyth stated that Alabama should leave the Union.

Virginia
(Column 06)

Summary: A large meeting that took place in Essex County passed a resolution that appealed to South Carolina to wait until Virginia could be heard. It also called on all the states to meet in a convention to attempt to preserve the Union.

Origin of Article: Washington Constitution

Resignation of Chief Justice Taney
(Column 06)

Summary: It is rumored that Taney will resign. It is believed that Jeremiah S. Black of Pennsylvania will be appointed to replace him.

Mississippi
(Column 06)

Summary: "The members of Congress from Mississippi are reported to have declared, after consultation, in favor of a Southern Confederacy. An immense meeting was held in New Orleans, on Friday night, to promote military organization and concert of action."

Vermont
(Column 06)

Summary: "Judge Thomas, a Democratic member of the Legislature, has introduced a bill to repeal the 'personal liberty act' of Vermont. This is a step in the right direction, but we fear the Republican majority in the Vermont Legislature will defeat the measure."

Election
(Column 01)

Summary: The men listed were elected as Directors of the Bank of Chambersburg.
(Names in announcement: Wm. Heyser, Schmeck, Wm. McLellen, H. Greenwalt, C.M. Duncan, S.M. Linn, A.B. Wingerd, E. Culbertson, David Piper, A. Stouffer, J. Stouffer, James Nill)

The New Abolitionist Raid--Excitement on the Missouri Border--The People Arming in Self Defence
(Column 04)

Summary: Missouri citizens have organized a military company to help defend their "brothers on the border" if necessary.

From the South
(Column 05)

Summary: Brief excerpts of news articles dealing with Southern issues, including the suspension of specie payment in Baltimore, Petersburg, and Richmond banks; and a report of a meeting of the minute men in Norfolk.

Died
(Column 05)

Summary: Died November 24th, aged 81 years.
(Names in announcement: Jesse Cummins)

Died
(Column 05)

Summary: Died November 11th, aged 82 years.
(Names in announcement: Mr. E. F. Oyler)

Died
(Column 05)

Summary: Died November 9th, aged 78 years. She was a life-long communicant of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
(Names in announcement: Mrs. Margaret Bunn)

Words of Prophecy
(Column 01)

Summary: Excerpts from a President Fillmore campaign speech in 1856 in which he warns of the consequences of sectional rule.

Apology for Assassination
(Column 01)

Summary: The Spirit criticizes the Republican press for its defense of Montgomery, who murdered a number of pro-slavery men in Kansas.

The Financial Pressure
(Column 02)

Summary: In New York, some leading banks discussed the possibility of issuing scrip to relieve the financial pressure. In Virginia, the banks of Richmond, Petersburg, Wheeling, and Norfolk were suspended.