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Valley Spirit: June 06, 1866 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

An Appeal to the Magnamity of the North
(Column 7)

Summary: Invoking the country's first hundred years of "toil and glory in common cause," the article appeals to northerners to overlook the past four years of rebellion and reconcile with their southern brothers.

Origin of Article: Memphis Avalanche

Editorial Comment: "The Memphis Avalanche makes the following eloquent appeal to the magnanimity and patriotism of the North to sustain the policy of President Johnson, and let wisdom take the place of passion, generosity of proscription, and high souled liberality of bigoted fanaticism."

Full Text of Article:

Remember the past glorious history of the South, which for more than a century before the Union and since the union, has illustrated the highest virtues of humanity. The South has given to the nation the peerless Washington, the matchless Henry, the immortal Jefferson, the accomplished Madison, the high souled Clay and the chivalrous Calhoun. Remember that heroism of the sons of the South has made the history of the nation shine with such names as Marion and Sumter and Greene and Jackson--the glorious hero of the Hermitage and the champion of the Union in the days of nullification. If the Union protected and developed the South, nobly did the South pay the Union by the fame of her sons and the virtue of her women. If the South fought against you of the North for four years, she fought for you against the French and Indians, against the British and Mexicans, in all for more than a century.

Will not a hundred years of toil and glory in a common cause more than overbalance four years of rebellion--even admitted we were in rebellion? But we were not in rebellion. We attempted to secede, but did not rebel. It was a great social schism, but six millions people could not be rebels, traitors all. We honestly struggled for what we believed to be right. You did the same. You were honest as well as we. The valor of our men, the blood of our slain, and the graves of our dead, all proclaim our honesty in the fearful struggle. We were foemen worthy of your steel. We gave you a fight which illustrated the sublimity of human valor, and the extremity of human endurance. Of all the elements of mankind, of all the virtues which import dignity to man, of all the characteristics of the Christen soldier the sun never shone upon a nobler specimen than Robert E. Lee. A purer patriot never lived than Stonewall Jackson or Leonidas Polk; and their names will be cherished by our children's children, to the latest generation. We refer to these men, not to stir up strife, but to appeal to the people, a great people, who can afford to be magnanimous to those who have evoked the most herculean efforts which the world has ever seen. We gave you a fight as no other people could have given you--a fight, grand in its dimensions and sublime in its terrible magnitude--and your names are in terror with nations. suppose you unite our Lee with your Grant, our Johnston with your Sherman, our Forrest with your Wilson, would you not be invincible? Suppose you say, they are countrymen, erring they may have been, but we will not spurn them, for none but our countrymen could have fought such battles as Manasses, Shiloh and the Wilderness. Better we welcome you in perfect confidence to a common brotherhood and a common destiny. Such language as this would bring back the life's blood to the sickened Southern heart, and fill the nation with joy. Why attempt to gain us to you by bayonets, when you could unite us so much more firmly by interest and noble bearing?

Our fight was such as you may be proud to acknowledge was never fought except by Americans; our surrender so honorable and thorough, has challenged parallel in history and has gained the admiration of the world. Look at Lee and Johnston, and Forrest and Beauregard. What an example they have set; what monuments have they erected for themselves--monuments whose splendor, undimmed by the cloud of fanaticism shines on both hemispheres, and shall continue to grow brighter during the lapse of ages! We have fought the greatest battles in the world, and we have failed, and thoroughly accept the results of the war. By our countless dead, by our desolated homes by our chivalrous men and our noble women, we entreat you, let us have peace. The South is tired of war. Not a man in it desires a renewal of the fight. We have fought to the last man and the last ditch. Do not be afraid of us; we are disinclined to evil, and all powerful for good. WE have statesmen as pure as ever graced a Senate, warriors as brave as ever drew a sword, and citizens as virtuous as ever illustrated civilization; and we offer all to a restored Union. Suppose we could make such an offer to Her Majesty Victoria, or to the Emperior [sic] Napoleon, with what eager grasp they would seize our hands, and with what a cordial welcome they would receive us. But we are not monarchists. The shades of Washington forbid it, and the bones of Jackson would turn in their coffin. No, we have been born and nursed and cradled in the hand of liberty--in it we hope to live and die. We are not going to Mexico or to Brazil; but here by the side of the Father of Waters we shall live and die, battling for the restoration of our native South.

Let the Laboring White Men Read
(Column 1)

Summary: Across the country, asserts the article, laboring white men are finding themselves in dire financial straits. In spite of their hard-work, they are unable to improve their situation financially thus making simple dreams, such as owning their own home, impossible. Yet, the piece remarks, the Freedmen's Bureau will provide the ex-slaves with $11 million worth of "comforts," supplied largely by tax money paid by white workers.

Full Text of Article:

There is to-day in this broad land, says a contemporary, many an earnest, honest working man. breasting the waves of adversity, his stout heart clinging to the picture he sees sway of in the far future, of a home of his own, purchased with savings of his weekly toil. To be sure, to-day he has no savings; the great war debts, with its taxes upon him, eats up all his little surplus. The enhanced price of the necessaries of life, growing out of the paper currency--the financial shinplaster curse upon him and his--he has to stagger under. He has no surplus now; but he hopes on and hopes ever. He sees the little home, and the school house, and the church, and his weekly news journal, and a decent wardrobe, and three good meals a day for him and his--a beautiful dream away off in the distant future. For the present, all is dark and gloomy, and if it were not for hope his heart would sink within him. He struggles on in poverty and self-denial; his children are ragged and ignorant; he works and earns his ten or twelve dollars per week , but the landlord and the butcher, the baker and the coal dealer take all his money--for are they not taxed, doubly taxed, trebly taxed, and he has to foot the bill. He realizes that he, as a consumer, must suffer through these taxes, that the people must bleed at every pore, but for what? Let the complaining taxpayer, who cannot educate his children and feed and clothe them as formerly, read and judge for himself.

The Negro Bureau wants, according to the bill reported by Mr. Stevens $11,584,500, for Negro necessities down South for the coming fiscal year. What a sum!--almost equal to the entire cost of supporting the government of the United States thirty years ago! Negro commissioners, $47,500; negro clerks, $12,800; negro printing and paper, $63,000; negro fuel, $15,000; negro wardrobe, $1,750,000; negro food $4,106,250; negro doctoring, $300,000; negro rail road riding, $1,980,000; negro school marms, $21,000; negro school houses, $300,000; negro telegraphing, $18,000, etc, etc.

Working white men of the North your families are made by the present party in power white slaves. Your task is placed before you, and it is so plain that you cannot mistake it. You are to toil and sweat so that the negro may have $11,584,500 in comforts, though you and yours die on the [UNCLEAR] through the labor which alone gives this vast sum to the lazy, worthless black race of the South. You need not memorialize the State Legislature for an eight hour a day law. It will be in vain for you to expect higher returns for your labor. You will be compelled to work long and take less pay per day than ever, in order that four millions of indolent, good for nothing negroes may be maintained in idleness at your expense.

Since the formation of the Government up to the present hour, the work of the Democrats has always been to repair the political and social damage the old Federal or Tory factionists, whenever they got into power, have uniformly perpetrated. Democratic administrations have always righted the abuses which the innate corruptions of their political enemies, when by accident or chicanery they obtained the reins of government always committed. The great reform we trust, will commence with the present year; but the job in the Augean Stables in former times was child's play to the work now on hand. While the blunders financial, moral and political, disgrace the whole country and are bringing ruin in their train, the true reformers should not be disheartened, but should put their shoulders manfully to the work, and again, as in time past and gone, endeavor to get the old Ship of State once more on the right track with a Democratic pilot at the helm and a Democratic crew on board.

Congress
(Column 2)

Summary: In response to the decision made by the Democrats of Somerset county to nominate A. H. Coffroth for the upcoming Congressional election, the editor of the Spirit reminds them that the people of Franklin county have supported their nominees in the past two elections, therefore, it is only fair that the Democrats from Franklin should select the next nominee. With that in mind, the Spirit endorses the nomination of J. McDowall Sharpe, Esq.
(Names in announcement: J. McDowall SharpeEsq.)

Full Text of Article:

The Democratic convention of Somerset county having nominated Gen. A. H. Coffroth, the present member, for re-election to the next Congress, it may be as well for us to announce the fact that Franklin county intends urging her claim to the nomination for that position. She will present before the congressional conference the name of J. McDowell Sharpe, Esq., of this place, and ask his nomination with earnestness, is the full confidence that her superior claims will not be overlooked. Against the propriety of our Somerset friends expressing a preference for Gen. Coffroth for that position we have nothing to say, it is all right and proper that they should do so, but we scarcely think that it is intended by them seriously to urge his nomination in the face of the fact, that they had already had the candidate two terms.

Since ht formation of the district Franklin county has presented no candidate for Congress, and has acquiesced in the choice of Somerset and yielded him her hearty support. She now presents a candidate and asks from that county the same cheerful acquiescence and support which she accorded Mr. Coffroth on former occasions.

The candidate presented by Franklin county is well known throughout the district, and combines in a high degree all the necessary elements of an efficient and reliable representative in our national legislature. Of his high character for ability, integrity and sound Democracy it is not necessary to speak--they are universally conceded.

The Democracy of this county urge the nomination of Mr. Sharpe on the ground of his eminent ability and fitness, as well as on the indisputable claim of the county to the nomination. No other county in the district has presented a candidate but Somerset, and as she has had the congressman for four years, she should be satisfied. In view of these facts we hope the conference will give Mr. Sharpe a unanimous nomination, and thereby render certain the election of an able and reliable representative from this district in the next Congress.

Another Broadside From the "Boys in Blue"
(Column 3)

Summary: Detailing the events that transpired at a meeting where delegates were selected to represent Cumberland county at the Soldiers' Convention in Pittsburgh, the Spirit gleefully reports that those in attendance overwhelmingly endorsed a platform supporting the President and his reconstruction policies, a development that astonished the organizers who, the article alleges, had hoped to "manipulate its proceedings to suit their base partisan purposes and advance the interests of their negro-suffrage candidate for Governor."

A Few Plain Thoughts
(Column 4)

Summary: Laying blame for the "immense national debt," the death and destruction of the war, and the enormous rate of taxation on the "Abolition party," the editorial avows that "the only hope for the nation, the only security for the future, is in the restoration of the Democratic party to power."

The Senate's Plan of Reconstruction
(Column 5)

Summary: Contains a copy of the reconstruction plan issued by the caucus of Republican Senators, which proposes a different set of criteria for determining voter eligibility and representation in Congress than the policies put forth by Johnson.

Full Text of Article:

The following is the plan of reconstruction reported by the caucus of Republican Senators:

Section 1. All persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of any citizens of the United States, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny any person within any jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever in any State the elective franchise shall be denied to any portion of its male inhabitants, being citizens of the United States, not less than twenty-one years of age, or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation in such State shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens not less than twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section three being stricken out, the following is proposed in lieu of it:

No person shall be a Senator of Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States or under any State, who having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State to support the Constitution of the United States, shall bave engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same in giving aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; but Congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. All obligations of the United States incurred in suppressing insurrection, or in defence of the Union, or of payment of bounties or pensions incident thereto, shall remain inviolate.

Section four in the original will be changed to section five, and it is proposed to change that section so as to make it read:

Section 5. Neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for compensation for emancipation of any slaves, and such debts and obligations and claims shall be forever held illegal and void.

Section 6. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Why Geary Cannot Be Elected
(Column 5)

Summary: The article uses an extract from a Republican journal declaring its opposition to Geary to bolster its claim that large numbers of Republicans will not support their party's gubernatorial nominee in the upcoming election.

Origin of Article: Philadelphia Daily News

Editorial Comment: "The Philadelphia Daily News, a Republican newspaper which is as well known as any in this State, very plainly intimates that General Geary does not stand a shadow of a chance of being elected. It declares that thousands of sensible Republican[s] know that the platform onwhich he stands will be repudiated by the people of Pennsylvania and the candidate with it. We make the following significant extract:"

Ten Reasons
(Column 6)

Summary: Lists ten reasons explaining why Hiester Clymer, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, should be elected.

Origin of Article: Easton Argus

Full Text of Article:

Why Hiester Clymer Should be Elected Governor in Preference to John W. Geary.

1. Because he is more capable to discharge the duties of the office than Geary.

2. Because he is a gentleman of fixed and correct political principles, which Geary is not.

3. Because he is thoroughly acquainted with the wants and interests of the people of Pennsylvania. Geary is not.

4. Because he is opposed to Negro Suffrage and Negro Equality in every shape. Geary is in favor of these outrageous measures.

5. Because he sustains the patriotic policy of President Johnson. Geary don't.

6. Because he regards the war as ended and desires the people of every State to dwell together, once more, in unity and peace. Geary, on the other hand, has promised to support old Thad. Stevens and Sumner, in their efforts to keep the Union divided and the country in everlasting turmoil.

7. Because as Governor, Mr. Clymer will uphold and respect the Constitution of the country and State. Geary will be the tool of designing and corrupt politicians, who will "throw conscience to the d--l" and and have no regard for Contsitutions.

8. Mr. Clymer has established an unblemished reputation for honesty and integrity. He is a pure man. Geary can lay claim to no such character.

9. Because Mr. Clymer, if elected, will oppose any alteration of our State Constitution. Geary will prostitute the position to have the word "white" stricken from the Constitution, which will give the negroes the right to vote, to hold office, to sit on juries, and to enjoy all the rights and privileges of white people. Wm. D. Kelly, John W. Forney and other leading disunionists have publicly declared that it is their purpose to do this, when they have the power.

10. To elect Mr. Clymer would be to return to the good old days of Simon Snyder and Francis R. Shunk. He is descended from an old-fashioned Pennsylvania German family. To elect Geary would be to re-instate into power men of the Thad. Stevens stripe, when plunder and roguery would be the order of the day.

No good man--no patriot, should hesitate how to vote next fall.--Easton Argus

Local and Personal--Gypsies
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that a large band of "rich gypsies" has encamped near Chambersburg.

Local and Personal--A Fatal Affray
(Column 1)

Summary: On June 1st, an altercation between two black men occurred in Fayetteville which resulted in the death of one of the participants. Apparently, the victim was shot by a man named Fields, who claims he acted in self-defense.
(Names in announcement: Fields, Esquire Armstrong)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On May 14th, G. Mozath and Eliza Lively, of Hagerstown, were married by Rev. W. C. Stitt.
(Names in announcement: Rev. W. C. Stitt, G. Mozath, Eliza Lively)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On May 24th, Jacob Wiland, of Hamilton township, and Anna Laidig were married at the residence of John Maxheimer. Rev. J. Keller Miller presided over the ceremony.
(Names in announcement: John Maxheimer, Rev. J. Keller Miller, Jacob Wiland, Anna Laidig)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On May 24th, at the residence of Mrs. Rhodes, J. M. Long and Nannie A. Rhodes were married by Rev. J. Keller Miller.
(Names in announcement: Mrs. Rhodes, Rev. J. Keller Miller, J. M. Long, Nannie A. Rhodes)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On May 24th, Jonathan Pentz and Annie Cooper were married by Rev. W. E. Krebs.
(Names in announcement: Rev. W. E. Krebs, Jonathan Pentz, Annie Cooper)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On April 29th, Oscar Anderson and Harriet Harbaugh were married by Rev. C. F. Thomas.
(Names in announcement: Rev. C. F. Thomas, Oscar Anderson, Harriet Harbaugh)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On May 27th, John Harbaugh and Mary Eyles were married by Rev. C. F. Thomas.
(Names in announcement: Rev. C. F. Thomas, John Harbaugh, Mary E. Eyles)

Married
(Column 3)

Summary: On May 27th, Cornelius Hardman and Lucinda Harman were married by Rev. C. F. Thomas.
(Names in announcement: Rev. C. F. Thomas, Cornelius Hardman, Lucinda Harman)

Died
(Column 3)

Summary: On May 19th and May 20th, Denny West and Albert McLellan, sons of Simon S. Piper and Mary Jane Piper, died. The boys were aged 5 and 4, respectively.
(Names in announcement: Denny West Piper, Albert McLellan Piper, Simon S. Piper, Mary Jane Piper)