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Staunton Vindicator: February 08, 1867 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The Old Suit of Grey
(Column 4)

Summary: The article delivers a paean to the Confederate cause, and likens grey, that "sacred color of the South," to all that is "noble, self-sacrificing, and patriotic."

Origin of Article: Fredericksburg Herald

Burning of Chambersburg
(Column 5)

Summary: Contains an extract from Gen. Early's war-time memoir describing the destruction of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, by Confederate troops.

Origin of Article: Last Year of the War

Is Wilkes Booth Dead?
(Column 6)

Summary: Reports that an article published in the "Memphis Avalanche" contends Booth played no role in Lincoln's assassination and casts doubt on Booth's premature demise.

Origin of Article: Memphis Avalanche

[No Title]
(Column 1)

Summary: The editors lament the Congressional Reconstruction Committee's failure to advance efforts at re-union, and they appeal to "the virtuous masses of the North" to "arrest the wild career of partizan passion and hatred" deployed by the Radicals in Washington.

Full Text of Article:

The long period that has elapsed since the appointment of what was miscalled, the "Reconstruction Committee" of Congress, has hitherto driven the nation further and further from the prospect of quick and conciliation. No scheme of re-construction has been submitted by that Committee to the country, every movement of theirs has tended, if it was not designed to widen the breach between the North and South, and render final re-construction more hopeless -- to foment sectional discord, and especially to intensify the already embittered feelings of the Northern people, against the crushed and desolated South. Both Houses of Congress seem to have placed themselves under the leadership of men, such as Sumner and Stevens, whose private griefs, and not the public interest, has rendered furious, and entirely unsuited for calm and patriotic statesmanship. Thus has the example inaugurated by President Lincoln, and attempted to be carried out by President Johnson, been frustrated. Thus have the Southern States, eager to return to the Union, for the attempt to withdraw from which, they had been so terribly chastised, been driven back from the door of Congress, and compelled by Northern power into secession. Why should these things be so? Cumbered as we are, by an enormous public debt, is it not the manifest interest of the whole nation, that her resources should be fostered, North and South -- that the industry of all her citizens should be encouraged and stimulated to the uttermost, instead of being crippled by petty maliginty [unclear] , in order that our great indebtedness shall be discharged at the earliest period, and with the least oppression upon all? What a blessing it would be at this time to the Northern people, if the great resources of the South, instead of being sacrificed to an unworthy hatred, and dissipated by that continual turmoil and incertitude, which the present unsettled condition of things produces, were, by a grand and statesmanlike policy, brought in to help them in the payment of nation debts -- if every farm and plantation and workshop South of Mason and Dixon's line were animated by calm and hopeful and energetic industry instead of being paralyzed, as they are, by terrible fears of change and of ruin to be brought about by the vindictive policy of the Radical party?

At the close of the late, the whole south utterly exhausted, both in men and means, -- disappointed in the movement she had attempted, and disheartened in every way. She sought the old Union almost with avidity, as a refuge and place of rest from her troubles, and had she been met in a kind and friendly spirit by her Northern brethren -- had her conquerors manifested by their conduct, what they had all along previously professed, that the whole object of the war had been to save the Union from dissolution -- had the policy of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Gen. Grant, &c., been fostered and co-operated in by Congress, -- and such generosity on the part of the conquerors, would have bound the hearts of the Southern and Northern people together with feelings almost of brotherly love, which have never existed before since the glorious days of the first revolution. The readiness and unanimity with which the South surrendered the great cause of our quarrel -- African slavery -- the great efforts she has made in her extreme poverty, to pay the heavy federal taxes -- her ready submission to everything that has been required of her, short of degradation, proves the sincerity of her desire for re-construction. What a glorious nation this then would have been! All cause for jealousy and quarrel removed, the people everywhere in the full enjoyment of freedom and equal rights, united in the bonds of mutual love -- prosperous and happy. What an example would they have set to the other nations of the earth, of the stability of Republican government! What a terror to our enemies abroad!

We of the South appeal to the honest and virtuous masses of the North to come to our aid, and arrest the wild career of partizan passion and hatred, which seems to bear away in Washington. We appeal to their ancient affections -- to the kindred blood that flows in their veins, and the many bonds of common interest that should bind us together. We appeal to their magnanimity, as brave conquerors dealing with a brave and but prostrate foe. We appeal to their self-interest. We must be one people. However divided by feuds and factions, our interests, our laws must be the same. There is no longer any difference in our institutions -- all the precedents made to operate harshly on us must at some time be quoted with the same crushing influence on them. They cannot strike us in the hour of party madness, buy that the blow will fall upon their own heads. If the safe-guard of liberty thrown around us by the Constitution are assailed and broken down, it is their liberties must be sacrificed with ours. We are indissolubly members of the same body -- let us determine to become a glorious body -- each member sustaining and nourishing all the rest, until the whole shall be perfected, and before the admiration of the world -- not an insane body, at war with itself, whose limbs tear each other, and render the whole a loathsome and pitiable mass of deformity.

[No Title]
(Column 2)

Summary: The editors proudly note that Nicholas K. Trout was nominated for Lieutenant Governor by a writer for the "Norfolk Journal".
(Names in announcement: Nicholas K. Trout)

The Law Allowing Further Time to Sheriffs to Pay in Revenue
(Column 2)

Summary: Contains a copy of the law granting sheriffs in Virginia an extra two months to pay their taxes.

Trailer: J. Bell Bigger

New Plan for Reconstruction
(Column 3)

Summary: The article contains a copy of the constitutional amendment under consideration in Congress. The bill would grant citizenship to blacks and would reduce the number of representatives given to a state if individuals qualified to vote were prevented from doing so.

Full Text of Article:

Article 14 -- Section 1. The Union under the Constitution is, and shall be, perpetual. No State shall pass any law or ordinance to secede or withdraw from the Union, and any such law or ordinance shall be null and void.

Section 2. The public debt of the United States, authorized by law, shall ever be held sacred and inviolate. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the Government or authority of the United States.

Section 3. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State in which they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.

Section 4. Representation shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when any State, shall, on account of race or color, or previous condition of servitude, exclude from voting at any election for the choice of electors for President or Vice President of the Unite States, representatives in Congress, members of Legislature or other officers elective by the people, any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, then the entire class of persons so excluded from the elective franchise, shall not be counted in the basis of representation. No State shall require as a property qualification for voters more than two hundred and fifty dollars worth of taxable property, nor as an educational qualification more education than enough to enable the voter to read the constitution of the United States in the English language and write his own name.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO STATE CONSTITUTION

Article. Every male citizen who has resided in this State for one year and in the country in which he offers to vote six months, immediately preceding the day of election, and who can read the Constitution of the United States in the English language, and can write his own name, or who may be the owner of two hundred and fifty dollars worth of taxable property, shall be entitled to vote at all elections for Governor of the State: Provided, That no person by reason of this article, shall be excluded from voting who has heretofore exercised the elective franchise under the Constitution and laws of this State, or who, at the time of the adoption of this amendment may be entitled to vote under said Constitution and laws.

Sensation in Lexington
(Column 3)

Summary: Relates the story of a young black woman who allegedly died and came back to life several days later, though blind and paralyzed. The women contends she traveled to heaven and hell during her sojourn from this world, and claims she can reveal the secrets of the dead.

Origin of Article: Lexington Observer and Reporter

General Assembly of Virginia
(Column 4)

Summary: After the addition of two amendments, reports the article, the General Assembly passed an act incorporating the Southern Association for the Benefit of the Widows and Orphans of the Southern States. Also of note, the legislature approved a bill appropriating $20,000 to provide artificial limbs for disabled soldiers.

Local Items
(Column 1)

Summary: The editors laud the creation of the Southern Orphan Relief Association and detail the organization's purpose.

Local Items
(Column 1)

Summary: William A. Mann, of Christian's Creek, lost his crops and livestock in a fire that destroyed his barn last Saturday. Only through "extraordinary exertions" was the granary located nearby spared the same fate. A black man who had been in Mann's employ for the past fourteen months was arrested and charged with arson; on his way to jail the suspect allegedly confessed his role in the crime and informed the authorities that he had been hired to do it by a black man from Rockbridge County, who had a "grudge" with Mann.
(Names in announcement: William A. Mann)

Local Items
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that the distillery operated by James Smith, and located on Benjamin Weller's property, was destroyed in a fire along with two hundred gallons whiskey. Arson is suspected as the cause of the blaze.
(Names in announcement: James Smith, Benjamin Weller)

Local Items
(Column 1)

Summary: Relates that the hotel firm of Peyton & O'Ferrall has dissolved; the American Hotel will again be run by Col. C. T. O'Ferrall and the Virginia will be re-opened by George L. Peyton.
(Names in announcement: Col. C. T. O'Ferrall, George L. Peyton)

Local Items
(Column 1)

Summary: Two brothers, William and Henry Bird, were sent to jail last Sunday, charged with setting fire to John Hogshead's house last Friday night.
(Names in announcement: William Bird, Henry Bird, John Hogshead)

Local Items
(Column 1)

Summary: Announces that Dr. C. R. Harris will deliver a lecture at the Staunton Lyceum tonight.
(Names in announcement: Dr. C. R. Harris)

Local Items--The New York Southern Relief Fund
(Column 1)

Summary: It is reported that the Southern Relief Committee, headquartered in New York, raised $14,000 in ten days for the fund to aid destitute southerners.

Married
(Column 2)

Summary: On Jan. 29 John Garber and Melinda Riswick were married by Rev. George B. Taylor.
(Names in announcement: John Garber, Melinda Riswick, Rev. George R. Taylor)

Married
(Column 2)

Summary: James W. Crawford and Cornelia, daughter of William G. Miller, of Rockingham, were married by Rev. Bowman.
(Names in announcement: James W. Crawford, Cornelia Miller, William G. Miller, Rev. Bowman)

Married
(Column 2)

Summary: On Jan. 31 James L. Clemmer, of Rockbridge, and Nannie J. Bell were married by Rev. J. J. Ingle.
(Names in announcement: James L. Clemmer, Nannie J. Bell, Rev. J. J. Ingle)

Married
(Column 2)

Summary: On Jan. 30 W. F. Prague and Mary, daughter of William Moffet, dec'd, formerly of Staunton, were married by Rev. W. F. Junkin.
(Names in announcement: W. F. Prague, Mary Moffet, William Moffet, Rev. W. F. Junkin)

Died
(Column 2)

Summary: Mary E. Albertson, consort of the late E. T. Albertson, died at her residence last Sunday night.
(Names in announcement: Mary E. Albertson, E. T. Albertson)