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Semi-Weekly Dispatch: September 13, 1861 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The New Army Order--The Sabbath
(Column 3)

Summary: Reprints Major-General McClellan's order that the army is not to work on the Sabbath, unless attack by the enemy makes fighting necessary.

Origin of Article: Philadelphia Bulletin

A Reconciliation
(Column 3)

Summary: Reports that Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania and Secretary of War Cameron have resolved the struggle over who possessed authority over Pennsylvania's troops, a quarrel existing since the war began. The troops will be under the command of the governor until they are turned over to the federal government.

Origin of Article: New York Herald

Pardon of the Sentinel Who Slept on His Post
(Column 4)

Summary: Reports the issuance of a pardon by Major-General McClellan of Private William Scott of the Third Vermont Volunteers, a sentinel who was to be executed for sleeping on his post.

Cotton for Pennsylvania
(Column 5)

Summary: Relates that Dr. J. C. Reinhardt claims that two kinds of cotton--Nankin, or yellow cotton, and white cotton--can be grown in Pennsylvania.

Profession vs. Practice
(Column 1)

Summary: Charges the Valley Spirit with failing to live up to the professions of Union approved by the Democratic convention of Franklin County. Asserts that the most recent issue of the Spirit criticizes the present administration repeatedly, in essence blaming it for the war while endorsing resolutions that put the responsibility for the conflict entirely on the Secessionists.

Full Text of Article:

Only last week, the Democratic Convention assembled in this place, and passed resolutions eminently patriotic, and satisfactory to every true Union man in the County. It was evident to outsiders, who attended that Convention, that about one-third of the delegates heartily and cordially endorsed those resolutions. It was equally evident that the remaining two-thirds received the resolutions like a nauseous dose, sitting sternly and silently, and voting neither affirmatively nor negatively. From this fact, and from the organization of the Convention it was predicted that neither its practice nor that of the party would correspond with the spirit of the resolutions. The Convention set out by electing a man of more than doubtful loyalty, President. One of the Secretaries was a friendly and honored guest in the head-quarters of Gen. Johnston of the Rebel army, if we may believe the testimony of one of our citizens who was an impressed soldier in the ranks of the same army, and who afterwards escaped. The Convention immediately after the passage of the patriotic resolutions, nominated for important offices several men, well known in this community to be bitterly hostile to the war, and per consequence, to the Government, the Country, and their own resolutions.

So far the prediction above referred to was fulfilled.

This week's issue of the Valley Spirit confirms the remainder of the prediction, and the insincerity of the majority of the party represented in the Convention. It is filled with attacks, both open and covert, on the war and on the Administration. Extracts from disloyal papers like itself, teem in its columns. It reiterates the Secession argument that the present Administration has brought all the present trouble upon the Country. It says:--"Under Buchanan the people was happy, prosperous, and at peace; under Lincoln they are starving and at war." The people are judges of the peaceful condition of affairs handed over by Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Lincoln. So peaceful that the latter was compelled to go disguised to his inauguration, to escape assassination, and the former to surround himself with armed men to protect the Capital during the last days of his reign. The "corruptions" also of the present Administration effect [sic] unpleasantly the olfactories of the Spirit and its followers. No doubt the peculations of Mr. Floyd, to the tune of six millions of dollars, his wholesale delivery of arms and munitions of war to the Rebels under the late Administration, to say nothing of printing frauds and frauds of all kind, revealed by Congressional investigation, are odors pleasant to the nostrils of the Spirit, as those borne on the balmy breezes of Araby. It would appear so, at least, from the fact that it has no word of denunciation for these corruptions, and for the corruptions and wrongs which the Rebels have perpetrated and are now perpetrating every day. It is possible that it is for these things that "Buchanan and his administration are to be remembered with gratitude, long after the name of Lincoln has been forgotten."

The faithful are next reminded of the taxes imposed upon them by the Lincoln administration. Of course it is a logical consequence that as our own Government has brought all this trouble on us, it has also brought on the taxes. It is not worth while to dispute this, nor to follow out the Spirit's line of argument in defence of the Union cause any further. We have only to say, that it is a very singular course for a paper that endorsed the Resolutions passed at the Democratic Convention, one of which distinctly says, that this war and the troubles, taxes, and all else consequent upon it, was forced upon the Country by the disunionists of the South.--The course of the Spirit might be Union in Franklin County, but in some localities it would be considered sympathy with Secession. We are certain of one thing, that the course of the Spirit this week, is not in accordance with the spirit of the Resolutions are to be used as a mere cloak for treason, and that its practice was never intended to correspond with its profession.

Which Is the Loyal Party?
(Column 2)

Summary: Casts dispersion on the contention made by Colonel James Orr at the county Democratic Convention that the Democratic party has always been the party of union. Points out that the Democratic party has always been dominated by Southern men, and that far more Democrats have been arrested for "aiding and abetting" the rebellion than Republicans.

A "Loyal" Candidate
(Column 2)

Summary: Argues that the candidate the Valley Spirit promotes for the office of Associate Judge, Mr. Augustus Duncan, is not the kind of loyal unionist the Democrats profess to prefer. Instead, Mr. Duncan, the Dispatch alleges, has proclaimed that the war against the South is "most unjust" and was brought about by President Lincoln.
(Names in announcement: Mr. Augustus Duncan)

[No Title]
(Column 2)

Summary: Expresses the opinion that the Spirit's proclamations of loyalty are merely "a blind to hide its secession proclivities."

Inconsistency
(Column 3)

Summary: Points out that the Valley Spirit has accused Judge Nill of joining the Union party for the express purpose of gaining a judgeship. Yet at the same time, the Dispatch claims, the Spirit have no similar complaints against Nill's "competitor," Mr. Reilly, who has constantly held or been in the running for a number of different offices.
(Names in announcement: Judge Nill, Mr. Reilly)

Audacity
(Column 3)

Summary: Complains that the "sympathies" the Valley Spirit exhibits toward the Secessionists should have led to its suppression long ago.

Full Text of Article:

Since the suppression of the Hagerstown Mail, and imprisonment of its pseudoeditor, Dan. Dechert, for its treasonable teachings, and excepting several Democratic papers printed in New York, one called the Day Book, and another the News, which the Government refuses to carry in the mails, we know of no other printed in the loyal States that transcends the Valley Spirit in audacity, hypocracy [sic] and jesuitical shiftings. Its cuttle editor is like a peculiar kind of fish that naturalists describe as possessing a small bladder under the throat, which is filled with an ink-like fluid, and when pursued by an enemy is able to eject this dark fluid, which so darkens the surrounding water that its whereabouts is lost by the pursuer, and, in the midst of the darkness it has created, makes good its escape.

This is precisely the policy pursued by the Spirit. It seeks to escape the just odium that attaches to its mean, underhanded attacks upon the Administration, owing to its energetic prosecution of the war upon the Rebels, by asserting that the columns of the Dispatch is "weekly filled with the rankest treason against the North!" It seeks to darken the waters by ejecting its black falsehoods against others, thus covering its own filth and eluding the just indignation of an outraged and incensed loyal people.

The sympathies of the Spirit for the desperate conspirators against out Government, have been so marked, glaring, and shameless that it was with difficulty many Union Democrats of our Borough, during the first weeks of the Rebellion, could restrain themselves from going in a body and heaving the materials of the concern into the street. The feelings, views, and principles of the Union Democracy are outraged in every issue of the Spirit by its double-dealing, prevaricating editor, while papers even less debauched than the Spirit, have been mobbed by an indignant and loyal public, such, for instance, as the Easton Sentinel and West Chester Jeffersonian.

A paper in the South, that would advocate the cause of the Union with half the boldness, zeal and earnestness which he Spirit does that of this causeless and wicked Rebellion, would be dealt with very summarily, speedily, and effectually; and that it has not thus been dealt with, is owing altogether to the forbearance of the community--to their love of "law and order,"--and in hope that its editor and proprietors may yet see the propriety as well as the necessity of changing their course so as to accord more with the loyal sentiments of the masses of the great Free North. There is a limit even to the Freedom of the Press, which, if persistently and wilfully [sic] transcended, should be punished, and we would advise our neighbor not to lean too heavily upon the forbearance and lenity of the community, for there is a period when even patience ceases to be a virtue, and the cuttle of the Spirit might wake up some morning without a channel through which to promulgate his slanders and treasonable effusion.

Two Flags in the Camp
(Column 4)

Summary: Questions the loyalty of the Times to the Union, if it is satisfied with the nomination of candidates selected by the Valley Spirit. The Times secured the passage of its Unionist resolutions, but did not recommend many of the candidates that emerged on the Democratic ticket.

[No Title]
(Column 4)

Summary: Calls into question the truthfulness of the Spirit's contention that "the Democratic party in toto deny the right of Secession."

Wood Wanted
(Column 1)

Summary: Requests that any Dispatch readers wishing to pay their subscription in wood should do so now.

Ordered on Duty
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that Dr. S. G. Lane of Chambersburg has been ordered to report to Georgetown immediately. Dr. Lane is a surgeon for the First Regiment of Pennsylvania reserves.
(Names in announcement: Dr. S. G. Lane)

Deaths
(Column 1)

Summary: John M. Fuchs, infant son of Peter P. and Mary A. Fuchs, died of diphtheria at the age of 11 months on September 9.
(Names in announcement: John M. Fuchs, Peter P. Fuchs, Mary A. Fuchs)