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Semi-Weekly Dispatch: January 17, 1862 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

A Modest Salutatory!
(Column 1)

Summary: Denounces a recent Valley Spirit editorial that deems the party in power abolitionists and that conveys sympathy to the Southerners. The Dispatch accuses the Spirit of presenting the same sentiments as do the Richmond newspapers.

Full Text of Article:

We regret that we cannot, on account of a press of news, give a more extended notice to an editorial of enormous length in the last Spirit. If the editorial in question be considered a fair sample of what the readers of the said interesting hebdomadal may expect in future, we congratulate them on the quantity of such delectable effusions in prospect, without saying one word, at the start, in praise of the qualitiy of number one! Vapid and prolix twaddle, when uttered by a musical voice, is sometimes agreeable enough, but when reduced to plain prose, and put in types, to the intelligent reader it tries the temper more than the repeated duns of an importunate creditor. It is indeed a dun upon the patience of a man, for he would just as soon read any thing else as the vapory, senseless gibberish of nearly three columns in the Spirit, under the caption of "The Abolitionists at Work." It tries his patience, as a matter of course, because its spirit is precisely that of the Richmond Dispatch and Examiner. What are all loyal men in the North but anti-slavery men, honestly and avowedly, or, as the said rebel newspapers distinguish us, "Yankee Abolitionists"? Who has not read the precious morceaus from the Richmond papers denouncing all Northern men for their Abolitionism? Actuated by a spirit which no loyal man would hesitate to denounce, the Spirit takes up the burden of the Southern hue and cry, proclaiming the party in power the Abolitionists who originated the war, and propounds the following question:

"Is it to be wondered at that the Southern people felt alarmed at their position in the Union, with four hundred millions of property in slaves endangered by the advent of such a fiendish party to power?"

Who are fiendish? The people, both Republicans and "deluded Democrats," who patriotically sustain the Government? Or is it those Southern incarnate fiends who really originated all our trouble, and are now warring against the Government of the country? We endeavor to be courteous to all men, but we can have no patience with the man who will publicly assert that any class of politicians in the North--even should they be Abolitionists--originated the war! It is false, and the history of the past year will prove it so. Who took up arms against the Government but Southern traitors? Who took up arms in defence of this Government but Northern men, consisting of Republicans, Democrats, as well as Abolitionists? An infatuation certainly possesses the man who will make the declaration that any class of Northerners originated the war, or an inexcusable ignorance renders him capable of uttering what all sensible readers cannot help but contemn [sic] and ridicule. The Spirit has also made the discovery that, among the loyal supporters of the Government, in Franklin county, there are Abolitionists, as well as "Democrats who have been deluded by the arch machinations of the destroyers of our country"!! Read what it says in reference to these zealous supporters of the Union in our own county:

"These are the men of the same stamp of the New England Puritans, who killed the Indians, hung the Quakers, drove out the Baptists, drowned women for witches, and all in the name of Religion."

Could any thing be more appropriate for an Eastern Virginia paper than the character the Spirit gives of Franklin county anti-slavery men? We leave our readers to make any additional comments we have not the space for, and we will promise further notice of any more of our contemporary's editorials on his and the Richmond papers' favorite theme of Abolitionists and Abolitionism!

The Franking Privilege Repealed
(Column 2)

Summary: Applauds the House of Representatives for voting to repeal the franking privileges to allow more money to be spent directly on the war. Urges Congress to pass other measures that will allow the government to purchase the supplies needed to carry out the war effectively.

The New Secretary of War
(Column 2)

Summary: Reprints part of an article from the Philadelphia Press that endorses Lincoln's decision to replace Secretary of War Cameron with the Honorable Edwin M. Stanton of Pennsylvania.

Origin of Article: Philadelphia Press

Light Breaking!
(Column 2)

Summary: Reprints an extract from a letter written to a "prominent citizen" of New York predicting the forthcoming movements of government troops and a timely end to the war.

Origin of Article: New York Post

On Parole
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that R. H. Alvey, Esq., of Hagerstown, Maryland, passed through Chambersburg the previous Wednesday. He has been imprisoned at Fort Warren for several months, and the terms of his parole require him to return to the fort at any time Secretary Seward demands it.
(Names in announcement: R. H. AlveyEsq.)

A Mistake
(Column 1)

Summary: Relates a rumor that the remains of two soldiers from Colonel Stumbaugh's Regiment who died recently were confused. When the friends of Mr. Jacob Royer, who was from Waynesboro' in Franklin County, opened what they expected to be Mr. Royer's coffin, they were surprised to find the remains of S. B. Davis of Westmoreland County instead.
(Names in announcement: Mr. Jacob Royer, Mr. S. B. Davis)

Changed Hands
(Column 1)

Summary: Expresses indignation at the position adopted by the new editors of the Valley Spirit, Messrs. P. S. Dechert and B. T. Hamsher, that all Northerners who supported Lincoln are "fiendish."
(Names in announcement: Mr. P. S. Dechert, Mr. B. T. Hamsher)

Full Text of Article:

By the last issue of the Valley Spirit, it appears that that establishment has passed from the hands of the late publisher, Mr. G. H. Mengel, to those of Messrs. P. S. Dechert and B. T. Hamsher.

Judging from the first issue of the Spirit under the new proprietorship, the tone of that journal will not be much improved.

Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the Republic by the people, and in the manner prescribed by the Constitution. According to these new lights, it was the carrying out of this Democratic feature of our Government that brought about the present rebellion! Shades of Jefferson, save us from the teachings of such Democrats! The new editors have the effrontery to denounce the party that elected Mr. Lincoln as "a fiendish party," and say, "we have men--ah, Christian men--in our own county who are as rabid Abolitionists at heart as Lloyd, Garrison or Wendell Philips. Some of them even pretend to be followers of the "meek and lowly Jesus," &c.

If they are "Christian men," as they first state, we presume it will not be doubted that they follow the precepts of the "meek and lowly Jesus," quite as closely as the new editors of the Spirit profess to do, both being acceptable members of a very prominent church. But is it not an insult for such followers of the "meek and lowly Jesus," in the very first breath of their editorial career, to denounce many men of their own communion, as well as others, quite as good, of other communions, as "fiendish," because they saw proper to vote for Mr. Lincoln?

Thousands of Democrats as well as Republicans voted for and now sustain the present Administration. In the deliberate language of the pious editors of the Spirit, they are, therefore "fiendish." Now, what was there in the policy enunciated by the party that placed Mr. Lincoln in nomination, that differs so widely from the teachings of the early fathers of the Union, or what is there in the policy of his administration of the Government since his election, in view of the present causeless and wicked rebellion, that could justify any moral and responsible person to characterize those who elected him, as "a fiendish party"? Could a more false, slanderous and base epithet have been chosen from the whole calender [sic] of billingsgate, to throw into the face of so large a portion of their fellow-citizens? A "fiendish party" indeed! Who are fiends? Why, according to the new editors of the Spirit, all who supported Mr. Lincoln for President!

We trust, for the sake of truth, that the new proprietors will not pursue further the reprehensible course on which they have started out.

Consolidation of Regiments
(Column 2)

Summary: The regiment of Colonel McAllen, which has been forming at Camp Slifer, is to be consolidated with the regiment of Colonel Longnecker. The regiment will be known as the 108th and should be armed and equipped in a few days, when they will move in the direction of Hancock.

Marriages
(Column 3)

Summary: Mr. Jacob Pery and Miss Mary E. Overcash, both of Green township, were married on January 9.
(Names in announcement: Mr. Jacob Perry, Miss Mary E. Overcash)

Deaths
(Column 3)

Summary: Thomas Pomeroy, aged 22 years and 11 months, died in Roxbury of typhoid fever on January 5. He was the third son of Judge Pomeroy.
(Names in announcement: Thomas Pomeroy, Judge Pomeroy)

Situation of Affairs in the Department of the Cumberland
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports on the situation at Bowling Green, where General Buell is expected to move on Southern troops shortly.