Franklin Repository and Transcript: Nov. 25, 1863, pages 1-2

Aside from subscription and advertising rates that appeared on page 1, column 1, pages 1 and 2 were devoted primarily to national political affairs. Along with an editorial excerpted from the Evening Post criticizing the South, there appeared a report on a speech given by abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, and transcripts of speeches given on the floor of the House by Pennsylvania Republican Representatives Scranton and Campbell.

In comparison to the Valley Spirit, the Repository provides an interesting contrast that suggests the depths of political debate and competition in mid-nineteenth-century America. On February 1, both papers indicated that Senator William Seward's return from an eight-month European trip was a news item of particular import. However, while the Democratic Valley Spirit carried a poem on its first page mocking the senator for his pretenses to the presidency with the votes of "colored gem'men," the Republican Repository instead printed an article on page 2 purporting to be "A Southern Sketch of Seward." In the article, the Repository indicates that some Southerners, unlike the "disunionists and fire-eaters," view Seward with respect and political acumen. That two newspapers publishing in the same town on the same day printed diametrically opposed articles regarding the same person indicates that political conflict was not merely intersectional, even just over a year before the Civil War. Political divisions, rather, were intrasectional and even intralocal as well.

Like the other newspapers available in the Valley of the Shadow, however, on pages 1 and 2 the Repository and Transcript frequently ran public interest articles, reports of international news, poetry, and articles about public morality. The Repository and Transcript used short anecdotes and aphorisms to fill space toward the bottom of pages, just as other papers did, but also published a regular feature known as "Facts and Fancies," containing a series of one-line puns, trivia, jokes, and so on. Frequently, "Facts and Fancies" appeared in column 6 on page 1, but on February 1, 1860, this feature ran on page 8. Generally, these quips were relatively banal observations on life, similar in tone and sentiment to those printed in all the newspapers of the Valley. However, even these seemingly inconsequential fillers could have political overtones, such as the February 1, 1860 Repository item at the bottom of page 1 that contained the following "catechism": "HISTORICAL QUESTION.--Question--Who settled Virginia? Answer-- John Smith. Question--Who unsettled Virginia? Answer--John Brown."