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Valley Spirit: December 12, 1860 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

President's Message
(Column 01)

Summary: Very lengthy State of the Union message of President Buchanan. In it, he discusses the current political crisis and the danger of sectional parties.

[none]
(Column 01-06)

Summary: Continuation of Buchanan's State of the Union address.

[none]
(Column 01-02)

Summary: Conclusion of Buchanan's State of the Union address.

News of the Week
(Column 01)

Summary: Secession sentiment is rapidly spreading in the South, while the North is beginning to wake up to the danger. The South demands that the Personal Liberty Bills be repealed. Congress cannot be counted on to solve the current difficulties, since they are busy wrangling amongst themselves. The financial situation remains poor. The Homestead bill passed the House and is now before the Senate.

Pennsylvania
(Column 02)

Summary: Although Pennsylvania has a reputation as a conservative state, it still has a Personal Liberty law on the books. The Spirit urges the legislature to repeal this law because it is breaking up the Union.

The President's Message
(Column 03)

Summary: Analysis of Buchanan's state of the Union speech, which contained "wise and patriotic recommendations."

The Gospel According to St. Beecher
(Column 04)

Summary: Criticizes Henry Ward Beecher's "perversion of the language used by St. Paul to the Centurion."

Shall We Have Civil War?
(Column 05)

Summary: The Spirit states that it cannot see how civil war will be averted as things are going, especially if Northern states don't repeal their "aggressive laws."

Full Text of Article:

Is the country to be subjected to the horrors of civil war? We hardly see how the calamity can be averted as things are going. South Carolina is going out of the Union, and all or nearly all the other Southern States will in time follow her, if the Northern States do not repeal their aggressive laws. So far as expression has been given to Republican sentiment, it favors a dissolution of the Union rather than the abandonment of the Republican programme of [sic] making the States "all slave or all free," which is understood to mean that they shall all be free.

The danger of a war is just as imminent if South Carolina goes out alone as if she goes in company with all the rest of the slave holding States. Perhaps it would be nearer the mark to say that there would be less danger of war if the whole fifteen Southern States went out together, than if one of them went alone. For if all of them went together, there would be no alternative but to acknowledge their independence at once and concede them a place among the great powers of the world, and conclude a treaty of friendship with them, and surrender to them all the government forts and arsenals within their limits.

But if South Carolina were to go out by herself, there is no probability whatever that Congress would recognize her independence. What then? Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney command the harbor of Charleston.--Their full and complete possession by South Carolina is essential to her existence as an independent power. She never can call herself independent till her own troops garrison them. Nor can she get them without the effusion of blood, for it will be the duty of the President to maintain possession of them with the troops of the United States.

The horizon looks gloomy. South Carolina is in earnest. She is bent on setting up for herself before a Black Republican President shall be set up over her. It is not to be supposed that she does not take into her calculations a matter of such vital importance as the possession of the forts that command the harbor of her chief city. She will pour out her blood to get them, and we must give them up or keep them at the cannon's mouth; or else we must take some measures to win her back to the Union, and to satisfy her and all the Southern States that they can remain in it with safety and honor.

Congressional
(Column 06)

Summary: Senator Iverson "proclaimed the fixed purpose of five Southern States to go out of the Union before the 4th of March, and that nothing could prevent it." When the Senate formed a committee relating to the secession difficulty, Mr. Hawkins of Florida "expressed the view that the time for compromise had passed forever."

Discharge of Workmen
(Column 06)

Summary: W. O. Hickock discharged 27 men last Saturday. Both Wilson & Brothers and the Harrisburg Car Factory also laid off workers since orders from the South have ceased. The Patriot wonders how those workers who supported the Republicans feel now.

Origin of Article: Harrisburg Patriot

Money Wanted
(Column 01)

Summary: The Spirit urges its subscribers to pay their bill because the paper was "never more in need of money and never more in earnest in dunning our patrons."

Hope He May Get It
(Column 01)

Summary: The Spirit hopes that Capt. W. W. Sellers of the Fulton Republican gets the position of Sergeant-at-Arms in Harrisburg because he greatly deserves it. However, the paper believes that the Republican party is controlled by a "set of blood-leeches who hang on the skirts of the party." These men pay little attention to merit when choosing office holders.

Stolen Horse
(Column 01)

Summary: Mr. John Ford, of Shippensburg, got his stolen horse back after the thief was unable to sell it and then abandoned it.

Dead Body Found
(Column 01)

Summary: An old man named Aux was found dead on the tracks of the Franklin Railroad north of Greencastle.

Married
(Column 04)

Summary: Married on November 20th.
(Names in announcement: Esq. J. E. Maclay, William Rhone, Mary Thompson)

Married
(Column 04)

Summary: Married on December 7th.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. Steck, Henry Keagy, Maggie Moore)

Married
(Column 04)

Summary: Married on December 6th at the Lutheran Parsonage.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. Steck, Daniel Hepfer, Ann Shoner)

Married
(Column 04)

Summary: Married on November 20th at the White Swan Hotel.
(Names in announcement: Rev. William Harden, Wm. Cowan, Rebecca McElroy)

Died
(Column 04)

Summary: Died on November 17th, aged 53 years old. Left behind a husband and four children.
(Names in announcement: Mrs. Eliza Miller)