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Valley Spirit: January 16, 1861 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

The Character and Influence of Abolitionism
(Column 1)

Summary: Sermon from a Presbyterian Church in New York asserts that abolitionism has no foundation in Scripture. Sermon occupies entire page and is continued on page 8. Bottom and right partially illegible.

News of the Week
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports the continued intransigence of Congress with regard to a compromise solution to the secession crises. Item also reports results of secession crisis in the seceded states.

The Poverty of the South
(Column 2)

Summary: Ridicules the attempt by the Republicans to make the South appear poor and weak. The article blames Republicans for precipitating the crisis by their unwillingness to compromise. Article goes through column 4.

Full Text of Article:

A few weeks ago we published an editorial article with a view of removing from the Northern mind the erroneous impressions which Republican papers and orators have created in regard to the value of the South to the Union. The poverty of the South is the tune that Northern Republican politicians are everlastingly piping until it has became [sic] as vapid as the one "the old cow died on." In their zeal for the cause of sectionalism they are ever swaggering and boasting of the superiority of the North over the South, and would fain make people believe that the South grows nothing but "niggers," that they consume more than they produce and have long ago eaten their masters out of house and lands, and that the South is only kept up by the alms bestowed upon it by the North. There are many sap-heads in the community who really believe all this. They never examine for themselves but make up their opinions from the twaddle of some abolition scribbler who would prepare their minds for a second John Brown raid on the South. If they can only make it appear that our brethren of the South are debased and in poverty they think they have performed a noble deed; or if they can assist, in any way, in stealing a negro from them their happiness is complete. What advantage, we would ask, can any one in the North derive from engendering such unfraternal feelings? Does it make the North happier or more prosperous? Must the business of the country be destroyed--must the Union be dissolved--rather than give up the gratification the North seems to find in heaping insult and injury on the South? Tis is all wrong--wrong to the North as well as the South--and yet it is the course pursued by the Republican party aided now and then by some scion of Democracy whose political principles have been corrupted by reading the New York Tribune and kindred prints. The Union Meetings held over the country show that the business men, who are the men that get them up, understand their interest and know the fallacy of the doctrines disseminated against the South by the abolitionists and their aiders and abettors in the Democratic party. The business men know the wealth and resources of the South and they know too that the North will be the gainer by keeping a [sic] up reciprocal trade between these two portions of our country.--Had they the settlement of the difficulties in their hands they would not only save the Union but restore peace, happiness and prosperity, to the whole country before the end of another week. This, unfortunately for the country, the Republican party will not permit. The crazy whims of fanatics and the clap-trap of politicians have obtained ascendancy in the North and it will not budge an inch to save the business of the country from ruin and the Union itself from dissolution. These are the disunionists-- this the true disunion party. It is their unconstitutional laws against the rights of the South, and their malignant abuse of her people and their institutions, that have brought this trouble on the country, and they would still go further and involve the nation in war if they thought they could thereby do the South additional injury.

A writer of this class over the signature of "J"--the N accidentally omitted--undertakes to show, in one of our town papers, that the little belligerent State of South Carolina is not equal to the great State of Pennsylvania which he admits is "the first State in the Union." After a laborious effort at figure-work he makes known the result, which nobody ever questioned, that "the resources of South Carolina cannot compare with our State!" This is as fine a specimen of the "mountain in labor bringing forth a mouse" as mental imbecility ever attempted. Having made this axiom in statistics "clearly evident" he should next demonstrate that it was Jonah that swallowed the whale and not the whale that swallowed Jonah. This proposition would be on a par with the one he has made so "clearly evident," and by the same wonderful process of reasoning, he has so creditably displayed, he could, no doubt, as "clearly" demonstrate the one as the other. We would not have felt ourselves called upon to take any notice of this "J" hawking raid upon the South had we found it in a Republican journal. That would have been its natural element and it might have foundered there, with all its ridiculous blunders and misrepresentations undisturbed by us. But its appearance in a paper making some slight pretensions to being Democratic demands of us to apply the antidote to the poison intended to be infused into the public mind. For the purpose of crying down the South, or displaying his own ignorance, (we hardly know which, as he does not even do Pennsylvania justice in the amount of her products) this abolition Democrat jumbles up a mass of statistics and arrives at the conclusion that South Carolina is "four times" behind Pennsylvania and therefore she is of no consequence to the Union. This doctrine will sound new and strange to the Democracy of Franklin county and must diminish confidence, if less were possible, in the source from whence it emanates. Let us examine a few of his blunders--we do no intend taking up all of them as the whole article is a tissue of stupid blunders from beginning to end, and would be a disgrace to the merest tiro in arithmetic. He starts out by making it appear that South Carolina is larger then Pennsylvania by giving the number of acres of improved and unimproved land in farms. This is done evidently for the purpose of deception--to create the impression that South Carolina is greater in territory than Pennsylvania and therefore ought to equal her in products. Now any school boy could have informed him that Pennsylvania is nearly twice as large as South Carolina. In extent of territory Pennsylvania has 47,000 square miles while South Carolina has but 28,000. In the number of acres of improved land Pennsylvania more then doubles South Carolina--the former being set down at 8,628,619 acres and the latter at 4,072,651 acres. Is it fair is it honest to offset the total "cash value of farms" in Pennsylvania against those of South Carolina? This astute dealer in statistics next takes up the live stock and displays about as much intelligence as the horses and mules he is writing about. He values the horses and mules of Pennsylvania at $352,657, when it would, perhaps, not be far short of their value to rate them at an hundred times that amount. He commits the same ridiculous blunder, by taking the number of horses, & c., in the State for their value, with the live stock of South Carolina. He puts down the value of Oats raised in Pennsylvania at $646,144 and that of South Carolina 999,646 [sic] while South Carolina raises only a little over two million of bushels and Pennsylvania over twenty-one million. This is arithmetic with a vengeance! We might suppose this to be a typographical error did not every item in the statement exhibit the same stupidity. The next blunder we shall notice is one that was evidently made willfully. He puts down the quantity of Sugar made in South Carolina 77 hogsheads when the statistics of that State show it to be 671 hogheads of 1000 pounds each. He commits a like error in relation to the Cotton of that State by valuing it a $36 a bale of 400 pounds. We hope this valuation will not create a panic in the Cotton market. Lincoln prices are low enough in all conscience without pretended Democrats striving to bring them down lower. Notwithstanding the low price of everything we find Cotton quoted, at Charleston and New Orleans, last week, at 13 cents a pound, making the price of a bale of Cotton $52 instead of $36. We might go on pointing out blunders ad nauseam, but the above will suffice to show the bungling character of the whole article, and relieve us from giving it the importance of a more extended notice.

In our recent article on the South we undertook to show that, in a business point of view, it was important for the North to preserve the Union and re-establish friendly business relations with the South. We presented a few statistics to show that the Southern States were not as poverty-stricken as was generally represented in the North, and not likely to starve if they left the Union. We made no comparison with the view of showing that Southern were superior to Northern States. We only desired to exhibit their wealth and prosperity in a proper light by taking the great and flourishing State of Pennsylvania as a standard for comparison. Our article will admit of no other construction being placed upon it and why it should have exercised any Democrat so much is not an easy matter to explain.

Let us, for the mere purpose of seeing how it looks, follow the example of this abolition scribbler, which we admit is a bad one, and institute a comparison between the leading Agricultural products, and Domestic Manufactures, of South Carolina and Pennsylvania--keeping in mind that South Carolina is one half smaller than Pennsylvania--and how do they foot up:

Pennsylvania.

Wheat 15,867,691 bushels at $1.00 a bushel $15,867,691 Corn 19,835,214 bushels at 50 cents a bushel $9,917,607 Oats 21,538,156 bushels at 30 cents a bushel $6,461,446 Potatoes Sweet 52,172 bushels at 60 cents a bushel $81,803 Potatoes Irish 5,980,732 bushels at 40 cents a bushel $2,392,202 Beans 55,231 bushels at 80 cents a bushel $44,184 Sugar 2,326,525 pounds at 10cents a pound $232,652 Domestic Manufactures - value of $749,182 $35,196,307

South Carolina.

Wheat 1,066,277 bushels at $1.00 a bushel $1,066,277 Corn 16,271,454 bushels at 50 cents a bushel $8,133,727 Oats 2,322,155 bushels at 30 cents a bushel $696,646 Potatoes Sweet 4,337,469 bushels at 60 cents a bushel $2,602,481 Potatoes Irish 136,494 bushels at 40 cents a bushel $54,597 Beans 1,026,900 bushels at 80 cents a bushel $821,520 Rice 159,930,613 pounds at 5 cents a pound $7,996,530 Cotton 300,901 bales, of 400 lbs each, at 13 cents a pound $15,646,852 Sugar 671 hogsheads, of 1000 lbs each, at10 cents a pound $67,100 Domestic Manufactures - value of $909,520 $37,987,250

In the above estimate we quote Sugar at 10 cents a pound. We are well aware it is too high, but it is the price fixed upon it for Pennsylvania Sugar by "J" and we give him the benefit of his Pennsylvania rates--what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The other prices are also his, blunders corrected. If we throw into the account the Iron of Pennsylvania her great boast--estimated by "J" at $2,372,467, we still have a balance on the above items in favor of South Carolina of $418,476. When we add to this her exports, which are the wealth of a State--South Carolina exporting $15,316,578 and Pennsylvania only $4,148,261--we find she is not so useless in the Union as some abolition Democrats would try to make us believe. How much better it would be to preserve our business and social relations with her than to underrate her wealth and her worth and strive to drive her out of the Union.

Admirers of Jackson
(Column 4)

Summary: Accuses current admirers of Andrew Jackson of hypocrisy, and asserts that during his term the Federalists, who are now Republicans, denounced him.

The Events at the South
(Column 5)

Summary: Asserts that while the South has legitimate grievances with the North that deserve to be addressed, the problem of Federal forts on Southern property must be resolved, for the forts are the legitimate property of the Union and must be maintained as such. Item maintains that the President cannot relinquish the forts without congressional permission.

The Raven is Still Sitting
(Column 6)

Summary: Accuses the congressional Republicans of intransigence on the secession crisis.

The President's Message
(Column 2)

Summary: Buchanan expresses, among other things, his intention to enforce the Constitution, taking no powers not delegated to him and fulfilling the duties of his office.

The Resignation of Secretary Thompson
(Column 3)

Summary: Letter from Secretary Thompson to James Buchanan announcing his resignation. Also a letter from Buchanan accepting Thompson's resignation.

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: Married on January 10.
(Names in announcement: Z. Colestock, Allison Isaac, Sarah Diehl)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: 17 month old Henry Pike died on January 13th.
(Names in announcement: Henry Pike)