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Valley Spirit: September 11, 1861 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

Unionism in North Carolina
(Column 2)

Summary: Notes that some Unionist Congressmen were elected from North Carolina.

How a Man Feels when Shot
(Column 5)

Summary: Describes how it feels to be shot from an account of a Iowa volunteer.

The Judgeship
(Column 6)

Summary: Reports the proceedings of the Franklin County Union convention and criticizes the Repository and Transcript for supporting the convention.
(Names in announcement: William McLellan, Francis M. Kimmell, Jeremiah Black, Ross Forward)

Origin of Article: Somerset Whig

Emancipation
(Column 1)

Summary: The New York World expresses its disagreement with the Independent, which advocates the adoption of a policy of abolitionism. The World believes that "a proclamation of emancipation would have no other effect than to weaken and brake down the Administration."

Origin of Article: New York World (Republican)

Full Text of Article:

The Independent of this week is brimfull of pestilent abolitionism. The most objectionable part of it, to be sure, is in articles written by correspondents, but the prominence assigned them in the make-up of the paper, and the strong leaning in the same direction in its editorial columns, justify us in attributing to the Independent a deliberate purpose to make itself a vehicle of abolition sentiments. It allows Dr. Cheever to expatiate on "the irretrievable mischief produced by the Northern Government and Administration in refusing to direct the war against slavery," and on the infinite importance of immediately striking that blow against slavery, and which will retrieve our affairs and our reputation, and save us from the dreadful disaster," etc. It gives space to a long article by Charles L. Brace, entitled "The Key to Victory," which opens with the inquiry, "Why will not we people see that the only key to victory is a Proclamation of emancipation."

It is plain to people of practical sense that a proclamation of emancipation would have no other effect than to weaken and brake [sic] down the Administration. If it should be stupid and foolhardy enough to venture in this experiment it would not only stultify itself by contradicting all the professions it has heretofore made that the war is to be waged for the attainment of none but constitutional objects, but it would totally divide the North, and render powerless all the friends of the Union in the rebel states when the time shall come for its re-construction. But Mr. Brace sees so little need of the cooperation of loyal slaveholders in restoring the Union, that he admits that his plan would result in blotting them from the face of the earth. He winds up his article as follows:

The slaveholding class in such a contest would inevitably be almost exterminated, and if any class of men ever deserved punishment from the Almighty for countless wrongs done to the innocent and the weak, it is they. The non-slaveholding class would, no doubt, after a while see the utter uselessness and folly of resistance and settle down under what, for a time, will probably be a military rule.

This is not the method we should any of us have chosen for emancipation. But Providence has forced it upon us. We must choose between that and defeat.

Instead of being shut up to choose between a proclamation of emancipation and defeat, such a proclamation would bring sure and irretrievable defeat from the day on which it was promulgated. Two-thirds of the army would refuse to march another step or serve another day in such a crusade. Men would no longer enlist, (except a few abolitionists,) capitalists would no longer furnish means for prosecuting a war; and we should immediately have a powerful revolutionary party at the North as well as at the South. It would plunge the country into general anarchy, and destroy the hopes of the Union forever.

But would such a proclamation emancipate the slaves? Pray, how would it ever reach them? Who is to carry copies of the proclamation to the plantation and distribute them there? If the agents of distribution go, singly or in small squads, they will swing from the next tree. If it is carried by armies, it cannot reach the slaves until the opposing armies have first been conquered. But how can it be the means of victory if it can take place only after victory has been achieved?

It would not be strange if the enemies of Secretary Seward and the administration should infer his sympathy with this reckless abolitionism from the fact that along side of it he orders the publication of the aws [sic] of the United States. Independent journals of large circulation, however, are not dwindled to government organs because the Government finds it profitable to advertise in their columns, and President Lincoln and Congress have left the cavilers no excuse for supposing that any authority exists for such utterances or any sympathy with the sentiments which the Independent advocates, except among Abolitionists and the most radical of Republicans.

No Coalition with Republicans
(Column 2)

Summary: Argues that Democrats should continue to oppose the agenda of the Republican party.

Origin of Article: Juniata Democrat

Democratic County Committee
(Column 1)

Summary: Lists Franklin Democratic County Committee.
(Names in announcement: B.Y. Hamsher, George W. Brewer, J. McD Sharpe, Geo. Ludwig, John Armstrong, H.C. Keyser, Jacob Weaster, W.D. McKinstry, Peter Stenger, Gen. R.W. McAllen, David Skinner, C. Robinson, D.C. Byers, Sam Gilmore, Sam Breckenridge, J.J. Kennedy, Sam Hawk, John Keyser, Simon Brewer, Wm. Kline, B.A. Cormany, Wm. Bossart, H.G. Skiles, Daniel Logan, Simon Lechron)

Democratic Ticket
(Column 1)

Summary: Lists the county Democratic Ticket.
(Names in announcement: Wilson Reilly, Augustus Duncan, Henry S. Wishart, Christian D. Lesher, Samuel Fisher, Joseph M. Doyle, John Croft, John GillianJr., Dr. William H. Boyle)

Democratic County Convention
(Column 3)

Summary: Reports that the County Democratic Convention was a success. The men listed in column one were chosen to lead the party ticket. The Democrats declared their intention to support the Government but to oppose the policies of the Republicans.
(Names in announcement: James B. Orr, Sharpe)

United We Stand
(Column 3)

Summary: Declares that the Democrats have united in opposition to the Republicans despite the effort by the Republicans to sow discord between the Douglas and Breckenridge factions.
(Names in announcement: James Nill)

Isn't it So?
(Column 4)

Summary: Accuses Nill of going to the Republicans in order to secure himself a judgeship.
(Names in announcement: James Nill)

How to Restore the Union
(Column 4)

Summary: Alleges it was the intractablity of the Republicans and the Chicago platform that led to the war, and argues that the Union men of the South could have prevailed in a more favorable political environment.

Drafting
(Column 4)

Summary: Responds to charges that the Northern Democrats are cowards or secessionists who must be drafted to support the Government. The Spirit calls charges of treason and cowardice among Northern Democrats slanderous.

Recruits Wanted
(Column 5)

Summary: The Spirit criticizes the editor of the Mercersburg Journal, who has opened a recruiting station for "Jeff Davis' reserve forces in this county." The Spirit denies that Mercersburg contains a party disloyal to the Union and urges the editor to "remove his recruiting station to the other side of the Potomac or the loyal people of Mercersburg may take it into their heads to remove it for him."

The Judgeship
(Column 5)

Summary: Announces Reilly's nomination for the judgeship.
(Names in announcement: Wilson Reilly, James Nill, Rankin)

Distinguished Visitors
(Column 5)

Summary: Nill, Stumbaugh, and Rankin all visited Fulton County.
(Names in announcement: Hon. James Nill, Col. F.S. Stumbaugh, A.N. Rankin)

Origin of Article: Fulton Democrat

The Real Traitors
(Column 6)

Summary: Asserts that by accusing the Northern Democracy of sympathizing with Secessionists, the Republicans are encouraging the Southern rebellion by giving credence to the illusion that the rebels have a vast pool of Northern support.

Full Text of Article:

There are a few unscrupulous papers published in the North that so far forget their own honor, and the interest of the country, as to insist that the North is full of secessionists. The Chicago Times says of this class of treasonable papers:--"We believe that they desire and design to give aid and comfort to the Southern Confederacy, by causing the rebels to believe that they have a large number of influential friends at the North. What other design can they have? Certainly the traitors will fight with more energy against a divided than against a united North. This is so plain a fact that the journals which assert that there is a submission 'party' in the loyal States must understand it, and therefore by publishing falsehoods intend to encourage the enemies of the Republic.

The newspapers we refer to continually harp upon the theme that there is a 'party' dangerous in designs and formidable in numbers, who are determined to dishonor she [sic] Republic by submission to the Southern traitors. The result is, that the South believes that we are divided in sentiment as to the conduct of the war--that we are losing what little sympathy lingers in the hearts of foreign powers for the United States, and that our own people are kept in a state of agitation which seriously interferes with their business and conduces to inaugurate scenes of panic and violence.

We repeat it, it is the worst of crimes to deceive the people. Men and newspapers who do it deserve the severest reprehension of the Government as disturbers of the public peace and as friends of the enemy."

Read This
(Column 6)

Summary: Reports that Thurlow Weed's Albany Journal blamed Republican adherence to the Chicago Platform for the exit of Virginia and North Carolina from the Union.

Origin of Article: Chicago Times

Democracy and the Union
(Column 1)

Summary: Writer criticizes the Republican Administration of Lincoln and argues that history has shown that only the Democratic party can rule the nation.

Trailer: Jackson

Free Speech
(Column 1)

Summary: Quotes Massachusetts Gov. Andrew, a Republican, on the importance of free speech.

Democratic County Convention
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports particulars of the Franklin County Democratic Convention including a list of delegates.
(Names in announcement: James B. Orr, Peter Snider, Hugh M. Sibbet, C. Fitzhugh, A. Burgess, Albertus Miller, John D. Williams, William McCrory, Jacob Brumbaugh, Jacob Weister, Joseph Fuss, Dr. E.B. Hamill, Christian D. Lesher, J. McDowell Sharp, C.M. Duncan, John R. Orr, B.Y. Hamsher, Samuel Worley, John Ludwig, Thomas Fagan, Childerson Robertson, Fred Long, Dr. Isaac Clugston, Martin Hammon, D.J. Skinner, Samuel Breckinridge, J. Dick, Samuel Etter, Jos. Shivley, John Woltt, Robert Renfrew, William Brandt, Samuel Hawk, Henry Kyle, Peter SniderSr., Isaac Hoekersmith, William B. Gabby, Ephraim Burkholder, James Richardson, Samuel West, Charles Evans, Henry Reilly, Samuel Gilmore, Fred Zollinger, T.J. McNeal, Harman Dickhout, William Divilbiss, A. Burgess, John W. Dehaven, Samuel Baughman, John Gilbert, Amos R. Kagerrein, Michael Kagerrein, David Clippenger, William D. McKinstry, Oscar Cushwa, Harman Hans, James B. Orr, A.P. Linn, William H. Blair, David Unger, Samuel M. Seyler, Joseph Unweller, C.D. Fitzhugh, Jacob Beaver, John Kuhn, John Walk, John Zody, Jno. Stitt, Christian Bomberger, William Reber, Conrad Plasterer, John Bryan, John Cobb, B.A. Cormany, Daniel Stake, James Shield, Peter Hight, Samuel Yeakle, Isaiah Brewer, Simon Brewer, William Reed, Samuel Eby, Hugh Sibbet, Michael Hanstine, John Kuhn, Jacob Miller, Simon Lechrone, John Clark)

The "Union" Movement
(Column 3)

Summary: The Fulton Democrat criticizes the editor of the Republican, who claims to have supported the Union movement in Franklin County. The editor only pretends to have favored the movement because he is a candidate for a seat in the legislature and wishes to "make capital out of it in Franklin County."
(Names in announcement: Sellers)

Origin of Article: Fulton Democrat

Sunday School Celebration
(Column 3)

Summary: Reports a Sunday-School celebration at the M. E. Church at Greenvillage.
(Names in announcement: Rev. Harden, Rev. Norris)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: Married on September 3.
(Names in announcement: Jesse Kurtz, Margaret Hutchinson, Rev. J.F. Kennedy)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: Married on August 22.
(Names in announcement: Rev. John Ault, Adam Smith, Mandilla Haulman)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: Married on September 3.
(Names in announcement: Rev. William Harden, Samuel Bohrer, Jennie Dewald)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: Married on September 3.
(Names in announcement: Rev. William Harden, J.L. Dewald, Sue Wachtel)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: Married on September 5.
(Names in announcement: Rev. R.H. Deatrich, Jacob Hess, Mary Vanderan)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: Died on September 1, aged 20 years.
(Names in announcement: Valentine Mehlfelt)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: Died on July 18, aged 24 years.
(Names in announcement: William DeHaven)

Card
(Column 1)

Summary: The Board of Directors of the Farmers and Mechanics' Industrial Association has decided not to hold the Annual Fair this year because the troops that were stationed at the Fair Grounds so destroyed the property that it has become unfit for use. The directors asked the leading businessmen of Chambersburg to contribute to a fund to improve the grounds, but their request was "responded to so illiberally that the Directors feel no encouragement in undertaking the usual responsibility attending the holding of the Annual Fair."
(Names in announcement: W.S. Everett)