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Valley Spirit: 10 10, 1866 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

A Talk With The Ladies
(Column 5)

Summary: Written by a woman, the article implores members of the "fairer sex" to help the nation during this time of crisis by "planting in the hearts of their sons the true principles and virtues which will render them discerning patriots at the polls, and moral upright citizens, at all times."

Editorial Comment: "A lady correspondent thus addresses the gentler sex:"

Full Text of Article:

For many months I do not remember to have taken in my hands a paper which did not contain one or more recitals of woe and degradation, revolting to all that is good and pure in heart, or of crimes so horrid that the reading about them would almost congeal the blood as it was flowing through the veins. The question naturally arises, what can be the cause of all this wickedness? Am I in any way responsible or accountable for it? Is there any way in which I can mitigate the evil abroad in our land? An answer has come to me repeatedly, saying, Yes, you and your whole sex are responsible as those who carry an influence, not only through the circle of your acquaintance, but far, far beyond.

That influence may be "but as a drop in the mighty ocean," or it may be as the glorious luminary of day which lights the earth. According to that influence you will be held (in some degree) accountable for its effects. It has been said that "man ruled the world, but that woman ruled man."--Now, if this, be true, and all women are willing to think so, how fearful is our responsibility.

I do not ask for my sex a voice in the halls of state or a ballot at the polls; but I do ask that many of the precious moments now multiplying themselves into hours, which are spent perverting or destroying the beautiful adornments which God has given us, should be spent by mothers planting in the hearts of their sons the true principles and virtues which will render then discerning patriots at the polls, and moral upright citizens, at all times. Leave to the African the frizzled hair as their Maker intended, and brush you own long silken tresses in the modest style adorning the true woman; then discharge to the best of your ability, the duty of training the immortal spirits entrusted to your care. Remember Cornelia of old; was it because she was the leader of fashion that the grateful Romans erected to her memory a monument more enviable than the beautiful Helen ever achieved?--Ah! no, but because she had trained for them two jewels who were ornaments to their country.

I call upon the ladies of our broad land to think of the great and useless extravagance in which they indulge, and also to reflect upon the moral effects of that extravagance. I do not now refer especially to the exorbitant price paid for the fanciful arrangement of lace and flowers which is placed upon the crown of the head, nor to the expensive silk which is gracefully sweeping the streets; no, not to these alone do I refer, though they are a few of the "littles" that go to form the ponderous whole which is crushing the virtue and morality of our people.

Perhaps there is one out of every twenty of the elegantly dressed ladies on our streets, who is peculiarly able thus to add to the coffers of our merchants of every class; then there are eight-twentieths who, regardless of the hard-earned wages of a father or a husband, are trying to imitate the heiress of thousands; there may be four-twentieths who are thus wasting their own honorably earned money, but what then are the base means to which the other seven-twentieths of our sex resort, in order that they may equal, if not excel, the heiress in richness of apparel and in indolence? It may be that the lady of wealth who reads this will say, "It is not my fault if made sad by their loved ones in allowing them to imitate me; it is their weakness, not mine, neither is it my sin that many sell themselves, body and soul, in order to excel me if possible." It is your fault; because you delight in being the envied of hundreds, not for your love and charity to suffering humanity, but for the gorgeousness of your habiliaments, and because it was your hearty demeanor which has driven many a poor but virtuous woman down to the depths of degradation: it is in part your sin, and one for which you will have to answer.

Pause to think of this; ask yourself if it would have detracted any from your position and importance as a lady to have spoken kindly to that poor orphan sewing girl, or that tradesman's sensible daughter, who chanced to wear a robe of coarser material than yours?

Perhaps some one will ask, is it not our duty to make ourselves (by adornment) as pleasing as possible to those around us, especially our husbands, or may be lovers? It is; but with all this lavish expenditure are we any more pleasing than Rachel was, for whom Jacob served and waited seven years, or Lucretia, to whom was awarded the honor of being the most noble lady, while busy with her loom! Why many would consider themselves discharged by a knowledge of its use! Let us adorn ourselves with that modesty of bearing , gentleness of temper, and Christian forbearance, which is more charming, as it speaks with love and kind reproof to an erring sister or brother, than all the gems of Golconda; it is more lasting, for it defies the touch of time, and will live in the influence we have exerted, long after we are sleeping in our lowly beds of earth. The reform in the extravagance of both sexes is important; it is necessary to our life as a virtuous people, and it cannot efficiently begin with one alone, for she would only be marked as odd and eccentric. It must be made by a number of ladies of wealth and position, who can then give the noble reason which actuates them, and by the silent workings of their power, in a few short years they will achieve more than the eloquence of Clay or Webster ever gained. Think then how rapidly homes could be made to rise for our maimed defenders, our orphans and widows, schools for the ignorant, and hospitals for the suffering.

This "amendment" will rapidly abolish the mercenary trade in matrimony, because then there will be no necessity for the ladies and gentlemen each to consult the assessor's list for the value of the one they love.

Divorcements will be unheard of, and elopements become unpopular. As furtherance of our plan of reform and partial reward, we ask for the modest girl who is neatly but simply attired, an equal share of the attention given the flaunting heiress by the "lords of creation."

Where Will It End?
(Column 2)

Summary: According to the Radicals, attests the article, "the government can be made stronger and better by making a new Constitution, and [by] compelling a minority of States which do not submit to it." The article questions how this plan differs from the efforts of the southern states before the war.

Origin of Article: Journal of Commerce

Full Text of Article:

It is worth the while, says the Journal of Commerce, of every lover of American institutions to inquire whether the progress of modern radicalism will lead us and where it will find its end. The present dogma of the radical party is this, that the government can be made stronger and better by making a new Constitution, and compelling a minority of the State which do not submit to it. No choice is to be permitted. The new style of law is to be made absolutely binding by force if not by free-will acceptance. The theory of the right of secession, in the shape in which the Southern States professed to stand on it, has been thoroughly extinguished by the war, and is abandoned throughout the country. It is proclaimed, and with undeniable truth, that if the war done anything it has established the conclusion that no right exists in any one State, or any number of States, to withdraw at will from the American Union. But how does the new doctrine no put in practice by the radicals agree with this conclusion? If one State has no right to secede, ten States have no right, nor have twenty States a right to secede from the minority. Yet we are at the present time urged to adopt a policy based on this very theory of the right of a majority of the States to secede from a minority. For the whole plan of the radicals for reconstruction depends on this claim. Keeping States out of the Union temporarily is precisely the same thing as secession. Observe the direction in which this leads. Let us imagine the Union reconstructed on the radical plan. Political questions are then sure to arise from time to time which will be of great importance. None is more plainly visible in the future than the question of the representation of States in Congress. This is a totally different question from that of the representation of populations, which is now discussed. The Union was constructed on the theory of representing States as States, and populations also. The new reconstruction theory goes on the assumed right of a powerful majority of the States to reform the whole system of State representation. It makes no distinction. It refuses to admit either State or people to representation except at the will and on the prescribed terms of the majority. Adopting it will have established a precedent.--The old foundations of the Union will be changed, undermined. The independence of States entering the Union will no longer exist. The constitutional provision that "no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of equal suffrage in the Senate," implies a right to regulate that suffrage, and to disregard the doctrine of equality of States. It is but a clause in the Constitution, and the new theory is, that amendments of any sort may be made by a sufficient majority of States. It is only an amendment, therefore, which is needed to strike this clause out of the Constitution. Such an amendment would not be any greater assumption of power by the majority than the present proposition to exclude States entirely from the Senate unless they adopt certain specified laws. The facilis decensus averut opens before us--When the new political questions arise to agitate the minds of men, when South and West grow strong and insist, as producing countries, on the adoption of principles which are not liked by the East, as manufacturing and consuming countries, then this new doctrine of secession will rise up to curse us. "Why," they will argue, "why should we be blockaded in the Senate by this absurd relic of old times, the equal representation of States? Why should the vast populations of the Mississippi Valley and the Western plains be governed by the votes of small and old States along the seaboard?" If they be then told that the Union was formed on this theory, they will reply that it was reformed on a totally different theory, and that they may rightly prescribe terms of union to the smallest States, and turn them out, if they do not accept them. But let no one imagine that "turning them out: implies a division of the Union and a departure of any State from all connection with the government.--The radical plan, not to be made a precedent if adopted. is to say to States, "You may have representation on our terms, if you wish it, but if you do not wish it, then you shall be governed and taxed without any representation." The new doctrine of secession has added to it the claim of a right to conquer and subject the smaller and weaker States, and to make them territories. The old theory of union will be forever destroyed; the new theory will take its place; and the end will be the end of American liberty. All the safeguards of the Constitution will vanish before this principle of amending whatever the majority of the time dislike. The principle of a union of States with certain reserved and inalienable rights as States being laid aside, New England will be compelled to accept social and commercial law as the people of the South and West may choose to prescribe it. States will in time disappear, having no foundations to stand on, and no legal or equitable protection against the will of people of other States. When annihilated by the form of constitutional amendment, they will be unable to plead any unchangeable rights reserved by the old terms of union in the old paper called a Constitution.--These are no wild views. They are possibilities, probabilities, certainties in our national future, unless we stay the progress of radicalism and turn the tide into the old conservative channels.

Inciting The Negroes To Insurrection
(Column 3)

Summary: The Radicals are "contemplating a civil war as one of the means to hold possession of power," explains the article. As proof, it points to examples around the country where blacks have been permitted, even encouraged, to form militias.

Origin of Article: Age

Full Text of Article:

That the Radicals are contemplating a civil war as one of the means to hold possession of power, is clearly shown by the declaration of the leaders of the action of Congress. The resolution adopted by that body authorizing the arming of the militia of the Northern States, and forbidding the same action in the South, the revolutionary proceedings of the Louisiana Convention, and the utterances of the leaders of the "Torch-and-Turpentine" convocation, all prove that war, anarchy, and confusion are the real purposes of the disunion faction which is now sustaining Congress and opposing the restoration of the States.

As one preparation for the civil war, the Radicals are organizing the negroes and inciting them to insurrection by secret inflammatory appeals. In many of the States secret organizations are kept up, which meet at stated periods, and are drilled by competent officers. These meetings are held in our State, and in some counties in connection with the Radical party, as well as their revolutionary purposes, are no secret. In New York African "Loyal Leagues" have been instituted, the negroes armed and put under military discipline. Four regiments are thus prepared in order, as one of their officers declared, to give the people of the North a taste of St. Domingo"! In Indianapolis two companies of negroes have been armed with the cognizance of the State authorities. Some two or three hundred negroes have had night drills for several weeks. It was reported some moths ago that negroes were organizing and drilling in Richmond, and this discovery created considerable excitement in that city, and Gen. Terry issued an order which put a stop to this movement. The arming of negroes also in Missouri and Louisina means something which white men who have property to preserve, and wives and children to protect, should be deeply concerned about.--The placing of weapons in the hands of colored men in the South has been agitated in the Loyal League, and a late number of the Washington Chronicle, edited and owned by Colonel Forney, a candidate for United States Senator in Pennsylvania, thus speaks of that measure: "it cannot be expected that the State governments (South) will organize on any basis the loyal black militia. Congress must therefore take the matter in hand. The black militia can be organized into separate companies and regiments." This is the programme. The negroes are to be secretly organized, armed, and prepared by the Radicals, and then Congress is to let them loose upon the whites and to "give them a taste of St. Domingo."

Do the white people understand the full meaning of that Radical threat, at "taste of St. Domingo?" The following statement from a valued correspondent gives a graphic picture of the negro insurrection in that island, to which allusion is made by the Radical "Torch-and-Turpentine" conspirators in this country:

I was not in the unfortunate Island of San Domingo when the first massacred of the whites by the negroes took place, consequently I cannot describe the scenes of the desolation of those dark days of horror with the various tortures which the whites were made to suffer. But, I distinctly remember having had in my possession a pamphlet with prints exhibiting those tortures, two of which I never could forget.--On one was to be seen a white man naked, stretched on the ground, surrounded by a number of infuriated women in the act of putting him to death slowly by pricking him with pins. The other represented a white man also naked, bound between two beards and two negroes cutting him in two with a saw! All of this was under the rule of Toussant L'Onventure.

In 1798, or thereabouts, the English made war with France, and landed on the islands. They were received as friends. They made regular soldiers of the negroes, disciplined them, built block houses for them, and then went their way when they thought the negroes were able to resist attempts which the French might make to retake possession of the country. So it was in 1802, during a short peace between England and France. A French army, without opposition, took possession of the principal cities and towns along the coast; the blacks retired into the mountains of the interior, waiting prudently, for the yellow fever to fight their battles, that dreadful scourger sparing the natives but so fatal to new comers, had made its appearance for the first time.

On the resumption of hostilities in 1808, between England and France, what remained of the French army were compelled, for want of provisions, being hemmed in on land by the negroes, and blockaded at sea by the English, to evacuate the island. This took place at Port au Prine the capital of the island, and a truce was agreed upon with the negroes. As soon as this determination of the French army was made known to French residents, they at once made preparations to follow the fleet with their valuables. As soon as the negroes heard of this, seeing that they were going to lose a large booty, they sent in a flag of truce with a proclamation promising full protection to those who would remain. This induced a great many, perhaps three-fourths, of the French residents to do so.

The French fleet left the harbor on the 28th day of October, 1865, steering for the Island of Cuba. The negroes immediately entered the city. The very next day they broke their pledge, and all the young men able to bear arms were seized, under the plea of making soldiers of them, marched out of the city, sent to parts unknown and cruelly butchered. From that day, October 29, 1803, to the 16th of March, 1804, every night the residences of the whites, supposed to be wealthy, were broken open and pillaged. These were to be the booty of the black officers, and the male inmates were carried out to the sea, dispatched and thrown overboard. On the 16th of March a general massacre of the remaining male whites took place, and their property was the share allotted to the soldiers. Thus far the lives of the women and children had been spared, but on the 5th of May, in the same year, they were all pitilessly murdered; but before the women were assassinated what took place? I know not. I leave my readers to surmise. They were in the hands of demons in human shape! After that horrible day, no more victims remaining, the black history of the island records no more massacres.

This is the "taste of St. Domingo" which the Radicals are inciting the negroes to give the white men, women, and children, whenever their plot can be made effective. The Loyal League are preparing the negroes for deeds of blood, rapine, and lust, and Congress is to organizee them into companies, furnish them with arms, and let them loose upon their victims. This is one of the duties imposed upon the coming Congress, should the majority be in the hands of the "Torch-and-Turpentine" faction. Butler, and Brownlow, and Stevens, and Summer, and Wade, are fit men to counsel blood and urge on the negroes of the United States to emulate their brethren of St. Domingo in acts too horrible to bear a fitting name.--Age

The Life Of A State
(Column 4)

Summary: The article challenges the logic of admitting congressmen from West Virginia but not Virginia, declaring that there is "[n]o better illustration" to highlight the "inconsistency of the radical politicians."

The Discharged Veterans
(Column 4)

Summary: Relates the pitiful sight of homeless disabled veterans who have been dismissed from the Soldiers' Homes "for the offense of being Democrats."

Origin of Article: Age

The Election
(Column 6)

Summary: Announces that the Republicans won the election, and provides the voting results for Franklin county.

Full Text of Article:

The election is over, and has resulted in the election of the Republican county ticket by a majority of about 200. Kontz is elected to Congress from this district by at least 500. The few meagre returns from the State indicate Geary's election from 10,000 to 15,000. The County.

The following are the majorities as far as heard from Franklin County:

Geary Clymer Antrim 22 North Ward, 166 South Ward, 25 Greenvillage, 103 Fayetteville, 59 Guilford, 22 Hamilton 45 Mercersburg 191 Southampton 13 Washington 72 Quincy 61 Welsh Run 44 Letterkenny 84 Lurgan 39 St. Thomas 60 Loudon 23 Orrstown 69 The State The following are the probable majorities in the counties named: Geary Clymer Philadelphia 6,000 Allegheny 8,000 Dauphin 1,200 Lebanon 1,800 Franklin 200 Fulton 250 Adams 200 Berks 6,500 Cumberland 600

Local and Personal--Going to Nashville
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that Joseph Frey, of Frey & Mong (undertakers), will leave for Nashville on Oct. 15th, to retrieve the bodies of local soldiers who perished in that area and are buried in the cemetery there. Mr. Frey is experienced in such travails, having recovered several soldiers' remains from battlefields in Virginia.

Married
(Column 2)

Summary: On Oct. 2nd, Phillip Fisher and Mary Vetter were married by Rev. G. Roth.
(Names in announcement: Rev. G. Roth, Mary Vetter, Phillip Fisher)

Married
(Column 2)

Summary: On Sept. 11th, John B. Cadwell and Elizabeth Kochennour were married by Rev. S. H. C. Smith.
(Names in announcement: Rev. S. H. C. Smith, John B. Cadwell, Elizabeth Kochennour)

Died
(Column 2)

Summary: On Oct. 2nd, Margaret McDowell, daughter of the late Patrick McDowell, died at age 49.
(Names in announcement: Patrick McDowell, Margaret McDowell)

Died
(Column 2)

Summary: On Sept. 9th, Isaac Gelsinger, 67, died.
(Names in announcement: Isaac Gelsinger)