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Valley Spirit: June 19, 1867 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Democratic State Convention
(Column 3)

Summary: Provides a synopsis of the events at the Democratic State Convention on June 11th, which was called to select a nominee for the state supreme court.

Our Candidate
(Column 1)

Summary: The editors laud the state Democratic party's decision to nominate George Sharswood as its candidate for the state supreme court.

The Indian War
(Column 1)

Summary: The editors contend that the on-going strife with the Plains Indians will inevitably lead to war, which they blame on Radicals in Congress.

Full Text of Article:

A general war with the Indians on the plains seems impending and we have the Radical Congress to thank for this additional calamity to the country. The War Department desired the whole management of Indian affairs placed in its hands, but the Rumps flatly told Mr. Secretary Stanton to make no such pretensions. Congress would manage the War Department, Executive Department, and every other department of the Government with the Negroes and Indians thrown in to boot, on the most approved Radical principles. This extensive programme they have made the most strenuous and unscrupulous efforts to carry out and a pretty fist they have made of it. Their attempt to impeach the President ended in a ridiculous farce. Their Military Rule in the South is making "confusion worse confounded" in that section. Their love for the negro has ruined the "intelligent contraband" body and soul, and now "lo! the poor Indian" must fall under the blighting curse of Radicalism. If the War Department had obtained sole control of Indian affairs, who does not believe war would have been avoided-the Indians continue their friendly relations and trade with the whites-thousands of lives saved and millions of dollars remain unexpended in the treasury. The Radicals were not content with a state of quietness and prosperity for the country like this. Their natural element is strife and bloodshed and out of it they cannot exist. They must have a little more "blood-letting" and a few more "army contracts" to make them supremely happy.

The first step in the Radical programme in the Indian War is to get the regular army out of the way. This they are silly enough to expect to accomplish by tirades of abuse, through the newspapers, on the Generals commanding in the Indian country, and by advocating a system of guerilla warfare by the settlers in which the Indians are to massacred without mercy and their goods and lands confiscated to their murderers.-Congress would be expected to pay the claims, and their numbers would be legion, for repelling Indian invasions for the next quarter of a century. An Indian War once started is not easily arrested, as we found by said experience in the Florida War, and the Radicals would manage to irritate the Indians and keep up their War so long as money could be made out of it. This is the way Congress would use the Indians for the benefit of its Radical friends, and it is why Territorial Governors and Newspaper Generals are so ready to take the field and "kill dead Indians."

"Whom The God's Would Destroy They First Make Mad"
(Column 1)

Summary: The article points to the increasingly vitriolic tone of the in-fighting among Republicans as evidence of their impending demise.

The Coming Crops Of This Country
(Column 2)

Summary: With all signs indicating that this year's harvest will be "plentiful," and the prospect of the nation's "reconstruction on the basis of the Constitution eminently near," the article contends that the country will "soon emerge from under the cloud by which it is overshadowed, and resume its march toward a pinnacle of greatness."

Origin of Article: Age

Full Text of Article:

There is no subject in which all classes of our citizens are more immediately interested than that of the coming crops of this nation. All have felt the effects of the short yield of last year, and are hoping to obtain cheaper bread and other articles of food during 1867. It matters little how much the toiler can earn, if the price of food increases in a larger percentage than his compensation. He may keep hunger from the door while health permits by constant exertions, but nothing can be stored for sickness, old age, or the thousand casualties which surround the pathway of all.-It is such reflections as these that make people tremblingly alive to all reports with reference to the crops, and induce a feeling of gratitude at the announcement that in all parts of the Union the signs of a plentiful harvest are abundant and unmistakable.

The wheat crop of 1866 was stated by the Agricultural Bureau at 151,999,906 bushels valued at $333,773, 646. That of this year promises to be much larger. In all parts of this State the number of acres planted in wheat exceeds by one-third that of last season, and the heavy yield is most encouraging. The straw is not too rank, the head is well developed for the season, and the chances of exemption from rust and fly excellent. In the limestone sections of the State the wheat have never looked better. From New York the same gratifying intelligence is transmitted through the press, and the farmers of that State are preparing for such a return of wheat for the amount sown as they have rarely, if ever, harvested. The rich lands of that State are groaning under the weight of the coming wheat harvest.-From the West the reports are decidedly cheering in this particular. In Ohio the wheat is out of danger, and it never looked better. The crop will be immense. The weather we are now experiencing will push the grain forward with great rapidity, and altogether the prospects were never more favorable for a full yield from that State.-Those familiar with agricultural affairs in Indiana say that fully one hundred per cent. more of wheat will be garnered in that State this year than last. This is good news from Indiana. The same may, with truth and accuracy, be said of Illinois. The fall and spring crops of Michigan promise a bountiful yield. The Hon. Mason Crouch, of Nebraska, a resident of that section for ten years, says that the wheat and other cereals never looked better, and that there will certainly be a large crop. In Minnesota the area of land put in wheat, this year, is nearly or quite four times that of last, and the return is estimated at over fifteen millions of bushels.

Our Southern exchanges announce that in those States the yield of wheat is good. In South Carolina the crop will be the largest ever known. The rice crop is looking well. It is somewhat grassy and weedy on account of the difficulty which yet attends to the management of the freedmen, but the prospects are generally good. The area of land in cotton this season is said to be greater than last year, and a fair return is anticipated. From the Sea Island cotton region, we have only moderate accounts as to the prospects. A cold, wet spring has don some injury to the plants, but they may recover.

The hay and corn crop also promise large additions to those of last year. The hay crop of 1860 in the United States was put down in the census at a little over 19,000,000 tons, that of 1866, by the Agricultural Bureau, at 21,778,627 tons, valued at $317,561,837; but the yield for the present year is estimated at 30,000,000 tons. The yield of Indian corn for last year is given at 867,946,295 bushels, valued at $591,666,295.-For this year the promise, it is said, exceeds 1,200,000,000. These are certainly cheering indications, and if realized in the shape of active facts, will fill the hearts of millions of people with joy and gladness.-With a full harvest and reconstruction on the basis of the Constitution, the country would soon emerge from under the cloud by which it is overshadowed, and resume its march toward a pinnacle of greatness unheard of in the history of any nation that ever existed.-Age

What Causes Business Stagnation!
(Column 3)

Summary: With Americans overtaxed and paying audaciously high prices for their commodities, the article posits that the country's economic woes are the product of the Radicals' deleterious policies.

Origin of Article: Patriot and Union

The Situation
(Column 3)

Summary: During the war, admits the author of the article, there was an "excuse for putting extreme men in power," but with the conflict finished, the country "is now like a convalescent patient" in need of "mild stimulants" rather than "strong purgatives."

Origin of Article: The Columbia Herald

The Hon. George Sharswood
(Column 4)

Summary: Offers a short biography of George Sharswood and a celebratory account his professional accomplishments.

Origin of Article: Age

Democratic Platform
(Column 5)

Summary: Provides a copy of the platform adopted by Pennsylvania Democrats at their convention in Harrisburg on June 11th, which includes a resolution stating their opposition to "any amendment of the Constitution of the State giving to negroes the right of suffrage."

Full Text of Article:

Resolutions Adapted by the Democratic State Convention, held at Harrisburg on the 11th day of June, 1867.

We, the delegates of the Democratic party of Pennsylvania in general State Convention assembled, for the nomination of a candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court, profoundly grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the return of peace to our beloved country, but deeply anxious on account of the trials and delays which impede the complete restoration and re-union of all the State, and appreciating the dangers which still threaten the safety of our political institutions, and the future peace, liberty and prosperity of the people, resolve,

1. That we steadfastly adhere to the principles of civil government established by the founders of the Union; and in the present conflict of legislative usurpation with constitutional law, we esteem a wise upright and fearless judiciary the great bulwark of public liberty and individual right.

2. That the Union of the States is perpetual, and the Federal Government supreme within its constitutional limits.

3. That Representation in the Congress of the United States, and in the electoral college, is a right fundamental and indestructible in its nature and abiding in every State, being a duty as well as a right pertaining to the people of every State and essential to our Republican system of Government. Its denial is the destruction of the Government itself.

4. Each State having under the Constitution the exclusive right to prescribe the qualifications of its own electors, we proclaim as a usurpation and outrage the establishment of negro suffrage in any of the States by the coercive exercise of Federal power; and we shall resist to the last resort the threatened measures of the leaders of the Republican party to interfere by acts of Congress with the regulation of the elective franchise in the State of Pennsylvania.

5. That we are opposed to any amendment of the Constitution of the State giving to negroes the right of suffrage.

6. That the failure of the Tariff Bill in the last session of the late Congress, more than three-fourths of whose members belonged to the Republican party, is an illustration of their infidelity to their pledges and their neglect of their professions in relation to the great industrial and financial interests of the country.

7. That the Radical majority in Congress, and those who sustain them, have overthrown the Constitution, dismembered the Federal Union and subverted republican government by a long series of usurpations, among which are the following: Their denial of the right of States of the Union to representation in Congress.

Their treatment of ten States as subjugated provinces, and governing them by military force in time of peace.

Their enactment of laws denying indemnity for arrests and false imprisonments made without authority of law.

Their resistance of the authority of the civil tribunals, and their overthrow by the substitution of military commissions for the trial of undefined offenses.

Their efforts to destroy the executive and judicial departments of the Government by threatened impeachment to control executive action, and a projected "remodeling" of the Supreme Court of the United States to force obedience to congressional mandates.

Their ejection from their seats in the Federal Senate and House, of members duly and legally chosen.

That the purpose of confiscation avowed by the Republican leaders, in violation of the Declaration of Rights and other guarantees of the Federal and State Constitutions, tending as it does, to destroy all protection to private property, advances them far on the high road to repudiation.

8. That a strict conformity, both by the Federal and State Governments, to all the powers, restrictions and guarantees, as contained in the Constitution of the United States, a rigid and wise economy in the administration of public affairs, and the celebration of capable honest and patriotic men to office, are measures absolutely necessary to restore public confidence, avert national bankruptcy, and to ensure the perpetuity of our free institutions.

9. That the late Republican Legislature of this State has distinguished itself for the number of its unwise and unconstitutional enactments. Some of these laws have already been judicially determined to be unconstitutional, others are unwise, inexpedient, oppressive and fanatical, and the members who sustained them should be condemned by the people at the polls.

10. That the power and success of the Democratic party greatly depends on the character and efficiency of its newspaper press, and that to give full force to its usefulness, this Convention earnestly requests that in every county all the members of the Democratic party should make a vigorous effort to increases circulation by giving it individual patronage and support.

11. That the Democracy of Pennsylvania, by their representatives now assembledl, hereby tender their acknowledgements and thanks to the Hon. George W. Woodward in his retirement from the position of Chief Justice of this Commonwealth, for the pure, faithful and able manner in which he discharged the duties of the exalted position.

12. That the candidate we this day present to the people of Pennsylvania for a place on the Supreme Bench of the State, is in all respects worthy of that confidence and support of all who are in favor of an enlightened, faithful and impartial administration of the laws.

Local and Personal--Baptized
(Column 1)

Summary: Relates that Rev. H. Y. Hummelbaugh baptized five people in the Falling Spring on June 12th.
(Names in announcement: Rev. H. Y. Hummelbaugh)

Local and Personal--Coming Down
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that the prospect of a bountiful wheat harvest in the upcoming year "has brought down the prices of all kinds of grain."

Local and Personal--Accident
(Column 1)

Summary: An accident occurred near Greenvillage on June 15th when Nancy Shoemaker fell from the buggy she was riding in. Though it was initially believed that her injuries were life-threatening, it appears that she was "not as badly hurt as was at first supposed."
(Names in announcement: Nancy Shoemaker)

Local and Personal--A Ten Dollar Counterfeit
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports that a "perfect facsimile" of a counterfeit ten dollar note on the Third National Bank of Philadelphia has appeared in circulation. So good is the forgery that the only way to protect one's self is "to refuse all 'tens' on the Bank."

Local and Personal--Fatal Accident
(Column 2)

Summary: Hamilton Myers, of Huntington township, suffered a fatal accident when he was thrown from his wagon and run over by its hind wheels. Dr. A. B. Dill was called at once, but the injuries were too severe. Myers passed the next day. He leaves a wife and ten children.
(Names in announcement: Hamilton Myers, Dr. A. B. Dill)

Origin of Article: Gettysburg Compiler

Married
(Column 5)

Summary: On June 4th, Charles T. Welsh and Mollie E. Morton were married by Rev. J. Dickson.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. Dickson, Charles T. Welsh, Mollie E. Morton)

Married
(Column 5)

Summary: On June 11th, John O. Frey and Mary E. Snively were married by Rev. S. Bigham.
(Names in announcement: John O. Frey, Mary E. Snively, Rev. S. Bigham)

Married
(Column 5)

Summary: On June 5th, Henry Harrison Hopkins, of Maryland, and Annie C., oldest daughter of Dr. J. C. Richards, were married by Rev. J. A. Crawford.
(Names in announcement: Henry Harrison Hopkins, Annie C. Richards, Dr. J. C. Richards, Rev. J. A. Crawford)

Died
(Column 5)

Summary: On June 5th, Sarah, relict of the Jacob Heart, died at age 76.
(Names in announcement: Sarah Heart, Jacob Heart)

Died
(Column 5)

Summary: On June 6th, Elizabeth Dickey, wife of James Dickey, dec'd, died at age 65.
(Names in announcement: Elizabeth Dickey, James Dickey)