Search the Newspapers Browse Newspapers by Date Articles Indexed by Topic About the Newspapers Valley of the Shadow Home

Valley Spirit: 10 23, 1867 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Suspension Of The President
(Column 1)

Summary: Outraged at Thad Stevens's current attempt to unseat the President and thus "subvert the Constitution," the editors admonish readers to prevent him from consummating his "villainous scheme."

A Contemplated Outrage
(Column 1)

Summary: There is a move underway in Harrisburg to disallow the results of several contests in which Democratic candidates obtained small margins of victory over their Republican rivals, say the editors. In reaction, the editors call on "the Conservative press to speak out this system of gross wrong and studendous fraud."

Full Text of Article:

Several of the Democratic candidates for the Senate and House of Representatives of our State have been elected by comparatively small majorities. The wonder is, considering how infamously the State was gerrymanded by the Republicans, that they have been elected at all. But it is proposed now to cheat them out of the positions to which they have been honestly elected by the people of their respective districts. The Harrisburg Telegraph , published by as unprincipled a wretch as lives, calls upon the Radical majority of the Legislature to oust these men and put the defeated candidates in their places. They have been in the habit of doing this for the last seven years. Acting upon the theory and that "might makes right," they have not hesitated to dispossess Democrats of their official places without any pretence that there was any law to justify their action. In our own Senatorial District, Mr. Duncan was elected in 1865 as fairly as any man was ever chosen by the people. Everybody knew that there was no illegality in or about that election sufficient to warrant the Senate in setting it aside, and yet he was only allowed to occupy his seat for a week or ten days. Republicans here positively blushed with shame at this outrage upon Mr. Dunce's individual rights, and at such a wanton, deliberate disregard of the clear and unmistakable choice of the people. It was conceded all round that the investigation by the Senatorial committee was a mere sham, there being a fixed determination to give the seat to McConaughy regardless of law, justice, equity and the particular merits of the case. Last year this Senatorial District condemned McConaughy by a majority of 23. This year, it speaks trumpet-tongued against the party to which he belongs by a majority of 581.

We might cite other instances, both in the State and National Legislatures, whose injustice is equally glaring and notorious, but this will suffice. What we have to say now is, that it is time for the Conservative press to speak out against this system of gross wrong and stupendous fraud. It is time for the people to say that they will not tolerate any longer this carrying out of a premeditated and pre-arranged plan to defeat the popular will. If constitutional forms are to be set at naught, or if followed, only used for the accomplishment of such nefarious purposes, the sooner the people take the remedy into their own hands the better. When we are beaten we are in favor of submission, and when we are victorious we insist on reaping the fruits of our victory. When we elect men to offices fairly, we submit that it is our bounden duty to see to it that these men are allowed to perform the duties of their offices, and that by no trick or chicanery shall the men whom the people have condemned through the ballot-box, be substituted for those whom they have chosen. Let the Telegraph and all kindred sheets--let its publisher and editor and all kindred spirits--understand that in times like this, when a great revolution is sweeping over the land, it is exceedingly perilous to attempt to thwart the distinctly uttered wishes of the masses. Forbearance may cease to be a virtue. As a minority, we always asserted our rights--as a majority, we are determined to maintain them. The men who have been legally chosen to the Senate and House of Representatives must be allowed to take and remain in their seats. No trumped-up charges of illegal voting--No deserter-disfranchising laws passed in direct violation of our Constitution, and no strained construction of our election statutes, will be held sufficient to justify a general ouster of the conservatives who have received certificates of election. Honesty must supplant dishonesty in our legislative halls. This system of corruption, bribery and wholesale sacrifice of honor for partisan purposes must be broken up.

All we ask is that the same rules that the Radicals apply to the members of their own party shall be applied to Democrats, and that no Democrat shall be thrown out of his place for any reason which would not be deemed sufficient to dispossess a Radical of his seat also. We do not wish to indulge in threats, we do not seek to intimidate anybody, but we simply desire to inform this Hessian that the Democracy intend to see to it that if the men whom they have elected shall fill the positions to which they have been chosen, and that they will not be particular about putting gloves on their hands to deal with scoundrels who are casting about for ways and means to frustrate the legally and honestly expressed choice of the people.

A Few Words To Republicans
(Column 2)

Summary: At the Republican County Convention, the editors remind readers, a resolution was passed proclaiming that "no party has a right to exist which is not in harmony with the will of the people and is not sustained by their approbation." In the wake of the election, the editors now wonder whether the Republican leaders intend on complying with this "monstrous" declaration, though they do not expect them to. The editors also urge Republican supporters to re-evaluate their commitment to a party whose leaders would endorse such a "ridiculous" doctrine.

Cabinet Changes
(Column 3)

Summary: President Johnson is planning to make further changes to his cabinet; "prominent" Democrats have urged him to consider members of their party as possible replacements. The editors counsel against such a move because, in addition to undermining the credibility of any Democrat who joined Johnson's cabinet, it would do the President "more harm than good."

Full Text of Article:

Rumors again abound that important changes in President Johnson's Cabinet will soon take place. It is said that prominent Democratic politicians have called upon the President since the election and urged him to organize a Cabinet that would more correctly represent the expressed opinions of the people than the one he has around him now. We do not pretend to say how much of truth and how much of falsehood there may be in these rumors. But we desire to express the hope that all the prominent Democratic politicians in the country will let President Johnson alone. He does not belong to us, and no distinguished Democrat who does not desire to forfeit his standing in the Democratic party can safely enter his Cabinet.

Nor would it do the President himself any good to break up his Cabinet and reconstruct it on a Democratic foundation. Such a change, at this late day, might do more harm than good. It might, perhaps, weaken him still more. It could not possibly strengthen him. It is not because anything he has done for them as a party, that the Democracy sustain the President. It is not because they believe it to be in his power to do anything for them as a party that they have resolved to stand by him to the bitter end of his fight with the revolutionary cabal in Congress. They will stand by him just as resolutely in that fight if he retains his present Republican Cabinet, or puts other Republicans in their places, as if he filled it with Democrats. Their support is given to him on principle, and not from a desire to participate in his administration of the government. When they win the government out of the hands of their opponents, then they will want it administered by their own statesmen. They will sustain the President with all their might so long as he defends the Constitution and shows no signs of flinching, even though all who surround him in office be Republicans; but no array of Democratic names in his Cabinet could bind them to him for a single day if he faltered in the performance of his sacred duty. If he contemplates a change in his Cabinet, let him make it solely with reference to the approaching contest between himself and the Radical destructive. If his present Cabinet are warmly with him, we can see no need of his changing them. Least of all is there need of change in order to conciliate the Democracy. When the President finds himself engaged in a death-struggle with the leading spirits of the party which elected him--and he will probably have such a struggle on his hands on after the meeting of Congress--let him raise the Constitution above his head and cry aloud to the Democracy to come forth and save it, and as one man they will rally at his call. But they want no Cabinet officers till they can claim them under a Democratic President

Letter From Dixie
(Column 4)

Summary: Contains a letter from a former resident of Franklin county, who now resides in Mississippi. Among the topics touched upon in the correspondence are the effects of white disfranshisement and the general state of disrepair among Mississippi's plantations.

Full Text of Article:

DARK CORNER, MADISON CO. MISS.,

October 9, 1867

To the Valley Spirit, "Greeting":

I know your John M., knew him when he was a boy, away back in the times of the Franklin Telegraph, and am truly glad to see that he has not bartered his hopes of heaven by joining the accursed party who are holding the poisoned chalice to the lips of all free white men, south of the Mason and Dixon, with one hand and a dagger in the other, as an inducement for us to drink of the cup. My recollection of the people of the county of my childhood and early manhood are such that I can scarcely believe that a majority of them can be acting with a party that is taxing its ingenuity to devise means to oppress and humble their fellow-men, after they have been stripped of everything, because forsooth they may have sinned. I am not one of those who believed in the right or policy of secession, but when the country of my adoption decided otherwise, I shouldered my musket and fought to the bitter end. However, I am no reconstructed--"all but one plank"--"I can't vote," but there is a colored gentleman helping me to raise corn for bread who votes for us both, only he don't know how to vote until his brother Rad comes along from Connecticut or Massachusetts to tell him how.

Mississippi will make bread enough and to spare, but the cotton crop will fall short fully one-half, caused by the depredation of the boil-worm just before the time of picking, and what is left will be eaten up by the tax worm, before it reaches market, and as this is the only crop from which we can realize any money, you may form some faint idea of our future prospects. No man can imagine the desolation of the land, save one who was here before and since the little riot we had down here a few years ago.--Previous to that time, it was literally a land flowing with milk and honey; and now, in places that formerly bloomed and blossomed as the rose, are fenceless farms and weeds by the briars, and the tenantless houses, save by the owl and the bat, and the mocea son and adder, and last year the cry wend up to God from many a hearthstone for bread. In the name of humanity is this not enough? What more do the extremists of the North want? They are pursuing a policy towards his down-trodden land that can only result in one thing--a war of races. Should it ever come, wo! wo! to the poor negro. But there is a single ray of hope lighting up the deep darkness of our future, and that is, that the present dominant party may be swept from power before they fully consummate their purposes. I will look anxiously for the result of the election in the Keystone State yesterday, and earnestly hope the people have set their seal of condemnation on the foul party.

In times past I never had much love for the Democratic party--Henry Clay was the Apostle of my political creed--and I can't say that I love it any too much yet, but I am satisfied that it is the only human agency that can save this country.

I receive the SPIRIT regularly, and its appearance is to me "like a shadow of a rock in a weary land." But how you ever get pay for it, is more than I can cypher at this present writing unless you take gubers in payment at a dime per quart.

I notice that M'Clure has sent on some "bricks" made out of some new kind of dirt, picked up in Montana. I think I heard many years ago, something about the material from which they are made, and may have, in early boyhood, seen some specimens. If they are at all plenty, and are the kind your people carry in their hats , please send me one for mine. But, by the way, the crown is out of mine; couldn't you go to Deehert's cheap hat store and buy me a new one, sew it neatly in the crown and ship by express, prepaying the charges, otherwise I will not get it, as gubers are not a legal tender with our express agents. Don't let Butler know when you send it.

What has become of everybody that lived in the old town eighteen years ago? We need enterprising citizens down here, with "money." Perhaps some of your population might be induced to immigrate. If "Jim Collins" is live and will come to Mississippi, I will guarantee him a seat in Congress at the first election. It does not require a residence of any stated time for gentlemen of his color, but he can vote immediately on landing.

Two down East white men held a county meeting in the town of Canton a few weeks ago, to appoint delegates to a State Convention, to be held at Jackson, Miss. Present at the aforesaid meeting, the aforesaid down Easters and sixteen niggers. One of the white men and two of the niggers appointed themselves delegates to the State Convention. One of the darkies told his old master that as soon as he got to Kongrass he would give him a "pintment," as he had been a good master to him, giving him plenty to eat, plenty klose and not much work, and now when had the power, he would member him. There seems to be a strong disposition on the part of many of our citizens to push forward the freedman into positions where he would make himself ridiculous. Now I think this is very wrong; and, as the white voting population is greatly in the minority, I think they had better let the Yankee emissaries and the negro fix up things to suit themselves.

We have had, thus far, a pleasant fall, and delightful weather to gather our crops. A late frost in the Spring destroyed all the fruit, but the corn and sweet potato crops are good, and I do think there will be much suffering for the want of necessaries of life. When speaking about the freedman, I neglected to bear my testimony to their good behavior generally, considering that they were suddenly cast loose to think and act for themselves without any previous training and if bad men did not come among them from the North and put false notions in their heads, they might, in time, perhaps, do something for themselves and employers as laborers.

If I can raise money enough for stamps, you may hear occasionally from

SHEP.

Trailer: Shep.

Local and Personal--Religious
(Column 1)

Summary: Rev. S. H. C. Smith will give a sermon to young men next Sunday at the M. E. Church.
(Names in announcement: Rev. S. H. C. Smith)

Local and Personal--Property Sold
(Column 1)

Summary: Notes that Dr. J. C. Richards purchased James C. Eyster's property near the turnpike leading to Shippensburg.
(Names in announcement: Rev. J. C. Richards, James C. Eyster)

Local and Personal--Antietam National Cemetary
(Column 2)

Summary: Due to a lack of funds, relates the article, the "thirty-odd hands" employed at Antietam Cemetary have been discharged and work there has stopped.

Local and Personal--Fatal Accident
(Column 2)

Summary: Reports that George Frick's daughter died in a tragic accident that occurred while she was playing near the connecting shaft between her father's foundry and the machine shops belonging to Messrs. Geiser, Price, and Co. Apparently, the girl's clothing became entangled in the shaft and, before she could be rescued, she was mangled, causing an instantaneous death.
(Names in announcement: George Frick, Price, Geiser)

County Institute
(Column 3)

Summary: Informs readers of the upcoming meeting of the Franklin County Teachers' Institute on November 11th.
(Names in announcement: P. M. Shoemaker, W. S. Stenger)

Trailer: P. M. Shoemaker

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 15th, Henry Wingert and Maria Dieter were married by Rev. B. S. Schneck.
(Names in announcement: Henry Wingert, Maria Dieter, Rev. B. S. Schneck)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 17th, Samuel Meisner and Lizzei Boner were married by Rev. W. F. Eyster.
(Names in announcement: Samuel Meisner, Lizzie Boner, Rev. W. F. Eyster)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 10th, Calvin P. Carmac, of Fulton Co., Pa., and Mary Bender were married by Rev. W. P. Winbigler.
(Names in announcement: Calvin P. Carmac, Mary Bender, Rev. W. P. Winbigler)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 2nd, George W. Brown and Mary E. McDonnel were married by Rev. B. T. Beck.
(Names in announcement: George W. Brown, Mary E. McDonnel, Rev. B. T. Beck)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 10th, Jonas Weigel and Emma Fulton were married by Rev. C. Price.
(Names in announcement: Jonas Weigel, Emma Fulton, Rev. C. Price)

Married
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 8th, Leonard Stoke, of Jacksonville, and Anna A. Maththews were married by Rev. J. G. Moore.
(Names in announcement: Leonard Stoke, Anna A. Maththews, Rev. J. G. Moore)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 18th, Mamie Josephene, daughter of B. Y. and Mary A. Hamsher, died at age 2.
(Names in announcement: Mamie Josephene Hamsher, B. Y. Hamsher, Mary A. Hamsher)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 18th, Jacob Cook, 80, died at New Guilford.
(Names in announcement: Jacob Cook)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 5th, Jacob Shearer, 67, died near Spring Run.
(Names in announcement: Jacob Shearer)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 11th, Joseph Brown, 77, died near Spring Run.
(Names in announcement: Joseph Brown)

Died
(Column 4)

Summary: On Oct. 7th, Mary Ann Upperman, 77, died at the residence of her daughter, Margaret Holland, in Fayetteville.
(Names in announcement: Mary Ann Upperman, Margaret Holland)