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Valley Spirit: December 2, 1868 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Crime in the North
(Column 01)

Summary: Expresses shock and horror at the high rates of crime in the North. Claims Radicals only concentrate on Southern outrages while morality and virtue decline steadily in the North. Gives several vague examples of horrible crimes committed in cities like New York and Philadelphia.

Full Text of Article:

The increase of crime is frightful.--Murders are becoming a thing of almost daily occurrence. Almost every newspaper contains an account of some terrible tragedy whose details horrify the reader. It is not confined to the South alone. Prior to the election, the Radical press teemed with exaggerated statements of riots and murders prepared to a great extent for the purpose of prejudicing the Northern mind against the Southern people. It was charged that this condition of society was but the fruits of the disloyal seeds that had been sown in the South prior to and during the war. Every assault, every outbreak, every murder, was held to be entirely owing to the rebellious spirit which, it was alleged, still held possession of the Southern heart. The whole Southern people were denounced as unfit to be recognized as the equals of the Northern people on account of their unreconstructed condition. They were held up as fit objects for the hatred of this section on account of their refusal to become civilized like ourselves.

Alas! alas! crime has not been confined to the South. The boasted civilization of the North has been disgraced by the commission of the most heinous offences in the catalogue of crime. New England, always on stilts on account of her superior refinement and higher code of morals has been the theatre for the perpetration of the most bloody and brutal tragedies of which history gives any account. Numerous victims have been sacrificed to lust and greed of gold. The young and the old, women and men have fallen before the insatiable passions which spare neither age nor sex. At the very "hub of the universe," the centre of civilization and refinement, where loyalty is purer then is any other part of the Union, crime of all sorts, runs riot.

In the city of New York, violence, rapine and murder have had full sway. And, but a few days ago, amid the dreary mountains of the Empire State, one of the most mysterious and atrocious murders was committed that has ever shocked humanity.

Even in Philadelphia--the Quaker City--noted for the simple manners and peaceful disposition of its people, the records of the Criminal Courts show an appalling increase of crime. Shameful outrages are perpetrated in the light of day, whilst others of darker hue are committed under cover of the darkness of night. In the very heart of the city, within a fortnight, one of the clumsiest, yet most atrocious deeds of blood has been perpetrated that the mind of man ever planned. Prisons and penitentiaries are all filled with lawbreakers. Our Houses of Refuge are crowded with ungovernable and perfectly reckless boys and girls.

And yet, with all this fearful flood of crime sweeping over the North, its people hold up their hands in holy horror at the intelligence flashed over the wires from the South of some riot, or assault and battery in which a negro has been injured or killed. We make broad our phylacteries and stand on the street corners, utter long prayers and thank the Almighty that we are better than the infernal rebels who plunged our beloved land into all the horrors of a civil war. Our morality and piety are shocked at the idea of enfranchising men who drew their swords against their country, and we denounce them as fit truants only of those hot regions to which our loyal hearts would willingly send them. And, all the while, in public and private, in our places of business, in our halls of amusement, in our legislative assemblies, the most open disregard of morality and religion is witnessed. Vice is at a premium--virtue at a discount. We are guilty of almost every offence in the whole catalogue of crime. We have gone up in guilt from the pettiest to the most flagrant and heinous offences, and to-day murder is an epidemic. Let us purge ourselves of our guilt and blood-guiltiness before we set ourselves up as pinks of propriety and models in morality and religion.

A Monument to Our Dead
(Column 01)

Summary: In very poetic language, announces a proposal from the Monumental Association to erect a monument to the soldiers of Franklin County who fell in the war. Urges all citizens to support it despite the grief which might arise from memories of their fallen loved ones.

Full Text of Article:

Each one of our subscribers in the county will find to-day enclosed in his paper, an admirable address from a Committee appointed by the Monumental Association. We bespeak for it a careful perusal. It may draw tears from the eyes of many a father as it recalls to his mind sweet recollections of the noble boy who laid down his life for the Union. Or, it may carry a pang to the widow's heart as it calls up before her vision the manly form of him to whom she plighted her troth and who was found "dead upon the field of honor." Or, it may harrow up the feelings of orphaned children as they remember the kind father who was their protector and their guide and who fell beneath the starry banner upon "the perilous ridge of battle." Or, it may pierce the inmost soul of the widowed mother who has stood beside the open graves of both husband and only son, who breathed out their lives amid the rattle of musquetry and the roar of cannon. Or, it may to many, call up old friends of their youth to whom they were bound by golden cords that were ruptured by the mailed hand of war.

But whilst, in reading this address, sad memory may throw the light of other days around each and all of these, yet, into their disconsolate hearts must steal the consolation that their friends, who have fallen, bore the national ensign through many a bloody battle and came out without a stain upon their honor. The thought must, to some extent at least, alleviate their anguish that their beloved dead, when in life, performed their duty nobly on the march, in the camp and on the field of battle. And if this be consolation, what a thrill of joy should run through their hearts when they learn that, in recognition of the patriotism and heroism of our gallant soldiery, a grateful people propose to rear a monument to their memories! Here the opportunity is afforded to pay a lasting tribute to those who went from our county to rally round the flag wherever it should be borne.

How will their living friends and relatives respond?

The Negro in Congress
(Column 01)

Summary: The paper reports that "by throwing out the vote of certain parishes" an African American from Louisiana was elected to Congress. "From the ballot box the negro stepped into the jury box, from the jury box into the State Legislatures, and from the State Legislatures into Congress. The next step will be into the United States Senate and then into the Presidential Chair. Who wouldn't be a negro? What an unfortunate thing it is for a man's skin to be white!"

The Directors of the Poor
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper accuses the Repository of lying in an attempt to get Mr. Smith, the new Director of the Poor, to take office on February 1st rather than in April, the usual date to begin service.
(Names in announcement: Smith)

Life Insurance Investments
(Column 03)

Summary: Article endorsing the National Life Insurance Company of the United States and stressing the importance of purchasing insurance.

Interesting Lecture
(Column 01)

Summary: Professor J. H. Shumaker of the Chambersburg Academy will give a lecture in Greenvillage on "manliness."
(Names in announcement: J. H. Shumaker)

Thanksgiving Day
(Column 01)

Summary: Article describing the celebration of Thanksgiving Day in Franklin County. Businesses were closed, families cooked large feasts, and the Monumental Association sponsored an evening concert in Repository Hall.

Flag Presentation
(Column 02)

Summary: C. M. Duncan presented Franklin's new militia company, the Housum Zouaves, with a flag on Thanksgiving Day. Duncan and Capt. George W. Skinner addressed the crowd. The new company is named for Col. Peter B. Housum, a "high-toned and honorable" Franklin gentleman who was, "when the civil war broke out, and our Government called for volunteers to defend the integrity of the Union--among the first to leave all, home with its ten thousand endearments, and to go forth to face a deadly foe." Housum died at the Battle of Stones River. The citizens of Franklin voted to name the company after him at the recent County Fair.

Married
(Column 05)

Summary: A. M. Trimmer of Carlisle and Miss Lavinia Price, daughter of John Price of Franklin County, were married at the residence of the bride's parents by the Rev. J. W. Wightman.
(Names in announcement: A. M. Trimmer, Lavinia Price, John Price, Rev. J. W. Wightman)

Married
(Column 05)

Summary: William C. Shearer of Spring Run and Miss Mattie A. Kirkpatrick of Dry Run were married on November 17th by the Rev. William A. West.
(Names in announcement: William C. Shearer, Mattie A. Kirkpatrick, William A. West)

Married
(Column 05)

Summary: Jacob B. Shearer of Metal and Miss Maggie A. M'Cartney of Spring Run were married on November 8th by the Rev. William A. West.
(Names in announcement: Jacob B. Shearer, Maggie A. M'Cartney, Rev. William A. West)