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Valley Spirit: March 3, 1869 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Where Will They Stop?
(Column 01)

Summary: The paper is horrified by the changes in Republican racial policy since the 1850's. Again condemns Radicals for trying to force black voting on unwilling states by passing the 15th amendment through the legislatures. Speculates that soon Radicals will force miscegenation on the nation.

Full Text of Article:

When the Republicans first forced the slave issue upon the country and appealed to the people for support, they declared it to be their object simply to prevent the further extension of slavery. They avowed that they had no desire, as they admitted that they had no right, to interfere with it in the States in which it existed. They pretended to care nothing for the negro himself, their only concern being to prevent the "curse of slavery" from extending itself to regions in which it did not then exist, and they indignantly repelled all suggestions of an ultimate intention on their part to put the black race on the same political or social level with the white. These avowals, admissions and assurances must be well remembered by all who have paid any attention to political affairs during the last twelve years.

How have the actions of the Republicans corresponded with their words? They have belied every assurance they gave to the people. At each step they have taken in advance they have pledged themselves to go no farther, but the pledge has been given only to be broken. Starting out as a State Rights party, they have trampled the conceded rights of the States under their cloven feet at every step in their progress. Their latest achievement is a deadly blow at the dearest right possessed by the States, that of regulating the suffrage. Both Houses of Congress have finally passed the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

Be it enacted &c.; two-thirds of both Houses concurring, That the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, and when ratified by three-fourths thereof, it shall be a part of said Constitution.

Article 15. The right of any citizen of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

It is true that this amendment will have to be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, but three-fourths of them will have the power to force negro suffrage upon the balance against their will. Pennsylvania may refuse to ratify it, because she claims and is unwilling to give up the right to define the qualifications of her own electors; but it may be forced on her, great commonwealth as she is, by the action of such little States as Rhode Island and Vermont, aided by South Carolina with her Negro Legislature.

If the people of Pennsylvania permit negro suffrage to be set up in this State, we may well inquire where the Radicals will stop. If our domestic concerns are to be regulated by Congress and by three-fourths of the States, we shall be at the mercy of powers foreign to our soil. No matter what our own opinions and desires may be, we shall have to yield to the opinions and desires of people who live thousands of miles from us. To-day those people may content themselves with requiring us to allow negroes to vote. Next year they may require us to allow negroes to hold office. The third year they may require us to admit negroes into the same schools with white children; and the fourth they may prohibit a white man from marrying a white woman so long as there shall be an unmarried negro wench between the ages of seventeen and seventy-five. Does this seem improbable? Ten years ago it seemed equally improbable that a proposition to establish negro suffrage in all the States could receive a dozen votes in Congress. The rate at which the Radicals have been going since they got into power raises the very serious question, where will they stop?

Cessna's Temperance Party
(Column 01)

Summary: Criticizes Cessna's call for a new Temperance party and its resolutions for a Temperance amendment to the Constitution. Detests the idea that the federal government should tell people what they can or cannot drink.

Full Text of Article:

Under the call issued by Hon. John Cessna and others, a State Temperance Convention was held at Harrisburg on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. The Convention passed a string of resolutions as long as the last will and testament of Billy Bowlegs, which was written on fifteen feet of bark. They resolved, among a multitude of other things, that Temperance is "a political question of paramount importance to all citizens of the commonwealth," that as existing political parties fail to make it a part of their political faith, a new political organization must be effected; that a prohibitory league must be formed, whose members shall vote against all candidates "in every county, senatorial or representative district, for local or legislative offices," who are not the declared friends of prohibition. It was also resolved to appoint County Committees and a State Central Committee in order to carry forward the work of organizing the new party. And to cap the climax, it was

Resolved: That a committee of five be appointed by the chair to prepare a memorial or petition to Congress, either to pass an act or an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting and restraining the manufacture and sale of all alcoholic liquors, except for medicinal and mechanical purposes.

This resolution ought to draw over to the new party nearly all the members of the present Radical party, and perhaps it may have been adopted with that view at Mr. Cessna's suggestion. As will be observed, it recognizes the power of Congress to prescribe by a mere act, as well as by an amendment to the Constitution, what the good people of this commonwealth shall drink. That done, and the power of Congress in the premises fully recognized, New England and her Negro allies at the South may prescribe what the good people of this commonwealth shall eat. Is Mr. Cessna aiming to bring us down to bran bread and sawdust pudding?

Gen. Grant and the Radicals
(Column 02)

Summary: Notes with amusement the sorry record of Democratic opponents who bicker with each other after their Presidential candidates die in office. Tells of a recent meeting between Grant and Col. McClure to demonstrate how the same bickering is happening again with the Republicans over appointments for office.

Full Text of Article:

Whenever the opponents of the Democratic party have succeeded in electing a President of the United States, they have done it by abandoning their representative men and taking up candidates about whose opinions on important questions there was room for doubt. This was so in 1840, when all the great Whig leaders of that day were thrown overboard and Gen. Harrison nominated. It was so again in 1848, when all the distinguished statesmen of the Whig party were given up for Gen. Taylor. It was so again in 1860, when Seward, the father of the Republican party, and other men of high distinction, were sacrificed for Lincoln.

In all these cases, the party thus stooping to conquer was punished for its abandonment of principle. Harrison died, and Tyler administered the government upon Democratic principles, to the unutterable disgust of a large majority of those who had voted for him. Taylor died too, and Fillmore enraged a large number of the very men who had elected him by approving certain important bills which were supported by the Democracy and opposed by the great body of the Whig party. Lincoln died likewise, and Johnson maddened the Radical party by administering the government on conservative principles.

In nominating Gen. Grant, the opponents of the Democracy played the old game that had proved successful in the instances we have cited. Will they reap the same reward? Are we destined again to see them rage and hear them howl?

For some time past there have been mutterings that betokened a coming storm.--Every word said in Congress against the repeal of the tenure-of-office act has been prompted by distrust of Grant. The disgraceful rumpus in joint convention, when the electoral votes were counted, had its origin in jealousies and distrusts connected with the same distinguished personage.--There really appears to be more cause than we had suspected the existence of for Radical anxiety about the President elect. Grant has thus far foiled the persistent efforts of the most active of them to discover who will be in his Cabinet, and this they look upon as an evil omen. He has done more. He has actually declared himself independent of them. Imagine Col. McClure's disgust at being talked to in the following style:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25.--Among the numerous callers at Grant's headquarters to-day was A.K. McClure of Pennsylvania. McClure asked Grant directly if he would not appoint Gov. Curtin to a place in his cabinet. The General replied that it would be impossible to do so. McClure then said, in that case he felt compelled to say that to give satisfaction in Pennsylvania, the appointment must be given to some man who has been prominently identified with the republican party and is an active politician. To illustrate what he meant, he said: It must be no such man as George H. Stuart, A.E. Borie or John Welsh. Grant instantly replied that he could not see what objection any loyal man could have to such a man as George H. Stuart, who had done so much for the country and was so widely known. Mr. McClure then made some remarks about the prospect--that if such appointments were to be made the republican party would be defeated in Pennsylvania in the election for Governor next fall. Gen. Grant replied: "I am not, myself, a representative of any political party, although a political party elected me." Gen. Grant concluded: "I would not have you to understand that Mr. Stuart is the man selected." The interview has been much talked about at the capital to-day. Mr. McClure says he has no doubt from what was said that Mr. Stuart is the Pennsylvanian to be selected for the cabinet.

The Washington correspondent of the New York Times of Feb. 26th, writing about Col. McClure's raid on Gen. Grant, said:

It is best that he should be made solely responsible for it in his own words, which were taken down verbatim from his own lips this afternoon. This is his version:

"I went up with a letter from Judge Read, concurred in by Judges William and Agnew. It was put upon the ground that Williams was to be the candidate of the Republican party for Supreme Court Judge. I had also a dispatch to the effect that Governor Geary, who is to be the candidate for Governor, had also written a letter which is now in the mails. Both letters appeal to General Grant to appoint Governor Curtin on a seat in the Cabinet, as a man having the confidence of the Republican party of the State, and as the only man who, in their judgment, could save the State next fall."

When this came out, Gov. Geary immediately telegraphed to Gen. Grant that he had not written in favor of anybody. Judges Agnew and Williams have authorized it to be stated that they neither wrote nor promised to write for Curtin. And Col. McClure publishes a card in which he says, in effect, that Geary is such a liar that it is never safe to take his word for anything.--Gen. Grant has a happy family on his hands just now.

Emigration to the South
(Column 02)

Summary: The paper reports that a convention of southern railroad presidents met in Atlanta and discussed ways to encourage immigration from the North to the South. They decided to reduce fairs for anyone coming South to shop for real estate.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: According to the county treasurer, the following collectors have settled up: Henry Baltzley, Antrim; D. D. Swanger, Lurgan; Jacob Hellman, Peters; William F. Hoover, Waynesboro.
(Names in announcement: Henry Baltzley, D. D. Swanger, Jacob Hellman, William F. Hoover)

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: Mr. J. B. Roberts's troop of actors is performing in Chambersburg's Repository Hall. On Tuesday, Roberts will perform Petruchio from "Taming of the Shrew," and the "side splitting farce" of "Paddy Miles' Boy." He has already performed Hamlet and Richard III to rave reviews.

Lecture By Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.
(Column 02)

Summary: The Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage will lecture in Repository Hall for the benefit of the Ladies' Mite Society of the Central Presbyterian Church. "Mr. Talmage is always entertaining and funny and is a favorite lecturer with our people."

Married
(Column 05)

Summary: Jonathan Jones and Miss Sarah Conner, both of Franklin County, were married on February 23rd at the St. Thomas residence of Soloman Hollar by the Rev. S. A. Mowers.
(Names in announcement: Jonathan Jones, Sarah Conner, Soloman Hollar, Rev. S. A. Mowers)

Married
(Column 05)

Summary: John Dysert and Miss Mary Bowden, both of Franklin, were married on February 16th by the Rev. B. S. Schneck.
(Names in announcement: John Dysert, Mary Bowden, Rev. B. S. Schneck)