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Valley Spirit: March 17, 1869 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Give it to Him
(Column 01)

Summary: Disgusted that blacks in the South are being appointed to public office. Editor lists some men he considers perfect for public office in Franklin county, and predicts Cessna will be disappointed when he petitions for government jobs.

Full Text of Article:

General Butler on Saturday introduced to Secretary Boutwell a colored man from New Orleans, named Jonbert, and recommended him for appointment as assessor of internal revenue in that city. Jonbert said he did not desire the office from pecuniary considerations, but merely asked it to test the disposition of the party in power as to the rights of his race.

The negro is like the daughter of the horse leech which cries, give, give. He is not satisfied with emancipation. He is not satisfied with the right to vote. He is not satisfied with sitting in the jury box. He now insists upon the right to hold office. He does'nt want it "from pecuniary considerations." He does'nt need money. He simply desires to know whether or not the Radical party is sincere. Let the Radicals "toe the mark" now. Secretary Boutwell ought not to refuse this "man and brother" his petition.

And while Boutwell is making his colored appointments, we would suggest that Chambersburg has plenty of material to select from for the whole District. "Bish" Meade would make a competent Assessor and George Brown an excellent Collector for the 16th District. "Cal" Plowden, John Diggs, "Ned" Thompson, "Brant" Williams, "Jim" Wilson, or a dozen more that we might name, would make trustworthy and able Assistant Assessors and Collectors. If Boutwell insists on having his appointees belong to the Whisky ring, we can assure him in advance that they are all sound on the question. They would'nt suit Cessna with his temperance proclivities, but appointments are not expected to please everybody, as Cessna will no doubt discover in relation to his own appointments very soon.

Negro Suffrage
(Column 02)

Summary: Launches another attack on the proposed 15th amendment. Argues against it on the grounds of states rights and the notion that blacks are not worthy of the franchise. Can't understand why people don't rise up and stop their congressmen and legislatures from approving the amendment.

Full Text of Article:

The Pennsylvania Senate has ratified the article proposed as the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States.--We regard it as a fixed fact that the House of Representatives will follow suit. The Radical representatives and Senators have determined to force negro suffrage upon the people of this Commonwealth as far as their action can assist in doing it. There is not one of them, we venture the assertion, who doubts for a moment, that if the naked issue were presented to the people, this measure would be defeated by a majority of one hundred thousand. And yet, they, deliberately, assume to speak for the people in opposition to their known wishes, on a matter of such vital importance as this. The people, too, seem to have dropped into a state of lethargy and heavy stupor from which it seems impossible to arouse them. They are not in favor of negro suffrage. They are as earnestly and bitterly opposed to it at heart as ever. Their feelings would naturally prompt them to hold indignation meetings and speak in sternest tones of rebuke to the men who dare to thus misrepresent them. But they are held by the trammels of their party. They entertain a sort of blind idolatry for General Grant and they are afraid to utter anything in opposition to his will. He has said that to give the negro the right to vote will settle this vexed question. Certainly it will. There is no profundity of thought in this. The yielding up of any issue will settle it. But brave men do not settle issues in that way. A surrender of vital principles, merely to please one man, as erring, and as liable to err, as the rest of mankind, is base and cowardly. It is a surrender of manhood and honor.

If the people had a proper appreciation of the evil results that must necessarily flow from the adoption of this amendment, they would utter their earnest protest against it without delay. Their representatives have assumed to themselves power which the people have not authorized, and would not authorize them to exercise. Nay, more. They have absolutely refused to allow this question to be submitted to the people. In Congress as we have shown in a former article a proposition to this effect was voted down.

Our State Senate was the theatre of a similar outrage upon the rights of the people. When this amendment was under consideration, Senator Wallace offered an amendment to submit the whole matter to the people, but it met with no encouragement from the Radicals and was voted down. The ratification was pressed so hastily that the Democratic Senators had no opportunity to speak at length on the question. The gag was put on, and this amendment, degrading the elective franchise and the white people of this commonwealth, was ratified by the Senate in the most indecent haste.--All that the Democratic Senators could do was to record their votes against this infatuous proposition and this they did in solid phalanx.

The objection to this amendment is not simply that it is an extension of the right of suffrage to people who are unworthy and unfit to exercise it. This, of itself, ought to be enough to defeat it. But there is another more erious objection. It is an interference with, and violation of the fundamental right of every State to regulate the suffrage within its own limits. This right our forefathers refused to grant to the general government. They dreaded a strong despotic central government. They were jealous of the rights of the States. They guarded these rights with scrupulous care, and among the rights which they reserved to the States was the right of suffrage.--And, ever since the foundation of the government, the States have had the control of the voting privilege.

Now, however, it is proposed to take from the States this right and give it to the general government--to take it from them by three-fourths of the Legislatures of the States not elected with reference to this issue at all. Did the framers of the constitution ever dream that such a fundamental change as this could be effected, sweeping away the rights of all the States, one fourth of which protest against it in the most vigorous manner? Never.

But see how this proposed amendment conflicts with the constitution of the State of Pennsylvania. We do not doubt that there is a similar conflict in other States. Our State constitution provides that, "In elections by the citizens, every white freeman of the age of twenty-one years, having resided &c. &c., shall enjoy the rights of an elector." Now, the object of the proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States is to make the word white in our State constitution of no effect. It will be asserted that if this amendment is ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States it will have the same effect in Pennsylvania as if the word white were stricken from our Constitution.

But our State Constitution provides the manner of its amendment. Article 10 reads as follows:

Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or House of Representatives, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each House, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entertained on their journals, with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause the same to be published three months before the next election, in at least one newspaper in every county, in which a newspaper shall be published; and if in the Legislature next afterward chosen, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each House, the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause the same again to be published in the manner aforesaid, and such proposed amendment or amendments shall be submitted to the people in such a manner, and at such time, at least three months after being so agreed to by the two Houses, as the Legislature shall prescribe, and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments, by a majority of the qualified voters of the State voting thereon, such amendment or amendments shall become a part of the Constitution; but no amendment or amendments shall be submitted to the people oftener than once in five years: Provided, That if more than one amendment be submitted, they shall be submitted in such manner and form that the people may vote for or against each amendment separately and distinctly.

It will thus be seen that it requires the action of two Legislatures of our State to make an amendment to our constitution valid. And we submit, that the members of our State Legislature, in voting to ratify this amendment to the National constitution in such a manner as to override the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania in this way? Are the rights of a sovereign State to be held of such small account? Have Pennsylvanians, as Pennsylvanians, no rights which the other States and her own Legislature are bound to respect? Let our people wake up and look this matter in the face. Whilst they are sleeping, some of their dearest and most sacredly guaranteed rights are being taken away.

Grant Uneasy
(Column 03)

Summary: The paper gloats that Grant is anxious to have the Tenure of Office Act repealed. The editors mock him for being a supporter of Johnson's removal for violating the act, and argue he is no more fit to have complete executive power than his predecessor.

Religious
(Column 01)

Summary: The Rev. H. L. Baugher will preach Sunday in the Lutheran Church.

Dramatic Entertainment
(Column 01)

Summary: The Housom Zouaves gave a "dramatic entertainment" in Union Hall, Fayetteville. The large crowd enjoyed the performance that will be repeated in Chambersburg's Repository Hall.

Velocipede Mania
(Column 01)

Summary: The paper reports that the youth of Chambersburg are wild about velocipedes. One was spotted recently on the Diamond.

Tribute of Respect
(Column 02)

Summary: The Falling Spring Division, No. 123 Sons of Temperance, printed resolutions of respect upon the death of Hugh Auld.
(Names in announcement: Hugh Auld)

Petroleum V. Nasby
(Column 03)

Summary: "Petroleum V. Nasby" will deliver a humorous lecture in Repository Hall on March 25th entitled "Cussed be Canaan."

Married
(Column 04)

Summary: Lewis H. Eberly, of Altona and formerly of Chambersburg, and Miss Sallie C. Shepler of Chambersburg, were married on March 16th by the Rev. J. Agnew Crawford.
(Names in announcement: Lewis H. Eberly, Sallie C. Shepler, Rev. J. Agnew Crawford)

Married
(Column 04)

Summary: A. J. Miller and Miss Ella M. Senseny were married on March 9th at the residence of the bride's aunt Mrs. Catharine Hysinger by the Rev. Samuel Barnes.
(Names in announcement: A. J. Miller, Ella M. Senseny, Catharine Hysinger, Rev. Samuel Barnes)

Died
(Column 04)

Summary: John Albert Nitterhouse died in Chambersburg on March 2nd. He was 16 years old.
(Names in announcement: John Albert Nitterhouse)

Died
(Column 04)

Summary: Mrs. Leah Zuck died in Chambersburg on March 10th. She was 78 years old.
(Names in announcement: Leah Zuck)

Died
(Column 04)

Summary: Mrs. Catharine Leedy died in Strasburg of pneumonia on March 12th. She was 73 years old.
(Names in announcement: Catharine Leedy)

Died
(Column 04)

Summary: John Franklin died in Lurgan on March 5th. He was 79 years old.