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Valley Spirit: August 25, 1869 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The County Convention
(Column 01)

Summary: Announces meetings to be held to select Democratic nominees for county offices. Tells supporters that elections have usually been close in the county so extra effort is needed to get out the votes and find the right candidates to run. Also calls for party harmony to ensure success.

Full Text of Article:

The Democracy and Conservatives will assemble in primary meetings in the several election districts of the County, on Saturday next, to elect delegates to the County Convention to be held in this Borough on Tuesday next, the 31st instant. The Radical ticket has been nominated and has failed to give anything like general satisfaction. All that is required on the part of the Democracy is to form a good ticket, and success is secured beyond any contingency. This can be easily done by the exercise of proper care. Good men are announced for the different offices and the Convention can not go far wrong in making its selections. We hazard nothing in saying that no matter who are chosen from the gentlemen named, our ticket will surpass the Radical ticket in ability and availability. The opinion seems to be universal that, for many years, the opposition have not presented a weaker ticket than that now in the field. We call upon the people to attend the delegate elections, and select their best men to represent them in the Convention. We desire to see a ticket nominated that will be elected from top to bottom. We hope to be spared the mortification of announcing the defeat of any one of the Democratic candidates. Our County is a close one. One hundred votes won from either side may elect the candidate in whose favor they are cast. Under such circumstances how important it becomes to nominate men who can assuredly poll more than their party vote. It may be that our party majority will be large enough to carry our whole ticket without regard to the ability and standing of the nominees. But it is not best to rely on that. For seven years, the majority on either side has been small. On either side, a candidate possessing a small amount of personal popularity has succeeded in winning enough votes from the opposition to insure his success. Almost every year during the time named, both parties have succeeded in electing portions of their tickets. Surely no stronger argument could be presented in favor of the selection of the men who are strongest before the people. Let the delegates, therefore, assemble in a spirit of harmony and with a determination to sacrifice personal and local interests for the general good of the party. Let the questions asked for the determination of their course of action, be, who is the best and strongest man? Who can poll the largest number of votes, and who will best fill the offices after they are elected?

Democrats, see to it that you exercise your best judgments in this matter. The candidates at the head of your ticket are men of whom you may well be proud. Let your candidates for County offices be equally worthy of the places, the duties of which they will be called upon to discharge.

A New Party Proposed
(Column 02)

Summary: Notes with appreciation Salmon Chase's recent comment that a new party should be formed by conservatives. Doesn't agree completely because editor says it would be better for all moderate and conservative men to join the Democrats in order to drive out the Radicals. Seems to use Chase's idea as a backdoor for getting more support for Democrats.

Full Text of Article:

It is stated in correspondence from Washington, that just after the result of the Virginia election became known, Chief Justice Chase wrote a confidential letter to a prominent politician in Tennessee, an old friend of his, wherein he expressed much gratification at the defeat of the bitter enders in Virginia and rejoiced over the success of the conservatives. The Chief Justice expressed the hope that results similar to that in Virginia would be produced in Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas, and strongly hinted that in his opinion the republican party had served its day, and that the time was at hand when a new conservative party should be formed which would embrace the moderate men of all existing parties.

Judge Chase was one of the founders of the Republican party and he certainly would be one of the last to propose to break it up if it gave any promise of future usefulness. But it has gone beyond the control of the men of real ability who brought it into existence as a breakwater to the advancing tide of slavery, and has become an agent of evil in the hands of politicians of a low order of intellect and morals. It is therefore no wonder that Judge Chase, whose intellectual and moral rank is of the highest order, should come to the conclusion that the Republican party of the present day is only worth breaking up.

But the Judge, it seems, thinks "the time is at hand when a new conservative party should be formed which would embrace the moderate men of all existing parties." Here he is a little wrong. The Democratic party is made up in the main of moderate men, and it is wholly under the control of such. Here and there a "Brick Pomeroy" is found adhering to it, but its policy is shaped by men of a totally different stamp. What the country needs is not a new party, but such an accession of moderate men from the Republican to the Democratic party as will enable the latter to crush out the Radicals. Let Judge Chase and other distinguished Republicans who are disgusted with the small men who now control public affairs, and alarmed at the violent measures by which they propose to secure a long lease of power, come over to the Democratic party and bring with them all the moderate men of their political household, and there will soon be an end of the Grants, and Boutwells, and Butlers, and Chandlers, and men of that stamp, who occupy without filling the high places adorned by intellectual giants in the better days of the Republic.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: The Rev. E. E. Higbee preached in the German Reformed Church on Sunday.

Camp Meeting
(Column 01)

Summary: The Camp Meeting of the United Brethren begins tomorrow in Yawkey's Woods.

North Ward
(Column 01)

Summary: The Democrats of the Chambersburg's North Ward will meet at the Montgomery Hotel to elect delegates to the County Convention.

South Ward
(Column 01)

Summary: The Democrats of the South Ward will meet at Samuel R. Boyd's Hotel to select delegates to the County Convention.

[No Title]
(Column 01)

Summary: The Rev. C. W. McKeehan and Mr. O. C. Bowers have been hired as teachers at the Chambersburg Academy. "They are both experienced teachers and will ably second the efforts of the Principal, in giving our young men first-class educations."

[No Title]
(Column 02)

Summary: The Reformed Church, Mercersburg, will hold inauguration ceremonies for Thomas G. Apple, President of Mercersburg College.
(Names in announcement: Thomas G. Apple)

Counterfeit Twenties
(Column 02)

Summary: A stranger registered at a Chambersburg hotel as "James Mercer, Reading" passed counterfeit $20 notes at several Chambersburg stores. He left town before his crime was discovered.
(Names in announcement: Jacob L. Dechert, Hiteshew, Dorwart, Hutton, W. E. Hallowell, John Dieter)

Candidates
(Column 03)

Summary: The paper lists names that have been spoken of for local offices.
(Names in announcement: Capt. T. French, William Reber, H. M. White, L. Leidy, B. M. Powell, Lt. M. D. Reymer, B. A. Cormany, Vincent McCoy, H. T. Snyder, J. Cook, George W. Welsh, J. C. Tritle, J. B. Brumbaugh, William S. McAllen, Isaac Clugston, Capt. G. W. Skinner)

Arrested on Suspicion
(Column 03)

Summary: G. A. Carbon was arrested on suspicion of horse theft after being seen with a missing horse.
(Names in announcement: G. A. Carbon, Charles H. Bush, John R. Hodgson)

A Returned Missionary in the Court House
(Column 04)

Summary: The Rev. Andrew P. Happer, who has been a missionary in China for the last 25 years, will preach in the Court House on August 29th. He will "throw light upon the past history, present condition and future prospects of that great nation which is now absorbing so large a share of public attention."
(Names in announcement: Rev. Andrew P. Happer)

Swindling Peddlers
(Column 04)

Summary: The paper warns people not to buy goods from the many peddlers that are overrunning the county. The editors call them "liars and cheats" and assert that anyone doing business with them will be "swindled." They also allege that such peddlers are often involved in selling stolen goods.

The Franklin County Horticultural Society
(Column 04)

Summary: President Suesserott presided over a meeting of the Horticultural Society. Jenkins and Hazlett were chosen as delegates to attend the American Pomological Convention. The society made plans to publish a list of fruits and vegetables suitable to Franklin County, and to hold a public exhibition in September. Some fruits and vegetables were exhibited at the meeting.
(Names in announcement: Suesserott, John Jeffries, Julius Gibbs, T. B. Jenkins, Guthrie, Elder, R. P. Hazlett, Boyle, Stouffer, Ephraim Burkholder, Michael Hagy, George Flack, H. M. Engle, J. S. Nixon)

Married
(Column 07)

Summary: Adam Brown and Miss Annie M. Kadel, both of Fayettesville, were married on August 18th by the Rev. L. A. Gotwald.
(Names in announcement: Adam Brown, Annie M. Kadel, Rev. L. A. Gotwald)

Died
(Column 06)

Summary: Sarah Barnes died in Chambersburg on August 21st. She was 8 years old.

Died
(Column 07)

Summary: Emma Jane Leberknight, daughter of Daniel C. Leberknight, died in Chambersburg on August 22nd. She was 7 months old.
(Names in announcement: Emma Jane Leberknight, Daniel C. Leberknight)