Franklin Repository

Headquarters 1st Battalion 22d Pa. Cav.,
Camp near Waynesboro, Sept. 24, 1863.

Editors of the Franklin Repository: Seeing an article in your paper to which I deem it my duty to reply, I hope you will give me space in your columns to make an explanation. On the evening of September 21st, I returned to this place late in the evening from Greencastle, where I had been all day on duty. On my arrival, I found in progress a political meeting, and having at present no voice politically--not having the right of suffrage--I deemed it prudent not to attend. After having my horse cared for, I, accompanied by a gentleman of the town, walked to the further end of town, where we remained some time, and returned to the hotel. I supposed at that time the meeting was almost over. I stepped into the parlor of the hotel and found quite an agreeable company of ladies and gentlemen with whom I was enjoying myself, until a gentleman came in and told me there was a difficulty between some of my men and the citizens, which was the first intimation I had of any soldiers being in the town. I immediately started to the door to enforce my authority as an officer with the soldiers. My reception when arriving at the door was--"He is a traitor," and was struck by two or three persons. At the same time I ordered every soldier to leave the town, and then asked for the person or persons who struck me. No one appearing willing to say who it was, I then found every thing quiet, when I mounted my horse and rode out of town. Now, these are facts that I am prepared to prove at any moment; and I feel confident that you, as gentlemen, will make the necessary correction. It may be necessary to say, as I have since learned, the cheers for M'Clellan were given at the suggestion of some ladies who were in conversation with the soldiers at the time. I do not think their intention was to interrupt or annoy any one--it was done hastily and without thought.

As for the term of Copperhead applied to me. I care not, as my attachment to the army for more than two years will give the lie to that.

I merely ask to explain, as my character as an officer and a soldier has been brought before the public, and there is nothing a true soldier prizes so high as his character as a soldier and a gentleman.

Hoping you will give this a place in your column, I am gentlemen,

Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
B.M. Morrow,
Major 1st Battalion 22d Cavalry.

We give Maj. Morrow the benefit of his statement in our column, and if we had before doubted his complicity in the disturbances at the Waynesboro' meeting, his own awkward evasions must settle his guilt, either by direct effort or by tolerating disorder on the part of his command.

On one point we are constrained to deny the correctness of Maj. Morow's statement. He did not behave in the quiet, orderly manner he represents. He was intoxicated, as a multitude of most reputable witnesses have testified over their own signatures, and indulged in the most profane and ungentlemanly language to and of the Union men participating in the meeting; and members of his command, who were intoxicated, openly declared that the Major was on a spree and they would do as they pleased. If he had been sober and meant to do his duty, he would not only have ordered the men of his command out of town, as he alleges he did; but his self-respect as an officer, if not his regard for the peace of the town, would have made him enforce the order. He either did not give such an order, or he permitted his command to defy it insolently, for they did not leave town. On the contrary, they remained until the Union meeting was broken up, all the time creating disorder by yelling for "Jolly," "Woodward" and "McClellan," and committed numerous outrageous acts of violence upon citizens. The President of the Union meeting was cut in the neck with a knife, and narrowly escaped a mortal wound, and others were treated with like brutality. And when the Union meeting closed, the soldiers called for Jolly and huzzaed [sic] for Woodward and McClellan, and finally did get one of Maj. Morrow's command to make a regular copperhead speech. Where was the sensitive Maj. Morrow, who as he says, "prizes nothing so high as his character," when all these disgraceful scenes were transpiring? Does he falsify about having ordered his men out of town, or was he too drunk, too copperheadish or too cowardly to enforce it? One or the other he must plead guilty to, and either stamps him as utterly unfitted to have a command of any kind. The sooner he is dismissed the service the sooner will the honor and dignity of the profession be vindicated.

Maj. Morrow has a right to be a Democrat and a Woodward or a McClellan man, or anything else he pleases; and he has a right to attend Union or Democratic meetings when such attendance does not conflict with his military duties; but we insist that he has no right to get drunk and let his men loose and get drunk with him, solely for the purpose of interfering with a political meeting of any kind. That he should be a violent copperhead when drunk, is most natural, for a drunken officer is the most brutal and degraded of all men, and if there be a latent spark of the traitor in him, it will crop out as surely as the sparks fly upward. We kindly advise the Major to leave the service at the earliest possible period. He can resign by stating the truth--that his "character as a soldier and a gentleman" is impaired by occasional intoxication and fits of hostility to Union men, and he will doubtless be taken at his word. Once free, he could redeem something of his manhood by going openly into the rebel ranks, or he may play the part of a cowardly copperhead at home, as the latter seems to be "constitutional" according to modern Democratic construction. One thing, however, he cannot and shall not do--that is interrupt Union meetings and the sooner he learns this lesson the better!

The loyal women in every community have exerted a vast influence in sustaining the war and the government. Let them remember that in no way can they better uphold their country at this hour than by influencing votes for Curtin and against Woodward. They can influence fathers, husbands and sons. To the young women we would say, that if after trying all their persuasive eloquence on their suitors they prove to be incorrigible Copperheads, give them the mitten at once. Don't waste a smile on a fellow who refuses either by bullet or ballot to help put down the rebellion. Make these bucks face the Union music square, or go under! The sick and wounded soldiers everywhere bless our noble women. They will bestow upon them additional blessings if they aid in electing the soldiers' truest friend, Andrew G. Curtin.

The New York Tribune, of Saturday, shows us in a brief article, how good a work the President has done for the army and the nation, by his timely interposition between the Copperheads and their cherished object, of defeating the draft and so preventing the reinforcement of the army, when he issued his recent proclamation suspending the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases. The Tribune's article, showing how the schemes of the conspirators of copperheadism have been brought to naught, is as follows:

The President's proclamation suspending the writ of habeas corpus has created a sensation throughout the entire country. Conscripts who indulged the hope that disloyal Judges would provide a way of escape for them have determined to pay the commutation fee, furnish substitutes, or respond in person to the summons of the Provost Marshal. Deserters who have been playing the hide-and-seek, or staying away from the army under the cover of forged furloughs, realize the fact that the Government is in earnest, and are hastening back to their camps. Every train of cars that comes to the city, and every steamer that stops at our wharves brings men who have out stayed their furloughs or who have left the army without permission. Stalwart and symmetrical men from different parts of the country are coming here constantly to offer themselves as substitute for drafted men who can obtain for them the fee of three hundred dollars. In the mean time, volunteer enlistments continue to add brave fellows to our troops. Thus the work goes on. Several thousand conscripts and substitutes from different parts of the State have been sent from Riker's Island to the army, and from New Dorp a large force of volunteers have gone in the same direction. Just before the issuing of the proclamation, some of the courts commenced the work of liberating the conscripts. In Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, New York and elsewhere, the arrangements had been made to embarrass the Government by withholding men from the army; but the suspension of the writ has spoiled all their plans. Since the commencement of the rebellion, one disloyal man, by the use of the power given him in the writ of habeas corpus, has taken from the ranks of our volunteers a large number of men. A few such Copperheads scattered over the States could in a few weeks undo the work accomplished by the draft, and secure--what they so devoutly desire--the delay coveted by the Confederates.

There are now from ten to twelve hundred soldiers in Franklin county, who have served the cause of their country with credit and been honorably discharged. They have braved disease and the perils of battle in their devotion to the Flag of the Republic, and many bear honorable wounds to attest their heroism against the mendacious hosts of treason, while others of their comrades sleep in untimely graves as martyrs to the preservation of our liberties and the peace of our homes. Eight companies of the gallant 126th, which won for itself imperishable fame alike at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, have returned to us, save the lamented dead, whose memories are cherished in unfading gratitude in every loyal heart; and five companies of the 158th, after a term of arduous and often perilous service, are also at their homes to discharge their duties as citizens.

On the 13th of October next, these brave defenders of our common Nationality will be called upon to cast their votes for the first office in the gift of the people of Pennsylvania. They know, by actual and often sad experience, how desperate, how deadly are the minions of treason in their purpose to overthrow this government. They know how the brave soldiers in the field turn with imploring hearts to the people at home for approval, for sympathy, for earnest support. They know how it would chill the soul of the army; how it would shadow its high hopes; how it would paralyze its strength; how it would cast a wide-spread gloom over the defenders of the Flag, while it would inspire the fading hopes and nerve the wasting strength of their rebel foes, should the great Keystone State declare for peace by dishonorable compromise with relentless treason. They cannot, therefore, be indifferent spectators in this great, this vital struggle. With them indifference would be a crime against the cause for which they periled their lives, and a crime against the brave men who remain in the field to complete what they so nobly began. They will vote, we doubt not, and they of all others, will want to vote so as to give renewed life and hope to the Republic. They cannot vote to bring dishonor upon the graves of their fallen comrades; to bring infamy upon the wounds borne by their brave companions, and to bring disaster upon the noble veterans they left behind them still rallying around the Flag and confronting the foe. They cannot vote a ticket whose success would give joy to every traitor in arms against the government, from the arch-fiend of treason down to the humbles of his followers. They cannot vote, as instructed by the Richmond Enquirer, which appeals to Lee to "drive Meade into Washington and he will again raise the spirits of the Democrats, confirm the timid, and give confidence to the wavering." They cannot vote for a candidate for Governor who has judicially proscribed every soldier in the sacred cause of his country, and denied to him a voice in the selection of his rulers, nor for a party that, in its platform, has not a word of hope for the soldier that the right to vote shall be guaranteed him. For soldiers, who have braved the bloody foes of the government in the field, to vote for them at home would be to turn with suicidal hands upon their own honor, and upon their country's cause.

The tickets presented by the two parties in Franklin county make the issue so plain to soldiers that he who runs may read. On the Union ticket, the candidate for the legislature is a faithful and honored Lieutenant who served with untarnished credit. The candidate for Prothonotary rose from the ranks in the three month's service to a commission, and was honorably discharged at the end of his term of enlistment. The candidate for Register and Recorder fell at Fredericksburg with his arm so shattered that amputation was necessary. The candidate for Treasurer commanded the 126th at Fredericksburg, and fell so severely wounded that he must be crippled for life, and the candidate for Director of the Poor also fell in the same sanguinary engagement, and has not yet recovered from his wounds. Thus is almost every office of honor or profit conceded to the noble volunteers who gave their lives the fortune of war to preserve our honored Nationality. on the other hand, the Democratic ticket is without a veteran soldier's name, save that of Captain McKesson, who was dismissed from the service. Can the returned soldiers doubt which of the two parties is in earnest sympathy with the brave men who voluntarily periled everything that the Republic might live?

Of the two candidates for Governor, Judge Woodward is not the friend of the Government. He denounces every measure of the administration to strengthen our armies in the field, to provide means for their payment, and to weaken our deadly foe; and his voice has yet to be raised to give hope and strength to the gallant sons of the North, who have won for themselves, for their Flag, and for their country the most brilliant achievements in the history of warfare. Gov. Curtin, the Union candidate, has devoted his whole energies to the cause of the government and its defenders. He has answered every demand made upon the State, and when his brave Pennsylvanians were once in the field his cares have just begun. In health he has multiplied their comforts; in sickness he has solaced and ministered to them, and in death he has made their cause his cause--their interests his interests--their success his success--and there is scarcely a soldier whose heart does not leap with emotion and whose eye does not quicken with gratitude, at the mention of the honored name of Andrew G. Curtin.

Soldiers of Franklin county! Your cause and your country's cause, are upon trial before the People. Shall your compatriots on the county ticket, and your patriotic and devoted Executive, receive your approval or your condemnation at the polls? Will you bring honor or dishonor upon the veterans of the Republic and its sacred Flag? Will you give joy to the loyal hearts at home and the heroes of loyalty in the field? or will you give fresh heart and hope to now despairing treason?

Soldiers, and soldiers' friends, answer at the polls!

We give in to day's paper, in German type, the platform of Judge Woodward, as to the rights of foreigners, and commend it to every German in our county. It is a correct statement from the official records, and can be implicitly relied upon as representing correctly the position taken by Judge Woodward. He boldly declared that no foreigner should be allowed to vote or hold office in Pennsylvania after 1841, and gave as a reason for his motion, that they were unfitted to enjoy the privileges of citizenship. If in the face of this declaration, Germans can vote for Judge Woodward, they must show a poor appreciation indeed of the priceless blessings they enjoy. Let no German in Franklin county deposit his ballot without first seeing Judge Woodward's record. Look to it Union men, that they are faithfully advised of it. We have the official debates for the inspection of any one who disputes the correctness of our report.

There are hundreds of German voters in Franklin county. Will they vote for a man who declares that they are unfitted to hold office or enjoy the right of suffrage? Will they vote for a man who, when revising the Constitution of our State, demanded that it should positively deny to them forever the rights of citizenship?