Franklin Repository

At the banquet to the Irish Brigade, in New York, on Saturday, Captain Daly, of the 47th Regiment New York Volunteers, one of the guests, being called upon for a song, said he would give them one which was very popular in the department he came from, and which had done much to reconcile the soldiery of the command to the institution it referred to. It was Private O'Riley, of his regiment, who is in the habit of saying that he has seen such a plenty of white men killed in this war, that he has no objection now to letting the "Sambos" take their fair share of death and wounds. Against any white monopoly in the trade of "being kilt," as he phrased it, Private Miles had entered, to the tune of "The Low-Backed Car," the following lyrical protest:

Some tell us 'tis a burning shame
To make the naygurs fight;
An' that the thrade of bein' kilt
Belongs but to the white;
But as for me, upon my sowl!
So liberal are we here,
I'll let Sambo be murdered in place of myself
On every day in the year!
On every day in the year, boys,
And every hour in the day,
The right to be kilt I'll divide wid him,
An' divil a word I'll say.

In battle's wild commotion.
I shouldn't at all object
If Sambo's body should stop a ball
That was comin' for me direct,
And the prod of a Southern bagnet,
So liberal are we here,
I'll resign and let Sambo take it
On every day in the year!
On every day in the year, boys,
An' wid none of your nasty pride.
All my right in a Southern bagnet prod
Wid Sambo I'll divide.

The men who object to Sambo
Should take his place and fight:
And it's better to have a naygur's hue
Than a liber that's wake an' white;
Though Sambo's black as the ace of spades,
His finger a thrigger [sic] can pull,
And his eye runs straight on the barrel sights
From under his thatch of wool.
So hear me all, boys, darlings,
Don't think I'm tippin' you chaff,
The right to be kilt I'll divide wid him,
And give him the largest half!

The House at Harrisburg got up an animated discussion last week, on the question of the loyalty of the people of the border counties. Mr. Kelly, of Washington, started the performance by a resolution requiring the special committee, to which is referred the question of claims for military damages on the border, to require claimants "to furnish positive proofs of their loyalty." So indefinite a standard of loyalty as that proposed by Mr. Kelly was open to just objections; but we think that Mr. Mr. [sic] Sharpe erred in resenting the motion as an insult to his canstituents [sic], instead of accepting a just test of fidelity for his people and thus silencing all cavil on the subject. That he should vindicate the loyalty of the people of Franklin county, as a class, with earnestness, was but natural; but the conclusiveness of his argument would have been unquestioned, had he proposed that each claimant for damages should be required to be sworn before the board of appraisers, that they have "never, either directly or indirectly, by word or deed, given any aid, comfort, encouragement or information to those in rebellion against the government of the United States, and that they are, and ever have been, faithful and loyal in their support of said government." No loyal man would object to the application of such a test, and any one who cannot accept it should not make claim against a loyal government for compensation.

Franklin county borders on a Slave State, and the citizens of the border southern States have mingled freely and often become citizens of our section. Some such retained their southern views and heartily sympathized with the rebels in their effort to overthrow the government; while a few of our own people have gone south, and inflated by the possible possession of a negro at some time of life, have generally made the meanest and most groveling secessionists. But our people are not to be judged by these exceptional cases. The two Logans were Marylanders when the war broke out, and from kidnapping and voting the Democratic ticket when in our county, they naturally went with the traitors; but they offered their lives in vindication of their convictions, and are entitled to the same comities conceded to the Trimble's, the Low's, the Johnson's and others of the same State, who created the tide of treason that swept the lesser lights over. Fitzhugh is a Marylander, and never had any other than a temporary residence in this county. When Longstreet was in Hagerstown in September, 1862, Fitzhugh ran off to join him; enlisted regularly in the rebel service on Friday; was captured on Saturday; imprisoned in Chambersburg on Sunday, and has ever since been an inmate of the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. There are other former citizens of this county who are in the rebel army. One ex-member of the legislature, (Col. McAllister) a native of Juniata, was a Colonel in the rebel service, and was confronted by his brother, Col. Robert McAllister, at the head of a Jersey regiment; and Gen. Dunn, once one of our Associate Judges, and a standing Democratic candidate for Canal Commissioner, is also in the rebel army although over seventy years of age. For many years there has been a steady stream of emigration from southern Pennsylvania to the worn-out lands of the slave-breeders in Virginia, and many have inculcated the doctrine that desolated their fields as they were making them bloom again under the inspiration of free labor. And it is doubtless true here, as Mr. Kelly admits to be the truth in Washington--that there are scores in our county still who would be rebels if they were not greater cowards than traitors; but they are here, as, elsewhere exceptions to the rule, for our people are, as a class as earnestly loyal as the citizens of any other section of Pennsylvania.

The proposition of Mr. Sharpe, to compensate the sufferers of the border, is in no sense a party question. It involves men of all political faith--for the rebels, whatever may be their political partialities as between the parties in the North, were no respecters of persons in plundering our citizens. Their "constitutional friends"--a term they sometime saffixed [sic] to the Democrats, rather in derision than from any affection--doubtless had their sympathies in our political struggles, but they considered Democratic horses, stock, forage, &c. just as useful for the rebel service as like articles owned by the blackest of Republicans; and in the instances--very few to the credit of our people it can be said--where a whining whelp plead his friendship for the South as a bar to the larceny of his property, the rebels usually did extra thieving at his expense if possible, by way of manifesting their scorn for a treacherous coward. With very few exceptions the people of the border, of every political faith, stood as one man during the invasion, and united their energies to confound the common foe; and in no single instance has the evidence been at all conclusive that any of our citizens gave them aid, comfort or information, unless under duress or by accident. Every effort has been made to fix just guilt upon all suspected parties and it has uniformly failed. The charge therefore that our people in any way aided or guided the enemy, is unfounded in fact, and the impression that seems to prevail with some members of the legislature on this point is in no degree merited. The case of the family of the chief Editor of the Repository, cited by Mr. M'Murtrie, of Blair, is in the main true; but the information was doubtless given innocently by boys on the street, as they were cognizant of almost every thing that transpired, and were questioned most pertinaciously by the rebels whenever they were met. So much did our people embarrass the rebels by their answers to their interrogatories, that Gen. Lee finally issued an order peremptorily forbidding his officers and men from conferring with the citizens.

Mr. Sharpe was therefore but just to himself and to his people in his earnest and able vindication of their fidelity; but it is better that one thousand faithful men should be severely tested in their loyalty than that one traitor, who may have been aiding and encouraging the enemy, should be compensated. On this point he met the assaults of the House with more zeal than skill, for a fair test--one alike just to the citizen and to the State--would have silenced the opposition, and avoided much angry debate. We are well assured that Mr. Sharpe desires to screen no unfaithful man, and the Union men of the House should deal with his measure as they would hope to be dealt with had their lands been taken by friend and foe, instead of ours. Let the State be fully and fairly protected; but we hope that no political prejudices will enter into a question that involves at once the interests of a despoiled people and the honor and faith of the Commonwealth.

In the Philadelphia Episcopal Recorder we notice an article urging the erection of an Episcopal Church in Chambersburg as a Thanksgiving Memorial for the "great deliverance wrought out for us" in the defeat of the invaders of our soil in July last. We trust that the suggestion may meet favor with the church, as it does, we learn, with the leading Bishops of the State. The article says:

"The dark Sunday of my life was the 28th of June (fourth Sunday after Trinity), A.D., 1863; and the appropriateness of the appointed psalms to the feelings of them that were shut out of the house of God and in the power of an enemy was fully realized. The evening Psalter of the fifth day was our first public thanksgiving, when the immediate danger was past, and tidings of a decided battle came rolling in upon us. We have been called to celebrate our permanent deliverance on two thanksgiving occasions, and offerings of gratitude have been poured into the treasury of hospitals and soldiers' aid societies. The nation has consecrated a portion of the field on which its heroes won its safety, as a monumental cemetery in memory of their services. But the Church has reared no memorial of the deliverance vouchsafed in answer to her prayers.

"War has ruined many sacred edifices and desolated many fields of ministerial labor; but in this Diocese no permanent serious injury has been allowed to fall on any one of our church edifices; while prayer, ascending from all, has helped to gain our entire deliverance from the power of our enemy. Ought we not to erect a memorial of the efficacy of prayer? Ought we not to build, in some destitute portion of the Diocese, a church which shall perpetuate the memory of God's gracious answer to our prayers for the preservation of our beloved country? Should we not recompense those who have suffered afflictions and loss, by subjugation, for a time, by placing among them the memorial of our gratitude and the comfort of a blessing? Gettysburg is famous, and we may not add to its lustre; but I would suggest a church for Chambersburg, as a thank-offering to God for our safety after repeated invasions and a protracted occupancy by armed enemies, and as a monumental evidence of the efficacy of prayer. I am assured that the erection of a church there would give immediate success to a missionary effort already begun in that important town. And I am sure none would better grace the list of memorial churches within the Diocese. Who will be the first to help to consecrate a Memorial House of Prayer to God in one of the fairest valleys of Pennsylvania?"

Volunteering has continued during the last week with scarcely perceptible abatement, and nearly all the districts of this county have most of their men mustered in the service. Fannett has not acted as yet, but it is about the only exception. We presume that by the 10th of March there will be very few if any men lacking in this county. In addition to filling our quota, we have lost very largely by enlistments for other sections, where money was more plenty than patriotism. Cumberland, York and Philadelphia, drew pretty largely upon our people, and more still would have been taken but for the determined opposition it finally aroused. Men were taken and credited to distant counties because of a small increase of bounty, while their families were left behind, in some instances to become a charge upon the generosity of their neighbors. The volunteer fund, disbursed in the families of soldiers, cannot be applied to families of men who who [sic] have enlisted and been credited elsewhere, nor can their families get the benefit of the volunteer fund where their husbands have enlisted, without their families reside there. This way soldiers have for a few dollars additional in bounty, deprived their families of vast advantages. Allegations were frequent on the street that officers were engaged in transferring men to distant localities for a consideration, but we have not had any reliable evidence on the subject. The citizens should tear the straps off any officer who would thus defraud the county and barter for his personal gain, in the credits of volunteers.

The remnant of the gallant 77th Pa. volunteers reached Pittsburg on Friday last. It went out 850 strong in 1861, under Col. Stumbaugh, and now returns with 193 men under Capt. Lawson. Col. Rose is a prisoner in Richmond, having been captured at Chickamauga. The companies belonging to this county will be home in a few days. They were received in Pittsburgh and escorted to the City Hall where Hon. J.M. Kirkpatrick delivered the welcome address, to which Capt. Lawson responded. The regiment has seen many a bloody fight, but has done nobly and return with a proud record. They should be received here in a manner worthy of brave soldiers in a noble cause.