Franklin Repository

The good people of Franklin county, who add steadily to their wealth by honest industry and frugality, know but little of the millions of money gambled upon the stock boards of the leading cities. With every revival of business stock gambling becomes epidemic, until it involves an almost incalculable amount of capital in the great whirlpool of speculation. It is manifested at first only in limited circles; but it steadily seizes upon the more substantial monied men in the cities and leading towns in the country, until the great business operations of the cities become mere betting upon the prices of stocks. All go into it, and yet all will admit, when their sober senses are appealed to, that it is hazardous, and in the end overwhelming ruin must come; but each hopes to get out in due time to leave the fury of the storm fall upon their neighbors.

Any intelligent observer who scans the reports of stock sales in the city journals, need not be told that almost every class of stocks are daily gambled off at prices far, very far beyond their actual value. The stock of the Bank of Chambersburg sells at about $70, solely because it is intrinsically worth it. Every share sold is actually delivered and paid for, and every share bought, is wanted by the purchaser because he has money to invest, and he believes that he cannot invest it to better advantage. It steadily pays ten per cent dividends out of actual profits, and has a surplus of over $50,000. It is not difficult therefore to calculate its value. But on the stock boards of the leading cities, Reading Railroad stock fluctuates from $60 to $80, although it has never, at least within twenty years, paid a cash dividend; has never earned actual cash profits, and in ordinary business times, it cannot be expected to earn enough to pay a dividend upon its immense capital. Philadelphia and Erie sells at $35 to $40, when it cannot possibly pay a dividend of any kind within the next five years. All manner of Oil, Gold, Silver, Copper and other mining stocks are gotten up and bulled upon the market until they are pushed into the hands of innocent victims, when they naturally enough explode and the loss falls upon the verdant ones who were Jeremy Diddled out of their money by dazzling promises of rapid fortune.

The "bulls" are those who are interested in inflating prices. They have everything at stake in advancing the value of the stocks they are operating in. The "bears" are interested in reducing prices, and go in to prostrate them when a chance offers, and make their money by "selling short." Some operators are conspicuous as "bulls" and others as "bears;" but most of stock gamblers operate for a fall or for a rise in the market, just as seems most promising. When the country is prosperous, capital abundant seeking investment, the "bulls" reap their harvest; but when the army is successful, European crops reported as promising, or any other causes transpire calculated to reduce prices, the "bulls" are ever ready to throw themselves into the breach and "corner" the unfortunate until the very last attainable dollar is wrung from them.

All such operations are very properly called gambling, because they are not bona fide business transactions. Sales of millions of stock are reported daily, while in fact not one-twentieth part of the transactions reported are actual sales. Hundreds of thousands of gold are reported daily as sold and bought, while perhaps not one of the sales are actual purchases embracing delivery of the gold and payment therefor. The sales are simply the hazard of the gambler upon the price of gold the next hour, the next day or the next week; and when the time is up, the difference in price is paid or received, and the transaction is closed. The same men might with equal honesty, in a moral point of view, stake their money upon the turn of a card at fare, or the thimble-rigger's little joker, for it is but a hazard to win or lose, with this difference in favor of gambling at cards--that it wrongs none but the victim and those dependent upon him, while stock gambling, by its wanton inflation of prices, has made the whole Nation pay tribute to its madness. When stocks are rising and money abundant, the stock gambling fraternity combine their skill to make the rise as rapid and high as possible; and by just such gigantic gambling have prices of everything, including even the necessaries of life, been advanced far beyond what they should be to-day. The actual demand for gold would not make it worth over 30 per cent. premium were it bought and sold only when absolutely wanted; but as it is confessedly the standard of all values, and as its rise in the market produces a corresponding rise in prices generally, it is borne upward by all manner of speculative combinations, and imme[n]se nominal sales are made without one dollar of the precious metal changing hands at all. Thus--John Smith sells John Jones $10,000 of gold, and the sale is reported as that amount of gold sold, say at $1.70, with perhaps the addition of "b 20 days"--which means "buyer twenty days;" that Mr. Jones can call upon Mr. Smith--not for the gold, but for the difference in the price at any time in twenty days; or if it is not called for in the time specified, at the expiration of the twenty days the parties are bound to settle, and if gold is $1.71, Jones pockets his $100, or if it is $1.69, he pays Smith $100 and the matter is closed. The plain meaning of the transaction is that Jones wagers Smith that within twenty days gold will be worth over $1.70, while Smith makes his money on the hazard that it will fall below that figure. Perhaps neither has a dollar in gold, or it may be that both together are not worth $10,000; but they simply put up the "margin," which may be about 10 per cent., and thus on a capital of $1,000 they gamble to the extent of $10,000. Of course Jones wants gold up, so that the profit may be large as possible and he "bulls" the market; predicts the failure of the army; the derangement of the currency; the prostration of National credit; magnifies the rebel forces; declares foreign intervention just at hand, and rejoices at copperhead riots and captures and massacres like Fort Pillow. On the other hand, Smith "bears" at the boards, and is intensely loyal; promises an easy victory for Grant and the capture of Richmond within thirty days; and is ready to pronounce any man a traitor who does not consider legal tenders as good as gold. And so goes stock gambling to the extent of millions daily.

The end is ruin, inevitable and terrible in its completeness and scope, for the higher the inflation the lower the revulsion when the crash comes. All know it; but all hope to be out in time; but the gambler's infatuation is usually stronger than this judgment, and those who acquire wealth by the fickle smile of fortune, are, in the main, those who lose it by her sudden and relentless frown. Occasionally there are mutterings of the distant storm, and one weak man gives over; he knocks down a dozen in his full, and they in turn, between short accounts and panic, send thrice their number to the wall. Thus, on Monday of last week, speculation was on a rampage; gold was up to 78 per cent. premium, and operators confidently counted on sending it up to 100 before thirty days. But Secretary Chase wants money, he must have it, and the sale of ten-forties does not supply him. He goes to New York, induces the Banks to take ten millions in two days, and, it is said, that he sold some thirteen millions of gold. He did not gamble in the price of coin but he sold to deliver, for he wanted the money. The result was that he took from New York nearly thirty millions of currency in a few days. Of course such a draft even upon New York, made the banks demand their call loans which were out in every imaginable species of gambling, and hundreds were caught "short" in cash; were compelled to dispose of their gambling contracts to realize, and with Mr. Chase's gold thrown upon the market, and the gathering up of currency to pay for it and the bonds sold, stocks toppled down, and panic seized the whole brood of gamblers. On Tuesday of last week the contracts on stocks and gold in the hands of gamblers depreciated so that the loss, to the parties carrying them, on that day, would have been over twenty-five millions. Several leading stock-gamblers failed, or as the commercial phrase goes, gave notice that they could not meet their engagements--that is pay the winnings to the parties playing against them--and asked extensions. Weak and over-loaded operators went under; but those who could possibly carry themselves over the panic did so at every sacrifice, hoping for an early re-action. In gambler's panics, like that of last week, the Banks are compelled to exhaust themselves to save the gamblers, for their interests are so interwoven with their borrowers, that they must save all that can be saved. The "bears" of course go in heavy in such a crisis, and make all possible combinations to hammer down the prices to the lowest point. When the "bulls" are "cornered" and must "sell short," they stand aside and decline to buy, while the crippled "bulls" generally can afford but little aid to the "lame ducks" of the flock; and so the gamblers' panic is pressed mercilessly by systematic and skillful efforts until the bottom is reached.

Any day in the early part of last week the leading brokers' offices were crowded with jubilant "bears" who were struggling with all of a heartless gambler's ferocity to make the little storm a deluge; and crippled "bulls" were racked with intensest anxiety to save themselves from utter ruin. The offices of Jay Cooke & Co., E. W. Clark & Co. and Drexel & Co., in Philadelphia, would have passed for densely crowded lunatic asylums, with an assortment of the most frantic patients. Men would rush in and out in as if possessed by forty fiends, and with distended eyes, blanched cheeks and haggard faces, wearing every insignia of woe, they would run from place to place to procure relief before the fatal hour when accounts must be made up. In New York it was worse, if possible, and one house went under with unadjusted liabilities of several millions, and was of course followed by others. They were but scotched however--not killed. It was but a gambler's panic--not a great revulsion brought about by legitimate channels of trade, for with all the losses and failures and excitement, the legitimate business never was more prosperous and solvent. And so it will be again. The lesson of last week is already forgotten; the wounded are in again to retrieve; the dead are entombed, and millions are gambled daily as before. In the mean time honest industry is well requited; prosperity smiles upon all legitimate branches of trade, and the thousand sinews of labor are gathering rich harvests without feverish brains or fretted tempers; and the people look with sublime indifference upon gamblers and gamblers' panics.

We have already given a brief account of the inhuman brutality practised by the rebels upon the troops of Fort Pillow after it had been surrendered; but the details increase in horror as they are developed. The negro troops fought most gallantly until overpowered; but they were outnumbered immensely and were overcome. A correspondent thus describes the scene after the rebels got possession of the Fort:

After the rebels were in undisputed possession of the fort and the survivors had surrendered, they commenced the indiscriminate butchery of all the Federal soldiers. The colored soldiers threw down their guns and raised their arms in token of surrender, but not the least attention was paid to it. They continued to shoot down all they found. A number of them finding the quarter was given, ran over the bluff to the river, and tried to conceal themselves under the bank and in the bushes, were pursued by the rebel savages, and implored them to spare their lives. Their appeals were made in vain and they were all shot down in cold blood, and in full sight of the gunboat. I passed up the bank of the river and counted fifty dead strewed along. One had crawled into a hollow log and was killed it it [sic]; another had got over the bank into the river, and got to a board that ran out into the water. He lay on it on his face, with his feet in the water. He laid there when exposed stark and still. Several had tried to hide in crevices made by the falling bank, and could not be seen without difficulty but they were singled out and killed. From the best information I could get the white soldiers were, to a very considerable extent, treated in the same way. One of the 13th Tennessee on board--D.W. Harrison--informs me that after the surrender he was below the bluff, and one of the rebels presented a pistol to shoot him. He told him he had surrendered and requested him not to fire. He spared him and directed him to go up the bluff to the fort. Harrison asked him to go before him, or he would be shot by others, but he told him to go along. He started, and had not proceeded far before he met a rebel who presented his pistol. Harrison begged him not to fire but paying no attention to his request, he fired and shot him through the shoulder, and another shot him in the leg. He full [sic], and while he lay unable to move, another came along and was about to fire again, when Harrison told him he was badly wounded twice, and implored not to fire. He asked Harrison if he had any money. He said he had a little money and a watch. The rebel took from him his watch and ninety dollars in money, and left him. Harrison is probably fatally wounded. Several such cases have been related to me, and I think, to a great extent, the whites and negroes were indiscriminately murdered. The rebel Tennesseans have about the same bitterness against Tennesseans in the Federal army, as against the negroes. I was told by a rebel officer that Gen. Forrest shot one of his men and cut another with his saber for shooting down prisoners. It may be so, but he is responsible for the conduct of his men, and Gen. Chalmers stated publicly while on Platte Valley, that though he did not encourage or countenance his men in shooting down negro captives, yet that it was right and justifiable.

There were 411,613 mulatto slaves in the south in 1840, of whom 69,979 were in Virginia; 43,281 in Kentucky, and 36,900 in Georgia. These numbers are considerably beyond the legitimate proportion of those States. There were also 176,739 free mulattoes in the United States in 1860, of whom 106,770 belonged to the south, and 69,969 to the free States. Of the free mulattoes Virginia contained 23,485, which number, added to her slave mulattoes makes a total of miscegenated population of 93,824. Her mulatto slaves alone exceeded the total number of mulattoes in the free States.

The whole number of mulattoes, slave and free, in the Union, in 1860, was 588,352, of whom 69,969 belonged to the free States, and 518,383 to the slave States--a number greater than the combined white population of Arkansas, Delaware and Florida--greater than the white population of Maryland--almost twice as great as that of South Carolina, and twice as great as the combined populations of Delaware and Florida. The mulatto population of Virginia alone exceeds the number of whites in Delaware or Florida.

The Spirit of last week has an ungenerous assault upon Judge Nill--ungenerous because it resorts to in[n]uendo to convey the impression to its readers that prejudice control[l]ed the court in the recent criminal trials. So grave an imputation should be made only when clearly warranted by the wanton disregard of the claims of justice, and then they should come with a gravity and manly distinctness which would appeal to the calm judgment rather than the excited prejudices of the public.

We do not assume to defend Judge Nill, for the reason that we perceive nothing wherein he needs vindication. That he may err in the discharge of his responsible duties is not only possible, but highly probably, for the purest and profoundest of jurists have yet to attain infallibility; but that he is inflexible in his integrity, both personal and judicial, and aims at the highest standard of impartial justice in his official acts, cannot be doubted by dispassionate men who know him; and malice must be impotent to assail one whose unsullied life, borne to nearly three-score years, affords the best guarantee of his fidelity to justice. The unsustained record of such a private life, needs no labored vindication when it comes in conflict with partizan madness in the discharge of sacred official duties.

Judge Nill may or may not have erred in the criminal trials of our recent court. We have yet to see evidence that he did; and doubt not that when disapassionate [sic] judgment comes to examine his acts, the distortions and quibbles which heated political malice have given birth to, will vanish from view. But, whatever may be the individual opinions of men, who assume to define the laws more wisely than the court, we do protest against a journal that circulates widely throughout the county as the Spirit does, dragging the decisions of our tribunals of justice into the mire of politics, and appealing to political prejudices to impair the restraining power of the laws. No form of attack could so surely, and imperceptibly on the part of the people appealed to destroy confidence in courts of justice and to the same extent breed lawlessness, as unmanly in[n]uendoes striking at the integrity of our judges. This journal has shown its devotion to law over all political interests or political prejudices. It has demanded inflexible obedience to the laws, and their impartial and stern enforcement, regardless of political faith or condition in life; and if the chief administrator of the law should fail to do his whole duty, we should boldly condemn him as the chief of criminals.

The integrity of our courts is not to be trifled with in times like these, save at fearful cost to the order and safety of society; and we feel assured that the Spirit has not well weighed the natural fruits of its imputations--so far as they may meet with like prejudices to cherish them--or it would have spoken manfully for the vindication of the laws, rather than grovel in the assaults usually employed against political candidates in a partizan conflict. Its publishers have an equal interest with every other citizen in the faithful maintenance of the laws, and its sole safety is in the judicial tribunals of the land. Let it join all who love order in sustaining the courts, and make common cause against crime, instead of lavishing sympathy upon wrong doers because of the political persuasion of criminals.

The times are prosperous. Money is abundant, and labor is well requited in every channel of industry. Trade has an impetus hitherto unknown within the experience of the present active men; and fortune seems to smile upon every one whose hand is put forth to welcome her. Our farmers have had a succession of bountiful harvests, and their products have commanded more than remunerating prices.

The present is a good time to guard against future disaster. It is well for all to pause at times and take their latitude, for prosperity is as capricious as the morning mists, and may vanish when we least expect it. We do not predict early or certain revulsion; but as surely as night succeeds day, revulsion, more or less terrible in its power, must follow inflation; and if we rush on as if rich harvests were to be perpetual, and as if money were to be ever abundant, it needs no prophet to foretel[l] that disaster will come with the first depression of the great business interests of the county.

Let the thoughtful man compare the present with the habits and prudence of our people five years ago. Then we shunned debt as the fruitful parent of ruin--now every species of debt is regarded with singular indifference. Counties, townships and boroughs do not hesitate to contract debts of startling magnitude to pay bounties to volunteers. True, we are but doing our duty to our government in exhausting our resources to sustain its supreme and protecting power; but it should not for a moment be forgotten that now is the time to pay!

Every district in Franklin county has contracted a large debt to fill its quota of troops. We honor them for it; but the whole of these debts could be paid just now without being seriously felt by the people, while if allowed to remain unsettled under the mistaken notion that they can be better paid in light instal[l]ments, they may entail a bitter legacy upon us in after years. Suppose these debts should be to pay in the midst of revulsions such as 1857 and 1860 witnessed; or with a deranged currency such as 1838-40 produced, would they not bring terror to every door? Bear in mind that several thousand millions of National debt have been imposed upon us by murderous treason, and it must be sustained and eventually paid. It will be a heavy tax upon our resources and industry for generations to come; and it is unwise to add to the necessary burdens, the demands which the present times should provide for.

We would earnestly urge every district now loaded with bounty debt, to pay it at once. It can be done without hardship upon any class of people at this time; and every dictate of prudence points to the wisdom of employing the superabundant resources of the country, to relieving existing embarrassments as far as possible. It is the safe rule always to pay when able to do so; and we submit to the people whether they can ever hope to be in a better position to pay than just now? We hope, indeed, that the current year will extinguish every such debt, and leave the people prepared for every sacrifice the preservation of our sacred Nationality may impose upon them, without being crippled by local obligations. Let every township, ward or borough adopt the motto--"pay as you go."

We have been kindly furnished by Capt. J.M. Brown with the following letter from Rev. T.V. Moore. It will be seen that he confidently expected the release of Messrs. Hamilton and Culbertson on parole; and the fact that they were brought from Salisbury to Richmond a few weeks ago looks as if their early release on parole is probable. Dr. Moore has been unremitting in his attention to our citizen prisoners, and they all bear grateful testimony to his kindness. We subjoin his letter:

Sparta, Ga., March 28, 1864.

Dear Sir: Your letter of the 27th, and the check for $100, were delayed by my absence on a trip for my health, which was seriously threatened. Both have reached me here. On my return I will negotiate the draft, unless prevented by a recent law forbidding all traffic in U.S. currency. I hope to do so without violating this law. But even if I cannot, I will still supply these gentlemen, to my last dollar, so that their friends may feel easy as far as my efforts can make them. I tried to get Dr. H. and Mr. C. paroled before I left and hope it may have been done by this time, and that they are now with you. If so, give them my kind regards. Be assured that any thing I can do for any of my former friends there, will be done with pleasure.

I am yours truly, T.V. Moore,

Mr. James M. Brown, Chambersburg, Pa.