Franklin Repository

A correspondent of the New York Citizen, writing from Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, graphically describes the scenery, improvements and celebrities of that section. He thus speaks of the ex-General John A. McCausland of the ex-rebel army:

"On the lower side of the Kanawah, and just opposite Point Pleasant, is a modest, unassuming brick dwelling, surrounded by trees and shrubbery. In this lives John A. McCausland, late Brigadier-General in the late Rebel army, who bears in the North the unenviable reputation of being responsible for the burning of Chambersburg, Pa. Gen. McCausland has recently returned. He denies his responsibility for the burning, and says that it was ordered by Gen. Early, and that he (McCausland) protested against any such barbarous proceeding; and that afterward, when he returned to the Shenandoah Valley, he demanded of Early a statement exonerating him from all blame in the affair. This statement McCausland received from Early, and it is now in the hands of our authorities."

We are not surprised that so unscrupulous a brute as McCausland should resort to the most shameless falsehood to escape the just consequences of his barbarities practiced in this place on the 30th of July, 1864. It is true doubtless that Gen. Early ordered him to burn Chambersburg. He exhibited such an order here when he was importuning citizens to raise him money to ransom the town; but his statement that he protested against the burning must be wholly false. There were officers and men of his command who did protest against McCausland's atrocities; but he was the master spirit of every fiendish act perpetrated here on that eventful day. At the house of Mr. Greenawalt near town, where he breakfasted that morning, he resented with fury the remonstrances of Gen. Bradley Johnston against burning anything but public buildings, and he there blasphemed most violently because he was not able to reach Chambersburg until after day-light. His greatest ambition seemed to be to fire a defenseless town of six thousand inhabitants in the dead hour of night, which must have resulted in the loss of many lives of women and children. Of the leading officers who discussed the destruction of our town at Mr. Greenawalt's, McCausland stood alone in favor of applying the torch indiscriminately, and he manifested his unmingled brutality by boasting to the lady of the house of the terror he would visit upon the women and children of Chambersburg. He was the commander of the invading force, and he had the power to execute the order of Early, with some regard to humanity or with the ferocity of the savage, and he chose the latter, because he seemed incapable of anything else. He was present in the town when it was fired, saw and approved the conduct of his subordinate officers in giving their men free access to liquor, until some of his officers begged the citizens to get the women out of the way of the soldiers, as they were intoxicated and their commander was brutal enough to tolerate any course of conduct they might choose to adopt. He witnessed their almost indiscriminate robbery of private houses of every species of valuables they could carry off with them, and in no instance that we have heard of did he attempt to restrain any of his men from the high carnival of savagery they indulged in on every hand. Some of his own officers defied his orders and refused to apply the torch, and thus saved a considerable portion of the town, and even privates stood by and wept at the shocking scenes the ruling fiend flung out to stain with indelible infamy himself and his cause on that day. McCausland and McCausland alone is the hero of the free-booter's triumph in Chambersburg, and the responsibility cannot be shifted upon others to enable him to enjoy the luxury of his home in West Virginia.

It is possible that he has procured from Early--who is reported as insane--a statement that the responsibility for the sacking and burning of Chambersburg belongs to Early; but if we mistake not the authorities, to whom Early's statement has been sent, are fully advised of the facts in the case, and were not surprised therefore to see the announcement recently that his arrest had been ordered. If we mistake not, the government is in full possession of conclusive evidence of his deliberate murder of prisoners as late as April last, and the certificates of a crazy superior will not avail him much. Such, we are assured is the voluntary testimony of some of his own subordinate officers who witnessed his cold-blooded murder of wounded prisoners, and when he gets to Washington he will probably find much more to answer than he now dreams of in his quiet home on the green banks of the Kanawha. It would be a crime against humanity for the government to allow such a monster to live in the land he sought to desolate with fire and sword regardless of all the amenities of war, and it is some gratification to know that he is not likely to escape the avenging arm of justice.

Political "bummers" seem to rule the movements of both parties in this State just now. The Democracy started out for the campaign at an early day with banners streaming ready for any new device that might be deemed expedient, and they called their convention to meet in June to nominate a State ticket and adopt such principles as might promise them a show of success. In due time the Union Convention was called to meet on the 19th inst. and a full attendance earnestly urged, as business of great importance was to be presented. So far all was progressing elegantly on both sides; but soon after the death of President Lincoln the bummers about the skirts of the dilapidated Democratic camp began to snuff the fleshpots afar off, and they have made the shattered remnants of the coppery arm suspend hostilities while the bummers attempt to crawl into Johnson's camp and bear off an assortment of plunder. The bummers prevail, and Mr. Ward postpones his convention until August to give his flanking columns a fair chance to bring in a supply of mules, geese, asses, negroes, old clothes, and any other plunder to appease the cravings of his famished followers. It was meet for Mr. Ward so to do, for his political larder is entirely empty, and his lean, lank, cadaverous adherents are ready for any port in a storm. If they can crawl into the Presidential kitchen through the back door, or down the chimney, or under ground, it matters not how black, or dirty, or ragged they may be when they get there, only so that there may be a few crumbs of plunder for them to feed upon; and he does wisely, because he cannot do anything else if he would, to allow his whole discordant, belligerent and starving army to turn bummers en masse and feed on any husks which may be found in any of the by-paths of politics. That Ward should turn bummer himself and lead his whole motley crew in the bumming trade politically, we therefore conclude to be the most rational use that can be made of his odd remnants of political power. True, it may not pay; but as nothing else will pay for that organization, it may as well go bumming with one chance in a million as to stay within its own metes and bounds and starve.

But bummers seem to beset the organization of the Union party also, and Gen. Cameron has capitulated to the bummers of his camp. The Union Convention had been called for the 19th inst. and so far as we know Union men generally were prepared for it. But it seems that the bummers were buzzing around prospective United States Senators, embryo Governors, and hungry contractors, and they have frightened the commander out of his senses, compelled him to recede from his chosen position, and retreat without day into indefinite chaos politically. Were the Union bummers afraid that they might get ahead or behind President Johnson?--that they might be guilty of an act of impolicy by telling the truth and standing squarely up in behalf of our National and State administrations and the principles on which they were chosen? There can be no other solution of this triumph of the political bummers in the Union party; and now that the wrong has been done, the method of redress is to fix the earliest day for the Union Convention that is practicable after the meeting of the Committee on the 19th. It won't hurt any body's claims for Senator, who has a ghost of a chance now; it won't make or unmake any body who wants to be Governor, and if it does distress the retinue of camp-followers who are trembling lest President Johnson is as corrupt as themselves and may depart from the principles which triumphed by his election, it will do no material harm. Let the bummers ply their vocation to their hearts content; but the Union organization has rescued the Republic from traitors North and South by its matchless fidelity, and it cannot afford to go mousing now into the dirty sluices of the bummers to perpetuate its triumphs. While it is successful it must have bummers; but while they prey on its plunder in imitation of the Democracy, let the Union organization maintain its integrity, and never hesitate to unfurl its banner to the breeze and declare its doctrines to the people whose great cause it has brought, through fearful tribulation, to the crowning victory of the nineteenth century!

Senator Wade, as chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, is now revising the sheets of the report of that committee, comprising recent testimony as to the treatment of our prisoners received at the hands of the rebels. The committee say the evidence clearly shows that tens of thousands of our brave soldiers have fallen victims to that savage and infernal spirit which actuated those who spared not the prisoners at their mercy, who sought by midnight arson to destroy hundreds of defenceless women and children, and who hesitated not to resort to means to commit acts so horrible that the nations of the earth stand aghast as they are told what has been done. The prison surgeons' report of the Richmond prisons for one quarter shows that a fraction over one-half of all the cases entered resulted in death, and most of these deaths were more the result of inhuman treatment and neglect than disease. But a little more than half the necessary number of beds were provided, and the nurses often occupied them to the exclusion of the sick. After our men died, their bodies were treated as the carcasses of so many dead animals. They were piled in the dead house, and their eyes and cheeks eaten out by rats before they were put in coffins. The keepers generally manifested almost total indifference to the lives and condition of the prisoners. And as one of the many illustrations of this, a witness testified to the following: "I was standing one day by the hospital. One of our negro soldiers, captured at the explosion of the mine near Petersburg, was standing near by, engaged in skirmishing--as we prisoners call it--examining his clothes for vermin. A rebel sentinel, at whom I happened to be looking at the time, drew up his musket, took deliberate aim and fired, killing the negro on the spot. On being asked what he did it for, he answered, 'To see the d--d black son of a b-- drop.'" The rebels said they got thirty days' furlough for shooting a Yankee. The committee say it is a matter of congratulation that, notwithstanding the great provocations to pursue a different course, our authorities have ever treated their prisoners humanely and generously, and have, in all respects, conducted this contest according to the rules of the most civilized warfare.
--Washington Correspondence of the New York Times.

GOSSIP WITH OUR FRIENDS.--Eighty-nine years ago there was grave trouble among the UNITED COLONIES of North America. On the 7th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved that "these UNITED COLONIES are and of right ought to be free and independent States." Thus, Jefferson, of Va.; John Adams, of Mass.; Benj. Franklin, of Penna.; Roger Sherman, of Conn., and Robert R. Livingston, of New York, were appointed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, as chairman, prepared the document. This Declaration, after being discussed several days and slightly amended was adopted at 2 o'clock on the 4TH OF JULY, 1776. The aforesaid document contained the following: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."--How the Confederated States, having become a government under the title of UNITED STATES, lived up to these bold words, let history show. If Mr. Jefferson's writings do not exhibit that he, at least, thought slavery an evil, to be gotten rid of as soon as possible, depending upon the very spirit that actuated the "Declaration," and upon the abhorrence that the signers of the same had for injustice--if such was not the case, then there is no use in writing one's thoughts at all. This same Mr. Jefferson, the great exponent of Democracy, "trembled when he reflected that God was just," and well might he tremble. But thank God, the day for trembling has passed by. We have received our punishment. The whole country has been scourged. We had not, like King David, the choice of war, famine, or pestilence; but war, civil war, a fearful fratricidal war was forced upon us, with the unexpected and wonderful result--the freedom of the negro. The Republican party can lay little more claim to this than the Democratic. God did it. Let us submit.

Alas, your Gossip has been led outside of his track, and now returns with due humility to that with which he is familiar. The war has lasted four years. How well do we all remember the celebrated Patterson campaign of '61, when the three-months' men rendered our town so gay, when we used to have parades in the Diamond, when we looked with awe upon a Colonel, and when we wilted at the sight of the first Brigadier, when we looked confidently for the early destruction of Stonewall Jackson and his men. These were the primitive days of innocence, and then followed '62, when McClellan was "our young Napoleon," when the nine-months' men went forth to battle at Antietam and Fredericksburg, and when Stuart came upon us, like a thief in the night, setting fire to the Railroad buildings, and frightening us out of our wits. And after that, in due chronological order, came '63, with Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania. What an exodus was there, my countrymen! What a carrying business the Cumberland Valley Railroad did; what a scarcity there was of colored population and horses, and how, in the instant, every retail store enlarged its business and became wholesale! How our hearts sank within us as we watched the long line of the invading army march through our streets and past our doors, for eight long, weary days. Three mortal weeks were we then in the enemy's lines, (and they were not pleasant places either,) during which time our news came from Richmond, and we knew no more what was going on outside than if we had been dead and buried, until we heard of GETTYSBURG, the glorious. '64 succeeded, and with it the destruction of our homes, the wanton, wicked burning of a whole town of unarmed citizens. The flames rise high before us now, and again we see the crowds of homeless fugitives clustering around the ruins of their homesteads like bees about an upturned hive, and once again we hear Horace Greely, the merciful, laugh, "Served them right." '65 is here, and "our flag is there." Go look at it waving and flapping in the breeze. The stripes no longer typical of the bloody backs of the negro slave, but the stars, everyone, meaning E Pluribus Unum. How differently this 4th of July from the four preceding. Now we can gather under our own vines, even though scorched and blackened, and can shout for the old flag till we are hoarse.

The New York Times figures up the pecuniary loss of the South in good money as follows:
In slave property...............$2,500,000,000
By the ravages of war........... 900,000,000
Four crops of cotton............ 900,000,000
Four crops of tobacco........... 150,000,000
Rice and sugar.................. 160,000,000
Confederate debt (worth in gold

$500,000,000).................. 4,000,000,000
The proper proportion of the Na-

tional War Dept...............

On the subject generally it is said, the South of 1860 had about one-third of the property in the Union, and had the South the same proportion now, their contribution to meet the national debt would be one thousand millions of dollars. We quote:

"At the present time they have not one-sixth, probably not one-eight, so much property as the North; and the taxation upon them, if levied now, to pay the debt, would be correspondingly limited. But not for many years to come will this debt be paid. The taxes levied upon the South to meet its proportion of the current interest of the debt will, in the aggregate, we may safely assume, make up the difference; so that in the long run the debt will cost the South one thousand millions at least, little or no part of which will go to its own people.

"We have enumerated Southern losses, in consequence of the war, to the amount of five thousand and eight hundred millions of dollars, namely: twenty-five hundred millions by loss of what was called slave property, nine hundred millions by ravages of war, nine hundred millions by loss of staple crops, five hundred millions of property sunk in Confederate debt, and one thousand millions by what must hereafter be paid by the South to liquidate principal and interest of the national debt. This, of course, is a very rough estimate. We might have included many other items, involving indirect, though not less certain, losses.

"Seldom have any people paid such a penalty for folly and wickedness. It ought to be enough to propitiate the worst enmity. Though perhaps certain of the authors of all this calamity have not yet suffered to the extent of their deserts, this certainly cannot be said of the great body of the Southern people--especially when regard is had to their sacrifice not only of property, but of life. So far as they are concerned, none but hearts callous to every feeling of humanity could demand the infliction upon them of any further punishment."

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has delivered an opinion which is of much importance to the holders of loans and bonds issued by various cities, boroughs, towns, and counties in the State, and which settles beyond cavil the rights of such classes of creditors. The Legislature, by act of April 25, 1864, authorized such communities to issue bonds and negotiable loans for the purpose of paying bounties to encourage volunteering, and to relieve their citizens from the burdens of the draft, giving power also to levy taxes to pay the principal and interest of such loans. The borough of Blairsville having proposed to borrow $5000 for such a purpose, some citizens of that place made application to the Common Pleas of Indiana county to restrain the borough from proceeding in that negotiation. The ground taken in opposition was, that the act was unconstitutional, and that the Legislature had no power to pass it. The Court of Indiana county did not accept this view, and the injunction was refused. The case was then taken to the Supreme Court, where it was twice argued--once in Pittsburg and once at Harrisburg.

The question seems to have been carefully considered by the five judges, and at length we have their decision. The Court, by Justice Agnew (Justice Read and Strong concurring) decide that the act was constitutional, and that all loans negotiated by virtue of its provisions are valid. Chief Justice Woodward and Justice Thompson dissented. The matter is of considerable interest as some millions of dollars worth of these loans, issued for military purposes, are held. The doubt which existed with the Blairsville case was yet undetermined exercised a depressing influence upon those securities. Now that all objections are removed, they will advance to the rate held by other loans.

The expense of the Government during the past year amount to $1,200,000,000.

The bogus oil companies which are numerous in the cities, and particularly in New York, are at length being unmasked. Warrants were issued on Wednesday last for the parties engaged in a swindling concern in New York, called the First National Petroleum Company, an institution which had stolen the name of a genuine company, recently organized with that title, which, it is alleged, received some forty thousand dollars in remittances belonging to its namesake. The police found but a single person in the office who claimed to be a clerk. The officers of the States Service Petroleum and Mining Company, another bogus concern, were before the Police Court on Monday, charged with defrauding different persons of large amounts of money. Two of the officers were committed to prison. When these swindling institutions are all weeded out, the stock of the really good companies will command fair prices, and the oil business will become legitimate.

The following are the latest quotations of the sales of stocks and bonds in Philadelphia: