Franklin Repository

New Cumberland, PA., April 4, 1866.

GENTLEMEN:--Your communication, bearing date March 20th, only reached me on the 30th ult., and in compliance with your request, I proceed to answer it with as little delay as possible:

You propound to me three questions, to which you request an answer, viz:--

"1. Will you, if elected chief magistrate of Pennsylvania, faithfully exert the power of your administration, so as to defeat any and every attempt, made by legislation, or otherwise, for the monopoly and control by any one corporation of the railroad policy of the State?"

"2. Will you oppose and withhold your sanction from any legislation conferring upon the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, or any company it may control, the authority to build branches, unless the said grant should be under provisions of general law regulating the construction of railroads?"

"3. Will you favor, and use the influence of your administration to secure the enactment of a general law authorizing the construction and regulation of railroads within this Commonwealth?"

My views and opinions upon these measures I am free to give you, and quite willing to indicate what my official action would be, so far as it is at all proper to do so.

Pennsylvania possesses immense treasures of mineral wealth, and most extensive manufactories. To develop these, to foster everything which tends to their development, and to cherish and to promote equally the rights and interests of all her citizens, I firmly believe to be the highest duty of her statesmen. I regard every kind of public improvement as conducive to this end; and I am, therefore, in favor of the most complete and elaborate system of Internal Works, together with a proper system of Protection to Home Industry, as a means of converting our vast mineral resources, agricultural products and manufactured articles into values. Whatever shall so improve our commercial intercourse, enable our manufactures to send the proceeds of their industry to market, and so place our State at the head of the manufacturing and producing States of the Union, shall have my cordial assistance and cheerful approbation.

I regard our railroad system as the best mode of commercial and social intercommunication. In addition to the great main lines, the State is enveloped in a network of minor railroads, which pour an increasing stream of coal, iron, ore, lumber, live stock, agricultural products, and the handiwork of skilled labor, to the distributing points within, and beyond, our borders.

While these corporations continue to act their part as public servants, they should be carefully protected. They should not be permitted to overstep their legitimate functions. As creature of the law, they should obey, and be, in every respect, subservient to the law.

I answer the first interrogatory, that while I believe it to be improper to bring the influence of the Executive Department to bear upon the Legislature, in anticipation of its action, except in the way of recommendation; I am heartily opposed to the creation of any monopoly in the railroad system of the State, or giving any artificial body created by the law, powers which would place it above and beyond the reach of the Legislature.

To the second interrogatory, I say, that while a general railroad system would best comport with a sound public policy, it must originate with the legislature, and until it shall be established by law, grants of power may be properly made to railroads to construct branches when they are desired by the people who are immediately interested in the matter, and would promote the development of their property, and afford them avenues to market. Such grants being so restricted as not to violate individual rights or public interest.

In reply to your third question, which to my mind includes both the others, I say, again, that I believe a general law regulating the construction of railroads and grants of power for that purpose to be most consistent with public policy and the interests of the Commonwealth; and entertaining these views, I would certainly use the legitimate and constitutional power of the Executive to secure so desirable a result.

The spirit of monopoly in this and other matters, should be discouraged in a Republican Government, and I have no sympathy with any policy which may be designed for its encouragement.

I am, gentlemen, with high respect, you obedient servant,
JNO. W. Geary,

To Messrs. Lyon, Shorb & Co., Spang, Chalfant & Co., and others.

Never before, we believe, in the history of our political struggles, has a State administration been accorded the high tribute paid to Gov. Curtin by the popular branch of the legislature on the day of adjournment. Mr. Ruddiman, of Philadelphia, offered the following resolutions, which were adopted without a dissenting voice:

Resolved, That in the name of the Commonwealth we tender to Governor Curtin our thanks for the fidelity with which, during four years of war, by which our country was ravaged, and its free institutions threatened, he stood by the National Government, and cast into the scale of loyalty and the Union the honor, the wealth and the strength of the State.

Resolved, First by his devotion to his country from the dark hour in which he pledged to the late lamented President of the United States the faith and steadfast support of our people, he has gained for his name an historical place and character, and while rendering himself deserving of the nation's gratitude, has added lustre to the fame and glory to the name of the Commonwealth over which he has presided for two terms of office with so much ability, and in which he has tempered dignity with kindness, and won the high respect and confidence of the people.

Such a tribute coming from a House one-third of whose members are not in sympathy with the Executive, and at a time when the great political parties are preparing to marshal their forces for a desperate conflict, tells no formal story of unmeaning compliment; but it declares to the people of the State that in the terrible trials through which we have just passed, there was one man in Pennsylvania who has been so clear in his great office that political prejudice and hostility bow before the lustre of his achievements, and record their willing testimony to his enlightened patriotism and fidelity.

Many men have been complimented by an election to the Chief Magistracy of this State. Some have retired with honor and others with varied degrees of administrative success; but it has been reserved for Gov. Curtin alone to win the place in two desperate political conflicts, and to fill the measure of administrative fame as a generous, wise and beneficent ruler, as testified by the mingled voices of political friend and foe. It must be a grateful reflection to him, who has been of all others the most vindictively traduced, that as the bloody throes of civil strife have died away, with one accord the people of his State turn to him as the one who, most of all, has merited their confidence and affection, and as he is drawing to the close of his exhausting official duties, the voice of calumny and the natural dictates of party discipline, pale before the spontaneous approval of a just people for a just and faithful Executive.

MESSRS. M'Allister, Briggs and Jordan, the Appraisers appointed by the court of Dauphin county to make distribution of the five hundred thousand dollars appropriated for the relief of Chambersburg, closed their labors on Thursday last, and their awards will be made out in due form and filed with the Auditor General during the present week, so that the money can certainly be realized by our citizens by the 1st of May. The people of Chambersburg owe a debt of gratitude to the Appraisers for the ability, impartiality and promptness with which they have discharged the delicate and responsible trust imposed upon them. They leave us with the entire community satisfied with the high integrity and discriminating justice which characterizes their official acts; and considering the nature of their duties, there can be no more substantial compliment to those gentlemen. Hard, thankless and unremunerative as was the task, it will, we doubt not, ever be a grateful reflection with them, that they rendered an essential service to the only people of Pennsylvania who were crushed to the earth by rebel vandalism, and that they have commanded the unbounded confidence of the people in the fulfillment of their trust, is a tribute to which they may ever recur with pleasure.

The following bounty bill has passed both branches of the legislature. This is no more than an act of justice. A number of volunteers re-enlisted in the field and accredited themselves to localities which were reported to be paying large bounties. These localities received the advantage of the credits, but on the return of the volunteers they refused to pay the sum which was honestly due them. There are several instances of the kind in this county:

WHEREAS, At the beginning of the late Rebellion, certain volunteers entered the military service of the United States without receiving local bounty;

And Whereas, Many of said volunteers, while yet in said service, re-enlisted for three years more, under General Orders No. 191, current series, War Department, Washington, D. C., dated June 25, 1863, and its supplements;

And Whereas, Many of said veteran volunteers, through a misunderstanding of an Act of the Legislature entitled "An Act relating to the payment of the bounties to volunteers," approved the 25th day of March, 1864, have not been able to secure local bounties from the proper authorities of the places to which they have given their credit; therefore,

SECTION 1. Be it enacted, &c., That all veteran volunteers belonging to organizations of this State, who have been regularly re-enlisted and re-mustered under General Orders No. 191 from the War Department, dated June 25, 1863, and extending to April 1, 1864, and who have not received any local bounty, nor given their credit to localities outside of the State, shall be paid a local bounty of three hundred dollars, which shall be paid by the proper authorities of such Counties, Cities, Wards, Boroughs and townships as received the credit of such veteran volunteers, Provided, That in case such credit be given to localities or places included in the limits of any Township, such Township, or the proper authorities thereof, shall pay said bounty.

SECTION 2. Transcripts from the records in the Adjutant General's office of this State, certified by the Adjutant General, as well as General Orders from the War Department shall be received in evidence, and the place of residence named in the re-inlistment and muster-in rolls shall, in the absence of other evidence, be considered the place of credit.

SECTION 3. That the School Directors of each and every Township, Ward, or Borough in which such credits for veteran volunteers was received and counted in filling the quotas under the several calls of the President of the United States for troops, are hereby authorized to levy and collect a sufficient tax to pay said veteran volunteers, or their heirs or legal representatives; Provided, That said tax shall not be collected from officers and soldiers now in the service of the United States, or who have been in such service and have been honorably discharged therefrom, or widows and orphans or widowed mothers of such officers and soldiers who may have died from wounds received or disease contracted while in said service.

THE "CONSERVATIVE" PARTY.--We desire to call particular attention to the fact that every returned rebel soldier, every draft dodger, every ex-Camp Chasette and every rebel sympathizer is identified with the so-called Conservative party. We further wish loyal men to remember that aside from such as we have mentioned above, there are but few that belong to the organization.

They also remember that it is such men as we have described that are now denouncing the acts of our loyal Legislature as unconstitutional. Men who used every exertion in their power to overthrow the Constitution and laws. All the bushwhackers and raiders that during the war waylaid and murdered their fellow-citizens and stole their property, are now identified with this party.

We ask loyal men if they can affiliate and cooperate with such men? Notwithstanding some of the measures of the Union party may be objectionable, for all things human are attended with some degree of imperfection, yet can they possibly be as objectionable as the infernal schemes concocted by the rebels and their sympathizing friends? We ask Union men to ponder these matters seriously. They now have to cast their lot with the men who stood side by side with them in sustaining the Government during the war, or with the rebels. The alternative is presented to them, and we are happy to believe from the indications we have seen, that the honorable discharged soldiers and Union citizens almost to a man will co-operate with the Union party, and will aid and sustain our loyal Legislature in carrying out its measures.

They fought the rebellion during the war, and they cannot sympathize with those who murdered their sons and other relatives, and who destroyed their property and did all in their power to destroy the Constitution and overthrow the Government.--Clarksville (W. Va.) Telegraph.

RESUME OF THE LOCAL LEGISLATION AFFECTING FRANKLIN COUNTY.--Our readers have already been informed of the provisions of many of the local bills which passed the Legislature during the last session. We now propose to give the substance of all the bills of this character, whether previously noted or not, so they may have them in the space of a single article: GETTYSBURG AND CHAMBERSBURG RAILROAD.

Messrs. J. B. Danner, Charles Horner, Sam'l Small, D. M'Conaughy, D. O. Gehr, George Arnold, Henry Kauffelt, E. Cooper Sharpless, Jacob Mickley, A. K. M'Clure, William Riddell, F. S. Stumbaugh, John A. Fowler, R. D. Barclay, Ed M'Pherson and Geo. B. Wiestling, or any five of them, are appointed to open books and receive subscriptions under the "Act regulating railroads." The capital stock is to consist of ten thousand shares of fifty dollars each, with the right to increase it if necessary to complete and equip the road. The road is to run from Gettysburg to Chambersburg, with the right to build lateral roads to mines, quarries and manufactures.

GREENCASTLE AND MARYLAND TURNPIKE AND PLANK ROAD COMPANY.

This act confers on the stockholders one vote on each share of stock held by them in all elections for President, Managers and Treasurer, and in deciding all questions at meetings of the stockholders of the company.

FEES OF COUNTY OFFICERS.

This is a supplement extending for one year the act increasing the fees of county officers twenty per cent.

FEES OF JURORS AND WITNESSES.

This act increases the pay of jurors to two dollars per day, and of witnesses to one dollar and fifty cents, except such as live in or within one mile of Chambersburg, who are entitled to seventy-five cents per diem.

REFUNDING CERTAIN MONEYS.

In adjusting and settling the account of the Bank of Chambersburg, at the office of the Auditor General, the Bank had overpaid sixty-four dollars and twenty cents on her tax on capital stock, and two hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty cents on her tax on dividends, which the State Treasurer is authorized to refund.

UPPER WEST CONOCOCHEAGUE PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION.

This act authorizes the trustees of this congregation, generally known as the White Church, in Peters township, to sell their real estate and to invest two hundred dollars of the proceeds for keeping the burial ground in continual repair.

TO LEGALIZE BOUNTIES.

This act legalizes the bounties paid and bonds issued therefore in Green, Antrim, Guilford, Southampton and Peters townships, and authorizes the levying and collection of a tax for the payment of bonds etc.

SURPLUS BOUNTY FUND.

This act appropriates the surplus bounty fund in Letterkenny township to the school fund.

PUBLICATION OF LEGAL ADVERTISEMENTS.

This act repeals the former acts passed in 1863 and 1864, respectively, regulating the publication of legal advertisements in this county, so that now the law stands as before the passage of the acts, except as to the county printing, which shall be published in two newspapers having the largest circulation.

RESETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS.

This act authorizes and requires the Auditor General and State Treasurer, to resettle the accounts for State taxes with this county, for the years 1864 and 1865. By this act about fifteen hundred dollars State tax released by a former act to the people of Chambersburg, but paid into the State Treasury will be refunded to the county.

RELATIVE TO VAGRANTS.

This act makes it unlawful for any Mayor, Alderman or Justice of the Peace in Chambersburg to commit any person to the common jail for vagrancy, except upon the oath or affirmation of one or more creditable citizen or citizens; makes the fees of the justice for commitment twenty-five cents and allows the Constable by whom the arrest is made, the customary mileage where the distance traveled exceeds one mile, besides twenty-five cents for the arrest.

LURGAN MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY.

This act incorporates the above named Insurance Company, naming Joseph Mowers, John E. Maclay, David Hays, Adam Shoemaker, Daniel Snoke, and Jacob Fogelsenger as the incorporators and conferring on them and such as may be associated with them the usual privileges of Fire Insurance companies.

RELATIVE TO RESTAURANT LICENSES.

This act confers upon the Court of Quarter Sessions the authority to grant licenses to restaurants, instead of the County Treasurers and the same notice is required as is now required for application to keep an inn or tavern except that they may be granted at any term of the Court.

RELATIVE TO HUCKSTERS.

This act provides that it shall be unlawful for any person to huckster, buy or barter for any butter, eggs, dried fruit, veal, chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks or other poultry in this county, with intent to sell again outside of the county, without first taking out a license in the office of the County Treasurer, which will be granted to all persons desiring to huckster with one horse and wagon on payment of the sum of one hundred dollars, and with two or more horses and wagons one hundred and fifty dollars. The Treasurer shall be entitled to three dollars for granting the license. This act does not prevent merchants or storekeepers from sending to market any produce or marketing mentioned in the act, which has been taken in at their stores, but merchants or storekeepers who keep a horse and wagon to gather up such produce or marketing will be required to pay fifty per centum of the amount fixed for hucksters in addition to then licenses as merchants.

REPOSITORY ASSOCIATION.

This act incorporates the Repository Association of the purposes of which our readers are already aware.

LAW lIBRARY.

This is supplementary to an act appropriating certain fines to use of a Law Library, making all forfeited recognizances to come within the meaning of fines.

CONSTABLES AND JUSTICES.

This is a supplement extending for one year an act increasing the fees of Constables and Justices of the Peace in this county.

SHERIFF'S FEES FOR BOARDING PRISONERS.

This act authorizes the Court of Quarter Sessions to fix the rate of what the Sheriff of this county shall be paid for boarding prisoners, provided that rate does not exceed fifty cents per diem.

MANUFACTURERS AND BUILDERS ASSOCIATION.

An act incorporating the Manufacturers and Builders Association of Chambersburg, in which Henry Shepler and others are named as incorporators the purposes of which are apparent from the title.