Valley Spirit

We make the following extract from a lengthy article in the New York Herald of Saturday last. The article from which the extract is made is headed--"The Administration dragging the country into civil war." As the Democratic party have had no hand in bringing on this war we can only deplore the folly of the government in resorting to such cruel extremities.

Now we think it can be no longer disputed that Fort Pickens must be peaceably evacuated by the United States, or that between their military forces and those of the seceded States there will be a bloody collision for the occupation of said fortress. We are semi-officially assured that it will not be peaceably evacuated, and therefore a bloody collision at that point seems to be inevitable. In the event of such a collision we know what will immediately follow. Virginia will lead off the border slave States into the Southern confederacy, and an alliance offensive and defensive, among all the slave Sates, will be the next act in the drama. And what next? The movement, perhaps, of a southern army of twenty, thirty or fifty thousand men upon Washington, largely collected from the revolutionary secession elements of Virginia and Maryland.

In discussing the fearful chances of a civil war, it is not necessary to go beyond Fort Pickens. But the revenue policy of our administration is also a policy of war. Has our executive government any constitutional authority to blockade any of the ports of the United States, assuming with Mr. Lincoln, that the seceded States are still in the Union? We are not aware of the existence of any such authority. Has our President any legal right or legal means for the collection on board ship, in the manner proposed, of our federal duties upon imports? None that we are aware of. A blockade, of itself is an act of war: and the war making power belongs, not to the President, but to Congress. Thus, in usurping powers not to be found of our federal constitution, Mr. Lincoln will cease to have any further claims upon the loyalty of the border slave States, and they will unquestionably transfer their allegiance from Washington to Montgomery.

Our readers will thus perceive that we are standing upon the threshold of "a house divided against itself" in battle array; that we are upon the verge of a civil war, in which all the slave States will be combined against the government at Washington; and that there is at least some manifest danger of that Southern armed invasion of Washington which, it is thought, only General Scott's formidable warlike precautions prevented on the occasion of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. Civil war! Our people have no actual knowledge of the terrible import of these two dreadful words--civil war! We read of its horrors in France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain and Mexico, and we shudder at its desolating and brutal atrocities. But at length we are suddenly arrested in our brilliant career of national prosperity, happiness and power, by this horrid apparition of civil war. There appears to be no hope of escape.

We must then prepare for the worst. The civil wars of the Roses, and of Cromwell, and of La Vendee, will serve to warn us of coming events in our midst--fire and sword, confiscations, forced contributions terrorism, anarchy and a military despotism.--Our merchants, manufacturers, banks, corporations and industrial classes, our men of property and our children of poverty, would do well to prepare at once for these overshadowing and appalling calamities. We may soon expect a change in the specie tide which has been flowing in upon us for some time past, till it has gorged our banks, not only from California, but Europe. It will flow back to England for safety; for the strongest doors of our banks will not be safe against the casualties of civil war. Nothing is safe where all laws and all rights are torn down by the strong hand of violence.

Then our Northern people will begin to comprehend the meaning of this "irrepressible conflict," concocted forty years ago for the abolition of Southern slavery. Then our Northern anti-slavery agitation politicians will being to realize their folly, and thinking men will begin to see that it would have been better to have granted every concession demanded by the South than to have risked this fearful ordeal of civil war.

The long suspense as to who would get the Post Office appointment, at this place, has at length been relieved, and the lucky individual turns up to be Mr. J. W. DEAL, of the Cumberland Valley Railroad. Some persons have honors thrust upon them while others are eagerly seeking them without success in these LINCOLN times. Mr. DEAL it would seem belongs to the former class--he was not an applicant for the position and did not ask the appointment from any one. It was simply a spontaneous outpouring of gratitude--a free-will offering in consideration for his distinguished services in the Wide-Awakes! The Hon. EDWARD McPHERSON who had this gift in his keeping--through his position Congressman of the District-- it would appear had no confidence in the rag, tag and bobtail politicians of Chambersburg, and, therefore, bestowed the appointment on one who is not much identified with the place, and could not be supposed to have imbibed much of its political heresy. At all events the appointment is a good one, and about the best course that Mr. McPHERSON could have adopted to get himself out of the tight place into which he was driven by the horde of hungry applicants howling around him for the position. All honor to McPHERSON for this appointment! It suits the Democracy first-rate in every particular, although we must hold him responsible for a great deal of profanity in regard to it in his own party.

On Saturday last our usually staid burghers were startled by a huge poster announcing that an "Indignation Meeting" of the harmonious Republican party would be held in front of the Court House, on that evening, to express their disapprobation at the course of "EDWARD McPHERSON," in regard to the appointment of Postmaster at this place. The Band it was given out would be in attendance and some good music promised. A promiscuous crowd of men and boys, a sprinkling of Democrats, and a motley group of Republicans--Red, Black and Blue, were on the ground at the hour designated for the meeting. Everything being in readiness to let off the "Indignation," A. J. MILLER, Esq., introduced Capt. JAMES BROWN as President of the meeting. Capt. Brown stated the object of the meeting in a few well-expressed remarks and then a long intermission of most painful silence ensued which was relieved by a paroxysm in which two belligerent Republicans pitched into each other in remarkably fine style for members of the All Decency party. The fight was interrupted by Mr. J. W. Fletcher who attempted to vary the performance, and monopolize the attention of the meeting to himself, by reading a batch of flaming resolutions boiling over with Indignation. After reading the resolutions a vote was taken upon them and they were pronounced carried both ways--affirmatively and negatively. The meeting then abruptly adjourned, the getters up having obtained all the eclat they bargained for retired with becoming dignity.

The following are the resolutions read at the meeting which we place on record for future reference.

WHEREAS, We believe that the appointment of the Post Master at Chambersburg should be acceptable to the people in whose midst the duties of his office are to be discharged, and,

WHEREAS, Many of the applicants for the office of the Post Master of the Borough of Chambersburg were supported and advocated by nearly all the Citizens of said Borough, and,

WHEREAS, We have learned that our Congressman has used his official position to secure the appointment of a gentleman who was not an applicant for said office, and who was not urged by the Citizens of the Borough of Chambersburg for said office. Therefore,

Resolved, that we the Citizens of Chambersburg, in Mass meeting assembled, respectfully but warmly condemn the conduct of the Hon. Edward McPherson in disregarding the wishes of the people of Chambersburg in making use of his official position to secure the appointment of another person not known as an applicant by the Citizens of said place, thereby setting aside the claims of all those who were applicants, and well recommended for that position.

Resolved, That we most respectfully remonstrate against the appointment of persons unknown to the Citizens of this Borough, and request the Post Master General to suspend his decision, in the case until the Citizens of said Borough can be fairly heard before him.

Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting, together with the resolutions be published in the different papers of this Borough, and that copies of each be sent to the Post Master General, and also to the Hon. Edward McPherson.

--A Camp of this juvenile order has been organized by the young men of this place, and having been started under very fair auspices it is likely to become a flourishing institution. The objects of the association are set forth in the following extract from the preface to the Constitution of the Order: "We the undersigned, free born youths of America, children of her soil, reared beneath the shadow of her flag, loving her as none other can love, knowing her as none other can know, and having an interest in the future welfare, nearer, truer, dearer than all mankind beside, do hereby associate ourselves into a new Order, for the purpose of maturing ourselves in the practice and duties, as citizens of a country in which we shall be shortly called to exercise among our fellow-men the common rights of sovereignty." If this is the true intent of this organization, the perfecting of our young men to assume the duties of citizenship without reference to any political party, we would commend the association to public favor; but if it is a mere revival of the foul Know Nothing Order in which their papers so effectually disgraced themselves, we would advise our young men to keep clear of it. We trust this is something better, and that the good sense of our young men will not permit their association to be prostituted to bad political principles.