Valley Spirit

The Gubernatorial campaign has opened. The Democratic Convention which met at Harrisburg, on the 5th instant, did its work faithfully and well. The candidate presented and the platform adopted, meet the cordial approval of the entire Democracy of the States, and we feel assured will receive a responsive echo in the breast of every conservative, union-loving, citizen of whatever party. The resolutions adopted by the Convention are brief and pointed, setting forth in clear and concise language the faith of the Democratic party and leave no room for doubt or difference of interpretation.

The candidate presented for the suffrages of the people--Hon. Hiester Clymer, is a gentleman of the highest personal worth, acknowledged ability, and untarnished integrity. His career in the Senate of the State during the past five years reflects the highest credit on his patriotism and devotion to the interests of the people. No spot of corruption stains his garments. The political hucksters who infest our legislature halls never dared to approach him with their infamous schemes, and if elected o the high position for which he has been named, we have every assurance that Public affairs will be directed with an ability, a statesmanship, and an honesty of purpose which will develop a new path of glory and prosperity to our noble old State.

The platform and the candidate are both unexceptionable, in every respect, it therefore becomes the duty of the Democracy to go to work to secure their triumphant success at the polls. Let there be no delay in the work of organization, but organize at once. Victory ill not be achieved if proper efforts are not made to secure it. We must labor for it. We must go into the contest with our whole hearts and with a full determination to do our whole duty. The day of quiet campaigns has passed away. The situation of our beloved country is critical. Rebellion in arms, it is true, has been overthrown and lies prostrate in the dust, but a more dangerous enemy than even secession, is now actively at work--more dangerous because insiduously clothed in the garb of patriotism and "loyalty". The triumvirate--Stevens, Philips and Sumner, whom the President in his speech on the 22d of February, denominates as traitors, have obtained complete control of the Radical majority of Congress. They hold these false representatives of the people in their thrall, as the mere puppets to register the decrees of the infamous Committee of fifteen and obey the behests of their masters. Shall these things be? Shall the President be check-mated in his wise an conciliatory policy for the restoration of the Southern States, by these fanatical rule-or-rain enemies of a white man's government? Shall these men be permitted to change the government of our fathers--from a free Democratic Republic to a centralized despotism? Shall the rights of Sovereign States be entirely blotted out or held at the mere caprice of the central power?

These are potent questions. Questions which are forcing themselves upon the people.

The statesmanlike policy of Andrew Johnson commends itself to the support of every lover of his country--every true Democrat. He is entitled to the support of all such, in his efforts to restore the Union of these States under the Constitution handed down to us by Jefferson, Franklin and the fathers of the Republic. Strengthen his hands in his conflict with the fist of liberty. ORGANIZE, citizens, as once in every township and School District. The great questions of the day must be met on the arena of discussion. THERE MUST BE NO MORE QUIET CAMPAIGNS! The foes of free government must be met boldly on every stamp. Decrees and sound Democratic newspapers must be circulated. They are powerful engines of success, and they must be used with energy and pervasiveness.

The campaign must be an aggressive one. We must charge home upon the enemy--change upon them their radicalities; their conspiracies against civil liberty. Bring to the recollection of an injured and insulted people, the outrages perpetrated upon them by Provost Marshals and other military satraps, instigated by partisan spite and personal malice.

The campaign has opened. Every Democrat must go in to win. Let there be no accretion of hostilities; no truce; no resting upon our arms from now until victory perches upon our banners on the second Tuesday of October next. Let then every Democrat go to work for the success of his party--the party of the white man. Our country, an imperiled Constitution, a jeopardized Union and the very existence of civil liberty, all demand it. Let there be no delay but ORGANIZE a once.

The platform of the Republican State Convention is a piece of mechanism which it behooves honest men to study well. It is a bundle of contradictions--contradictions so glaring that the people of Pennsylvania cannot be deceived by them. We have no doubt that the resolutions were drawn with the greatest care for the express purpose of bewildering the unthinking and verdant of the Republican party. The fact of a split between the leaders of the party and the President has become so well known, that it was feared some of the honest, conservative members of the party might be drawn off to the support of the Democratic candidate for Governor, as the true exponent of the President's Reconstruction policy. Hence it becomes necessary, while preparing a nateous pill for the President, to coat it with sugar so as to make it palatable to the President's friends. Open denunciations of the President would have alienated the constitution-loving men of the Republican party form the support of the Republican candidate. While, therefore, some of the leaders of that party would have preferred to make open war with the President, the more shrewd and wary counseled a seeming endorsement of the President to hood-wink the conservatives, and an enthusiastic encomium upon "the Union men in Congress" to excite the enthusiasm and stimulate the energies of the Radicals.

We content ourselves to-day with a few remarks upon the upon the platform of our opponents, but shall no doubt have occasion to refer to it frequently during the progress of the campaign.

The Convention in these resolutions compliments Andrew Johnson for the earnest words which he has uttered in denunciation of treason and traitors--for the loyalty which he exhibited throughout the rebellion, and they would have the unthinking believe by implications, that they are still his friends, but they fail to say a single, frank, open word of commendation, of his course since he has filled the Executive chair of the nation. His Reconstruction policy which is the great issue before the country to-day is not mentioned. They were afraid to condemn it openly--they were not inclined to endorse it. On the contrary they land to the skies the notion of "the Union members of Congress"--for what? Because under the lead of Thaddeus Stevens they have been attempting, as the President has so justly remarked, to subvert the liberties of the country. What folly to think that the people cannot see this deception! The masses of the people have good, plain common sense, and, to use the worn-out expression of the Senior of the Repository any "average fool" can see that there is an irrepressible conflict between "the Union men in Congress" and the President. There can be no blending of their hostile theories--there can be no compromise--either the President's view is right, or it is wrong. The States are either in the Union for all purposes, or they are out of it for all purposes.

They, the friends of the President! The Lord save him from such friends. Why in the same platform they condemn the course of Senator Cowan, and request him to resign. Why? For what? In what has he offended? Because he is a supporter of the Constitution of the United States. Because he is the President's especial friend. Because rather than acknowledge the heresy of secession, under the lash of the Republican party whip, he chose to join the President an the true Constitution-loving men of the county in on grand, noble effort to restore and preserve the union of the States. Because he refused to renounce the dignity of his manhood and fall down and worship the negro God which the radicals have set up. Let not the conservative men of the country be deceived. NO MAN CAN BE A FRIEND OF ANDREW JOHNSON, AND DENOUNCE EDGAR A. COWAN.

We give below the resolutions adopted by the Democratic State Convention at its recent session and the speech of Hon. Hiester Clymer before that body. We commend them to the careful perusal of every conservative union-loving citizen of the State, in the full belief that the positions therein assumed will meet their entire approval and hearty endorsement at the ballot box.

The Democracy of the Pennsylvania in Convention met, recognizing a crisis in the affairs of the republic, and esteeming the immediate restoration of the Union paramount to all other issues, do resolve

First. That the states whereof the people were lately in rebellion, are integral parts of the Union, and are entitled to representation in Congress by men duly elected who bear true faith to the Constitution and laws and in order to vindicate the maxim that "taxation without representation" is tyranny, such representatives should be forthwith admitted.

Second. That the faith of the republic is pledged to the payment of the national debt and Congress shall pass all laws necessary for that purpose.

Third. That we owe obedience to the Constitution of the United States, including the amendment prohibiting slavery, and under its provision will accord those emancipated all their rights of person and property.

Fourth. That each States has the exclusive right to regulate the qualification of its own citizens.

Fifth. That the white race alone is entitled to the control of the government of the republic and we are unwilling to grant to negroes the right to vote.

Sixth. That the bold enunciation of the principles of the Constitution and the policy of restoration contained in the recent annual and Freedmen's Bureau veto messages of President Johnson entitles him to the confidence and support of all who respect the Constitution and love their country.

Seventh. That the nation owes to the brave men of our army and navy a debt of lasting gratitude for the heroic services in defense of the Constitution and the Union; and that while we cherish with a tender affection the memory of the fallen, we pledge to their widows and orphans the nation's care and protection.

Eighth. That we urge upon Congress the duty of equalizing the bounties of our soldiers and sailors.

Speech of Hon. Hiester Clymer.

To you, my honored friend, Mr. President; to you, gentlemen of the Convention, and through you to the Democracy of Pennsylvania, I return my profound thanks for the honor you have done me. I feel that it comes laden with vast responsibilities; that to discharge them properly demands faith, courage, hope--firm reliance upon the enduring principles of our creed and unyielding devotion to the rights and liberties of the people. He who would lead you to success should stand unawed by the presence of usurped power; uninfluenced by the blandishments of patronage. He should be the stern advocate of civil liberty, the bold defender of constitutional right and privilege, the uncompromising opponent of official and legislative corruption, the hearty supporter of all that tends to promote the welfare and happiness of our whole people to develop the boundless resources of this State and advance her material and social prosperity. Then, too, he should stand the avowed and undoubted champion of the Union of these States, in its original purity, ready and willing, if need be, to sacrifice life itself, in defending it from the assaults of all enemies, be they Southern rebels or Northern disunionists, be they bad, bold men who have dared bare the sword and proclaim their treason by deeds, or the dastardly miscreants who, under the garb of loyalty and guise of friendship, would undermine and destroy it.

These I humbly conceive should be among the elements in the composition of him who would lead you in the impending civil contest. I am painfully conscious of my own inability to approach this standard of personal and political excellence. But if the desire to do right may in some measure compensate for the lack of ability to achieve it, if a sincere purpose to be guided in every act by the supreme law of the land, and in all things to be governed by the views and teachings of the sainted heroes and patriots who framed it, may challenge the confidence and support of the good men of this Commonwealth, then to them and their verdict to I appeal with unshaken confidence; and through you, gentlemen of the Convention, who represent such goodly numbers of them, I make that appeal. Tell them I know no higher law than the Constitution, of which Jefferson and Madison were the founders, Jackson the defender, Webster the expounder, and of which Johnson is the upholder! Tell them that I know no other standard of political action than equal and exact justice to all, special privileges to none; that I have no other political creed than that given to us by Washington and Jefferson; that I believe in the social superiority and will ever maintain the political supremacy of the white race; that I worship at no political altar whose foundations are not based upon the sacred Union of these immortal States! Tell them in advance for me of its peril, and conjure them by the love of past memories, by the blood and carnage of our evil strife, by the dangers of the present, and by all the hopes of the future, to rally to the support of him, who in this crisis of our country's fate, by a mysterious Providence of God, has been entrusted with the helm of State! To them he has appealed in terms of patriotic devotion to his whole country. Above the wild storm of prejudice, fanaticism and treason now raging in the National Capital, clear and loud are heard the words of the First Andrew, re-echoed and defiantly re-asserted by the Second, "The Federal Union, it must be preserved!" They are the watchwords of political safety. They embody the holiest aspiration of every true patriot, and afford a platform broad and strong enough for good men of all parties, no matter how wide their differences of opinion may heretofore have been.

Let us dedicate ourselves to this great purpose, with unselfish and unshaken faith, that its accomplishment will be its greatest reward. Let us go forth, bearing aloft the banner of our country, emblazoned with the words--"The Constitution," "The Federal Union!" Let us appeal to the whole people--from the Northern border to the Maryland line, from our inland sea to the Delaware--and if public virtue be not dead, if patriotism be not extinct, if devotion to principle still lives, if treason (thought intent it may be) is till abhorred, then indeed, in October next, will victory--thrice blessed victory--crown our efforts, bringing with it a constitution preserved, a Union restored, a land redeemed from the madness of folly which no threaten to destroy it.

That is some measure I may be of assistance in producing such results, I humbly pray. Upon you, gentlemen, and those whom you represent, I shall lean for support and guidance, and appealing to the God of our fathers to prosper us in all our efforts for the redemption and salvation of our country, I may not doubt that triumphant success will surely crown our labors. (Applause.)

THE opinion of Justice Read of the Supreme Court, in the case of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company vs. The Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company, published in the city papers, is in the ablest legal document we have read for years. The decision is in favor of the plaintiff who instituted an action to test the validity of the contract by which the Cattawissa railroad was leased to the Atlantic and Great Western. In the course of the argument the important services rendered by he Pennsylvania Railroad Company during the rebellion, in transporting troops and munitions of war, and the immense interests derived by the city of Philadelphia, and the State at large are referred to by the learned Judge and properly acknowledged. The whole case is reviewed most ably and carefully, evincing great research and a thorough knowledge of all the points in the suit.

Gen Geary and the other candidates were then invited to address the Convention. During the absence of the Committee to bring the nominee to the Convention.

Mr. Marshall, of Pittsburg, was called upon. He said that he had met Gen. Geary in his room some three weeks ago, and he (Marshall) was anxious to know the General's opinions on the questions of the day. I asked him what he thought of his old friend, Thad. Stevens. The General replied that HE ENDORSED EVERYTHING THAT MR. STEVENS HAD DONE. Mr. Marshall continued for a moment, during which he DENOUNCED PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND SAID HE [JOHNSON] HAD GOT INTO INFERNAL BAD COMPANY. [Applause.]

John Cessna followed, and said: If the President turns his back on the Republican party, then he would appeal o the people of Pennsylvania. [Terrific applause] And in turn they would turn their backs on the President. He claimed that the Republican party had alone met he enemy in the field, while the Democracy remained at home and aided heir traitor friends of the South. [Applause, and cheers for Cessna and Geary.]

Mr. McClure said HE DID NOT AGREE WITH THE PLATFORM THAT HAD BEEN ADOPTED, but he promised support to the nomination.

Galusha A. Grow said that THE DEMOCRACY AND THE PRESIDENT WERE THE ENEMIES OF THE COMMON COUNTRY. They had strengthened the arms of the disunionsts in the South. He was in favor of hanging all the traitors of the South.

The nominee for Governor, General Geary, as no escorted into the hall and introduced to the Convention. HE commenced by returning his thanks for the honor conferred upon him. He fully endorsed the platform, and he felt that his nomination was brought about by the brave soldiers that had fought the battles of the country, and he thanked the Convention for having favored the soldiers.

W. W. Ketchum, J. K. Morehead, John Scott and Harry White were then introduced. They each pledged their support to the nominee.

He Convention then adjourned.

Political Excitement--Meeting of the Democratic and Republican Conventions--Geary's Letter &c.

HARRISBURG, March 10, 1866

This has truly been a week of excitement in this city. Convention of both the great political parties of the day assembled here to put in nomination candidates for the gubernatorial chair of Pennsylvania, bringing with them hundreds of political adherents whose business it was to urge upon the respective Conventions their particular favorites for nomination. The Hotels were crowded to overflowing, and landlords generally made a good thing of it.

The Democratic Convention came off first in point of time, and, though largely attended by outsiders, was as orderly, harmonious and well-educated a Convention as ever assembled in the State. The utmost harmony and good feeling was manifested on every hand. Though there was no resort had to extraneous measures to get up an artificial or fictitious enthusiasm, a custom so extremely practiced by the Republican during the last five years and again attempted by them at their Convention this week, there was a deep-felt interest manifested by the many Democrats present from all parts of the States in the deliberations of the Convention, and an earnest enthusiasm springing up from the heart in behalf of the good old cause of Democracy, that showed most unmistakably that the party is awake o the living issues of the day and intend to prosecute the campaign this week inaugurated to a glorious and triumphant victory. Every one seemed to feel that the approaching political contest in Pennsylvania was greater in its consequences to the future welfare of the country than any that ever proceeded it --that it was a contest of right against wrong, of law against usurpation, of an administration of the Government on the principles of the Constitution, against the revolutionary and destructive measure of Thad Stevens' & Co. Felling thus, the delegates to the Convention, the chosen representatives to the Democracy of the State, went to work like true men and patriots, as they were, laid down a platform of principles, brief, but to the point, recognizing the restoration of the Union of these States as the first great object to be desired by all true friends of the country, and placed thereon a man as candidate an standard bearer whose great abilities as a statesman and high private and personal character command the unbounded respect, not only of his own party but also that of his opponents. No man within the limits of this broad commonwealth enjoys a fairer fame, in all the attributes that go to make up a good and great man, than Hiester Clymer. Of such a man the Democracy may well feel proud. With such a candidate, standing on a platform of undying principles such as were unanimously passed by the Convention, their complete and overwhelming success on the second Tuesday of October next is already assured.

The discord in the Republican Convention two days later was in striking contrast with the harmony and good feeling which characterized the deliberations of the Democratic Convention. The fight commenced early on Tuesday morning, the day before the Convention met, in skirmished on the streets and in the hotels between the Geary men and Ketchum men, resulting in numerous bloody noses and bruised heads. A motley crowd of roughs and bruisers from Philabelphia had been brought here by Geary and his friends to show through their loud talking and fighting propensities superinduced by the free indulgence in the use of bad whiskey, how immensely popular he was with the masses. That all this fuss and clamor was paid for, the unsuspecting delegates from the rural districts, of course were supposed not to know anything about. The Ketchum forces were led by such men as A. K. McClure, of Franklin, and Wm. B. Mann, of Philadelphia. They made a vigorous but unsuccessful charge on the Geary forces on Tuesday afternoon, by scattering the following letter of Gen Geary to Samuel Maguire, Esq., in printed slips through the city by the thousand. This was to prove that he could not be trusted as a Republican, having no later than lust August claimed to be a "life-long Democrat, without a prefix or an affix." Here is the letter as circulated by the Ketchum men:

GEN. GEARY'S LETTER.

To S. Maguire, Esq., a leading Copperhead of Philadelphia, who wrote to him to know if he would accept a nomination from the Democratic party.

His fidelity to party is such that he can conscientiously accept a nomination: for Governor from that party.

His following the flag has not caused any entanglements inconsistent with fidelity to the Democratic party.

NEW CUMBERLAND, CUMB. CO., PA.,

August 14, 1865.

S---- M----, Esq.,--Dear sir:- Having been absent and just returned, I have the honor to find your two letters, viz: That of the 26th ult. Covering your excellent letter of S---- J----, and that of the 3d inst. from Conneisville. The subject matter of both, and the letter enclosed, has been carefully noted, and for the fraternal manner of its presentation I feel deeply indebted to you.

I feel assured you will bear me testimony, that I have never personally aspired to the honor of the Chief Magistracy of the State of Pennsylvania for which position you have the kindness to indicate my name; and, further, that when it has been a subject of conversation, that I have instinctively shrunk from the responsibilities it involves upon its possessor. I have never been an aspirant for that honorable position. I never have, directly or indirectly, given my consent to any person or party to use my name for i. Therefore, I am perfectly free from any entangling alliances on the subject, and frankly say to you, that if the nomination and election were laid at my feel, I would still feel my inability to fill so high a position with that exalted capacity and sparkling intellect which is so eminently desired in the Executive chair. Impressed with the considerations to which I have just glanced, to which I may super-add, the WEALTH with which it seems necessary for the candidate to possess is not mine, I must, therefore, AT PRESENT decline to be considered a candidate.

I have been a life-long Democrat, and I am still a Democrat in the truest and most ample construction of the word and meaning of the term, without any prefix or affix whatever, maintaining all the immutable truths which underlie the superstructure of our form of Government, in all their length and breadth, heighth and depth--not as mere abstractions, but as active and positive vitalities, invigorated by the greatest intensity of patriotism.

Again thanking you for your many kind expressions, I have the honor to be truly, &c., Fraternally yours,

JOHN W. GEARY.

P. S. Enclosed is Mr. Jenkins letter. Come and see me soon.

There is no doubt of the genuineness of the above letter, as any number of witnesses could be produced, if necessary, who saw the original in manuscript, and who will swear to is being a correct copy. But in this case it would not answer its purpose. The old Winnebago Chief, Simon Cameron, had the Convention too well packed and set up, for Ketchum, McClure & Co., to carry, even with so powerful a weapon as the above letter. Early on Tuesday evening they gave up the contest as hopeless and virtually abandoned the field. The friends of Ketchum were exceedingly bitter towards Geary, and many of them went home declaring their purpose openly to vote for Clymer.

The Convention from all accounts was as discordant inside as the preliminary contest outside, but not being in the convention during its sittings, I am unable to give you a correct report of its doings and I shall therefore not attempt it. But of one thing you may rest assured, that the doom of the Republican party is sealed. It is hopelessly demoralized and cannot survive the crushing defeat it is destined to receive at the next election.

Nothing of interest transpired in the Legislature during the present week.

BRUTUS.

HARRISBURG, Feb. 28.

Arrangements are being made through the exertions of Gov. Curtin for the visit to Harrisburg, while the Legislature is in session, of two of the schools for orphan children established by the State. The object is to show the members to good use of which the appropriation are applied, and the manner in which the children are clothed, maintained and educated.

Pennsylvania is the only State thus far which has actually assumed the care of the children of her dead soldiers, and two thousand of these are now in the schools. They are distributed among the following institutions; Bridesburg, Germantown and Northern Homes, St. John and Pittsburg Catholic Home, Allegheny Home for Friendless and Allegheny Orphans Home, Pittsburgh Church Home, Lancaster Children's Home and Orphans Aylum, Loysville, (Perry county) School, Eman's Orphan Home and York Children's Home. The cost per pupil is about $150 per annum (exclusive of clothing). The children receive the religious training of their parents, are uniformly clothed, and physically exercised in a manner most conducive to health.

Governor Curtin, who has originated and perfected the entire scheme, in his last annual message recommended an appropriation to sustain the schools, and this the Legislature will, of course grant on the principle that the honor of the commonwealth is pledged to continue an appropriation which is "to bless the little ones, provide them with the comfortable homes, instead of leaving them in want and destitution, to fall victims to vice and crime."