Valley Spirit

When Democratic orators and journals charged upon the Republican party that it intended to invest the negro with the right of suffrage, the charge was repelled with indignation. The people trusted to the honesty of the denial, and elected Republicans to office. The sequel has shown the truth of the charge and the duplicity of the denial.--The negro votes, by the authority of the Federal Government, in the District of Columbia and in the States of the South that attempted to secede. This is an exercise of the power on the part of Congress which is not granted to it by the Constitution, and we maintain therefore that it is not binding upon the nation. We assert this, not alone as our own firm conviction but on the authority of the Repository, whose utterances will surely be accepted by the Radicals of this County as truth. In its issue of June 28th 1865, in an article entitled "Negro suffrage," it says:

Looking practically at the proposed enfranchisement of the freedmen, we see no hope for it at an early day. It cannot be brought about, as things now are, except as time may prove their fitness for citizenship and [UNCLEAR] the useless prejudices which are [UNCLEAR] against them. The General Government cannot, by any possible means, [UNCLEAR] to them the right of suffrage. To [UNCLEAR] the States alone belong that power and duty' and thus far not one of the regenerated States has proposed it.

This, it will be remembered, was after the surrender of the armies of Lee and Johnston. It was after Mr. Lincoln had been assassinated. The rebellion was crushed. "Military necessity" was a thing of the past. The supremacy of the Federal constitution was acknowledged. At such a time, with a full knowledge of the situation--our neighbor uttered his deliberate judgement upon the subject when he said "the general government cannot, by any possible means, lawfully secure to them (the negroes) the right of suffrage." His deliberate judgement we say, because he closes the article with this sentence, "we have thus presented the question rather as it is than as we would have it." If the general government could not then, by any possible means lawfully give the negro a vote, the question presents itself, how has the general government lawfully invested him with that right since that period? Will the Repository be kind enough to enlighten us? If there has been no grant of power to the general government since to do this, and we know not where to look for such a grant, then Congress has clearly usurped the power which does not belong to it, and its action is void. It does not belong to it, and its action is void. It has attempted to do unlawfully, what the Repository said, and what everybody then admitted it could not lawfully do. If its action in this respect is unconstitutional and shall be so declared by the proper tribunal, then all its legislation upon this subject will be a dead letter, and the governments established in the South under the superintendence of the negroes must give way to the governments which will hereafter be established in conformity to the Federal Constitution.

And when Democratic orators and journals went further and charged upon the Radical party that the next step it would take would be to put the negro in the jury-box, that charge was also repelled with indignation. They were accused of lying for electioneering purposes. The sequel has shown the truth of the charge and the falsity of the denial. Look at the South under the military reconstruction bill. The negroes are found in every jury-box.--The Grand Jury which found the bill of indictment against Jefferson Davis on which he will likely be tried, if tried at all, was partly composed of negroes. And now, last of all, Congress, as the representatives of the Radical party, have passed a bill which will put the negro in the jury-box in the District of Columbia. If the Radicals thus legislate in the interest of the negro where they now have the power, is it not reasonable to argue that they will enact similar laws wherever they can gain power? The excuse for conferring upon the negroes of the South the privileges heretofore exclusively enjoyed by the whites, has been that this action was necessary in order to insure loyal State governments. How will this apply to the legislation in regard to the District of Columbia? We submit that every candid, honest man can not fail to see that it is the purpose of the Radicals to force negro equal--upon the country in defiance of the constitution and the expressed will of the people.

As to defining General Grant's position, we leave that entirely to him as peculiarly his own business. We know what our position is, and the SPIRIT professes to know it equally as well. Of one thing it can rest assured, we will support no man for the Presidential nomination whose position is different from ours on the great questions now at issue.

Is it "peculiarly his own business" to define his own position when the Repository, as one of General Grant's organs, is asking the Radicals of Franklin county to join in the cry for his nomination? Is it not, rather, peculiarly its business to give to those whom it hopes to win over to the support of General Grant, some good reasons for espousing his cause? It has distinctly disclaimed supporting him on the ground of expediency. Then there is no other ground but principle. So that we come back to the question, what are the principles? Those the Repository declines to let us know "just now." Let it honestly acknowledge that it is trying an experiment. Let it confess with candor that its party is reduced to this unpleasant necessity by the sudden and unexpected change in its political fortunes. Principle has often been slaughtered to make way for expediency, and the Repository, in consenting to tomahawk its Radicalism in order to increase the chances of whipping the Democrats, is only adopting the well-established precedents of the organization of which it is one of the mouth-pieces.

It, however, makes a faint show of resistance. It indulges a covert threat at General Grant while it still keeps his flag flying. "We will support no man for the Presidential nomination, whose position is different from ours on the great questions at issue." What does this mean? Does it meant that the Repository is now supporting General Grant because his position accords with its own on the great questions at issue? No; if so, it would have no trouble in defining General Grant's position, which it admits its inability to do. Then it must mean that unless General Grant soon opens his mouth and declares hist hatposition is not different from the Repository's on the great questions at issue, it will withdraw its support from him. The Repository is evidently growing impatient at the General's continued reticence and is devising ways and means to get out of its dilemma. Oh that my candidate would make a speech, is the of its [unclear] though for or against my principles, so that I could commend him with boldness or drop him like a hot potato! The General, on the contrary, undoubtedly thinks that his "strength is to sit still." The Repository is in the same fix as the boy who won the elephant at a raffle.

From the report of the proceedings of the House of Representatives of the United States, on Wednesday last, we learn that "Several adverse reports were presented from the Committee on Claims, including one on the petition of inhabitants of Chambersburg, Pa., for damages done to McCaualand's raid." It is, of course, competent for the House to make an appropriation in spite of the adverse report of the Committee, but we doubt whether anything of the kind will be done. The People of Chambersburg have the misfortune to be white. If they had been black, they would have been indemnified in full for their losses by the first Congress that met after the destruction of the town. We would like some Radical member of Congress to give us a good reason why that body should appropriate twelve or fifteen million dollars every year to feed and clothe Southern negroes who lost nothing and are able to work, and not appropriate even a few hundred thousand for the relief of the white sufferers at Chambersburg. This goes a long step beyond negro equality. It is discriminating in favor of the negro and against the white man.