Valley Spirit

Mayor Bowen, of Washington, distinguished himself at Gettysburg, by his intimate association with a negro Alderman.--He had brought the darkey with him for the purpose of showing the magnates there assembled that he was in favor of wiping out all distinctions on account of color. It caused considerable trouble and the Mayor was obliged to get his companion back to the National Capitol as quietly as possible. But the Mayor still clings to his Radical notions. In a message to his negro Councils, he used the following language:

The breaking down of all caste distinctions is one of the great missions of the American people, and the sooner all classes "conquer their prejudices" and accept the situation, the better for all concerned. All children should be educated as the children of American citizens, the future sovereigns of the Republic, and should be taught to ignore all class distinctions.

One of the leading Radical newspapers in Washington City sustains this position by this comment:

As to the suggestion in regard to the mingling of the two races together in the same schools, it has the merit of practicability, and, at the same time, of opening the door for the gradual exit of existing prejudices.

What say you, men of Franklin county, do you desire to have all social distinctions wiped out between your children and the blacks? Do you want the door opened so that preparations may be made in the village schools for social commingling in after life? If so, vote the Radical ticket with the jig-dancer Geary at its head. If not, vote for the white men's candidate and thorough gentleman, Asa Packer.

The first reunion of the 77th Regiment Penn's Vols. will be held at La Fayette Hall, in Pittsburg, on Thursday, the 9th inst. There will be a business meeting at 10:30 A. M. The Reunion will be at 2 P. M. when an oration will be delivered by Col. Fred. S. Pyfer, of Lancaster, Pa. The Festivities take place in the evening, the Hop beginning at eight o'clock and the Banquet at ten o'clock.

This Regiment contemplates holding an annual reunion hereafter. We would suggest to its members, that no more suitable place could be selected for its next meeting than Chambersburg. This Regiment was organized here. One of its most gallant officers sleeps in the Cemetery in this Borough. Colonel Stumbaugh and Captain Skinner were identified with it during their terms of military service, and there is a considerable number of private soldiers in our County who fought bravely in its ranks.

On behalf of the people of Chambersburg, we extend an invitation to the Regiment to make Chambersburg their next place of reunion, with the assurance that every effort will be made to render their visit pleasant.

The leading ex-rebel generals have been invited to be present at Gettysburg and assist in marking out and building monuments upon the principal lines of the battle-field. This request they decline in courteous terms, alleging, as a reason, in the language of General Lee (who fairly represents the sentiments of all the southern officers), that it is wiser "not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavor to obliterate the marks of civil strife; to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered." If Lee and his brother generals had attempted to perpetuate the memory of southern victories by surveys and monumental stones, their objections to the Gettysburg affair might be justly liable to criticisms on the score of personal and sectional feeling. But they have refrained from offending the patriotic sensibilities of the North by such a course. They have not held meetings and set up granite pillars at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Cold Harbor, the Seven Pines, Red River Landing, Olustee, and the other spots were their arms triumphed over ours. Had they done so, would they not have been accused throughout the North of "disloyalty," "inciting a new rebellion," &c.? Undoubtedly they would; and in revenge for their conduct new military screws would have been put upon the South, and the tardy process of reconstruction still further delayed. Suppose, for illustration, that the Confederates had won the battle of Gettysburg, but that their supposed victory had not changed the final issue of the war. How would the North like to have Lee and his lieutenants come trooping into that old Pennsylvania town this pleasant summer weather to perform the same ceremony for which the Federal officers are now assembled? We fancy that a howl of indignation would go up all over the North, and they would be lucky if they escaped the delicate attentions of a loyal mob. Yet we do not see why, if the victories of civil war are to be commemorated at all by such enduring mementoes, the ex-rebels are not entitled to erect signal posts on the fields of their supremacy, wherever they can find them, even if one of them were Gettysburg. They, like northerners, are Americans. They, like northerners, are now peaceful and devoted to the Union, and are or are soon to be, every one of them, restored to full citizenship, just as if there never had been a war. Having the same ownership and interest in the country that we have, they might fairly lay claim to the right of glorifying their feats of arms, in the Gettysburg fashion--on this pretext, if no other, that future generations ought to know how gallantly the armies fought on both sides in the great rebellion, and what a tough and wiry foe the North had to grapple with and overthrow, thus teaching the coming American to be proud of an ancestral race which produced such heroic fruits wherever the stock was planted, South as well as North. But no! We should decidedly oppose the erection of monuments on battle-fields by the South, for the same reason that we object to the present exercise at Gettysburg--on the ground of the wisest expediency. It can only tend to keep alive the feelings of mutual hate that ought to be buried.

----"deeper than did ever plummet sound."

It can only contribute to neutralize the exertions that good men are making in all parts of the country to restore a fuller measure of fraternal attachment than ever existed before the war. What is the use of striving to bring about this national and political millennium that all lovers of the republic are yearning for, if we are to put up imperishable tablets on every battlefield where the Unionists were victorious, so that the South may never be allowed to forget how she was conquered and punished?

There is no danger that Gettysburg or any other great national battle ground will be forgotten. It lives in history and poetry and legend, and in the long rows of tombstones that rise above the graves of the honored dead. As long as this country is filled with an intelligent race of beings, it will be a recorded fact, bearing its instructive moral to each generation as it comes upon the stage. This is inevitable and proper. We would not have history repressed or mutilated. It should stand as it is, for a lesson and a warning. But here is no lesson and no warning inculcated by the Gettysburg survey now going on; and in the manner in which it is conducted it causes, and can cause, none but unfraternal emotions throughout the South, now and for a long time to come.--N. Y. Journal of Commerce.

The Democratic Convention met on Tuesday morning at half past ten o'clock in the Court House. The following officers were selected: President, Col. James B. Orr, of Orrstown; Vice Presidents, Jacob Elliott, of Welsh Run, and Leander Sanders, of Washington.

Secretaries: John D. DeGolly, of Greencastle, and O.C. Bowers, of St. Thomas.

LIST OF DELEGATES.

Antrim.--John D. DeGolly, J.R. Smith, D.S. Barnhart, B.F. Snider, A.H. DeHaven, A.H. Brindle, Wesley Rhodes.

Chambersburg--North Ward.--Jno. Armstrong, John R. Orr, Thomas Cook. South Ward.--Alex. Martin, Samuel M. Worley, J. Newton Shillito, Henry C. Koontz.

Concord.--S.T. Brechbill, Frederick Long Charles Widney.

Dry Run.--John A. Elder, Thomas Skinner, Samuel Shearer.

Fayetteville.--Alonzo W. Holland, Samuel Shearman, John Shatzer, Wm. Lightfoot, Robert M. Renfrew.

Greenvillage.--Wm. Brandt, S. F. Hale, Josiah McDowell.

Guilford.--Michael Reed, Jeremiah Delhi, Jeremiah Manon, Cadwallader Kissecker.

Hamilton.--Benj. H. Reisher, Abram Hafer, Frederick Mish.

Letterkenny.--P.M. Shoemaker, Dr. Gelwix, J. V. B. Leedy, Jonathan West.

Loudon.--John H. Harrett, Henry Metcalf, John McCurdy.

Lurgan.--John DeHaven, Henry Kurtz, Aaron Snoke.

Metal.--William Noonan, Allen Mort, Matthew Sharpe.

Montgomery.--A. R. Rhea, C. Louderbaugh, Wm. D. McKinstry.

Orrstown.--James B. Orr, Wm. S. Blair, Dr. Maxwell Kennedy.

Peters.--Jacob Hawk, Wm. Stitzel, Jacob Hawbecker.

Quincy.--Michael Clem, David W. Beaver, George Dull, Lewis Krome, Jacob Monn (Mason).

Southampton.--Joseph Book, Jos. Hookersmith, Jacob Wagaman.

St. Thomas.--John Gillan, Frederick Galwicks, A. H. Detrich, O. C. Bowers.

Sulphur Spring.--George Magee, Peter Hite, D. Stake.

Warren.--Samuel Ferry, Jacob U. Bear, Solomon Cook.

Washington.--Levi Sanders, Henry Bessore, W. F. Horner, Samuel Nicodamus, Hugh Sibbett.

Welsh Run.--Lewis Hinkle, Davidson Keyser, Jacob Elliott.

A motion was offered by Mr. O. C. Bowers to proceed to the nomination of a candidate for the Assembly immediately upon the re-assembling of the Convention in the afternoon.

An Amendment was offered by John R. Orr, Esq., that the Convention take up the office of Prothonutary first.

The amendment was lost and the original motion carried.

On motion, a committee of five was appointed on credentials: The committee consisting of Jeremiah Manon, W. H. Blair, H. C. Koontz, C. W. Rhodes and John Gillan.

On motion of J.N. Shillito, a committee on Resolutions was appointed by the chair consisting of J. N. Shillito, J. R. Smith, Wm. D. McKinstry, Dr. Maxwell Kennedy and Hugh M. Sibbett.

On motion the Convention adjourned to one o'clock, P. M.

The Convention re-assembled at 1 o'clock. The list of delegates was then completed by the Secretaries. The number of delegates is 82; necessary for a choice 42.

The Chair announced that the first business of the Convention was the nomination of a candidate for Assembly. A motion was offered by Capt. A.R. Rhea to reconsider the resolution of the morning in relation to the office to be first voted for. This motion was lost.

Capt. Geo. W. Skinner, of Chambersburg A. J. North, of Peters, and John Gilbert, of Lurgan, were put in nomination as candidates for Assembly. The result of this ballot is as follows:

On motion of John R. Orr, Esq., this nomination was made unanimous.

On motion of J. Newton Shillito, the Convention proceeded to ballot for candidates for County Treasurer. William Reber of Southampton, Hiram M. White, of Chambersburg, Leonard Leldy, of Mercersburg, Benjamin M. Powell, of Antrim, and Capt. T.D. French, of Waynesboro', were put in nomination.

The Ballots resulted as follows:

. withdrawn

On motion the nomination of Wm. Reber was made unanimous.

Hiram M. White, Esq., then stepped forward and thanked his friends for their support, remarking that he did not doubt that those who voted for his successful competitor were animated by a desire for the success of Democratic principles, and expressing the prediction that when the sun goes down on the second Tuesday of October, the Democracy will have achieved a glorious triumph.

On motion, the Convention then proceeded to select a candidate for Prothonotary. The name of Geo. W. Welsh, Esq., was presented and no other names being proposed, he was nominated by acclamation.

The Convention then proceeded to nominate a candidate for Clerk of the Courts. M.D. Reymer, of Antrim, B.A. Cormany, of Chambersburg and Vincent McCoy, of Chambersburg were put to nomination. The ballot resulted as follows:

On motion, the name of Mr. B. A. Cormany was made unanimous.

The Convention then proceeded to a ballot for Register and Recorder, the names of Hiram T. Snyder of Fayetteville, and Jacob Cook of Upton being put in nomination. The ballot resulted as follows:

On motion, the nomination of Hiram T. Snyder was made unanimous.

The Convention then proceeded to the nomination of a candidate for County Commissioner. Jacob Brumbaugh of Middleburg, John C. Tritle of Hamilton, Isaac Clugston of Fannett, William Reed of Welsh Run and Martin Hammond of Fannett were put in nomination.

On motion, the nomination of Jacob Brumbaugh was made unanimous.

The Convention then proceeded to nominate candidates for Director of the Poor. Peter McFerren, of Chambersburg, Frederick Long, of Concord, Daniel Gelwix, of Letterkenny and Samuel Grossman, of Guilford, were put in nomination. The result of the first ballot is as follows:

On motion, the nomination of Frederick Long was made unanimous.

On motion of John Armstrong, John G. Tritle, of Guilford, was nominated for County Auditor by acclamation.

John R. Orr, Esq., then offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That the delegates in attendance be requested to select the members of the County Committee and that one of the duties of the Committee be, to reapportion the representatives of the different districts in the County Convention on the basis of the vote that shall be cast for the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1869.

J. Newton Shillito then offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That Hiram M. White, of Chambersburg, be the Chairman of the County Executive Committee.

The Committee on resolutions, through their Chairman, J. Newton Shillito, then reported the following resolutions which were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That we heartily endorse the platform made by the Democratic convention at Harrisburg, and that we rejoice in the selection of Asa Packer, the clear headed Statesman and the sound-hearted patriot, to be the next Governor of Pennsylvania: and Cyrus L. Pershing, the noble standard bearer of Democracy, the able jurist and Christian gentleman for Supreme Judge.

Resolved, That in these improvident times we are the uncompromising advocates of retrenchment and reform, in all the departments of the Government, National, State and County; and we deem it the sacred duty of every lover of his country to economise the peoples' money, and bring the administration of public affairs back to old fashioned simplicity and integrity.

Resolved, That the efforts of our opponents to give the ignorant negro the ballot, is subversive of the best interests of the white man; that the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment by the Radical majority of the Pennsylvania Legislature, was a fraud on the people and in direct opposition to their wishes and it should be repealed forthwith.

Resolved, That we are in favor of paying all loss sustained by citizens of the border counties, during the war of the rebellion, believing that their claim upon the State is just and well founded, and we hereby require our Senator and representatives, and urge the Democratic party of the commonwealth to aid us in securing the passage of an act providing compensation.

Resolved, That as heretofore the Democratic party is the true friend of the laboring man, and that it will continue its efforts to advance his best interests, by giving him a better currency--insuring to him the just reward of his labor, and protecting him from unjust taxation.

Resolved, That we commend to the Democracy of Franklin county the hearty and united support of the ticket this day placed in nomination.