Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1860-09-26
Letter from Huston.
PENPIELp, Sept. 18th 1860.

Having bee n present recently at Black
Republican meeting i'll this region,
thought would give you brief account
OF the manner Of conducting "pow-wow"
in one of the little wigwams. Ma E
This irnmensegthering off, ohm Brown'
ties, took place at Browns school house
on tile evening of the eth inst, Sof which
notice had been circulated two weeks
previous, toget Ter with the announcement
that distinguished speakers" would be
present to address the meeting on that
occasion. The time came and with it the
distinguished speakers" and the i'm,
mense crowd to hear them. Indeed, they
came pouring in by the wagon load from
all parts Of uuston and Jay townships,
until every woolly head was on the ground.
/ On counting all present ! found the audi
ence to number fiity.six rlen and boys
OF the voters twenty-five were Democrats
of the true stamp, whom curiosity to hear
The distinguished speakers" had brought
from their homes in the vicinity. .rf
After they we're brought to order, the
first speaker called was c. II. Powers. a
Young man Of considerable "gab" and a
tolerable speaker. lie talked long time
about the tariff. which subject ha seemed
to understand about as well as n
horse does Hebrew; stating that TIE
! Democrats opposed it. Forgetting, how
ever, to mention that the Republicans
did the same thing. Tie negro next
came in for large share Of his attention,
He mourned them as a down irodden
race, and almost shed crocodile tears over
their oppressed condition in the South,
where they are in slavery-but forgot to
mention that il was worse IN tire North
where they enjoved freedom. He seemed
to he in great tribulation about the ertcn-
,;o, of siaUery into tie Territories no,o free. =
| He said if the South could get ore State
in the North or Northwest then they
could manufacture the same articles that
we can but as it is now we can manutac-
ture articles that they cannot therefore
all they want is to get one more State
North to enable them To compete with US
Then they will control us in spite o. our
selves whence he argued that our policy
was 10 keep then, where they are This lunl'
nous idea was enlarged upon at great
length bv the speaker, much TO the ed'f'
cation of the rudience, who soon became
fconvinced that he was almost as learned
!
on the tariff. The next object of his fears,
against which he warned his hearers, was
Cuba. And here his wall was loud and
long, beseeching them to beware, and not
let the Democratic party elect their Pre',
ident or they would have Cuba as cold
Buck" as he called him, had offered two
millions or two hundred millions OF dol
lars for it the had forgotten which, he
argued that If they, (the Democrats, |
suppose. ms ho was speaking Of that party J
get tho Island, they will cut it mp into
slave States and that negroes would nave
to be furnished for them, and that the
slave trade would have to be opened =
With u sublime peroration on the tenor
'ofslavery this speaker concluded bv in
Producing NJ. A. Frank to the audience,
who proceeded to sing pretty much the
same song as The previous speaker, with
some very artistic variations. which show
ed this gentleman to be n complete adept
! in drilllng an audience according to the
most approved system Of Republican tao
tics. After repeating much Of the same
stale twaddle about the Democratic par
ty. and the corruption OF the present Ad,
mnistration, to which headed the infor'
y
gold and silver out Of the country, h , pro
ceeded to pitch the tune upon the negro
and here the sublimty Of his subject car
ried him to heights Of soaring cloquencC
and startling revelation that must have
made him apcar to his audiece rs ifinspir
ed He doubtless made many Of then
trembe in their boots when he made the
startling declaration. that If Brcckcnridg,
: or Douglas we're elected Pr, sidcrt that h,
and they and all ofus will have to be slaves
that Pennsylvania must have slavcs-tha
Huston township must have slaves thatw,
must have slavery on Sinnemaloning, 'ha
we will all he driven away and slave
put IL our places that we must work b'
the side of the lousy, greasy negro j
was wonderful how lis hearers survived
the terrors of that fearful though rathe
l inconsistent and contradictory picture 8,
{ skillfully drawn by the speaker, but
learn that all reached their homes IN safe
ty after the meeting, though some o
them were greatly perturbed IN spirit
The next exercise of his profound wis
dom was to declare that il the people oI
Sinnemahoning had been compelled Il
manufacture their logs into In nber. lie
fore they run them. the Tyrone & Clear
field railroad would have been complete,
y long before this through the entire coun
try. He then begged us to vote Cor Ger
} ratton for Congress, as he was CloarieI
man, and he thought every man ought t
vote for him on that account, that h
would do so Independent of party. Ie
. where the exercise of any independent c
in his voting for the Republican candidat
!. existed. could not exactly discover
have listened to great many Speaker
on various subjects du-ing my experience
but never yet met one who drew so large
ly on the credulity Of his hearers as tn
doughty squire. And I must say in a
candor, although with all due respect t
the Speakers and the audience, that tn
,, meeting was the greatest "flat out" ! eve
witnessed, the greatest amount Of cry fc
the least wool. The latter, however, wa
the genuine article and no mistake.
Yours, G..