Messrs. Hubbard and Crane at Wellsburg - Their Respective Prospects in Brooke County.
October 3, 1864
From the Wellsburg Herald of Saturday.
On Tuesday last the Court adjourned over for some two hours to allow the candidates for Congress, Messrs. C.D. Hubbard and S. Crane, to have an opportunity of addressing the Brooke county public, of which there was a tolerably fair representation present. Mr. Hubbard had the opening speech, and proceeded at some length to define his position, which has been that of a consistent, unconditional Union man from the beginning, without spot or blemish upon his loyalty. He avowed himself an advocate of the war upon the principles of the Administration, believing that peace can be most successfully negotiated by Sherman, Grant and Sheridan, and that the best way for the people at home to aid them, is to support the policy and vote for the re-election of Lincoln to the Presidency. On the question of the negro, he avowed himself an enemy of slavery, recognizing it as the fruitful parent of all our woes, and which must be annihilated to restore the Union, if such annihilation be necessary. He compared a lasting peace to the fountain of oil and slavery to the rock which overlies it, and which must not only be pierced, but, if necessary, must be blasted to fragments in order to get at rich deposits beneath.
His remarks were moderate, patriotic and sensible, and well received by his audience who were particularly pleased with his courteous treatment of his opponent, which was remembered to his credit when his courtesy was so poorly repaid by that individual in his reply.
Mr. Crane, in response commenced by a rather unhappy comparison of himself to St. Paul on his trial before King Agrippa, as narrated in the Holy Writ, wherein Paul claims to have been a Pharisee of the strictest sect prior to his conversion. Mr. Crane likened his Unionism to the Pharisaism of Paul, forgetting that the style of Pharisaism had been denounced by one highest then St. Paul, as nothing more than hypocrisy. Mr. Crane himself, we wish it understood, made the comparison. We do not even make an application, but we must be allowed timidly to suggest that his professions and objurgations reminded us very much of those who sported the broad phylacteries in times of old.
The burden of his speech seemed to be complaint that injustice had been done him, personally, in not nominating him for Auditor or something else; the Grafton Convention having, as he said, "laid him on the shelf with no more ceremony than a cat." The Grafton Convention was doubtless a very unappreciative body, -- so Conventions always seem to be disappointed aspirant, but he will neither spite the members thereof or elevate himself by parading his grievances in that way. It would indeed seem that a man who is so lacking in understanding that he cannot see through "being laid on the shelf like a cat," hardly possesses the requisite qualifications for a Congressman, and the Convention stand acquitted. He certainly could not ask a plainer hint that his public services were no longer wanted by the party which that Convention was supposed to represent, and it is very weak in him to make a fuss about it. The truth is, Mr. Crane will not do to tie to. His record is only passably good, and his own showing of it does not make it appear much better. He is singularly unfortunate - one of the numerous class of individuals whom the world never appreciates. On "being laid on a shelf like a cat" at Grafton he should have enlisted in the army, where his stentorian voice and Ceasarean nerve would have certainly ensured him promotion or a glorious end.
His prospects in this quarter, we say it with tears in our eyes, are bad. Like McClellan he is a very good man, but his company is bad and if he gets a single vote for Congress outside of the ranks of the copperheads, we will be much mistaken. The people hereabouts do not want to be represented by a John s. Calisle, a Fernando Wood, and Aleck Long or a Vallandigham, if they can help it. That's all that's the matter.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: September 1864