Farquhar -- liar or patriot?

Brookville Franklin Democrat

FAIRFIELD, Ind., Aug. 20, 1864

To the Editor of the Democrat:

We understand the dipper-dapper candidate for Congress of this District, John H. Farquhar, in his speeches, parades before his hearers an article of which he charges Dr. (George) Berry with being the author, and proves clearly to his own satisfaction at least that Dr. Berry is a Secessionist. We have not the exact date when the article in question was written, but it was sometime subsequent to the commencement of the present Abolition war, which unfortunately exists in our country.

And we who listed attentively to a speech delivered in Fairfield by the valiant Captain (then, Colonel) in the fall of 1860, can testify that he is the older Secessionist of the two.

In the speech alluded to above, Capt. Farquhar avowed himself in favor of Secession in something near the following language: "The Democrats say if Mr. Lincoln is elected, the South will secede. If she wants to secede, let her go. We can get along better without her. No, fellow citizens, you will never be greeted with such glad tidings. The South is wholly dependent on the North and could not exist one day independent of us."

If Dr. Berry has advocated the right of any people to secede from their former government, he has done nothing more than Abraham Lincoln and John H. Farquhar has done, and if there is either honor or infamy to attach to its advocates they are entitled to the largest shares. 

Abe and John being the oldest members and having much the largest investments in the concern. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

-- KOKOMO

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Notes: The letter was accusing Farquhar of truly advocating for secession by the South although claiming in 1860 that it would never happen. Farquhar was a Republican who had studied law in Brookville and ran for Congress after the Civil War, in which he served in a militia officer's role. The Franklin Democrat was all-too-happy to publish commentary by authors who ridiculed the Republicans, which is fairly normal for the papers of the time. Not much independent journalism existed. These were political rags with advertising in them.

George Berry was a Democrat, accused of being a "Copperhead" supporter of Southern slavery. He was a member of a post-war KKK-level group called the White Man's Club that was organized in the Plum Grove area west of Brookville. A published report in the Republican paper the American about that group was intensely vitriolic.

Charges and countercharges were common and vicious in the papers. The Franklin Democrat (a Berry supporter) advocated for candidates who backed a states rights platform that the national Democrats favored in opposition to the Lincoln policy. Every conversation, speech and rally was interpreted as evil to the opposing side, all of it coming down on whether it could be interpreted as "pro-slavery."

No idea who "Kokomo" was, but a community near Laurel was named that in the early 1840s. 

Speeches by candidates were common in small towns. Farquhar was elected to Congress for one term. He was 54 when he died. Among his achievements was an engineering advisory role in the construction of the Indiana canal system between 1835-1840.