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History of Cambria County, V.2

442 HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
the Whig papers in Ebensburg, Johnstown and Hollidaysburg under the pseudonym “MacShane,” meaning a son of John. which name he retained until he went on the bench. His writings were mostly in the form of poetry and political and historical essays. At one time he contemplated writing a history of of the county, but never completed it other than to prepare the articles of such character in Sherman Day's “Historical Collections,” published in 1843, and in Dr. Eagle's “History of Pennsylvania” in 1876. Soon after locating in Ebensburg he published a lyrical poem entitled “Legislative Lyric, No. 1,” which form a composition he continued for many years. “Loco Foco Lyric, No. 2,” sung to the tune of “Yankee Doodle,” related to the “appointments and disappointments” of a new adminstration in the county. Another lyrical poem referred to a member of the Legislature and borrowed the air of the “Long Tailed Blue.”
    Referring to our fair land of liberty in an oration delivered at Ebensburg on July 4, 1843, he said: “Fellow citizens, what was it which brought this great, this all-important change in our constitution? it was the pledge! IT WAS THE PLEDGE! The Hancocks, the Adams, the Jeffersons, the Franklins, and Carrolls signed it, in which they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honors to maintain that Declaration.” In the same address, in condemning the use of intoxicating liquors, he said “But, fellow citizens, we have a panacea for it.
    ** Let us this day declare our independence. No time so appropriate, no hour so propitious, for declaring ourselves free and independent of all intoxicating liquors as this, the anniversary of our national liberty.”
    In January, 1858, before the Ebensburg Literary Society, Mr. Johnston delivered a lecture on the history of the county, which upon request was published in The Mountaineer for February 4 and 11 of that year, occupying eleven columns. Mr. M. D. Kittell has a complete file of that paper for 1858 and 1859. At the dedication of the court house in May, 1882, Mr. Johnston was the principal speaker, and addressed those assembled on the “Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar,” which oration was published in pamphlet as well as in the newspapers. He was also one of the orators at the inauguration of William Horace Rose as the first mayor of Johnstown.
    When the civil war began, the four sons of Mrs. Margaret Glass, living in Johnstown, went out with the first call for


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