North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1851-01-01
For the North Carolina Standard.
To the Legislature of North Carolina.


fed and absolute. Now first, to these separately
and jointly considered. While free TO declare our
opinion thathad resorted IN the first class
years ago. condition would not have been half
so pregnant of evil; yet frank saying that
stringent Legislation alone will not do to rely in
the present posture of affairs. 1t may answer as
plaster the wound but is too tsrdy in lis OPP
eratons, and mparts its virtues slowly in the pre-
sent highly inhamed and diseased condition of the
body polite. 1t may do auxiliary, and thus as
socated make its appeal 10 the tender sensbilites of
the s. brooches pocket" but will do to rely
without some powerful ally. no stands ready come
what may, to maintain the guaranteed rights of
domestic institutions, or perish in the attempt.
| To this conclusion have arrived from several
considerations, few only of which can be given in
the necessarily restricted columns of newspaper. In
the first place, seriously fear that such legislation
will fail carrying with it that required degree of
public sentiment which alone enforce ii. By this
that the propriety of its enactment will be
so much doubted (no matter from what source the
opposition emanates, whether from the more passive
the ultra,) will deprive it in small de-
gree of its obligatory claim upon the citizens of North
Carolina. Without this moral influence all egisa-
ton is nothing more than I" a sounding brass tink
ling cymbal."
Look at the non-intercourse and embargo laws re.
sorted to, in order to avoid the of 1872 Those
preliminary measures entered into among other
things retallaory, for the being done sail
ors' rights, and those sailors, nineteen-tweneths,
Northern men and yet strange to say Northern
influence and opposition was its overthrow.
They were aimed at British commerce, and how
ever impolitc they may have been, their impolicy
arose, and their influence destroyed, from the de
visions they engendered. Let it not be said that
there is unaumty of sentiment with US, and that
feel more keenly the aggressions complained Of
that will unite more heartily in carrying out the
law. This is undoubtedly so; but is it entirely so!
On the contrary, is there not some slight sPrinkling
of division in midst, and may it not gain Access
sion its ranks Will not the prophecy of your
actments be assaulted by for its nadequacy and
the question of ci bonO be asked by The Ignorant and
prejudiced portion OF your people! These are grave
and serious considerations, and however small they
may at first, worthy of being seriously EN-
tertaned.
In addition all this, will such legislation, to
say the least of it, go far to unsete Tin remote
degree) system, which has already become the set
in the very word Sc Tariff which has become often
sive to large portion of your populations
1t is not material to the consideration, whether the
public sentiment limited is right wrong. If we
! know ourselves. nothing OF this kind has prompted
! its introdu ction, but dealing with things
they are, and not as they ought TO be. Should we be
right in supposing that an ad vaorem tax upon mer-
chandize, by any or all those causes combined,
should be shorn of its moral power, and thus be-
come dead letter upon your statute book, or that
from its hardness it may be Intellectual the mischief
does stop here for at this very point II assumes
its most objectionable phase.
The very want of public opinion to enforce such
law, among people situated. would be attributed
any thing else than its true cause. for it will be
regarded bv your assailants afording little evil
dence of schisms IN our ranks. Viewed then in
this light which is far from being either distorted
I unnatural medium, may it not, If conhded in
alone rather in its effects invite than ward off agrees
sion
Ifthen, it's non-enforcement even remotely
improbable, which is the most tina; concede,
and the effect of its failure Ito invite repetition or
continuation of the njury) probable, which is
little as be asked of yon--then We res
pectfully submit, whether as statesmen you are
not risking too much, when you trust alone to
| Al ,,,L..
babIe, particularly when you must see ahead
its consequences not an improbabiiy but cert0inty
that either repeal of the fugitive slave BILL its
senai modification, ends in dissolution of what was
once and might be still the very best government
upon earth.
Can you doubt this Look at the present excited
condition of the public mind, both North and South.
Look into your own bosons. at your own (as yet
hspered) resolves. hat all these, but the
murmurings in the far distant cloud, that betoken
the storm-in that cloud which although but yfster-
day was no larger than mans hand, yet to-day it
overshadows the U Mon ITSELF and unlike the cloud
by the Prophet. contains any thing else than
the fructifying shower?
hat then is the measure recommended? Not
secession per se for to this confess ourselves
tirely opposed, until we fairly convinced that We
must resort to it in sef-defence.
We are, however, the advocates of unqualified
declaration your part, that if the Fugitive Slave
Law is not carried out good fath or if it should
be modified to implir its vitality, upon that con-
tingency North Carolina shall take immediate steps
to secede from the Mon and dissolve the bonds,
far she is concerned, that made US one people.
This being done admonitory to the North, you
should then look something, it the occasion should
require it, both permanent and effectualsuch
thorzing the Governor to issue his Proclamation,
summoning Convention of the peoples delegates,
in whom alone rests all sovereignty, and by whom
alone all subsequent moves should he directed.
There ma be other measures, which may seem advi-
sable, but they will only be palliaves. Like plaster
applied dangerous wound, ''they will but skin and
film the ulcerous parts while rank corruption, mining
all within, infects unseen.'' But it is said that such
declaration of what State woald do, upon given
contingency, is 'a hreat-that threats calculated
to rrtae, rather than appease and that upon this
count, such step would be impeiitic aud unwise.
This is denied, for it is any thing bat threat in the
true Specification of that word. What, We ask, is
threat.'' but denuncation of lila declaration
that you will infict punishment for past injury
w hat is the course now recommended! Not indem-
nifty. suless punishment for the past, bu1 security
for the future. 1t is open proclamation of gioe-
for tie past, upon the single condition that we
let alone in the future.
1t has siage and essential characteristic
of threat, which is always made in anger but
this is made with the eyes suffnsed with tears, and
But it may, and has been asked. has State the right
10 secede from the federal compact, which she her
self assisted in formingl To mind, she has the
right. This proposition is so selfevdent, from the
very nature and avowed object Of that compact to-
require little if any calculation. Before we speak
OF the right of secession we will define, we
derstand it, the tern allegiance, which frequently
enters into discussions Of this kind.
ANoFHER FusIT1vE SLAVE CASE IN NEW YoRK.
Mr. porL of iohr uipio1 f0f chs