Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-05-27
spEEe,n or EpWARD eaNr M. ). ESQ

honored. For, Sir, the proceedings OF this Conveh-
ton have been marked with such uneAaihPieu Una
ninlity and good feelng-the Resolutions you have
adopted are so satisfactory and explicit, ana the
nomination you have made IS So entirely IN conso
nance with nv own views and preference, that 1
cannot refuse to occupy, Ior icy" inoIaents az
begin what little shall have to say, than by con-
graduating you and the members of thjs body, upon
the entire absence of that indifference and mutua
hostility and mutual distrust which, II was so conl
IDENTIFY predicted, would DC the result Oh lnis ii0'
ing. e,
Looking back at period, Mr.. President, yet ifesh
in the recollection of those who hear me, Wneh
cloud, no larger, it may be than mans hahu, yet
still cloud rested npon the fortunes of the Demo
cratic party in North Carolina and obseured It's go
ries from view, and comparing 1t with the pres
ent most suspicious moment, when another sun o,
Austeritz seems about to burst forth in undinnsheu
splendor, think Mr. President, may all exclam,
in the language of an inspired poet:
"Now is the winter of our discomfort
Made glorious Summer
And ali the clouds that lowered upon our house.
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried!
Sir: 1t is related in the history of the IroJan
war, that the ,diyine Achilles, infamed with anger
for some trivial cause, in the midst OF campaign,
and in front of the beleagurcd citadel, Indignantly
withdrew himself and his forces from the conteder-
ated Camp, and left his countrymen, unalded by MS
arms, to conttue the contest; but when from the
height to which he had retired he beheid the lnso-
lent foe rejoicing his apparent detection at
tempt to capture those rery ships upon which he had
arrived with the other Greeks TO that scene OF battle
he could longer resist the appeals OF duty and OF
patriotism but gathcring all his men and filling them
with his own resistless ardor he hurled them upon
the enemy and drove them back, to their own CITY.
Mr.. President, make pretensions to skill In the
use of analogics but it does to me- sir that the
course of the wing party of this State upon at least
one question ofState policy very forcby illustrates
in connection with the incident, have attempted to
relate, a sentiment of the celebrated Edmund Burke
that history after all, was but the repetition in DIT
feren ages and under different circumstances OF the
same identical facts. Why, sir look at it Where
the wings of '48 and 80 upon the great queS-
ton of Equal Suffrage? Where DO they stand?
Before this Convention had assembled-before the
Democratic nominee had yet been selected for this
canvass, we amazed, with the information that
General Dockery - stealing march upon the
unresisting Democracy he has to combat before the
people, was perambulatng the eastern counties, and
astonishing the of their sober and Intelligent
citizens with arguments in favor of Free Suffrage
leading Democratic principe-one for which we have
been all along contending against them-and endeav-
orng to ride with it into power; claiming indeed If
heard Alright, the paternity of the measure twenty
years ago, in the Convention of 1885, of which he
was amemberl! Very different, Mr.. President,
the position of Governor Manly, the wing candidate
of 1850. Sir, happen to have here the speech
which that gentleman delivered in this building IN
that year, when he accepted similar position Look
ing over the five or six columns il contains, have
marked the following epithets, applied by him, to
Free Suffrage:
II mas been publicly asserted anu aQmltLcQ at
Washington City, that it was gotten up and manu-
fictured there, and sent for North Carolina use,
quoted and signed and gloated lover, the infalii
BILE Democratic thunder,-a patent exploded blum
derbuss for demolshing everything-a political trick
imported from the grand national President making
mint-a blow aimed at the supremacy of the whig
party, to cripple the whigs-patent Free Suffrage
physc-a.p political juggle-a locofoco party trick,
as plainly to be seen through, as wheat SITTER"
And now, sir, grayely told that it is good
scbig do:trine. Sir, if this attempt to miscad and
impose upon the people, not glaring it would
really excite our indignation. Truly, Mr.. President,
may we see in this extraordinary and most unac
change of policy the part of oppo-
aents bold and deliberate attempt to seize and APP
propriate to their peculiar principles. Sir
the Trojans have indeed left their city, and at
lacking our feet. They have abandoned the plat
form of 1850, and the position of Gov. Manly, and
now with our weapons. Our own arms are at
tempted to be turned against us those very instru
ments by means of which have been enabled to
acquire and retain the ascendency in this State
now employed for the purpose Of our overthrow
Under such circumstances it ought not to excite
surprize remark if indignant such pcrfidy, tho
Democratic party in North Carolina, forgetting their
discussions and trivial differences and standing
more shoulder to shoulder invincble because united
shall drive them back bleeding and discounted, to
their original platform.
But, Mr.. President do not concede that this sud-
len conversion is genuine sincere. If ever this
great democratic principle of Free and Equal Suf- |
not be effected by the wing party. look in vain,
Sir, to the speeches of their leading men, to their
Totesin the Legislature, and the sentiments of their
presses for any expression of honest friendship
or this measure. On the contrary believe, that /
Unable any longer openly to resist the popular feel |
ng IN its favor, their present friendship for it is
mere pretence, under the mask of which, they !
more easily effect its absolute defeat and at the
ame time, carry through other measures, which !
hey consider necessary to their continued organi-
ation but which, if successful, will, am persua-
led, reopen sectional animosity. and PROSTATE at
he feet of bare majority of the people, our most
herished privileges, and all the compromises of our
Constitution.
Why,sir, look for moment, at the Resolution upon
he subject of passed by the late
Wing Convention. They say, they now resolved
nd OF opinion. that the people of North Carolina
esire "a change" in the Constitution of the State
lark, Mr. President the disingenuousness of this
hraseology. "a changer" Why, Sir, what change"
esire but that which Gov Reid, in the canvass of
S48 first recommended to their adoption Pa change
which will put all the free white of the State
pom an equality change which will enable every
ody who has right to vote for member of the
louise of Commons to vote for Senator, also. And
ow comes it, Sir, that they did not come out hon
silly and say that this is the change which they ia
or, and which they believe the people ought to
aveg Sir, this is not the change they want Itlis
change OF another character they determined
} effect, II they can CHANGE THE BASIS OF RE-
OBSERVATION, by means ofwhich they hope to trans
n the Legislative power from the hands to which
has been wisely entrusted by the patriotic states
len OF former day, to other hands, more likely to
eld 1t for the benefit of the whig party That this
the plain purpose of the Wing Convention, any
nprcjudiced mind can sec from the mode in which