Weekly North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1858, 1855-12-05
Gke Stan1arb*
RALEIGH. SATURDAY. DEC. 1, 1858.
HENDERSON MASS MEETING.

RALEIGH. SATURDAY. DEC. i, 1865.
HENDERSON MASS MEETING.
We had the pleasure of being present on We'd
nesday at Henderson, Granville, the first day of the
Democratic and anti-Know Nothing mass meeting
at that place. Notwithstanding the day was quite
cold and unpleasant for the season, there was
semblage of between fifteen hundred and two thou
sand persons; and among them we were glad to see
number of the fair sex, and hundreds of the hon
est and Independent farmers Of Granville and
the adjacent Counties. The Raleigh cars .arrv-
ed at Henderson about nine o'clock, no: well
filled, by the way, as expected they would be;
but the large crowd that up with the We'll
don accommodation train, which arrived about ten,
fully made up for the lack Of attendance from Wake
and Franklin.
AT twelve o'clock the crowd proceeded to the Fair
Grounds, where the meeting, on motion of the Hon.
A. w. Venable, was organized by the appointment
by acclamation, of the Hon. Weldon N. Edwards as
Chairman. Mr.. Edwards, taking the Chair,
spoke for some half an hour in his most impressive
MANNER upon topics involved in the existing crisis
in the country's affairs. He reviewed rapidly the
history of the country-showed what the Democ'
racy had done to preserve the Union, and expressed
his abiding belief that only hope was to be
found hereafter heretofore, in the great national
Democratic party. The Union could he maintained
orly by strict construction of the Constitution
In all times of trial and danger like the present. he
would appeal if necessary to the people of the free
States against the demagogues and plotters OF evil
in that region. The people were conservative, and
could be relied upon now as in past time. He said
he would counsel, in the first place, firm demand
by the Southern people of all their Constitutional
rights and in the second place, pacific course on
our part in dealings on the great questions at
issue with the Northern people. He also expressed
his warm and emphatic condemnation of the Know
Nothing faction. He regarded it of the most
dangerous sms that could infest the country; but
he congratulated the audience upon the evidences to
be seen in every quarter of its decline and fall.
The venerable statesman spoke with unusual force
and spirit stirring the hearts of all present with his
words Many of his old constituents were in the
assemblage, warmly responding to the utterance of
the same principles and sentiments in matters Of
government and Constitutional construction, which
they had heard from his lips quarter of CEN
tury ago. and which they had cheered and sus-
tanned him in carrying out in the halls Of Congress-
Time goes by. and men and manners change, but
Democracy, bottomed as it is in the Constitution, is
the same. II :
Mr. Edwards having concluded + the Hon. John
Kerr, of Caswell, was introduced to the audience,
andspoke for more than an hour on the subjects of
Know Nothingism, slavery, the Nebraska BILL and
kindred topics. He said he found himself in what
might be considered strange company; but he asked
and looked for his old Whig friends, and found many
of them in dark corner, concealed from the light
of day. He asked them what they were doing the
answer was, II don't kno,o." Where had they
been ?-"I don't knou." What had become of
Whig principles ~ don't knoo." He said that,
as Whg, he had met the Democracy in the open
day, had contended with them openly before the
people, and there were no oaths. no conceaments,
no mysterious grips either side Both parties had
labored for the good of the country and the means
they employed were honest, aboveboard, and known
and read of all men, The man who held that virtue
was confined to any particular party or sect, was a
bgot and fool He had found true men in both
parties, and honesty and right intent in the masses
OF the people generally; and he deeply regretted
that SO many Of his old friends had gone astray
into the dark labyrinths of Know Nothingism.- =
For himself, he still Whg all the old issues
but those issues had either been settled, or had
been abandoned by his former associates, and new
ones had been presented As against the pestilent
isms of the Know Nothings, and on the great ques
tons of slavery, the Constitution and the Unon he
was with the Democratic party; he was with that
party, because he was for his country and for the
perpetuation Of the Union according to the Const
tuition; and that party, in his humble judgment
was the only one which at this time could admins
ter the government national principles, and give
reasonable assurance that institutions would be
preserved. He spoke from personal observation
and experience while in Congress He had seen
with regret, the great body of the Wings Of the
iree States maintaining grounds Of hostility to the
South; and he had seen, also, and had proclaimed
'ne fact every where, due to common justice
eVen that the Democrats of the same region,
party, and as represented in Congress, we're dis
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