Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1855-12-01
Gle STANDARD,
n.1E1GH. SATURDAY.. DEC. 1, 1855.
HENDERSON MASS MEETING.

IL
eomblage of between fifteen hundred and two thou
.o,d persons; and among them we were glad to see
number of the fair sex, and hundreds of the hon
t and independent farmers of Granville and
,ha adjacent Counties. The Raleigh cars .arriv-
n Of henderson about nine o'clock no. SO well
f,ed by the way, we expected they would be;
Inf the large crowd that came up with the We'll
dan accommodation train, which arrived about ten,
t,,, 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.
". Venable, organized by the appointment
bv reclamation, of the Hon. Weldon N Edwards as
Cbairmau Mr.. Edwards, on taking the Chair,
sroke for some half 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 Denoc.
racv had done to preserve the Union, and expressed
his abiding belief that only hope to be
ErIud hereafter, heretofore in the great national
Democratic party. The Union could he maintained
only by a 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 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
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 as of the most
dangerous isms that conld 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
turv ago, and which they had cheered and sus-
taincd 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
ever the same.
Mr. Edwards having concluded, the Hon. John
Kerr, of Caswell, was introduced to the audience,
and spoke for more than an hour the subjects of
Know Nothingisn, 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 hisrold Wing friends found many
OF them in dark corner concealed from the light
of day. He asked them what they were doing-the
answer was, g don't kRoac.' Where had they
been ?-'' don't knooc." What had become of
Wing principles p" don't know." He said that,
Wing, he had met the Democracy in the open
day, had contended with them openly before the
people, and there were no oathS conccaments,
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 sect,
Ngot and fool. He had found true men in both
parties, and honesty and right intent in the
OF the people generally; and he deeply regretted
that many of his old friends had gone astray
into the dark labyrinths of Know Nothingsm-
For himself he still Wing 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
isns of the Know Nothings and on the great ques-
tons of slavery, the Constitution and the Union, he
was with the Democratic party; he was with that
party, because he was for his country and for the
perpctuation of the Union according to the Consti-
luton; and that party, in his humble Judgment,
was the only which at this time could admins
ter the government on national principles, and give
reasonable assurance that our 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
Tree States maintaining grounds of hostility to the
South; and he had SEEM also and had proclaimed
The TACT every where, due to common justice
eVen that the Democrats Of the same region, as a
party and as represented in Congress, dis
posed, and had shown a readiness by their votes to
respect the Constitutional rights of the South, and
10 ad IN securing those rights to people as in
VOWED IN the slavery question. He spoke in terms
Oh high commentator of such Democrats as Doug
las Cass and Toucey, and of such Wings as Choate,
Everett, and Farley. He did not pause to ask, in
contest like this, what the true men called
lie looked to acts, not names-to deeds, not profess
SONS, and shaped his course accordingly The K.
AS. could offer no reasonable assurance that the
'hlon would be safe in their hands. They were
not nationa-they were sectional on the great ques
uOh which SO vitality concerns US all, and were,
therefore, powerless for good in this respect in the
very beginning of their movements In addition to
'!'s they intolerant and proscrptve, and as
such should and must be overthrown before the
progress of enlightened public opinion. He spoke
"' some length and in commanding eloquence in
support of the principles of religious liberty, and in
opposition to the and exclusive policy of the
~ Ms. m relation to foreign emigration.
VIC have not pretended to report Mr.. Kerr, but
'"y to give some-not by any means-all the points