Weekly North Carolina standard., 1858-01-13

would vindicate the. sanctty of violated law and
punish the offenders against the American Constitu'
ton We felt too, that the august and most potent
sovereien-the people Of the United States-woud
render justice for the injuries sustained. But faE
more grievous than the surrender-far more CALLING
than to see our own flag lowered on our own soil
it to be told that there to the dshonor oi
the United States. There were men on that sandy
beach, Mr.. President, who had carried your flag
aloft amidst the thckest of the foe, and one had
been promoted by predecessor in your office for
first planting your colors upon the heights of Cerro
Gordo. Others among them had led your soldiers
across the continent and always in the path of duty
and of honor. For such men to be told that they
disgraced the country they once had served SO noby
and SO well, was pang sharper than that of death,
and might have wrung tear from men harder and
more callous than he who inflicted the irreparable
injury. - f5a- l.- = ...
need not tell yon that was unable to anticipate
the act of Capt Paulding. Military necessity re-
quired me to hold Punta Arenas and the idea never
entered my mind, that American officer protesting
to execute the law, would so far forget his duty
to infringe not only well established international
law, but also, the requirements of that instrument
with which involved the best hopes of mankind
the Constitution Of the United States Even
could have foreseen the action of Capt Paulding,
military reasons would have prevented me from
leaving the Point But it was impossible to imagine
that SO violent step-marked as it was in its de-
tails by conduct worthy OF soldiers in the sack of
the town-would have been taken by an officer of
the U. S. Navy. And, Mr.. President in the name
of the official oath which you have taken in the
presence of Almighty God, call upon you to pun
ish the offender and to right the wrong. presume
not to direct Your wisdom in the course it shall
pursue; but in the name Of the men whose rights
your officers have infringed and whose honor has
been most harshly and heedlessly trampcd in the
dust, call for the justice it is your high prerogative
to bestow.
But permit me to conclude by adding that in all
events and under all circumstances there are duties
and responsibilities from which and the officers
and men represent will not, dare not, shrink No
extreme of illegal interference-no amount of hard
words and unjust epithets, deter from follow
ing the path which is before US. The functionaries
OF the Government may exhaust upon me the ex-
pletives of the language-they may insult the pub
lie conscience and degrade their own characters by
applying to US all the epthets their morbid imagina-
tons suggest: but conscious of tho right and jus
tce of our cause, shall not relax our efforts nor
be driven into violation Of the law. As long as
there is Central American exiled from his native
land and deprived Of the property and civil rights
for the services he rendered u.s. in evil as we'll as
good report SO long shall time and our energies
be devoted to the work of their restoration. As
long as the bones of our companions in arms, muir
dered under a barbarous decree of the Costa Rican
Government lie bleaching and unburied on the
hillsdes of Nicaragua, so long shall our brains con-
trive and our hands labor for the Justice which one
day we will surely obtain
Permit your officers, if you can, to trampe under
foot the Constitution and the laws; pass unnotced
if you will, the most violent invasions of individual
rights and public duties treat with scorn and con-
tempt if you choose, the demands for Justice which
we humbly and deferentialy place at your feet-we
will not be cast down dsmayed We fight for
the rights of our race, which have been denied us
by an ungratefu and degraded aristacracy We
strive to retain unsuied the device some of our an
cestors have borne on many field-"None shall
wound us with impunity." And so long as our faith
in right endures good-our confidence in the God
of our fathers remains unshaken-so long shall we
use all just and proper means to regain what has
been wrongfully wrested from us.
I have the honor to remain,
With high respect
Your obedient servant
VIM WALKER
His excellency the President of the United States