Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-03-24
CONSIDERATIONS RELATIVE TO A SOUTH
ERN C0NFEDERACY.
THoRNBURG PLANTATION, I
Northampton Co., n. Z. I

Northampton Co., n. q.
To the Editor of the Standard: .
SIR: In one Of your recent issues you call upon
the citizens of State to give you their views on
the present aspect affairs in the nation and Of the
course for the South to pursue that you may be sup
ported lin case Of approval in laying before your
readers the sentiments you have heretofore express
ed. This call deem it highly proper to be made,
not only by yourself (your very responsible sltua-
tiUn Editor of paper, which is the principal
source of information public matters to so large
a portion of our people, makes it important you
should be we'll informed but also the Executive and
other officers should in momentous time as the
present when complete change in the relations OF
our country is imminent, know well what support
they can rely OH in case urgent necessity demands
unusual and decided action by our State.
lie who now denies that "there is danger to the
State"-that dissolution of the ConfedeIacy esab-
ished by our fathers is threatening and immnently
So blind to what is passing around him, is regard
less of the continuous progress and increasing ag-
grcssions ofthe abolitonists and their afators the
black Republicans and closes his reason to the
teaching of hStory-that of the Puritans in partic-
ular-who have always been exhibited as fanatics
and despOtcally aggressive from the times OF John
Knox and Oliver Cromwell to those Of Gerrtt Smith
and Wcnda Phillips.
In this state oftrouble and danger, it is emnently
proper for us to consider what we, the citizens OF
the State shall do first for self preservation,
next Cor the preservation of law and good order
among ourselves, and Gf consistent with these) our
present Union.
No Southern man, nor any man well informed as
to the true situation of the South and of the negro
character will deny that to preserve our property,
even more our very lives and the lives ana honor OF
our wives and families the four millions of negroes
among us must be kept in their present state of sub
lection That this will soon become impossible, I'M
der the continuous pcrScvcring and energetic ag
Of Ito to oil vhn hnyp
like myself have watched the progress of events for
the last twenty-five years.
What in 1880 and '35 was the dcnunciation Of
Arthur Tappan and his satellites, in 1859 becomes
the raid of John Brown, encouraged and supported
by thousands of men, public and private, and aided
by money enough to arm and equip thousands Of
insurrcctionary negroes! What, at the former Pc
Rod, were the muttcred vaporings of few fanatics
and the revilingS of few obscure prints is now dis
seminatcd broadcast through the land by the press
by the pulpit-prO pudOr and by orators and lee
turerS and is even forced upon as by VILE false and
inccndiary documents IAN irrcpreSsibe conflict is
loudly proclaimed by the great leader of the North
who declares that "thcy and will eXterminate
slavery from the land they Twill follow it in Nir-
ginia in the Carolinas, aye even into Texas" And
to effect this calls to his aid higher law than
the Constitution he las Solemniy SrOrn to support ;
land this is the man that the North expects quietly
and submissvely to be installed in authority over
us, and in whose hands the whole power of the En-
ecutive the army, navy and treasury. is to be plac
ed. Verify, we shall deserve all that has been
threatened against us, if we dO.)
Again: what but few years back was at
tempt at various cancellations, is at this moment an
attempt at of the grosScst and most gratuitous
insults ever put by one nation upon another! The
John Brown raid was bad enough, but the encour-
agement of efforts to produce instruction and trea
son among us, ten times more numerous and q hun
1rnl ti,nnS horrible ic IouonH tia .IOhn
Brown raid in atrocity; what then can we think Of
those who have been banded together for months,
with unanmty unparalleled in political history
for the purpose of elcctng the governing officer
over Southern men that man whose homes and
households and whose property he had been en-
couraging others to destroy! The anmus which
governed sixtyeight Representatives of the North,
to encourage the attempts recommended in Helpers
book to create instruction and treason among us,
and the unanimous support of these men by the
black Republican party, must be looked on by can
did minds outwcghinS far all the good effect OF
all the Union meetings a: the North uRdcc0mpdniet
they have been by any rebuke to these men, New
Jersey alone standing out in view having done
Such being the state of things in our country, it
is time to ponder them well it is time to look out
for our selfpreServation. Now the question comes
up, shall we be any better off in a Southern Con.
federacy than in one with such dScordant elements
in it as the present one with the North, and espe-
cialy with that puritan people Of New England?
am not so preSumptuouS Mr. Editor, as to sup
pose that can lift the veil of the future and dis
close what will and what will not hc the state oil
things in deplOrablc an event as the breaking up
of this great confederacy. | content myself with
laying before my fellow-citizens of the State the
views and considerations which have presented them
selves to my mind in long and anxious examina
ton of the subject. propose to offer these conSid
eratons very conciscly in the following order: LIST
the relations that would exist to the civilized world
in case of the formation Of Southern Confederacy
by the fifteen slave States; next to the North oil
to Northern COnfcderacy; and, lastly, those that
would exist among the States and people of the
Southern Confederacy themselves.
Promising that statesman or even reader O
modern History, will deny that the material inter
extS of nations is the guide of their policy in thi:
the 10Th century, that Cabinets governed ir
treaties, alliances recprocitieS, &C. by the expected
advantages to their nations, let note how shall
stand towards the rest of the world in this regard
A Southern Confederacy would present to Europe
a nation that produces all those great staples Cot
ton, Sugar, Tobacco, Naval Stores &c, &c, which
are not only in great demand, but of absolute ne
ceSsify to the maintenance of millions Of her inhab
itants either for consumption manufacture, reve
nue.. The destruction the material dimnutoI
of these products Of the South would be attended by
total change in the of trade manufacture ant
commerce of the civilized world. Its destruction
would be followed Immediately by bankruptcies ant
ruin of thousands in England, France and Germa
n.y. such as were not witnessed even during tn
wars of Napoleon. 1t would throw out of employ
ment and upon the public for support, the mil
liOns-five in Great Britain alone-who now sup
port themselves by the manufacture &C., of orr PrO
duets alone. This is no exaggeration. Lord Stanly
the son of the present Premier of England, an
/ himself one of the first statesmen of his country
declared in a speech to his constituents only fey
years since on occasion of the difficulties bctwee
! the United States and Great Britain that "a wa
with the United States was next to an impossible
ty;" that the mutual interest of the two countrie
were too closely connected; that the deprivation
the supplies of Cotton, would, in six months pre-
duce almost universal bankruptcy, and in twelv
months an insurrecton of the working classes
Now inst one reflection here Is II likely that Enc