Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-12-29
For the Standard.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF DISUNIoN.


There are some among US who profess to believe
that dissolution of the Union OF these States may
be peaccably effected If they are sincere, and we
take it for granted they they deceive themselves
and listen to the song of syren that will lure them
to civil war. There are various points, any one of
which it will be difficult to pass without conflict,
and to pass all Of which in peace will be impossible.
How are the army and the navy to be divided? How
is the common property OF all to be apportioHed p
How is the President to discharge his duties under
his oath of Office in enforcing the laws of Congress
of the Unionl Will the great Northwest quietly
submit to the closing of the mouth of the MISSISSIPPI
pi. Can our navigable streams roll their useless
waters to the ocean. untinged with blood! what
disposition is to be made of forts and arsenais
Our dock-yards Our federal Court Houses and
Post offices? The only basis for hope OF peace
must be the perfection or the extinction of human
nature, and that is just no basis at all. He who
trusts to it for peace leans upon reed that VIII
pierce his side and stain his garments with suicidal
blood.
No government was ever yet dismembered with
out struggl. and an appeal to arms. Fire and
sword-rapine and bloodshed-are the inevitable
concomitants of the breaking up of the weakest
governments. It is not worthy OF the name oil gov
eminent if it peaceaby fall to pieces. Ours is
a strong government 1t is composed OF various
parts but all the parts cemented together by the
best blood that flowed in the veins OF man; and
the shock that skaters it must be tremendous 10
divide it QUITO separate its constituent portions
is no chd's play, and no work to be desired by
lover of peace. High swelling words, empty boasts,
and dlreful threats cannot rend it. Blue cockades,
even with button in the centre, all manufactured
and arranged by Yankee hands, and purchased with
Southern gold can neither break up the Union nor
"starve" the Yankees. The clang of steel and the
roar of cannon alone unloose the bonds OF the
Union; and with that clang and roar the warm life
blood will gush from gaping wounds, and the demon
of civil war; attended by carnage and cont1agraton,
will stalk with giant strides the entire land.
And once the torch of civil war is lighted between
these States, when and where is it to be quencheo
And when quenched, what will be left in place OF its
red and baleful glare? Would to God that only
chaos were the result But it will be worse than
chaus Chaos presents to the eye no cities sacked,
no fields ravaged country devastated, no tears,
no blood; and to the widows walls, no orph-
ans cries. no patriots curses no groanS OF agonlZed
Freedom no signs Of expiring Liberty. But all
these sights and sounds, with others innumeIabe,
will rise before eyes and ring in our ears and
gather the bitter fruits of dIsunion, we will
curse the hour that hell-sent torch was lighted 1t
will but to light the funeral pyre of the great
est, freest, happicst and most prosperous govern
ment on earth while at the same time it will lick its
lanbent tongue around the hearts Of the oppressed
and down-trodden of all lands burning with worse
than deaththroes, and utterly consuming their last,
their only hope, and leaving them in despair. The
grass that green's our hills and valleys in early spring
will ere the summer sun, be Redeemed with human
gore. The maiden's JOY GUS song will be exchanged
for wild lamentations. Even our children-the
light of our eyes and the hope of our hearts-will
turn with saddened souls from their innocent sports
to ask grief stricken mother if father has been
killed in battle" No heart conceive no pen or
pencil paint the horrors of n civil war. Burning
towns fields laid waste and murdered men, form
horrible portion of the picture but not the most
horrible. Think of women rayiShcd, and the bright
locks of childhood matted with blood. Think of
servile Instruction and the unrestrained passions
of infuriate demons. Contemplate the scenes that
would be presented and then rush, if you can, into
the vortex of civil war.
My countrymen, beware the impetuosity-the
| "zea! without knowledgen-of our young men, just
verging on manhood, with all the bravery, all the
chivary of the most renowned Castilians, but with
out the Judgment the forethought and the discre-
ton of mature manhood And more especially be-
Of designing politicians-men whose souls have
been heated with the fercest fires Of ambition and
who have deSpared of ever quenching, or satlating
the demands of those fires under the present gov
ernment-men who had rather rule in a destructive
war than serue in a state of quiet prosperity. On
these two classes, mostly, you find the disunion
badge-the blue cockade of civil war, with all its
attendant horrors-the blne cockade bought by
Southern disunionists with Southern gold, but
ufactured formed and fashioned by Northern hands.
Let the PEOPLE rise in their might and judge
and decide. In the honest expression of the people
| believe the old maxim of ror populi, cor Del, is
verified.
OLD GUARD.