Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-12-01
PRACTICAL AND PATRIOTIC VIEWS.

PRACTICAL AND PATRIOTIC VIEWS.
Letter from Hon. B. F. Moore of Raleigh, North
Carolina, to the Chairman Of the Salisbury Con-
ecntioH.
RALEIGH October, 1860.
Hon. SIoS r. ROGERS, Chairman, &c.
Dear Sir: l have received yours Of the goth
ultimo inviting me to unite with the friends of Bell
and Everett at their contemplated meeting in Sails
bury on the 18th and 18th instant
regret exceedingly that l cannot be present. |
regret it the more because should there expect to
meet thousands of my fellow citizens, who, like
myself have lived in habitual reverence of the
Union and do regard its preservation as the
greatest of political blessings because in it are con-
tanned, in my judgment the only hope of we'll
regulated liberty, and the best protection of our
rights
The times are full of gloomy apprehensions. The
public mind begins to awake from its repose in
prosperity and peace the threatened approach Of
. night Of blood and unnumbered woes an unlim-
tied depreciation of property Of every kind, and
destruction of the whole basis of society and govern
ment 1t feels that the first decided irreraceable
step in that direction under the display of hostile
arms will accomplish for this favored land heavier
curse than could be inflicted by ten years Of war
with the united arms of Great Britain and France
The sudden shocks and pauses, the onset of mad
dened disunioDists upon the palladium of our
safety" and the manly defence which the counsels
of Washington and the deep conviction of duty will
teach us to make in the struggle will FL the land
with diSmay and distress.
Dsunion, even under necessity, would be among
the saddest Of human events A wise people will,
therefore, avoid it If possible. And if brought
about now for the protested cause under the mad
counsels which threaten it The event would precede
for short time only the utter disappointment of
the objects promised, and soon reduce the South
however great the calamity inflicted on the North
md fJarlo ind ntlSR ha
foreign dependence.
In any attempt to sunder the Union on account Of
slavery fear deep agitation among ourselves. l
fear that when the dsunionist, under the plea of
protecting slavery, shall demand Of the people to
calculate the value of the Union, not few Of Them
in the agony Of their feelings in the prospect of
misery, and the increase of their burdens, will be
induced in the excitement Of the times to retort
and demand in turn the value of slavery. Even
with perfect Union of the Southern States after
severance, the Republic would require at least
twenty-five millions for an economical Government
in time Of profound peace. The portion Of North
Carolina in this burden could not be less than two
millions, and would be raised almost exclusively by
direct taxation This large sum, added to our
present levy, would gather an annual tax of nearly
three millions. For how many years in succession
do you think the State could bear such an exhaust
ing drain! The result would be an emigration to
some less burdened land, or a reputation of every
O0Du Oh the State. Our SISTER States immediately
around us would be no better of. Before we assume
such extraordinary burdens, which division will
make necessary, If we mean to preserve our faith
and protect our domestic safety against our neigh
bors oil the border, let be that they are ne
cessary to escape and moreoverthat they will enable
us to escape worse fate.
The apparent and probable calamities of disunion
not half told in the certain annual imposition
on our people of three millions with a certain
increase Of this sum for all time to come while the
pro lucts Of our industry shall be carried from us
and our wants from abroad shall be brought to MS
in British bottoms, allowed to monopolize all the
commerce of the new Republic as the price of her
favor and proposed protection. Among all the in
juries complained Of by the South to Justify disunion
not one Of them tciH be redressed or mitigated Ju
the erent.
]. That one which now, for The first time in the
history Of the Government is demanded. namely
that Congress shdJ pass Stare code for the Terri
tories, will never be heard of in the Republic
for no more slave territory, nor territory of any
kind, will be added to the Southern Republic All
hopes in Central America will perish, If not by
emigration thither and settlement Of the opponents
of slavery, yet by the restitution of maritime
strength in the new Republic; and if they perish
by neither of these, they will be crushed beneath
that universal British protection to be extended by
England alike to Central America and our Southern
Republic All hopes of Cuba will vanish. and
Spanish squadron between the Moro and the Belize
will, fear, appear much more formidable arma-
ment than now it seems. On the downfall of
Spanish power in this hemisphere the Queen of the
Antilles will pass under the yoke of England, and
this western Gibraltar will give her a naval supre-
macy along the whole coast Of the new Republic
that will lay every strip of its at the foot of
the British lion.
2. The rendition Of .tugitice slaues This will
cease with the right to demand it Great Britain
receives with open arms all who can reach Canada
All other nations adopt the same rule. And the
United States have ever submitted to this universal
law. The South has yielded to it in Silence and az
ter dissolution will have neither strength nor COM
pact to enforce or insist upon it. Fanaticism, al
vays most jealous when most opposed will lay open
her long border of fifteen hundred miles with the
promise of free home 10 every slave who can put
foot on her SOIL Within and along all that border
where now the South has thousands of friends,
whose rcspect for the Constitution and good faith
drive hack the fugitive slave and give such radsmen
as John Brown neither resting place nor hiding
pace from the vengeance of the law the counses of
the fanatic alone will be heard and alone be needed.
The Southern Republic will not 60 to war because
the Northern Republic shall. like Canada, open her
arms to receive the fugitive slave.
8. The aoitation ofthe question Of stdre,y. VIII
fat he bushed in our Southern Republic? 1t is
very certain that unless we change our own con-
duct. it will be none the less agitated When nave
the majority of our political orators ceased to make
that their eternal and never ending theme OF DISCUS
sion In and out Of Congress we have mao OUT iuii
sbare Of this sin. II has been for many years tne
escape valve of the Northern and Southern gas man
,factured more to make capital at home than 10 20
rod any where. The only result has been the IN