Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-12-01
plsunion for Existing Causes.

some OF the same difficulties which now beset the |
existing Union. The States south of us would pro-
duce and export cotton while the middle or bread
stuff States would become deeply interested in man
ufactures Foreigners from Europe and the North
would pour INTO the latter and push the slave pop
ulation farther south. Manufacturers would de-
mand and obtain protection, and free labor would
contend with and root out slave labor in the middle
States, until at length the latter would commence to
agtate against the cotton States the North is now
agitating against u.s. As new regions towards the |
tropics should be acquired by the Southern Confed-
eracy, and as the demand for cotton increased, the
policy OF re-opening the African slave trade would
gain ground and ultimately that trade would be es-
tablished and would be carried on openly under the
Southern flag. This would be death blow to slave
ry in the middle States. 1t would at once reduce
the price Of our best slaves from twelve hundred to
four hundred dollars for the Southern planter would
much prefer barbarian at two hundred dollars to
civilized negro at five hundred In addition to this,
such a policy would expose the Southern Confede-
racy to the hazards of war with the Northern Con-
federacy and with European powers.
The two Confederaces, the Northern and the
Southern, would meet rivals at foreign courts and
in foreign markets. Their ministers and merchants
would partake Of the spirit of the people at home,
and they would cripple each other and involve
themselves in endless and most injurious complica-
tons in their intercourse with foreign powers
These foreign powers stimulated by the hope of
gain, and dislikng us for popular forms of gov
ernment would insinuate themselves into the very
heart of our system-would foment jealousies be-
tvraap tha trro Tor fol Io,, A.
other under obligations to them for aid or mediation
in the midst of strifes and wars; and the end would
be foreign influence in all our councils foreign man.
ners in all our social walks and foreign gold in the
hands of INSCRIPTIONS demagogues as the price of
some portion of their country's liberties.
In case of separation party spirit the excuses of
which are now so obvious and injurious, would rage
with tenfold heat There would be parties in each
Confederacy against each; there would be parties
opposed to and in favor of foreign influence; there
would be parties advocating dictatoral powers in the
central governments and parties advocating the
largest liberty or least restraint; there would be
parties advocating and parties opposing the acquis
ton of territory; there would be parties siding
with the great body of the people, and parties en-
deavorng to grasp exclusive privileges for the few
at the expense of the many In the midst of all this
war would most probably be waged along the lines
of the two OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES interrupted only by
hollow truces, or by compromises made but never
intended to be observed, or by mediatiOns at the
hands of foreign powers OF course as the result OF
all this industry would anguish, trade would be OBJ
structed education would be neglected internal i'm
provenents of all kinds would be arrested and the
morals of society would be injured War would
raise up standing armies which would obstruct civil
rule and eat out the substance of the people. This
would be the especially in the Southern States
where large armies would be necessary not only for
defensive operations against the foreign Northern
States but to keep the slave population in subjec-
ton. The result would be military despotism The
Legislatures of the Southern States would have to
sit perpetualy clothe their Governors with large
discretionary powers. These powers would be
abused, and the voice of law and the claims OF JUS
tice would be unheard amid the alarms of war
Constitutional liberty would no longer be the birth
right of our people, but instead thereof we would
have discretionary powers martial law, military
rule oppressive taxation, perpetual contentious, and
! civil and servie war.
Such are some OF the evils which would most
!
| Dsunion at this time will certainly occasion war.
| II peaceful separation in the last resort could be
effected, the two Confederacies, any number of
Confederacies tread their respective paths with
out engaging in mortal conflict. They might at
| length reunite in new union on foundations more
lasting than the present; but il any State shall
secede with the expectation of drawing other States
after her, and If blood shall be she'd the beginning
| the middle and the end will be civil war; The
States thus forced out though they will sympathze
with the State which committed them TO disunion
against their will, and though they may stand by
her and defend her in her extremity, yet they will
dislike her and watch her as an evil star in the
| constellation. A violent separation would, there
FORE SOW the seeds of discord in the Confeder-
acy. 1t would commence its career with growing
antagonisms in its members. 1t would be forced
union which time would dissolve or passion fret to
pieces.
There is only one evil greater than disunion, and
| that is the loss of honor and Constitutional right
That ech the people Of the South UiH nerer submit
to. Sooner than submit to it they would put their
shoulders to the pillars, as Samson did, and tear
down the temple, though they themselves should
| perish in the ruins. But our honor a people is
still untarnished-our Constitutional rights, so far
as the federal government is concerned still I'M
touched. If the federal government should attempt
even to tarnsh the or to deprive us of the 9TH
err we for one would be ready to resist, and ready
todissolve the Union without regard to consequences.
But not no,o the non-saveholder says not nOw !
the STAKEHOLDER, whose property civil war would in
volve in imminent peril, says not no~ millions OF
our friends in the free States say not nOw! If we
must dissolve the Union, let us do it one people,
and not by bare majority. Let us wait until the
people of the State more united on the subject
than they are now. Depend upon it our people are