Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-01-11

| Federal Government
friendship of that party for what he denomnates the
| slave system He declares the Union between the
States having slave and free labor to be incompati-
| BILE and announces that one or the other must dis
appear. He even asserts that it was the pupose OF
the trainers of the Government to destroy stare pro-
ertU and cites as evidence of it the provision LOT an
! amendment to the Constitution. lie seeks 10 alaiih
his auditors by assuring them of the purpose on inc
mart of the South and the Democratic party to force
| slavery upon all the States OF the Union AosuIu
| as all this may seem to you, and ncreauious " ~
may be of its acceptance 10y any lntellsent
Of the citizens of the United States have reason TO
beeve that If has been inculcated to small eX-
tent in the Northern mind.
1t requires but curSory examination OF the Con-
sttution of the United States, but partial knoWl-
edge of its history, and of the motives OF the men
who formed it. to see how utterly alacious it is to
ascrbe to them the purpose of interfering with the
domestic institutions of any of the States; out
disrcspect for that Instrument fnaticaL disregard
Of ats purposes st0uM erer induce majority, hOw-
erer large to seek by amending the Constitution to
perrert it from its original object, and to dePrire
vou of the equality uhich yonr fathers JequeatheR
to vou Isay let tie star OF Mississippi be snatchei
from the constellation, to shine by its inherent light
if it must be so, through all tie storms and clouds
Of war"
An imperfect abstract of the speech, sent North
ward by telegraph, msrepresented the Senator from
Mississippi in many particulars, but chiefly in max
if the Democratic candidate for President was de-
feated in 1860. What he did say on the occasion
has been printed under his own revision, and we
take therefrom the extract we have quoted. 1t is
SO plainly stated that he who runs may read, and
understand under what juncture of affairs General
Davis would advise Mississippi to such protection
elsewhere than in violated Union.
The thought and purpose expressed by this dis
tnguished soldier and statesman of the South, have
been, in one form or another, fOreShadowed on re-
cent occasions by other public men in the same por
ton of the Republic. 1t has not, in every instance
been done with equal precision and cearnesS. 1t is
to be understood, however, that when Southern
men compelled to speak of secession, they have
reference to the contingency of President elected
and controlled by party inspired by the desire
the purpose, andthe will to bring about a condition
of things described by Seward, and proclaimed by
hun as A GREAT TRUTH" In that sense, we
read the resolution Just unanimously adopted among
other resolutions, by the Governor and Council Of
the conservative State of. North-Carolina:
"ResOlred, That the Union of the States can only
be perpetuated so long it continues TO be Union
of equals. We still devoted to it, and would
behold its dissolution with profound regret; yet II
are cannot hOId our stare property, and at tie same
time enjoy reP&ss and tranquility IN the Cnion ere
wW be constrainGl in justice toOUrselces anil to orr
posterity to establish ne tornss amd to PrOrde her
guards TOr or OGcn security and tceH being; rely
ing for in so doing the Righteousness of
our cause and on the support Of that Providence
who so signally guided and succOred our ancestors
in times o: danger"
What were the circumstances under which Gov
crnor Seward announced the brutal and bloody "ir-
repressible conflict" dogma? What light do sub
SCquent events pour upon the motives with which
he wrote and pronounced that speech? The letters
of Colonel Forbes, published Immediately after the
John Brown raid, still fresh in the public mind
1t is not forgotten that in the one written TO DIR.
date Of q Colonel
saws
"On Saturday ClSt of May) had an Interview
with Senator VIM. II. Seward, Of New York, hav-
ing been introduced to him through letter of
leading Abolitionist, DR. Bailey OF the Era. / rent
fuly into tile rhole Hiatter in all its btdriags lie
expressed regret that he had been told and said
that he, in his position, ought not to have been il
formed of the consequences. In part agree with
him, and in part differ
Nobody doubts that the phrase, the whole mat
ter, refers to John Browns concocted plan for eff
feeting the abolition of slavery Brown and Forbes
were conspirng together for the same end but they
differed in the details of their plots Brown insist
ing upon an actual armed invasion, and raising the
standard of Instruction upon Slaveholdng SOIL and
Forbes preferring the safer mode of running off
slaves, in large numbers. and all along the border
OF the slave States. They finally agreed upon
"miXed plan" in which the Forbes clement greatly
predominated; and while both these men were to
be enlisted as practical agents the whole affair
to be under the supervision of a committee. All
this was agreed upOn according TO Col. Forbes, in
the Spring early summer of 1S57,-over two
years ago. In February, 1858, Forbes visited
Washington for the double purpose of getting his
own pay and of breaking up the project which
Brown and he had agreed to carry into effect Ac-
cording to his letters he revealed this plot to scv-
eral prominent gentlemen in Washington. among
whom the late DR.. Bailey, and Senator sum
ner Seward and Hale and pressed upon them the
extreme Importance of stopping Brown in his cru
SADIE. He was engaged in this work up to May,
1SjS,-thc date of his latest letter to DR. Howe.
The JoaInatcf C0mmerce in New York has stat
cd that it had learned from FOrbeSs "Orn EIs"
that he told Governor Seward all The New York
Times in subsequent article in Governor Stewards
behalf not denying that Seward did hear aH insists
that he told Forbes the thing must stop.
This much then is clear. Governor Seward in
May, 1858, knows of this contemplated crime of
John Brown against the peace and sovereign life of
Virginia.
We repeat that to denounce Southern members of
Congress for expressions thrown oft in the heat
of debate is to take superficial view of our pre-
sent troubles What do the Southern people
think? What do their newspapers say? Do the
members of Congress express what is so thought or
said? If they do who shall complaint If they do
not then their constituents will speedily say so,
and settle the account with them, without our in
reference.
We are asked why we DO not utter words of de-
nunciation against the men of the South, who thus
avOw a purpose under such certain and expressed
contingencies, to go out of the Union. We answer
that if we were Southern in our associations
are Northern; if we loved Mississippi as we love
Massachusetts; if our family, children, our
hopes, everything all there, they all
here; if we believed that any political party were
in possession of the Federal Government to do what
it may well enough be supposed in the South that
Republicans would do in relation to slave institu
lions, which is to destroy slave property, and if all
we had for ourSef or our children were bound up in
those institutions, then would we do and say what
we have quoted Jefferson Davis doing and saying
1t is said that during the present session of Con-
gress, the Southern men do all the talking, while
the Northern men are quiet and composed Grant
it and then SuDDOSe that the condition of thinrS