Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-12-05
7r DisuniOn 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 slaye pop
uation 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
agitate against the cotton States the North is now
agitating against us. As new regions towards the
tropics should be acquired by the Southern Confed
eracy, and the demand for cotton increased, the
policy of reopening the African slave trade would
gain ground and ultimately that trade would be es-
tablshed and would be carried ON openly under the
Southern flag This would be a death-blow to slave
ry in the middle States. It would at once reduce
the price Of 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 policy would expose the Southern Confede-
racy to the hazards of war with the Northern Con-
: federacy and with European powers.
-. The two Conlederacies, the Northern and the
Southern would meet as rivals at foreign courts and
in foreign maakets 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 compca-
tions in their intercourse with foreign powers
These foreign powers, stimulated by the hope of
gain, and disking US for our popular forms of gov
ernment. would insinuate themselves into the very
heart of our system-would foment jeaousics be-
tween the two Confederacies, and lay one or the
other under obligations to them for aid or mediation
in the midst Of strfes and wars; and the end would
be foreign influence in all our councils, foreign man.
in all social walks, and foreign gold in the
hands of unscrupulous demagogues as the price of
some portion of their country's liberties.
In of separation party spirit, the excesses of
which 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 dctatoria powers in the
central governments and parties advocating the
largest liberty or least restraint; there would be
parties advocating and parties opposing the acqusi
ton of more territory; there would be parties siding
with the great body Of the people, and parties
deavoring 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 Confederacies- 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 the result of
all this industry would languish trade would be OBJ
structcd, 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 perpetually 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 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 servile war.
| Such arc some OF the evils which would most
probably result from disunion for existing causes,
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 d
length reunite in q 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 shed, the beginning
the middle, and the end will be civil war. The
States thus forced out, though they will sympathize
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 evil star in the new
constellation. A violent separation would, there
FORE SOW the seeds of discord in the new 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. .-.r
There is only one evil greater than disunion and
that is the loss of honor and Constitutional right
That ecil the people Of the South sOill 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 people is
still untarnshed- Constitutional rights, so far
as the federal government is concerned are still
touched If the federal government should attempt
even to tarnish the or to deprive of the 9TH
er, we for one would be ready to resist and ready
to dissolve the Union without regard consequences
But not noo the nonslaveholder says not noso =
the STAKEHOLDER, whose property civil war would in
volve in imminent peril, says not nou millions Of
our friends in the free States say not mow! If we
must dissolve the Union, let us do it as one people,
and not by bare majority Let as wait until the
people of the State are more united on the subject
than they are now. Depend upon it our people are