Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-12-06

E4 The following from the Standard OF June
H. $780, will show that we have been consistent in
our views as Constitutional Union man. We held
and expressed these sentiments before the election
for President, and we hold and express them Eow
s-., From the Standard of June H. 1901
A CONSTITUTIONAL UNION.
North Carolina has been for the space of seventy
years n member of the federal Union. She entered
this great siserhood Of States after mature debera
ton. She did so believing she would thereby best
promote her own interests and more effectuay than
in any other situation protect herself from encroach
ments by foreign States Strong in her own arm
and in her own determined purpose to maintain the
right under all circumstances she nevertheless
not unmindfu of the fact that in union there would
be strength beyond that which any individual State
could possess During this long period she has been
faithful to all her Constitutional obligations and
the other hand, while her rights as a slavehoding
State have not always been fully respected and
maintained as they should have been yet no delib-
crate wrong has been put upon her. and none of her
vital interests have been assaed or threatened by
the common government. When her Estates of
the South have complained of un lust tariff laws,
protested against the encroachments of the non
slavehoding States upon their ghts in the common
territories, she has sympathzed with them in these
complaints and protests; but when they have multi
fled the laws taken steps to dissolve their rea-
tons with the other States she has mildly but firmly
interposed to prevent the calamitous consequences
which would flow from notification and dsunion.
She has never been either a multiplying a dsunion
State, and she is not so now. Some great cause
must move her-Some great wrong must either be
inflicted or must oyershadow her, before she will
seriously contemplate by her own act severance Of
the Union. She feels that while Virginia, and Ten
nessee, and Maryland and Kentucky are safe in the
Union she will he safe also and that her honor, as
sensitive and untarnished theirs, has been con-
fided to her own keeping and not to that of South
Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. She is bread
stuff rather than "cotton State" Her interests
central among the southern States relying as
she does for protection not the saveholding
States south of her than those of the north and
west. She is not so much of "cotton State" as
to be ready just to pitch into the vortex of dis
union and re solution. She will not rush into this
vortex herself and she will hold others back, if she
can.
During this long period of seventy years, North
Carolina has enjoyed almost uninterrupted repose.
The battles rendered necessary by just regard for
the honor of the country, have been fought else
where than on her SOIL Her people con-
tented, prosperous, and happy. Her fields smile
with plenty, and the hum of industry is heard in all
her workshops. Her credit in the money market is
equal to the best. Her internal improvements
progressing, and prospecting as they progress Her
Common School system is the best in all the South
ern States. Her slave property is secure No
mace even is uttered against her, save by the more
radical portion of the black Republicans. The Ma
tional Democrats of the non-slaveholding States
have defended and are defending her rights
slaveholdng State both in Congress and before their
fellow-citiZens.
In a word no reason exists why North Carolina
should contemplate at this time dissolution Of the
Union.
While we would surrender no right Of our State,
and while we would preserve her honor untarnished
among her sisters, yet disunion is one Of the last
things to be thought Of Disunion would be frater-
nal strife civil and servile war, murder arson, pill
lage robbery, and fire and blood through long and
cruel years. 1t would unsettle all business diminish
the value Of all property, put the lives of both sexes
and all ages in peril, and launch the States on
of scenes which no eye has scanned and no naviga-
tor sounded. 1t would bring debt, and misrue, and
oppressive taxes, to be followed perhaps, by the
military rule of titled tyrants. 1t would wrench
apart the tenderly entwined affections of millions
of hearts, making it crime in the North to have
been born in the South, and crime in the South to
have been born in the North. 1t would convert the
great body of the conservative men Of the North,
who now our friends into either deadly enemies
or Indifferent spectators of our intestine struggles
which would increase in intensity until law order,
justice, and civil rule would be forgotten unknown.
We repeat, there is good for dissolv
ing the Union The may arise, but let us not
hasten to make meet it. Who desires it now
Who would cause il? Who would "precipitate
the States" into bloodshed and revolution? Who
would darken the stars that now flash in the flag
of the Union? Who, without cause and for no Suf-
icient reason, would have instead Of peace, dis
cord in the place of concord and all the calamites
which must result from the dissolution ola govern
ment such as ours? If such a man exists, let him
stand forth to be blasted by the indignant malcdic-
tons Of patriotic millions. Voices from the past,
voices innumerable in the present. appeal to us not
to peril rashly our Constitutional Union. From all
battle fields where Southern blood has mingled with
| Northern blood beneath one common and glorious
banner; from the shores of the Delaware, over
whose breaking ice that stormy night pressed
the weary and bleeding feet of those two thousand
soldiers the only the ororn, the last hope of great
| WASHINGTON himself; from the kingdoms of the
EARTH in which the dOwntrodden millions struggle
beneath the iron hoof of despotism casting longing
and hopeful glances towards this, the first, as it
may be the last great experiment of SeEgovernment
| among men from the whole civilized world, in
terested in material prosperity and in the pro-
gress and happiness of man, there comes up to us
| with laundering southland over all of it and
! ringing through all of 1t as with the blast of a
| trumpet the spirit voice of the immortal Jackson,
| speaking from his record and from his whole mill
| tary and civil life" The FEDERAL UNIoN-lT
MUST AND SHALL BE PRESERVED" Pre-
served, not as a consolidated aggressive usurping
| Union, but as Constitutional Union protecting
all equally and dispensing its benefits and blessings
as much to one section rs another. Let us cling to
| such Union as 1.-THE mariner clings to his last
| plank when night and the tempest close around
him." As long as the Constitution is preserved in
violate we shall have nothing to fear. 1t will be
| time enough when that instrument which is the
bond of the Union, shall have been broken, or its
spirit disregarded dissolve existing relations and
| provide new guards for future security.
The Parker Family and Company.
We understand that the last performance Of this