Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1861-01-02

Mr.. HoLDEN:-Every father OF hmily-all the !
cool, good sense Of the country. ows you their I
heartiest thanks FOR brsasting the torrent Of wild
fury which in now pushing forward our State to as
"the grandest temple which has ever been erected
to human freedom since the world began" His
words in this part If his message are pathetic and
beautiful IN high degree, and should be dwelt
upon by as oil with profound solemnity, before We
take as he expresses il, 1.-THE last fatal plunge"
Those who are rushing with such greedy haste TO
have theirhants in the bloody parricide little know
what they are doing and what train Of calamities
they preparing for their families and postsrty
1t is true tho South has met with p:ovocations and
has just right to complain. and ought to continue
to insist upon redress But who are the leaders in
this sad and most responsible work Of breaking
down our government because of present grievances
Are they the wisest. the cainlest. and the most
aggrieved part Of our countryi No; the State that
is ambitious to head this tragca deed OF demolsh-
ing this most glorious work Of Washington and his
collaborators is distinguished for its resessness
and impulsiveness 1t once before came to the very
verge Of dissolvng the Union, and has been dstin.
guished ever since for attitude Of cold dsdain il
not proud defiance towards that great national fabric
under whose suspicious protection we have been
Furnishing in the most astonishing degree at home,
and guarded from all fear Of aggression abroad. A
State which has usurped to herself the exclusive
name of I" Carolina" and been accustomed to make
her Northern neghbor the butt Of her ridicule and
not to spare her contemptuous Aouts even in her
legislative halls. Yet zoe, treated with this habtual
contumely, are ready to attach ourselves to her as
to a steam-tug, to be dragged by her into the
chary bdis from which she starts not back arghted.
There is no State in this Union where dominant
majority inperious and less tolerant of op-
position. They stigmatize all opposition with some
contemptuous name, such as submssionist, SO as to
make all her citizens ashamed and afraid Of having
it attached to them; and thus every note Of dis
sent is over-awcd and hushed. This was SO keenly
felt in Notification times, that one of her ex-Gov-
ernors, who had then been tnionist, said: I was
once in a minority party; will take care how am
found so again." Those who follow in her wake
will find her. l trow, harder master than Cnele
Sam ever was. Yea, her little finger will be
thicker than Uncle Sans loins" In that critical
period of her history her two parties were all armed
10 the teeth. and nothing hindered bloody nassa-
of each other in the streets Of Charleston hut
the lucky accident that the two professions hap
pened to pass along different streets. The entire
unanimity Of her citizens on the momentous ques.
ton now before the country is boosted of and relied
on as evidence Of its truth and righteousness
Nothing could be more deusive. Any rejecting
man who watches the phases Of public opinion and
searches into their causes cannot fail to observe the
accidental influences which often determine them.
SOmetlI0eS Tic C0uSe keetn8 I'd NC
ical-I lad almost said atmospherical;; like the
effect of the grotto tel cane upon every animal de-
scending into the de,dly stratum Of air lying below
= certain level. So at this time. no lungs that
breathe South Carolina air can utter anything but
the South Carolina shiJboleth Sometimes this mar
velous sympathy is due to the oversIadowing infu-
ence Of some great man. No State is so great
man.worshipper South Carolina, as was lately ex-
emplified in the universal and implicit submission
to Mr.. Calhouns opinions. Few, except such great
original minds as Legare and Preston, rose above
this idolatry. The writer Of this article. in q con-
versaton with distinguished citizen of that State
just after Mr.. Claws compromise bill had queted its
commissions, remarked to him that there this
difference between the two Carolnas: that the one
ostrncised her great men, and the other eanonized
hers. YES" replied he, land your fate is safer
than ours for qucsence is better than rashnesx.
Your people are saved by their caution; ours are
ruined by rushing on blind!y after their in.petuous
leaders" South Carolina is willing to have the
splendor Of confagntion, though it end in smoke
and ashes She is now eager to be first 'in at the
DEATH" as the fox.hunters say; and verify, the hot
and indecent haste indicated in consummating this
parricde Of our common parent resembles the bois-
ferrous lcvity Of chase. Instead Of those noble
words Of Virgil which she has made her State
motto: "-Animis opibusQue pnrati." could recon-
med as a substitute other words Of the same great
predcstnated Troy urged on the fasul Hor,e into
her citadel:
Nos meseri, qnib uiiimus esset
lnstamus mmen,ores. cecique flrore.
She fixes the time for the deberation of her Con-
vsntion. which is to pass upon the doom Of herself
and all of US few days before the Christmas holi-
days, purpose that the business may he shufled
| off rapidly possible, and the members have
time to get home to their Christmas dinners and
drink bumper to the funeral Of the Union Nay,
if to forbid all pause and hesitation and freedom
Of opinion each member is previously pledged to
secession. There are few voices in Georgia who
cry pause! Look before you leap!' In part,cu-
lar. most statcsman-likc letter written by J. P.
King, which appeared in the Augusta Constitu,
! tionalist.' holds up an affecting picture of the
dreadful mschicfs into which these people are run.
! ming U.S. But what chance is there amid the roa,
Of revolution, for these few mild and sage counsel
: Tors to be heard? They true prophets but alas
! like Cassandra, destined never to he believed.
| FABIUS.
! December II, 1860.