Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1861-03-13
THE PEACE coNFERENcE.e.


The Wilmington papers. furnish sketches Of
speech delivered there BY George Davis, Esq, upon
the action of the Peace Conferences Of which he was
member. He condemned the plan adopted by the
Conference as whole and in it's several parts, and
made legal argument againstit laying great stress
upon its not containing distinct recognition
property in slaves" Not being lawyers we do not
see why the very words employed in the present
Constitution, viz: persons held to service or Ia
bor," are not sufficient to be expressed in the pro-
posed amendment These words were satisfactory
to the great and good men who framed the Constitu-
ton in 1889, with George Washington, very large
stakeholder at their head, and we do not see why
the same words should not be satisfactory to U.S. es
pecialy as every Southern man who has ever spoken
or written on the subject has maintained that these
words were meant to designate, and do designate
slaoes. Shall We now, by demanding the employ
ment of different term, admit that those words IN
the existing Constitution do not mean slaves! l:ls
dangerous admission, supposng the North 10 De
inclined to invade our rights guaranteed by those
words.
The result to which Mr.. Davis has arrived is, that
the North will never consent to any better terms
than these Peace Conference terms that they ought
not to be agreed to BY the South; and that "the
South must 60 with the South, and not with any
new-anged central Republic, or as the tall.end anu
and victim of Free-Soil North" And ne says,
"as it so happened that the other four COMMISSION
ers from North Carolina we're equally divided on
most questions, the responsibility of giving the cast
ing vote generally, if not always, devolVed upon
him."
Now it has been stated in the papers, and Mr..
Davis leaves us to infer that it has been correctly
stated that the equal division which he speaks Oh
by which of course he meant an equal division nu-
mericalty-was Judge Ruffin and Gov. Morehead on
one side, and Gov. Reid and Mr. Barringer on the
other and that he sided and voted with the last two
Now without at all abating the high respect we en-
terrain for the legal ability and the patriotism OF Mr.
Davis, we cannot help believing that if the Peace
Conference plan were obnoxious to all the legal
objections which he urges against it, they would
have been equally to those two distinguished
LAWYERS who differed from him and voted for the
plan-especially to the exChief Jnstice, whose rep
utation as jurst is not confined to the limits OF
North Carolina of the United States, but is CO.
extensive with the English language. Nor can we at
all admit that either Of those distinguished gentle
men, thus gifted with discrimination to perceive,
would be less determined than himself to resent any
infringement of the rights of their section, their
State and themselves. Few within the bounds OF
the State have large interest at stake, in repu-
tation and in property as they; and none have
more earnestly and effectively devoted themselves
to her service And if they thought that the Peace
ment satisfactory to North Carolina, we, looking at
its apparent import and relying on their legal opin-
ion feel content to abide by it.
As to one of the two Commissioners with whom
Mr. Davis votcd-we mean Gov. Rcid-he has put
himself on record having gone to the Conference
without hope; and to DC without hope in this mat
ter has invariably proven to be without desire. In
a letter written on the 18th ult, from Washington
to the people of Rockingham county, conserving to
be candidate for the State Convention, 1--WE rejoice
to say he was beaten,) Gov. Reid said, -
Before leaving home, / entertained the opinion
that the North would not agree to any adjustment
that would prove &te and satisfactory either to the
States that have seeded to the Slaveholdng States
that still remain in the Union"
The sum of the whole matter is, in our Judgment
that the weight of opinion and of legal authortys
with the Chief Justice and Gov. Morehead. We
trust that may say this, and differ in opinion
with Mr.. Davis, without offence to him-that in
adopting the position of the sccessonists he has
likewise adopted their proscrptve and intolerant
views but is willing TO believe that others be-
sides himself are honest and patriotic, and may be
right
We will add regret that Mr.. Davis INDUCED in
contemptuous cpithet in regard to the idea of Cen
trail Coniederacy which, though not approved fly
him, has undoubtedly been entertained with favor
in case of necessity for dissolution By many lead
ing public and private men throughout the Central
States 1t is now before the Virginia Convention,
proposed by Hon. W. l.. Goggin- And North-Car.
DINA is quite as likely to become the "tal-end and
victim o. a Southern Conicderacy, should she at
tach herself to one, as of "a Tree soil North" In
decd it is perfectly apparent that she is treated with
at least as much respect by the latter as by the for
mer; and if she can secure her rights she had lar
better remain where she is and it she cannot secure
them, take counsel with those whose interests and
feelings arc identical with her own.-FayetteciHe
Observer.