Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-09-04
The Disaster at Fort Hatteras.

Who is responsible for the late disaster at Fort
11.tteras by which nearly eight hundred brave men
h.r. been consigned to the tender mercies OF the
%.nd.I Buter, and by which the oldest and richest
.o-t;on of the State with its important Sounds and
.bo coasts thereon with the rivers running into the
corrds and the fine farms with millions of dollars
18th Of property, are exposed to the ravages OF
v,rdal enemy? The people have right to know
rbo is responsible, and we will tell them.
Alan earIy period of the State Convention, which
..sorbed on the Goth of May, Mr.. Smith, Of Hall
fax introduced an Ordinance to raise and equip at
..o seven thousand men for the defence of the
,,,st This Ordinance was pressed with great force
,,,or the Convention by Mr.. Smith, Mr.. Ferehee,
Mr. spruill of BERTHE, Mr.. Speed Mr.. Pettigrew,
Mr. Christian, Mr.. Barnes, Mr.. MeareS, and others
the delegates from the East being almost unanimous
L. in favor of the measure. On the serenth day of
lime the Ordinance passed by vote of 5S to 37 on
tho tenth of June a message was received from Gov
Els in which he assured the Convention "that if
or batteries" then the coast are properly ser
rod"a fact of which he said he could entertain no
dopbt-"tke porer Of tie United States Nary is
not sufficient to effect an entrance into any one Of
t,s har6ors OF tie Stdtc,"-and on the fourteenth
Of June the Ordinance having been reconsidered was
rejected bv a vote Of 30 to 90
The Ordinance was opposed by the Military Sec
retary, Mr. Winslow, and 10y others, partizan sup
porers ofthe Executive on the ground thatt trench
ed on the powers of the Governor and Military
Board and would, if finally adopted, be regarded
a reflection on them. The Legislature, under the
pressure of the emergency upon that body at its
first extra session, had clothed the Governor with
unlimited, arbitrary power and those who sur
rounded him and profted in various ways by the
patronage and honors which he had the right to te-
stow were determined that his power should not be
controlled or abridged even by the delegates of the
sovereign people in Convention assembled. The re-
suit was the Ordinance was defeated, and the sea-
coast was left comparatively undetended.
We advocated this measure from the first, both
as member of the Convention and as the Editor of
the Standard. In our paper of the 18th of June we
said 1.-The Ordinance commcnds itself to the ap-
proval all-irSt because the exposure Of the East
era Counties to inrasiOa is INN nent. We never
expect Lincoln to fight his way through Virginia to
the North Carolina line. We believe that every
man in North Carolina that can be spared will rush to
the defence of Virginia and contest every inch of
ground with the enemy. Hence, the only point of
easy access to the enemy without sufficient force
to repel him at the outset, is the sea-6oard" This
was our language in June; we regret to say it has
become prophecy. We continued for weeks to
sound the alarm. We introduced resolutions into
the Convention containing inquiries which covered
the whole ground of our Eastern defences, but we
received from the Executive and Military Board
no full or satisfactory response to them. On the
contrary, simply because we sought to discharge
our duty, and in doing so to cooperate with the
Executive and the Board, We were assaulted, and our
motives were impeached. A depravcd public jour-
nal in this City, VIGOROUSLY the mouthpece of the
Board assaed in gross terms the author of the Or
dinancc and its supporters in the Convention; and
thus in this way, and in all conceivable ways, was
the power of the State administration brought to
bear to defeat the measure.
Ourreaders can now see who is responsible for this
disaster on our coast We shall give hereafter the
votes on Mr.. Smiths Ordinance, with such further
remarks as may seem just and proper