Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1861-01-09
LETTER FROM HON. JOHN A. GILMER. 7'
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Dec. q, 1860.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Dec. Il, 1860.
j. n, Eq,
DEAR Sir: If in my power would 60 to your
meeting and into every neighborhood in every State
and Territory in this Union We in a most
perious crisis but which the country might yet
pass without serious harm, if the honest masses
everywhere could at once be reached and made SEN
sible Of the great danger that hangs over us. go
Whilst extreme Northern and Southern politicians
have been dividing and dstracting the country those
who nothing for Office or political position, and
who have been laboring in the agricultural, me
chanical and trading departments Of the country,
have, under the blessings of Providence, made US
really all that we are
This great majority and most worthy portion of
the citizens have not had time to examine and sat
isfy their minds to whittier have been drifting
by the lead Of sectional selfish ambitious men, If
we can in time, call into counsel those to whom We
most indebted for industrial and intellectual
attainments and, in fact for all our superior pros
perty and greatness the best government that ever
fell to the lot of man may yet be preserved.
All that is wanting is for the honest masses North
and South to be induced, without passion and with
their cool heads to understand the abstract points
Of difference, and they will at once arm themselves
with the aernal spirit their revolutionary fathers
nuse the into their political agents. and force
settlement Of oil sectional difficulties, and again
return to their fields, shops, stores, ships and
schools. They are taken by SURPRISE they arc scat
tered. They have, it is true, to contend with train
ed bands but there is time. and they will come and
settle these quarrels about tres if they can in pro-
per time and manner be appealed to.
When our government was formed some of the
States held slaves, some did not The revolutiona-
ry fathers in the North were not too good to form
confederacy and then government with slave own.
ers and slave States. They provided for the rights
of both and further, that if slaves escaped from
their owners they should be returned to them
They generously recognized the rights of the slave
States. For the sake of fraternity and peace and
for the general welfare they voted to continue
the African slave trade for twenty years. All that
is needed now. is to have again with our people, of
all sections, the independent and patriotic spirit of
our fathers. Virginia gave up territory, and agreed
that free States should be formed out of it. This
has been done. We now own territory in which
oil the States free and slave are tenants in common
Shall not the slave States, as SUCH tsve share in
this common territory? We are Eo. the same peo-
pie that were here in the days Of the Revolution or
there could be difficulty in relation to this The
question IS too insignificant to distract divide and
ruin this country.
The free States now number eighteen: the slave
States only fifteen. The free States have maorties
in both houses of Congress- and these maorities are
to be increased The free States have the sur
plus population to settle and make free States out Of
the territories. The slave States have no surplus.
Common sense ought to teach the people of the free
States that the chances are ali or their side. They
very well know that if they to grant all that
the slave States request the laws of climate soil and
production will settle the question at last that the
result will be precisely the same under any of the
theories about which the politicians of the two Sec
tons have each other SO mnch by the ears.
Our Northern friends say that they fully SEN.
sibc Of this but they read to US what Jefferson and
others have said. They say they rely on political
authority.
1t should be borne in mind that in the days when
Jefferson spoke We had no cotton GIN 1t had not
then been discovered that slave labor useful
in hot climates in raising tobacco. rice cotton and
sugar cane. At that day they were not worth more,
and did not sell for more than horses. They were
rather consumers than producers. There was no
! anxiety to retain them. Now they are worth from
six to fifteen hundred dollars each Their labor is
the source Of more than two hundred millions Of
dollars annually to the national wealth. A new and
! powerful interest has sprung up.
Judging from what the fathers did when they for
med Union with the slave States, under the then
j condition and circumstances, we have a ready an
swer as to what they would now de- were they here,
with this Territorial question under existing crcum.
stances. No fair-minded man can doubt but they,
it alive, would say, LET their Southern slavehold
ing brethren have all the territory which they can
fairly settle under the invitations of SOIL climate
and productions especially if it is understood that
the bona de settlers when they come to agree on a
State Constitution may fairly determine the qucs-
ton Of slavery for themselves in their way"
One Of :he beauties and excellences of the COM
law is that it conforms itself 50 as to embrace
| and shield new and increased interests.
As these interests grow up and increase, the COM
mon law extends its circumference and strengthens
. protective power.
1t has been likcncd to the bark upon the saplns,
which widcns and thickcns imperceptbly the tree
! grows
We have only to have the people-the industrious
masses-look at these questions practically and in
their proper bearings and they will at once have
this quarrel settled, the great ship Of state again
! floating at ease and in safety.
| would have them at once pull up their stakes
and come pitch their tents around '7ashngton, and
command their representatives to adjust the Difficult
| ties which now divide the two great and powerful
! sections .
/ JOHN A. GILMER.
! Mr.. Winslow's Address to his Constituents.
WASHINGTON. DEC % 1S6O