Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-10-09
Party Preiudices.

Oh oiHerence between themselves.
We deprecate the necessity which heated parti
Fans have thrown upon us, of making any allusion
whatever during the to the part which the orr
gnal secessionists and old Union men have taken in
its prosecution. fall the original secessionists
governed by the spirit and purpose and pursued the
course Of our correspondent +" B. H." We doubt If
these differences would have been renewed after Lin
coins proclamation; but alas he is only type of
one among many with whom he affiliates. He says
Party prejudice has done more to cripple our
cause than every thing else combined Let 1t cease
to exist until the last Yankee is driven from our
SOIL"
We endorse the sentiment fully, our columns
will show, and have been ready to act upon it from
the day Lincon's proclamation was issued, down to
the end Of the war; and forever if it be necessary to
secure the good Of the South. But in all candur we
ask, who is responsible for the existence of party
prejudice and party feeling in this State?
The mere election of Lincoln, as we all know, OBJ
liberated all old party lines among US; and in the
interim between his election and his call for troops
to make war on the seeded States there sprang up
two parties in the South, into which the two old
parties were mixed and merged. The only radical
difference between the two parties was, advocat
ed the right of secession at will, and held that the
South should have seeded as soon as Lincoln was
elected; the other maintained the right of secession
for cause and opposed secession when placed the
ground merely of the election of certain man to
the Presidency. So far, therefore, as the question
practical one, the real point at issue only
as to time. But Dithin these two great parties
there existed at the tme among those who advocat-
ed secession at WILL faction of politicians who
bent upon the destruction of the old government at
all hazards and among those who held to secession
for cause, small faction who equally bent up
preserving the old government, at the risk per-
haps of the great interests of the South. Neither
of these factions had our sympathy support.
With the great body of the old Union men of the
South steadily chung to our original position,
that would secede or separate for cause, though
labored to avert the cause, and trusted that it
would not arise Therefore, when Lincoln's pro-
camaton was issued, we unhesitatingly announced
that the cause had occurred; and were the first
public man in this State to denounce that proclama
ton and to tell him that he could get no troops from
North Carolina From that period to the present,
those old Democrats and old Wings who held to the
doctrine of secession for cause have steadily and
honestly insisted that there should be but one par
ty, or no party during the war. To a man they
sprung to the support of the war and the South
They have never wavered for moment, nor will
| they happen what may. They will fight on, and
pay on, and suffer on, until Southern independence
| is achieved.
! But those who held the doctrine of secession at
will-although as body during the Presidential
election they declared positively and vehemently
that their purpose not to destroy the old gov
| eminent whether or not-yet just as soon as Lin
! coins proclamation came, and they saw that the
old Union men were ready for secession, prompted
and led by the faction in their ranks which had
abored to destroy the old government, they all at
once threw up their caps and exclaimed, tive are
| all of party now-let no differences exist be-
tween us,"-but, they added, "ds Ue brought on the
revolution it is our right TO manage and conduct ii
in our opn tray" Just at this point political pre-
| iu,lice was revived, and ill-feeling Who
caused it? Not the old Union men, for they assert
| ed no such claim. They willing and anxious
to cooperate as band Of brothers with their late
opponents, in beating back the enemy and securing
independence. They poured out their money like
| water in the cause, and they sent their sons and
| brothers by thousands to the war. But still they
J
for all the offices, and continually tainted by the
declaration that as "yOu did not make the revolu-
tion it is your duty TO fight foot and to concede
to US not only all the military but all the civil Off
| ces in the country" Was it to be expected that
! the old Union men would submit tamely to such
treatment? If they had done so, they would have
been unworthy of the liberties for which we are all
contending They will submit to any thing as
against the common enemy, for the sake of their
country but they will not submit to such injustice
! at the hands of their associates and equals.
| We made the rerolutOn," say the ultra seces-
sionsts land ace alone haze the right to conduct it."
Is this sol Leaving out of view the action of the
States which seeded first, and the proclamation of
Lincoln, and looking alone to Virginia, and North
Carolina, and Tennessee and Arkansas, we ask, 1chO
made the revolution? Not the secessionists for they
were in minority until Lincolns proclamation. Ac-
corGing to this view the old Union men nude the
revolution for the middle States, including North
Carolina, which seeded in May, were not permit
ted to move until the old Union men care the cord.
Every body knows this to be So What, then, be-
comes of this arrogant-this insulting claim which
is made by portion of the secessionists?
But we take no such ground as this. We utter
" repudiae the idea that this is party 1t is
war waged by the Southern people for their lber-
ties, and there should be party in it. We pro-
| test against the assumption that those who make
revolutions are best fitted to conduct them. Human
history is all the other way. mere pumpkin can
pull down an edlfice, but requires the eye and the
skill of an architect to erect in its place.
Rashness can Destroy but conservatism creates and
builds up But aside from this, we protest against
the assumption that all the offices and all the hon.
ors belong to original secessoniss, or to any partc-
ular class of men-whether secessionists or old
Unionists-because such assumption, if put in