Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-02-16
For the Standard.
7 ADDRESS 70 THE VOTERS, OF ALA,
- xagg MANCE. rNTINJTV -

. COufcutiOu vi bOOu pe0p6-OI stufS COunty oS-
sembled at Graham on the 18th instant to place my
name before you as a candidate for a seat in our
State Convention, and finding it impossible for me
to canvass the county and speak to you face to face
take this method of making known to you the
views entertain in relation to the great political
questions now agitating and dividing our once hap
Ply and united people:
First, of secession. The anxious inquiry have
made of every advocate of secession have met with
Is this How will secession Operate as a remedy
for the evils and aggressions justly complain
Of? And no man can tell me- 1t is literally taking
a leap in the dark. 1t is flying from the ills we
have to those we know not Of We may reasonably
suppose that if the secessoniss of the South have
any one great object in view must be additional Sc
curity for their slave property If this be So it
curious fact that the extreme abolitionsts of the
North are advocating disruption of the Union as
paving the way for the overthrow of the institution
of slavery-one of these parties must be in error
And herein is presented question of absorbing in
terest to the whole slayeholding population of the
South How will secession afford US additional pro-
lection and security for our slave property above
and beyond what we now enjoy in the Union and
under the constitution of the United States?
We take it for granted that slavery cannot be put
down but by the force of arms? This being the
case, so long continue in the Union, we need
entertain no apprehension of an authorized invasion
OF our soil for the naked object of liberatng our
slaves no matter who may be at the helm of our
national affairs. There may be occasional forays
such as occurred at Harper's Ferry, but those who
engage in them would be treated as traitors by the
national and State governments both North and
South. But secession places the seeding States in
direct conflict with the general government An
energetic abolition President, who might think he
was doing Gods service to abolish slavery would
want no better pretext to employ the army and navy
OF the United States, recruited to any desirable ex
tent from the hordes of New England and Canadian
ohOl,t ,,,cfco L II
out the United States and slaves of the South, to
come down upon US with the ostensible object of
crushing out rebellion, whilst their real object
would be to crush out slavery
1t may, perhaps, be thought by some, that in this
l am appealing to the fears of the South Far other
wise; Southern men devoid of fear and many
of them, am sorry to say, have not enough of that
conservative quality to prevent them from acting
rashly. Had it been otherwise there would have
been no secession The Union of these States would
have been maintained in their integrity and by the
exercise of wisdom and frmness, all our Just rights
better secured in the Union than out of it. and our
beloved country instead of becoming by-word and
kissing among the nations of the EARTH would have
gone on as heretofore in career of improvements
that would have commanded the wonder and admit
ration of the world
But suppose the seceSSonists should succeed in
detaching the whole of the slave States from the
Union and uniting them in Southern Confederacy I?
What then will they have gained in the way of ad-
dtional security for their slave property? We
shall then constitute an isolated slave confederacy
with the acknowledged right of each member to
secede at pleasure we shall have turned our backs
upon 100000 of our friends in the Northern States
and made them our enemies; we shall have abroga-
ted the fugitive slave law and thrown off the shield
and protection of the Constitution of the United
States; we shall be exposed to line of l 800 miles
Of free State frontier with no natural barrier against
the escape of our slaves into land from whence
they will never return; We shall have pulled down
with sacrilegious hands the glorious temple of
liberty which built upon the tombs and cement
ed by the blood of our fathers we shall cause the
hearts of the lovers of liberty in every cline and
quarter of the globe, to quail and faint within them
in view of the sad failure of our model Republic
we shall have done all this without adding one iota
to our ability to hold to slaves that we did
not possess before we dissolved the Union. On the
contrary, we exhausting our resources in making
preparation to repe either real or fancied INVASION
as if conscious in our own bosoms, that we deserved
the wrath of Heaven, or the avenging sword of our
enemies. But how will our slave nation be viewed
and treated by the balance of mankind? Will the
Northern people desiSt from their efforts to abolish
slavery? Will they find any difficulty in getting
up crusade against US, embracing nearly the whole
civilised world? Shall we not be placed under the
ban not only of the Northern States but of England
and the nations of continental Europe? What will
become Of the Monroe doctrine, if we attempt to
add to our slave territory in the direction of Mexico
Central America? Shall, we not be hedged in
and confined to our present limits by the combined
energies and opposition of all the enemies of our
peculiar institutions While all this will be realised
in its full force, another process will be going on
The mpossibty of holding slaves in safety ia the
border States would cause them to be sent south
ward, and thus these States would gradually become
abolItlonScd while the concentration of the slaves
in the Southern States combined with the imposs-
bty of acquiring additional territory for slavery
expansion would ultimately Africanise the cotton
States Thus abolition would triumph over slavery
all brought about by the madness and folly of seces
sioniStS.
In the foregoing remarks we have left out of view
the perplexinS questions connected with postal
arrangements-the payment of the national debt,
the division Of the public property, the navigation
of the Mississippi, and many other questions which
this generation may not hope to see satisfactorily
adjusted. We have left out of view the desolating
wars, the blood and carnage the sacked cities, the
ruined commerce, the paralyZed agriculture, the
grinding taxes, which will sweep like desolating
tornado over the sunny plains and green savannas of
the South-a scourge from which nothing short of
the hand OF Omnipotence can shield us. Every day
since the commencement of the secession movement
has been fraught with imminent peril to the peace
of our country. Surely, if there be set of men
upon the face Of the green earth who deserve and
will receive the executions of posterity they
the Black Republicans of the North, upon the one
hand and the leaders of the secession movement in
the South upon the other.
One word, felow-citizens, in relation to our pro-
posed State Convention. There being conceiv-
able business for such convention transact save
only to thrust North. Carolina out of the Uuion,
am opposed to convention for such purpose, now
and forever
Most respectfully,
.... your humble servant ...'
HARRISON HARBOUR.
February 18th, 1861.