Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-03-16
our Disnnion Gorernor.

political leaders, that honesty after all is the best
policy. The present unenviable position of the
Chief Magistrate Of North Carolina, before the peo
pie, is forcbe illustration of the fact set FORTH and
will be, We hope, warning to all who are disposed
to seek place or reputation by deception and double
dealing. Had Gov. Ellis in his message to the Cen
eral Assembly boldly planted himself upon his Sc
cesson platform, and come out candidIy and openly
for an immediate separation of North Carolina from
the Union and given his reasons therefor, his posi-
ton would have at least been entitled to the respect
of those who honestly differed with him. They
would have honored him for his frankness, and met
his positions by whatever arguments they had at
their command Gov. Ellis did not do this, how
His political success heretofore, every one
conversant with his history we'll knows, has been
the result of intrigue and double-dealing, and he
confidently relied upon the agents to carry his
cherished schemes of secession through during the
sitting of the General Assembly As soon as We read
his message We warned the people of the disunion
schemes of their Governor. We told them that
he desired to dissolve the Union and that he feared
to trust the people themselves with the question
We were denounced for this by his hirelings; and
attrbutng the same sordid motives to which
governed their own base actions, they endeavored
to defend the position of their master.
We appeal to the people of North-Carolina
part of the State, by the by ignored by the Gov
ernor and his set-if every opinion expressed by
us and every position assumed have not been veri-
fled by the record, and by the subsequent conduct
of the Governor himself We told the people then
that John W. Ellis was disunionist. He tells
you so now, as plainly and as frankly as the in
stincts of his nature will permit him to state any
position he occupies. We said then that he would
not trust the people. Does not the history of the
Convention bill, under the management of his i'm.
| media peculiar friends, prove it beyond cav?
Did they acknowledge recognize the people at all
in their call for Convention, until forced to do
| by the Union majority of the General Assembly !?
| He nor they did not In the military bill, prepared
upon his suggestion, and no doubt under his watch
full vigilance, he had the appointments of the prn-
cipal officers, thus ignoring the existence of such
class as the people. The Union men amended that
bill too, and the Governors set in their wrath,
swore terribly. His accustomed agents in the at
tainments of his ends failed him-signally failed
him, and the failure has taught him, and all who
stood with him in the last Legislature, that there is
people in North Carolina and to them belongs the
government of their fathers
The Governor finding that the mind of North
Carolina at least not sufficiently "fired" to be
the willing slave in his dsunion programme, resort
ed to every known appliance to sustain and fortify
| him in the position he desired to assume Public
meetings all over the State were improvsed in the
Capitol and resolutions drawn and sent out to
be passed by immense and enthusiastic gatherings,
and returned as the expression Of public sentiment;
all Of which resolutions, "a very remarkable COIN
cidence,) endorsed, nearly in the words, the
administration and message of Gov. Ellis. Compare
the different resolutions paraded in the columns of
his newspaper, the State Journal with the vote in
the Counties where they were said to have been
passed, and the blindest can but discover at once
their paternity, and well enough the influences
under which they were made public. Another
method to bolster up his untenabe position resort
ed to. In his newspaper the State Journal of Feb.
I'd appeared leader, written we presume with his
entire concurrence and headed Gov Ellis message
endorsed by the Legislature and the people" In
this article, which is full of perversons and mis-
representations, and which we shall have many oc.
casions to aude to hereafter this paragraph
italics and all: Let the fact stand forth to the
world. EUery solitary recommendation contained
in Co., Ellis message, upon the subject Of our fed
eral affairs, has been endorsed By the people and
adopted By the legislature" Such was the Gov.
ernors satisfactory consolation in February, and
such his declaration expressed in his newspaper
Is the declaration sustained by SOLITARY" fact
Every one conversant with the history of the last
Assembly knows that none of his secession senti
ments nor recommendations were endorsed by that
body. And the election on the 2Sth of the same
month shows what the people thought clearly
enough
Gov Ellis recent speech at Wilmington, copied
into and received with rejoicing by the ultra ourn
ais of South Carolina for its revolutionary tenden
cies shows his true position. He said in his mes
sage in November that 1.-the will of the people
once expressed will be law of action with all anC
secure that unanimity so necessary in an emer
gency like the present" So it is quoted in his
newspaper the State Journal His few friends in
Wake resolUed in their meeting of the 18th of Feb
ruary, among other things that whenever ma
iority of the people of North Carolina shall solemn
" resolve that they cannot safely remain in the
Union it is not only their right but it is their duty
to secede and to punish such Of her citizens re
fuse submission TO her sOrereign wiN" OF course
if that majority "soleunly resolve" not to secede
the italics above will be equally applicable.
And to his few friends here, who desire so much
to punish those who will not abide by the decision
of the majority we commend Governor Ellis for the
present. with the earnest request that they viii
consider and deliberate upon their duty if the Gov
ernor's programme at Wilmington is attempted t.
be carried out
THAT LETTER.-We really dislike to be trouble
some, but duty to the public imperatively de