Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1861-02-28
Speeches OF G. " Strong and e. A. Thompson.
Renorted for the Journal hv w. A. 81.


! Reported for the Journal by W. A. q.
GoLDsBoRo', FEB 10TH, 1861.
MEssRs. EDITORS We have great gathering oil
the people OF Wayne and the surrounding counties and
from Wilmington and Newbern, in Goldsboro' to-day
The County Court is In session. and great deal OF
bushes on hand. The Appearance Docket is larger
than ever known here before There about two
hundred and sixty cases on it, and the Trial Docket
very large also. There is immense amount OF suing
but the people to be in fine spirits nevertheless.
A sues B, and sues to get money to pay to A. and
so Though the times must be harder than usual,
hear less talk of " hard times than many for
mer occasions.
The courthouse square is covered with wagons, con-
tanning tobacco and leather and North Carolina made
wool hats, and CIDER and oysters, &c And noticed
in room hard by, real live Yankee, driving brisk
trade selling Peter Funk jewelry at auction, and
selling the natives. He appeared to be real city
gent with his hair plast@red and perfumed and cured
a la mode But this afternoon the court adjourned
and business was suspended, to hear the candidates
for the Convention from this county, address their
fellow citizens on the doctrine of secession. The
Court House was full and nearly every body seem,
ed to be perfectly satisfied and indeed, highly pleased
with the decided positions assumed by MesSrs Strong
and Thompson. They declared for immediate secession
from the Federal Union, and Southern Confederacy
and sustained themselves in able and eloquent man
ner.
AS it is important that the arguments both for and
against this movement should be before the people,
made few rough notes, from which propose to give
you partial skeleton of tfer remarks OF course do
not pretend to give you the glowing eloquence as 1t
flashed forth living strains from the lips OF the gentle
men, but only meager outline OF their ideas
After an appropriate introduction, in which MIR.
Strong depicted the once proud United States she
O1U is shattered and dismembered her sunnest daugh
tiers lost to her, and the whole fabric tottering to its
deepest foundations, and the Southern Conederacy
formed of this Oveiest portion of the week. he said in
substance as follows:
And Jefferson Davis the statesman the patriot, the
hero of the Mexican war is the President of this
repubic-this republic, which already numbers
en- of the brightest stars in the galaxy OF States They
have gone out Of the Union for sufficient
which have been accommodating and multiplying and
growing in strength for almost half century, They
say they have faith in the Black Republicans of the
NOrth-they have gone out and they will not return
The will compel to pursue similar
course. TO go out was duty they owed themselves
and the same is the duty North Caroinu herself.
And what these that have produced this dis
solution? | will attempt to enumerae few of them.
The great and immediate cause is slavery. 1t is no
new thing to US we have all heard it from very
cradles 1t has been the bone of contention between
and our Northern brethren ~ from our earliest recol
lectiOns.
At the formation of Constitution, northern men
had northern ships and northern money busy importing
African slaves to the saveholding States. By pro-
vision 10 that Constitution they allowed to Garry
on the traffic TIL the year 1908 They got money
till then by importing Slaves and they have been trying
to export them from amongst Us ever since.
They now wish to rob of that very property they
have sold US and got our money for.
The wrong for all these troubles their shoulders
and yet some few among US say now we have suf-
ered wrong, and must acatCh and aOdu longer
Many who had bought their slaves of the Northerners
moved with them to the States farther South and to
Missouri In 1920 Missouri knocked for admission in
to the Union she had shareholders in her borders
and she refused by those very persons who had sold
them their slaves They said no, you outside barba-
rans, and unfit to in with respectable States and
you shall not come in. great dispute arose in the
National Legislature. Henry Clay and other well
ing men effected what was called a compromise They
line through the territories, and said above that
line, 30 deg. 30 mln slavery shall go, South of it,
it might go. Then there peace for while-by our
giving all right whatever to the greater part of the ter
ritories.
Their next step was to snd in petition after petition
stop the saverade between the States but we would
not mind their petitions.
Thus things went on till the Mexican war; when we
acquired more territory South, Then, had fought
for it, the South wanted to go into it, but the North
said no you shall have hand in it, although it lies
South of the old Compromise line Now, fellow citizens
who fought for and gained with her best blood and
treasure, that soil? Though far inferior in numbers
and population, the Southern States sent $4,000 men,
and the Northern States sent $4,000 to the Mexican
war. New England has msbehaved ever since she has
been in the government Only of their States sent
volunteers to Mexico, and they sent of their
own borders in the war of 1912. They always the
peace party in war; and the war party in peace They
could stand English bullets. In the war of the Re
volution but few New England soldiers fought south of
the Potomac. We with them in the bloody fields
Of the NOrth but where the New England soldiers
al Guilford Court House, and the Cowpens Wash
ingon protested, but it did no good.
And yet they said that their blood and THEN treasure
got the soil from Mexico and it should not be polluted
with population of shareholders. In 1850 great con-
troversy grew out of this question The country
in danger. The Union, severed, then in dan
ger. The eloquent Clay, the logical Calhoun the god
like Webster, and others, rushed to the rescue. More
sO-caled compromises effected. Some of the new
territories allowed to decide for themselves. We
! let California come in free State. We gave up
great slice of Texas and the slave trade in the District
OF Columbia. And what did get for all this Moth
ing but the name-the empty shadow-of fugitive
slave law. The promise to keep a promise they had
made years beOre-the promise to render up fugitive
slaves But have they kept that promise? Ask the
statute books of twelve fifteen of the Northern States
See what laws they have passed in contraventon of the
Federal law they had promised to hold sacred Ask the
poor in North Carolina whose single slave has es-
capped free State He and his wife have toled long
and hard and hones they have saved few hundred
dollars aud invested it in single negro to assist
them IN their labors he works along with his master,
IN the same field, happy aud contented till some Adolf
ton emissary comes along and whispers freedom in his
ear Some fend in human shape, who has, perhaps at
very same time, been sharing the masters hospitality
The poor man reres at night in the bosom of all bis
famIy-peace and contentment reign there. He arises
at the break Of day. and goes out to his morning du
ties-he looks about hm,-he not his once faith
tu servant,-beh0ld he is gone ALI is grief and sor-
row In that family. In the midst of their prosperity,
they are cut down. The fruit of their abors has.1ed.
In time they hear that be is in certain State North
The poor man thinks of the Fugitive Slave Law,
and, thanking his stars, sets out with the proper evil
dences after bis long lost servant He finds him on North
SOIL and feels happy because be thinks he will get help
to get him back again. But He sees member of
Congress who voted for the Fugitive Slave Law in $780,
but he will not help him,-he remembers not the old
bond and the compromise but laughs at the compro-