Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-07-03

Let US treat them With generous kindness, and be
gust to the dear ones they have left at home. Let
them know that we willing trust their fathers
with the privileges of freemen, and they will exert
all OF their energies and pour out their hearts blood
to defend and preserve that freedom which their
fathers enjoy and so dearly prize I love our gal
liant soldier boys and may their country best gifts
and beavens richest blessings ever be their portion
Mr.. President, frequent allusion has been made in
this discussion to the spirit party which still pre-
walls in our midst. know it is here The history
OF this Convention will fully show the truth of the
assertion. We have not yet risen to the magnitude
of the events which surround US. Our patriotism
needs yet to be elevated by common dangers and
suferings, ana purified as it were by fire. There is
question about which there is no difference of
party-one feeling in which we are all united;
deep uncompromsing and deadly hate to our ene-
mics of the North. This feeling has not existed
long in the hearts of large majority of our people
Not long ago many of them had sincere feelings of
brotherhood for our pretended friends and they de-
sired to preserve the Union. These men are now
called in derision eleventh hour men," | rejoice
that was an eleventh hour man !" / speak in
no spirit of Boosting when say, that experience has
shown, and will show that those men who were the
most faithful to the DID, truest in their allegiance
to the new government If they chung to the pill
lars of the old edifce until their fall they were the
first to gather in solid phaax round the rescued
ark of our liberty. The eleventh hour now has
f~SSNNi
may be the noontide splendor of our country's go-
ry and not the twelfth hour of the dark and rayless
midnight of ruin.
Who are these eleventh hour men" Go where
the camp fires are burning and there you will find
them. They wear not the cup and plume and gid
ed SaoOrd but they bear in their hands the still
instruments of nations defence-the nusket and
bayonet Go to the battlefield when the work of
carnage is done, and there you will find them far
advanced in the front ranks of the dead with
their backs to the field and their feet to the foe"
This revolution has produced two great armies.
One of them is the peoples army, and if 1 am cor
rectly informed, large majority of them are "elev-
enth hour men," They are enduring the hardships of
the camp and are eager to press forward to meet
country's cruel invaders The other army is mostly
composed OF first hour men," They are the 'home
guard" stationed round the citadel Som with high
salaries and titled names are winning glory in the
circle OF merry and admiring friends. Some are
eager to catch the numerous leakngs that drip from
the last wasting treasury, while others content
to pick up even the crumbs that fall from the tables
of power. Take the eleventh hour men" from
our army in the field and our borders will be left
defenseless. Leave only eleventh hour men" in
the home guard" and there will not be officers
. enough to command single brigade.
Mr.. President, beg pardon of the Convention for
having depressed from the immediate subject of the
debate. l have no disposition to enter now into
my friends. sincerely wish there was no spirit
of party in our councils that there was no extern
Sve and well laid scheme for perpetuatng the power
of party. l wish we were in every thing of one
mind and of ore heart, for then we would be more
terrible to our enemies and more just to people
1t is all important in this great struggle that we
should be perfectly united The best step to pro-
duce this desirable end is to submit this permanent
Constitution to the vote of the people Let them
sanction the government for which they are fighting
and then all murmers of discomfort will be hushed
Why should we fear to trust the patriotism of the
people? We rely upon them for the means of
rying on this war. We trust them on the field of
bate, in the deadly charge and by the flashing guns
Why not trust them at the ballot-box? They de-
fend our liberties with musket and bayonet and
their virtue, intelligence and patriotism, alone can
preserve our free institutions. Have not the people
yet made sacrifices enough to entitle them to our
confidence? They have freely poured out the treas
which they have earned sin the sweat of their
brow" They have brought from the sanctuaries Of
their homes offerings consecrated by the blessings
and tears of wives, sisters and mothers and offered
them at their country's altar with patriotism al
most elevated as the sublime faith of the aged
Patriarch when he bound his loved son to the altar
at the command of his God They are ready to
make other sacrifices. If the terrible hour of need
shall come, they will send forth even Beniamins to
the field, although it may bring down their gray
hairs in sorrow to the grave" Before this high tri-
bunal-this solemn bar where civil liberty is now
trial-bv all the sacred memories of the past, by
the sorrows and sacrifices of the present and the
hopes of the future and in the name of our common
humanity, plead for justice to the people.
have been told that this amendment would not
receive twenty votes, and friends have requested
me to withdraw it. If it only receives my vote
determined that the journals of this Convention
shall show our last memento to popular rights.
Mr.. President, may be in error but still l will
speak what think. Let this Convention trampe
under foot the rights of the people, by neglectng
this amendment, and it may be that the rubicon of
republican liberty is past. Raise and organize our
standing army, commanded by partizan officers
continue to vest in the Governor extraordinary
powers, and although we may conquer our enc
mics, may have Pr8torian Guard at home
which will conduct and guide the destinies of the
State. No one with prophetic vision follow
the fearful track of revolution, and forete its end
Let love of country, wisdom, justice and truth now
control our deliberations and for veal for woe,
let us trust the people
Mr.. President, With all the devotion of an ar
dent patriotism, once loved the Union and the old
flag of the "stars and stripes" They were the
rich heritage of fathers, and sanctfied by many
hallowed memories; but the Union has been desc
Grated, and that old flag is now the ensign of brutal
tyranny, and have cast them away as accursed
things. All my affections now cluster round my
native South. | love her as | love my wife, nv
children and my home, and l fondly hope that she
may have glorious destiny. My heart swtlls with
patriotic pride while l witness the spirit of our
people. The invader has come-our Slogan has
been heard, and the Southern clans are rushing to
the border. We can never be conquered! Our his
tory may be like that of heroic Scotland when the
English invader attempted to subjugate her. We
may be driven from the border-the low lands may
be overrun, but our dauntess people will gather in
the mountains-those everlasting hills which God
has raised as the citadels of freedom-and from
thence they will issue forth with spirit like that
of the Waaces and the Bruces and raise their bleed
ing and insuted country from the DUST and set her
free; and then their virtue, energy and industry
will soon make our land smile again with peace and
a. liz