Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1861-12-11
Tendencies to Strong Government.

~''o''' couP'eo with practical aggression on
the Southern States has reduced the people of the
old United States to state Of subsection to their
rulers as AFFECT and as complete as if they were
Austr'ans or Frenchmen. There is no liberty Of
Speech or of the press Of person in that quarters
and even the right of suffrage ITSELF so precious
corrective OF m;sgovernment and so great shield
against tyranny, has become an empty mockery of
Tree FORMS and is exercised only to record the edcts
ota blood-thrsty, fanatical majority. We shall not
inquire now into the particular causes Of this sud.
den destruction of Constitutional freedom under the
old government We refer to it only as great
event In history, and as warning to the friends of
freedom in other quarters. 1t is practical illustra
ton of the truth of those sound old maxms that
1.-THE world is governed too much" and that 'pow.
er is always stealing from the many to the few"
We have noticed recently in some of the Virginia
papers, long dissertations against general equal
suffrage; and some of the papers Of that State have
even gone so far as to intimate preference for
manarchy. brave officer now in service writes
US as follows
81 regretted to see in Richmond paper the 9TH
er day, article rather leaning towards monarchy
or intnating that could put ourselves under the
control of England or France. Such sentiments
are calculated to palsy the arms of the brave men
who are now suffering to throw off the despotc yoke
Of Lincoln"
Government is established for the protection of
persons and property. 1t is WE'LL therefore, to in
clude and protect persons and property in the basis
Of representation; but every free white man who
pays taxes and bears should have the right to
This "a pbotv coN ipht &c in;
just and full sense; and this right we will never
surrender. We believe in the Democratic, as oppo-
sed to the Ogarchic, the Arisocratic, and the Mon
archcal prnciple-that is, in the right of the peo
pie to rule We not only hold this, but we believe
the people of these Confederate States capable of
selfgovernment 1t by no means follows that be-
cause liberty hes expired in the old United States
that people not still possessed of this great
birthright
But we warn the people to be on their guard
Every attack, whether open or covert on the right
OF suffrage as at present exercised among us, pro-
ceeds from the friends Of strong government and
the enemies of free institutions. Every faction
which assumes to rule, and which in ruling stiles
the popular will, refuses to consult that WILL aims
blow at free government. Every attempt to coerce
or force the opinions of the people, rule them
to the same shades or modes Of thought, is mat
ter how we'll intended blow at their right to think
for and govern themselves.
1t was we'll said by Mr.. Graham, in his able and
eloquent speech in the Convention on Saturday. that
our people owed it to themselves, while achieving
liberty in this conflict with the old federal govern
n,ent, at the same time to preserve the forms and
the means Of liberty. Many nation has sacrificed
the end to the means employed and thus lost liber-
ty and lost it forever at the very moment when it
within its grasp; and many nation has substi-
tuted for liberty idol not essentially enduring,
and worshipped it to its own undoing This is the
case with the Northern people. Maddened by ia
naticism, and disappointed in their lust for domina-
ton, they have substituted a wicked and corrupt
Union for the liberty which WASHINGTON and his
compatrots won and established for them; and the
very means they have permitted to be employed in
the vain effort to perpetuate this empty substitute,
have already forged for their limbs the manaces oil
despotism. There is nc resurrection for free gov.
eminent when it expires it has done at the North
among people in the full exercise of the right oil
suffrage.
I'VE warn the people to keep strict eye, espe
cially at this time, every movement which seems
to tend to strong government. Our great Southern
revolution just necessary, and righteous as it is is
nevertheless to some extent an experiment Its
success depends upon the patience and bravery o.
our solders-upon the endurance and indomitable
energy of our people-upon careful abstinence by
all in authority from any unnecessary coercion
whether physical or mental; and last but by nc
means least upon the active, punctual, and inteli
gent exercise by the people of their right Of suf
frage. If majority Of the people do not vote, the
experiment will fall faction will control, and the
inevitable result will be, destruction not only o.
the forms but the substance of freedom and the es
adjustment of government of the many at the
expense of the fewI
BRowNLow AREsTED-W. G. Brownlow, of the
Wing, was arrested in Knoxville, on the 9Th, on