Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-11-13
A. Noble Fxamn,es

Gov Brown Of Mississippi, is, we presume, 6fty
years Of age. He has been Governor Of that State,
member of the House of Representatives, and Sena-
tor For many years Mississippi has conferred upon
him her choicest honors. But when the war COM
meneed he volunteered as private, and has been
serving on foot as Captain. Recently, some TWEEN
ty prominent Mississippi officers in Virginia address
ed him letter, urging him to accept the place of
Senator in the permanent Congress, and giving as
reason that he be Of more service in the Senate
than on foot in the field. From his reply we make
the following extract:
When took up arms in defence Of the South
1t was to Illustrate by example the heartfelt sim
certify with which had for so many years urged
our peoIl to strike for equality in the Union or
independence out ct 1t. cannot now camped as
we are in sight of the enemy, consent to Law down
those arms except it be to render my bleeding
country more efficient service somewhere else
Arms as you all know is not my profession, and if
bear them it is from necessity and not from choice
That have not sought higher command than a
CaptaiDcy has been because my early training habits
Of thought and pursuits in life have not been such
as to qualify me for such command. Unskiled as
am in the arts of war, have felt at liberty to do
no more than risk my own life in the pending con-
hict. shrank instnctively at the beginning, and
ever since, from the responsibility of risking the
lives Of Others"
Here we have experienced statesman, possess
ed of high order of intellect, and well acquainted
with men and things, modestly declining any mill
tary Office which would place the lives of others at
his disposal on the ground that he has not been
trained to arms, and that he ought therefore to do
no more than risk his own life in the pending con-
fict. How does this contrast with those possessed
Of OOto -tnn fba oil md g 80
Of Gov. Brown, who seek field Offices, and obtain
them too in many instances not on the score of
merit, but on account Of party services.
This letter of Gov Brown is entitled to additional
consideration from the fact that it is dated "In Camp
near LeeSburg," thus leaving the inference, though
his name has not been mentioned in that connec-
ton, that he active participant in that glo.
rious conflict in which the enemy were repulsed
and Gen. Baker killed In another letter dated at
the same place, and addressed TO friend in Jack
son, Miss, he says:
"OpponentS before the war in peaceful strife for
ascendancy in politics. the has forced arms into
all their hands, thrown one flag over their heads
and marked out for them common destiny. Under
such circumstances it is duty so clear as to make
calculation needless that all past differences should
be laid aside not in theory but In fact and that the
Shel and practced. This cannot be- if the old and
dominant States Right party does not make fair
division of honors with their former opponents and
present allies"
Such is the language of noble.hearted Missis-
siPpian, who prefers his country to party. He
scorns, as all true Southern men scorn the selfish
motto that they who made the revelation are alone
entitled to the offices and honors which are bestowed
in conducting it Such is the practice too, mot
in theory but in fact" in Mississippi Alabama, and
Georgia, and indeed in all the Confederate States in
which affairs conducted by heightened gentle
men and patriots. In Georgia and Tennessee, as
we have learned UNREASONABLE authority, the
magnanmity of the old secessionistS who were in
power was such that old Union men were even pre-.
terred for Office and in every State except North.
Carolina, they have at least been treated as the
equals of those who were more active than they
were in dissoving the Union. But alasI alas for
North Carolina, such is not the case here We now
say, that those old secessionstS in this State who
will not even honor an old Union man by voting
for him for Elector and who hold and practice the
doctrine that the old Union not their equals
politically, and ought not TO be permitted to hold
any civil military Office, would f they were as.
signed the duty Of burying the dead on the field Of
battle first inter the bodies of their own political
friends and leave those Of their opponents to rot in
the open day, provided they believed their party
required such conduct at their hands. Such men,
no matter what their professions may be- are enc
mics to the State and to the cause of Southern in
dependence.