Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1861-10-09
Party Preiudicea.

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place. but we must leave them to settle their points
of difference between themselves. 49,. z-a q
We depreeate the necessity which heated parti.
zans have thrown upon US, of making any allusion
whatever during the war to the part which the orr
ginalsecessionsts and old Union men have taken in
its prosecution. allt the original secessionists were
governed by the spirit and purpose aud pursued the
course of our correspondent B. H" we doubt if
these differences would have been renewed after Lin
coins proclamation; but alas he is only type of
one among many with whom he afilates. He says:
"Party prejudice has done more to cripple our
cause than every thing else combined Let 1t cease
to exist until the last Yankee is driven from our
SOIL"
We endorse the sentiment fully as our columns
will show, and have been ready to actupon it from
the day Lincoln's proclamation was issued down to
the end of the war; and forever if it be necessary to
secure the good of the South But, in all candor
ask, who is responsible for the existence Of party
prejudice and party feeling in this State
The mere election of Mncoln, as we all know, OBJ
liberated all old party lines among us and in the
anteram between his election and his call for troops
to make war on the seeded States there sprang up
two parties in the South into which the two old
parties were mixed and merged. The only radical
difference between the two parties was, advocat
ed the right of secession at WILL and held that the
South should have seeded as soon as Lincoln was
elected the other maintained the right of secession
for cause and opposed secession when placed on the
ground merely of the election of a certain man to
the Presidency. So far therefore, as the question
was practical one the real point at issue only
as to time But, soithin these two great parties
there existed at the time among those who advocat
ed secession at WILL faction of politicians who
bent upon the destruction of the old government at
all hazards and among those who held to secession
for cause, small faction who were equally bent up
on preserving the old government, at the risk, per-
haps, of the great interests of the South Neither
of these factions had our sympathy support.
| With the great body of the old Union men of the
| South we steadily chung to our original position,
that we would secede separate for cause though
we abored to avert the cause, and trusted that it
would not arise. Therefore, when Lncon's pro-
clamation was issued, we unhesitatingly announced
that the cause had occurred and we were the first
public man in this State to denounce that procama
ton and to tell him that he could get troops from
| North-Carolina From that period to the present.
those old Democrats and old Wings who held to the
doctrine Of secession for cause, have steadily and
honestly insisted that there should be but one par
| ty, or no party during the To man they
| sprung to the support Of the war and the South
They have never wavered for a moment, nor will
they, happen what may. They will fight on, and
pay on, and suffer on, until Southern independence
| is achieved
! But those who held the doctrine of secession at
wil-athough as body during the Presidential
election, they declared positively and vehemently
that their purpose was not to destroy the old gov
eminent whether or not-yet just as soon as Lin
coins proclamation came and they saw that the
| old Union men were ready for secession, prompted
and led by the faction in their ranks which had
labored to destroy the old government, they all at
once threw up their caps and exclaimed, "we are
all of one party now--let no differences exist be-
tween us, but, they added "as zee brought on tile
repolution it is right to manage and conduct 1t
in our o,cn acay" Just at this point political pre-
JUDGE was revived, and ill-feeling arose. Who
caused it? Not the old Union men, for they assert
cd no such claim They were willing and anxious
to cooperate as band of brothers with their late
opponents, in beating back the enemy and securing
independence They poured out their money like
water in the cause, and they sent their sons and
brothers by thousands to the war. But still they
! were met by this demand by their late opponents
for all the offices, and continually tainted by the
declaration that as "you did not make the revou.
ton, it is your duty to fight on foot and to concede
to us not Only all the military but all the civil Off
ccs in the country" Was it TO DC expected that
the old Union men would submit tamely to such
treatment? If they had done so, they would have
been unworthy of the liberties for which we are all
contending They will submit to any thing as
against the common enemy, for the sake of their
country, but they will not submit to such injustice
at the hands of their associates and equals.
We made tile revolution" say the ultra seces
sionsts land nee alone hare the right to conduct at.
Is this so? Leaving out of view the action of the
States which seeded first and the proclamation o.
Lincoln, and looking alone to Virginia, and North
Carolina, and Tennessee, and Arkansas we ask a7ht
made the yeuolutiona Not the secessonists for they
were in minority until Lncon's proclamation. Ac
cor9ing to this view the oil Union men mute tn
rerozution, for the middle States, including North
Carolina, which seeded in May, were not permit
ted to move until tile old Union mergace the a00rd
Every body knows this to be so. What, then, be
comes of this arrogant-this insulting claim which
is made by portion of the secessionists!
But we take no such ground as this we utter
ly repudiate the idea that this is party war; lth
war waged by the Southern people for their lloer
ties, and there should be no party in it. We pro
test against the assumption that those who make
revolutions are best fitted to conduct them. Human
history is all the other way. mere pumpkin car
pull down edlice but it requires the eye and th'
skill of an architect to erect new one in its place
Rashness can Destroy but conservatism creates ant
builds up. But aside from this, we protest agalns
the assumption that all the Offices and all the hon
ors belong to original secessonists or to any partc