Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-02-19
There NAV be such tbing. !, i, eminent sooth.

There may be such thing, as an eminent South
ern statesman has remarked, as "surfeit of lib
erty" We are apt to- forget that our freedom and
rights were won through hard battles and heroic
tolls and sacrifices and we have come to look upon
them mere matter of course and in no danger
of future alienation Like health air and the glori-
GUS sunshine, they are so common, so universal so
familiar so unobtrusige in their benefsction that
we hold them cheap. We regard them more as
negative than positive blessings and many, there
fore, are clamorous and eager for innovation and
even revolution, forgetting the wisdom which tells
US that shat government is best which governs
least, and that government is a necessary evil"
We cease to be content with the even and tranquil
flow of things, and rashly seek unknown and prob
lematical advantages in a change-we know not
what-of the present order of affairs Thus we
now hear various suggestions Of aggrandizement adj
dressed either to our ambition or our cupidty But
the best welfare of the South consists in preserving
her status quo A happy land is preferable TO
splendid one. She does not want to engage in COM
merce or manufactures She cannot do SO to adj
vantage, or even with safety. Ample protection to
her agricultural interests and to the industrial nst
tuition founded on them should suffice; and such
protection can be assured to u.s.
VAIN is the dream of a reorganization of our fed
eral system when all the slaveholding States have
LETT it The reconquest of the half of our territory
from foreign foe would be far easier task than
the reconstruction of the Union after sectional d.
vision.
Better than the angry voluntary violation of that
majestic unity which has been the loftest inspIra-
ton of our craftsmanship and the modest political
instinct of our citzens-better, unspeakably, that
pestience or famine should decimate our people
that foreign conquest should rend from us our
richest territories and convert half our States into
the subjugated provinces of some European crown.
Then, Stupendous would be the visitation, there
would still be left us an encouraging consolation
amidst all the dismay at our reverses Broken and
mutated as might be the integrity of onr territorial
empire narrowed as might be the area of our sover-
eighty, the essence of it all would yet remain to
us-THE UNION would nevertheless survive;
and in spite of the magnitude of the calamity there
would be something left to hope for and to build
upon in the preservation to US of the Constitution
of the United States. Crippled although that
colossal material power would be- which we have
perhaps contemplated with too little humility and
gratitude, there would yet reside the hearts Of
our people that hearty and unanimous loyalty which
no tyrant can destroy, and which, living as tradi-
ton, would day assert itself in the triumphant
resurrection of the nation.
Can it be that our people are willingly to sunder
their united fortunes, and that this great conedera
ton is to dissolve spontaneously Is such indeed
to be the melancholy completion of the appointed
destines of America! Is all this heroic episode of
freedom, before the third generation of the happy
millions who have lived under it has passed, to be
dissolved in tears to expire perhaps amid the fierce
cries OF war ana Dloodshed! is tnis last triumph
of our Anglo-Saxon civilization-ths glorious at
tanment of the effort of centuries for the recogni
ton of the regal prerogative of The PEOPLE the
sole ruler of the State-here found realized as we
fondly thought-to abide in the memory of men
only as disappointed and impracticable expert
ment? Shall our annals be but a brief idyl, or
grand epic of the ages majestic with the strain of
empire, and traversing with stately and unfalterlng
march thousand years of history?
CHARLES HENRY FOSTER.
Murfreesboro, Feb IL, 1861.