Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1862-11-19
For the Standard.

Mr. EDIroR In 1860, DR.. j. 7. Leach was a
candidate for the Legislature in the county of john
Ston. While he was canvaSSing the county, he
made speech in the Court House in Smithfield in
which he advocated al ralorem taxation-and in
this speech he made use of the following language:
Fellow citizens-There are corrupt and designing
men in the South, and III the North, whose aim and
object is dissolve this great and glorious Union;
and, if they succeed in their wicked and nefarous
designs, tell you here to-day that long, bloody
and esolating war will be the result. Should a
catastrophe dreadful and calamtous befai this
country who would fight the Northern enemy .
Would it be the rich man, and the large slave
holder? No, gentlemen, not the rict-not the large
ave-holder-but the poor, hard-wOrkng, UMPIRE
tending men of the South would be compelled to
shoulder their musketS in defence of the South
while the rich would resort to every conceivable
stratagem to keep them from going into war" For
this speech Dr. Leach was denounced and calumn-
ated by many of his political opponents in this
county. Some of them even mad the audacity and
meanness to say that he should have been taken by
violence from: the roStrum-othcrs, less mean,
contemplate and malignant, expressed doubts about
his loyalty and fidelity to the South. Now, SUBJ
nit to any candid intelligent man if time has not
proven the truth of DR.. Leach's speech.
The CONSUMPTION act of the Confederate Congress
exempts all owners of twenty or more slaves, for
the reason the advocates of this clause of the act
say the necessity of the public demands it. They
cannot see that there is necessity for the poor,
hard-work,ng mans mpton-although he has
wife and seven or eight children, whose bread
and clothing depends entirely upon their fathers
industry. There is no necessity they say for the
poor, aged, inGrm and decrepid widows son. who
has The sole charge of her business and who holds
her aged and reeling head i'll sickness. Since the
passage of this act large shareholders who are ex-
empt by age, have given their sons twenty slaves
nd, TO 10 49, &c
gresS. and in some where the son did not own
single slave-n other cases, where the son had
from ten to fifteen slaves, the father would give him
enough to make the number twenty. In other
cases, where had few less than twenty and
no father other relative to give them slaves they
have purchased slaves to keep out of this war, un-
der this abomnable act of the Confederate Con.
greSs. And in other cases where man has
Der of slaves less than twenty, he claims exemption
upon the ground that his father, mother or other
relative has slaves in the same neighborhood, which
added to his make twenty slaves These arc facts
within my own knowledge. therefore assert une-
quvocally that the late CONSUMPTION act virtually
exempts nearly all slave owners
And again: Men who are wealthy, who have no
slaves, or not enough to exempt them from this act,
either hire substitutes or engage in some business
that will exempt them. The Spectator and extor-
toner who was poor at the beginning of this war,
has no idea of going to war under the CONSUMPTION
act for the reason that he has made enough either
to hire substitute or to engage in some business
that will exempt him. There is class of young
men who generally manage so as to avoid shoulder
ing their muskets. l refer to the sons of de,na-
gogues and politicians These young gentry never
did days work in their lives. They have fair
and tender hands. 1t will not do for them to 20
into the war with musket on their shoulders, but
they must have some office-and if they cannot get
an office, they frequently claim exemption upon the
ground of physical inability, brought on them in
many cases by Incidence and dissipation. Thus we
see that this war bears harder upon the poor, hard
working, unpretendng man, than upon any other
class of our citizens r.
Johnston Co. Nov s 1869