Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1862-01-22
Madness of the Hour.


Violent changes in the political as in the natural
world, are always attended by eccentric, unusual
and sometimes unnatural Developments which fail to
excite the wonder or the dread of those who throw
themselves into or are caught within the whirl Of
events The excitement or phrenszy Of the hour, en-
chains the feelings, and waits the mind upon the
current imperceptbly, not needing the rocks on the
one hand against which they may be driven, or the
quicksands on the other in which they may be
foundered. The cool, calculating locker on, away
from the whirl and tuuult may foresee the danger;
but those immersed in the revolution perceive
it until they are dashed against the boulder and
ruined
Such has been the manifest effect Of the revolu-
ton which now RACES with unmitigated fury in the
Northern States. Blinded by the remarkable de-
fusion that the old Union, now shivered and dis
severed forever, may be mended-phrcnzied with the
fanatical ideas of abolitionism-maddened by the
stalking ghosts of ruined commerce, idle spindles
d'lapdated merchant palaces and absolute aEnihila
ton as great nation, the one idea of whipping the
South into terms, or subjugating her body and soul
to their rule seems to occupy wholly the imagi ina
ton; and the entire North utterly obvious of its
own danger not that the fetters of subugation
which it is forging for the South, are fast manacling
its own people, which the future Developments of
this revolution will rivet forever For what can be
left to the North if this binding nfatuation much
longer drive her on but the loss Of every attribute
of free people and abect subection to an iron des
potis,n.
In the madness of their zeal against the South the
Northern people are submitting to their own rulers
with the obsequiousness of slaves In few short
months the demon of military despotism has ridden
rough-shod over every barrier which guarded the
rights and liberties Of the people; and they have
tamely yielied under the false delusion, that now
"we are in araolution," it is best Best for what
What can compensate for the loss of the rights of
conscience, the liberty of speech and opinion, the
freedom of the press and the great chartered right
of the writ of ha6eas corpuss
But what have been the effects Of the revolution
upon the South? We have steadily maintained that
the revolution has been beyond and external to the
South. The change in our political condition has
been so slight and easy, that the great body of the
people have felt it only in the sacrifices which they
have made for the defence Of their rights For the
most part, except the friction which the war has
occasioned by the mastering Of troops and the
barge upon business, matters have gone Oh much az
; they did before. We are get people Icing under
eritten constitutions aud uholesome aus respected
and rerered By the masses THIS, thank Heaven,
has been the sheet anchor of the South, which has
kept the ship to her moorings, and will, if made
! fast, enable her to outridc the storm.
! Yet ever and anon, upon this broad, smooth sur.
face of Southern waters there has appeared eddy
! or breaker, which, for moment, disturbed its
bosom. There have been found few among us,
! who have contended as palliative or excuse or jus.
tifcaton for awless act that 1--WE in the midst
| of revolution, 1.-THE crisis demands this or that VI
Where, where is the revolution within our borders
except in the distorted brain of some mad cap, who
has become infected with the "madness of the
hour?" Under this lawlcss monomania, here and
there, poor citizen may have been deprived Of the
use of his property without and above law for the
assumed of the State, because, the executors
of the military mandate said, "we are in a revou
tion, and the State needs it." A citizen may have
been arrested for opinions sake and ncarcerated till
relieved by hn6eas corpus; or some ignorant crazy
unfortunate, who happened to fall under the ire o
some selfconstituted vigilance committee, was made
to feel it until relieved by the of the laae. But
thank Heaven, law and Justice have triumphed ir
| ororv covn opA tho South r ct;1l froo