Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1862-11-05
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For the Standard.
MOTHERS WIVES DAUGHTERS, SISTERS OF
NORTH CAROLINA.

E-.-.s For the Standard.
MOTHERS, WIVES, DAUGHTERS SISTERS OF
.- NORTH CAROLINA.
r ~, ,ss,on YOU in this alarming crisis of our
oSnfrv In exert your influence in behalf ct Its well
Fare. and to stop if possible that rising tide-an
uphallowed greed for gold, which bids fair to deluge
dreds tn Law waste our beautiful homes and fruitful
fields and to bring sorrow and desolation to every
hearth-stone. Strange to say, that to-day, when
our independence is not yet achieved, when the en-
emy's foot is still within our borders, there are
great many who seem possessed with an unnatural.
desire to amass wealth at the expense OF our suffer-
ing bleeding country Asplrit of avarlce has seized
upon them, and yielding to its unchastened power,
and foreetul of all else they unconscious that
thew are really aiding an implacabe enemy, pro-
longing the war; and adding to its distressing char
acter. Hurried on in their mad passion for wealth,
thew think only of future ease and influence, and
xeem consumed with the desire of having large pos
sessions to bequeath to their children, who, alas
NAV be the "hewers of wood and the drawers OF
water" of the cruel and revengeful Northmen.-
Now, you cannot fight, or govern, or guard, but
YOU can be so prudent so frugal, so economical IN
your domestic arrangements, as to aid your hus-
bands and fathers greatly in reducing the expenses
of the family; you can cease to make demands on
their purses for that which is purely ornamental;
you can lay aside your silks and your velvets, your
laces and your ribbons your fashions and all that is
calculated merely to attract and adds no comfort to
the body, no religion to the soul, and which only
tends to draw our affections and our thoughts IRON
Heaven By patient, prudent sefdenal, you can
prevent them from INDUCING in large expenditures.
Let your wants be few and simple and your lie
industrious and frugal, and they can find in your
requirements excuse for improper speculation,
or heartess extortion Covet not to live in luxury
and ease to dress in velvet and satin, to have your
dresses cut after the latest fashion, to secure the
finest and best of every thing, when our brothers
and sons, the pride and strength of our country,
are standing clad in rags and barefooted, bulwark
to our homes. Remember, when you are sleeping
in your downy beds, they walk md stand, hour al
ter hour, in snow. rain and sleet that you may not
be enslaved-that no proud foe may drag you forth
to life OF shame and wreichedness Look back to
the days of the first NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. what
sacrifices our grand mothers made-then tell me, If
in their glorious spirit of SelEabnegaton and conse-
Grafton to the cause of human liberty, we have not
been greatly blessed YEA verify, they did their
duty nobly, and when their independence had been
achieved, they sat down under their own vines and
fig trees, and worshipped Goo after toe dictates Of
their own consciences. Virginia our sister State,
has been SO desolated by our Northern foes, her
lands so laid waste and her laborers carried oft
that but little has been left to support large army
Some of the most fertile lands Of our own State too,
are now in the possession of the enemy. What,
then, should be the action Of our farmers? What
does the voice of patriotism and duty demand p
Can the ends of pure patriotism be accomplished,
or the requirements of high civilization he met,
by planting the largest crops of tobacco and cotton
the one an injurious luxury, the other only re-
Quired in such quantities shall meet the necessi-
ties of the times? Is that man true to God to lib
erty, to his race, who in such gigantic struggle
as this plants such things will fill his Golfers
with money but will mporerish and ruin his coun-
try? No-a thousand times no! Let the farmer,
then, plant corn, peas, potatoes, and SOW wheat.
oats, and such other things as will sustain life and
furnish comforts for cur gallant soldiers. North
Carolina may be and she ought to be the granary
out of which soldiers may draw supplies
Should the spirit of covetousness so blind the eyes
of our land owners as to them to plant large
crop of cotton and tobacco, and bat little of the
necessares OF life, the consequence will be, nerta-
bic ruin and defeat. Remember the iron-clad gun
boats of our enemy-lOok at the geography of our
country, and think what destruction they can bring
all along our coast this winter. Hundreds will be
driven from their homeS-wnmen and children will
escape in the day and i'll the night, in the rain, and
in the snow, in any condition and any how, just to
be free And shall We leave them to perish: VIII
not divide with them the blessings which God
has given US =? But how can give when food is
selves? How can we satisfy the poor who will
daily throng our streets begging for bread? When
the factories are filled to overlooking with tobacco
and the gins with cotton and men reap golden har-
vests, will that satisfy the pangs hunger, clothe
the naked? five do not make provisions enough,
how shall we support ourselves, or maintain our
armies? Onr ports are bockaded, so shall not
be able to obtain them from abroad. OF what avail
then, will all this money be? A furnished and half
clothed army will be compelled to fall back to the
interior Of the country, and will seize upon the lux
uries of those by whom they have been betrayed.
1t will be quickly followed by the blood thirsty foe
who spares neither age sex. Amid the SHOWS of
winter, you will see by the blaze of your homes,
the murder of your husbands sons and fathers,
while the terrorstrcken children will cry for shell
ter and for bread, where there will be none to give,
and the innocent and the guilty will be alike IN
vol7ed in the common ruin. The homes Of the
wealthy will become the head quarters of the YAM
kee Generals-and the factories instead Of proving
the FL Dorado of the covetous, will be filed with
Northern soldiers, who, in order to prevent their
own suffering, will take the last morsel from the
widow and orphan. The ladies of North Carolina
have done much for the of the great contest
by encouraging their sons and brothers to take up
arms in defence of the South and will they not at
this important period of the war; when all that is
dear to US is at stake raise their voices in behalf OF
suffering humanity, and exert their gentle, but i'm
portant influence, In efforts to induce the planters
to pitch large crops of grain, and to abandon the
culture of luxurics until after the war? The mis-
sion of woman is to do good Go, then, my coun
try-women and lead poor, crrlng, sinful man from
the service of man,lnon to the service of God in
sp're him with those Christian principles which
will prevent him from accamu!ating earthly riches
at the expense of his own soul, in violation Of the
claims of our oppressed country, and in defiance
the wishes OF the pure and the patriotic.
A SOUTHERN MOTHER. :