Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1862-01-08

congress WOulo as soon IiHk repeating the OOil-
stituton, and dssolying into state Of chaos as to
undertake this process Of the polling and purgaton
Of the whole people Nor has any other State pro-
posed or conceived it. They know that fserious dis
affection does not exist las every knows it does
not in North Carolina this lisa way in which the gov
ernment may readily be brought into contempt and
collision with the people, rand that if it did, this is
not the mode in which to deal with it. Lord Ma
cauey relates of Charles H. that he never learned
how to treat an insurrectioh, which common sense
teaches should be- by taking hold of the ringleaders
and making examples of them,-but that on the
happening of such an occurrence, he seized, tried
and executed the unhappy insurgents, Of all ages
and sexes and while his seryie and tyrannca chief
justice, Jeffries, went the circuits peryerting the
law for the condemnation of all accused, the merry
monarch diverted himself among his mistresses and
courters by speaking of them Jeffries' campaign.
Sir, the progress of your justices under this ord
nance, abjuring men and boys without regard to
the aged, the decrepid, the halt MANNED or blind
under terror of exile degradation from the proud
privileges Of citizenship, will be looked upon by
those who have the instincts not to say knowledge
OF freemen, as no less of campaigns and with no
view to favor the public enemy but to assert their
self respect and dignity, they will strive to hur
from power the authority under which they are
made What Sir, is such proceeding but the es-
adjustment of martial law throughout the length
and breadth Of the State by which the peaceful cit
placed upon the footing of the inhabitant of be-
sieged city or fortress, or of conquered and sub
dued rebeous province? A Roman pro-consuL
British colonial Governor, successful General in
the armies OF Abraham Lincoln with an 0yerwhelm-
ing force and but feeble resistance. NAV adopt
measures of such dictatorial severity and rigor-
We are informed that Governor Tryon, after over
towering the Regulators at Alamance marched
military force into many OF the upper counties of
the then province, and exacted from the inhabitants
an oath OF allegiance to the King at the point of the
bayonet Gen. Dix, also, upon his recent conquest
of the two counties on the eastern shore of Virginia
condescended to advertise their HELPLESS citizens
that if they would take the oath of allegiance to the
United States, they should receive every protection
and their property shouldnot be confiscated This
was sufficient hint what consequences would fol-
low If they did not But, who before ever heard of
government protesting to be free, undertaking to
drive from its borders disanch:se its whole pop
ulation, if they would not man by man, submit to
the ordeal OF a compulsory test oath? Nay, what
arbitrary deSpotism in i s domestic rule ever en-
Earked in any such enterprise of QuIxotic absurd
ityr Was it attempted in France under the first
Napoleon, or under the third Even in the widest
excuses OF her revolutionary phrenzy there seems
to have been sufficient common sense left to the
ruling authorities to enable them to recollect that
human law is the rule of civil conduct" not of
faith, and that only bigotry and fanaticism will at
ISthpl W IcSudlc COHSClenCe ana opinion
ment or in religion. Charles " Emperor of Ger
many and of Spain, after wagng for years the most
bloody and relentless wars. to put down Luther and
the Reformation, becoming stated with carnage and
disguised with the pageantry of monarchy yielded
up the reins OF power to his son. and retired to mo-
mastery. There he amused his leisure in scientific
studies, and IN experiments upon instruments for
measuring time But by no diligence or skill was
he ever able to make two clocks run alike This,
says his biographer, DR.. Robertson, saddened his
soul with remorseful reflection upon his previous
life IN which he had caused rivers of blood to fow
IN vain and wicked efforts to- compel men to think
alike. This simple anecdote, which is but an illus
traon OF all human experience proves the futility
and impossibility of controlling thought ard opin-
ion and that those governments only are wise
that leave the mind and conscience free, and are
content With conformity to their beheStS in action
OF the one hundred and twenty thousand voters in
the State how many in the eighty-ive years of its
independence have taken oath to the State or to
the United States, during connection with that
government? Those who have filled office and ex-
ercised portion Of the sovereign power as magis-
trates or constables, or in higher stations, have
been obliged and properly too, to swear fidelity to
the State and general governments but to the
great mass Of the people, if they have not literally
kept the Scriptural Injunction to "swear not at al"
it has not been by reason of any oath of fealty i'm
posed by public authority. And the inquiry will
novel and most extraordinary proceeding? The
Legislature has been twice convened in extra ses-
sion since the breaking out of the present war; and
has considered and adopted all such measures as
they deemed necessary to the public safety or de-
fence But no member of either House, in anxious
contemplation of the crisis, seems to have thought
of test OATH forced upon all the people, under ter
ror of exile or loss of privilege, as among these
measures. Caesar Augustus sent out decree that
all the world should be taxed The North Carolina
Convention is asked to send out decree that all the
world shall be sworn. There is virtue in taxation.
Money is the sinew Of war-but what nation was
ever defended by aths,-oaths imposed on its own
people without distinction, especially when the al
tentative was Punishment or degradation?
Mr. President to say of this measure that it is
absurd and calculated to bring ridcule our legis
lation, and that it is unnecessary and will be Who'll
ly Intellectual, if necessary, inasmuch a forced
oath is well understood to be oath in the sight of
or his Maker is but to characterize its more
obvious features. am fully persuaded that abroad
if not at home, il will be regarded The offspring
of fear. 1t will beargued, and the hypothesis cannot
be resisted that proceeding so universal, so unu-
sual searching, destructive of personal freedom
and dangerous to public liberty would not be resort
ed to except in a State where public sentiment was
suppressed by the high hand of force and sense of
danger had driven the government to desperation.
In that aspect no measure could give greater en-
enlargement to the enemy and no libel could more
deeply wound the sensibiities of the people of the
State, or do them more gross injustice. They have
looked upon the pending contest as foreign war,
of nation against nation, waged upon the frontiers
by national armies. But you propose by this ordi-
nance to declare it civil and social war, in which
no is to be trusted in which the secrets of the
right hand may be concealed from the left until you
have cleared out the conscience and made assurance
doubly sure by forced oath. 1t is not enough that
So 600 men, portions of them from every county in
the State in the field exposngth their lives to the
arms of the enemy, and to the pestilence of camp
and garrison, and that almost every family has its
representative there; that they have submitted
cheerfuly to the burdens of taxation and the prva
tons incident to destruction of commerce, and
have and above this voluntarily and cheerfuly
contributed Of their labor their substance and the
very comforts of their homes, to give aid to your
soldiers and vgor to their efforts that there is not
clnnd of dsloyalty 10 be in all the horizon