Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-08-05
THE NUATA CAROLINA STANDARD;

As 70 our uhboundsd credit based upon Ii. So /
cnfity OF King Cotton, it IS unnecessary to speak.
When we see one Of the most influential States in
the Oonfederacy discrediting very large part Of
Tho Confederate currency, and the Confederste gov
eminent itself repndiating to some extent its most
solemn obligations We cannot but suppose that the
Of other nations in the rood filth and
credit Of this government is small indeed. As re-
CARDS their promise 10 60 to the war and spill the
last drop Of their blood in the cause Of their beloved
South" will say nothing. Every body sknovs
that promise. Every body knows that the leaders,
with few honorable exceptions, will neither fight
nor negotiate -
What . deplorable spectacle does the foregoing
history present to our view! To what desperate
pass have they brought US, and for whatp They
say that they did it because the North would give
us no guarantee in the slavery question. j have
before stated that not Of the Conventions of the
seven cotton States ever demanded any guarantee
whatever. Nay, they even refused to accept of any
if their friends Of the border States would procure
them for them.
The Legislature of North Carolina, at its regular
session in January 1851, adopted resolutions ap-
pointing commissioners to the peace Congress at
Washington City, and also to the Convention which
assembled at Montgomery, Alabama, in February
1861, for the purpose of adopting Constitution,
and establishing provisional government for the
Confederate States Of America On the motion of
the writer Of this, the resolution appointing COM
missioners to Montgomery was amended so as to in
struct them "to act only as nediators and use eve
ry effort possible to restore the Union upon the ba
sis Of the Crittenden propositions as modified by the
Legislature Of Virginia" The commissioners un-
der these instructions were the Hon. D. L. Swain,
Gen. N. W. Ransom, and John L. BridgeS, Esq,
who, upon their return, submitted reporfto his
Excellency Gov Ellis, which was by him laid before
tue Legislature and was printed among tho fegsla-
tive documents Of that year. where it may be consul
ted In this report they say that they had the most
ample opportunities of ascertaining public opinion
in the cotton States, and then add: "We regret to
be constrained to state, as the result Of enqui
RES, made under such circumstances, that only
very decided minority of the community in these
States disposed at present. to entertain favora-
bly,, any proposition of adjustment which looks to-
wards reconstruction of our national Union. In
this state of things we have not deemed our duty
to attend any of the sessions of the Congress-
The resolutions of the General Assembly are upon
the table of the Congress, and having submitted
them as peace offering, We would poorly perform
the duties assigned to us by entering into discus
sions which would serve only to enkindle strife"
But it will be said that these guarantees could
not have been obtained from the North. This ad-
NIT to be true, and only produce this piece of his
tory to prove that whatever might have been OBJ
tanned, nothing would have been accepted. But
the Congress Of the United States did pass by the
constitutional majority of wo-thirds the proposition
reported by Mr. Corwin, from the committee of 26,
to so amend the Constitution as to pepetuats slave.
ry in the States. What stronger guarantees could
be given so far as the States were concerned it
would be difficult to conceive. What then would
have been left to quarrel about? The territories.
During the session of Congress which closed on the
4th Of March, 1861, acts were passed to provide
temporary governments for the three remaining
new territories, to wit: Colorado, Nevada and Da-
cotah. These acts contain no trace or indication Of
of the Wilmot Proviso, nor any other prohibition
against the introduction Of slavery, but on the 9TH
er hand, expressly declare among other things,
that "no law shall be passed impairing the rights
of private property; nor shall any discrimination
be made in taxing different kinds of property, but
all property subject to taxation shall be in proper
ton to the value of the property taxed"
Now, when it is considered that all three of these
territories North Of sc deg. 80 mn, and that in
the new territory now owned by the United States
south of that line, Slavery actually eriss and is re-
cogniSsd by the territorial lau, the question may
we'll be asked "what was there worth quarreling
much less fighting about?" Here was settlement,
Of the question in the territories made by Repub
lican Congress- which gave the Southl all that
I'D to the tSms of the Charleston Convention,
she had ever asked and far more than she could
hope to gain, in any event, by secession
Indeed, think it must now be apparent that seces
sion, even if it could have been effected peaceably
would have been no remedy for the grievances o.
which they complained. Nay, so far as any griev
ances arising from failure to obtain return of oul
fugitive slaves was concerned, think it must now
instead of remedy for the evil. think all calm
and dspassionate men every where, are now ready
to- admit that it would have been far better for t
have accepted the terms offered US and preserved
peace and the Union, than to have plunged this
once happy country into the horrors of this desola
ting war, which has spread pail over the whole
land-has brought mourning into every family
rendered hundreds of thousands of hearth-stones
desolate-has filled the land with the manned ant
disabled, with widows and orphans, and squalie
poyerty-has crowded our poor-houses and aim
houses-has sported away many hundreds Of thou
sands of lives and many hundreds of millions o
treasure only to fnd the institution for which they
profess to have gone to/war in thousand time:
greater jeopardy than ever before.
Such being the condition into which they havt
brought the country, the question presents itself
ais there any remedy?" A full, complete and ad
equate remedy, there is not; for what can restore
the loved ones lost-repar at the desolaton, Of
remove Immediately the mourning from our land
Yet there is a remedy which, with the helping
hand of time, will accomplish much, very much in
deed, and which with the energy that usually fol
lows desolating wars, will, perhaps remove mos
! Of its traces in half century. This remedy il
peace, SPEEDY PEACE! But they say that we are 81
situated that proposition for peace can be mad'
by us; that having proclaimed our independence
We must fight antl it is voluntarily acknowledged
by the United States, or until we are completed,
su1jugated. On the meeting Of the British Parlia
ment, which took place on the 18th Of December
1892 the King in his speech to the two Houses, in
tmated his intention Of going to war with the French