Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-09-09
For the Standard.
The Peace Conventions and Coy. Vance.

The ultraS within and without the State are at
tempting to make the impression that the Peace
Conventions are held by those only who favor re.
construction or submission but such is not the
fact While acting in these conventions, there may
be few who favor reconstruction, great major
ty Of those who compose them are as free from de-.
string peace upon terms dishOnorable or incOnsis-
tent With the independence Of the South as the most
rabid, flight to the bitter end, last man and last
dollar" partzan of them all.
1t may be true that these meetings are injurious
to the common cause, though it must be confessed
cannot perceive what harm there is in attempting
to negotiate peace while fighting for it; yet they
would not of themselves prove half SO injurious as
will the efforts which are being made by newspa-
pers and political military army officers, to use
them as evidences of disloyalty and backing down
among our people. What induced these meetings
in the first instancef Evidently general and vel!
grounded resentment at the repeated insults and in
jaries which had been heaped upon our State, and
especially upon that portion of citizens known
as Conservatives. A long series of afronts, either
accidental or studied, had been put upon our State
First: our people alone were ordered to give up their
arms then military prison was established in our
midst, to which our citizens were dragged, without
rshtul authority, and either without having charges
regularly preferred against them, or when so pre-.
ferrej, not having due notice thereof and when
they sought relief through the regularly constitu.
ted authorities Of the country, the military either
refused them the opportunity of obtaining remedial
writs, or refused obedience to the writs when OBJ
Sained; and there in the loathsome prison house
they suffered to langush and die without law
full warrant to arrest aud without lawful charge to
detaln them. Not content with such injuries as
could be inflicted upon US on our own SOIL some of
people were seized and dragged to prisons with
out the State and forced to stand trial before unau.
thOrized and irresponsible tribunals
We were glad to See the prison house at Salisbu-
~ tumble into ruins before the outspoken resent
ment of the people, or the firm remonstrances of
our present Governor, and we hoped that the day
Of those outrages was over; but scarce are we rid
Of one class of expressions before we are visited by
another When the commaudant of our Camp Of
Instruction was disabled, by wounds received in
gallant service, from discharging his duties, his
place was supplied, not by North. Carolinian not
by one of those who have rendered such worthy
service in enforcing law in many respects object
ionable to our people, but by native Of another
State foreigner. After awhile, certain Of our
citizens feeling themselves aggreved and injured
by tho military authorities, called to their aid the
judges and courts Of the State the regular consti-
tutonal expounders of the law The orders of the
judges and courts are disregarded- decisions
set at naught and evaded, and thus the military
overrides the civil authority, and North. Carolina
receives not only another gross insult but the lib
critics OF the people are stabbed in the most vital
part
To crown this long list of insults and outrages.
Yankee by birth, and Virginian by residence is
placed over us to control property and collect
the taxes, as though no native resident of our own
State could be found, having sufficient ability and
! honesty to gil the Office
1t was then that the cup, already full, began to
run over Then were held these meetings now being
magnlhed into such formidable demonstrations Of
disloyalty but in fact, originated in nothing but
strong sense OF the indgnites which had been heap
cd upon US, and desire to have them discontinued
1t Is true, that, in these meetings, sentiments "a
yorlng peace were uttered, but only in one of them
III my memory serves me) was such thing as re
construction limited at, and no doubt the manv in
(ures received under the existing order of things
hao infiamed the passions of the people composinf
that little meeting in Surry, until their Judgment
was drowned and they began to consider return
the present
AS the repeated insults and injuries tn the Stat,
were the prime cause, so the avoidance of them WA
the nam OBJECT OF these meetings. and people cousid
ered mat speedy and honorable peace was tn
most direct Eethod of accomplishing this result
ana they, perhaps, enormously think, that pesc
can oe most certainly and speedily secured by treat
ing aor y while lighting Not that they are Willing
they are ready, as falsely limited at to submit :
any terms. But believing that force was resorte
to too soon they would not postpone ali other a
orts until too late Ia there any thing treasnnabl
or dsloyal in thisi 1t may be mistaken but Il ce,
family cannot be criminal policy. If there is an
thing criminal growing out of all this, 1t was fir,
IN those who introduced this state of feeling by
persistent course of injustice 70 the State and ns,
in those who, insight and hearing Of the comma
enemy, wilfuly misrepresent the cause and missta
the object Of these meetings,