Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-01-28
The Richmond Enquirer.

The Enquirer of,the 18th instant, true to its de-
PRAYED impulses, devotes more than 8 column Of
low abuse to this paper We shall not initiate that
paper either in temper or style. We are cool, and
we can afford to be- but it is the GOODNESS Of con-
tempt for The impotent rage Of the Enquirer. We
shall notice at present the article Of the 10th, re-
serving for future issue our reply to other articles
in that paper. The Enquirer says: ~ :.
"Wbatsser may be the Standards cause of complaint
against the Eaquire it have none whatever against
the State of Virginia. unless il be that she threw
breastwork against the march Of the andars old gov
ernment and prevented the stars and stripes from way
ing over its office. =
We have no complaint to make against that por-
ton of Virginia ,chich loyal Virginia isa great
State She is worthy of better representatives and
defenders than the Enquirer has shown itself to be-
She Is afflicted just now with scurvy set of foreign
and Yankee Office. holders, who infest Richmond as
the lice and frogs infested Egypt and the Enquirer
is the mouth-piece Of this set. But Virginia is not
to blame for this She is the victim in this respect
of circumstances ''for where the carcase is, there
will the vultures be gathered together"
When NJ Lincoln called on Virginia to fight her
full brother of the South or her half brother of the
North, she said she would fight the latter. North
Carolina said the same thing before Virginia did
She said it unanimously with open doors, in the
face of the whole world; Virginia said it with
closed doors and by divided vote. She could not
have "thrown herself as breastwork against the
march Of the Standard" when the Standard aided
III accomplishing the work of separation before
Virginia did. The Enquirer remained longer under
the "old government" than We did, and, if the
truth could be known, We have no doubt it drew
its pay, or attempted to draw it. for publishing the
laws of the "old government" after Lincoln's pro-
clamaton. We were true to the "old government"
as long as it existed. We intend to be true to the
new. The Enquirer was false to the old, by "plot-
ting" at Charleston and Baltimore to break it up;
and it is false to the new, by Its attempts to justify
violations Of the Constitution ard by inauguratng
the same corrupt system Of party politics at Rich
mond which prevailed at Washington, and paved
the way to our present calamities The worst foe
to the South is he who would pervert the Consti-
tuition, the administration, the government to bis
own selfish party ends. The Enquirer is that foe.
Its conduct under both governments proves it to
be so. Take away all its official patronage and
consign it to hopeless minority, and it would at
once go to work to destroy the new government no
matter what che consequences might be. ln revo-
lutons, in feshes, the decayed and refuse timber
always floats the surface. That was the En-
quirers calculation when it aided in destroying the
old government; and such would be its calculation
and its conduct under the new, if 1t should happen
! to sink to the bottom.
! The Enquirer says the Standard "seeks to sap
the foundations oftheattachment that exists between
the people of North Carolina and Virginia" This
is not true The Enquirer is solely responsible for
all the i'll blood between the people of the two States.
II created this Ill blood by its arrogant and inselent
attack the Legislature of this State because that
body was considering the propriety Of calling out
ten regiments Of troops. 1t lectured the Legisla-
ture assumed to speak for the people of this State
and declared to the world that portion Of the peo-
pies representatives in Raleigh, were engaged in
"plotting" as traitors to destroy the Confederate
government and thus aid Lincoln and his hordes.
No wonder our people became indignant under such
an insult This State is not province dependent
on the government at Richmond, nor are. its people
so lost to self respect and manhood as to submit
without resentment to the impertinent lectures Of
the Richmond Enquirer. Time was when they
would have listened with respect to suggestions
from that journal but that paper has so fallen in
character as the mere echo Of power and as the or
gan of Jews and Yankees about Richmond, that
even its suggestions on any subject would scarcely
arrest the attention of any considerable or decent
portion Of them.
We charged that the Enquirer was the organ o.
the administration, and it replies as follows:
"If the Editor of the Standard has received less
from the President than the Editors Of the Enquirer HI
has been q neglected man indeed We have met the
President but twice since the government moved to Rich
mond. We never asked favor from him, and never re
ceived one."
We are not in the habit of asking or expecting
favors of those in power. But the Enquire is tht
official organ of the administration, so published
and declared. All the orders Of the Department.
are first published in that paper The person WHIT
wrote the editorial to which we are replying, may
not have met the President at all since he has beer
in Richh1ond but that does not change the fact tha
the Enquirer is the official organ. 1t begs the ques
ton when it says, tive. never asked favor from
him, and never received one" 1t enjoys the grca
"favor" of being the recognized organ Of the De
partments. Certainly it obtained this favor from
the President through his Secretaries There il
! no doubt about that And yet the Enquirer, will
serpentine turn which is part Of its nature, trie
to wrggle out of the fact that it is the mere ech
, of power, having no thought no independence, n,
mind of its own. "Gurth, the born thrall o
Cedric, the Saxon," is written in unmisakable char
ters on tho collar Of the Enquirer. 1t has wake,
SO fat On the spoils, poured into its lap by cut
purse Jews and snivel!ing Confederate Yankee
in Richmond, that it dares to lecture sovcreg,
State as to its duty; and as to humoe Editors lik
oursel it does not hesitate to call them traitors
they do not think precisely as it does, and to cal
on its mob to "Har them in pieces" or drive then
from the State The Enquirer boasts Of its larg
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