Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1863-01-13
The Richmond Enquirer.

The Enquirer says, sit is only upstarts and pre-
tenders and persons and communities without claim
to solid respect, who may be expected to torture
themselves with doubts as TO their position, and to
be ever on jealous watch for some slight or indign
ty." 1t then adds that the Standard maintains
such dishonorable watch ~ over North Carolina
and that one of our stereotyped phrases is, 1--WE
suppose as it is North. Carolina, it is all right"
The "substitute agent" of the Enquirer has no
doubt felt in his own person, what it is for "pre-
tenders" to put airs inhe presence of the first
families of Virginia" Hence his allusion 10 such
characters '>Out of the fullness of the heart the
mouth speaketh."
We now say, in reply to the Enquirer, and our
readers will sustain US in the statement that no
State has more fully confded in the administration
| at Richmond than North Carolina and no State has
been more studiousy or coldly neglected. Hatteras
was lost for the want of troops and q competent
General Roanoke Island, the key to the Abe
marie Sound and to Norfolk, was lost IN the same
way. Generals would not risk themselves on the
Island Colonel, without experience, was
obliged to assume the command The Notifications
and the troops were insufficient, and part of the
troops were compelled to fight with muskets whose
locks would drop off on parade and so the place
was lost. The crafty and unprincipled person who
! then presided over the War department. shrugged
his Jewish shoulders when he heard of it and SAID
it was small matter and it is believed that Presi
dent Davis himself improved the occasion by cast
ing imputations on the courage of North Carolina
| troops on the Island. A committee of the House
of Representatives unanimously, after full investi
| cation, decided and declared that Judah P. Benjamin
and Gen. Huger were mainly responsible for the
disaster; but the President after promoted ee
former to be Secretary of State, and retained the
latter in the service Newbern was also lost for the
want of troops and competent General Our sea-
coast has been seized and the country for than
fifty miles inland ravaged for the want of troops
All those rich regions watered by the Albemarle
| and Pamlico have been overrun and are now held
as the result of the fall of Roanoke and Eewbern.
And recently GoldSborough was almost in the grasp
of the enemy. What saved it? Not preparations
in advancc-not disposition shown by acts to
drive back the enemy and protect our people, but
the fact that the Railroad on which Goldsborough
is situated is indispensable to the government at
Richmond. Troops were poured forward, it is true,
but they were not so organized and provided with
supplies and transportation as to be able to pursue
and cut off the enemy. Gen. Smith was no doubt
hampered at every step forthe want of supplies and
transportation. He could fight the enemy at White
Hall and Goldsborough, and he would have whipped
them more soundly than he did, if they had ad-
vanced further; but he was power!ess to pursue
them, and they returned boasting of the effects of
their raid, to prepare for another movement on a
larger scale If the seven gmentS of State troops
| which the Conservatives desired to call out had
been raised, and had been at Newbern, they would
have saved that place. They would have saved
Kinston when recently attacked. If they had been
at Godsborough they would have co-operated with
Gen. Smith, under the orders of Gov. Vance; and
provided with means of transportation, they
would have been. they could have pursued and de-
stroyed the retreating army of Foster. But this
measure was defeated in the Convention by the En-
quirerS friends the DeStructives, mainly if not en-
tirely because the appointment of the officers was
not given to them, but to the men composing the
regiments.
AL this and more, people have borne almost
without murmur. But insult to large majority
of our people has been added neglect by the sys-
tematic manner in which 2artiZans have been ap-
pointed to military well as civil Office in this
State, by the administration. Political Generals
and Generals from other States, have been placed
over troops. Veteran officers who could date
their claim to promotion from the first battles in
Virginia have been subordinated to-political &C.
neralS without experience and to Generals selected
from other States. North Carolina at one time had
a voice in the Cabinet She has now. Her
member gave place to an Alabama Yanceyte. Mr.
Bragg is fayorite Of ours, but We may say with
truth that he is able lawyer and was well fitted
f for the place. But he only moderate seces-
sonist and North Carolinian. This was fatal 10
t him. He was allowed to retire with many COM
pments, just as it is sought to cajole his State
with fair words whenever her people evince their in
dgnation at the treatment they have received at
the hands of the administration. But we are not
disposed to dwell upon these things, and we have
alluded TO them only in selfdefence Our people are
neither unreasonable nor selfish. They have shown
this under all circumstances, from the beginning of
the war. They are eonfding and hopeful but when
they find confidence abused and hope deferred they
not only murmur, but they begin to depend upon
themselves. If Virginia had been treated as North
Carolina has been, the Enquirer would have devo-
ted each one Of its daily issues to protests and re-
monstrances, if its mouth had not been closed by
| plentlluI oHeTlISS OF patronage anu spollS. HeHe
independent; the Enquirer barks at such objects
only as its master points out to it.
We say our people are beginning to depend upon
themselves. Hence the effort to raise the ten regi-
ments. But they would not take one from Virginia
and the ten to be raised are to be rendered to the
President, and to be commanded by Gov. Vance, in
concert with the President, for the common defence
And this, the Enquirer says is almost treason. And
because we advocate the measure, it says our
"heart is in the camp of the enemy" We have
done more for the Confederate cause in proportion
| 10 nr,r nirc,latinn and mans than the