Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1863-02-03

We have condemned the pursued BY The Raleigh
Standard because knew that it injurious TO the
cause Of the South We have accused the editor of
that paper Of dsovay but have simply protested against
his course hurtfu to the Confederate se-Weser"
Democrat.
We can respect contemporary, how much soever
it may differ with in opinion, provided does not
call in question our motives or charge us with
want of integrity or honor. No man shall! do this
with impunity. We know the rectitnde of our mo-
tives and intentions, and God knows them; and no
man worthy of notice shall question them without
receiving merited punishment We therefore, &C
cept the disclaimer of the Democrat, and we do it
the more readily because in some instances, We had
inferred from the course of the Democrat towards
US, that we should be compelled to place it in the
category of our enemies and caumniators
But the Democrat says, 1--WE have condemned
the course pursued by the Raleigh Standard, be-
cause we knew that it injurious to the cause Of
the South" How did the Democrat knoW this p
By what mode of reasoning, or what facts enabled
the Democrat to arrive at such knowledge? Is it
not a mere matter of opinion with that paper We
entertain very different opinion, and the facts JUS
tfy US in Saying, that we knOw the contrary, for
the following reasons: 1t will not be denied that
State in the Confederacy has done more for the
mon cause than North Carolina in men, means or
sympathy. 1t cannot be denied that both in our
place IN the State Convention and through the STAN
dqrd, we have advocated and urged eUery measure
which tended to promote the common cause. 1t
cannot be denied that two-thirds, at least of the
people of North Carolina have been with US, and
have sustained 1t cannot be denied that
the Standard has the largest circulation Of any pa
per in the State, and, our enemies being witnesses
has the most extensive influence upon the masses.
We receiving hundreds of letters per week, from
all parts of the State, in which course is most
warmly approved. Are the people opposed to, and
disposed oinjure their own government? Ifthe Stan
dard is so are the thousands who thus approve its
course. 1t cannot be denied, that no paper in the
State exerted wider influence in inducing our peo-
pie to volunteer for the war than the Standard
Let the large number of Conservative men in the
army answer.
Wherein, then, is our offence? We implored the
officials and pets of both the State and Confederate
governments, for months after the war began, to
abandon their party favoritism and policy during
the war. We were opposed in all sincerity and
honesty to all partyism during the war, and
they treated? Ignored almost entirely in all offices
of prominence denied the position of equals, abused
and villifed as traitors. and threatened that "a
hideous mark" should be put upon them. They
were thus forced against their will, to assume an
attitude of hostility not to the the govern
ment-what they have done for it proves ths-but
to the partizan controllers Of both governments,
who thus maligned and mistreated them. They
were forced, in selfdefence, to adopt party posi-
ton dernier resort and hence the Destructives
in this State routed "horse foot and dragons"
We have opposed and shall continue to do so,
the measures and acts of the Destructive partizdns
in both governments, who seek to uproot, violate
or impinge the Constitution of the Confederate or
State governments, who, with the mouth, advocate
the Constitutional rights and guarantees of the
States but break them in the act; who sustain the
administration and Congress in their violations of
the Constitution their disregard of the sacred right
of hdbeGs corpus in elevatng the military above the
civil power and in all acts which tend to abridge
the liberties of the citizen. We shall oppose in
all, every advance towards despotism or monarchy,
and the destruction abridgement of the liberties
of the people. For this, we suppose the Democrat
thinks our course injurious to the government.
We differ widely with that paper. We believe by
this course We sustain the government and labor to-
perpetuate it in all its vigor and purity.