The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-09-26
A voice from North Carolina.

An Eloquent Plea for Peace and Recon-
strnction-A Declaration that IT. W'u 0e
Better to "Liue pih than Under the Nor
He,n Peopje''-Ihe tSubitgdtton OF MtSSts-
Sippi and Louisiana acknowledged.
A few days before its Office was sacked
by rebel soldiers from Georgia, the Raleigh,
North Carolina, Standard, published an
other remarkable article urging the inau-
guration of some steps looking towards the
conclusion of a peace. 1t was written as
reply to some structures made by the Fay
etteville Observer. The following extracts
will show the spirit of the article!
Seizures of persons and property have
become as common as they are in France
and Russia. Personal property has been
made dependent on the mere will of army
officers appointed by the President. Hun
dreds have been arrested for OPINION
sake immured in dungeons, denied trlais
before the civil tribunals, and released on
ly when the military power chose 10 90 II.
Our Courts, when they have interferred 10
protect these unfortunates and 10 upholo !he
law, have been disregarded in many IN
stances, and their integrity reflected on IN
gross terms by the War Department at
Richmond, The Confederate currency,
which is the life-blOod of the system and
the emanation of plighted puoilc 1alth, mas
been to some extent repudlated as matter
of convenience; ana PorloI oi ~ Ia one
instance has been refused by Cabinet Off
Ger. on the same ground, in open violation
of a law of Congress. Our patient, UNI
complaininp, heroic soldiers, have been
placed in the van of every battle, and in
the rear of almost every retreat; and when
thew have fought with an ardOr and steadi-
ness which would have reflected credit on
the Old Guard of Bonaparte itself, just
praise has been denied them by journals
supposed to speak for the Administration,
and their fathers and brothers at home,
who are conservatives, have been held up
as disloyal, and unfriendly to the cause
Brigadier and Major Generals from other
States have been placed over them in ma
ny instances; and when such officers have
been appointed from our State, they have
been, almost invariably, of the same poll
tics with the Administration. Proscrip-
ton has thus been practiced over the very
bones and blood of our people. Superad-
ded to all this, has been the appointment OF
surgeons, enrolling officers, and the like,
from other States, over our regiments, and
ing outrage was reached by the appoint
ment of Major Bradford, of Virginia, to
collect the 1.-THE. This led to the first pub
lie meeting held in this State and, but for
this and other meetings. and the earnest
remonstrance of Gov. Vance, Major Brad
ford would still be the Tithing-man for
this State.
Such are some of the causes that have
reused the people of this State to a sen Sc of
their rights, and led to the meetings so
much deprecated by the Observer. But
there are other causes, growing out of the
partisan policy referred to, and out of the
inefficiency which must always character
ize party Administration in the midst of
a great revolution like the present. The
,ft In, ny1n 10 Mt nv II g
been dedicated to this struggle, but only
half of its mind, if SO much as that, has
been called into requisition, The counsels
of every great statesman and good man
who did not believe that Mr.. Lincoln'S cleo
ton was not sufficient cause for Inaugural
ting civil war, have been as effectually eX-
cluded from the ear of the President in his
practical administration of the Government
as if they had been exiles in foreign lands.
. The idea that secession lrOutd be peaced6te
is the great mistake that ulderties the 9ohoIe
movement. The President was urged at
Montgomery to purchase the stock of cot
ton then on hand as uIeans of procuring
ships, munitions of war, and other necessa-
ry supplies, and also to call for and accept
five hundred thousand volunteers. He de-
clined to do it, and his Congress ordered
fifteen thousand stand of aims, and bor-
rowed fifteen millions of dollars! Seeing
his mistake, but not admitting it by calling
statesmen who had thus advised him to
his aid, he adhered to his party policy, and
ran to the other extreme of general con-
scription of seven hundred thousand men,
without due regard to the productive in
terests, on which successful prolongation
of the war must mainly depend. Under
the lead of pet Generals, whose incompe-
tency is now known to all, the great Val
ley Of the Mississippi has been lost to us
our own sea coast has been lost; and but
thx, Of of o.
rails in Virginia, and the sublime courage
of our veteran troops, the Confederate Cap
ital itself would have passed from our
hands. Meanwhile the people have been
deceived by the promise that cotton would
bring peace; France or England, or both,
would interpose; that the Northern people
themselves would divide and arrest the
war; that invasions of the enemy's terrific.
ry would so distress them that they would
force their Government to negotiate; that
Providence, seeing our cause to be Just,
and our enemv's altogether wicked, would
speedily lead us out with His strong right
hand into the light of independence. None
of these hopes have been realized. On the
other hand, our armies are not materially
increasing, while our enemies are recruit
ing from twenty millions of their own peO.
pie, from thousands of emigrantS from
Europe, and what is infinitely worse from
our slave population.
No one, 1t seems TO US, who Will look DIS
passionately at the facts, will deny that the
foregoing is true.
The Observer reminds us that when this
State seeded tfor they aU0uld pass Mr..
Craige's secession ordinance from the old
Government, that act was final So il
was 20 all human appearances, and so we
hope it may be. We hope the State acted
finally and we still think she acted
wisely" When two evils are before US,
and there is no escape, true wisdom is
shown by choosing the lesser evil. Our
State did that. Her people did not desire
to secede. They were willing to try the
Administration of Abraham Lincoln, and
to rely meanwhile on the great body OF
the American people TO rescue the Govern
ment from sectional conflicts, to restore ii
10 a national Administration, and thus per-
petuate il if possible, for all time. They
felt that, having with them both branches
of Congress and the Supreme Court, Pres
ident Lincoln could not seriously njure
their property in slaves or deprive them
OF their rights in the territories even if he
would. They intended, if he attempted
such thing to resist him in the Union
aided as thew would have haan NV I OOo :