Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-08-05

The election Of Mr. Lincoln was perhaps hailed with
greater Joy ct Charleston than at New York,
will do them the justice to state that they also
claimed tohavesom other grievances; among them,
that some of the northern States by their statutes
INSTRUCTED the execution Of the fugitive slave law,
but the only States that could complain much on
that score were willing to remain in the Union.
while South Carolina, the State which set the bali
in motion, perhaps never lost slave. But it must
be borne IN mind that act Of the national govern
ment constituted any part Of their grievances.
They did not pretend that any act Of Congress ill.,
ringed their rights, and the decisions of the SD
preme Court were mainly such as they would them
sen nave made. Nay, even at the very time Of
Mr. Lincoln's inauguration if the cotton States had
Allowed their Senators and Representatives to re-
main, they would have had decided majority in
both Houses of Congress in favor of the extension
OF slavery, and in opposition to the policy Of the
party which elected him.
The great cause of complaint was, that man
opposed to the extension Of slavery in the terrific
RES had been elected President of the United States
according to the forms of the Constitution which
ne was sworn to defend and protect, and who DIS
Claimed any other than Constitutional means in the
accomplishments of his objects. Under such cir |
cumstances it seems that if they had labored under
any real grievance, their course was plain. They
should have taken the course of our revolutionary
fathers. When the States assembled in Convention,
instead Of proceeding at to declare their indie
pendence-for the idea of secession, peaceable Of
right seems, as Publius says, to have exploded and
given up the ghost-should clearly and concisey
have stated what their grievances were, and deman.
ded redress in respectful, yet firm and decided
terms They should have exhausted euery Consti !
tutional means of obtaining guarantees any were
needed-by representation, by remonstrance, by Pc
tition; and failing in all these, they should have
done as our revolutionary sires did, T. g. fight in tho
Union for their rights until they were dripen out
OF It Such course would have procured for-us,
as it did fo our fathers, the respect the sympathy
and the assistance of other nations. Instead of that
we have not a friend in Europe. But such was not
the course which these-in their own estimation
wise statesmen chose to pursue. When such a
course was suggested or recommended to them, they
evaded it by long list of magnificent promises
which looked so SPLENDID as almost to dazzle the
mind with their brilliancy.
First and foremost they promised that secession
should be peacea6k.
Secondly, they promised that if perchance war
should ensue, it would be very short war; that it
would not last sic months-that the Yankees would
not ight-that one Southerner could whip from ten
to one hundred Of them-that England and France
wouldspeediy recognize and render every assis
lance we mi ht desre-that whatever might be their
abstract opinions of the subject of slavery, their in
terests would impel them to promote its perpetuty
in the Southern States that if after all they should
not be disposed to assist u.s. Cotton scas King, and
would soon bring all the crowned heads of Europe
on their knees in supplication to US; would compel
them to raise the blockade-should one be estab.
lished-in thirty days, in sixty days, in ninety
days, in one hundred and twenty days. in six months
in nine months, in one gear at farthest
Thirdly, they promised us that all the slave
States except Delaware would join the Southern
Confederacy-that slavery should not only be per-
petuated in the States but that it should be extern
ded into all the territories in which the negro could
live; that all the grievances occasioned by the
execution of the fugitive slave law should be speed
lily redressed that slave property should be esab-
lished upon basis as safe as that of landed prop.
erty.
F5urthly, they promised us that the new gov
eminent should be mere Confederacy of States Of
absolute sovereignty and equal rights that the
States should be tyrannized over by no such Gen.
trail despotism" as the old government at Wash
ington that the glorious doctrine of States rights
and nullifc as taught by Mr.. Jefferson and Mr..
Calhoun, should prevail in the Confederacy-
that the sovereignty of the States and their judicial
decisions should be sacredly respected.
Filthy, they promised US the early and per-
manent establishment of the wealthiest and best
government on the earth, whose credit should be-
better than that of any bther nation; whose pros,
perty and happiness should be the envy of the civ
| ilized world.
And lastly, they promised US that if a war should
ensue, they would 60 to the battle field and SPILL if
necessary the last drop of their blood in the
| of their beloved South.
| While such have been their promises, what have
! been their performancesf Instead of secession BE-
ing peaceable they promised that it would it has
given rise to such war as has never before desola
ted any country since the barbarians Of the North
overran the Roman Empire.
| So far from the wars ending in six months as
they said it would, should it ensue it has already
lasted more than two years. and if their policy is to
be pursued it will last more than two years longer
and Notwithstanding their predictions, the Yankees
have fought many occasions with spirit and de-
termination worthy of their ancestors of the rsvou
ton-worthy of the descendants of those austere old
puritans whose heroic spirit and religious zeal made
Oliver Cromwells army the terror of the civilized
world, or of those French Huguenots, "who, thrice
| in the 10th century, contended with heroic spirit
and various fortunes against all the genius of the
house of Lorraine, and all the power of the house
of Valois-" England and France have not recos-
| nized us-have not raised the blockade-have not
| shown US any sympathy, nor is there any proba-
bility that they ever will, and that Cotton is not
King is now universally acknowledged. And Ma
ryland has not joined the Confederacy, nor has Ken
lucky nor Missouri ever really been with US. Slave
ry has not only not been perpetuated in the States
nor extended into the territories, but Missouri has
passed an act of emancipation, and Maryland is
ready to do so rather than give up her place the
Union, and the last hope Of obtaining one foot Of
the territories for the purpose of extending slavery
has departed from the Confederacy torsser. The
grievances caused by the failure Of some of the
Northern States to execute the fugitive slave law,
have not only not been remedied, but more slaves
have been lost to the South forever since secession
was inaugurated, than would have escaped from
| their masters in the Union in five centuries And
how have they kept their promise that they would
respect the sovereignty and rights of the States p
Whatever the government may be in theory, in fact
we have sgrand military consolidation, which al
most entirely ignores the existence Of the States
and disregards the decisions of their highest judi
cial tribunals The great central despotism at
Washington as they were pleased to call it, was at
any time, previous to the commencement of the Sc
cesson movement and even for some time after it
had commenced, q most mild and bene6cent govern
ment compared with the central despotism at Rich
mond, under which we are now living
Instead of an early and permanent establishment