Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-10-14
For the Standard.


Gods my Revardl
For the Standard.
Nh EDITOR: Perhaps you would like to hear
from this remote section of North Carolina, and al
though my communication may not possess any real
interest or merit still am led to believe from the
uniform courtesy and kindness you extend TO ctr
zens and correspondents, that you may not object
to hear from me.
It is needless to remark, Mr. Editor, that the all
absorbing question of the day away up here is the
war the war and although We are comparatively
remote from its more stirring scenes wehesr great
deal about it and feel very deep interest in our
country's welfare. In this county, as elsewhere, We
have some Who to desire nothing but relentless
war, whose teachings If acted upon and carried out,
would immediate our fair country in one unver-
Sal scene of carnage and blood, and what to many,
is the strangest of ALL of this class Of persons some
are preachers of the gospel To these reverend gen.
tlenen Lwould like to address few thoughts.
In the first place, desire to ask these ministers
Of the gospel! and all other persons who entertain
similar sentiments with them, BY what theory in
moral ethics rule of human charity it is by which
they arrive at the fact which they confidently and
often assert that you, Mr.. Editor, and others, who
think with you, enemies to the South and trail
tors to your sectionf Youhave told the people in
your paper that you are native of the South, born
and reared on the soil of the commonwealth of North
Carolina, and the writer has been told through 9th
er channels that you have very considerable in
terest in the peculiar and pecunary institutions of
the South; that you have family whose fate is
Southern, like the rest of Southern people. ask
all these reverend gentlemen if your neighbors fate
IS not your fate and if the common rule of cause
and effect, prove you traitor to yourself and fami-
ly? If then mans personal and pecuniary inter-
est by the laws of epreservaticn orbids your be-
ing traitor, by what rule of reasoning can they
found such an allegation? Is it because you have
published and sanctioned meetings held by the SOW
eregn people looking to and desiring if possible,
termination of the war now raging within our bor-
ders, on terms honorable and advantageous to the
people Of the whole country2 If so, such conclu-
sion is equally fa!lacious and unjust, for hold that
it is the duty of public Journal in country claim
Ing tho sembance even of freedom of speech to pub
lish tie sentiments Of any respectable portion Of the
people, when respectfully set forth in relation to
their government and their welfare % people. Are
not the people Of the Northern governments gov
ernment these reverend gentlemen affect so much to
sbhor and despise, on account Of the TYRANNY of
their laws and the despotism that there prevails, al
lowed this poor privilege! Or is the true cause of
their objection to yourself and these meetings, to
oe found in the fact that your able journal repre-
sents the sentiments of the people, people who feel
they have interest at stake both in the character Of
and the execution Of the laws that govern them,
right to be heard in defence of civil liberty-their
personal and pecuniary rights-that they are not
the passive tools Of the agents of government
created by themselves2
1t is not unusual that persons differ as to the
means by which certain object is attained, and
that cause, party, or person, who shuns fair discus
sion, and assals reason with vtuperation and abuse
impartial history will pronounce unworthy of con.
6dence and traitors both to truth and religion.
1t is not uncommon nowadays to bear from the
sacred desk, reverend gentlemen preach that it is
the duty of every man IN the South to sacrifice his
life and last dollar rather than this war should stop
short of their own terms and after the men are all
slain ministers Of the gospel of course excepted)
advise the women and children to retreat to the fast
nesses Of the Black mountain dig pits and garrison
them, we may reasonably suppose, to protect the
persons ofthese clerical gentlemen. Others whose
fanatica zeal and furious war frvof for the "Pal.
metto and Pine and to prove the divinity of slave
ry say you are and of conrse the writer of this ar
ticle@ill be pronounced, traitor and abolitionst
To all such persons will just say they are simply
mistaken. Because men do not abuse and swear that
Abraham Lincoln and the Yankees to a man, are
incarnate devils, and of course the worst men the
Almighty ever permitted to live does not prove
man Is not true man and loyal citizen.
These gentlemen, it Atrikes me- have forgotten
the great truth that the true status of slavery is
founded upon the idea Of peace, and the tact con-
sent of mankind outside of the ownership of slaves
The time has probably come when those most Deep
" concerned will have to deal with this momen-
tous question on its true merits viewed and COM
pared With the great predominatng race Of the hu.
man family, and not simply as We would have it
ourselves. So long as the South, Il ought probably
. to say those in the South who have had the con-
troll Of this most difficult subject treated the opn-
ions and prejudices Of the civilized world with de-
cent respect, they were willing to permit its con-
tinuance, leaving it to time and other means than
force to arrest it that time might have never come
So soon, however, as its ffs was placed upon the
arbtrament Of the sword, then indeed was its ex-
istence become extremely doubtful, and its sudden
and violent extinction rendered vastly more proba.
bic, attended with all the evils incident to war and
malignant hatred -
Mr.. Editor, the foregoing are some of the reasons
why the writer of this article and thousands alike
similarly interested in slavery have thought that
an early peace would be more likely to secure for
time, at least, the institution Of slavery than any
other.
But before close / willsay to the ministers Of
the Gospel and all others of similar views with them
on this subject do not desire TODD them any in.
JUSTICE or to question the dogma of the divine right
q slavery-for do not pretend to know any thing
shout it, more than that God has permitted f to
exst and he may intend to perpetnate it: if so.
shall pc pleased il not must be content will
+ VAN men tnatrthere may be possibility that In
nsnung for the perpetuation Of slavery. the negro
may be liberated and the white man become s,ssa
stieast 70 arbitrary laws and onerous taxes. and