Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-09-09
For the Standard.
Fellow Citizens of the Third Congressional
District of NOrth.CarOlina:

For the Standard.
FelIow-Cftizeas of the Third Congressional
District of NOrth-Carolina:
At the earnest solicitation Of numerous friends,
have consented to the use of my name as a can
didate to represent you in the next Confederate
Congress. Regarding it as one of the fundamental
principles of republican form of government that
the people have right to know the opinions OF
those who offer for their surages so as to enable
them to cast their votes in reference to their pres
ent welfare and future happiness feel it my duty
to lay before you my views upon such subjects as
will most likely occupy the attention Of the next
Congress-
We may most naturally suppose that during its
next session, Congress will be almost wholly occu-
pied in legislating upon the present unhappy con.
dition of our country, and the bloody civil war
now raging between the North and South In these
matters shall deem it my duty to shape my course
in reference to the most successful and satisfactory
mode of securing an honorable and speedy peace.
In the accomplishment of this object, dear to the
heart of every true statesman and patriot we must
profit by the lessons of the past and learn to shape
future course by the bitter experiences of this
dreadful war, remembering that there is but one
lamp by which to guide our feet, "and that is the
lamp Of experience"
We have tried peaceable secession, Yankee cow
ardice, King Cotton and foreign Intervention, and
they have all signally failed, as predicted by
those who calmly viewed the then impending
troubles from a proper standpoint; and surely
there is now one so devoid of reason, as to de-
sire to travel over the same road again, with its
frghtful consequences so fresh in their memories.
What shall We then do to terminate this cruel strife
between brethren, is the allabsorbing issue, which
engages the attention of every man, woman and
child capable Of approaching the present unhappy
condition of affairs .-..-. ~
t. 4. -.
but two alternatives left useither to negotiate an
honorable peace or to conquer one; and as Chris
tian people, who, at the request Of their Chief Mag
istrate, have recently invoked the blessings Of
Heaven in your behalf, 1 ask you should we not
offer the solve branch" to our enemies, and thus
endeavor to secure an honorable termination to this
fearful struggle? Thirty millions of immortal beings
would be the recipients of its hallowed blessings.
But should we fail, we would then have the conso-
lation of knowing that we had discharged our duty
to God and our fellow man. and the blood of this
war would thenceforth rest upon the skirts of our
enemies alone The cry would then go up from
every patriotic heart let us rather die as freemen
than live as slaves! 1t would produce concert of
action once more, the last dscordant note would be
hushed and the last man seek to lay down his life
as freely as our brave soldiers have hitherto shed
their blood upon the battle field
In this connection, l will allude to the right of
public good to instruct their representatives and
petition the Legislature for redress of grievances
1t is Constitutional right bequeathed to them by
the blood and treasure of their revolutionary an
ccstors, and none but military despot would at
tempt to wrest it from them. Is there any one so
blunt Of feeling so devoid of understanding as to
deny that war is whitening, blighting curse upon
any nation? Then let the people assemble and ex.
press their opinions upon it. If their proceedings
ara unlawful and iDiurionc fhav 70
the civil law and not to the military which should
be kept in strict subordinaton. Let US not depart
from the teachings of Washington and his COM
patriots.
This brings me to another subject-the freedom
of the press The teachings of these iustrious
fathers are equally applicable here. 1t was with
them the "great bulwark of liberty" and its rights
we're never abridged, Who but military tyrant
desires to this great of liberty pow
dered to dust? The father of our present Com
mandcr-in- chief received wound in Baltimore in
defence OF this right the freedom of the press, the
mark of which he carried to the grave.
feel it my duty to call your attention to SUBJ
ect, which has occupied much of the public atten-
ton of North Carolina refer to the department
wards our State. 1t has been charged that North
Carolina has been treated unusty both in the civil
and military departments, by having men from
other States placed in Office within her borders to
the exclusion of her own sons. 1t has been charg-
ed that she has been required to send more men to
| the army than any other State according to popu-
lation. have not the data before me to decide the
truth of these charges but if they are so, it is
burning shame disgrace that should put to blush
the most abandoned Of our race. If elected shall
institute the proper enquiries to ascertain the facts
and apprise you of them at the proper time
favor the strict accountability of the represen-
tative to his constituent and lam therefore oppos-
ed to secret sessions and closed doors. But little
| good comes of them, much harm may result from
hem and BESIDES they are anti-republican in their
tendency, and should not be tolerated by free
people -.
am opposed to the "tax in kind" law passed
by the last Congress. I: is alike unjust and op-
pressive in its operations; and one OF its most OBJ.
jectlonable features is the depriving of the wives
and children of soldiers of part of their hard
/ earnings when so few of them make more than a
scanty support
am opposed to the odious twenty negro feature
in the Conscript law, paraleled only by Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation. Why one man with
twenty negroes should be exempt from the tolls and
dangers Of camp-life and another with nineteen OF
none conscripted, is an idea that have never been
able to comprehend, upon the principles of equity
and common-sense l am opposed to the principle
of exemption in every shape, except in cases Of
mental and physical inability.
Much has been said in certain quarters about
submission and reconstruction. If those who were
instrumental in breaking up the old government,
and have refused to fight for the new, are not sub.
missionists, am at loss to know who are. What
was loyalty in one man three years ago, in advoca
ting the dissolution of the old Union, is treason in
another man now; and if there be any reconstruc-
tonists they certainly have the precedent of the
cessionists BY which to prove their loyalty. Let
these men who cry treason treason! pluck the
beam from their own eye so that they may behold
the mote in their brothers more clearly. They DE-,
sign again to mislead and deceive the people
am in favor Of raising the wages of the com NOR
soldier from eleven to thirty dollars month. Tn,
present exorbtant prices together with the scarci
ty Of the necessaries of life demand it as an &C.
justice; and at the same time, more pfomptitul,
should lie observed in the payment Of their wages
Our currency should engage the early assentio,
Of Congress- Its present deprecated state is re
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