Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-04-06
From the Standard Of Sept. 4, 1853. j,

From the Standard Of Sept. T. 1863
THE MEETING IN FORSYTH-GEN. LEACH.
Mr.. EDlToR:-The meeting in Forsyth county,
on Wednesday, the 26th Of August, was the largest
and most harmonious body Of people have seen
collected since the commencement of the wa!, there
having been not less than 1000 persons, many Of
whom were from the surrounding counties.
Speeches were made in response to loud calls BY
D. Il. Starbuck, Esq, Hon. j. NJ Leach, and Col.
w. w. Wheeler.
Gen. Leach delivered an able and we'll considered
speech Of more than an hour in length, which was
received with marks of decided appreciation BY all,
except few who take extreme positions, on one
side or the other either as destructive secssstonss
or as unconditional reconstructionists:
took notes of his speech and will glance briefly
at the leading points discussed He set out by say
ing that but for the fact that his position had 6een
so often and in 80 many places misrepresenteo' ne
should have remained silent, but that being thrown
among so large an assemblage Of his friends, he
should take occasion to define his position in the
course Ct his remarks, and to express his views,
and what he believed to be the views of an over
whelming majority of the people of the State. de
reviewed the causes, both remote and immediate,
that had led to the breaking up Of the Union-the
natural fruits of abolits0nism and
declared that bad men, both North and South, had
united for it required united action, in destroying
the best government and in wellnigh running the
happiest people that the sun OF Heaven mad ever
shone upon.
He then enforced the grea: principle that ours is
government of the people, and that It was the
right of the people to assemble, and discuss and
canvass public men and measures; that all the off,
GERS, whether civil or military of the State or Con-
federate governments, were but the agents of the
people, and ought to De held accountable for the
manner in which they may discharge the duties of
their several agencies, not only in times of peace
Luton, such as we are now engaged in; that ma
jorty had the right to govern in all our public at.
fairs and that the minority must yield and be made
to submit; that whenever the people failed to as
sert and maintain these great fundamental princi-
Piles, that they would soor become slapes
He declared it as his opinion that while the South
could never be subjugatee, yet to say nothing of
general bankruptcy and ruin, that hundreds of
thousands of most precious lives might be saved by
proper and well directed efforts for an armistice
with the view of nstitutng proposals for an honor
a6Le peace-such peace as would secure the pro-
perty and rights of the South, and at the same time
save the further efusion oil blood. That MAORI
ty of the people even Of the North uninhuenced by
the military, were for peace, and so, by overwhelm
ing majorities in the South; that this most unna.
tural war never would, and never could be ended,
except by taking this step; that therefore such
gotiation must precede peace That the idea was
mere nonsense that proposals for peace would nerve
the North to greater exertions-that the Yankees
had been doing their best all the tme-tliat he was
for Sighting with the sword in one hand and hold.
ing the olive braach of peace in the other that
in his opinion if united effort were made, and it
ought to be made, by our Conservative men and
ablest statesmen, the men with whom he had acted
in endeavoring to save the country from this most
desolatiug and bloody war, and with whom, in the
main, he agreed-such men as William A. Graham,
Alfred Dockery, Gov. Vance, Bedford Brown, John
A. Gner, Lewis Thompson, Bartholomew F. Moore,
Edward WARREN Richard S. Donnell, William W.
Holden, Rufus K. Speed, Thomas Settle, RobertP.
Dick, and others-if these men and their friends,
would with determined effort urge upon the whole
country, the United States and Southern Confed.
eracy, the necessity and wisdom of an honorable
peace, to save both sections from blood and ruin
that he believed before Heaven it could and would
be brought about. in less than 80 days; and one
universal shout ofjoy would go up to Heaven ara
that they would merit and receive the blessings OF
millions living and millions yet unborn! But ii all
eff ,rts at an honorable settlement failed, and an at
tempt should be made to fix upon us tyranny
worse than death, then all must die together lie
aeped however, that it would be the proud destiny
Of North Carolina to lead in this matter so that the
men of history would have to record not emily the
immortal deeds of her soldiers, but also OF her
statesmen.
.Ueshowed that it was not true that peace meet
ings, when properly conducted tended to desertlon
but that their tendency was precisely tne reverse
that those who participated in them were the "a
theirs and brothers of the brave soldiers in the field
and that thew were impelled by the thousands of
letters received from those soldiers, urging upon
them to APPEAL to the leading men OF the land to
make an effort for just and honorable peace. He
warned the people to guard with sleepless vigilance
their liberties, and especially to see that the mill
lection to the civil authority Of the State. He also
lludei to the odious test oath which attempted
to be fixed upon free people by an ordinance of
the Convention and in connection with these two
subjects he paid high tributes to Senator Graham,
Gov. Vance, and Chief Justice Pearson.
lie alluded to the fierce attacks made on the
Editor of the North Carolina Standard, and de-
nounced the attempts made to suppress that and
other papers in the Sate and expressed the opinion
that more than three fourths of the people of the
State held, in the main, the opinions that were ex-
pressed through the columns Of that paper; that it
was untrue that the Editor of that paper had ever
advised construction submission and yet this
was the false charge made, upon which partisan
resolutions and coarse denuncatons to say nothing
of brutal threats, were based That the allegation
from whatever source, that those who favored a
peace upon the basis he had suggested were untrue
to the country, or were traitors, was an infamous
libel upon at least eighty thousand Of the voters Of
North arolina-aud that therefore, an immense
majority of the people would hardly be driven from
the position they bad firmly taken, by the false
clamors and wicked libels of pitifui minority
that as for himself, be regarded such intemperate
and partizan denunciations with mingled feelings of
pity and contempt He read extracts from the
Richmond Wing, an extreme Southern paper and
showed that they smacked thousand times stronger
of re construction than any editorial that had ever
appeared the Standard or Progress He deeolv
regretted nay thousands of the best men and abest
in the land profoundly regretted that Mr.. Davis.
after having been unanimously elected, should have
carried into the Presidential chair his partzan pre-
JUDGES, and more especially in an unequal and fear
iui struggle like this we are engaged in, where the
,ssuIs nc ana death are involved; that he had
trusts but also in the uast nataaa.