Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-04-06

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cloud of disloyalty to be seen in al the horizon As
big as mans hand; but that the whole people, IT
may be with triHing exceptions are pressing ior.
ward with q noble unanimity to the establishment
of our national independence. All this will not SUIT
flee. Every man must be purged as by fire. And
all for whsta The report Of the COMMITTEES informs
u.s. 1t is ITO rid the country Of traitors at heart
who gre supposed to be few in number, and will be
discovered when tested by this OATH Such doctrine
Mr.. President is the very bigotry Of despotsm:
government ever undertook to deal with any thing
as crimes except the overt acts Of its people, but
the most unmt,gated tyrannies There are doubt.
less republicans in principle residing under every
monarchy in Europe and there may be monarchists
in the States Of America, but so long as they de-
mean themselves as pesceable citizens, do not levy
war against the State or the Confederate States nor
adhere to our enemies giving them aid and comfort,
they pass without molestation, and are under the
protection Of the Constitution and laws. If there
be, as the committee presumes, traitors among US,
tleJeare net of my acquaintance, nor, so far as
emaCsre, Of my section. But wherever they are,
treason is offence we'll known to, and defined by
law and like other crimes, is to be dealt with &C.
cording to law. And it is quite remarkable, that
while the committee inveigh with vehemence against
the despotism now practced by the Lincoln govern
ment in Maryland, they should bring forward
measure equally abhorrent to freedom in North
Carolina. Sir, if such measure prevails, and is
acquiesced IN, it is of little moment what may be
the issue of the present great conflict in the battle
field. We shall in the end be in any epent sloves,
.a:ad present the sad spectacle Of State throsng
asOay its liberties struggle to preserpe thszn IN
angry limitation of the contagious example or an
enemy Uho tre0 array theirs to gipe oigor to thesr
efforts for our subjugation. Iprotest against It, as
gross abuse, amounting in effect to usurpation
of power-as dangerous device by which faction
may at any time pervert the government and trans
mute it into an oligarchy. protest against it in
the name of religious freedom and domestic quiet
in the name of that civil liberty which is our birth
right, and has been the inheritance of our ances-
tors for eight hundred years. I protest against it
as weak and futile weapon of defence, calculated
cnly to encourage the enemy, weaken ourselves,
and to bring our legislation into ridicule and dis
respect at home and abroad, and degrade our cltl
zens in their own esteem-as an Offcious informed
ding with the province of the Congress OF the Con-
federate States-as libel upon the people we rep
resent whose noble alacrlty patience perseverance,
selfdeuial and bravery in this contest deserve all
praise. Whereas, the statute book, in the present
times and much more in the future in all historical
Interpretation, must be construed to imply an i'm
putation Of wide spread disafection. | protest
against it. finally, as imitation of Northern des
potism, outstrippng its nodel-no other State of
the South having conceived such an idea, though in
several of them disaffection not only is rife, but
treason stalks abroad in arms.
But smong freemen, every one of whom is equal,
in consultation and at the ballot box, if restraints
upon the freedom Of speech and of the press may be
imposed, beyond those provided by the common law,
it has never been found necessary to call them into
operation heretofore. There seems to have been a
general acquesence in the doctrines of Jefferson in
bis inaugural address IF there be any among us
who would wish to dissolve this Union Confedera-
Cyl or TO change its republican FORM let them stand
uEdisturhed as monuments of the safety with which
error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is
left free to combat it." have myself been accus-
toned to associate statutes of sedton with those in
dictments for seditious libel where there at
tempts to screen corruption, mbecility, favortsm,
and the nsoence of ci:e, by criminal prosecutions
against persons who exposed them, and when the
gallantry of Erskne, Curran, and other advocates
at the English and Irish bar won immortal names
in Wrestling with domineering and subservient
bench, that never forgot the hand that elevated it
above the people, its favorites, and prevailing in
| the contest nave been accustomed to look upon
them as bringing into active employment, if not
producing, vile race Of parasites and sycopbants,
Titus Oateses Bedloes etc., thronging the gates of
Office and patronage in the character of spies and
nformcrs ready to discover Mealtub plots and Rye
house plots of the most dir,ful import and to &C.
1 cuse any man whom it might be desirable to hunt
down and destroy. You propose by the first Sec
tlon of this ordinance, to create nine indctable Of
fences, every one of which is described in manner
so loose and underlined as to hold out the greatest
temptations to malignant accusers, and to produce
ne;ghborhood strife without end. | shall not de.
! tain the Convention by a recital of them. Their
counterpart may be found in the misprisioIs against
the Kirg' s person and government, which. Black.
stone says may be 'by speaking or writing against
them cursing or wishing him ill, giving out scan
dalnus stories concerning him, or doing anything
that may tend to lessen him in the esteem of his
subjects may weaken his government, or may raise
jealousies between him and his people" Under
this it has been at different times held ndictable to
say of the King that he had cold, at time when
his services important in the eld-also, to say
of him falsely, that he labored under mental de-
rangement-or to drink to the pious memory of q
traitor, or for clergyman to absolve persons at the
gallOws who there persist in the treasons for which
they die &C. 4. Black. CON- 123 Sir, the whole
doctrine is unsuited to our free institutions. 1t is
founded on the suppesit;on that force, compul
sion, ID the only means OF upholding government
even to excite lore for land that public opinion
is nothing and must be subordinated by it. W.
have sufficient law now to afford all the security
needed if, as no one doubts, public sentiment il
with US, and will enable US to enforce it-and if il
is not no new statutory enactment will be enforced
The common law Of riot, rout unlawful assembly
and conspiracy enable you to take hold of any par
ties whose.g guilt may be dangerous"
Secret History of Congressional Liquidation
There is o universal distrust of the wisdom ant
sense Of justice and independence of the Confed
crate Congress The secret history of legislation
Richmond is being divulged. We are told that tn
plan for peace enunciated in the Congressional Ad
dress was the result of compromise between tn,
consolidatenists or monarchists, and those who ad
hercd to the original theory Of State nationality
1t was agreed by the former, the consolidatonists
that the word Confederate should be stricken
out Of the Peace Address on condition that thu
State Rights mon would assent to the suspension O