Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-01-13

Courts; and we are credibly informed that set Of
resolutions has already been prepared in Raleigh,
and sent down to Johnston county for adoption
there, and afterwards in every other county in
which meetings Of the right stripe can be gotten up.
The object this time is to agtate for State Con-
vention, in which, in the language of the Standard
the people Of North Carolina will take their ossa
affairs into their ovn hands" that is, in plain Ian
guage 60 out of the Confederacy. This instead
Of making peace with the Yankees would but add
. civil war to the foreign war now raging If the
people are not prepared for this, let them beware
of the teachings Of the Standard, which educated
the people in the doctrine of secession, voted as in
and the last man to maintain-it Who will guar
antee that if the Standard should get the people
ssddled with ars.ner war; it would eaav moro
true tha- 81 the present !-Flyettssilte Obssrrsr.
1t is not true so far as we know, that resolutions
were prepared in Raleigh" for the Johnston meet.
ing. The Conservatives of Johnston are able t.
prepare their own resolutions, pass them, and then
maiatain them against all corners.
We heard of the proposed meetings in Johnston,
from distinguished citizen Of that County, but the
day before the Observer from which the above is
copied was received.
Let the 0bssrper come out frankly and state who
ts Raleigh detective IS. This is not the first
time that false information Is well as correct nfor
nation has been communicated by some one in this
place to the O6seroer who seems specially charged
with the business Of acting as detective" towards
the Standard andi Editor. Who is this unknown
employee, Mr.. O6ssrcsr, who thus strikes in the
darks Let the public have his name.
We have made 40 proposition to "go out Of the
Confederscy," and the Q6ssroer. knows it; but we
have protested against measuresxhich would change
the whole character Of the government, and suhju-
gate our people to the arbitrary edcts of Congress
and the President-which would abolish all civil
law snd establish military law in its stead-which
would break faith both as to the supply Of men and
means, and thus lower our government and our
cause in the eyes -FOUR people and of the world
which would blot out the States and render them
dependent on the central government as Counties
are dependent on States and in view Of these meas
ures We have given it as our opinion that the people
ofaNorth Carolina will, if they should be adopted,
vindicate in their sovereign capacity their ancient
liberties and privileges Isthe 0bserrer prepared for
Dictatorl Is that paper ready to abandon liberty,
the rights of The Statesnay, the very existence of
the States themselves in the hope that by doing
will escape the consequences that may result from be-
ing overrun by federal armiesi For our part, We
are opposed todesree;e.. from vhat quaster it
may. The States were the creators Of the Confede-
rate system, and they must remain the superiors Of
the system or it will fail 1t cannot succeed by
trampling on the States. Indeed, its misfortunes
commenced 1t the very moment it began to ignore
the power Of the States; and those misfortunes will
continue and multiply until It changes its policy,
ceases to exercise doubtful powers and relies on the
States as the controlling power in the system. The
secession leaders broke up the old government
cotton States, simply because as they alleged that
government had threatened the rights of the States
and yet we are expected, under the new system, to
sit down with folded hands and see the States re-
duced to the condition Of mere appendages Of the
common government, by the very men who made
the revolution on the ground that the States were
in danger. We shall not do it. The people Of this
State viii not do it They will maintain the civil
Law, their Constitutional rights, and the existence
Of their State government in its full integrity against
every effort to destroy or even impair them. But
the Obserper threatens the people Of this State With
civil war if they should think to hold public
meetings or hold Convention. Confederate troops
ted by force from exercising their reserved sovereign
rights. North Carolina is thus threatened with -
double subjugation. She is to be subdusd by both
governments: We denounce the paper and the men
who make this threat as Lincoinites-as worse
than Lncontes-for they would turn the bayo-
nets Of Southern men against the breasts of
Southern men. They would add war to war, des-
potism to despotism, blood to- blood. suffering to
suffering, and see the plowshare of ruin drS-
en- through their native soil by the very government
that was formed to defend It. Such is the ihfatua.
ton which possesses men who have been bitten even
atthe eleventh hour, by the mad dog of secession.
: Nor is it true that we +" educated the people iR
the doctrine of secession" and then "voted them
into the present. war;" We never maintained the
doctrine Of secession as prscdced by the. cotton
States, and We resisted secession up to the last
ment The wr had commenced before we voted
for the ordinance of separation in the Convention,
and we were called upon to fight either the North
o" the South. We chose to fight the former, but
did not wish to do So 1t was not in our power to
vote the State in or out Of the war; for war was b.
evitable after the cotton States, for no sufficient
cause, had seeded from the Union, This is the
truth on this ssbject in nutshell ind this was tho
view taken by the Observer st the time but that
paper has since changed, and now declares that the
cotton States did.not secede day too soon. Itnow
- ea.s DIRT d'rt"-acknowledges that its former Union
opinions we're erroneous, and, to please its new
irlenas turns Us back on all those true men with
whom 1t acted IN 1850 In the great but uuavaiing
effort which e. then made to prsserv. the govern.
l ment and svert the war. -