Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-06-29
.Que.t,on, for Gov. Vance 10.

tons to the Governor in the hope that he will either
answer them himself or cause an answer to be made
through bis subsidized organs, tho Confederate and
.Qonseroatios of this place
LIST. In December; 1852, Governor, you appointed |
Col. Duncan K McRae Commissioner to proceed to |
Europe with MI Geo. N. Sanders, to inspect certain
goods to be purchased for the State by the latter,
and to verify certain State bonds. You contracted
with Mr. Sanders to exchange naval stores for these
goods, and he was 20 have certain profit for A.
tending to this business, but you broke the con. !
tract with him after he had arrived in Europe and
gave the business to Col. McIase And now,
First, did you not know, when you appointed
Col. McRae, that you already had State Agent in
Europe, and that the large expense Of Col AcRae's
mission would be unnecessarily incurred,
Secondly, COL McRae transacted the business, re-
turned, ran for Congress, was beaten, came to Raj
eigh, and after time become Editor of the Contsd
crate and advocated your re election as Governor:
He stated on the stump that he would be conscrpt
Is soon g he settled his accounts as your Agent
but his accounts are not yet settled and meanwhile
he became Editor, and was detailed for the latter
business. Col HcRae admits ir his paper of the
2sth Of last May, that you and he selected Kemp p
Battle and Sion q. Rogers, Esqares, special pri-
yats committee to settle his accounts. This com.
mittee awarded him fge thousand dollars In gold
for his services, but Col. McRae claimed slsesn
thousand in gold, and Col McRae states in bis pa.
per of the 9th May that Co.. Vance thought his
claim entirely reasonable" Did you not know,
Sir, that there was law of the State requiring all
State Agents, and all persons having accounts
against the State to settle with the State Auditor
What authority, then, did you have to appoint this
special priuate committee And how much, in
gold has Col. McIsae received besides the eleven
thousand dollars which he claimsf You stood by
IS Governor and saw thousands of honest poor men
sent off es conscripts; why did you not require
this man to settle his accounts, SO that he might
have gone also as private to fight for his country
Is he any better than the honest poor referred
tor And why do you not nop require Col AeRas
to settle his accounts with the State Auditor h Are
you afraid if you do, that Col McRae will cease to
support you for GOVERNOR
3D. In December, 1853, the 10th North Carolina
regiment was organized. By an Ordinance of our
State Convention the officers of this regiment were
entitled to elect their field officers. But the Secre
tary of War issued an order forbdding this election
by the officers, and you submitted to this ordsr,
but claimed the right to appoint The field officers
yourself And now,
Why did you 60 outside of the regiment to
select the Colonel, when the officers and men
unanimously preferred another officer who be-
| lnged to the regiment for that placei Did
not Gen. Whiting control you in this matter p
You knoso he did, and the officers and men know it
Why did you trample on solemn Ordinance Of
the Convention, which secured to the company Of
6cers the right to elect the field officers! Did you
do this because you feared the Secretary of War
and Gen. Whiting or because you had more respect
for them than for an Ordinance passed by your
Staff in her sovereign capacityi
Sd. On the night of the 9th September, 1858, the
Office of the North. Carolina Standard was mobbed
by an armed band of Georgia troops, commanded by
Georgia officers. You were called upon to suppress
the mob. You repaired to the spot, made speech,
and the soldiers quietly retired of the officers
telling you that they were satisfied, for they had
succeeded in doing what they intended. You were
informed soon Afterwards, by gentleman Of high
character for veracity that Gen. Bennng, to whose
brigade these officers apd soldiers were attached
had told him on the same night before the outrage
was committed, that he should not be surprised if
some Of bis soldiers should, that night attack the
Standard Office. The same night immediately at.
ter the mob you invited some of the officers of this
brigade to the Executive mansion to partake of re-
freshments with you, and you made compliment.
tary speech to the band of the same regiment that
serenaded you that might, after the mob. For .he
space Of twelve or thirteen days after this though
we called upon you at your mansion, and though
we addressed you letter on the subject We re-
ceived no visit from you-no encouragement to re-
sumo the publication of the Standard-no express
4 sions of sympathy beyond those of the most COM
mon place kind-no promise that by armed force
if necessary, you would protect the conductor
of a free press. At length we addressed you let
ter, which, under the circumstances, you were Oh
lged to notice. and in the interview which follow
ed and which related solely to public affairs, after
urging us in vain to change our course, you en-
phatcaly told US that although you would do what
you could to protect US yet If we continued to puo-
lish the so called peace meetings and to encourage
the peace movement, in your opinion BY the ensu-
ing spring the consequences to personally and to
| our property would be most calamitous. You prom
isedproteeton, but you even refused to arm the Home
Guard Of Wake County with that view. You de-
cared that if the officers who led the mob were not
punished, 700 would demand them of the Governor
9f Georgia to be tried and punished in this State.
Our friends, who in the open day retaliated by de-
stroying Speimans Office, have been prosecuted for
the offence and will be tried in the Superior Court
of Wake County An officer who belongs to one of
your own StatS regiments of the name of Howard,
some months since published card in the Spirit
efths Age Of this City, in which he justified and
approved the mobbing of our Office And now.