The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-10-31
For the Standard.

q MESSRS EDITORS :-Wlll the General As
sembly of North Carolina ratify the pro-
posed Constitutional amendment at the COM
ing session? Or, will the State be re-admit-
ted into the federal Union at the next session
of Congress These questions are becom-
ing to be considered by many Union men
with more and more seriousness and anxious
solicitude If the amendment be rejected by
the Assembly, it IS assumed that the State
will not be re-admitted, or. if it fail to act
upon the amendment, it is believed that
Congress will not re-admit without reOr-
ganization of the State government, and
through Senators and Representatives to be
newly elected. Since the recent expression
of the popular will at the North, and in view
of the certainty of controlling two-thirds
majority in the next Congress to carry out
that will in regard to the reconstruction of
the government, can Union citizens whose
lives and fortunes and sacred honor" are
pledged to the destiny of their country lon
ger hesitate or remain silent, as to the i'm
perative duty of their representatives in the
next General Assembly to ratify the propos-
ed amendment, and thus give peace to the
people; some assurance of protection by
the national government to the rights of
person and property, and some promise of
future living for themselves and their fam
ilies2
1t will never do to fold your arms, or for
any Union man to fold his arms and say now,
or when worse calamities shall have befallen
us than have already befallen us, "Very
we'll We have done our duty Our skirts
are clear" I know you do not mean to
cease your efforts to effect reconciliation and
for hof hon
is to be done9
Let us first of all preserve organization for
any and every emergency. Let US peaceably
assemble to petition, to demonstrate, and lift
must be, to demand that the present state of
insecurity to property and life and all that
we hold dear, shall no longer continue, nor
we remain in suspense on account OF spirit
of contumacy and rancor against the govern
ment, or the people of the North, who now,
as they believe, may justly and properly
claim to manage and direct the operations of
their government.
, The masses of the people of North Caro-
lima are beginning to be informed as to the
situation of their affairs, and they will act
when necessary, and put down every body
and every thing that stands in the way OF
their immediate return to the government
of their first choice, and the Union of their
first love- They will make the comparative
" few men who would be disabled by the
Constitutional amendment from holding
office until two thirds of Congress might re-
move their disability, stand aside out Ut their
path back to their old homestead.
You and 1, and numbers of Others who
would be disabled by the amendment from
holding Office, are willing to trust Congress
or to forego the emoluments or honor of all
ofice-for life it need be- And why should
number of heretofore Z" leading men," poll
ticians in North Carolina stand upon nice
punctilio to keep the State out of the Union
now, as they did, by standing upon mere
punctilio, keep it from reconstruction du-
ring the war9
Organization is what is wanted in the State
to restore it to relations of harmony with the
national government Weneed more presses
| and more outspeaking and determined CO.
workers for restoration upon the best terms
attainable We are for the proposed Consti-
tutional amendment, fist, and if that fails,
then for the next best-anything for restora
ton and peace and justice.
The Union must be restored with or with
out the Constitutional amendment, without
or with negro suffrage-with or without dis
franchisement upon any terms or conditions
that the American people who haee preserved
it from utter dismemberment, may see fit to
require And the Union will be restored
whomsoever and whatsoever may oppose, pro-
vided the people who gave themselves, their
means and the lives of their friends and kim
dred and blood, to maintain it, 80 aciW
Have the gods made any North-C Carroll
mans SO mad that they must needs be blind
to that will If so, and destruction impend,
shall we Union men) again fold our arms
and acquiesce in what destruction may come
Now, that the elections are over, is the
time to discuss the subject which Union men
have at heart. RESTORATION.