The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-03-27
The Standardization.

! Our neighbors of the Sentinel, not from
. my particular regard for the Friends, but
earring that the emigration of so many of
Them from the State on account of our po-
itical condition, may injure the prospects of
low Worth for reelection, manifest much
feeling on the subject, and pronounce the
statement that they are leaving because of
persecution, "utterly and UNANIMOUSLY false"
: We beg our neigbors to bear in mind that
! dogmatic assertion is not argument, and that
rough harsh language is no support to the
cause of truth. The first information we re-
| ceived on this subject was from the Wash
ington Star, which stated that seventy-five
of the Friends had passed through that City
on their way to Indiana, on account OF poltl-
cal persecution in this State. The Editor of
the Star must have heard this from the
Friends themselves. He could have had no
motive to invent such story, even II dis
posed to do so. We hear that hundreds OF
Others in addition to the seventy-tive men
toned, have left, or are preparing to leave
The members of the Society af Friends,
in common with the great, body of our peo-
| pie, believed in July and August last, that
| the day was not distant when the State
would be restored to the Union. They APP
proved heartily of the Presidents plan, and
were anxious to see it carried out as we'll in
| spirit as in letter. They were tired of politi-
cal excitement, and wanted unity and repose
among our people. The prospect was cheer
! ing, and every thing went on smoothly until
the time came for filling the offices. The temp
tation then presented was too great for the
! original secessioniSts and latterClay war men,
| and so. allying themselves with disaffected
Unionists, and taking advantage ofthe elem
| ency and forIcarance of the government, they
rushed forward and thrust themselves into
n ,arly all the offices, cast out the friends of
the President whom he had chosen to perform
the work of restoration, and thus brought
that work to an abrupt and disastrous ter
mnation. Up to this period the great body
! of our honest well -disposed, and industrious
people, including the Quakers, were hope
full as to the future, and the latter no doubt
expected to remain with us; but the pros
pect of renewed political excitement, the in
definite exclusion of the State from the
| Union and the want of confidence and unity
among our people, joined to the recollection
of their trials and sutferings during the re-
bellion, and the odium they were mourning
| as the friends of peace, at length determined
them to abandon the State, and to settle
| themselves in new country on fertile lands,
where they could be absolutely free in their
religious and political opinions, and where
they and their children after them, would
be respected as the friends of peace and the
Union This in a nutshell, is the whole Sc
cret of this Quaker emigration. 1t would
never have taken place but for the selfish,
unchastened, and INSCRIPTIONS ambition of
those politicians who compose the faction
headed by the Sentinel and Gov. Worth,
The Sentinel endeavors to produce the i'm
preston that the Friends Jared better than
our people generally during the rebellion
1t is true, after while, the Confederate
government, and early in the war the State
government, on account of their religious
scruples exempted them their paving a
stipulated sum from bearing arms; but this
| exemption only made, them targets for in
creased hatreds and prosecutions. The
Union men in our State, Convention, under
the lead of Mr.. Badger Gid all they could
to protect them, but the fell spirit of seces-
sion spared nothing in, its march of blood
and fire. Many of them were conscripted
and put in camp, dforced to bear arms
against their consciences. Every techninal-
ity that could be thought of was turned
against them. We remember well, for ex-
ample, that a young man who had been ed
ucated at the Quaker school in Guilford,
but who could not prove that at a certain
| period he was a member of the Society in
full standing, though in his faith and in all his
instincts and habits he was Quaker, was
forced into camp under the brutal Mallett.
and in feeble health, with an liberated leg,
he was driven like the beasts that perish
into the Confederate service, and compelled,
as he believed, to commit murder by shoot
ing his fellow-nen. There were instances.
however, in which these meek and unpre-
tending people exhibited a devotion to their
heayen-born principles worthy of the early
martyrs Three of them were kept in camp
at Kinston for four or five days, and tortured
by starvation to make them bear arms, but
they refused to the last. Every where, in
camp and at their homes, they were ride |
iculed, reviled, and plundered by the seces-
sionists. Some of them were hanged by the |
neck until life was. nearly extinct, on
account of their peace principles
We do not know that any of them were |
killed. The fact that they were non-combat
ants saved their lives :. but it was considered