The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-03-28

any particular regard for the Friends, but |
fearing that the emigration of so many of |
them from the State on account of our po-
litical condition, may injure the prospects of
Gov 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
dogrnatic 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.fve
of the Friends had passed through that City
on their way to Indiana, on account of politi-
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 if dis
posed to do so. We hear that hundreds of
Others in addition to the seyenty-fve men
toned, have left, or are preparing to leave
The members of the Society of 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 ap-
proved heartily of the Presidents plan, and
were anxious to see it carried out as well in
spirit as in letter They were tired of politi-
cal excitement, and wanted unity and reposc
among our people. The prospect was cheer
ing, and every thing went on smoothly until
the time came for filling the Offices. Thetemp-
tation then presented was too great for tile
original secessionists and latter-day war men,
and so, allying themselves with disaffected
Unionists, and taking advantage of the elem
ency and forbearance of the government, they
rushed forward and thrust themselves into
nearly all the offices, cast out the friends of
the President whom he fad chosen to perform
the work of restoration, and thus brought
that work to an abrupt and disastrous ter
mination. 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 sufferings during the re-
belion, 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 th cir children after them, would
be respected as the friends of peace and the
Union. This, in nutshell, is the whole Sc
cret of this Quaker emigration. It would
never have taken place but for the selfish,
unchasten ed, and INSCRIPTIONS ambition of
those politicians who compose the faction
headed by the Sentinel and Gov. Worth
The Sentinel endeayors 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
ycrupics, exempted tt-ms ON their paying u
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, did 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, and forced 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 young man who had been ell
ucated at the Quaker school in Guilford,
but who could not prove that at certain
period he was member of the Society in
full standing, though in hisflith 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-men. There were instances,
however, in which these meek and unpre-
tending people exhibited devotion to their
heaven-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 rid
iculed, reviled, and plundered by the seces-
sionists Some of them were hanged by the
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 Gves but it was considered
good sport in this State, in 1854 and 1865,
to shoot and hang Union men, under orders
from Richmond and Raleigh. Ourneighbors
of the Sentinel approved all this. The Ju-
nior agitated and held meetings in the army
in Virginia, to denounce the peace men at
home in North Carolina, and to draw down
upon them mob law, the rope, and the rifle
and the Senior published the proceedings of
\ these meetings in his paper, sustained Mr..
Davis and Gov. Vance in all their cruelties,
and regularly implored the God of Battles
whom he worshipped, to rain the fires of ven
geance on all the peace men, and on all the
enemies of the Confederate government
"Monstous agreeabel they are now, as Tony
Fulps would say. They are +" reconstructed u
now. They respect and defend the Quakers