The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-08-25
= For the Standards
who are the Loyalists. ---AE 1est.---l' ne
Amnesty Oath.


Amnesty Oath. =
The photographer has defined the loyalis
To he = 4 person who adheres to his soveT
eio1,- a,articuLzrlv one who maintains his al
le9iar,ce to his prince, and defends his caus
in times of revolt or revoIntionn We hav
lust emerged from revolution, in which tn
ioyalist was particularly known, in contra
distinction to the disloyafist, as one who ad
hered to the government of the United States
and defended its cause. The military pro
gress of this revolution has been checked
the armies upon which it mainly relied TO-
success, having been surrendered and thell
organizations dissolved. But the pOlitlca
relations of the States, which revolted against
the authority of the government, have MOI
been readiusted upon basis satisfactory 20
the whole people; and it is clear that the
difficulties arising from tins disturbed con
lition of public affairs. which daily perpiex
us. had their immediate origin in that revolt,
attempted revolution, or rebellion.
The military power of the government OF
the United States has conquered the armed
forces of the rebellion. but there are other
AGENCIES necessary to be used in restoring the
proper. practical and political relations OF
the States to the government, which the mil
itary power cannot and was never intended
to accomplish To these agencies, constitu-
tionally employed, the military becomes a
was disloyalty in any person to oppose the
military power, when engaged In the sup
preston of armed rebellion, so it is disloyal-
ty in any one to oppose the agencies now
used by the government to restore the proper,
practical relations of the States to the Union
This proposition would seem to be selt-evl-
dent, for these agencies are employed to set
tie the difficulties occasioned by an attempt
at revolution partially successful, and until
they are composed the revolution is not en-
ded Therefore. to oppose the means-adop-
ted by the government to accomplish this
purpose is to endeavor to protract the revo-
luton; and so familiar have many of our
people become to rebellion, permitting it to
engross all their thoughts and affections, that
they are too prone to continue their efforts to
keep it up. by being hasty without provoca
ton or good reason. to offer opposition to
the means, agencies or instrumentalities EN-
ployed by the government for its final sup
preston. Nor are such persons to he found
without some reasons for such conduct; for
man by nature is ever eager to justify him.
self, and whether such Justification he satis-
factory to Others or not, it is usually satistac
tory to himself
The unmistakable loyalist, according to
the definition already rendered, is that per-
sons who adhered and adheres to his ale
glance to the government, and defended and
still defends its cause. This defence is contin-
ed to no particular kind OF weapons-its eff
cacy alone depending upon that, one sort
being best used at one time, auoth-
er at another. If the spirit be willing, as the
spirit of the loyal man ever is willing to de
fend the government, it is enough. There
may be, there are circumstances, which COM
pei inaction and silence circumstances
which control not only individuals but large
masses of men, and which may also impel
inUOzuntary participation with disloyalists in
acts of treason, There are cript-aws
more cruel than the grave which they popu-
late-tithe-laws more exactlng of the far
mer's substance than the brazen furnace of
Heaven in mid-summer's drouth-a military
tyranny, which more sternly STILES the voice
of the freeman, than does the dungeons
walls the dismal cries of its fettered captive
But there is naught which can turn the 10y
alist from his allegiance sace the action Of
has ooon WILL. For such action, he is respon-
sible to his God and an outraged govern
ment
1t is perceived, therefore, that of loyalists
there may be two classes-nne without spot or
blemish, and another composed of those, who
were forced, by the unfortunate position in
which they were placed, to give aid to trea-
son to a certain extent. The former class,
among us, experience no difficulty in resum-
ing all their relations to the government as
citizens; the latter does owing to the inc0L
uatGry yet undeniahle aid which its members
have given to rebellion or attempted revolu-
ton. 1.-THE latter-is the more numer-
Gus class. And it is also an unques-
toned fact that, of those who compose it,
many are more widely recognized as loyalists
than any of the former, for the very reason
that being for ed into the rebellion, their eff
forts against such coercion, and the rebellion
ITSELF rendered them peculiarly conspicuous
So that in each Southern State there are
known leaders of this class, and in each |
county known followers. who were branded |
as traitors to the Confederacy, and still bear |
the mark In the army and at every precinct |
at home these unmistakable loyalists were |
known and are still known.
To the first and last named classes of |
loyalists, the President entrusted the work !
of recognizing the Southern States, which |
had attempted revolution,-to them, the !
Congress still desires it to be entrusted, and |
the President has reafhrmed that to be his ,
position. But, in spite of the Executive and !
Legislative departments of government. the
work entrusted to the loyal has been wrested
from them by the disloyal, in whose hands it
now drags its slow length along One
department has strangely sanctioned this w
just reVerslon OF power-the other has not
1t has been asserted that one class of loyal-
lists experience difficulty in resuming all their
relations as citizens to the government-
Iney do not censure the government for
this, nor can they blame themselves, but they
properly lay the fault at the door of those
who forced them to the commission of acts
OF reasonable nature. And what renders
their position in this respect more CALLING, is
the fact that it places them on a Fictitious
equality with traitors, who are odious to
them not only for the crime which thew have
committed against the government, but for the
personal injuries which they have wantonly
inflicted on Union men and their innocent
families. These traitors take advantage of
this, the political misfortune of their Ioval
nelghbors and exclaim, with semblance of
truth, " If you are loyal, zoe are loyal; if zoe
are traitors, you are traitorsl" But this is
erroneous. There IS line of diuisior-on
one side must stand the loyal, on the other
the disloyal For the issue made in the last
contest was the establishment of a Southern
Contederacy. There was party in the
South, which at first boldly opposed it, but
was at length forced to succumb-to Weld
physically. And although, as most reason
able to expect, during the war many departed
from its faith to the ranks of the disIoyal
and learned to labor voluntarily for the estab,
hshment of the Confederacy, vet the great
majority of that party remained onaot;u |