The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-10-03
For the Standard.
To Jonathan Worth, Esq.s Governor of
North. Carolina.

To jonathan worth, Esq.s Governor of
North Carolina.
I You were appointed last year, after peace
had been wrested from the enemies of your
country. by the Provisional Governor, to the
former office held BY you as Secretary Of the
| Treasury Department Of the State, because
you were well known to have been, at the
| time, an unconditional Union man. Your
appointment was approved by the President
Your whole past record throughout the war,
| and for years previous, had pronounced you
| an unconditional Union man. Every one
who knew YOU. who had the slightest ac-
auaintanceship. pronounced you al uncop-
| ditional Union man You opposed, so far
as was permitted by the despotic au-
thorities at Richmond, every thing that was
done by that usurped government. This, at
the time, was well known to all your former
friends
You were elected Senator from the coun-
ties of Randolph and Alamance, in 1850 and
1851, and you opposed every thing that was
proposed by the avowed enemies OF your
country, to bring about the late rebellion
You voted on some questions alone, or but
with two other Senator'S Your garments
then were undefled Your patriotic con-
duct was watched and marked by every
lover of bis country. These things are well
known.
You now have discarded, almost without
exception, all those former friends of yours,
and friends of your government And you
I to-day stand affiliated with those who diff
fered with your whole past political history,
| saving few noted instances of men who re-
NAMED firm up to but a short period before
the war closed, and who, solely, through
sympathy for q down-trodden people, lost
their better judgment But you still re-
manned firmly attached to your former prin-
ciples.
Where do you now standa Are you not
now opposed, and stand committed, as OPP
posed to following the only path opened, by
| the law-making power of your country, that
will lead you back to the good government
of your fathers
You were raised Quaker. You were
from infancy, made to understand the hor-
rors attending warfare; that Peace for ma
lions, as well as individuals, was best for
their welfare and true happiness. That any
1 kind of peace was far better, and far wiser,
/ than any kind of war; This is holy and
good creed, and was the fundamental prin-
ciple in your education.
! Alas where do you stand to-daya Cheek
and shoulder with those who were your life
time opponents, and avowed enemies to your
earlier teachings. And who did desire and
desire to-day, to promote connection instead
of harmony-discord instead Of Peace
Whose daily conduct proves that they are as
anxious as they were six years ago, to pre-
vent peace and reconciliation. Whose words
and teachings, every day show that they
wish and hope for another civil war. They
may expect it to be removed farther from
their own hesrth-stones But they have
that rancor and hate implanted in their
breasts, that they long to see the other sec
ton of their country, as utterly destroyed
and impoverished, as their own has been !;
and that, too, by their own traitorous con-
duct. None of your former friends, those
whose friendship and esteem are worth hay
ing, can, with proper respect for their own
| principles and yours, now sustain you
Your future dependence must be upon those
disafected to the Government, and grieve
to tell you, for your own sake, and that of
your State, that there may be enough voters
in the present anomalous condition of affairs
to again elect you. But will any tried and
true friends of yours be among that num-
ber9
You say every day, "What have done
that there should be any opposition to me |?
Look at my past record-have not always
been for the Unions" That I have already
admitted is true. But are you for the Union
nowg Do you desire now that North Caro-
lima should be restored, and Immediately, to
all her past immunities, and privileges, and
franchizes under the National Government;
of course excepting that peculiarly Southern
institution, against which you were ever I'M
derstood by your friends to be opposed
Do you not value the Office of Governor,
beyond that by far, of the full office" of
complete union and original community of
North-Carolina, yonr native State and mine,
with that benign government, that, as you
have oftentimes confessed, has always acted
like a good and devoted mother towards her
Governor, have ever acted with you in
all political questions of policy. Your po-
litical enemies have always been my foes.
have right to address you as a friend, 1 have
admired you, for your many sterling virtues
We have both believed that those partizans,
who whould ruin or rule have been the most
destructive agents in bringing about, by their
States-nghts constructions of the shield of
all our political liberties, the present lamen-
BILE condition of our country. And we both
believed that the party was held together by
but one cement-and that was public plum
der. That they were ever athirst and ahun-
gered for all the loaves and fishes that were
swimming in the prolific brooks of officiali-
ty in the lucrative positions of the country.
1 then feel that we can reason together as
past and present friends. Our past lives are
indissolubly united by history, as members of
that old party that has passed away, but
which still leaves on the pages of the past,
the bright refulgence of true glory. That
party that could discard self, but never dis
carded the good of the whole country. That
| party that was so CALAMITY led on to victory
and commanded with so much true heart
and hope in defeat. That party whose very
life and soul seemed to depend, upon but one
redoubtable champion, the finished produc-
ton of two great commonwealth, Kentucky
and Virginia. Weboth belonged to thatparty,
the death of whose chieftain it never but q
short time survived. His words in defeat on
one occasion will never die, 1 recall them now
to your attention. He told you and me and
the continent" That it was far better to be
right, than to be President" Are you moi
neglecting this golden line of Patriotism
And do you purpose to angle, in these decep.
tive and foul waters of treason, altogether in.
different as to the take" be it cat or trout p
Are not these the same men, now your com
panions on these doubtful waters of remu.
neration, in the same boat, that your great
and good captain, ever taught you and all Of
ia WOld in cortoir f;,o not ron, c+ Loo Il ~.