The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-11-01
Tins Saith the Sentinel.

The Sentinel, of this City, speaking for
Gov. Worth and the great body of the NAL
contents and disloyalists of this State, says:
"The proposed constitutional amendment
has been so fully discussed that but little
time, we judge, will be consumed in its con
slderation. Before the official announcement
of peace, and while under the acknowledged
force and presence of military rule, amend
ments to the Constitution, and other condi-
lions of peace and reconciliation, were pro-
pounded to the people of this State, as terms
of surrender necessary to peace, accompanied
by the tacit pledges of the government that
our compliance with these would secure to
us all the privileges and rights of States I'm.
der the Constitution and the protection of
the government. These were promptly &C
copied and complied with.
Recognized by the forms of law and by all
the departments of the government as con-
stituents parts of the Union, as members of
the great family of States, yet denied, in the
persons of our Senators and Representatives,
the sacred right of representation, and above
all, any voice in changing vitality the organic
law of the land in which we are most deeply
concerned, the National Congress now pro-
pounds to the several State Legislatures an
amendment to the Constitution, not as a
further condition of peace and full settle
ment of the controversy, but such terms as it
has deemed proper to propose to all the
States upon their naked merits, such as must
most deeply degrade and humiliate the for
mer slave States of this Union, and which
are designed as punishment and a lasting
incubus upon them, after peace has been de-
clared!
The bare starement of the proposition
should be enough to determine at once the
unanimous action of the General Assembly.
This question has, however, been by design,
and for purposes of deception, so persistently
pressed upon us, as probable if not GER
tain means of speedy reconciliation, that,
yielding to the pressure of hope deferred"
some have seemed ready to abandon their
manhood and the sacred rights of freedom
altogether, and to crouch low enough to bear
sake of quiet from the turmoils and agita-
tions of the times. Alas! such have not even
the poor pledge of quiet, when they haze
despicably shouldered so ruinous burden.
But, thank Heaven, the General Assembly of
North Carolina, in 1866, is not made of such
stuff"
It is very strange that these Hannibals,
who talk about being called upon to
F" abandon their manhood" did not die in
battle. What do they here, in this land of
the living, after so much hectoring, threaten
ing, and casing, when, as they say, they are
degraded and dishonored by submitting to
lawful authority? They lie when they say
the Union men of this State are disposed to
b" crouch" and beg. Ofall the miserable beg
gars the world ever saw, they were the
most miserable when the rebellion COL
lapsed, and they stood face to face with
the federal armies and the people of the
South, whom they had ruined. But now,
since their lives and their estates have been
spared, they put on airs, and declare they
will not restore the government unless they
are permitted to hold all the offices and lord
it indefinitely over our people. The strong
hand Of the national poaoer soiU crush ont their
treason. They promised to submit uncondi-
tionally in 1865, and they have broken their
promise. Yet they talk about their man
hood" and "honor," and all that sort of
thing.
We tell the Congress and the people of the
North, that the radical mistake they have
made was in supposing that disloyal organi-
cations would accept loyal propositions
There is not, this day, single State organi-
cation in the South that regards the Union
as the paramount good, or that is thorough
iy or devotedly attached to the national
Union. Those Northern public men who
expect the ten recently insurgent States to
accept tae proposed amendment, are essen
tally and superlatively verdant.
But the Richmond Enquirer regards the
Union as already permanently dissolved.
Hear that very loyal paper:
For four years terrible war was waged
IN, Dreyent fhe Clisso11fion of fhe TJniOn Men
have pronounced the effort successful but
! his day it stands q failure, for this day is