The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-02-21

their country ; seeking happiness in the calm
OF Domestic; and such lovers of peace that
Tor generations they had been reputed unwar-
like. Now, at the cry of their country in its
distress, they rose up with indispensable pa
tr'otlsm not hirelings-the purest and Of
the best blood in the land sons Of pious
ancestry, with clear perception Of duty,
unclouded faith and fixed resolve to succeed;
they thronged round the President to sup
port-the .wronged, the beautiful flag Of the
nation. The halls of theological seminaries
sent forth their young men, whose lips were
touched with eloquence, whose hearts kim
died with devotion to serve in the ranks, and
make their way to command only as they
learned the art of war. Striplings in the col
leges, aswell the most gentle and the most
studlous: those of sweetest temper and love-
lest character and brightest genius passed
from their classesto the camp. The lumber
men sprang forward from the forest, the me
chanics from their benches, where shey had
been trained by the exercise of political
rights to share the life and hope of the Re-
public, to feel their responsibility 70 thefore-
fathers,their posterity and mankind went
forth resolved that their dignity as = oonsti-
tueHt part Of this Republic should not be1ta-
paired. Farmers and sons offarmers left th4
land but half ploughed, the grain but heH
planted, and taking up the musket, learned
to face without fear the presence of peril and
the coming of death in the shocks of war,
while their hearts were still attracted to the
charms Of their rural life, and all the tender
affections of home Whatever there was Of
truth and faith and public love in the COM
mon heart broke out with one expression
The mighty winds blew from every quarter
to fan the fame of the sacred and unquench-
able fire.
- THE WAR A Worldwide WAR.
For time the wAf- .as Thought to becon-
fined to our own domestic affairs but it was
soon seen that it involved the destinies of
mankind, and its principles and causes shook
the politics of Europe to the centre, and
from Lisbon to I'ekin divided the govern
ments of the world
GRH AT BRITAIN.
There was kingdom whose people had in
an eminent degree attained to freedom of in
dustry and the set :urity of person and pro-
perty. Its middle class rose to greatness
Out ofthat class sprung the noblest poets and
philosophers, whose words built up the in
tellcct Of its people; sillful navigators, to
find out the many paths of the oceans; dis
coverers in natural science, whose inventions
guided its industry to wealth, till it equaled
any nation of the world in letters, and excell-
ed all in trade and commerce. But its gov
eminent was become government of land,
and not of mcp; every blade of grass was
represented, but only small minority of the
people. In the transition from the feudal
he hcoJ of fbr al *
freed themselves from the military services
which were the condition of their tenure,
and, throwing the burden on the inc ustrial
Odessa kept all the soil to themselves. Vast
estates That had been managed by monaste-
RES as endowments for religion and charity
were appropriated to swell the wealth of
courtiers and favorites; and the commons,
where the poor man once had his right of
pasture, were taken away, and, under forms
of law, enclosed distributively whithiIA their
own domains Although no law forbade any
inhabitant from purchasing land, the costli-
ness of the transfer constituted prohibi ton
so that it was the rule of that country that
the plough should not be In the hands of its
owner. The church wasrested on contra
dictiOn, claiming to be an embodiment of alb
solute truth, and yet was creature of the
statute book a
HER SENTIMENTS.
The progress of time increased the terrible
contrast between wealth and poverty; in
their years of strength, the laboring people,
cut of from all share in governing the State,
derived scanty support from the severest
toll, and had no hope for old age but in pub
lie charity or death. A grasping ambition
had dotted the world with military posts,
kept watch over our borders on the north
east at the Bermudas, in the West Indies
held the gates of the Pacific, of the Southern
and of the Indian ocean, lowered on our
northwest at Vancouver, held the whole of
the newest continent, and the entrances to the
old Mediterranean and Red sea and garri-
soned forts al the way from Madras to China.
That aristocracy had gazed with terror on the
growth of commonwealth where freehOlds
existed by the million, and religion was not
in bondage to the State; and now they could
not repress taeir Joy at its perils. They had
not one xcrd of sympathy for the kind-hear-
ted poor mans son whom America had cho-
sen for her chief; they jeered at his large
hands, and bong feet, and ungainly stature;
and the British Secretary of State for foreign
affairs made haste to send word through the
palaces Of Europe that the great Republic
was in It's agony, that the Republic was no
more, thai Maidstone was all that remain
cd due by the law of nations to the late
Union" But it is written: Let the dead
bury their dead = they may not bury the liv-
ing. Let the dead bury their dead let a bill
of reform remove the worn-out government
of a class, and infuse new life into the British
consolation by coniding rightful power to
the people.
HER POLICY:
But while the vitality of America is indie
structible, the British Government hurried to
do what never before had been done by Chris
tan powers, what was in direct conflict with
its own exposition of public law in the time
of our struggle for independence Though
the insurgent States had not ship in an
open harbor, it invested them with all the
rights of beIligerent, even on the ocean !;
and this, too, when the rebellion was not on
" directed against the gentlest and most ben
efcent government on EARTH without shad-
ow of iustifiable cause, but when the rebel
lion was directed against human nature it
self for the perpetual enslavement of q race
And the effect of this recognition was tina
acts in themselves piratical found shelter n
British courts of law. The resources of B nit
ish capitalists, their workshops, their armc
yies, their private arsenals, their shipya rds
were in league with the insurgents, and eve
nv British harbor in the wide world became
| 9 safe port for British ships, manned by Brit
| ish sailors, and armed with British guns, to
prey on our peaceful commerce; even on oal
ships coming from British ports, freigiated
with British products, or that had caned
4 gifts of grain to the English poor. Thepaimt
| minister in the House Of Commons, sustafssd
i,y cheers. scoffed at the thought that Hleil