The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-05-23

we, UnereIOre, 'Suuhiio 1iiO nn"oeSA
your consideration. e
BY an irreparable law of nature, when
ever we fasten one end of the chain upon
fellow being, the, other and heavier
end is linked around ourselves, corro-
ding our bodies until the iron enters our
very souls. We insist, therefore, that
the masses of our people were SO pro
foundly ignorant of the condition OF
public affairs, and so misled and decelv-
ed by the intensely selfish and wicked
aristocracy, as not to be morally re-
sponsible for their participation in the
late rebellion, and that it would be adj
ding cruelty to injustice to hold them
so. To convince the most sceptical on
this subject, let us look at the condition
and history of the first Congressional
District in this State. That District
contains more than four times the terri
tory of the rich, prosperous, enlighten-
ed, happy, liberty and equality loving
State of Rhode Island, once the seat Of
learning, and of boosted Virginia hos
pitality, the birth place of our Presi-
dents Of the United States, embracing
the site of the first English settlement
in America. The city of jamestown,
which, now more fallen than Tyre, or
Sidon, or Sodom or Gomorrah, has not
enoug h of ruins even left for bats to fit
or owls to boot ip. In the nineteen
counties of that district, there is not
now, as its Representatives in Congress
thirty years ago boosted, a single news
paper published, and SO long has the
schoolmaster been abroad, that proba-
bly more than three fourths of its ma
tive grown men and women can neither
read nor write. Rhode Island, with its
half million acres, has nearly double the
population, ten times the wealth, enter
prise and education, and contributes to
the national Treasury more than twen-
ty times the amount OF that district,
with it's more than two millions of fer.
tile acres lying on both sides of the
Chesapeake Bay, and on the great rivers
James, York, Rappahannock and Poto-
mac, having the greatest commercial,
oyster and fishing capabilities Of almost
any district in the United States. What
a forcible illustration of the truth that
justice, equity, industry and virtue, or
as the Bible says, Goodness is profit
able for the life that now is as well as
that which is to come. That righteous
ness exalteth a nation, but sin is re-
proach to any people"
We would not object to the sentiment
ofthe old and eccentric member of Con-
gress from the first district, if he only
referred to those reasonable newspa-
pers which have advocated rebellion,
for they have indeed been a curse to us
all, bringing fire and sword, desolation5
and death not only upon Richmond, but
upon every extremity of the State.
If we earnestly consider the origin
and inquire into the causes of our cas-
lamities; if we ask why have our rivers
like ancient Nile, run blood why have
we like the Egyptians been overwhelm-
ed in Red Sea, while we were trying
to prevent ourselves from escaping to a
land of freedom? Why have our first
born been cut down by tens of thou
sands until the voice of mourning and
lamentation fills the land as it once did
the land of Pharaoh? Why have we
suffered so many plaques as once visi-
ted the proud and stubborn oppressors
of the old Isralites We shall find the
answer to be, because, in the language
of reason and philosophy, we have
made war upon the rights of human ma
ture. Or in the language of the old
Hebrews, because we have oppressed
the poor, and because the God of the
poor is determined to write with his
own hand his adherence of slavery and
oppression all over our land, in charac-
tiers SO legible that neither we, nor our
children's children, can ever mistake his
mind and will, in coming generations,
To our shame and disgrace, it must
be admitted, that as far as we are advis-
ed, every one of the numerous conflicts
of races which have occurred in this
State during the past year, has been the
wanton and unprovoked work of wick
ed white men upon poor, quiet, unofen-
ding, and in most cases, unarmed and
unresisting colored people Why should
we murder, rob or interrupt them, burn
their school-houses and churches, insult
and attack the teachers, who in the
cause of improvement and elevation,
and Christian charity have come to us
from the ever friendly North, in the
same spirit that brought them in 1855,
to this devoted city, when the scourge
of yellow fever was here in its wrath.
Let us not forget that then as now it
was to the North and its generous peo-
pie that we had to look in our want for
aid and assistance. Unless a stop is
put to such violence and outrage upon
the freedmen, we can never expect re-
lief from the presence of N orthern bay
onets, and admission to the rights and
privileges of the Federal Union; but
we shall become the by-word and scorn
of the whole civilized world. We shall
be considered barbarians, and be Justly
excluded from the sympathies of all
christian men. 1t is our duty, gentle
men OF the jury, to see to it, that peo-
pie who were loyal and true to the ma
toms flag in the time Of trial and dan
ger, shall be protected against the per-
secution fthose who, fresh from scenes
of treason and rebellion, are pursuing
their victims with most internal hate,
for no apparent reason, except their f.
deity and devotion to the country.
We fully appreciate the magnitude
and difficulty of the task set before you
the monstrous wrong with which you