The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-12-24
LETTER FROM BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.
Correspondence of the Standard

Correspondence of the Standard
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Dec. II, 1867.
A few weeks since, I sat out on tour o
observation at the South. My purpose il
visiting your section was two fold. First
friends, touching the prospects of recon
struction under the plan of Congress. -
Second, desired to look over your section,
that / might be the better able to judge oil
the South, its degree of Improvement and
its capacity for future development. Nor
was this secondary consideration without
great weight in determining me to look over
your section.
am Northern man, a Yankee, if you will,
though born and reared in Western New
York. Politically, I am a Republican, of
Radical Democratic antecedents. and was
early schOoled in the doctrines of JcffersO-
man democracy. AS a sequence, 1 never be-
lievcd in slavery, and am, and have been tlu-
! ring my whole life what has been deemed
at the South AbolitiOnist. True, up to
he day of firing upon Sumter, saw no way
IN which slavery could be constitutionally
| abolished, and [ was always in favor of
standing by the covenant in the bond.
Your secessionists in the South, however,
found out way TO abolish slavery. They
made war en- the Union and accomplished it.
! Sci tiloululllS tie loss III ITlenuS
and kindred during the rebellion. am not
so much mourner as 1 should have been,
mad the Union been preserved and slavery
LETT alive. In short, 1 greatly rejoice in the
success OF jeff. Davis & Co, in abolishing
slavery. They did in four years what all the
Aboiitionlsts of the North would probably
have failed to accomplish in a century
With these views and sentiments, visi-
! ted your section. Nor with these alone.
hnra f.,ol,,
ward your whole people. l desired. and
shall ever desire to see all of YOUR people
both prosperous and happy Your section,
SO far as soil. climate and capacity of pro-
ductlon Is concerned, is the more favored
portion OF the continent. One cause alone
has left the South far behind the more ster-
lie and rigorous North. The system of
slavery has been the curse and blight of YOUR
entire section. This system has kept igno-
rant and degraded your bond slaves not
only. but has Shut out your own sons from
the lights of progress. 1 was largely aware
OF this from re'd ding, and yet, confess be-
fore travelling in the South, 1 had no concep-
ton OF the distance you have been left be-
hind in the march of progress.
On leaving your City some two weeks
since, purchased copy of the Sentinel
Though not called by name. nevertheless
found myself pointed out in its columns,
and advertised as an incendary and politi
Cal adrenturer. In other words, l was de-
ilneated as pretender.
AS L propose soon to resume nv travels
through your section, you will oblige me by
publishing this letter, that the Sentinel, with
all other newspapers and men, who may here
after have occasion to know or advertise me
may not mistake my character and mission.
There are In the North thousands of men,
all OF them having more or less capital, who
have their eyes turned southwark tor hon es.
these men would prefer. with their families,
TO locate IN the South rather than the West.
lhey are most OF them Republicans in their
polltlcS and believe in freedom with its con-
comltaats, free schools, free press, and free
dom OF thought and action. Most of them.
100, believe IN tree suffrage, and do not think
that the exercise of this right should be de-
termlned by national origin, complexion or
previous condition of servitude.
Now you may look, and the Sentinel, not
only its conductors, but its readers NAV look
Tor the advent of some thousands of these
families IN your midst during the next five
years. We are coming, however, upon one
condition only. We shall 90 only where
there IS loyal government, loyal ever to the
American Union and Liberty. That great
numbers OF US will come to your Old North
otate, nave no doubt. We like the way YOU
7ote down there. The fact that many thou
sands OF white men are found in North Caro-
ina who are in favor of tree constitution, is
very encouraging. Welike the way your re-
cent Dondmen vote too. We think, indeed,
hey vote more nationally, if not more intelIi-
gently than the majority of their former mas
ers. They certainly vote more for their own
interests and the interests of the country
han do the same unlettered class of white
'oters at the North. That your Convention
will make an unexceptionable and free Con-
titution, l have no reason to doubt. Let
hem do this, and let your people adopt it.
nd take my word for it, ten thousand of the
adventures" of whom the Sentinel has such
horror, will come down to North Carolina
With their millions of capital to live under it.
When we come, too, we shall every one of
IS take from one to dozen newspapers each.
We shall nearly or quite all of us take, read,
nd pay for tile Staadurd. Perhaps, too, We
hall occasionally one of us take the Sentinel,
hould the Bourbons live on and keep that
aper in life. There is dioersion, if not sat-
Jaction, in studying human nature, and
here is something Instructive, if not refresh
ag, in finding men worshiping the shadow
slavery long after the substance has de
arted. A. n. COLE.