The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-01-05
Interesting Extract.


reflection, and We trust he Will paruon I'D III
the liberty we have taken with his letter.
al have read with much inteaest the bill
introduced by MIR. Stevens to provide civil
government for North Carolina, ana a1ter
deliberate consideration of its provisions
yield it my hearty appreciation, except IN
one particular. admit that the feature 10
which I object is an important one. nave
lived all my life in North Carolina, seen and
heard much before as well as all through the
late rebellion to aid me in forming an opln-
ion in regard to the temper and disposition
of our people. Since the surrender OF the re-
bel armies, have mingled freely with them,
and seen and heard enough to convince me
that the opinion had before often express
ed was we'll founded g. that q large majority
of our people were not and are not we'll al
fected towards the government OF the Uni
ted States, but in fact intensely bitter and
disloyal in feeling towards it." L earnestly
struggled against this impression and regret
ted that I was not able to eradicate 1t.
This was at time when the leaders and
most prominent actors in the rebellion were
comparatively silent, Gas the subsequent
course of many of them has indicateO be-
cause of unpleasant apprehensions in regard
to their extensive landed estates and unpleas-
ant dreams of criminal prosecutions. Surely
no honest enquirer after truth need doubt
the feeling of large majority of our people,
since the very free exercise of the pardoning
power generally and specially indulged IN by
the President.
Iconfess that though was more distrust-
full of these leaders than you seemed to be,
Immediately after the termination OF active
hostilities, yet was not prepared to believe
them capable of acting such a part in this
great drama as many of them have acted
In the first place thought that large ma
jority of them would see the wisdom and the
benefit to be derived by themselves in acqui-
escing in the results of their unsuccessful
struggle, and showing their acquiescence by
being silent and refusing to be brought for
ward for office by the more imprudent of
their number. In this 1 have been disap-
pointed There were many men in this
State, who when they were anxious to be re-
lieved from the unpleasant anticipation be-
fore mentioned, humbled themselves to you,
strongly approved your views, and declared
that they were we'll affected towards, and
would be truly loyal to the government
After obtaining through your 1ntercession
the pardon they so much desired, they i'm
mediately concluded or seemed to conclude
that your views, not others, but these same
opinions of yours to which they had pledg
ed their support and expressed their most
hearty appreciation, were most of all Others
ruinous and intolerable. And with their
pardons in their pockets, and in some few
instances with a commission also signed by
you as Provisional Governor, which enabled
them to travel on railroads and steamboats,
free of charge, they devoted themselves unre-
mittingly to the task of holding you up to
the people of the State as the most unfaith-
full and unreliable man in North Carolina,
always urging the very cogent reason that
you had not been true friend to the REBEL
l.
powerful and most effective. We all know
the result. And from what have seen and
heard, and am now enabled to see and hear
around me, I do not hope for better result
for any effort to restore our State to its for
mer relations with the general government,
however honest and earnest the true men
may be in its support, while all those whose
hearts and feelings are so thoroughly with
the rebellion, and who in fact hage not yield-
ell to results beyond that degree to which
they have been forced by the arm of power,
shall be entitled to vote at our elections.
l insist that a majority of the voting pep
ulation of this State are now prepared to use
all the political powers they may have al
lowed them in manner much more preju-
dicial to the government than they have
been at any time since the termination of ac-
tive armed hostilities, only for the reason
that they are becoming accustomed to this
sort of rebellion and their leaders induce
them to believe that their plans are most hear
tily approved by the President The lead
ers are not themselves deceived, although to
effect their purposes they profess to have be-
come wonderfully taken with the President
and his plans, even with the platform pro-
mulgated by the 14th of August Convention,
when in fact, as their course ofconduct clear
ly shows they repudiated the President and
every material principle he processes. They
in fact despise him for that same controlling
reason that he too was not with them in the
though born upon Southern soil.
Have you not thought of the very delicate
and uncomfortable condition of the dele
gates in that Convention from this State q
If you have, am sure, Sir, that you pitied
them and would, if you could have done so
with propriety, have relieved them from their
condition. How heartily they approved of
the resolution expressing the gratitude of the
nation to the soldiers who fought for the
of the rebellion, is not stated,
and the country has not been favored with
the report of speech in favor of that reso-
luton, if either of them made one. So, too,
in regard to the resolution in favor of the
debt incurred in the suppression of the re-
bellion and against the rebel debt, we are
left to infer that they most cordially approx
eel it by their silence, and it is sufficient for
US to to know that they made no speech in
opposition to either. Yet what do we knoao
in regard to the deadly hostility they feel
against the principles expressed in all these
resolutions In my opinion they could
scarcely have been devised more opposite to
their views and wishes than they were. Yet
to carry out Mr.. Doolittles plans and to
deceive the country with the belief that they
they gave the resolutions the
0owe,JuI support of silent assent. Now L
know that there was much to relieve our dis
tinguished fellow-citizen from Rowan, who
seat in that Convention from the
unpleasant condition in which the others
were placed, which would here mention but
for the fact that all the Secretaries of the
appear to have been so persistent
IN mispelling his name, that am sure that
lew beyond his own townsmen could have
known that he attended 4
have written more than I expected to
write when commenced. only intended
% express the opinion that the majority of
he people feeling, as I believe they do,
hostile to the government, it becomes most
positive necessity that such as are disloyal
n feeling he prescribed.
am in favor of the necessity of applying
he test-oath in Mr.. Stevens bill to vo-
ers as we'll as to delegates to the Con-
'ention, as well as other officers. Many Of