The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-06-19
TWO YEARS AGO.

Extract from letter addressed 5v w. W.
HoLDEN to a Committee of citizens Of WI
son County, dated May I'd, 1855.
Gentlemen, we are once more Anaericans
all We told the authors of the rebellion in
1860, that disunion would be civil war, MUIR
der,arson, pillage, robbery and fire and blood I
through long and cruel years. We told
them it would unsettle all business, diminish
the value Of allproperty, put the lives of
both sexes and all ages in peril, and launch
the States on a sea of scenes which no eve
had scanned, and no navigator sounded. /
We told them it would bring debt, and mis-
rule, and oppressive taxes, to be followed,
perhaps by the military rule of titled tyrants.
We told them that instead of preserving
State rights, it would destroy them; and
that slavery itself, the great object for which
disunion was urged, would perish in the vor-
tex OF revolution. We appealed to them in
the most earnest terms to submit to federal
authority, and to give to the administration
of Mr.. Lincoln fair trial. We felt, as they
could have seen, if their vision had not been
infected with the insanity of secession that
even if Mr.. Lincoln was disposed, as he was
not, to assail our Constitutional rights, we
had the amplest guarantees of protection in
the Congress and the Supreme Court; and
that if our rights were denied us, as law
abiding citizens of the United States, our
best, and indeed our only hope to vindicate
and maintain them would be in the Union,
under the old flag,
But the instigators of the rebellion were
fatally bent on mischief. and therefore heed
ed no warnings. They would have it so,
and behold the result They went to war
| for slavery in the Territories, and they have
| lost it in the States. They attempted to dis
solve the Union to preserve State rights, and
the result was, long before the pillars of
their badly constructed edifce were shivered
and Frustrated, they had reduced the States
to the condition of petty provinces Our
own noble old State especially, on account
/ of her Union sentiments and her fearless as
sertion at all times Of the great principles of
civil liberty, became
An appanage to those
| Who did despise herr
They promised us liberty. but they gave us
CONSUMPTION laws, and tithing laws, and i'm
pressment laws, until the spirit of our people
tainted under the inf1iction, and the man
hood of the country was compelled to utter
itself in whispers or be hurried to {" the
/ i
us freedom of speech and of the press, but
they silenced both through the suspension of
the Aabeas corpus, by the strong hand of
power. And at last, after they had dragged
an unwilling people through seas of horror,
at the end of four years, and just as the old
flag of Washington was about to be unfurled
at Richmond and Raleigh, the guilty authors
and abettors of all this crime fled with pre-
cipitation before the armies of the Union,
abandoned their capitals and those who had
conided in them, some of them clutching
and taking with them the treasures which,
by unjust laws and by speculation and pecu-
lation, they had wrung from the blood and
tears Of our people.
| But Babylon is fallen, is fallen" and
thank God for it. We are once more free.
The flag of the United States, which, previ
ously to the rebellion, had never waved but
as symbol of protection and security to us
ALL is again unfurled in every State. We
shall again enjoy the protection of strong
and just government under the benign
influence of virtuous rulers and wise laws
Let us rejoice, gentlemen, that we behold
this day. Let US "rally to the flag" and
give cheerful and active support to those
in whose hands it has been placed. deplore
as you do, and as all good citizens must, the
untilnely death of Abraham Lincoln. re-
member with pride and pleasure that en-
dorsed his first Inaugural Speech in my
newspaper, and begged our people to sub
nit to his authority and extend to him a
generous confidence The people of the
South abhor the foul deed which bereft him
of life With their Northern brethren they
mourn his fall, and, with them, they will
cherish the remembrance of his noble quail
ties. Washington, and Clay, and Jackson,
and Webster, and Douglas, and Everett,
were already " in the upper sky" and the
lustre of their abode was heightened when
the star of the martyred Lincoln took its
place in the cluster One and all, they lived,
and labored and died in the cause of the
Union. "Their bodies are buried in peace,
but their names liveth evermore." They are
safe from the accidents of time Our chill
dren, and our children's children, for thou
sand generations. will learn and recount their
virtues and walk in the light of their exam
Pile; and Liberty itself, when erecting its al
tars ia other lands, will kindle its fires from
the great fountain of light which shines in
their actions and recorded words"
Extract. from the Proclamation Of Provisional
Gorernor W. W. HOLDEN, dated June IL,
1855.
"And now as Provisional Governor of the
State, invite the loyal people thereof to re-
sumo with cheerfulness, and with confidence
in the future, their accustomed pursuits
and Invite those who have been driven from
the State by despotic power, to return as
surfing all loyal citizens of the State that
they will be protected in their persons and
| property, and encouraged in their exertions
to improve their condition. also exhort
them not to cease to take an interest in pub
lie affairs, but to unite with me in the pur-
pose to reconstruct the State Government
Z through the aid of loyal citizens; and to be
vigilant and active in discouraging disloyal
sentiments, and in ensuring the election of
known friends of the Federal Government
to every Office. Your experience, fellow
citizens, during the rebellion, should attach
you by the strongest ties to the government
of the United States You have just
been delivered by the armies Of the Union
from one of the most corrupt and rigorous
despotisn,s that ever existed in the world
Many of you have been forced, for opinions
sake. and because of your love for the flag
of your fathers, to fly from the land of your
birth or of your adoption, and seek refuge
among strangers, to escape the hand of arbi
trary power. Many of you have been torn
from your homes, or hunted down like wild
beasts in the forest, and forced into the re.
bel armies as conscripts, to fight for the con
1 tinued enslavement of the colored race, and
1 Il Ill e