The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-01-02

y OttsNS
ally determine for itself the occasion.
produced the natural result. While
such indoctrinators could, as party lev
ers, control the Federal and State DOW
er and patronage, and arrogantly usurp
every form of opposition, they would
allow the revolutionary doctrine of
secession Sc, was forever ready to be in
voked.
The occasion of dissolution was anx-
iously sought and it was found in the
result of the Presidential election of
1860. The pressure of so great num-
OF Senators and Representatives with a
preponderance of Cabinet officers, who
controlled weak Administration. aud
the possession of the great body ofleg-
lslatlve, executive, and judicial officers
In the States, rendered the Inaugural
ton OF war to resist the national au-
thority an easy task, and work which
the people could not themselves resist.
Had the people organized resistance,
the magistrates, who seized upon the
forts, arsenals and arms of the Union
and controlled the militia, could have
treated them as insurrectionists, and
the President stood readyto recognize
the State authorities, even when pre-
pairing for war against the Union, as the
only men to be heard. ~. .-...'..,.
1t ought naturally to be inferred
that events so fresh in memory, which
led to consequences so deplorable,
would not be again so soon tolerated.
And yet we declare to-day that the ma
tion is standing upon the same preci-
pice, threatened with the same dangers
from the same men, holding the same
principles and offices, and detiantly in
dulging in the same evil practices, re-
lying again for support upon the Fed
eral Administration. The secession
movement of 1860, the ordinances
which claimed to sever the Union, the
formation Of the compact called the
Confederate States, and Inauguration of
war against the national Government,
were all accomplished because in those
sections there were few State magis-
trates to oppose, and because the Fed
eral Administration and controlling
power Of Congress recognized the State
governments, even when inaugurating
open opposition to the national author
ity, and commencing an incipient war,
as the only lawful representatives of
the States. The war came. Its di-
vision lines were marked by the houD-
daries which separated slavery from
freedom. But the rebellion had friends
and supporters in the free States, and
it had enemles-not a tew-in the slave
States. The sympathizers with the
Union cause were more numerous in
the States bordering upon freedom
The supporters of the rebellion were
made to appear almost unanimous in
the States fartEest removed from free
dom. But we assert that there were
always in every State large elene-
ment who were opposed to the seces-
sion movement, and who were soon
made to feel and comprehend that the
war to perpetuate negro slavery also
meant a war to destroy the liberties
OF the white men, by conscription, i'm
pressment, military rule, the; suppress
sion of every manly sentiment, and the
undisguised purpose to establish an un-
mitigated despotism. This opposition
to the most revolving rebellion led
many patriot, as the mustcr-rolls
show, to take arms as Union soldiers.
They staked all upon the fortunes of
war If the national arms succeeded,
these patriotic soldiers fully expected
relief for themselves, their friends and
sympathizers, whom they generally
knew, no matter by what adverse Cir
cumstances they were, surrounded. If
they failed, we all well understood that
death, outlawry, and infamy awaited
all national sympathizers. If the I'm
ION army succeeded, we naturally ex-
pected that the nations enemies would
suffer at least the odium of treason, and
be deprived of thepolitical power which
enabled them to maintain such fearful
and oppressive organizations. -
We declare here that it required no
less moral courage to be suspected of
Unionism in the States we represent
than to fight in the most exposed col
umns of the Union army. Yet there
was all the time courageous few, who
were known and loved by the nations
friends, and prosecuted and despised by
the nations enemies, as friends of the
Union and well-wishers and workers
for the national cause; and all through
the fearful struggle there were four mil
lions of human beings, descendants of
the African race, slaves, whom the enc
mics OF, the Union had charged for forty
years with being always in. preparation
for insurrectien, rapine, and murder,
and the ever ready instruments of, abo-
lition incendiaries, whose suspected
presence served as excuses for Iynching,
Punishment, and hanging. These peo-
pie were taught that the war was re-
lentlessly waged for their freedom
that the Commander-in- Chief of the ma
ton was trying to incite them to insur-
rection; that they were to be made mas
ters and the whites to, become serfs,
pafiahs, and slaves; yet, with a sublime
faith and moral grandeur, these slaves
remained quietly at home, the protect
ors OF the women and children whose
rebel husbapfs and sons were fighting
for their Prpetual enslavement. No
insurreeti0 did they ever attempt !; no
acts ofourage were laid to Interchange;
of no prvations- did they complain.
They .hiled the Union. soldiers as their
frien&; they instinctiyely knew the
Unriin men and women among them
5tothe number Of two hundred thousand
ttey rallied around the Union standards
is soon as they allowed ito muster I'M