The weekly North-Carolina standard., 1867-11-06
HORRORS OF THE REBELLION,

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Extracts from tho Addrss Of Hon JOHN
Poo1s 70 shs Fsopk Of NORTH QaroIina, d.
ted Marsk %, 1867. n
e In the beginning, a majority Of the peo-
pie of North Carolina were opposed to the
secession ordinance, and accepted it only as
an inexorable necessity, forced upon them
by the action of the adjacent States and the
dangerous excitement of the times. But
many. earnest Union men, especially the
young and inconsiderate, were soon borne
along by the madness of the day, or became
unable to withstand the derision and taunts
of cowardice with which they were con-
stantlys assailed by the press, in public as
semblies and in the social circle. Others
were deceived by the tardy and vaccilating
action of the national administration, into
the belief that no adequate resistance would
be made to the attempted separation, and
that upon the establishment OF the Confed-
eracy, perpetual dishenor would attach to
those who refused to support promptly the
action OF their State. But, the most potent
agency resorted to was the bold, systematic
and INSCRIPTIONS Misrepresentation OF the
designs of the United States in waging war
against the secession movement. The object
was asserted to be to abolish slavery, to force
negroes upon social equality with the
whites to compel their admission to the
best society-to the table, and even to mar
rage relatinns-to deprive the Southern peo-
pie of all rights-to plunder, ,con6scate,
murder and reduce to a state of dependence
and abject vassalage. The whole Northern
people were denounced as hypocrites, rob-
ters and vandals-and the Union soldiery
as hirelings and licentious vagabonds The
assemblies of the people, the legislative halls,
the press and the social circle teemed with
this scurrility, coupled with still viler cpl
thcts and threats of infamy towards such as
were supposed to sympathlse with the gov
ernment in its struggle to suppress the re-
bellion and preserve the Union All at
tempts at contradiction were suppressed by
arrests and imprisunments ,or by mob violence
A system of the basest espionage sprung up
spontaneously in. every neighborhood, and
every man had a spy and informer at his
door. Good men were thus deceived the
timid were appalled,, and the boldest could
see no hope of success in any effort to stem
the general current. Could the truth, at
that time, have been plainly told to the peo-
Pile of North Carolina, and needed by them,
how much of calamity would have been
averted, and what untold miseries spared US
But, after the lapse of about two years,
the truth began to force itself upon the pub
lie mind. The overwrousht excitement be-
gan to work its own remedy, while the en-
ergetic action Of the Federal Government
exposed the falsity of the assurance, so re-
peatedly given by the instigators of the re-
bellion, that it dared not resist the separa-
ton OF the States Volunteering in the Con-
fe'lerate army nearly ceased, and the people
began to think and speak of peace on the
best attainable terms. It was then that the
instigators and leaders of the rebellion threw
| off the mask which they had so long worn,
and instituted a despotism so complete and
merciless that scarcely vestige of liberty or
right was left. 1t was discovered, when too
late, that power had been placed in the
hands of men, who scrupled at nothing that
might be requisite to the accomplishment Of
their ends, and hesitated not to set at de-
iance not only the wishes and rights of their
fellow-citizens, but even the sentiments and
feelings of humanity They had we'll
trained army Under their command, differed
by men of ftheir own choosing. Almost every
civil position in the Executive, Legislative
and judicial departments of the State and
Confederate governments, was filled by their
most violent partizans and willing friends
4 Thus resistance became impossible and re-
monstrance dangerous They enacted laws
of wholesale conscription, and executed them
with the most searching rigor Impressment
! laws, so framed that the property Of the cit
izen was practically at the disposal of ire
sponsible military subordinates, were execu-
ted in such manner as to awe or ruin every
one suspected of disaffection or personally
obnoxious to the petty tyrants sent out to
scourge each locality. Scouting parties,
composed of the most desperate and aban-
doned of the soldiery. ranged in every coun-
ty, and were changed sufficietly often to pre-
vent any kindly relations being formed with
the people or any influence gained over them
by men of character and justice The sus-
pension of the ha6eas corpus placed under
military control the persons of those whose
age, sex or condition exempted them from
consciption. Prisons, kept in the most
loathsome condition, were established in
Richmond and in other localities. To over
awe the struggling Union sentiment of our
people, the one at Salisbury was set up and
made the scene of horrors, at the recollec-
tion of which the blood still runs cold =
4 Hundreds of eour private citizens exempt
from conscription, were there, and at Castle
Thunder in Richmond, incarcerated upon
mere suspicion of Unionism, and met their
death by starvation and other indescribable
cruelties. : 4
But the failing resources of the Confeder-
acy would not allow the expense of sufficient
prison accommodation for as many victims
as was necessary to suppress the struggling
Unionisn Of North Carolina The rest was
left to the ne;ghborhood scouts and authori-
zed bands of guerrilla ROBBERS, not only un-
restrained but encouraged in lawless violence
and outrage to suspected Unionists, their
wives and children. In remote places, upon
| the public highways. in the humble dwell
ings of the poor and around the family
hearth, from which the husband and father
had been dragged in chains to the army and
| prison, or driven to the mountain caves and
forests, scenes were enacted that can never
be described, and, if told, would not be
credited as possible in Christian age. For
the crime of not betraying husbands and
SONS to death, the virtues and claims Of wo-
manhood were set at naught. Mothers were
taken from helpless infants, and kept for
weeks, in outhouses and pens In the woods,
at the mercy and disposal of depraved and
brutal men, Until, in some instances, their
.breats burst with the accumulation of milk
which the. mereiful God Of nature had pro-
vided for their starving infants at home, In
Randolph county the thumbs of poor wo-
man were put under the rails of fence, and
two soldiers seated themselves upon it, until,
screaming with pain. she disclosed the place