The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-01-23

it. y. The fowler setteth his snare in vain i z
sight of the bird" Every one can see tn
"trap." We warn President Swain tina
it will be set, and that we do not want hi
political friends to go near it. Let then
avoid the trap" and thus keep their scon
sciences" in their immaculate purity.
President Swain objects to the oath, be
cause it will array neighborhood agains
neighborhood, and man against man.
What have we now, but strife betweei
neighborhoods and between man and man
and what is this but the result Of tRp
very mild obligation, the amnesty oath
President Swain remembers the fable o
the old man and the wicked boy who
stole the apples. Tufts of grass were first
tried on the wicked boy; then sticks; but
it took rocks at last to save the apples
and properly correct the boy. It is so with
respect to the oath. The Union must be re-
stored. 1t can be restored only by the loyal
people, for Congress will not recognize the
disloyal people. Some oath is indispensa-
BILE. Those who can not take the oath must
stand aside, and let those who can take it
restore the government. We are as averse as
any one can be to strifes between man and
man. Wewish to compose and settle strifes,
and we believe this can be done in no other
way than by recognizing the State on the
basis of Mr. Stevens test OATH Neither is
the oath "impracticable" or "absurd." 1t
can be carried out, and is, therefore, prac-
ticable: it is just, fair and sensible, and is,
therefore, not "absurd." 1t may be that it
seems "impracticable and absurd" to Presi-
dent Swain, because it will consign num-
Der of his secession friends to those" back
seatsn which they ought mceklyto have ta-
ken and occupied long since.
But President Swain objects to the oath,
because it is based on proclamation of
President Lincoln which many of our people
have not seen. 1t is known to every intelli-
gent person that President Lincoln issued a
number of proclamations during the rebell-
ion offering amnesty to our people, if they
would submit to rightfnl authority. Pres
ident Swain knows that no man in the in
terror of the State, however much he
might have desired to restore the Union
in accordance with these proclamations,
dared to intimate even that in any event he
would accept their benefits. Public men
among us were required, at the peril of their
lives and property, to repudiate them as fast
as they appeared; but this does not alter the
fact that, in March, 1854, large majority of
our people were at heart for the Union and
would have returned to it if they had been
left free to do so. But what could they do,
with the whole power of the Confederate and
State governments against them?--with the
rebel Governor of the State prosecuting them
and denouncing them with the utmost fury.
and hunting them down like beasts of prey9
with the military power against them,
bayonets bristling in every neighborhood,
and the President of the so-called Con-
federate States filling his loathsome prisons
with them, and declaring that if they attemp-
ted to take the State out of the Confederacy,
or to perform any other loyal act, he would
psur his troops into our midst and deliver
us up to fire and sword The assumption
is, that those who were loyal to the Union
then are loyal now. They would have evin-
ced their loyalty then if they had dared to do
so, and all the oath does is to take the will
forthe deed" 1t is the object of the oath,
and it was so framed, to exclude from Office
and from the polls all conscious traitors y
or, in othe: words, llwho opposed the peace
movement in this State, and persisted,
against reason, justice and humanity in
fighting to the last moment. If such per-
sons were honest in pursuing this course,
they are not fit to take part in the work of
reorganization. for it is incredible that they
should have changed and become devoted
Union men in the short space of twenty
months; if dishonest, or if reckless, bloody
minded, or wickedly selfish and ambitious,
then they may never be qualified to vote or
hold Office.
In word, the Presidents plan, with its
mild amnesty oath, has been tried and has
failed. That was the grass the old man threw
at the boy. Next the Howard amendment
was offered and contemptuously rejected. In
that the boy got sticks, but they made no
impression on him. Now it is proposed to
try the virtue of stones, as embodied in the
test-oath under consideration. We think
the "wicked boy" will come down from the
tree and that in good time we shall have
peace and order in Uncle Sans orchard