The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-01-16
President Swain's Third Letter to Gov.
Perry, ON Political Subjects.

President Swain's Third Letter to Gov.
Perry, ON Political Subjects.
We regret that President Swain considers
it is his duty to occupy the field of politics,
He is the President of the State University,
q position which should be as far removed
as possible from any thing that savors of
partizanship. And We regret that President
Swain feels it to be his duty, while thus oc-
cupying the field of politics, to single us out
as special object for attack and criticism.
We have always been his friend. This jour
nal has uniformly sustained him in his adj
of the affairs of the University;
AND the Senior Editor, as long as he felt that
ash loyal man he could properly continue to
aft as Trustee of the University, took plea.
Sure in cooperating with President Swain in
all measures deem ed advisable or necessary
to promote the prosperity Of the Institution.
We feel that we have been friend to the
University, a friend to President Swain, and
a friend to our country. We may have erred.
No doubt we have erred, but our object has
been, from first to last, to promote the good
of our beloved State, and to restore and per
petuate the federal Union. We have never
assailed President Swain. On the contrary,
we have defended him, when some f.his
present secession friends were disposed to
disparage and underrate him, on account of
his age and supposed infirmities. He knows
that, when in Washington in May, 1865,
though he had gone thither without an invi-
tation properly based, and though he had
sought to thwart the views of the President
and our views, in relation to the steps con-
sidered necessary to reorganize this State, we
were among the first of the delegation, prop
erly invited, to do him justice; and that, at
the instance of Mr. Dick and ourself, he was
honored by the President with the appoint
ment of Visitor to West Point. We refer to
these things, not to leave the impression that
President Swain is, in any respect, under OBJ
legations to US, but that the public may
know, and he may remember, that on no oc-
casion have we so acted towards him as to
Justify him in uniting with our secession enc
mics in the attacks they are making on us.
The letter to which we have referred, pub
lished in a recent number of the Sentinel, is
addressed to Gov. Perry, and processes to
conclude an argument commenced in for
mer letter on the Congressional test-oath;
but the most superficial reader can not fail
to observe that the real object of this third
letter is to make political attack on us.
The President pulls off his sacred University
coat, rolls up his sleeves. and essays to come
to the relief of the secession party of the State
That which troubles him most is the condi-
ton in which he finds his friend Gov Ora
ham. But we tell him, and we tell Gov Ora
ham, there is firm ground if they will only
place their feet upon 1.-THE ground of un-
conditional submission to the national au-
thority; and that as long as they remain
where they are, attempting to dictate terms
of reconstruction to the Congress, the deeper
they will sink in the Serbonian bog"
President Swain compares the Asa Biggs
test-oath proposed in our State Convention
in 1862, with the present Congressional test
oath and the test-oath prescribed in Mr..
Stevens bill, and endeavors to show that we
are inconsistent, in that we opposed the for
mer and aided in devising the latter. The
true explanation as to the test-oath proposed
by Mr.. Biggs isas follows: The Conservative
or Union members of the State Convention
had, at heart, no confidence IN the Confed-
crate government. They had been forced
against their will, by the secession of South
Carolina on the one hand and Virginia on
the other, to take part in the war against the
United States. They went into the war with
the fixed purpose to get out of it as soon as
they could, on honorable terms. This was
clearly understood to be their basis of action
when the ordinance of secession was adopted
In pursuance of this understanding, meet
ing of the Union members of the Convention
was held at the house of the Senior Editor
OF this paper, at night. only few days after
the ordinance was passed, over which Gov
Graham presided. and at which the Union
party assumed the name of Conservative y
Some fifty to sixty members were present
The meeting was held with closed doors and
windows, though the weather was quite
warm, and the discussion was conducted
with suppressed voices. No one said, in sc
many words, that the understanding was as
we have stated, but it was PROFESSIONALLY
implied From the very outset Union mem
bers of the Convention embarrassed the
Confederacy by demands for civil liberty
and for freedom of the press and of speech
and in 1862, about the time Mr.. Biggs' oath
was proposed, the Confederate government
was preparing to enact its CONSUMPTION laws
which action provoked the most bitter an6
determined resistance on the part of the
Union men. The members of the Convention
had taken no oath to support the Confeder
ate government. The Union members die
not want to take that oath, and they were
not willing to impose it ON their consti
tuents. Most of them felt that the day wa
not very distant when they would be able t.
strike for peace on the basis of the Union
and within twelve months from the date O
Mr.. Biggs' oath that day arrived. Their re
gard for the Union was still so strong -thei
detestation Of tie Confederate government
which was conscripting our people and pre-
pairing to 1.-THE and impress their substance