The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-09-30
Dirt.


Some one has defined dirt to be matter out
of place. In certain sections of all cities we
can always see, smell and handle great
deal of wrongly placed matter. But that
kind of matter we will let rest and bemoved
only as the city scavenger moves it. The
kind of dirt of which we prospose to write
has but little matter in it, and yet it is dirt
and dirt out of place.
The columns of the rebel press for the
past week have been full of this dirt, gorged
with this dirt, until they seem not only dead
but sinking and why the Chinese Embassa-
dors have not sent an agent here to purchase
their artillery of stink pots, fills us with
anazement. Dirt, the most foul and putrid,
the dirty brains of those who conceived
could invent, has been thrown at the heads
and into the faces of almost every leading of
fetal in the State
Have these foul sinks forgotten that the
choicest fruit trees flourish in proportion to
the amount of dirt heaped up around their
roots, that the most beautiful flowers bios
som on the dung hill, and that the choicest
essences are distilled from the most offensive
substances? Out of dirt, the most foul and
repulsive, the Almighty not unfrequently rails
es up forms of matchless beauty and grace and
colors gorgeous with all the hues of heavenly
sunsets. Dirt! Dirt There has been dirt
enough stirred up in the foul thoughts and
imaginations of the Rebel press in
this State within the past week to en-
rich and keep alive all upon whom it has
been heaped for a century to come. Because
man is and always has been loyal, he must
be dragged to the level of men who would
sell their souls to the devil in order to get
upon social position with the old slave aris-
tocracy, and then have the door closed in
their faces the moment their votes are given
for their candidates Because man is known
to be honest, he must have his character
blackened by professional thieves. Because
the Chief Executive of this State has a ma
tional reputation for loyalty and ability, he
must be called a scoundrel and nincompoop.
Because mans word is as good as his bond,
he must be called perjurer and forger Be
cause he has always associated with gentle
men, he must be spit upon by blackguards
and Five Point pimps. To differ with this
old oligarchy is to be damned, and to be
damned is to incur the censure of men whose
hands are yet red with the innocent blood of
slaughtered thousands. Because a few lines
were written, in which none but an impure i'm
agination could find impurity, the writer must
be hunted by the Booths of North Carolina
for his blood. Because some of the purest wo-
men who ever sat beneath the Gospel min
istry came here to teach the ignorant, they
must be branded as harlots. Because man
dares to insmuate that woman possesses the
same human nature in the North as in the
South, and men likewise, he must be hung
on the gibbet of social scandal. Because a
man INDUCES in the slightest flight of the
imagination, he must be dragged to the literal
earth to grovel with fools. Because he
claims right to live wherever the flag of his
country floats, hnman hounds must be
set on his track to hunt him from his home
Loyalty, integrity, character are as nothing
To have ever lived North is to have gradual
ted in Sing Sing. To have one drop OF
Northern blood is to be leprous to the bone,
and to pray to reach Northern heaven is
the speediest road to Southern hell.
| All this is what Northern men and women
and loyal Southern men and women are COM
PEELED to endure from day to day. But time
is coming when the tables will be turned and
the names of the men who are now striving to
stir up a rebellion will become as odious and
powerless as the tories of the revolution
Work patiently, therefore, loyal men of all
classes, but work with all the energy of de-
spair, and with all the confidence of certain
victory. Make no threats, but let determi-
nation be seen in your eye and boldness in
your acts, and when the time to vote comes
let no earthly power prevent you from exer-
cising the right given you by God, nature
and the People OF the United States.
|