The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-09-16
War.

CRU Viz pdCou loW Ine suohe iouse.
Quartarmasters. and commissaries are in favor
Of lwas. War multiplies thieves and snug
glers and cutthroats and vagabonds. All men
who never earned their living in any other.
way arssin favor of war. War takes churches
for ca!afsy stables ard hospitals. The rebel
clergymen of the South are preaching war.
War burns dwellings, desolates plantations,
destroys bridges, tears up railroads, sacks
cities, ravishes women, slaughters the young
and the innocent, and spreads terror and an
guish throughout the land. The Southern
chivalry want war. War forgets there is q
heaven of peace above and dwels In the hell
of death below. Powder manufacturers are
i'll favor of war. War loves to burrow in nj
tire caves, in burnt out cratuers of old volca-
nies. in sulphur, in deadly gasscs, in all the
destructive clements of nature. Chemists
who place no value upon human life are in
favor of war. War bottles up thunder and
lightning and earthquakes and let them loose
with more than the deadly energy Of nature
upon immense armies of human beings.
Manufacturers of nitro glycerine are in favor
of war; War cuts of arms and legs and
mains and wounds the human form divine
Surgeons who have no skill and no humane
feelings want war. War crowds graveyards
and cemetaries and breeds disease and pesti-
lence and famine in all their ghastly forms
Sections and undertakers want war. War
shuts the doors or heaven and open the doors
ofhell. The devil wants war.
Poor white men of the South, do you want
another war 2 Laboring negroes of the
South, who once were slaves, do you want
another war? Small farmers and manufac-
turers and merchants who are just beginning
to regain what you lost four years ago, do
you want ware Bankers who have bushels
of Confederate notes or bonds, do you want
want war2 Aristocratic Planters of
the South whose broad acres are
growing up in weeds as the result
of one war, do you want another one
Will it restore your lands to their former
value, will it give you back your slaves, will
it pay your Confederate debt, will it keep
you from being ovcrrun by "Northern van
dals," will it make Jeff Davis your king,
Cobb and Toombs and Hampton and all the
Southern aristocracy, your Dukes and lords
and barons9 Will it make the Confederacy
monarchy from the Potomac down to the
golden circle of the sea? Will it puff you
up and make you prouder and more arro-
giant and bigoted and ignorant and unchris-
tian-virtues you valued so highly but little
while ago-than you were when you threat
cned to call the roll your slaves on Bunk
er Hill9 Will it restore one right you pos
sessed before the war and lost by act of war ?
VIII it not on the contrary, arouse spirit
in the North that, when organized and put
in motion, will sweep you like chaff before a
whirlwind, and end forever your proud
boasting and your malignant spite against a
people who wish you no ill but constant
good?
The masses in the South do not want war
now; did not want war four years ago. They
knew then that they had nothing to gain
but deeper degradation; they know now
that they have nothing to gain but further
misery. But the Southern slave aristocrats
dragged and drove you like swine to the
slaughter, that they might found throne
upon your bones and cement it with your
blood, and now they are preparing to at
tempt the same deed of diabolsm again.
The blood-hounds of Forest are already
yclping in the woods of Tennessee and smell
ing the blood of bleeding feet as they flee
before the conscript officer. The mother
clasps her babe to her bosom and prays to
God for bread to feed her children as she
sees her only supporter, once moro hurried to
the ranks. Epauletted rufiians dressed in
the authority of the revolver and the bowie
knife, ride up and down village streets, and
threaten the dungeon and death to all who
disobey their commands. White men of the
South! war is once more upon us unless you
rise up in your might and crush with one
manly, determined, overpowering blow the
men who led you with false promises and
lies and treachery into the war from which
you escaped with not a dollar of your prop
erty-and, as if by miracle, with youl
lives.
Seymour and Blair have declared for war
and war which means the re.enslave
ment of the negro and the reduction
to serfdom and pconage of the poor
white. Will You accept war with Sey
mour and Blair or peace with Gen. Grant
Your ballots are asked but not bullets. Bal.
lots now will save you from bullets six months
hence. But so surely as Seymour and Blair
are elected nothing but bullets will save YOU
from despotism more calling than that Of
Russia centuries ago, or than of the great
Confederacy but week before Lees surren.
der. This is no idle talk. We appeal to
you in all seriousness. We understand the
temper of the North and the disposition o.
the South. One is slow to anger but wher
its blood is up, all its money and its vast re
sources are as nothing and flow as freely into
the purse of the nation as the waters of the
Mississippi into the Gulf. The other is quick