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

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the city for publication. .s I'D
Respectfully yours,
C. L. HARRIS,
So Chairman Ex. Com. ff
RALEIeu, Sept II, 1868.
Col. G. L. HARRIS, Chairman Ex Conn.,.
Dear Sir: The speech to which you allude is
at your service. If there is anything worthy of
being published or will tend to benefit the read
ing community, comply cheerfully with your
request.
Respectfully yours, r
R. W. LASSITER.
"THrs Is MY OWN, MY NATIVE LAND"
-r SPEECH OF
r. w. LASS1TER, ESQ,
OF GRANVILLE.
Prepared for delivery before the State Mass
Meeting on the 10Th OF September, 1868,
and published by request of the Repub
lican Executive Committed
That government should have been founded
less than century ago and have grown great
in numbers, powerful in influence and riches,
and have given higher guarantees for the full
enjoyment of civil and religious liberty than
any other country known OH the globe; that a
Constitution and laws should have been formed
with such wisdom and justice that the trainers
have been designated as sages, patriots and
fathers; and that the portion of people who
were better qualified to appreciate true bless
ings should with generalization resolve to break
up and discover such a government, involves
mystery that requires investigation, and chal-
lenges the earnest consideration of all thought
fu1or nd y,,f rintin f,;l. .t,o
mind looks for other causes, and accounts for
what it cannot explain by the Intervention of
an invisible and an omnipotent Hand
That the election of Mr.. Lincoln in 1860 to be
President of the United States, when his prede-
cessOrs had held office for the same term for
more than eighty years, and twenty elections
had been held, in which the same modes were
observed and the same class of electors were
allowed to participate, should be a cause why
the government should be dissolved and South
ern men or politicians should declare that hon
or demanded resistance to the constitutional
authorities of the Government, exhibits line of
policy so fraught with mischief that wise and
deliberate thinking men stood silent with aston
ishment. i.FHo-
But secession became a fixed thing, apparent
| ly by the people, and yet not of the people.
Its results soon disclosed what had been family
still feebler lightof experience, and only here and
there the prophetic voice of warning was raised,
declaring the virtue and efficacy of prevention
But wisdom, experience and patriotism were
hushedintO silence or scorned into insignifcance
and madnessruled the hour. When the heroic
deeds of our revolutionary fathers were held up
as examples to follow, or the last words of
Washington We're quoted as authority to warn
US against this UNEMPLOYED field of political ad-
venture, precocious talent and premature age
echoed in cant phrases the sentiments of parli-
zans, whose lives and fortunes had been en-
ployed for no better or nobler purpose than to
infame the passions of the people and incite
them to deeds the history of which, when truth
fully recorded, will cause humanity to shudder
when posterity shall read with the same inter-
est that they read work of tragic fiction
| It is said that revolutions are periodical, and
that wars are necessary to punish the people for
some great national sin. This may be true, but
how few of us understood this in the begin
ming of a war for which prudent men saw no just
canse.
Was ever more striking proof given of the ad-
make mad?'' Would it not have been wiser,
better, and cheaper, if we could have seen eye to
eye, to have eXtilpated the cause of our national
troubles, and by common consent to have cast
overheard the men who snned in the sight OF
| SOou util VII cdTlu anu dIlSclS Ill heaven.
The question whether slavery is crime need
not be debated. 1t is beyond all dispute that
| there was much that was sinful incidental to
slavery as it existed in this country. But passing
| these considerations, the time had come when
there was to be an end of slavery, which had ex-
listed for nearly four hundred years from the time
the first slave was sold into bondage in Portugal
to the day of his emancipation. It was about the
same length of time that the Jews were held in
bondage by the Egyptians, and the Southern
master was not less surprised at the remarkable
| manner of his slaves deliverance than were the
astonished opprcssors of the children of Israel.
The time had come when in the wisdom of
Providence slavery was to be ut an end, and the
| efforts made to prolong his days of bondage were
to be strangely converted into the means of his
deliverance. But during the interval he remained
passive. The issue became distinctly Joined, and
freedom or slavery was acknowledged to
be the result of the contest. Can such
course OF conduct be attributed to
an abiding faith as to his ultimate re-
demption from his poor condition, or to stolid
indifference to the destiny OF himself and his pos
| terity? Not responsible for his condition, not a
voluntary cmigrant from the benighted land of
| his forefathers, but brought here by the agents
| ofan inhuman traffic, and accustomed for SO long
time to this poor condition, his heart had no
hope to rise above the gloom which surrounded
the future of him and his offspring. But the
clouds have passed away. and his uneducated
mind can penetrate the mist. Day has dawned
upon him. All, the sun of freedom has risen up
on his race. They are now in our midst, and a
great practical and moral question arises as to
what duty and interest demand at our hands.
large population, amounting to millions, sudden
ly emancipated and taken from under the care
and guardianship of their former owners in pow
erty and ignorance and without fortune, yea, in
| most instances without homes or shelter for
their wives and little ones, are in our midst
10 solve the question as to what is best to be
done for the good of both races under these pc
culiar circumstances is the trouble. This ques-
| ton has to be met and disposed Of and it is eX
pedient to make some provision for the race
10 send them from our land, country and nation
Is plainly impracticable. They must remain, and
| therefore let us, for our own pecuniary good,
make the most OF them. Their places cannot be
supplied by any other race of people upon the
| same moderate prices and common terms, if in
| decd another people could be induced to take
their places and adapt themselves to the i'm
| portant agricultural interests of the Southern
country, which are SO varied and extensive
Then, seeing that they must remain, why not use
our best efforts to make their improvement a
blessing to the country, 10 himself, and scrvicea
| BILE to the white race? This is matter of into
rest for both races and for the good of the coun-
try, and should be the subject Of wise and delib.
crate investigation, unbiased by prejudices which
| are the OFFSPRING OF Ignorance, or the low con-
sideations of partisan ambition and malignant
feelings II then the majority of this race can
| be made useful, how much better it will be for
us in temporal things. l so f
But more important light in which to view
the condition of four millions of human beings
that which affects their moral character The
late slave is uneducated as general thing, and
he is also poor For these calamities he Is not
to be blamed. The fruits of his toll and labor
have not gone to secure riches for himself
nor to afford him the advantages OF learn
ing. But poverty and ignorance are the pa
rents of vice, and he is not to be blamed because
of either. Shall it be said that his former master
is to blamed do notsay that he is to blame, be.
cause the security of the institution itself denan.