The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1868-06-13

/
affection of the American people Their
was harsh war between the legislative ant
executive branches of the government in tn,
Presidency of Gen. jackson. Impeachment
| was threatened, and the same power of re
moVal which Is now so eagerly discussed
then occupied the attention of all part,
men the great men of the nation, Web
ster, Clay and Calhoun supporting the opin
ION that the President should assign reasons
to the Senate for the exercise of such power
and the right of the Senate to agree to such
reasons or reinstate the elected officer Mr.
Tyler as well as MIR. johnson at this day
dld not get along well with his old friends
IN Congress, and Mr.. Calhoun, of South { ar.
Court ten times more bitterly than Mr. Ste
Vens of Pennsylvania has ever done,
and yet the good sense of the Ameri-
can people survived all this, and when the
smoke of the strife was blown off by the
gentle breeze of brotherly love, the flag was
seen at the masthead, and the old ship
constitution was still safe at her moOrinos.
The Constitution makers also thought
that by prohibiting the slave trade after the
year 1908, slavery would become gradually
extinct, as the greater part of them wished.
James Madison, Southern Statesman,
refused TO sanction the introduction of the
word slave into the Constitution.
And though the invention of the cotton
gin and the increased impetus given to the
production of that staple by Mr.. Jefferson's
purchase of Louisiana, and by the war with
poor old volcanic Mexico, and the preceding
admission of Texas, served for time to keep
up what our good sense now shows us to
have been an unnatural. unchristianlike
and an Improbable institution yet the late
cruel war once over, the abolition of that
10 tr, L.,
Northern interference with it, was agreed to
by all good men as a necessary consequence
OF our changed relation, and the fathers of
the Constitution to-day stand indicated in
their opinions of the evils of slavery to our
social and political systems.
So has it been with many other questions
OF public policy, which in the opinion of
hot Drained men would prove the death of
the government; and in spite of all our past
political experience, and contrary to what,
In my opinion is common sense, there
are now to he found very many people in
certain classes, who shout the same cry. and
whose political hatred chokes down every
emotion of manly patriotism. thank God
that live i'll State where such people have
not always been allowed commanding in
huence, in State not altogether so bilious
in temperament as some of her near South
ern neighbors, whose public men have with
few exceptions spoken /" the words of truth
and soberness," whose counsels have been
mild and healing, and whose population has
been, and l trust ever will be, literally and
truly Conservative. The Importance of such
a State to the system, will only he appre-
ciated when the future shall disclose to the
gaze of some of us at least, reconstructed
Union, an unscathed Constitution, and
prosperous, patriotic people. That day, my
friends, will assuredly come. The structure
of our government demands it, and come it
must. Perhaps, no better evidence could be
adduced in favor of the worth of our polty
than the unchanging esteem with which it
has always been regarded by the people of
Europe. In reference to the late impeach-
ment of Mr.. johnson, for instance, that or
gan of the few frecmen of France, La
Presse, eloquently applauds "Republican
institutions, which permit the chief magis-
trate of a nation of forty millions, to be
brought to trial without bloodshed or dis
quiet - while we who live under these in
situations, seem to quake in our very shoes,
at the exercise of a power, which 1 verify be
lieve many Southern people are led to think
is unconstitutional Such high party meas
close Of sucli n I1rui~.:~-- tiio late wn,
but, instead of despalring of the Republic,
consider such trials as but tests of its
strength
sDuris ut lick tonsa bipennibus
Nigr;e feraci frondis in Algido,
Per damna, per csedes alb 1pso
Duct Opes, anmumQue terro."
And now that government, which, with
some evils. has so many good features, which
has conquered whole continent for Chris
tianity and civilization, has given happy
homes to thousands, nay, millions OF the
poor homeless creatures of Europe, and
which despite all the croakings of the dis
hcartened ambitious, cast away politicians,
" has secured the blessings of liberty to our
selves and our posterity," should we not rem
der the tribute of heartiest admirations, of
loyal obedience, and of chivaric patriotism 2
Whatever some of you may say, feel as
sured that those now present who have
heard the science of that government-its
checks and balances its powers and SOW
ereignty; its history and theory expounded
by this, my veneer able instructors in the
text of Kent-that the now graduating
class will go out to the world, freed largely
from the prejudices oftheir elders-resolved
to support that government truly, and with
affection, to fill its honors, if they fall to
them. with all their zeal and ability, and to
guard it from all future party violence, SO
far as in them lies.
And with no useless repinings for past
defeat and lost supremacy, let us, of the
South the young men especially, dare to
do, what our good sense, apart from all
local jealousy, shall teach us to be right.
Let us throw our whole energy into the task
of reconstruction reconstruct in our
finances, in our society, in our politics.
Let US believe and act up to the belief
50 that the best of omens is our countrys
cause" and if we cannot follow the mont
ton of dying Wolsey, to "cherish those
hearts which hate us, surely we will agree
to compromise upon a real and lasting peace
for the whole country, as peace, which shall
to a rotten oblivion, those bad men
North and South who first plotted the late
war which shall gladden. the heart OF every
true mourner, shall teach us the blessings OF
those liberties, that by the war, we have for
the time lost; andIwhich, more than all, shall
forever impress upon the American people
the assured perpetuity Of the Constitution
and the Union, and the fabulous folly
of those bad men who conspire against
them.
Let lis come out of these sloughs of DIES
nond in which we are now benighted, and
turn back in fond imagining to those glori-
Gus old days, when the Constitution and the
Union was loved by all the States with equal
yeneration when North Carolina, as we'll as
New-York, was represented on the floors OF