The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-03-04

THE REAL REASON The 1A1AL Enhoh'
WoNTINUATIoN. 1.-The true key to the
Confederate ~inaction after Bull Kun must
be traced to the Cabinet of the Government
at Richmond. 1t Is indeed unnecessary to
discuss the Possibilities or ImpossibiGties of
the military situation, since the Southern
ers had so fully committed themselves to a
Defensive Policy" that any attempt to
seize Washington would have stultiied them
in the eyes of world. and given q new aspect
10 the war and in all likelihood would have
created POLITICAL dissensions throughout the
south itself. From the first developments
of the secession movements, the Southern
leaders and presses had protested that their
sole object was Self Protection that all they
asked was to be ''let alone" w do not
hate u,"-th they declared to the NORTH
I'VE do not dislike the Union on the con-
trarv we feel a warmer pride in it than even
Yourselves, for our fore-fathers were its chief
founders. But you are altering the nature
of the Union for our oppression. Daily you
add new insults. entertainments, and rob-
berries of our most valuable property; and
now, after long-continued protests, offered
IN vain. we shall withdraw. to form a better
Union, as our ancestors did all our aims
are peaceable: our first act is to send com
missioners to treat for an equitable ADJUST
ment of our mutual claims for Federal forts,
buildings, &C., SO that there need be not
the least Earring between us. We are we'll
aware that the millions on millions OF acres
O fpublic land which we ourselves donated
to the Federal Union, and which We now
relinouish to you, will exceed ten times over
the value of any Federal property within our
borders and you will admit that we have
for seventy years been paying high tariff and
revenue taxes to build up our section, al
of which we now surrender to you without
an equivalent. Still, we will not quarrel
about that. Our aim is Peace, and Self
Preservation. Ali we want Is to be let alone.
IF forced to take up arms, 1t Will be, not tor
any purpose Of agrandlzement, not to seize
YOU property as you have Warred upon ours,
but to meet YOU at the Potomac border, ana
face YOU as freemen in defence OF our homes
and country"
Upon this outline, upon this fixed Policy,
the changes were rung, from every Press,
and Platform, and [ might add Pulpit, from
Potomac to Rio Grande by the outgoing
members of the old Congress at Washington,
and the incoming members of the New, at
Montgomery; by Presidents Messages. and
military Proclalnatlons.
Nor was it idle rhetoric. to he forgotten
in au hour. Northern folly and tanaticism
had not vet welded Southern sentiment INTO
the fierce unison of a later period So that
anything s%avoring of ambition or aggression
on the part of the Confederate government
would have created dissensions through
out all the South. 1t will be re
membered that the Tea Regiment
Bill" vas hotly contested in North
Carolina Legislature on the ground that as
already there were enough troops for DE
fensive Purposes" any increase was to be
deprecated because of the increased pa
tronage'' it would afford the Executive /!
So, too. in relation to cavalry. There were
offered it is said, nearly fifty thousand horse
men from the single State of Georgia near
ly all of whom were declined on the score OF
being not needed in a defensive war.