Year: 1864

no peace at home. There are unmstakable signs


in that paper that new Programme of county


meetings and resolutions is arrangedfor the Spring


Courts; and we are credibly informed that set OF


resolutions has already been prepared in Rttetgh,


and sent down to Johnston county for adoption


there, and afterUofds in every other county In


which meetings of the right stripe be gotten up


The object this time is to agitate for State Con-


ventinn, in which, III the language of the Standard,


" the people Of North Carolina UiH take their otoH
atairs into their hind" )" that is in plain Ian.
| guage, go out of the Confederscy This instead
| OF making peace with the Yankees, would but add
civil war to the foreign war now raging. IL the
people are not prepared for this let them beware
OF the teachings of the Standard, which educated
the people in the doctrine of secession voted US in
to the present war, and pledged "the last dollar
and the last man to maintain it. Who will guar
antee that if the Standard should get the people
saddled with another war, It would be anV more
t true than to the present?-FaystteUitte O6seTrer


1t is not true, far we know, that resolutions
were prepared in Raleigh" for the Johnston meet
ing. The Conservatives of Johnston able to
prepare their resolutions, pass them, and then
maintain them against all comers.


We heard of the proposed meetings in Johnston,
from distinguished citizen of that County, but the
day before the Observer from which the above is
copied was received


Let the Observer come out frankly and state who
its. Raleigh detective IS This is not the first
time that false information as we'll as correct inf1r
nation has been communicated oy some one in this
place to the obserrer who seems specially charged
with the business of acting detective" towards
the Standard and its Editor. Who is this unknown
employee, Mr.. Observer, who. thus strikes in the
dark? Let the public have his name.


No have nnada of ,ba
Confederacy," and the O6sercer knows it but We
have protested against measures which would change
the whole character Of the government and suhju-
gate our people the arbitrary edictS of Congress
and the PreSidrnt-whch would abolish all civil
law and establish military law in its stead-which
would break faith both as to the supply of men and
means, and thus lower our government and our
cause in the eyes of our people and of the world
which would blot out the States and render them
dependent orthe central government as Counties
dependent on States; and in view of these meas
ures we have given it our opinion that the people
of North Carolina will, if they should be adopted,
vindcate in their sovereign capacity their ancient


liberties and privileges Is the Observer prepared for
a Dictator? Nthat paper ready to abandon liberty,
the rights of the States-nay, the very existence of
the States themselves in the hope that by doing it
will escape the consequences that may result from be
ing overrun by federal armeSf For our part, We
opposed to despotism come from what quarter it
may. The States were the creators Of the Confede-
rate system and they must remain the superiors of
the system or it will fail 1t cannot succeed by
trampling on the States. Indeed, its misfoFtunes
commenced at the very moment it began to ignore
the power of the States and those msfortunes will
continue and multiply until It changes its policy,
ceases to exercise doubtful powers and relies the
States as the controlling power in the system. The
secession leaders broke up the old government
against the wishes of majority of the people Of the
cotton States, simply because as they alleged, that
government had Threatened the rights of the States;
and yet expected, under the new system, to
sit down with folded hands and see the States re-
ducei to the condition nf mere appendages Of the
common government by the very men who made
the revolution on the ground that the States were
in danger. We shall not do it The people oil this
State will not do it They will maintain the civil
lay, their Constitutional rights and the existence
of their State government in its full integrity against
every effort to destroy or even impair them. But
the Observer threatens the people of this State with
civil war il they should think proper to hold public
meetings or hold Convention. Confederate troops
are to be called In and the people to be preven
ted by from exercising :her reserved sovereign
rights. North Carolina Is thus threatened with
double subjugation. She is to be su6dued by both
governmentsa Wedenounce the paper and the men
who make this threat as Linco;nites-as worse
than .Lincolnites-for they would turn the bayo-
nets of Southern men against the breasts of
Southern men. They would add war to war, des:
potrsm to deSpotism, blood to blood, suffering to
suffering and see the plowshare Of rum driv-
en- through their native soil by the very government
that was formed to defend it Such is the infatua
ton which possesses who have been bitten, even
at the eleventh hour, by the mad dog Of secession.


Nor is it true that we educated the people in
the doctrine of secession" and then "voted them
into the present war" We never mainta ed the
doctrine of secession as practiced by the cotton
States and resisted secession up to the last mo-
ment. The war had commenced before we voted
for the ordinance of separation in the Convention
and we were called upon to- fight either the North
or the South. We chose to fight the former, but
did not wish to do so. 1t vas not in our power to
vote the Stale IN or out OF the war; lot war was IN
evtable after the cotton States, for no sufficient
cause, had seeded from the Union. This is the
truth on this subject in nutshell and this the
view taken by the 0bSsrUer at the time, but that
paper has since changed, and declares that the
cotton States did not secede day too soon. 1t now
"eats dirt "-acknowedges that its former Union
opinions were erroneous, and, to please its new
Fr,ondS turns its hack IN all those true men with
whom it acted IN 1860 in the great, but unavang
effort which was then made to preserve the govern
ment and avert the war.