Year: 1863

peace, to save both sections from blood and ruin
that he believed before Heaven, it could and would
De brought about in less than 80 days; and one
universal shout of joy would go up to Heaven, and
that they would merit and receive the blessings of
millions living and millions yet unbornl But if all
efforts at an honorable settlement failed and at
tempt should be made to fix upon US a tyranny
worse than death, then all must die together. He
hoped however, that it would be the proud destiny
OF North Carolina to lead in this matter 50 that the
pen of history would have to record not only the
immortal deeds of her soldiers, but also of her
statesmen


lie showed that it was not true that peace meet
ings when properly conducted tended to deSertion,
put tnat their tendency precisely the reverse;
that those who participated in them were the fathers
ana brothers of the brave soldiers in the field, and
that they mpelled by the thousands of letters
received from those soldiers urging upon them to
appeal to the leading men Of the land to make an
effort for a just and honorable peace. He warned
the people to guard with seepless vigilance their
liberties, and especially to that the military
should continue to yield, and be kept in subjection
to the civil authority of the State. He also alluded
to the odious test oath which was attempted to be
liked upon free people, by an ordinance of the
convention, and in connection with these two SUBJ
Jects he paid high tributes to Senator Graham, Gov.
Hance, and Chief Justice Pearson.


lie alluded to the fierce attacks made on the Ed
ltor of the North Carolina Standard and denounced
the attempts made to suppress that and other pa
pers in the State, and expressed the opinion that
more than three fourths of the people Of the State
held in the main, the opinions that were expressed
through the columns of that paper; that it was
untrue that the Editor Of that paper had ever ad-
.vised reconstruction or submission and yet this
the false charge made, upon which partisan
resolutions and coarse denunciations, to say moth
ing of brutal threats, were based That the ale
CATION, from whatever source, that those who fa-
vored peace upon the basis he had suggested were
untrue to the country, or were traitors, was an in
famous libel upon at least eighty thousand of the
voters of North Carolina-and that therefore, an
immense majority of the people would hardly be
driven from the position they had firmly taken, by
the false clamors and wicked libels of pitifu mi
nority; that as for himself, he regarded such in
temperate and partisan denunciations with mingled
feelings of pity and contempt. He read extracts
from the Richmond Whig an extreme Southern
paper, and showed that they smacked thousand
times stronger of reconstruction than any editorial
that had ever appeared in the Standard or Prog
ress. He deeply regretted, nay, thousands of the
best men and ablest in the land profoundly regret
ted that Mr.. Davis, after having been unanimously
elected, should have carried into the Presidential
chair his partisan prejudices, and more especially
in an unequal and fearful struggle like this we are
engaged in where the issues of life and death are
involved; that he had acted thus not only in his
appointments to civil trusts but also in the vast
patronage he held in his appointments to military
ofices-so that almost the entire control of the
government was in the hands of those most unfor-
tunate prophets, who declared that Cation eOas
King and who foretold that secession UouLd be
peacedbLe and would not involve US in war
Such, he argued, would not have been the course
of Graham or Stephens, had those great states
men been placed at the helm of the ship of State
and he expressed the opinion that not even Mr..
Stephens, the Vice President had the full conf
dence of the President He hoped for change


He concluded, by urging on the people the pro-
priety of obeying the civil and military laws, urged
the people to see that the deserters return to
their regiments, and stand by their colors-advsed
that no opposition should be manifested to the last
call for conscrpts and that no obstacles be thrown
in the way of the tithing LaO though he denounced
it as unwise and unjust, and expressed the hope
that it would be repealed, or so modified as to rem
der it acceptable to the people.


ONE WH0WAS PRESENT.