Newspapers / The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, … / Oct. 17, 1834, edition 1 / Page 2
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Communications FUR TICK '"EE rRKS- The State Constitution. io. 5. Mv task is ended, if not completed. In tli".? preceding numbers, my design has been not. so much to attempt an analysis of this subject, as to invite public atten tion to it- Nthin more is necessary to (insure tiie triumph of truth over error of reason over prejudice, than that the understanding should have fair play. Public men have not dealt frankly with the people upon this subject. They have not told them how deep and pervading is the dissatisfaction, that prevail in the large counties in the West, with some of the provisions of the present Constitu tion. They have conce iled the impor tant fact, that an ascertained majority of the qualified voters of the State, constitu ting the actual sovereignty, have express ed their dissatisfaction through the ballot box and not satisfied with these sins of omission, they have given in to the vul gar prejudices of the day and represented it as a mere question of political power. Instead of inculcating the patriotic- senti ment, that we are all brethren of the same political family, having a common inter est and owning a common country, a spirit of jealous hatred has been encour age.), fatal to the character and hostile to the best interests of the State. Under the paralysing influence of this pernicious spirit, parties have originated, based up on a supposed conflict of interest between different sections of the State. Thus we have a party or rather a faction who regard the interests of the Gape Fear country as paramount to the interests of the whole State another, the range of whose vision does not extend beyond the! rich and fertile valley of the Roanoke J while a third, is impressed with the Quixottic idea, that a great commercial ; sea port is to be built up at Beaufort, from which streams of wealth are to radiate,! and reversing tin; order of nature How upwards to the mountains. No wonder our fields are desencd our towns dilap idated and in ruins. ISTo wonder that public spirit is extinct and individual en terprize prostrate. No wonder that those, who are in pursuit of wealth or ftme, are compelled to seek a field where the one more surely rewards the labour of industry and the other crowns the efforts of literary or political exertion. I am aware that it is absurd to attempt to make an actual government conform to any abstract notions of political r i h l . Government is a practical thing, and that government is best, which is best in its practical results. But it is needless to answer the oft repeated demands of a majority of the people, the actual sove reignty of the State, for a revision of the fundamental law, bv telling them that in our system no practical evils exist. They will ask in return, if the long and expen sive sessions of the Legislature;, beggar ing the Treasury without benefiting the people if the fact that the expences of the Slate greatly exceed its income, if these operate as no practical evil? They will point to the fluctuating and uncertain character of our legislation, and enquire if that alone does not indicate a radical defect in our system! They will direct our attention to the sectional jealousy which distracts our councils, obstructing every thing like concerted action, and perhaps be surprized to learn, that there are honest and intelligent men, who are unwilling to hush the strife that has so disturbed the tranquillity of the State, and contributed so largely to make herj laggard in the race to wealth and impor tance. J repeat there is a radical defect somewhere. All candid men must ac knowledge it. At tlir? period when the Stales confederated, North Carolina was among the first in wealth in population -extent of territory ami in political im portance. And now what is her actual condition'! With a climate, who,, aver age unrivalled for its sof'trie r,,lf jM salubrity- soi,f a()!ipl(M, t tl. pr()(hjr lion ot amoSt every object of mar.', , dustry-wnh a population hardy, ,mHI, gent and enierprizing, wegeem cor,!nuo tread the paths of humldo mediocrity lo which our own apathy has consigned us. Our lands are daily diminishing in value ifi our towns the busy hum of commer cial industry is no longer beard nnd many of our most useful and active citi zens ure deserting the homes of their la thers, to swell the tide of wealth that is rolling so rapidly to the Went. Is there no remedy for these accumulated ills! Do we not owe it to those who are to succeed us, at least to correct those that are palpable, and for the correction ol which, means are at hand? Having done this, a part of our duty will have been accomplished, and let the result be what it may, we can satisfy ourselves with tin proud reflection, that we have, achieved n triumph over deep rooted prejudices, and sacrificed long cherished opinion upon the altar of our country's good. AMSTIDIIS. The French Claims. In confirmation j of similar establishments in other ct oi me rumor which we menuoneo on KKl DA V, OCTOliKU 17, IS.'M. (UnVc ivgrct to Irani that the Clioler.i is prevailing to a considerable, extent at Washing, ton, in lliis State. The authorities of this j I ; have adopted piecautionnrv measures to pn-vent its introduction. Kunmr says that no new caws have been reported at Washington since Monday. Stuc Elections. On Tuesday l.it, the i;en eml elections were held in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, ;uul Ohio. Holh parties appear lo be sanguine of success. In Maryland, the Opposition have succeeded in obtaining a considerable majority in the Le gislature. In Maine, the Administration party have tri umphed, but by a diminished majority. (QWe are requested to state that the expen ces of the Poor of this county, from May Court 15 .5 3 to May Court 1S3-1, was $763 34 i. Iiunawuy Negroes. The Salisbury Watch man contains the following paragraph: ''We learn that a company of Negroes have occupied caves in the neighborhood of Peters burg, ever since the insurrection. When our infor mant passed Petersburg, the military of the place was on the march to try and draw forth those delinquents from their hiding places." Cotton Crop. The Nashville Banner sup poses that there will be a fair average crop of Cotton throughout the state of Tennessee. The short crop caused by the drought in the Southern counties of Middle Tennessee will, it is said, be fully made up by the unusually fine crop in the Western I)i-lrirt. It was expected that the price in the Nashville market, would open at ten cents. New Cotton. So unfavourable has tin; season he n, that only five hales of the now crop have conn; to market. They were sold at 13. Last year, sales of the new crop commenced about the middle of September, and several hundred bales had been sold by the 10th of October. Newbern Spec. CTAs we expected, Governor Swain refuses to pardon James Willis, the mur derer of Samuel L. Thomas, unarrested and untried bv a jury of his country. Wash. Statesman. Superior Court. At the Superior Court for this county, held last week, the trial of John Murphcy, alias Som Sug, charged with murdering his step-mother, was continued on account of the absence of a witness, alleged to be material to the prisoner's defence. Hal. Star. The right of Instruction. We hope our friends the lion. A. 11. Shcpperd and Daniel L. Barringer, will consider them selves instructed, at the next session of Congress, to sustain the present Admin istration in its measures in relation to the United States Bank. Their districts have spoken in the late elections, in a language that cannot be misunderstood. Milton Spectator. Tuesday of our Minister at Paris desir ing to be recalled, we arc now enable to state that a letter has been received in this city from one who is in intimate rela tions with Mr. Livingston's family, affir ming that he a ill at ease both in body and mind, annoyed by the procrastination md evasive policy pursued by the French Coverntnent in relation to our claims. It states that the ministers declined bringing ihe subject before the Chamber of Deputies at their late session, under the pretext of the shortness of its dura tion, and the consequent hazard of de feat. That neither Mr. L. nor any of the Americans there have the slightest confi dence in ihu sincerity of the professions of the Frenchmen, but believe their de sign to be to gain time by the invention of these and other frivolous excuses of delay. The fallacy of the pretence that there would h ive been danger of the bill being lost is apparent to all who are aware of the very great ministerial majority in the Chambers, the cabinet can carry any measures which they choose to bring for ward, and their shuffling in regard to our claims, conceded and guaranteed by their own ratified treaty, a fiords clear enough evidence that they purpose to evade paving altogether if they can. New York Times. Cold Mines of the United States. What were considered the dreams of vis ionaries, stimulated by grasping cupidi ty, at the early discovery of the North American continent, turn out to be true predictions. In all the old charters, and in the first, especially of "The North and South Virginia Companies," Comprehen ding tin; entire American continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, these truly magnificent grants to the then bold adventurers under Raleigh, Cabot, Soto, fcc., and which were looked upon in pretty much tin; same light as the prom ises of Don Quixotte to Sancho I'anza, the Jameses and the Charleses, on the thrones of England, always cautiously and scrupulously reserved to themselves the profits that might arise from any mines of gold, silver, or other precious metals. Time has shown that these conjectures on the embowellcd wealth of our country have proved true; and that had we con tinued in colonial dependence, our mines would have become a lucrative source of revenue to those royal personages. It is estimated, we perceive, in the transac tions of the Geological Society of Penn sylvania, that since the commencement of the working of the gold mines, that run in a mineral belt, it may be said, par allel to the course of the Blue Ridge from Georgia to Maryland, there has been obtained gold to the amount of no less than six millions of dollars. The mines are generally in talcose slate gneiss, &c., scattered superficially in the gravelly beds ofsmall streams, and there 11 m. a tore easily worucu. lnree deposite mines alone, in Georgia, have yielded half a million dollars. Those of North Carolina generally furnished a million of bullion annually to the mint. But little, however, of the great production gets in to circulation. Most of it is worked up into jewelry, or exported. N. Y. Star. GTho Boston papers publish the Re port of the Committee appointed at a meeting of the citizens of Boston on the 12th August, to investigate the recent outrages in Charleston. It occupies four columns of the Boston Daily Advertiser, and is signed by Charles G. Loring, as chairman of the committee, and thirty-seven members, respectable citizens of Bos ton. This numerous committee sat eve ry day, with the exception of Sundays, for a fortnight from nine o'clock in the morning until sunset. They examined upwards of one hundred and forty per sons, and besides obtaining information enabling them to lay before the public an account of the affair, their investigations led to the arrest of several individuals. The destruction of the Ursulinc Con vent is attributed in the Report to a widely extended popular aversion, foun ded in the belief that the establishment deserved those imputations of cruelty, yiceand corruption, so generally credited tries, was inconsistent with the principle, of our institutions and in violation of the laws of the commonwealth. These iin' putaiions, according to the able llepon of this committee, were utterly ground less. The belief in their justice, was riot only prevalent in Boston and the vicinity but the committee have reason to think' pervaded many distant parts of ilit: Sthtc' ami were extended into other Stubs' 'affording a monitory lesson" snvs t,J Report, "as to the extent and excitability of public credulity when in accordance with popular prejudice." The Convent was founded in the ear 1820, by Doctors Matignon and Chever. us, and was at first established in Boston In lc!2G it was removed to Charleston' and in 1827 the main building was fini)! ed. The reputation of the seminary o pened in it by the nuns extended so f,r and the number of pupils from New n,r land, and other States, and from the British Provinces increased so much, that in 1829 two large wings were added to it. The number of nuns has varied at differ, ent times from four to ten, and thai of the pupils from forty to sixty, (the number of Catholics at no time exceeding tt;n,) and wholly unrestrained in their communica tions with their friends concerning all that transpired in the seminary. Al though the vow of the nuns was amonn themselves regarded as inviolable, it was perfectly understood by every one of thera that in this country there were no legal means to enforce it, or detain any one who might choose to return to the world. Their moral conduct is affirmed to have been always unexceptionable. In com municating the result of their inquiries, the commitlee disavow being influenced by any impression that the truth of the imputations would have constituted any justification of the wrong. They state, that there can be no doubt ill at a conspiracy had been formed, ex tending into many of the neighboring towns, to destrov the Convent. Thev then describe the first excitement, and consequent investigation of the Selectmen of Charlestown on the day preceding the outrage, of which they give a detailed account corresponding with that publish ed at the time, from which it appears that the Selectmen of Charlestown are chargeable with gross neglect of duty. No satisfactory reason has been sugges ted, they say, why the mob was not arres ted in its career, by the great multitudes by which it was surrounded, than the sup position that, from the omission of magis terial interference, doubt and mistrust existed, whether the work were not so far sanctioned by popular opinion, or the connivance of those in authority, that re sistance would be hopeless. The com mittee conclude this portion of the report in the following forcible language. "The fact that the dwelling of inoffen sive females and children, guiltless of wrong to the persons, property, or repu tation of others, and reposing in fancied security under the protection of the law, has been thus assaulted by a riotous mob, and ransacked, plundered and burnt to the ground, and its terrified inmates, in the dead hour of night, driven from their beds into the fields; and that this should be done within the limits of one of the most populous towns of the common wealth, and in the midst of an assembled multitude of spectators; that the perpe trators should have been engaged for sev en hours or more in the work of destruc tion, with hardly an effort to prevent or arrest them; that many of them should af terwards bo so far sheltered or protected by public sympathy or opinion, as to ren der the ordinary means of detection in effectual; and that the sufferers ore enti tled to no legal redress from the public, for this outrage against their persons, and destruction of their property, is an o vent of fearful import, as well as of the profoundest shame and humiliation. "It has come on us like the shock of an earthquake, and has disclosed a state of society and public sentiment of which wc believe no man was before aware. "If for the purpose of destroying a per son, or family, or Institution, it be only necessary to excite a public prejudice, by the dissemination of falsehoods and crim inal accusations, and under its sanction rv.
The Tarborough Southerner (Tarboro, N.C.)
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Oct. 17, 1834, edition 1
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