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 00032721500 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECT] 
 
SPEECH 
 
 Or 
 
 WILLIAM S. HARRIS, 
 
 OF CABA.RRUS, 
 
 Delivered in the House of Commons, in the Committee of the 
 Whole, on the _B ill to call a Convention, January 11, 1861. 
 
 I understand, Mr. Chairman, the original bill reported from 
 the Committee on Federal Relations, the Resolutions of the 
 Minority of that Committee, offered by the gentleman from 
 Alamance, (Mr. Mebane,) and the substitute introduced by the 
 gentleman from New Hanover, (Mr. Person,) to be the subject- 
 matter under discussion. Without trespassing upon the time of 
 the House, I desire to submit, briefly, some views which I enter- 
 tain on this all-absorbing subject. The issue of the crisis that 
 now looms up before the country, is unspeakably momentous, 
 and it becomes the obvious duty of every representative in this 
 Legislature, as well as every citizen ofthe State, to address his 
 mind and earnest thoughts, to some practical plan of solving 
 this amazing problem. I promise the House, Sir, that what I 
 have to say in taking my position on this question, shall be 
 uttered in few but earnest words. I announce in my place 
 here, Sir, that it is my settled purpose to act with the view to an 
 adjustment of this exciting and angry controversy, now and 
 forever. Henceforward I desire to keep no word of promise to 
 our ear that shall be broken to our hope. But I believe, Sir, 
 '"that peace hath its triumphs no less than war," and in that 
 spirit I have sought fairly to try and to exhaust every constitv 
 tional remedy before the Old North State should be precipitated 
 
upon the thick bosses of revolution and disunion. Although 
 my hopes of the perpetuity of the Union of these States, amid 
 the discordant elements that now cluster around it, have de- 
 clined, yet those which remain are like the lessening leaves 
 of the Sybil, still cherished and increased in value. 
 
 When truth and justice permit, I am disposed to look on the 
 bright side of human affairs ; and in illustration of this peculiar 
 feeling, I remember an interesting incident which is said to 
 have occurred in the darkest period of the revolution, after the 
 defeat of Gen. Gates, at Camden, S. C, when Gen. Greene 
 took command of the army of the South. As the story goes, 
 a hopeful and gallant soldier of Scotch ancestry, in the western 
 part of South Carolina, was noticed by Gen. Greene, near his 
 marquee, on a cold frosty morning, treading his way through 
 snow and ice, leaving* his tracks stained with the blood that 
 flowed from his bare feet. That distinguished and compassion- 
 ate General kindly accosted him and remarked : 
 
 "My poor fellow, I am sorry for you." 
 
 The bright faced, but^ suffering soldier, pleased with the 
 notice and sympathy of his General, cheerily replied, "I dinna 
 ken, Gineral, they tell^me we gwine have a fight 'fore long, and 
 then I'll git a pair o' shoes." 
 
 The extremity of hope in the present crisis is not much un- 
 like that of the humble, but true-hearted soldier. The fight in 
 that contest was for liberty, the fight in the present contest is over 
 the body and being of the Republic, whose foundations were 
 then laid and cemented in the blood of the noblest band of pa- 
 triots the world ever knew. And if this issue cannot be pre- 
 vented or adjusted, this experiment of self-government will have 
 ended, before the last soldiers of the revolution shall have 
 gone to their long sleep in the grave. But, however melan- 
 choly as to them in the brief period of their remaining pil- 
 grimage, the terrible consequences of this catastrophe must fall 
 chiefly on us, who are actors upon the stage, in the clay and 
 generation in which we live — actors for ourselves and those who 
 are to come after us. In this view, Sir, it becomes the most 
 ^overwhelmingly important inquiry that can possibly occur to 
 any rational mind : How can this state of things be prevented 
 or arrested? Is there no hope that Ave may yet be spared this 
 
gloomy voyage in a broken and dismantled Ship of State upon 
 what is, doubtless, so far as human vision can foresee, a " shore- 
 less, sailless, waveless, tideless ocean?" 
 
 The government was formed in a spirit of compromise. The 
 old articles of confederation, when they were found to be but a 
 rope of sand, gave way to the more perfect form of government 
 under the constitution, and its provisions were then deemed ample 
 for our protection. But Massachusetts had then not long ceased 
 to burn witches and to advertise runaway negroes, crimes which 
 she doubtless places upon her calendar of the present day as of 
 equal turpitude. Appropriate, Sir, at this point in what I have 
 to say, I beg leave to read from an old newspaper, an instructive 
 relic of other days, which I happen to have in my possession, 
 entitled the "Boston Post Boy and Advertiser,' 1 '' published in 
 Boston, and dated December 12, 1763, little less than one hun- 
 dred years ago. In it I find this singular advertisement : 
 
 "To be sold, a Strang Active and Healthy Negro Fellow, about 17 Years 
 old, fit for Town or Country Employment. Enquire of the Printers." 
 
 Does not this show what a wondrous change has come over 
 the spirit of Massachusetts dreams ? Under the severe suffer- 
 ing of the present time, it is possible, though not probable, that 
 her returning reason may yet doom to just vengeance the necro- 
 mancers of wicked and terrible mischief, her Wilsons, and Gar- 
 risons, and Sumners, and Phillipses. Extremes of folly and jus- 
 tice in the history of nations sometimes meet. The spirit that gave 
 Robespiere triumph, gave Robespiere death. When the final 
 hour of retribution comes, from deceived and down-trodden 
 humanity, short indeed ever has been the journey of false 
 philanthropists or fools from the prison to the grave. 
 
 The admitted dangers that now surround our institutions 
 should prompt us all to unite on a common platform and exhaust 
 the last constitutional remedy. But, Sir, I am not wedded to 
 any particular plan. I will stand on any platform that looks to 
 permanent and honorable adjustment. I hesitate not to declare 
 that I am utterly opposed to separate secession, and still greatly 
 prefer the plan indicated by the resolutions which I had the 
 honor to introduce early in the session, and now embodied in 
 the resolutions offered by the gentleman from Alamance. They 
 contemplate a Convention of nil the States with a view to re- 
 
 
dress end ve-construction in accordance with the 5th Article of 
 the Constitution of the United States. I know that it is alleg- 
 ed that two-thirds of the States will not apply, and, therefore, 
 that is not now practicable, but, Sir, it is written in the Con- 
 stitution of the country and ought to be spoken out with the 
 spirit of freemen. 
 
 And then, Sir, if all these steps fail to save the Union of the 
 States, the cause of our section, unprejudiced by premature ac- 
 tion, and capable of the noblest defences, will stand justified 
 before God and the world. Is it too late to try this remedy? 
 Perhaps it may be, but South Carolina is conservative and 
 well-ordered in her State Government, and now has the power 
 to halt for counsel and co-operation, as well as the undoubted 
 courage to do and to dare. But, Sir, in the event it should not 
 be the pleasure of this Legislature to call for a National Con- 
 vention, I announce my purpose to vote for a Convention ©f the 
 people, in order to place North Carolina in a condition to co- 
 operate with her Southern sister States, and in that form inter- 
 pose her cautious wisdom to avert the unnatural struggle. If 
 you fail now to exert the conservative power of North Carolina, 
 and a collision of arms should ensue, the natural sympathy of 
 your people will make them flock to the Palmetto Standard 
 with the swiftness of the warhorse to battle. Nor will they be 
 intimidated, Sir, by the declaration that South Carolina will 
 be overcome in the unequal strife. They know, Sir, that no 
 people have ever been finally subjugated who had the sinews of 
 war, who had the spirit of a just cause and bread to feed their 
 armies. But admit, Sir, for a moment that South Carolina may 
 be overcome, her fair fields desolated, her cities destroyed, her 
 people conquered, will not the same hands that bind the yoke 
 of sectional oppression upon her neck, fasten it upon your neck 
 and upon the neck of every citizen of North Carolina ? What, 
 then, will be left for us, Sir, of national liberty, to live or to 
 hope for ? Nothing, Sir, save to reap, to our heart's content, 
 "the oppressor's scorn and the proud man's contumely." 
 
 But, Sir, we are bound up in the same bundle of destiny by 
 the evident ordination of an Eternal Providence, and commit- 
 ted by the constitution of the country to perform the duty, and 
 
 v. 
 
 
5 
 
 to work out the amazing problem of the advancement of the 
 white race, and the civilization of the black race under mild 
 and humane institutions. The negro race is here placed in its V 
 true normal condition of regulated slavery. The Southern 
 States cannot occupy any neutral ground in the face of an irre- 
 pressible conflict, which proclaims war, ad inter necionem, against 
 them, as the rightful arbiters and appointed guardians of an 
 inferior race. History is philosophy, teaching by example, and 
 its most instructive lesson tells, that in the drama of this world's 
 affairs, the negro race acted no part, although it is coeval with 
 our own in the ages of time, until letters patent were obtained 
 from Charles V, by Las Casas, under which the slave trade was 
 opened in 1517 on the western coast of Africa. Afterwards 
 the cupidity of England, and at a still later period the avarice 
 of Massachusetts Yankees, greatly enlarged it. The trade, thus 
 opened, found the African, " like the barren heath in the de- 
 sert, that knoweth not when good cometh," having roamed his 
 native wilds a barbarian for four thousand years. Under its 
 auspices he was transplanted to other lands, where his labor has 
 been made to expand the commerce of the world, and the mild 
 government of a superior race, enabled him to realize thehlgh- 
 est and palmiest civilization which his nature or race has ever 
 reached or known. England, at this day, with all her boasted 
 systems of emancipation — all her boasted systems of appren- 
 ticeship to educate negroes to liberty, and notwithstanding all 
 her boasted intentions of raising her own supply with free Afri- 
 can labor on the Niger River, knows that the Niger will not do, 
 but that the Nigger will do, on the American cotton fields, under 
 American masters, to raise the great staple of cotton, which 
 is now necessary to keep guant famine from her sea-girt isle, 
 and maintain the permanence of her Throne. But, Sir, the 
 demand for this great staple of Southern labor, amid the strife 
 of contending States, and the blockade of your ports, will com- 
 plicate your embarrassments and augment your difficulties. I 
 stop not now to discuss this aspect of the subject. But in view 
 of the magnitude of this question in all its bearings, I have 
 desired earnestly to see this step taken to preserve constitu- 
 tional liberty, to maintain the Union of the States, and then, 
 
Sir, if found impossible, every citizen of our State would stand 
 justified to his conscience, to his country, and to his God. I 
 desired, too, Sir, to see a National Convention, with a view to 
 enable the^South, through her wisest statesmen, to lay down her 
 ultimatum upon a national arena, and to assert the moral gran- 
 deur of her true position before the world, or to fall with her 
 back to the field and her feet to the foe. But, Sir, it is my 
 settled conviction, that in view of the movement now inagurated 
 North and South, this question must now be met and adjusted 
 permanently and surely. It is true that some conservatives 
 overmuch allege that Abram Lincoln's administration may be 
 better and more conservative than Mr. Buchanan's. I acknowl- 
 edge, Sir, that it could not be any worse in startling corruption 
 and unparalleled perfidy. 
 
 But it is manifest, Sir, that the settlement of this question 
 cannot now be put off any longer. In any other event that 
 does not look to a re-construction of the government, the future 
 elections for President, so far as fifteen States of the Union are 
 concerned, will be a mere farce. Look at the result. The 
 whole power and patronage of the government will be wielded 
 to weld together the numerical force of eighteen States forever 
 against us. Does not the ordinary rule of human action forbid 
 the idea that Abram Lincoln, in this hour of triumph, would 
 back down from the platform upon which he was elected? — 
 Such a change, from wicked means to wicked ends, would be as 
 sudden as that of the mighty Apostle on his journey to Damascus, 
 and that, too, in an age when miracles had ceased to occur. Not 
 more surely did the Emperors of Rome, backed by their Preto- 
 rian bands, in the worst periods of their history, dictate the 
 succession, than would this Black Republican organization, 
 headed by a successful Black Republican President, breathing 
 threatenings and slaughter against our institutions, appoint, from 
 term to term, his successor. The election of Lincoln is pre- 
 dicated upon a single idea, and that idea is the most stupendous 
 falsehood of any age — that there is an "irrepressible conflict " 
 between the hireling labor of the North and the slave labor of 
 the South — that all the States must become either free or slave, 
 when Abram Lincoln well knew that it was just as probable 
 that the vice-fields of Carolina should be removed to Massachu- 
 
setts, as that the institution of slavery, against the great law of 
 climate, should go there. 
 
 I be*: leave to read an extract from the declared views of 
 Abram Lincoln, which I find in the message of the Governor 
 of Virginia. Mr. Lincoln says : 
 
 "I embrace with pleasure this opportunity of declaring my disapprobation 
 of that clause of the Constitution which denies to a porton of the colored 
 people the right oi suffrage.'' 
 
 Can any one doubt that it is the settled purpose, by the ultimate 
 extinction of slavery, to place the white man and the negro on 
 equal footing at the ballot-box ? There is nothing, Sir, to equal 
 this delusion in the history of any civilized people. The impos- 
 ture of the false prophet, in a dark age, is not more surprising. 
 There is no parallel to it, unless you look into the fictions of 
 romance and find it in the Prophet of the Silver Veil ; but even 
 the deformity which it concealed is less hideous and revolting 
 than that which is covered by the black veil of abolitionism. — 
 And amid the earth-slides of disunion and the destruction of 
 the government, Lincoln may say to his trained bands, as erst 
 did the impostor in the story of the east : 
 
 " Behold your Light— your Star, 
 
 Ye would be dupes and victims, and ye are." 
 
 I believe, Mr. Chairman, that a dissolution of the Union will 
 be a calamity to civilization and to humanity, and if it should 
 occur, it is my settled conviction, that the only plan which would 
 be conservative of safety and social order at home, and insure 
 some degree of respect abroad, is the scheme of a united South- 
 ern Confederacy. Such a confederacy would be homogeneous 
 in interests and institutions, and that condition alone would be 
 a great element of power. I cannot entertain for a moment 
 the idea of a Middle Confederacy, although it was so ably ad- 
 vocated on yesterday by the eloquent gentleman from Ashe, (Mr. 
 Crumpler.) It would be impossible, Sir, for a Middle Confed- 
 eracy to sustain the long lines of border on the North and on 
 the South, with custom houses, and perhaps standing armies, 
 without the complete impoverishment of all the people. And 
 there would be added to all this disadvantage, the cross-fire of 
 eternal hate from the North, while the heart of the South, now 
 our natural ally, would soon be changed from fraternal confi- 
 dence to vindictive rivalry and strife. 
 
 / 
 
But the gentleman from Ashe argued that the slave trade 
 would be re-opened. I would deprecate such a result, but the bor- . 
 der States would be mere likely to resist successfully such a 
 'policy, in a united Southern Confederacy, than in separate and 
 independent governments. In the event there should be a Cot- 
 ton Confederacy and a Middle Confederacy, is not the proba- 
 bility greatly increased that the interests of the South would 
 prompt to re-open the slave trade % And yet, the border States 
 could exert no moral power to control or avert it. With this 
 view, then, Sir, I must set my face, as a flint, against the idea 
 of a Middle Confederacy. In closing my remarks on this occa- 
 sion, I desire, Sir, to return my sincere thanks to the House for 
 its patient attention. 
 
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