North Carolina Standard

THE ATTACK ON THE BASIS.

The Raleigh Star alleges that we have misrepresented its position on this subject. We have done no such thing. What we have uniformly said with reference to the course of that paper on this subject, is this: Before and after the Equal Suffrage Act had received the sanction of the late Assembly, a number of the leaders of the Whig party were pressing an unlimited Convention, with the avowed object—not merely of establishing Equal Suffrage—but for the purpose of changing the basis of representation. After the Equal Suffrage Act had passed, these leaders wrote and published an Address, in which it is distinctly declared that they desire the people to consent to an unlimited Convention, in order to give them an opportunity of altering the basis; and these leaders are now engaged in a scheme of agitation with this alteration in view, as their paramount and leading object.

The Star knows these things to be so; and yet that paper goes for this Convention, and takes this paper to task for opposing it. We have not charged that the Star was against the basis directly, but that the effect of the policy it advocates would be to throw the whole question open to discussion and agitation, and thus unsettle, and probably destroy, the present compromises of the State Constitution.

But the Star says it is opposed "especially" to any attempt to disturb the "Federal basis" of the Commons. That paper, as the advocate of this sectional movement, may well say that. The Western Counties already have a majority in the House of Commons, and with this they are content; but those who put forth the Address above alluded to, wish also to obtain the sway in the Senate, and in order to do this, they are now laboring to change and destroy the Senate basis. What does the Star say to that?

It is useless for the Star to attempt to disguise the fact that party, party is at the bottom of its course in this matter; but we are determined that that paper, and every other paper in the State which plays at such a game, shall be thoroughly exposed.