Western Sentinel

A number of our exchanges are noticing the report, which recently emanated from Washington to the effect that it is the intention of the Federal Government to garrison the forts in North Carolina, and to reinforce the arsenal at Fayetteville. This statement was at first denied, but has since been reiterated with stronger emphasis. As yet we have heard of no military movement towards our borders, nor are we cognizant of any official announcement that such a step is contemplated by the administration. The latter, however, was not to have been expected. It is the ambition of the Lincoln government, under the guidance of William H. Seward, to assimilate itself as much as possible to the despotic dynasties of the old continent--secret, cold-blooded and crafty. Instead of following in the bold and honest footsteps of its predecessors--instead of proclaiming distinct and unmistakable policy to the country, and moving forward at once to engraft that policy upon the internal and external workings of our national affairs, conscious of its rectitude and feeling firm in the right, it clothes its views in 'glittering generalities,' treats the expectant public to a dish full of emptiness, and then, like the crowded assassins of modern times, it strikes its blows in the gloomy secrecy of the cabinet chamber, and seeks to strangle sovereign States before they are aware that the slimy coils of abolitionism are being wrapped around their doomed necks.

Many of our citizens have been waiting for an 'overt act' on part of the administration. Repeated threats and insults have not moved them, and they prefer to be kicked before they expostulate or resist. Will they recognize the pouring of Federal troops into North Carolina, and the reinforcement of our forts and arsenals as an 'overt act?' Will they procrastinate until the guns of those troops are turned against their own bosoms before they lift up their voices against the outrage? Our State has assumed no revolutionary attitude; our people have not resumed their rightful authority; they still pursue the arts of peace, still acknowledge the supremacy of the Federal laws, and are even now preparing to elect gentlemen to represent them in Congress during the ensuing term.

We have not forgotten that particular count in the indictment drawn up by our revolutionary fathers against King George, which says, 'he kept among us in times of peace standing armies.' If such a grievance called for resistance in 1775, is it not equally a cause for resistance in 1861? Have we so far degenerated in eighty-six years as to submit to that which our grandsires gave their hearts' blood to drive from them? We cannot believe it. Caesar usurped the authority of Rome when she was in the plenitude of her power, and she fell from a republic to an empire, but centuries elapsed before her pride was sunk in her abasement. North Carolina has remained passive under the rule of a hostile administration but one brief month--has her pride been crushed forever in so short a time? Not so? Then let our people resolve unitedly that they will brook the presence of no federal troops within our borders. Our strongholds are few in number and the hearts and hands of North Carolina freemen can defend and protect them better than a host of abolition hirelings.