Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.
from Raleigh, N. C.
Raleigh, N. C., June 21.
Since seeing you, a month or two ago, I have been spending a large portion of my time in the ‘"City of Oaks,"’ and an interesting time we have had of it. The Convention, as you are aware, has now been in session just one month, and have agreed to adjourn on next Wednesday.
A larger amount of business, considering its momentous character, has never before been transacted in the same space of time by any deliberative body.--A Convention composed of such men as Ruffin and Badger, Graham and Biggs, Brown and Satterthwaite, Reid and Gilmer, and Ashe and Gerrell, Osborn and Dick, Craig and Kittrell, Melane and Howard, Houston and Jones, Mares and Venable, and the President of the body, with scores of others but little less intellectual, could not be expected to permit any question of magnitude to be disposed of until it had been thoroughly discussed; and this has been done with an ability that I have never known excelled.
This will account, and more than compensate, for any apparent delay in the dispatch of business.
Hasty legislation, even in ordinary times, is not unfrequently most expensive and injurious.
That the measures adopted by this body may prove to be wise and salutary, is the earnest wish of every patriot.
In looking over this august assemblage, and inquiring after the history of each of its members, one is forced to conclude that the poet was not at fault when he said--
"Honor and fame from no condition rise,
Act well your part, there all the honorables."
Here you see ex-Governors and ex-Senators, judges and ex-judges, farmers, lawyers, doctors, mechanics and merchants, who have, by dint of study and perseverance, and by an upright course of conduct, built for themselves an enviable reputation.
A short biographical sketch, I learn, of all the members of the Convention, together with that of the present State officers, will soon be published, with a lithograph of the Ordinance of Secession, and a fae simile of the signatures of each of the signers.
Speaking of State officers reminds me of the Public Treasurer, of whom I have seen and heard a good deal since my sojourn here.--From ‘"early morn to dewy eve"’ he is found in his office, discharging its arduous duties with a fidelity and ability probably unequalled, certainly never excelled, by any of his predecessors.
I but repeat the sentiment of a distinguished political opponent made in relation to this officer, when he had so successfully weathered the financial storm which passed over the country in the year 1857, in saying that I regard it as most fortunate for the Old North State that she has, at a crisis like the present, such a man at the head of her financial affairs as Daniel W. Courts.
The news of our brilliant victory at Bethel Church was received here with demonstrations of great joy. Our brave soldiers are now eagre to meet the enemies of their country, and I have no doubt, at every trial of arms where the chances are equal, a victory even more signal than that at Bethel awaits us. More anon.
Junius. 