Newbern weekly progress., 1860-12-25
THURSDAY MORNING, DEC. 20, 1860.
South Carolina.

All eyes are now turned to this little Com
monwealth. All her sister slaveholding States,
any of whom are as sensitive of Southern hon.
maintain their rights, have implored her to de-
sist until they can hold Conventions and pre-
pare for a combined movement against the ag-
gressiye spirit of the North, but She or rather
some of her hot headed leaders, are immovable.
They have determined to go out and go out
they declare they will. Well, as we cencede
their right to go if they so desire, we do hope
they will be permitted to stay unmolested.-
Let the Government neither show them any
favor or demand any tribute from them, but
leave them undisturbed to manage their own
affairs in their own way as best they cam
They will soon find that they have received
more from the General Government, hereto
fore, than they have contributed to it. and that
it can get along better without them than they
can without it.
Meantime as South Carolina refuses counsel
from or to counsel with other Southern States,
let US march straight forward; let US hold our
Conventions, arm and prepare, and as soon as
the other Southern States can agree as to the
line of policy which should be pursued let a
last united appeal be made to the North for
Justice under the Constitutin, and upon their
refusal to grant all that we have reasonable
right to demand let Congress or Conference
of the Southern States be called-leaving out
South Carolina-by the first of March if posi-
BILE, to declare ourselves absolved from all al
legience to the Federal Government If the
Northern people will not give US earnest of
future good feeling and justice by repeating
their obnoxious laws, let united South say
to them =" You have elected your sectional
President whose whole policy is antagonistical
to our interests, and as you are determined to
carry out that policy to our injury we leave
you and your President to yourselves; much
as we love the old Union we will come out and
establish a Government for ourselves under
which our rights can be protected" Let such
a determined course be pursued by the South
and then leave the consequences to the God
of Justice and truth
But what spectacle do we now behold in
South Carolina? The Convention met at Co
lumbia on Monday; stagnant gloom seemed
TO nave SellleU on lIle lOWu Ledfy Ivy IcS-
ted over the place; loathsome disease was
raging with fearful violence; the population
was flying from the town in every direction for
safety and security the blanched cheeks Of
members of the Convention and Legislature
and visitors told but too plainly that panic
prevailed; and many of them feeling no doubt
that the finger of God was in the seeming un-
toward circumstances to rebuke them for the
act which they had met to consumate, they
fly to Charleston, where it is hoped excited
nerves may be quieted and the bewildered SEN
ses collected. What the Convention and the
Legislature may do at Charleston it is impos-
sibe to tell; they may be restrained by wise
counsels, or they may really plunge into the
great sea of experiment which they have
marked out for themselves. If they 60 out
alone, they certainly seal their own fate and
probably drug other Southern States down the
awful precipice with them; but if common
sense and decent regard for the wishes and
interests of their sister slaveholdng States
should predominant and prevent any precipi-
tate action, we have confidence yet that all will
be we'll: we will either get all that we de-
mand from the North and thus be able to pre-
serve the Union, or else go out in a body, thus
giving the movement 4 moral influence in the
eyes of the world which separate State action
would utterly destroy