Newbern weekly progress., 1860-12-25
THE UNION AND THE SOUTH.


to herself, and, in being true to herself, true
to the North, and true to the Country. To
thine own self be true-thou canst not then be
false to any man." says the great dramatist
and never, outside of the bible, were wiser
words ever uttered. If the Southern States
will now meet in convention, and place before
the North, as invited by recent resolutions IN
Northern city, what they require as essen
tial to the preservation of the present Govern
ment, we solemnly believe it viii be yielded.
We predict that every pledge will be made
and every guarantee given which mutual JUS
tice and harmony demand And this will be
done not from the want of either physical Or
moral courage, for the naa who imputes any
inferiority in either to the North is hopeless
idiot, but because the interests involved are
too immense to be sacrificed for the sake of an
empty abstraction. We mean no derogaton
to the North in saying that they are governed
by their interests where no principles demand
the surrender of their interests. Every people
are thus governed, and most individuals, and
none as much so as those who make the loud
est pretentions to generosity and selfsacrfice.
The North cannot afford to give up the Union,
and if the South convinces it that either the
slavery agitation must be eternally ended, or
the Union is gone, depend upon it, the prac-
tical, money making North will seize the anti
slavery fanaticism by the throat, and choke it
der to do that, it must be convinced that the
South is in earnest, which it never has been
fully vet, and never will be till we give up
party and local dissensions, and, with solid
front. demand that the national compact shall
be observed both in letter and spirit, Qor the
letter without the spirit is dead,) or else that,
having ceased to be binding upon the North,
it shall no longer be binding upon.the South
ern States.
mn o441 oft
subject is question in which every man has
vital interest; the non-slaveholder as much as
the Shareholder; the poor as much as the rich;
the Northern citizen much as the Southern.
Whatever other distractions may be connected
with slavery, there is one abstraction which is
real which the industrious and hard-working
men of the country are now sutferlng-an alb
straction of life; the rewards of industry;
of food and clothing for their wives and child
rem People talk about the horrors of war;
In Heavens name do you not take away
mans life when YOU take away the means
whereby he lives? What is there in half-a-
dozen battles compared to the agonies which
tens of thousands of men in this country now
suffer who go to bed at night not knowing
where they shall procure their mornings food
for their families, and who spend the day IN
prowling about the streets in search OF labor
any kind of honest labor-to keep the wolf OF
starvation out of their doors and save them
selves and those who are dearer to them than
life from the woes and curses Of helpless pow
ertv? What an awful spectacle, these fam
ished muititldes, with the pangs of hunger
knawing their bodies and the vulture of des-
PAIR devouring their hearts? Death on the
battlefield is Paradise compared to such pur-
gatorial pains. Yet this is the condition of
immense numbers, North and South; of men
who have had no influence in bringing about
the present state Of things; of the innocent
dupes and victims of those mlscreant pohtl-
clans and demagogueS, who, to secure Their
own personal or party purposes, ready to
involve their feilow-men in any kind or amount
of misery And this is a condition which oc-
ours not at remote intervals, but over and over
again, and which may happen year hence,
and happen every year, until men have no
more security confidence or peace than the
people who live on the borders Of Nesuvius.- -
We believe that the time has come when the
American People will insist that the great OBJ
ect of all Government the security oflite, pror-
erty. order must be had at all hazards; if not
bv peace, then by war if not in the Union,
then out of it; if not under Republic, then
under King ;-.Stabi1ity, Peace, Property
these must be ensured These we may have,
in our poor judgment, under our present con-
federated Government, not, however, by the
application of temporary emollients, but by
bold, thorough and compact demonstration OF
the whole South, demanding that now and for
ever the slavery question shall be put beyond
the reach of further agitation, and placed IN
such position that neither the fanatics nor
demagogues of either section shall be able
again to make it hobby for their absurd
and selfish scenes. Let the Southern States,
then meet in Convention, and lay broad and
deep the foundations of a real and enduring
Union. We feel convinced that the Conserva-
tism and Patriotism of the North Will meet
the South halfway; that the Property OF the
North will Join hands with the Property of the
the South; aye, that the Labor of the North
will rise in its power and demand that its own
rights. which are involved in the quieting OF
this eternal turmoil shall be respected, and find,
in guarantees to the South, the best and surest
guarantees of its own interest.
If however, in all this we are mistaken; II
the lust and reasonable demands of the South
| ern States shall be refused then we shall have
at least the advantage of disclosing to a GER
tainty the opinions and purposes OF the North
ern people, and of governing our own course
ACCORDINGLY. If we cannot live together in
peace and Justice; if we are to go on forever
| chafing and fretting like unequally yoked oxen
we had better separate. We do not believe
| that separation is necessary; we are sure thai
| a powerful minority in the North is already to
back up the South in peace or war, II 1t vii
| only Danish discord from its own ranks ana de
| fine it's position. But as we have before SAID
better dissolution, better war, than perpetu
alton of the present state of chronic discomfort
uncertainty, and of enormous suffering amons
the great masses of the people. Out of the
chaos some new system may arise and If does
let us devoutly hope that, warned by the les
sons of the past, it will avoid alike the concen
tration of great power in Executive hands, ant
the universal voting Of everybody for every
thing, which has proved one of the creates
curses of the Republc.-Rich. Dispatch
FROM SOUTH CAROLINA.
COLUMBIA Dec 16.-Considerable gloon
appears to prevail here amongst all classes a
the prevalence of the smallpox, which de
tains hundreds from coming to the city. Th
lower house of the legislature yesterday by
small majority, voted in favor of adjournin1
to Charleston. The Senate may concur OIL
Monday. But few delegates to the Convention Id:3
have vet arrived. Messrs. Cobb and Mile
are here, also Hooper, Commissioner from Mis-
sissippi, and Gilmore, from Alabama The be Il;
ginning and end of all conversation is, that Sout
n