Newbern weekly progress. [volume] (Newbern, N.C.) 1858-1863, 1861-04-02

THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH IS 1861
The Question is not Union or Seces-
sion, but North or South.

! The question now before the people of Nortl
Carolina and the other border slave States is
not Union Disunion, for every candid man
admits that the Union of our fathers is broker
| ap, disrupted, overthrown The question
| then is not whether We are for Union or Dis
union-that has been decided-atid notwith
standing all the love for a Constitutional Union
| which has ever characterized cur people, il
has been decided against and without US Se7
! en- States OF the old Union possessing the bulk
of the wealth OF tie Southern States have left
| the Union and established a Government OF
their own but because they have thought
proper to do this We do not urge it as a reason
why this State should follow them not by any
means; we desire however that the people OF
North Carolina should calmly and maturely
examine the advantages offered them ana their
property by th two Governments. Examine
the Constitution, the laws. the practices and
the rulers Of the two and the protection offered
you and yours under each, and then say under
which you will live.
With the seven seeded States gone there
can be no doubt but the old Government is
thoroughly abolitionized for all time, and that
if we consent to live under it we must submit
to Black Republican Rule now, and finally the
abolition ofsfavery and negro equality Every
act of Lincoln since he ascended the portico of
the Capital at Washington to deliver his i'll
augural to the present time, his inaUgural, his
appointments and all, 90 to prove most con
clusiyely that he means to administer the Gov
tta
Chicago platform and expounded by Greeley,
Beecher, Phillips and others of that radical
school 1t is clear that if we remain under
him and his Republican successors that we
must consent to remain as degraded interiors,
and not equals. We appeal then, these
things being So to the people of the border
slave States to ponder this matter, and act as
becomes treemen and patriots.
We have been accused of late, Of being q Sc
cessionist, and tauntingly told that we were
for Union last summer. Yes, we were tol
Union last summer, because then we had 4
Union, and well do we remember that some OF
those who taunt us now for our Union senti-
mentS then, were then among the precipita-
tors who were engaged in the Unholy work
Of precipitating the country into the troubles
which now environ it. We were for Union
then because there was one and would be for
Union now provided there was one; and as to
being a secessionist we are no more one now
than we were during the Presidential ca155ass,
W accept things we find them, We look
upon the secession OF seven States, not as all
imag mary something which means nothing,
but as living, tangible reality-as something
which we must meet and contend with-as one
Of the great movements of the nineteenth cen
tury and we look on the Government of the
Confederate States of America as an actual cX-
listing Government, established by people not
only competent to the task but who had the
right, which they exercised, to establish for
themselves a Government. And too, on ac-
count of the existence of slavery in the South
and its non-eXisence in the North we realize
that there must be certain degree ofantagon-
ism between the Montgomery Government and
the Washington City Government and believ-
ing from the insolence and depravity of those
who now have possession of the I. 5. Govern
ment that conflict of arms is extremely pro
bable we choose to be understood, now, in adj
vance, as being on the side of the South and
not against her-for we must believe that all
who arc not for the South are against the
South in this struggle If this be secession
call us secessonst and make the most Of it.
We would rather serve as a private in the
army of the Confederate States for the remain
der of our days, fighting for and defending the
rights and honor of our section, than sit among
the peers of an abolitonzed Government
where our friends and kindred scattered
throughout the South are looked on as interiors
and denounced as uncivized and brutal be
cause they happen to own or recognize the
right of others to own property in slaves. If
this be secession then we are a secessionst,
and we trust that those who rejoice at the fact
will find much comfort and consolation therein