Newbern weekly progress., 1862-10-25
UNION siEETlNG IN REAUroRr

A l.rge and enthusiastic meetins
was held at Beaufort, in the Cour
House yesterday, which was addressed
by o. III. Foster, Esq, and Others. Tn
the course of the meeting the company
Of N. G. Union Volunteers, recently
raised in Beaufort, entered the hall ii
a body under arms. Other Unior
soldiers were also present. @
In opening, Mr.. Foster impressiyely
alluded to the spectacle Of armed sol
diers in a deliberat.ve meeting, thus re.
minding us that the industries Of peace
have been exchanged for the arts Of
war. After referring graphically to
the plenty and prosperity enjoyed by
the American people, North and South,
for the last half century, he proceeded
to place the responsibility for he pres
ence of war, with its stern alarms and
disquietudes, where it properly be.
longs. He showed the utter absence
Of cause for the pendingrevolt against
the Government, and demonstrated
that it was o rebellion against civiliza.
ton, humanity and free government
itself. 1t was an endeavr 10 substi-
tute for the liberal institutions estab-
lished by our forefathers, despotism
which should crush completely the
rights and liberties of the great masses
of the Southern people, and which
aimed not only at the destruction of
the national government, but at the
subversion Of popular freedom every
where.
Thegauntlet ofdefance thus thrown
down by the rebels was accepted by
the government, and the war has been
heretofore conducted for the simple
purpose Of restoring its authority upon
the basis of the Union as it was. But
Providence, in its omniscient wisdom,
had decreed revolution. This revo,
luton was now in progress, and the
issues which were clearly evident we
could neither avert nor change. 1t
was to be the source, through the
blind agency of the rebels themselves,
Of incalculable blessings to the South
and to the world. Free labor, with
its incidents, free thought, and free
discussion upon all matters Of State
reform and renovation, was hereafter
to be dominant. The non-slayehvld-
ing masses were inevitabiyto be lib
Grated, and to be hentefofth a power
in the commonwealth. immigration
would set in, surely and steadily, from
The North and Europe, and the vast
area Of North Carolina, now populated
by but little over half million OF
whites, would become the home Of
millions of freemen.
Neither the President, the Federal
Congress, ncr the people ofthc North,
had precipitated or sought this result,
which all, however, can flow plainly
sec. Slavery had been scrupulously
guarded during tile entire progress OF
the war, as the speaker proved by CO.
pious extracts from Congressional res
olutions, the utterances Of the Presi
dent, and the procla,nations of Gen.
erals. But the Almighty, wiser than
Congress, Cabinets, and Generals, had
foreordained q new ofdSr of things for
the future of the South.
Wendell Phillips, Garrison, and
Sumner had never'f freed single slave.
Jefferson Davis, the arch Abolitionist
of America, had emancipated four mil
lions of negroes. Mr.. Foster then
proved by his own record in the jour
nals Of the State, that he, himself, had
opposed secession upon pro-slavery
grounds, as a measure which would
unavoidably destroy the system. He
declared that he had never sought to
injure tie institution, or impair its per-
manency. Emancipation, however,
was a fact, soon to be realized, and the
question was how to accommodate our
selves to the new exisenct: No one
expected that any seeded State would
accept the alternative of the Presi.
dents proclamation.
Mr.. Foster then proceeded, boldly
and eloquently, to defend the procla-
nation of the National Executive,
showingthe Presidents long forbear-
ance, n'the face of an immense pres
sure at the North, and of the basest
ingratitude from the South: Could
any one believe that Jefferson Davis
would have hesitated single moment