Newbern weekly progress., 1862-09-20


is to give the loyal men Of Eastern
North Carolina voice and hearing
in the councils of The nation can hard
y be overestimated. Under the cir
cumstances-in view of the fact that
two thirds Of the territory Of the Com
monwealth is still subject to rebel rule
-:he bestowal Of this authority upon
Gov. Stanly is a great and generous
concession. 1t should touch the chord
of gratitu le in all North Carolina
hearts. 1t is but another proof Of the
kind consideration, in which the peo-
pie Of this State, crushed under the
atrocious dcspotisln Of jeff. Davis, and
dcluded as many Of them still are, con-
tinue to be held by the administra-
ton. And the warm approval of the
step expressed by nearly the entire
northern press is but one of thousand
testimonials of the deep and general
sympathy felt for North Carolina in
the free states.
This Presidential invitation to the
loyal men OF the First and Second
Districts, of this State, to come forward
as freemen, and again exercise the sa-
cred franchise Of the ballot, inestima-
bly, valuable to all Amhrican citizens,
testiies, in the most unnistak cable
and explicit manner, that the warnow
waged by the armies of the Republic
for the reassertion of its sovereign au-
thority, is not one Of subjugation and
destruction, but of deliverance and re-
storat.on. The glorious stars and
stripes are still the banner of freedom
and equality, and just SO soon as that
flag appears, and is solidly replanted
upon the soil of any rcvolted State, it
is the pledge Of immediate re-admis,
sion, to all who rally around it,and re.
new their allegiance to the bcnefccnt
nationality of which it is the emblem,
to all their rights in the Union as it
was, and under the Constitution as
it is.
The right of representation in the
Legislative assemblies of the Common
wealth, is the great and peculiar foa.
tire Of Republican government. Our
foretathers in the revolution, fought
against Great Britain, mainly because
they were denied this privilege
They claimed the right to be reprcsen-
ted in the British Parliment. If this
had been granted they would not have
revolted against tho mother country.
In this respect they differed widely
from the rebels of the South, to whom
this right was never at any time re-
fused, but who, to crafty their inQr-
dinate lust for more power than they
were constitutionally entitled to, de-
frauded and betrayed the people, by
Withdrawing their representatives in
Congress, and refusing to participate in
the government.
The President of the United States,
by restoring to the Southern people,
SO soon as their Congressional districts
are recovered to the dc .facto jurisdic-
ton of the Republic, this vital and in
estimable interest of freemen-repre,
sentation in the National Councils
declares, plainly anl with peculiar
emphasis, the true policy of the war.
He therein shows that he comes "not
to destroy but to fulfil )" that he wishes
to repair the damage already done to
popular liberty in the seeded states
by the wanton acts Of the "destruc
tives" and "precipitators." He de-
monstrates thathe and his Cabinet art
the real friends of the South-not the
fire eaters whose rash counsels have
brought upon us 50 much misery ane
ruin. He shows that the mission o
his mighty and invinciole armies is no
to overwhelm and "wipe out" the
South, but to restore to her people th'
franchises out of which the conspira
= tors against the Union have tried tt
cheat them.
While armed rebellion is to be pu
down, and seditious plotting to be re
: pressed-while traitors are to be pun
ished and treason hereafter made i'm
possible-while force is to make subjec
to the laws, those whom persuasion ant
, argument will not reclaim-the loya
: masses are, nevertheless, to have al
t their rights, and their privileges are t.
= be enlarged rather than restricted.
,