The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1862-05-13
Our Danger and our Duty.
BY REV. ]. II. THoRNwELL, D. d.,
Of CDIumLio. g G.

leys of the Rhine, about the close of the 18th
century, may be taken as specimen of the appal
ling desolation which is likely to overspread the
| Confederate States, if the Northern army should
succeed in its schemes of subjugation and Of
J .iunder. Europe thea outraged by atrocities
Inflicted by Christians upon Christians, more
| fierce and cruel than even Mahometans could
| have the heart to perpetrate. Private dwellings
RACED to the ground. fields laid waste, cities
burnt, churches demolished, and the fruits of in-
dustry wantonly and ruthlessly destroyed But
three days Of grace were allowed to the wretched
inhabitants to flee their country, and in short
time, the historian tells u.s. ssthe roads and fields
which then lay deep in snow, were backened by
innumerabe multitudes of men, women and
children flying from their homes Many died of
cold and hunger; but enough survived to fill the
streets of all the cities OF Europe with lean aud
and squalid beggars, who had once been thriving
farmers and shopkeepers." Aud what have we
to expect if our enemies prevail? Our homes too.
to be plaged, our cities sacked and demolished,
our property coniscaed, our true men hanged and
those who escape the gibbct, be driven as vasa
bonds and wanderers in foreign climes This
beautiful country is to pass out of our hands. The
boundaries which mark our Suites are in some
instances, to be cfaccd, and the States that re.
main to be converted into subject provinces,
governed by Northern rulers and by Northern
laws. Oar property is to be rhth!essly seized and
turned over to mercenary strangers, in order to
pay the enormous debt which oul subjugaton has
cost. Our wives and daughters are to become the
prey of brutal lust The slave, too, will slowly
pass away, the red man did before him, under
the protection of Northern philanthropy; and the
whole country, now like the garden of Eden in
beauty and fertility, will first be blackened aud
smoking desert, aud then the minister of Northern
cupidity and avarice. Our history will be worse
than that of Poland and Hungary There is not
u single redecmng feature in the picture OF ruin
which stares US in the face, if permit our
selves to be conquered. 1t is night of thick
darkness that will settle upon Even sympa-
thy the last seace of the afflicted will be denied
to US. The civilized WORLD will look coldly upon
U.S. or even jeer us with the taunt that We have
deservedy los: our freedom in seeking to
pepetuate the slavery of others. We shall perish
under cloud of reproach and of uni ust suspicious
sedulouSly propagated by our enemies, which will
be harder to bear than the loss Of home and of
goods Such fate never overlook any people
before.
The case is as desperate with our enemies as
with ourselves. They must succeed or perish
They must conquer rs or he destroyed themselves
If they fail, national bankruptcy stares them in
the face; divisions in their ranks inevita-
BILE, and their Government will fall to pieces un-
know that they are doomed people if they are
defeated. Hence their madness. They must
have property to save them from insolvency
They must show that the Union cannot be dis
solved to save them from future secessions. The
parties, therefore, in this conflict can make no
compromises. 1t is matter of life and death
with both-a struggle in which their all is in
volved.
But the consequences of success our part
will be very different from the consequences of
success on the part of the North. If they pre-
vail the whole character Of the Government will
he changed and instead Of federal republic, the
common agent of soverei gu and independent
States, we shall have a central despotism with
the notion of States forever abolished deriving its
powers from the will, and shaping its policy
cording to the wishes, Of a numerical majority of
the pcople; We shall have in other words, su-
preme, irresponsible democracy. The will Of the
North will stana for law. The Government docs
not now recognize itself as ordinance Of God
and when all the checks and talances of the Con-
stitution are gone, may easily fgnre to our
selves the career and the destiny Of this goddess
monster of democratic absolutism. The progress
of regulated liberty this continent will be
arrested. anarchy will succeed, and the end will
be military despotsm, which preserves order by
the sacrifice of the last ve>tige of liberty. We
are fully persuaded that the,triumph of the North
in the present confc: will be as disastrous TO the
hopes of mankind as to our own fortunes They
are now fighting the battle of despot>m. They
have put their Constitution under their feet; they
have annulled its most sacred provisions; and in
defiance of its solemn guarantees, they are now
engaged, in the halls Of Congress, in discussing
and maturing bills which make Northern notions
of necessity the paramount laws of the land
The avowcd end Of the present war is, to make
the Government government of force. 1t is TO
settle the principle, that whatever may be its cur
uptons and abuses; however unj ust and tyrannic-
al its legislation there is redress except in vain
petition empty remonstrance. 1t was as pro-
S: against this principle VII ch sweeps away the last
security for liberty, that Virginia North Carolina,
Tennct see and Missouri seeded. aud if the Gov
ernment should he reestablishcd, il must be re-cs
bi he'd with thi feature of remorselcss despotism
firmly aud indelibIy fixed The future fortunes
of our children aud of this continent, would then
be determined by tyranny which has no parallel
in history.
On the other hand, are struggling for con-
sttutional freedom Va aie upholding the great
which our fathers bequeathed US, and if
we should succeed and become, IS we shall, the
dominant nation of this continent, we shall per-
petuate and diffuse the very liberty for which
II ashington bled and which the heroes Of the Re-
voution achieved. We are not revoluti onists-
we are resisting revolution. We are uphold
ing the true doctrines of the Federal Con-
sritution. We are conservative. Our success is
the triumph of all that has been considered esab-