The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1862-01-07
". y. EDWARDS,
Pres. of Convention.
WHAT ARE THEY FIGHTING FoRp

The New Orleans Bee answers its own question,
what are the Yankees fighting for, by saying, we
take it that the stale and wretched pretext of pre-
serving the Union is well nigh abandoned. The
only journals which yet seem to cling it as an
apology for their baseness are the Lincoln sheets
in Kentucky and Missouri They, no doubt, in
common with all others who use their senses and
inteects, aware that the Union, it was, has
ceased to be possibility and that any Union
involving the idea of equality Of rights in the
South is completely oot of the question as if it
never existed. The North has given up the idea
Of fighting for the Union. For what then is
Yankeedom fghting?
There are but two possible replies to this inter
rc"atorY. First for vengeance second for 1apne
Let us explain: The North will never forgive the
South for seeding and thus destroying that i'm
mense and lucrative trade by which New York,
Boston and Philadelphia have been enriched
Let the terminate as it may, those cities have
seen the acme of their prosperity, and must
hencefurth decline remain stationary. This
calamity will result from the inGepc ndencc
Of the Southern Confederacy, and fiom our deter
mination to preserve few commercial relations
as possible with enemies. The latter arc
furious and swear in their wrath that if they must
suffer, We in the South shall be ruined with them.
This is the mode in which the vengeance motive
operates
But the war is frightfully expensive and let it
cease when it will, the Federal Government be-
comes burdened with debt of which the interest
alone must be annually met by heavy taxation
The people, weared and exhausted with sacrifices,
will be in no condition at the end of protracted
contest to submit to new and onerous contribu-
tons Somebody must pay the piper, and who
fit the power which, according to Federal
authority, provoked the war? The South has
four millions of slaves countless Of fertile
territory, and produces annually cotton to the
value Of two hundred millions, and sugar and
tobacco to more than half that sum. The North
has only to subugate the South, and confscate all
this, together with houses and lands, and bank
stock, and money, and cattle, and behold the ex-
penses Of the war are paid. This is the mode
in which the rapine motive operates.
Thus We sec that the Yankees care nothing
about the Union. 1t has even ceased to be
catchword. They make war on us because they
insticated by hatred and neutrality-suspicious.,
in Perfect keeping with their character, and
worthy of their reputation. These bciEg the i'm;
polling motives and objects of the war, if there
were no other reason why the Southern people
should resist to the last, they are of themselves
enough. Could they conquer us they would at
once glut their revenge and crafty their greed by
wholesale plunder. Under the pretext of in
Identifying themselves for the cost Of the war,
they would pauperize the whole South, aud lord it
over her people with insolent domination. Who
can picture the shame and degradation, deeper
and darker than that which the dying Faliero
predicted for Venice, to which our people would
be subjected. were it possible for the vulgar and
vindictive race of the North to obtain the mastery
over them. Happily, feel occasion to con-
template the horrid idea possibility. Unless
we greatly mistake the true Southern character,
there would be few left to figure in such scene.