The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1865-02-21
above mentioned proclamation, will be rigidly ad

hered to. ST. 49, ez.-
Now then, we can sum up, in some sort, the
consequences of our Submission -Four million
slaves. two hundred thousand of whom have been
in arms against US, turned loose at once in our
midst, our lands confscated, and sold out to pay
the cost of our subjugation, or parceled among
negro soldiers as the reward of the slaughter of
their masters; our women, children and old men
reduced to beggary and driven from their once
happy homes; our mutilated and diseased soldiers,
starving in rags from door TO door, spurned by
even pensoned Begro soldiers, whilst the gallows
grows weary under the burden of our wlsest states
men and bravest defenders; to say nothing of uni
versal financial ruin, and the intoerable oppression
of a rapacous and vindctve foe, in the hour Of
conquest! Great God! is there man in all this
honorable, hghspirited and noble commonwealth,
so stepped in every conceivable meanness SO
ened with all the guilt of treason, or so damned
with all the eprosy of cowardice as to say, yes we
will submit to all this and whilst there yet remains
half million men amongst US able to resist! And
who says the enemy will give US anything better!
Not Mr. Lincoln; and do the weak and the vacilla-
ting among us know better than he does, what ne
will do for US?
Having made, therefore, fair and honest effort
to obtain peace by negotiation, and knowing now
precisely, from the lips of the President of the
United States what we are to expect, what are we
to do next? There is only one thing left for us to
do. We must fight, my countrymen, to the last
extremity, or submit voluntarily to our own degra-
dation. Let no man mistake the issue now. The
line of distinction will be drawn plainly between
those who are for their country, and those who are
against their country. There is no half way house
upon the road. The purifying fire is even now
burning throughout the land, and its consuming
flames must separate the dross from the true metal
Degradation, ruin and dishonor on the one hand,
liberty, independence and honor, if our souls be
strong, on the other Is it not worth another
honest and manly effort? Aye, another, and
another, and another, and thousand efforts, OF
our whole people. AS North Caronlans, descen-
dants of revolutionary heroes, and fathers and
brothers of the nobest dead and living soldiers
that ever drew blade for human freedom, we
cannot tolerate the thought of such base and infa-
nous submission.
Should we wilfully throw down an organized
Government disbanG our still powerful armies,
and invite all these fearful consequences upon our
country, We would live to have our children curse
our grey hair for fastening our dishoDor upon them
I trust and believe that there will be little diff
ference Of opinion in North Carolina to the pro-
priety of continued resistance. The great argu-
ment " hich will be brought forward to shake your
honor and intended to incte you to despair will be
that successful resistance is no longer possible
Some will tell you that we are already subdued;
men are all slain; resources all exhausted and
We might as well submit now. This, my country
men, is false, and as frequently proceeds from
craven Or traitorous, as from honest but mis-
taken spirit. Great as our ca]amltIes have been,
straitened are for all supplies both of men
and material, I tell you in all candor, that when
survey condition by the light of human history
| see no danger which threatens to be fatal to
cause except this depression of spirit among the
~. FL -
dissension. So long as we remain one and DETER
mined, it is rot in the power Of our enemies to
subdue u.s.. "But except these abide in the ship
ye cannot be saved" All tnngs may be supplied
if We were but possessed of that bold and manly
spirit OF resistance to tyranny of which liberty and
independence are born. That alone can fill the
widows barrel and still the orphans cry; cast
cannons and build ships of war; raise mp armed
men from the dust of the dragons teeth; wrest
tangible realities from the very jaws Of impossi-
biity. Without it, numbers but add to the igno-
miny of certain defeat, even the Persian millions
were whipped and shamed by the three hundred
in the mountain pass. Are ell slain?
Over four hundred thousand names yet stand upon
the muster rolls of the Confederacy to say nothing
Of the many thousands who shirk. Where are
they? Thousands upon thousands absent without
leave, are lurking in the woods and swamps of the
South. Are our provisions all gone? Hundreds
VI tHouoduus Vi UuSHeIS Oh gram now FOt dI Tue
various depos of tie South for want Of transport
taton; aud this transportation cannot be protected
because these absent soldiers not the post of
duty. Oh! my countrymen! if you would but rise
to eptreat, to shame, to drive them back to their
country's standard. Has our territory been over
run? 1t has, but how much of it has been held?
The enemy marched triumphantly through the
heart of our sister Georgia, and is she conquered?
Except for the garrison at Savannah, and the ashes
of desolation on their track through the interior,
Georgia has neither enemy nor the sign Of enemy
on her soil. So of most portions of the South
which space does not permit me to enumerate-
For four years, their countless legons have gnawed
at the vitals of Virgin yet to-day they claim not
even all of her territory which is swept by the
cannon. The cities they garrison, the land their
armies actually stand upon, and the waters ridden
by their fleets all that they really hold, or ever
can hold except by our ignoble consent.
Let the balance of our cities go; Mobile, Charles
ton, Wilmington Richmond, ALL and if We are de-
termined to be free subjugatiou quite as dis
tant as ever For thank God, the Confederacy
does not consist in brick and mortar, particular
spots of ground, however valuable they may be 10
a military point of view Our nationality consists
in oar people. Liberty dwells in the heart of her
votares, and the ragged, barefooted soldier, stand
ing in the depths of the forest, in the shadow
of the mountain, offer her sacrifices, which will
be as sweet aud as acceptable those profered in
gorgeous temples in the midst of magnificent cities.
So if our country and its cause, like to the king
deed, am persuaded that neither pr;ncipalities
Al AZ