Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-09-20
Our Duty.

duct which we consider appropriate, i
not imperative for our people to pursue il
the troublous times in which we live. Ii
order that those of our readers who know
us only in connection with the Journal, MAY
thoroughly understand our position, We
deem it proper to state that at and befort
the beginning of the war, we honestly be
ieyed that North Carolina had a constitu
tional as well as natural, legal as well al
political right, to dissolve her connection
with the United States of America, when
ever and for whatever cause she desired sc
to do. This opinion was the result of edu
cation, strengthened and confirmed by suct
thought and study as we were capable O
bestowing upon the question. We honestl,
believed that the honor and the interest O.
the Southern States, our own among them
imperatively demanded that we should re
sist to the utmost of our ability, even tc
ssthe last man and the last dollar" the en-
croachments of the Abolitionists of the
North, which eliminated in the election o.
Abraham Lincoln. We thought the only
possible mode of accomplishing the desired
object was by the secession of the Southern
States and the formation of a Southern
Goyernment-in word we were Confed-
crate of Z" the most straitest sect.
Believing thus, we entered the army and
remained in the field until the surrender OF
General Lee. For this course we have
neither apology nor regret. The opinions
that induced it, we still think were well
founded in reason and justice. Had we
acted otherwise, we would feel that we had
proved recreant to the highest and most
solemn obligations that can be laid upon
man.
But the Confederacy was destroyed with
the surrender of our armies, and we were
placed in the power of the very people
from whom we were so anxious to be sepa-
rated. We are still in the power of that
people, and it behooves us to consider well
what patriotism and duty demand of us in
our changed condition and relations.
To love the men who have inflicted so
much injury upon us, is simply impossible.
istence of such love is to make statement
that bears palpable lie upon its face, and
one which none but an idiot will believe.
To fawn upon Northern men; to make pro-
fesssions of regard for them; to declare
that we have forgotten and forgiven the
deaths of our comrades in arms, or the des-
truction of our property, is to pursue a
course as much wanting in policy as it is in
self-respect. The Northern people are not
fools, and understand the workings of hui
man nature too well to be deceived by such
transparent artifce, even if the exaggera-
ted idea they generally entertain of the
violence and passionate nature of the
Southern character would not of itself be
sufficient to prevent it. It is folly then, if
nothing more despicable to pursue such a
course.
The other extreme, we regard us equal
in folly though in many who have follow
ed it, it is the result of a feeling from which
we cannot withhold our warmest admira-
ton, while at the same time we are COM
PEELED to deprecate its too exuberant express
sion. There are some spirits, so frank, en-
thusiastic, open hearted, excitable and so
honest that they cannot bear the trammels,
that even O. moderate degree of prudence
would impose.
But every man whose expressions are ex-
travagantly Southern, SO to speak, does not
belong to this class Indeed, we find, per-
haps, more violence of speech coming from
individuals who gave the Confederacy
doubtful support. The man who staid at
home and held aloof from the support of
President Davis administration during the
war, and now significantly whispers in our
ear, that "many men would go into the
war now that kept out of it before" we re-
gard as liar and braggart. There is a
time for all things. There was time meet
for resistance, one so peculiarly appropriate
for fighting that every man in the country,
capable Of bearing arms, must have seen it.
That time has now passed. Whether we
like it or not, it is now the time to cultivate
the arts of peace. We must "learn to do
our duty in that station of life in which it
has pleased GOO to place u.s." In time of
war we must fight; in time of peace we
must do those things which pertain to
peace. Resistance, whether organized into
the shape and proportions of war, or in in.
dividual action, is utterly out of the ques-
ton. We are not now our own masters
The fortune of war has irrevocably fixed
our destiny with that of the United States.
Whether we will or not, we are American
citizens. By force of arms, if not by force
of law, we are part and parcel of the terri
tory of the United States. These are stub
born facts, but they are facts none the less
because of their stubbornness and unpleas-
antness. It is our duty to recognise them
as such. While David's child was yet alive,
he strove with the Lord in prayer, in sack
cloth and ashes but after the child was
dead, he washed his face and did eat. As
in the past it was our duty to do everything
to insure success to our arms SO it is now
our duty to bear up bravely in defeat
Tt is nowhere said, however, that David
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