The question now before the people of North Carolina and the other border slave States is not Union or Disunion, for every candid man admits that the Union of our fathers is broken up, disrupted, overthrown. The question then is not whether we are for Union or Disunion that has been decided and notwithstanding all the love for a Constitutional Union which has ever characterized our people, it has been decided against and without us. Seven States of the old Union possessing the bulk of the wealth of the Southern States have left the Union and established a Government of their own; but because they have thought proper to do this we do not urge it as a reason why this State should follow them, not by any means; we desire however that the people of North Carolina should calmly and maturely examine the advantages offered them an their property by the two Governments. Examine the Constitution, the laws, the practices and the rulers of the two and the protection offered you and yours under each, and then say under which you will live.
With the seven seceded States gone there can be no doubt but the old Government is thoroughly abolitionized for all time, and that if we consent to live under it we must submit to Black Republican Rule now, and finally the abolition of slavery and negro equality. Every act of Lincoln since he ascended the portico of the Capital at Washington to deliver his inaugural to the present time, his inaugural, his appointments and all, go to prove most conclusively that he means to administer the Government upon the principles enunciated in the Chicago platform and as expounded by Greeley, Beecher, Phillips and others of that radical school. It is clear that if we remain under him and his Republican successors that we must consent to remain as degraded inferiors, and not as equals. We appeal then, these things being so, to the people of the border slave States to ponder this matter, and act as becomes freemen and patriots.
We have been accused, of late, of being a secessionist, and tauntingly told that we were for Union last summer. Yes, we were for Union last summer, because then we had a Union, and well do we remember that some of those who taunt us now for our Union sentiments then, were then among the precipitators who were engaged in the unholy work of precipitating the country into the troubles which now environ it. We were for Union then because there was one, and would be for Union now provided there was one; and as to being a secessionist we are no more one now than we were during the Presidential canvass. We accept things as we find them. We look upon the secession of seven States, not as an imaginary something which means nothing, but as a living, tangible reality as something which we must meet and contend with as one of the great movements of the nineteenth century; and we look on the Government of the Confederate States of America as an actual existing Government, established by people not only competent to the task but who had the right, which they exercised, to establish for themselves a Government. And too, on account of the existence of slavery in the South and its non-existence in the North we realize that there must be a certain degree of antagonism between the Montgomery Government and the Washington City Government, and believing from the insolence and depravity of those who now have possession of the U. S. Government that a conflict of arms is extremely probable we choose to be understood, now, in advance, as being on the side of the South and not against her for we must believe that all who are not for the South are against the South in this struggle. If this be secession call us a secessionist, and make the most of it. We would rather serve as a private in the army of the Confederate States for the remainder of our days, fighting for and defending the rights and honor of our section, than sit among the peers of an abolitionized Government where our friends and kindred scattered throughout, the South are looked on as inferiors and denounced as uncivilized and brutal because they happen to own or recognize the right of others to own property in slaves. If this be secession then we are a Secessionist, and we trust that those who rejoice at the fact will find much comfort and consolation therein.
Newbern Weekly Progress, Newbern, NC
Background: North Carolina and Secession
In April 1861, North Carolina had not joined the seceded southern states. A vote on secession in February was won by the Unionists, and public opinion at this point was largely in favor of not being involved in a war. However, with Lincolns proclamation requesting troops to put down the rebellion, the state felt it was forced to choose a side, finally seceding in May, after Virginia voted to leave the Union. Despite joining the Confederate States, enthusiasm for the war remained low in many parts of the state, especially with pro-Union areas in the western Appalachian region.