madness, it met with a firm
opposition from the old Whig party, which still had here a vital
existence. Every exertion was made throughout the State to repel the
insidious influences of the demagogues of South-Carolina and Virginia,
and but for the Jesuitical management of the politicians at Richmond,
the 'Old North' would have remained loyal. But all the efforts of the
true Union men could not avail in warding off the storm that swept over
the South; and the Convention at Raleigh passed, or rather was forced to
assent to, the Act of Secession, on the twentieth of May, 1861. In
August the fortifications below Newbern were commenced, and continued
for some months, and well garrisoned, till they were supposed capable
of defending the town against any force that might be brought against
it. General Burnside, however, attacked them on the fourteenth of March,
1862, and after a sharp battle the rebels fled, and he occupied the old
place as a military conquest. All the wealthy and prominent citizens
fled, and have not returned.

The present condition of things will not long continue; a more permanent
government, either civil or military, will soon be established, and with
it must come a new era which will settle for all time the destiny of
Newbern.

Should the leading men of the town and all Eastern North-Carolina make
an effort and throw off the incubus that slavery has for a century
placed over it, a bright career of prosperity would open before them. A
new emigration, bringing energy and industry, would restore their
worn-out lands, drain their swamps, educate their youth, and make
Newbern echo with the hum of manufactures and commerce. The enterprise
of such a people would soon open a channel from the Neuse to Beaufort
harbor, and so avoid the shoals and dangers of Ocracoke and Hatteras,
and with the present railroads, make it the port of exchange for a wide
extent of country. The times are propitious; already the true men of the
State--and their name is legion--are anxiously awaiting the fall of
Richmond, when they will decide for the old flag and the Union, never
again to repudiate it.

* * * * *

OUR BRAVE TIMES.

I wonder if we, as a people, have any conception of the grandeur and
glory of the Times in which we are living; if we at all appreciate the
importance of the history which is being lived all around us; if we feel
the colossal magnitude of the every-day events whi