Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-06-28

The Germans.
The action of the German citizens ofth
United States, in the present crisis, ha
WOn for them noble reputation. In bot
the loyal and the disloyal States they hav
stood likegOOd aud true men to their oaths
So universal has been the devotion ofthei
patriotism that the old former Know.No
thing papers have come out declaring ii
sack cloth and ashes that they regret tbeil
error in ever supposing that the German,
could be otherwise than loyal to the. flag
of their country. The Buffalo Egpr,s,
says that their movement is subIimely
grand, and is in itselfn proof as strong as
Holy Writ of the wisdom which made our
shores refuge FORTH oppressed of ell ma
tions. This is true, but there is something
still more sublime, AMI involving more Of
the deepest problems of Republican gov
eminent in the momentous fact thata state
has been saved to the Union by the action
OF the Germans of Missouri. When the
Governor and Legislature and officials were
fAlse to the flag; when the wealth and ar
istocracy turned from that protection
which built them up to greatness there
rose up between them and the government
nm inyincible phalauH of men not natives
TO tho soil, and speaking foreign lam
guage, who interposed their lives for the
defence of their adopted fing. new he
roism was born, new devotion to liberty,
q new e1emplar of the grand idea of mod
ern politics that "men must live in nations
and can no longer live in Tribes
This has been the central thought of the
German mind wearied of the petty prin-
cipalities of the Fathcrland, the ''sOlidarity
Of the peoples has been the hoped-For po-
litieal. millennium of Europe. The failure
of the revolution of ls4s postponed its
achievement far beyond the limits of the
present generation, and the German peo-
pie sought in America that which was de-
MED them at home-a great united soyer-
eignty. in which all the industrious of
soutinent should be blended into one har-
monious nationality. DiffnsiVe in their
tladfssits, these Germans sought homesin
de Eaal and the West, aud from the At
lantie to the Pacific they stretched them
selves, in New York. in Missouri, in Texas,
and In California; but always under one
Gag. Hardly had they shaken the dust of
EhFope from their feet, hardly learned the
language OF their new Government, before
they found their old evil pursuing them,
and the aristOcratic tendency to divide the
people into petty communities for the
greater convenience of tyrannical rulers,
vas sought 10 be established here as it was
In Europe.
They reais,ed-what did they know of
State Sovereignty They had sworn allie
glance only to the Constitution Q, the
.united States. That was their ngis. They
would have NO small principalities, no
dhEedoms under the guise of States. They
,EOaid endure no separation from their
brethren east or west. Wherever German
had taken the oath of allegiance he should
be known as m American citizen, and not
ms Texan OF Missourian. And thus, in
the exesCiBe of patriotism the more noble
that it is peculiar to no nation, but belongs
to liberty throughout the world, the Ger
man Americans have indicated their claim
to citizenship, their knowledge OF its most
solemn obligations, and their right in all
time hereafter to he welcomed, not With
JealOp'y aud as strangers, but as brothers
In all that constitutes freeman and
patriot.
Il isEeFy clear that the great body Ofthe
men who occupied HarPer's Ferry have
not gone 70 Manassas junction. They have
only fallen back a few miles, and now oc-
eupy tue iine from Martinsbnrg to Win
Shester0r 70 Chsrleston. Perhaps some of
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