Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-06-18
War Matters in st. L0uIs-Sentiments of
tie Germans III Missouri.
AFLoAT, June 7, 1868.

AFLoAT, June 7, 1868.
EDITORS STATE JOURNAL: We are NOV
ing down the river as fast as the good
Hope can carry US, bound for Memphis,
with a good chance Of seeing Vicksburg
before returning.
Military matters are not lively at St.
all along the river are ON the way to
Grants army. We have on board good
| ly number of officers Of Iowa regiments,
and it it is reported will take on regl
ment at Cairo or Columbus. | have met
with no Wisconsin officers or men as yet,
except Majors Mears, Culver, and Bacon,
OF the Pay Department at St. Louis. Col
Barstow is detached, aud holding Court
Martial just now, but | did not see him
nor any of the officers OF his regiment.
| have not heard a copperhead express
sion from any source since left. Every
where there seems good feeling and deter
mination to put down the rebellion. |
met some Intelligent Germans In st. Louis
in my short stay, and they all expressed
great surprise at the political action OF
their countrymen in Wisconsin. They
were all former Democrats, Of the strict-
est Benton stripe, Up to theA time when
the modern article labelled democracy
usurped the place OF the old jackson stripe,
which compelled them to choose between
free and sslave labor. They assured me
there was no ground for compromise Ii
slave labor prevailed, tree labor could not
and they held that Missouri was made for
the dominance of the white race-that
| they had come as freemen from the father
| land to be treemen here, and could not be
| forced to be less than true North men,
whose every instinct is for liberty, by the
sound of party name, when IL was as
empty of substance as an egg shell. They
cannot see why the Germans Of
Wisconsin, by sticking to mere
name, misled by the word Demo
GRAFT" should countenance and aid
set of politicians whose success
perils their every interest, and which, if
successful, would render their homes des.
olate, and this country no place for indus"
trious Germans, who have focked to it as
| freely as to Wisconsin. They do not re-
gard the pretenses of the Democratic party
leaders as worth rush. With all their
professions of love for foreigners, and their
boisterous talk about the Constitution,
these Germans believe, because they have
seen, that their success is blow at the
interests of free labor and free homes;
that their practices la power utterly belle
| their professions out of it; that their
whole course of opposition to the war Is
mere piece of partizan management, made
in the interest of some Seymour or Val
lsndigham, and without the slightest re-
| gard to the interests or honor OF the coun-
try. Why, they ask, do the Germans of
| Wisconsin side against the Germans of
Missouri, and help men who will put
their foot upon their necks, as certainly
as they shall get established In power
| Why do they aid to re establish the slave
system, when we must abandon our homes
here, if they succeed. Why not aid that
side which aids and comforts us9
This is the feeling and language of
more than twenty thousand Missouri
Germans to-day. Such a parsonage as
we style Democrat" in Wisconsin, is
almost unknown among them. If there
Is one, he is slave owner and an aristo-
crat. Strange that Wisconsin Germans
should abandon their kindred here to the
tender mercies of such as are styled
democrats" in this section. The line
between secessionist and Democrat" in
this section is too fine TO be apprecable
to the senses.
Aside from some conversations of this
kind, and such Information as could be
picked up from officers, have had no
means of getting posted as yet as to many
things | desire and intend to learn. The
nearer one gets to the seat of war the less
one hears about those terrific violations OF
the Constitution" we hear so much
about at home. Mems minds are in 8
sterner mood, and the sentiment is general
to save the country first, and then DO up
the necessary talking about lesser matters.
P. d.
@ A young man named Jane: