Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1863-06-17
War Matters i'll 81. I0uis-Sentiments of
tie Germans IN Missouri.
AFLnAT. June Z Is

AFLoAI, ouLe 1cOo.
EDITORS STATE JOURNAL: We are NOV
ing down the river as last as the good
Hope can carry Us, bound for Memphis,
with good chanC9 OF seeing Vicksburg
before returning.
Military matters ere not lively at St.
Louis just now. The great mass of troops
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 eported will take on regi-
ment at Cairo or Columbus. | have met
with no Wisconsin officers or men as Yet,
except Majors Aears, Culver, and Bacon,
of the Pay Department at st. Louis. Col.
Barst0w Is detached, aud holding Court
Martial just now, but did not see him
nor any OF the officers OF his regiment.
| have not heard cOPperhead express
sion from any source sCce l left. Every
where there seems good feeling and deter
minatiOn to put down the rebellion. /
met some intelligent Germans in st. Louis
Ia 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 the time when
the modern article lsbelied democracy
uzurped the place OF the Old jackson stripe,
which compelled them 10 choose between
free and slave labor. They assured Me
there was no groand for compromise. 1t
slave labor prevailed, tree labor could not :;
anu they held that Missouri was made for
the dominance OF the white race-thar
they had come as treemen from the father
land to be freemen here, and could not be
forced To be less than true North men,
whose every instinct is for liberty, by the
sound of a party name, when IL was as
empty of su 5stance asan egg shell. They
cannot see why the Germans of
Wisconsin,, by sticking To a mere
name, 1iisIvd 10y the word Demo
GRAFT" should countenance and aid
q 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 locked to it as
freely as to Wisconsin,. They do nos re-
gard the pretenses OF the Democratic party
leaders as worth rush. With all their
professions of love forforeigners, 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 1t; that their
whole course of opposition TO the war Is q
mere piece of partlZan management, made
in the interest Of some Seymour or Val
landigham, 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 ppr
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 Us
This is the feeling and language of
more than twenty thousand Missouri
Germans to-day. Such parsonage Us
we style a Democrat in Wisconsin, is
almost unknown among them. Ii there
Is one, he is a slave owner aud 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 a secessionist and Democrat" in
this section is too fine To be appreciable
10 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 a
sterner mood, and the sentiment Is general
to save the country first, and then DO Up
the necessary talking about lesser matters.
p. ID.