New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1867-05-01
ORGANIZE THE GERMANS,

The opinion expressed last week with re-
gard to the loyalty of urGerman citizens
we have been gratifed to find not an erro-
neous one, and to be sustained by abundant
testimonials, some of which we have already
published, and all of which We should be
pleased to lay before our readers would our
space admit of it.
The German element is an instinctively
loyal one. 1t came to this country because
it was loyal to the principles Of our Govern
ment long before it left its native shores,
and failing to realize them in forms of gov
eminent in their own land, it sought its
Western home that it might breathe a
purer air of freedom and more effectually
aid in developing republican forms of gov
eminent here. Brave, educated, ipdustri-
Gus, the German has ever scorned to beg or
cringe to power obtained from any other
source than intelligence and labor. The
slave driver with his whip he has
always hated, and has demonstrated
time and again that his own right arm,
guided by an intelligent brain, was Of more
value in cultivatiDg the soil than dozen
negroes under the lash.
Ask any planter in Texas who raise the
most cotton or sugar to the acre; who are
the most honest, thrifty and industrious
neighbors; who can always be relied upon
to pay their debts, and who most rapidly in
| crease the average wealth of the State, and
he will tell you the German They will
live where we would starve, and make the
desert blossom ike the rose, where we
would raise nothing but weeds And what
the German is in contact with the soil he is
in the marts of commerce, and in all the
higher walks of life. Bold, adventurous, a
speculator, in the highest sense of that
word he is ever ready to discard the old and
embrace the new, in practice as well as
theory, and in his pursuit of truth if neces-
sary, override, or thrust down, or push
through precedents and traditions, covered
with the venerable moss of centuries, and
run the risk of opprobrium in all its forms
rather than allow the object Of his search to
escape his grasp.
1t is because of these natural character
istics that some of the most powerful leaders
in the Republican party have been, and
are still Germans. Who will ever forget
the powerful speeches delivered by Carl
Shurz in the memorable campaign proceed
ing the war. They furnished texts for half
the Republican speeches in the country, and
in demolishing the sophistry of Douglas;
and in exposing the reasonable designs of
Floyd and Davis were far superior to the
mastery efforts Of Lincoln himself And
what Carl Shurz maintained upon the plat
form he sustained with his sword, in the
field, and although, in one sense, an unsuc-
| cessful General, his courage and his loyalty
were never doubted, and in the hottest and
most severely contested battles of the war
he constantly exposed his person, and would
have given up his life, had not Providence
preserved it for the prolonged warfare of
the pen, which was TO be renewed again, as
the strife Of the battlefield passed into
history.
And not alone Shurz, but Siegel, and
Stein wher, and Blenker, and host of
others no less prominent in their own than
in this country, anG who were then so for
midable as republicans that ittook the COM
| bined power of half a dozen kingdoms to
thrust them beyond their borders.
And once upon the soil of this free coun-
try, unlike the Celt, they have never de-
| serted the principles for which they con
tended at home and for which they sacEi-
| feed all that man holds most dear in
domestic and social comfort.
And it is because we are familiar with and
admire the record of the German, both in
his native and in his adopted country, that
ua faliava ho will &c nronar1v oryoniyad
become tower of strength TO the
Republican party in this city; and, pos
sessing as he does ability and culture
to fill any position in official life, even
the highest, with credit TO the govern
ment we, would urge that in the distribution
of party patronage he be not overlooked,
but sought out to fill many of the most i'm
portant Offices We never heard the charge
of incompetency brought against the Ger
man in the particular walk Of life he pro
fessed to move in, and are satisfied that
whatever position he aspiros TO he will, at
least, ELL it with respectable if not distin-
guished talent.
But the Republican party, in order to Sc
| cure to itself this important element of
power beyond all persdyenture, should i'm
mediately aid the work Of organizing Ger
man clubs in every ward in the city We
fear not the rich and aristocratic Germans,
as they are called. The rich and aristocratic
of all nations are always timid and conser
vative, and had the great progressive move.
ments of the age been left TO them, we
would to-day have been riding in stage
coaches, and receiving little scraps of news
from postboys astride the backs OF a few old
mules, instead of columns Of news from the
whole circuit Of the earth in forty minutes.