The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-23
AN ADDREss.
THE GERMANS OF THE SOUTH TO THEIR FELLOW
C0uNTRYMEN IN THE NORTH AND WEST.

Worthy countfymen-The issue of the cleo.
tons, recently held in some of the Northern and
Western States, makes it an imperative duty on
our part to address you. in order that we may
convey to you some idea of the oppressed and
Inundated condition in which we find ourselves
at present, and to pray you by no means to re-
fuse TO rs your assistance in the great political
struggle on the Sd November next, upon which
our veal or woe will depend.
We come to you. dear countrymen, neither as
Democracts nor as Republicans; not as citizens nor
as foreigners, but as Germans, as your brethren
in distress and in danger, to whose succor 1t
ought and it must be your most sacred duty to
advance.
The various conditions and relations existing
in the South differ in their nature from those Of
the North and West, and can in no way be csm.
pared with them. To our sorrow, we know well
enough that the South hitherto has been, and is
still Systematically cslumnisted; that the people
Of the South-the inhabitants Of the former Con.
federate Statee-are generally represented as
lawless people that neither the life nor the prop
eriy of Union men are safe in the South, and that
peace and harmony can only be maintained by
military force.
Now. to speak clearly and distinctly: all these
s are 1a%Sas lies g L. REP9ESe a5a s
many good and true Union men as any other Dor
ton of the Union. The Germans. who form here.
In New Orleans as well as in all the larger cities
OF the South, more than one-third Of the popuia,
ton who possess more than one-third OF the real
estate; who pay nearly half OF all the taxes.
were ever, and are still, friends Of the Union
nevertheless are they treated IN such manner as
TO bring forth q blush of Indignation upon the
cheek Of every German throughout the Union.
Is it not humiliatiDg that the Germans, the
countrymen of Schiller and Goethe, q Mozart
and Beethoven, Lessing and Heine. are placed
in every respect beneath the negro'
Is IL not painful in the highest degree that the
German, gifted with intellect and highly edu-
Gated, armed with capital and industry, is bound
after his arrival in this country to wait fully hye
I-4- l.. tl.1 losfs nrahs and orrf-
frsge; while, on the other hand. the negro, even
when he is not an inhabitant of the State four
weeks, nor able to read or write-yes, very fire.
quently not even aware OF bis own name-is at
once admitted to suffrage and to the holding OF
public Office! Negroes act as jurors without
being able to sign their names to the verdict
when rendered negroes sit on the judicial bench
without the least knowledge of equity or law
negroes sit in the Legislature without even being
able to understand The laws which they them
selves proposed, while the intelligent German is
everywhere placed In the background, and only
good so far as paying the most exorbitant taxes
is concerned
wherever in the Southern States an outbreak
of popular passions took place and led to acts of
violence, the originators always proved to be
white Radicals or negroes. Thus it was at Ope-
lousas, at Camilla and other places. The negroes,
instigated by their white leaders. who had in
stlled into their minds unreasonable hopes OF IN,
reacbable aims, and thus had sown hatred and
distrust between the two races, imagine the
whites to be their deadly enemies and bent on
taking from them again their recently acquired
freedom, and they shaped their actions in accord
ance with this unhappy delusion. They rob our
houses, abuse and violate the female members of
our families, waylay on the highways and murder
treacheTously every one against whom they har-
Dor either personal hatred or some imaginary
grievance.
Each occurrence of this kind is greedily taken
hold of by the press of the Radical party of the
North and West, msrepresented and construed
into 81 rebel not" for the purpose Of exciting
your prejudices against Us, and thus to obtain
your votes and approval for still new measures
of oppression and punishment against the rebel
lious South"
In an the States of the union, where the question
of negro suffrage has been submitted to the peo-
pie, il has been voted down. We, the so-called
"rebels of the South " are more liberal In this
rvspvot tbau the nsP-Li.a-s --s i~y-''-.- Of enc
North and West; we are willing to give the right
of sufrsge TO any negro who has suffi cient inte-
gence and intellectual training to use it properly
provided that no further conditions be imposed on
us afterwards but this is no part of the pro-
gramme of our present rulers, for they, them
selves, care very little for the welfare of the
blacks, as their true purpose is only to use them
as a means of keeping the intelligent white race
and especially the foreign emigrants-in a condi-
ton of political servitude, and 1t was for this
reason that that odious article Is, putting the
negro 10 his political, civil aud social relation on
an equality with the white, was inserted into the
Constitution of Louisiana.
To ayow such scheme-such purpose in the
face Of the white citzens of the North. none OF
our present rulers would dare; the proposition OF
placing the negro on level OF social equality
with the white man, would be hurled back with
contempt even by the people of Massachusetts,,
Maine or Vermont; but towards the inhabitants
of the South, and especially towards its strongest
element, the Germans, any and everything seems
to be allowed.
few remarks in regard to our Legislature
;rbt talo hai int air MIA hara h0dv
which has been in session In this city for the last
one hundred and twenty days, has thus far con-
tributed nothing whatsoever towards the welfare
of our State. In vain we have looked for enact
mems looking to the preservation and repairs OF
our levees, for the protection of our lands along
the Mississippi river or, for some legislative &C.
ton designed TO protect and encourage immi-
grafton. Nothing of the kind has been done.
The metropolitan police bill, which expels every
white man from the ranks of the police, and puts
public safety the protection of life and property
in the hands of band of FIVE hundred negroes
the so-called constsbulary bill, establishing sort
of "gens d'dIme'ie" for country service, also
c. composed of negroes the militia bill. by mean
OF which it was intended to arm the negroes Of the
State against the white Inhabitants; the social
equality bill. and similar enactments In favor oil
the blacks and to the disadvantage of the whites :
these ere the results Of a session of l2O days
which cost millions of dollars to be levied npor
the impoverished and exhausted State, without
effectiDg even the smallest good.
Now, felow-citizens, German brethren Yor
have shown by your votes in your own States
that as white men, as men Of intelligence and ed
uestion, you ale not willing to place yourselves
on the same level with the naturally brutal, igno
rant negro. We of the South hold the same
position. Are you willing, therefore, to be guided
by a false philanthropy, or by misguided love o
freedom and to vote at the next election agsius
your own convictions? Are you willing to sdyo
cate that what yourselves once most decidedly
condemned should now be good enough ant
fitting for your brethren and countrymen at th'
Souihl We appeal to you, to your sense o
Justice TO stand by us in this hour Of danger. W.
hope that you will first liberate your own breth
| rem, your own race, from this most Illuminating
| oppression, before you thrust them aside wifhou
mercy, to favor an uncivilized and brutal class
| half barbsrians.
All of us have bat single end in view; tn
welfare Of our dearly loved adopted country. As
ssi us in the coming great struggle to restore tn
glorious Union Just as it left, the noblest an
| most sacred inheritance of his children. by tn
father of his country, George Washington.
By order of the German Democratic Centri
| Committee Of the city Of New Orleans.
W. G.. MANK,
F. PFIsTER,
JOHN UEBER,
II. +. SIBILsKY,
Il