The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-08-01
COLUMBIA. s. G..
Sunday Morning, August /. 1859.
Tho Republican Party and she Irish and
Germans.

"a tuat party are maKlcS strenuous
efforts to secure the allegiance of these
important auxiliaries-the Irish and
German citizens of the United States
in the. approaching elections. On the
authority Of the New York Herald, it is
stated that of $4,000 German votes in
the city of New York, not more than
1.500 will be cast iu favor Of the radical
party. The Germans declare that in the
distribution Of Office. too little falls to
their lot; and with their own candidates
in the field, the establishment of morn
ing paper, their own special organ, and
their ward political organizations, they
have shown settled and rooted pur-
pose to assert themselves and their
claims in the next canvass. These na-
tionahties compose formidable element,
which the radicals heretofore have
treated with scorn and contempt, and at
the eleventh hour, recognizing the tre-
mendons force which they wield, and i'm
pending defeat, which, like the sword of
Damocles, hangs overhead, WOO them
with honeyed accents, to gain their aid
and support. Says the Express:
''The only party in this country which
is pledged to uphold impartial justice
and equal rights to all men, without re-
gard to race, nationality or religious be-
This declaration will prove a sorry
mantle to hide the former sins of that
,,ort1, - &bo T,;,b ond no..,acn. 1,.--.
faithful recollection of the status which
the Republicans assigned them before
: their strength and numbers stood dis
covered. Can The Irish and Germans
forget the odious prescription of the
Know Nothings anterior to the war? Or
can they fail to remember the denupoia-
tions by the leaders of the Republicans
Of foreigners, and the proposition in
the Legislature OF Pennsylvania to strike
the word ,chite from the State Constitu-
ton? Has the recollection ceased to
exist that it was asserted that the Irish
and Germans we're not so competent to
exercise the rights and privileges of the
ballot-box as the ignorant negro. newly
disenthralled from the bonds of slavery?
We, can remember when the Northern
papers teemed with advertisements for
service and labor, to which was appended
the invariable notice, "no Irish need ap-
nlN;" and now, recognizing the powerful
aid which these elements will lend to
their ranks, the Republican party. coolly
ignoring their sweeping prescriptions,
are, with every species Of caiolery and
persuasion, seeking to enlist on their
side the very men whom heretofore they
placed subordinate to the negro. The
Union army was composed largely Of
Irish and Germans. Amongst its most
gallant soldiers-oficers and privates-
were Irish and Germans; and we submit
that it was a sorry return for the services
Of men whose blood had crimsoned many
battlefield, to rate them lower than
the brutal negro, but recently emanci-
pated from bondage. We are happy in
our faith that the foreign element in the
South is steadfast in its fidelity to De-
mocracy. This population in our section
is composed, in the greater part, of work
ing men-laborcrs, mechanics and arti-
sans; and to them and their lines of bust
ness the negro will be antagonists
Under the old regime. the slave-owner
found it q cheaper way of doing certain
kinds of mechanical work, and more
profitable as an investment, to train and
educate q proportion of his slaves as me-
chanics; and with these, Of course. the
white artisan could not come into COM
petition; but now these very negro me-
chanics, being free agents and sworn I'D
herents to the radical party, stand upon
their own platform, and the gate of COM
petition is open, without an obstacle, to
the white artisan in the South. There is
not O shadow of doubt of the course which
the Irish and Germans will adopt in the
South; and we deem it right that our
people should always give them the
preference in their business, when the
chance is afforded, over the negro, who
20 L