Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-04-22
From the Missouri Republican.
Coming Conflict Between the Negroes
and the Germans


The German press is fully alive to the
trouble which the negro vote IS evidently
producing within the ranks of the Radical
party. Toe Illinois Staatszeitung fore
casts from the solid vote of the negroes in
favor of Bible rending in the public schools
of Cincinnati, that the cOlOred vote will be
ready auxiliary to the advocates of every
thing known in the United States as blue
laws or Puritan narrow mindedness. Who
ever favors Sunday laws, temperance le-
gislation AMI the enforcement OF Bible
reading in the public schools will be sup
ported by the colored voter. "This is not
very exhilirating prospect" says the
Staatszeitnng, I" but it is not to be wOnd
cred at that it is SO. Whatever the negro
possesses of elementary education has grown
in all exclusively religious soil, and there
fore bears the mark of its origin. The ne
groes have no national history they have
no share in the intellectual development of
the people among whom they live the
views of Right and State upon which the
German Radicals have built their political
creed are as unknown to the negroes as the
existence of the HOgelian philosophy
The Puritan reverends who undertake the
guidance of their education will soon dis
cover how to use their fanaticism, and this
will evidently not be to the advantage Of
the Germans"
Now, to gain a true insight into this
matter 1t is not necessary to decide either
for or against the views of the Germans in
regard to the relations in which the State
should stand to religion or to subjects in
general which may or may not be reached
by legislation. 1t is sufficient to know
that after the Germans had been induced,
by their own views and instincts, as they
thought, to assist the negroes in becoming
freemen, these same negroes are arrayed
in solid mass against their views and
that the Germans will depend in q meas
ure for the education of their own chill
dren upon a race which is not only entire
ly uneducated but has on the subject of
education, the very opposite views to
those of the Germans. And so 1t will evil
IDENTIFY be III regard to almost every ques-
ton of an intellectual bearing. where the
colored man does not directly discover the
purpose of depriving him of his newly
acquired liberties. In all these respects
he is sure to become a fanatlcal partisan,
who will never yield to any argument, and
the Germans will soon discover that the
advantage previously given to the South
ern States by adding three-ffths Of the
slave population to the whole number OF
| free persons in fixing the apportionment
| for representation and direct taxes, is ex-
| actly tWo-tifths less than the political adj
vantage which the Puritan Yankees will
derive from the free negroes. They will
absorb their whole vote on every question
of popular liberty. independence OF mind
and untrammeled progress. They will
make use of the negro vote Whenever they
please to crush the Germans i'll the same
way as they have crushed the white men
in the South. The Germans are to be thus
rewarded for services rendered to New
England in the war.