Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1881-03-31
A6Airs In Scuth Afrfcn.

There is a possibility that good may
come out Of evil in South Africa. What
ever may be the terms of the peace about
to be concluded between the English gov
eminent and the Beers, they will GER
tainly be such as demonstrate the wisdom
of the daring resistance offered by the
gallant Dutch-Africans to British aggres-
sion, and the opinion prevails in Africa,
and is shared by many in England, that
the final outcome will be the compul-
sorry withdrawal by the British govern
ment Of all claim to dominion or authority
in South Africa and the union of all the
provinces there into one Republic. 1t will
be an act of belated justice, if it is done
for the Dutch were the original colonizers
of the country and they were overthrown
by the English in 1906. Their descend
ants revolted against British rule and
established the Orange Free State and the
Transvaal Republic, and it is now under
stood that the people of the Orange State
sympathize strongly with the Transvaal
Beers in the present struggle and are
ready to follow their lead in an effort
some time to release all of South Africa
from British rule and establish a republi-
can government over Cape Colony, Trans
vaal, Orange, Caffraria and Natal.
The great majority of the people in all
these colonies are Beers, as those of Dutch
descent were called, probably from their
original peasant origin, boer being the
Dutch word for peasant. None of them
ever appear to have been reconciled to
the act which gave England sovereignty
over them, and the story Of the establish
ment of the two independent Boer states
is one of patient endurance and deterlni-
nation on one side and robber-like az
gression on the other. Beers who had
found longer endurance of British rule
impossible, quietly migrated to unoccu-
pied territory and successfully en-
countered all the horrors of war
with savages for the sake Of secur-
| ing independent government. Some
Of them went to the help Of English
| colonists who were about to abandon in
despair the attempt to settle Natal, but no
sooner was the settlement able to main
tain its existence against savage agrees
sion than the claims of the British govern
ment were reasserted, though its protec-
| AZ. l. Al. ~ a
need. Another colony of Beers settled
unoccupied country along the Orange
river, but no sooner were they firmly
settled than the British claimed authority
over them, which the Beers resisted, but
they were conquered and subjected to
British rule. Many fled across the Vaal
river to land confesse1ly beyond the
territory claimed by England, where they
established the Transvaal Republic
and were only able to remain
secure in their rights there
because the hostility of the native
tribes gave the English enough to dc
without prosecuting the whites. To this
cause was also due in time the with
drawal of their claim to dominion oven
The Orange Free State, and those two
republics grew in prosperity side by side
until the bullying policy of the Beacons
field ministry in England was fully estab
the Transvaal Beers and their country
was formally "annexed. 2" The inhabi
tants never acknowledged British author
ity, however, and the attempt to max,
it reality was resisted by arms
and we hope, and believe the event vii
, prove, successfully resisted. . -..
J We hope the result may be that antiei
, pated, the complete destruction of Britisl
, authority in South Africa, for if that con
, tinent is ever to be either civilized .
| made useful to civilized men it will prob
: ably be through the growth of this sobp
and steady Dutch stock which has appal
emily taken root about the Cape of Goo
3 Hope. They are a sturdy and ploddin
1 people, industrious and thrifty as tn
1 race from which they sprung, but the
i. have courage and martial spirit not di,
. played of late by their brethren of llollan
e and the Netherlands, but not surprisin
:. in the descendants of the hardest fighter
A Of the famous "Thirty Years War.
@ This is Just the combination of qualitp
v necessary to the development of fal
# off country and these people seem abund
. antly able to complete the work if the
i are left alone and not vexed, harried an
. butchered by the English, whose DEVILS
h policy Of bullying weak and scattrre
a peoples has already greatly delayed til
= working out of the manifest destiny
n these pioneers Of civilization in the dar
IL continent, Surely the time cannot i
distant when that "derent respect To til
a Opinions of mankind" which our ow
. forefathers acknowledged in their declal
"a alton throwing oil the British yoke wi
IS be forced upon this bully among nation
Ii so that lingo triumphs on an islam
Il in Northern Europe shall NO long,
e threaten slaughter and conquest 10 wca
1t and struggling nationalitirs throughot
"A the world.