The Free Germans furthermore indulge in the hope that it will be possible to form a powerful reform party, embracing all who want that liberty now so much endangered, and the progress and happiness of this our common republic to be secured on principles lasting, truly republican and democratic. They wish, after having completed their organization, to establish-with the aid of their liberal-minded fellow-citizens-such a power of votes as to be able, in 1856, to decide the victory in favor of a party of true reformers. The editors of public papers who will enter into a discussion of the platform-which we invite them to do, sine ira et studio, that is, before all, without narrow-minded nativism and blind party spirit-are politely requested to favor us with a copy of the number of numbers containing their arguments. Address Charles Heinsen, editor of the Pioneer, Louisville, Ky., letter box 1,157. Louisville, Ky., March, 1854. BURGELER, B. DOMSCHKE, PLATFORM OF THE FREE GERMANS. Committee. 1. Slavery Question.-Notwithstanding that we consider slavery to be a political and moral cancer, that will by and by undermine all republicanism, we deem its sudden abolition neither possible nor advisable. But we, as republicans and men, demand that the further extension of slavery be not constantly urged, whilst not a single step is taken for its extermination. We demand that at length real proofs be given of the good-will so often boasted of to remove the evil; that in particular slavery be excluded from all new territories indiscriminately and forever, which measure Congress is completely entitled to pass according to the Constitution; we demand this the more, as a republican Constitution is guaranteed to every new State, and slavery, in truth, cannot be considered a republican element or requisite. We further demand that all and every one of the laws indirectly transporting the principle and the influence of slavery in and upon free States, namely, the Fugitive Slave law, shall be repealed, as demoralizing and degrading, and as contrary to human rights and to the Constitution; we finally demand that, in all national affairs, the principle of liberty shall be strictly maintained, and even in the several States it be more and more realized by gradual extermination of slavery. 2. Religious Questions. We consider the right of free expression of religious conscience untouchable, as we do the right of free expression of opinion in general; we therefore accord to the believer the same liberty to make known his convictions as we do the non-believer, as long as the rights of others are not violated thereby. But from this very principle of liberty of conscience we are decidedly opposed to all compulsion inflicted to dissenting persuasions by laws unconstitutionally restricting the liberty of expression. Religion is a private matter; it has nothing to do with policy; hence it is despotism to compel citizens by political means to religious manifestations or omissions contrary to their private persuasions. We therefore hold the Sabbath laws, Thanksgiving days, prayers in Congress and Legislatures, the oaths upon the Bible, the introduction of the Bible into the free schools, the exclusion of "atheists" from legal acts, &c., as an open violation of human rights as well as of the Constitution, and demand their removal. 3. Measures for the welfare of the people. As the foremost of such measures, we consider the free cession of public lands to all settlers; to occupy nature, the soil as exclusive property, this no individual has a right to do; it is, for the time, the common principal fund of that population which inhabits it, and anybody willing to cultivate it has an equal right to appropriate a share of the soil, as far as it is not disposed of, for purposes of common interest. It is high time that the ruinous traffic with the public lands should be abolished, that the wasting of them by speculation should cease, and that the indigent people enter upon their rightful possession. But if this end shall be fully attained, it will be required to aid poor colonists, at their first settlement, with national means, lest said measures prove useless for these very persons who most need it. In the closest connection with the land reform question stands that of immigration, which, by its general importance, should be raised to the rank of a national affair, and for which a special office of colonization and immigration should be created as a particular department of the United States government. Such a board would have to provide for the various interests of immigrants who are now helplessly exposed to so many sufferings and wrongs and abuses from the place of embarkation in Europe, to the place of their settlement in America. North America is neglecting herself when neglecting the immigration, for immigration is the mother of this republic. The admission of citizenship must be rendered as easy as possible to the immigrants, The welfare of a nation cannot be generally and permanently secured unless its laboring classes be made independent of the oppression of the capitalist. Labor has an incontestible claim to the value of its products. Where it is prevented, by the want of the necessary capital, to secure this claim, it is of course referred to an alliance with capital of others. But if no just agreement can be obtained by this association with the capitalist, then the State, as the arbitrator of all contending interests, has to interfere. This must either aid the associations of working men by credit banks, or mediate between the claims of the laborer and the capitalist, by fixing a minimum of wages equally the value of the labor, and a maximum of labor answering the demands of humanity. The time of labor shall not exceed ten hours per day. In letting out State contracts, the preference should be given, if it can be done without running a risk, to associations of workmen, rather than to single contractors. But when given to single contractors, the latter ought to give security for proper wages to the workmen employed by them. In order to enjoy "life, liberty and happiness," all indiscriminately must have the use of free schools for all branches of education, in which, wherever a sufficient number of Germans live, a German teacher should be employed. In order that the attainment of justice may no longer remain a privilege for the possession of money, justice must be dispensed without fees. 4. Constitutional Questions.—Considering, as we do, the American Constitution as the best now in existence, we yet think it neither perfect nor unimprovable. In particular we hold the following amendments and additions, likewise acceptable for the State Constitution, as timely and proper means to check the prevailing corruption, to wit: 1. All elections, without any exception, should issue directly from the people. 2. Any eligible citizen of any State may be elected as member of Congress by the citizens of any other State, and likewise may any eligible denizen of any county be elected by the citizens of any other county for a member of the State Legislature. 3. Any representative and officer may at any time be recalled by the majority of his constituents, and replaced by another. 5. Free Trade. We decidedly profess the principle of free trade, and will support it in all cases where it may be carried through without disadvantage to the people, and where reciprocity is accorded by the other side. 6. Foreign Policy.-The policy of neutrality must cease to be an article of our creed, and ought to be abandoned soon as contrary to the interests of North America. The rights of American citizens and immigrants having declared their intention to become citizens, must the more energetically be protected in foreign countries, since every American appears to monarchical and despotical governments as a representative of revolution against despotism, and this republic ought to honor this point of view as the only one worthy and legitimate. 7. Rights of Women.-The Declaration of Independence says, that "all men are born equal, and endowed with inalienable rights, and to these belong life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We repeatedly adopt this principle, and are of the opinion that women, too, are among "all men." 8. Rights of Free Persons.-In the free States, the color of the skin cannot justify a difference of legal rights. There are not born two men of equal color, but still less two men of unequal rights. 9. Penal Laws. It is our opinion, that all penal laws can only have the purpose of correction, but never the absurd purpose of expiation. We, therefore, consider the penalty of death, which excludes the possibility of correction, to be as irrational as barbarous. Nor are doctrines like these only promulgated by them in an occasional manifesto of one of their social associations. Many of their newspapers publicly and constantly proclaim them, and the fact that their doing so remains, to a great extent, concealed from the Americans, by the screen of a foreign language, makes it a greater evil than it otherwise would be, because it enables concealment until it shall have gathered strength sufficient to make its influence dominant at the polls in at least all the commercial cities. Witness the following from a German paper published in St. Louis : 46 'The first and most principal mark whereby we distinguish ourselves from religious people is, that in the belief on a God, and that which connects itself with this belief, we recognize a destructive cancer, which for thousands of years has been gnawing at humanity and preventing it from attaining to its destiny. No individual can live as a human being; in no family can true happiness flourish; the whole human race is hastening on ways of error, so long as the (scheuszlichsten Popanze) most abominable hobgoblins-God, future existence, eternal retribution, are permitted to maintain their ghostly existence. It is, therefore, the great task of every genuine revolutionist to put forth his best powers for the destruction of this flagitious nontrio, viz.: the hobgoblins of a God, future existence, and future rewards and punishments. No revolution is more than half executed, unless the vi at nerve of the Great Arch-monarch beyond the stars, (the Eternal Sovereign of the Universe,) is cut asunder; every attempted revolution is vain, if the ministers of this monarch are not exterminated, as we are wont to exterminate ruinous vermin." Blasphemous as is the foregoing, the following from another German paper at Newark, New Jersey, is no better: 66 Self-preservation is the first and most prominent instinct of every living creature, as well as of man. So soon as our relations assume the form stated above, (namely, so soon as want of employment and high prices of provisions ensue,) then this instinct of selfpreservation makes its right effective, and the very natural impulse (Drang) is awakened to fall to, seize hold and take, wherever it is to be found, whatever is needful to life, especially bread and meat. Laws, customs, morality, religion, and whatever these straight-jackets of social life may be called, have indeed considerably circumscribed this instinct of self-preservation, especially when it assumes the form of seizing hold of what others claim. But in great and general distress, (i. e., when employment is scarce and provisions dear,) nature rends asunder all these artificial bands and chains with which social society has trammelled us, and nature makes her laws effectual." Infamous as are the foregoing articles translated from German papers, the following, though of a different character, which has been translated by a correspondent of the Pittsburg Times, is conceived in no better spirit, and affords abundant evidence that he who wrote it, and the publishers of the German journals who gave it an insertion, as well as the readers to whom they would venture to furnish such reading matter, can never become good citizens, or be deserving to enjoy the rights of citizenship. It was published in the Courier, a German paper in Pittsburg, and it serves as an illustration of the general tone and temper of the German press conducted by foreigners. Certain expressions, such as Solidarishen Republicanismus, and others used in the original, lead the translator to ascribe it to the pen of Kossuth, and, it must be confessed, its general style and temper strongly justify the supposition that he is the author. But to the article-it speaks for itself: THE LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS. America is a great, and a free land! So we hear it every where announced-yes, if the dead-letter, called the Constitution, is sufficient to make a land free, then America is certainly a free land! But if we look at the little progress she has made since the time of her independence, and compare the reality with the declared principles, then we cannot do otherwise than declare it the land of contradictions. America is the land of equality, especially in the equality before the laws, and yet, we do not find in any part of the world a more shocking inequality before the laws, than that which exists in this very country! Distinguished individuals-family connections, and in the utmost degree the "almighty dollar," creates in the land of freedom an influence as widely extended, as even in some monarchies, where the judgment-seat has at least a little honor attached to it, and is not so readily approached by bribery. The rich and distinguished stand here higher above the law, than in any other country. The poor are held in more contempt, and no where in the world is poverty a greater crime than in America. In the land which boasts of its humanity, which claims to be at the very top of civilization, society does far less for the poor than any where else, The laboring classes are treated in as shameful a manner as in Europe, with its ancient historical prejudices. The day laborer (proletaire) builds the railways; the day laborer offers up his life in their steamboats; the day laborer clears the wilderness with nevertiring axe, all for the benefit of a contemptible aristocracy; whose evangelium is rapacity, and the hideous monster of speculation. This arrogant cheese, fish and cotton aristocracy, are ten times more presuming than the aristocracy of birth, for that can at least claim a prestige in its favor. In these seventy years of independence, all these evils have increased in the highest degree; so that one might be tempted to believe that this liberty and progress will end in annihilation. Religious freedom is one of the most beautiful and precious principles that was ever introduced into a Constitution; and if we look at its practical working in the United States, it must be admitted that the religious intolerance is much more rigid than in many monarchies of the Old World, if we except the oppressions which the Jews experienced. An unbeliever, a free thinker, an atheist, runs more risk of being stoned than in old Bavaria. . In Europe religious wars are almost regarded as impossibilities; in America there are from time to time religious wars in miniature between Irish Catholics and Protestant Know Nothings. The war of opinion must soon or late give place to the Roman hierarchy; but this cannot happen without many a bloody head! The principle of religious liberty shows itself by intolerance and bigotry. A republic is that form of government which ought to be best administered and conducted at the least expense. In America every thing is turned upside down; the administration is as bad as it can be, and exceeds in its faults even the greatest despotisms, such as Russia, and perhaps China. America is the land of personal liberty, but only under particular circumstances. The State, which cares very little for the prosperity of its citizens, takes upon itself the care of the bodily condition and health of its people. On that account they forbid them to be joyful on Sunday; out of mere respect for personal liberty, they close the social intercourse between individuals; they punish the sale of and use of intoxicating drinks Why do they not in other things take pains to secure life and liberty? It is forbidden to a grown person to drink a glass of wine or brandy, because he may possibly injure himself by doing so; but an apothecary is allowed to sell arsenic and other poisons without prescription. Why does the State permit, when it is so anxious about the wellbeing of its citizens, that every barber may practice medicine, and through his ignorance make sport of the lives of thousands? Here opens a field, where the State could find an opportunity for the exercise of its legislative wisdom. It forbids the use of a glass of liquor, and yet a steamboat captain blows hundreds of persons into the air in consequence of a racing wager; or gives the alternative to be burnt or drowned; a railroad car is thrown off the track by the ignorance of the engineer, and hundreds of innocent persons lose their lives, or have their limbs broken, because the State has no control over the conduct of persons so irresponsible. When the State should take measures to protect the individuals from imminent danger, it fails to do any thing whatever, and yet it interferes in private concerns; so far has the principle of personal liberty been developed. America stands on the pinnacle of civilization-it is the land of humanity; and hence comes the invention of solitary confinement in the cells; the prisoner who has only been forced to the commission of crime to relieve his wants, is slowly doomed to death, and out of pure humanity they would not kill him at once-out of pure humanity justice is fostered only to do that which she ought not to do. America is the land of respect for the laws; and no where else is the healthy and natural feeling of justice so easily wounded, or the wrong-doer so easily escapes unpunished. 66 My house is my castle," say they, and this may be true, so long as a drunken Irish |