*Disclaimer: I debated whether to post this editorial as it could be offensive to some readers. However, in the interest of presenting the viewpoints of the time, I decided to forge ahead. Please keep in mind the opinions expressed were written 160 years ago. I am merely the transcriber. The Daily Gazette City of Davenport Wednesday Morning June, 11, 1862 The Negro Race The Democrat of this city has a leader in its yesterday morning's issue commencing with the following assertion:--"The argument made by the higher law-ites of to-day is that the Negro is just as good as a white man, and is worthy of rank and position of equality with the best Circassian (?) stock." He there adds that, "when the Black Republican party was organized it was with the view of drawing its strength from the same doctrine." As many of our Republican citizens patronize the Democrat and permit it to be left at their residences for their wives and children to peruse, for fear the latter, who are not presumed to know much about political matters, attach credit to the assertion of that paper and believe the head of the family to belong to a party of blacks, if not to be actually in favor of a black man for President, we will file one or two exceptions. It always seems to us a waste of time to contradict assertions that every sensible man knows to be false, but yet as pe! ople will read them and the uninitiated believe them, it sometimes becomes necessary. What the Negro would have been had he from the beginning been placed under the same enlightening influences that the white man has enjoyed, we leave to the speculations of anthropologists. The question is, what is he now and what is he capable of doing. To admit, that after hundreds of years of enslavement both of body and mind, denied access to every means of mental culture and taught from his earliest infancy that he is of an inferior race, the Negro is now capable of occupying high position in the Government, is to argue that he is naturally of a race superior to the white man. Philanthropists are now taking the Negro from his low estate and arousing his dormant faculties to an appreciation of the truths of the Christian religion. That lies at the foundation of all human knowledge and excellence, and until men and nations learn to appreciate its truths they cannot occupy as high position in the scale of being, or secure to themselves the full amount of happiness that man! was destined to enjoy in this state of existence. The simple circumstance that the most ultra anti-slavery men and women, those who were formerly termed abolitionists, are seeking now to elevate the moral and mental conditions of the Negro, by instilling into his mind the primary principles of education, is proof positive of the absurdity of the position assumed by our erudite neighbor. The Republican party never sought to draw strength from the doctrine that the Negro was worthy of rank and position in his present condition; or that he is now, or ever was as good, mentally or morally, as the white man. As politicians they viewed the question from a political stand-point. Without reference to the negro's capabilities for even self-government, they saw that his enslavement was a curse to the people that indulged in it. It rested like a mildew upon those States that sanctioned it, blighting the prospects of the people, effeminating their minds, and rooting out the principles of Christianity. All history told them a nation could not live happily with such an incubus preying upon it. They saw the evil was growing continually. Freedom could not keep pace with its advance. So, as a party they planted the stakes; they threw a wall around the curse, and said to the Democratic party, all of the territory outside of this wall is forever dedicated to freedom; we resp! ect your rights within these bounds, our's you must regard without them; henceforth we are two parties, and slavery is the dividing line between us. From that day until now, every political question has been merged in this; like Aaron's rod, it has swallowed up all the rest; and the Republican party is as ready to-day, as in 1856, to meet its opponents, and contend for the abridgement of slavery, or the glorious principles of freedom to all men. Military Items from Adj't Gen. Baker's Offices Promotions and Appointments.-Sam'l D. Brodtbeck, late Major of the 12th Iowa Infantry, to be Special Aid-de-Camp to Governor. Maj. John M. Corse, to be Lieut. Col. Of the 6th Iowa Infantry, vice Cummins. Capt. John Williams of Co. G, 6th Iowa Infantry, promoted to Major of said regiment, for gallant conduct at the battle of Shiloh, vice Corse, promoted. Capt. Samuel R. Edgington, Co. A, 15th Iowa Infantry, to be Major of said regiment, vice Brodtbeck, resigned. Ass't Surgeon Richard J. Mohr, to be Surgeon of the 10th Iowa Infantry, vice Davi resigned. 1st Lieut. W. Dean, to be Capt. Of Co. A, 5th Iowa Infantry, vice Childs resigned. 1st Lieut. Daniel S. Melvin, to be Capt. Co K, 5th Iowa Infantry vice Comstock, mustered out. 1st Lieut. Wesley Moreland, to be Capt. Co. C, 7th Iowa Infantry, vice McMullen promoted. Serg't Frank M. Suiter, to be 2d Lieut. Co. B, vice Flanagan mustered out. 5d Lieut. Benj. Owen, to be Capt. Co, H. 2d Iowa Cavalry, vice Sanford resigned. Resignations-Wilson T. Smith, Capt. Co. B, 15th Iowa Infantry, May 23. M. R. Ridreick, 2d Lieut. Co. G, 3d Iowa Infantry, May 23d. Phillip H. Goode, 1st Lieut. Co. F, 15th Iowa Infantry, May 23. Lieut. Col. Thomas Drummond, 4th Iowa Cavalry, to take effect June 2d, 1862. Lieut. A. B. Reyburn, 5th Iowa Infantry, mustered out by order of Gen. Halleck. ~~~~~~*~~~~~~ Elaine Rathmann List Adm. for: *IA-CIVIL-WAR *IA-DANES Assist. CC: Scott Co, IA USGenWeb Project