The first appearance of the Norwegians in State politics in Wisconsin, as already noted, was under the Free Soil banner between 1846 and 1848, when that State was endeavoring to form a constitution. The first constitution submitted to the people, in 1847, was rejected by a large majority, including a separately-submitted provision granting equal suffrage to Negroes. While the State decisively voted thus, the counties in which the Scandinavian vote was largest--Racine, Walworth, and Waukesha--showed large majorities in favor of giving the Negroes political privileges equal to those of the Whites. On the other hand, counties where the German votes were numerous stood solidly against equal suffrage, seemingly because in the constitutional convention the question of Negro suffrage was coupled with that of the granting of suffrage to foreign-born, in a way that greatly displeased the Germans.[392] When the second convention finished its constitution, in 1848, resolutions were introduced to provide for printing and distributing translations of the document, 6000 copies in German, and 4000 copies in Norwegian, a hint of the relative strength of the two groups.[393] [392] Baker, _History of the Elective Franchise in Wisconsin_, 9; including a reference to the _Wisconsin Banner_, Oct. 17, 1846. [393] _Journal of the Second Convention_, 511, 584. The relation of James Reymert and his _Nordlyset_ to the Free Soil movement has been mentioned. When the Democratic papers mercilessly criticised the little sheet and poked fun at its name, the paper was sold by Reymert to Knud Langeland in 1849, and by him removed to Racine; the name was changed to _Demokraten_, but the politics of the paper were not affected.[394] As a political organ among the Norwegians, it was ahead of the times; the support of the paper was insufficient to pay the bills, and it was discontinued in 1850. The Norwegian immigrants were unaccustomed to a purely secular press; they preferred to have their politics wrapped up in papers labelled "religious." Langeland declares that many of them considered it a sin to read a political newspaper.[395] But the Free Soil sentiment was too strong to go without printed expression in Norwegian; and accordingly the propaganda continued in the form of speeches of Chase, Seward, Hale, Giddings, and other anti-slavery leaders, which were translated into Norwegian and mixed in with non-political matter in _Maanedstidende_, a paper whose publication, after the failure of _Demokraten_, Langeland undertook along with four clergymen, Clausen, Preuss, Stub, and Hatlestad.[396] [394] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, 96. [395] Langeland, _Nordmændene i Amerika_, 98: "Den förste Indvandrer-befolkning hovedsagelig bestod af Folk fra Landsbygderne, som for en stor Del ikke var vant til at læse andet end Deres Religionsböger, og mange af dem ansaa det endog for en Synd at læse politiske Blade."