The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1855-01-23
THg GERMAN POPULATION IN THE UNITED
STATES

OF @sus TIE AeHgM arose MAtniu me to write kNoA-
Hagis And you respectfully requested 10 insert The
realization o. thar thought into your Journal OF course
you be held responsible for the views which en-
terrain but il he but fair that those who
vitality interested Ia the sabecls adopted e,seas
should also b heard this subject speak their
representative, but Of them, Your readers win
therefore please consider my communication merely
the Of adopted citizen on the subject Of know
no,hingism and value ia just much Il may be worth
not more not les.
Before entering upon my task think n necessary TO
place before you long preiesOWeRoH, which think wen
calculated give deeper insight into the subject under
consideration than is generally accessible politicians
The prolegomenon is treatise the German population
Of the United States
In order 10 arrive AZ proper understanding Of the sub
jeet look the different periods during which
settlements made by immigrants from Germany We
viii thereby learn that there in country German
Americans well American Germans, between whom
there IS much difference between the English aud the
Irish Scotch or rather between the English aud the
New Englanders COMMUNICATIONS Americans who
speak the German language in their daily intercourse
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Germans by birth who are
citizens or residents in the United States.
Three periods of immigration may be assumed
First period-From the earliest times TO 1915,
Second psriod--From 1915 to 1s4s.
Third period--From ls4s.
Fra period -ef German E@igrasoT
The FIRST German settlements made early 1920
Frederic eector of Palanae aud son-iu-aw Of James
Of England elected by the Protestant party OF Bohe
mia the OF the thirty years war; King Of
Bohemia Being driven from Bohemia after the loss Of
battle he ed England where his ther-tn-law received
him very coldly The generan-chiet OF the Catholic
league Ty took and devastated the Paatnae with fire
and sword and coerced the inhabitants to the
Catholic faith leave the country. Large numbers fled
to Holland and England James in order to get rid Of
their opportunities, them to his American colony,
chartered the Plymouth colony These German immi-
grants preferred however the Dutch and Swedish colonies
around the Hudson and Delaware the ntolerant Pur
tans of New England and settled accordingly in New
York and New Jersey.
Under Louis XIV the edict OF Nantes recalled and
large numbers Protesanis cnigraed North
America from Alsace about 1885 and settled also in New
York At Penns invitation large numbers of Germans
left New York and settled in Pennsylvania, around Pha
delpha Lancaster, Reading, York, and Eason Others
went to Maryland and settled at Frederick.
About 1880 came the Sazbugers prosecuted Lutherans
who settled in the valley of Virginia but especially in
Georgia Ii is fact which perhaps generally known,
that the first edition Of the Bible printed in the west
ern continent the German edition. printed in German
town in 1881
About lI4a Count Zinzendorf established Morovian coli
ones in Pennsylv and North Carolina whilst crowds of
Lutherans with Melchior Muhenberg TO Pennsyva-
con, Lebanon, &c.
The emigration from Germany partly interrupted
during the revolutionary The Hessian prisoners
however added largely the numbers OF German coonst
AT the close the the immigration recommended aud
is striking fct that Washngtons funeral Grafton was
delivered in the German Lutheran Church at Philadelphia
being then the largest church at that place,
During the wars occasioned by the French revolution up
to 1915 there almost entire suspension Of emgra
ton from Germany.
The immigrants during this first period or rather their
descendants form what have above called the German
American population of the United States They speak
what i called par ercec the Pennsylvanian German
dialect e., German largely intermixed with English,
Their preachers however speak the pure German and their
sermons are perfectly well understood They entirely
OF Protestant faith and their ancestors having fed
from Catholic intolerance and persecution ay mbsbed
fran them he strongest radices againf Roman Catholics
They are hardy honest shrewd Woodworking, money
making, money-savng, money-loyng race kind, hosp
table with strong prendices and tenacious to their pot
cal predictions Although majority of them belong to
the democratic party still this majority is no, great
There are probably 100000 Germans of this class in
the United States Pennsylvania and northeastern and
middle Ohio full Of them They have press OF their
Some of their papers have already existed seventy
years Their papers have generally only circulation in
certain cluster Of countless but being read in every FAM
lily, their influence is all-powerful
must not omit mention that the emigration during
this long period consisted principally of small farmers and
Of little refinement and quite iiterate
Second period Of German Emigration
The influence Of the principles Of the American revou-
ton came only before the German nation developed in
Francois ID frightful caricature, The empire, with
its military pageantry struck however, the fancy and
cited the admiration OF Germany which ea-
sentiay benefited by it for il is indebted to France for
the naturalization Of the spiritual princes and the abolition
Of the feudal system II only when Napoleon intro
duced the French language into the procedure Of the
OF law that some deep feeling Of dissatisfaction became
manifest among the people the left side OF the Rhine
which was then lately annexed to the French empire AZ
ter 1907 even East Germany Prussia and Austria seemed
TO weld TO stern necessity All efforts throw of the
yoke of the Gaul had ended in defeat In paintve nc
cents sang that time K6rner to the music Of bis Tyre
aOh! Germany my faherand thy oaks still stand, yet
thou art fallen But when Napoeons star had set be-
hind the snow-felds Of Russia k6rner the Tyrtaeus OF
Germany reused the youth Of Germany the en-
thusasc resistance with his soustrring songs Who
has not read and felt hrs "Lyre and Swordp The in
aomtable students left the universities and rushed 70
aFor God and Fatherland K6rner understood well the
spirit Of bis nation lie infused the religious sentiment in
to his songs The Of lsl3-15 Is siill called the
holy of delverarce The princes formed the holy al
lance The French Ca ira und Allons euans De Ia pa
tre could not Withstand the German Hear us, Almighty
One and Father call Thee The free baaIons Of Luz
gov were followed b. the Landwehr the latter BY the
4 batr nn.lar az