The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-02-18
From the Pittsburgh Telegraph
Mistaken Use OF History.

Though rarely, one does occasionally,
even at the present day, see or hear allu-
sions, or, it may be, direct references
made to the Hessians ofo Revolution
ary struggle as if their engagement on
the British sideimplied some ineffacea-
Bile reproach to the German population
ofthe United States. Only few weeks
ago we read speech in which a venera-
BILE and we'll informed clergyman made
such use of the we'll known history
His argument was that it i'll became
the fellow countrymen of the HessiaRs
who waged war against the founders and
first defenders Of the American Repub-
lie. to assail or to find fault with customs
or institutions which those founders and
first defenders held sacred and revered.
And the appeal delivered with indignant
emphasis seemed to have called forth
some signs Of appreciation.
Now, no matter what was the particu-
lar topic or question under discussion to
which the speaker thought his allusion
not Just now Commemorative do not hesi-
tate to say that all such application of
our Revolutionary history is not only
unjust but positively mischievous. 1t is
unjust because it implies completely
erroneous apprehension of historical
facts. Nothing is more certain than that
the soldiers of Hesse and Brunswick
brought. to this country as mercenaries
10 aid the British in subjugatirg the
colonies were WHOLLY irresponsible for
the part they performed. They were
mere passive victims Of the petty des-
pots who exchanged their blood for
money. It is, besides, we'll ascertained
fact that they sustained incomparably
greater sufferIngs than they inflicted
In all the annals of human oppression
there are few scenes more narrowing
than those described by contemporaries
who witnessed the distress of poor Ger
man peasants torn away from their
homes and relatives to fight on this side
of the Atlantic in cause they neither
knew nor care anything about. And when
they had been brought over and drilled,
both as mercenaries and as aliens to the
British soldiers by whose side they
fought, they were subjected to griev
ances which rendered their service obi
ous and distressing.
Nor is it at all reasonable or fair to
boIJ Al Garroo1 ,1ooDIa ~ bon,a in a1v
degree responsible for the sale of their
countrymen as mercenaries. Divided
among themselves, cut up into countless
Kingdoms, electorates, duchies, bishop
RIGS, etc, etc, there was no German
people in existence. It is true, howev-
er, that individuals and small societies
all over Germany beginning at that time
to be stirred by the spirit of freedom
which breathed in, their literature and
animated scientific research, looked upon
the employment of the merccnaries with
becoming disgust. They regarded the
traffic as a disgrace and degradation of
the German name, and some of them 30
characterized il in fitting terms. But
without national unity there was really
no public opinion in any proper sense of
the phrase; there were no organs through
which public opinion, if il existed.
could have spoken and made itself fell.
and the despotism of the princes was
not limited, even by epigrams or assas-
sination.
We may seem to attach too much i'm =
portance to the subject. But in these
Centennial times, it is important in the
interest of national unity of feeling;
that no class of American citizens shall
continue to bear an undeserved stigma
that no single citizen shall continue to
entertain a mistake which renders him
unjust to Others. This notion about the
Hessians finds expression every now and
then under the excitement ofcnntroyersy
and the time has surely come when all
Americans shonld know the history of
their country too well even 10 humor
the misrepresentation. The truth is that
in the war Of the Revolution there were
no better patriots than Germans, while
Baron Steuben, a German, is now con-
ceded on. all hands 10 have been aDso-
iutely, without qualification, nezt to
Washington the most inportaat single
agent OF the war, the simply indispensa :