New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-04-18
THE GERMANS IN AMERICAN.

| THE GERMANS In AMERICA.
Das Deutsche Element den YereInlgen Staten voI
Cincinnati; A. +. Wild Co.
A work on the German settlement Of this country
has long been recognized need Of our historical
literature 1t was the intention of Friedrich Kapp
TO supply the need. but he got no further than to
write the story Of the German emigration to the
State of NewYork up to the beginning of the pres
ent century. Ho was called back to Germany
after the publication of his book, and finding
| there an honorable career Of intellectual
| labor he gave up his project, writing q COM
plete account Of the part played by his COuntTymen
in the civilization of the American continent. Gus
taV K0rner, in the present work, brOadens the field
of Kapps researches aud brings the history down to
1S4S the date when German emigration took q
fresh impulse and q new character. He
| Omts the period between the close of KapD's
account and the year 1918, because during that
epoch the Napoleonic wars caused an almost total
cessation OF cOlonlzing movements in Europe. His
for closing the record at 184S because to
go further would be a more labOrous task than he
was willing to undertake. and because the political
upheaval Of that year brought to shores much
literary talent that there is lack Of competent
| writers 10 carry forward the theme.
Mr. K0TneT came to this country in 1888 and set
tied in Illinois Mingling actively in the public life
J Of the ate, ne was soon chosen to represent
his county in tho Legislature In 1916 lie was APP
pointed of the Judges OF the Court OF Appeals,
and in 1852 was elected Lieutenant Governor for
the term of four years. Since then ho has held
many important public posts under the Federal Gov
eminent and has taken an energetic part in
political campaigns in the Wes5. close
observer n frequent writer for the Gcrman-Aner-
lean press, and intimate associate of most of the
leading German politicians and Journalists through.
out the country, Mr.. KOTncr was well equipped
with the talent. experience aud information needed
for tho preparation of his book. The method he
follows is not n chronological one. The
WORK is divided into chapters devoted
to the different States, which are
mainly occupied with sketches of the lives of Ger
man settlers who are or have been prominent in
the schools the ministry, the press, politics, and
trade. The lives of such men naturally the his
tory of the communities with which they have been
identified, and little need be added to give the
reader pretty full information about the beginnings
and growth Of German settlement in different
parts of the country,
The American reader not Of German an |
cestry will be surprised unless ho is exceptionally
we'll informed upon the subject, to learn from the |
preface to tae book and its chapters on Pennsyl- |
vania and Ncw-YOrk, how strong was the |
religious motive which led to the first German set
Element of both these States. The Pennsylvania |
Dutch and the " Mohawk Dutch" can look back |
with pride as great that Of the New
England Puritans to God-fearing ancestors
who sought the forests OF America to find
freedom to worship according to the die
tates of their conscieuces. By singular
coincidence these sturdy Protcstants from the
Rhueland embarked like the Mayflowcr Pilgrims,
from the harbors of Holland Like them they |
belonged to sects oppressed by governmental
intolerance like them they came in congregations
with their ministers and teachers, singing their
pious hymns. They were poor folk-mechanics
aud peasants with hard, angular features, showing
the influence of generations OF toll and priVa-
ton but next TO religion they priced education, and
the church and the schsol-hOuse side by side in
their villages. They brought with them, too, habits
of poddiug industry of honest handiworS and care
ful farming which soon earned for them prosperity
in their now homes. The Importance Of this early
German emigration is seldom rightly estimated by
people who read only the English-Amerieau side of
our colonial history.
With regard to the destiny Of the German ele-
meut in this country, Mr.. K6rner agrees with
Friedrich Kapp, to whom he dedicates his
book, and from whom ne borrows several
interesting pages on this theme. The two
related Germanc stems, the Anglo-Saxon and the
German meet the American continent after q
separation of 1900 years, TO work together and
|
Germans Kapp thought is not to separate them
selves and seek to hold up German State, but to
unite with the American element IIo had
no sympathy with fantastic dreams of
German Utopia, and told his countrymen that
their salvation lay not in following side path, but |
in marching In the midst of the broad highway Of
American life. Most thoughtful German-Americans
agree with him now. but at the time his book aD-
peared he was sharply assaled. 1t was hard then
for many, and especially for those who had come
over after the Revolution Of 1S4S full Of youthful
enthusiasm for the erection of o new.
free Germany in America, to accept the destiny
Of absorption in the native population.
No matter how fattoring to their National
pnde might be the influence accorded them in shap-
ing the destiny of the Republic aud moulding the
thought aud taste of its people, they refused with
much passionate protest TO accept the fate OF loss of
race identity. Their felloW-ctiZens of English ex-
traction long ago ceased to regard themselves as
English. The name of American is to them much l
proudcr title. But these later refugees from
Old World oppression and poverty wanted
to be both Germans and Americans. They
wanted to preserve their customs and ideas
unmodifed by their new surroundings. Even as
old and thoroughly Americanizcd a German as ]
K6rner hesitates to admit that the German
language cannot be preserved in this country, and
he cOunses his readers to hold as sacred their love
Tor tho German tongue and literature, and nculcatc
{ on their children. Yet oil Germans who have
children born in this country know how difficult it
to habituate them to speaking German. though it
q the household language of the parents, and
low little they care for German books and papers.
n spite of all the money spent for teaching
German In our public schools our Communication
children read English readily than their
and speak 1t by preference. Few Z
,eope have the structure Of brain required to mas
er two languages. The superior simplicity and de
cctness of the English would give it great advan-
age over German in the race for predomnance even