The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1893-06-24
THE GERMAN INFLUENCE IN
AMERICA,

In his great oration of fifty years
ago on the occasion of the completion
of the Bunker Hill monument Daniel
Webster laid stress upon the influence
of America upon Europe. At that
time this country had its own original
and distinctive national character,
sharply defined and firmly compacted.
1t was in sense a stupendous Krupp
gun, throwing its projectiles across the
ocean and dealing out death and de-
struction to monarchlcal ideas and in
situations. A few years later gen.
eral uprising in favor of popular lib
erty revolutionized Central Europe,
Germany especially. Mr.. Webster
lived to see the influence he pointed
out in 1s43 enlarged beyond anything
he could have anticipated.
But great as was Americas inflp-
ence on the German-speaking people
still greater has German influence in
America proven to be, and all within
less than half century. says the
Inter Ocean. 1t is true that the state
of Pennsylvania early received large
accession of Germans, and that they
were very considerable and distinct
factor until the furnace fires of civil
war fused them somewhat into our
common nationality, but the Pennsyl-
vania Germans cannot be said to have
had any appreciable influence upon the
American people in their ideas and
mode of life. The same may be said
of the Dutch founders of New York.
That city and state took on the Yam
kee character so completely that the
Knickerbocker type was submerged,
living only in tradition. Not so with
the Germans who came to this country
after the revolution of l848. They
have made marked impression upon
the country generally, except, perhaps,
at the south and in New England.
The German influence was first felt
in politics. The Republican party
found in the Germans of the north
west powerful and impetuous re en-
forcemen:. For the most part they
were young men who had come here
from love of liberty. They were in
full sympathy with all our institutions,
slavery alone excepted, and the organ
,zation of party based on anti-slavery
principles commanded their support.
About the same time the know-noth-
ing craze broke out. 1t was largely
composed of men who hated slavery,
and had been, incensed by the Irish
support of the rro-slavery Democracy.
Il was not until the Republican party
was clearing its decks for its first ma
tional contest that German influence
asserted itself, and that IN preventing
the party from being second edition
of know-nothingism. It was in Ohio,
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri that
the German Republicans made them
selves specially felt They had hard
fight, but they won great victory.
ALI through the sixties German in
fuence in Republican politics was con-
spicuous. The Germans we're intense
in their loyalty and thorough in their
determination to incorporate the re-
suits of the war in the constitution OF
the United States. It was not until
after these war issues were relegated
to the rear that minor questions could
produce any effect upon the German
Republicans.
But German influence in America
has not been confined to politics. The
same general tendency which made
Martin Luthur the arch hereto of his
day and the recognized founder of the
Protestant church, is plainly seen in
the Germans of to-day. They may be
Catholics or evangelical Portestants of
the stricter sort, and still there is
of Luther, rather than Tor
qdemada or Savonarolo. Luther could
and sing song, as well as
hymn. He seemed to have his feet
squarely on the earth, albeit his hands
were stretched toward heaven. That
type of Christianity has sensibly mod
fled the austerlty of American puri-
tanism. John Fisk insists that the
and other Presbyterians
Of the south and west were as truly
puritans as the pilgrim fathers, and he
is largely right The America of half
= century ago was very different from
Jhe America of to-day, and the change
IS largely due to German influence.
But IN nothing has the German in
iuence been felt more profoundly than
n music. The American people have
moved to a higher plane within the
asst generation, appreciating and de-
music which is really classic
For this musical education we are
mainly indebted to the Germans.
EDUCATION.