The Hessians.The Hessians.—The bitter partisan feeling during the war has led to a widespread misrepresentation of the share which the Germans took in the Revolutionary War. The employment by England of some thousands of mercenaries recruited in Anspach and Hessia against the American colonies has been extended to include all Germany,regardless of the fact that there was no more ardent supporter of the cause of the colonists in Europe than the King of Prussia. The Hessians were sold to Great Britain at so much per head by their ruler. Their traffic was scathingly denounced by Frederick and the infamous transaction severely condemned by Schiller in his play, “Cabal and Love.”Hessia represented to the rest of Germany, at that time composed of Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and other States, about what Delaware represents to the whole of the United States. To blame all Germany for the misconduct of an unconscionable princeling is the extreme of injustice. Counting the German regiments under Rochambeau, nominally designated as Frenchmen, and the large number of German settlers in the ranks of Washington’s army under Herkimer, Muhlenberg, Steuben, Woedtke, Pulaski, etc., the Hessian-Anspach contingent was more than offset by the Germans fighting for the cause of American independence.Thousands of Hessians were induced by their German countrymen to come over and enlist under the banner of the colonists. Pulaski’s flying squadron was recruited from these deserters. Some of the best troops in Washington’s immediate surrounding were former Hessians, and a Hessian deserter became one of Washington’s most trusted messengers in matters of war.At the end of the war the country was full of Hessians. Many settled in Lebanon, Lancaster and Reading, Pa., and about 1,600 settled four miles from Winchester, Va., in 1781. Some of the sterling troops which made up Jackson’s Stonewall brigade in the Civil War were made up of the descendants of the Germans, many of them Hessians, who settled in the Shenandoah Valley.If the Hessians, fighting reluctantly for a cause in which they had no heart, must be condemned by public sentiment, what shall be said of the native Americans, the Tory element, 26,000 of whom fled to Canada, while thousands of others fought in the English ranks against their own kin? Among the troops surrendered at Yorktown under Lord Cornwallis and General O’Hara, we find enumerated a body of South Carolina militiamen called “Volunteers,” “the Royal American Rangers,” etc., not counting the American deserters who had joined Cornwallis during the siege. (See “Frederick the Great and the American Colonies.”)
The Hessians.—The bitter partisan feeling during the war has led to a widespread misrepresentation of the share which the Germans took in the Revolutionary War. The employment by England of some thousands of mercenaries recruited in Anspach and Hessia against the American colonies has been extended to include all Germany,regardless of the fact that there was no more ardent supporter of the cause of the colonists in Europe than the King of Prussia. The Hessians were sold to Great Britain at so much per head by their ruler. Their traffic was scathingly denounced by Frederick and the infamous transaction severely condemned by Schiller in his play, “Cabal and Love.”
Hessia represented to the rest of Germany, at that time composed of Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and other States, about what Delaware represents to the whole of the United States. To blame all Germany for the misconduct of an unconscionable princeling is the extreme of injustice. Counting the German regiments under Rochambeau, nominally designated as Frenchmen, and the large number of German settlers in the ranks of Washington’s army under Herkimer, Muhlenberg, Steuben, Woedtke, Pulaski, etc., the Hessian-Anspach contingent was more than offset by the Germans fighting for the cause of American independence.
Thousands of Hessians were induced by their German countrymen to come over and enlist under the banner of the colonists. Pulaski’s flying squadron was recruited from these deserters. Some of the best troops in Washington’s immediate surrounding were former Hessians, and a Hessian deserter became one of Washington’s most trusted messengers in matters of war.
At the end of the war the country was full of Hessians. Many settled in Lebanon, Lancaster and Reading, Pa., and about 1,600 settled four miles from Winchester, Va., in 1781. Some of the sterling troops which made up Jackson’s Stonewall brigade in the Civil War were made up of the descendants of the Germans, many of them Hessians, who settled in the Shenandoah Valley.
If the Hessians, fighting reluctantly for a cause in which they had no heart, must be condemned by public sentiment, what shall be said of the native Americans, the Tory element, 26,000 of whom fled to Canada, while thousands of others fought in the English ranks against their own kin? Among the troops surrendered at Yorktown under Lord Cornwallis and General O’Hara, we find enumerated a body of South Carolina militiamen called “Volunteers,” “the Royal American Rangers,” etc., not counting the American deserters who had joined Cornwallis during the siege. (See “Frederick the Great and the American Colonies.”)
Hillegas, Michael.Hillegas, Michael.—First Treasurer of the United States, appointed July 29, 1776; son of German parents; born in Philadelphia, where his father was a well-to-do merchant. Served till Sept. 2, 1789. Hillegas with several other patriotic citizens came to the aid of the government in the Spring of 1780 with his private means to relieve the distress of Washington’s soldiers, and in 1781 became one of the founders of the Bank of North America, which afforded liberal support to the government during its financial difficulties. When a man namedPhilip Ginter submitted to him a piece of coal which he had found on Mauch-Chunk Hill, Hillegas pronounced it genuine coal, and with several others founded the Lehigh Coal Mining Co. and acquired 10,000 acres of coal land from the State of Pennsylvania. Died in Philadelphia, Sept. 29, 1804.
Hillegas, Michael.—First Treasurer of the United States, appointed July 29, 1776; son of German parents; born in Philadelphia, where his father was a well-to-do merchant. Served till Sept. 2, 1789. Hillegas with several other patriotic citizens came to the aid of the government in the Spring of 1780 with his private means to relieve the distress of Washington’s soldiers, and in 1781 became one of the founders of the Bank of North America, which afforded liberal support to the government during its financial difficulties. When a man namedPhilip Ginter submitted to him a piece of coal which he had found on Mauch-Chunk Hill, Hillegas pronounced it genuine coal, and with several others founded the Lehigh Coal Mining Co. and acquired 10,000 acres of coal land from the State of Pennsylvania. Died in Philadelphia, Sept. 29, 1804.
House, Col. E. M.House, Col. E. M.—It is claimed that the part played by Col. E. M. House in the diplomatic history of the war has been correctly gauged by but few persons, and these attribute to him the exercise of a greater influence in shaping the program of the Wilson administration than any one else, not excepting the President. Some have sought to trace an intimate connection between the policies that invested the Chief Executive with more power than any president before him with an anonymous novel, “Philip Dru, Administrator,” generally attributed to Colonel House, in which a comprehensive program is laid down for the government of the United States by Dru after finishing a successful war.It is undeniable that a more than casual analogy may be found between the lines of policy defined in the novel and those seemingly followed by the administration down to the Versailles conference.“Philip Dru” is the story of an American Cromwell, who prevented an alliance between England and Germany and made one between England and the United States. In the novel Dru wages a successful civil war and sets himself up as the administrator of the country, establishing a dictatorship, remodels our system of government, conquers and incorporates Mexico, remodels our relations with Canada, establishes a close bond with England, wipes out all memories of the Civil War by having Grant and Lee clasp hands on the same pediment, elects his own president and assigns to each of the powers its allotted space in the universe, after which he disappears like the good fairy of the books.A passage from the novel affords fair insight into its philosophy. On page 156 the author makes Dru say: “For a long time I have known that this hour would come, and there would be those of you who stand affrighted at the momentous change from constitutional government to despotism, no matter how pure and exalted you might believe my intentions to be. But in the long watches of the night I conceived a plan of government which,by the grace of God, I hope to be able to give to the American people. My life is consecrated to our cause and, hateful as the thought of assuming supreme power, I can see no other way clearly, and I would be recreant to my trust if I faltered in my duty.”The book thus takes on a strange prophetic character, considering that it was published in 1912, two years before the outbreak of the war, as though the writer had laid down a great plan of action which he was in the process of carrying out when the elections of 1918 raised an unexpected obstacle to its further execution.The close friendship between President Wilson and Colonel House, according to the latter’s biographer, dates from the time when, after having considered Mayor Gaynor of New York and found himself disappointed in his expectations, Colonel House decided to make Wilson President in 1912. In the selection for the Cabinet two prominent Texans, Attorney General Gregory and Postmaster General Burleson, were named, and many others were by him designated for responsible positions. It has been pointed out in certain quarters that many of the most important measures leading up to and including the war bear a more or less striking resemblance to those outlined in “Philip Dru,” even to the investment of the President with almost absolute powers. Colonel House’s residence in New York became the calling place of foreign ambassadors, where vital questions of State and our international relations were dealt with before they reached the President. Count Bernstorff, former German ambassador to the United States, testified before the Reichstag Commission investigating the war that he handed Colonel House an important note on peace which was never heard of afterward.Colonel House has been called “the mysterious;” he seeks distinction in doing his work in secrecy, rewarding his friends and punishing his enemies in ways not readily apparent, laying out his policies without revealing his hand and executing well-devised plans without the noise and trumpery of cheap publicity. In this manner he is credited with shaping the policies of the administration at the peace conference, where he was, next to the President, the principal representative of the United States, working congenially with Clemenceau and Lloyd George and acting as moderator on the President in the latter’s earlier demands for a stricter observance on the part of the Allies of his Fourteen Points. As related in a Paris correspondence in the New York “Tribune,” dated April 16, 1919, “President Wilson, realizing that he had not sufficient ground for further refusing to meet the demands of the three European allies, accepted the formula which Clemenceau and Lloyd George had worked out for reparations and accepted the plan which Colonel House had previously approved for the surrender of the Saar Valley by Germany for a long period of years, after which a plebiscite shall be held.”A biographer of Colonel House says that the colonel’s father was born in England and came to the United States during the Texas war for independence against Mexico, in which he participated. Texas having attained its independence, the elder House wanted Texas to become a colony of England, a project which, fortunately, did not materialize. During the Civil War, it is claimed, he acted for England in facilitating British blockade runners. As a boy Colonel House attended a school in England taught by the father of Lloyd George and the friendship between the latter and Colonel House dates back to their youth. During his stay in England he formed many closeattachments for prominent young Englishmen, and, on coming into his father’s extensive property in Texas, he led the life of an English country gentleman and entertained many English gentlemen of family and fortune. His brother-in-law is Dr. Sydney Mezes, president of New York City College, who acted as chairman of the Frontier Commission at the Paris Peace Conference, and his son-in-law is Gordon Auchincloss, who acted as secretary to Colonel House.
House, Col. E. M.—It is claimed that the part played by Col. E. M. House in the diplomatic history of the war has been correctly gauged by but few persons, and these attribute to him the exercise of a greater influence in shaping the program of the Wilson administration than any one else, not excepting the President. Some have sought to trace an intimate connection between the policies that invested the Chief Executive with more power than any president before him with an anonymous novel, “Philip Dru, Administrator,” generally attributed to Colonel House, in which a comprehensive program is laid down for the government of the United States by Dru after finishing a successful war.
It is undeniable that a more than casual analogy may be found between the lines of policy defined in the novel and those seemingly followed by the administration down to the Versailles conference.
“Philip Dru” is the story of an American Cromwell, who prevented an alliance between England and Germany and made one between England and the United States. In the novel Dru wages a successful civil war and sets himself up as the administrator of the country, establishing a dictatorship, remodels our system of government, conquers and incorporates Mexico, remodels our relations with Canada, establishes a close bond with England, wipes out all memories of the Civil War by having Grant and Lee clasp hands on the same pediment, elects his own president and assigns to each of the powers its allotted space in the universe, after which he disappears like the good fairy of the books.
A passage from the novel affords fair insight into its philosophy. On page 156 the author makes Dru say: “For a long time I have known that this hour would come, and there would be those of you who stand affrighted at the momentous change from constitutional government to despotism, no matter how pure and exalted you might believe my intentions to be. But in the long watches of the night I conceived a plan of government which,by the grace of God, I hope to be able to give to the American people. My life is consecrated to our cause and, hateful as the thought of assuming supreme power, I can see no other way clearly, and I would be recreant to my trust if I faltered in my duty.”
The book thus takes on a strange prophetic character, considering that it was published in 1912, two years before the outbreak of the war, as though the writer had laid down a great plan of action which he was in the process of carrying out when the elections of 1918 raised an unexpected obstacle to its further execution.
The close friendship between President Wilson and Colonel House, according to the latter’s biographer, dates from the time when, after having considered Mayor Gaynor of New York and found himself disappointed in his expectations, Colonel House decided to make Wilson President in 1912. In the selection for the Cabinet two prominent Texans, Attorney General Gregory and Postmaster General Burleson, were named, and many others were by him designated for responsible positions. It has been pointed out in certain quarters that many of the most important measures leading up to and including the war bear a more or less striking resemblance to those outlined in “Philip Dru,” even to the investment of the President with almost absolute powers. Colonel House’s residence in New York became the calling place of foreign ambassadors, where vital questions of State and our international relations were dealt with before they reached the President. Count Bernstorff, former German ambassador to the United States, testified before the Reichstag Commission investigating the war that he handed Colonel House an important note on peace which was never heard of afterward.
Colonel House has been called “the mysterious;” he seeks distinction in doing his work in secrecy, rewarding his friends and punishing his enemies in ways not readily apparent, laying out his policies without revealing his hand and executing well-devised plans without the noise and trumpery of cheap publicity. In this manner he is credited with shaping the policies of the administration at the peace conference, where he was, next to the President, the principal representative of the United States, working congenially with Clemenceau and Lloyd George and acting as moderator on the President in the latter’s earlier demands for a stricter observance on the part of the Allies of his Fourteen Points. As related in a Paris correspondence in the New York “Tribune,” dated April 16, 1919, “President Wilson, realizing that he had not sufficient ground for further refusing to meet the demands of the three European allies, accepted the formula which Clemenceau and Lloyd George had worked out for reparations and accepted the plan which Colonel House had previously approved for the surrender of the Saar Valley by Germany for a long period of years, after which a plebiscite shall be held.”
A biographer of Colonel House says that the colonel’s father was born in England and came to the United States during the Texas war for independence against Mexico, in which he participated. Texas having attained its independence, the elder House wanted Texas to become a colony of England, a project which, fortunately, did not materialize. During the Civil War, it is claimed, he acted for England in facilitating British blockade runners. As a boy Colonel House attended a school in England taught by the father of Lloyd George and the friendship between the latter and Colonel House dates back to their youth. During his stay in England he formed many closeattachments for prominent young Englishmen, and, on coming into his father’s extensive property in Texas, he led the life of an English country gentleman and entertained many English gentlemen of family and fortune. His brother-in-law is Dr. Sydney Mezes, president of New York City College, who acted as chairman of the Frontier Commission at the Paris Peace Conference, and his son-in-law is Gordon Auchincloss, who acted as secretary to Colonel House.
The Humanity of War.The Humanity of War.—About the time of the sinking of the Lusitania, our official notes on this and other subjects in the negotiations with Germany teemed with appeals to humanity. No such view was accepted by England. In the British note of March 13, 1915, Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, told the President: “There can be no universal rule based on considerations of morality and humanity.”
The Humanity of War.—About the time of the sinking of the Lusitania, our official notes on this and other subjects in the negotiations with Germany teemed with appeals to humanity. No such view was accepted by England. In the British note of March 13, 1915, Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, told the President: “There can be no universal rule based on considerations of morality and humanity.”
Illiteracy.Illiteracy.—As a related element of interest in the study of the war from a cultural as well as a military angle the illiteracy of some of the contesting and neutral nations bears strongly on the question:France14.1%Belgium12.7%Greece57.2%Italy37.0%Portugal68.9%Roumania60.6%Russia69.0%Serbia78.9%United Kingdom1.0%Austria-Hungary18.7%Germany0.05%Denmark0.0?%Netherlands0.08%Prussia0.02%Switzerland0.03%Sweden0.0?%United States, 7.7% population over 10 years. Of this, the native white population of native parents furnished 3.7% of the illiterates; the native white of foreign or mixed parentage, 1.1%. The negroes are down with 30.4% illiteracy, less than that of Italy or Greece and several other European States engaged in the task of making the world safe for democracy. Even our Indian population (45.3%) shows less illiteracy than Greece, Serbia or Roumania. The illiteracy of our white foreign-born population is recorded at 12.7%.
Illiteracy.—As a related element of interest in the study of the war from a cultural as well as a military angle the illiteracy of some of the contesting and neutral nations bears strongly on the question:
France14.1%Belgium12.7%Greece57.2%Italy37.0%Portugal68.9%Roumania60.6%Russia69.0%Serbia78.9%United Kingdom1.0%Austria-Hungary18.7%Germany0.05%Denmark0.0?%Netherlands0.08%Prussia0.02%Switzerland0.03%Sweden0.0?%
United States, 7.7% population over 10 years. Of this, the native white population of native parents furnished 3.7% of the illiterates; the native white of foreign or mixed parentage, 1.1%. The negroes are down with 30.4% illiteracy, less than that of Italy or Greece and several other European States engaged in the task of making the world safe for democracy. Even our Indian population (45.3%) shows less illiteracy than Greece, Serbia or Roumania. The illiteracy of our white foreign-born population is recorded at 12.7%.
Immigration.Immigration.—How much does the United States owe to immigration, as regards the growth of population? Frederick Knapp, worked out a table covering the period from 1790 to 1860, the beginning of the Civil War, intended to show what the normal white population at the close of each decade would have been as a result of only the surplus of births over deaths of 1.38 percent each year, compared with the result as established by the official census figures.“Natural”GrowthCensusFigures17903,231,930——18003,706,6744,412,89618104,251,1436,048,45018204,875,6008,100,05618305,591,77510,796,07718406,413,16114,582,00818507,355,42219,987,56318608,435,88227,489,662The natural increase of the white population in 160 years would have been only 5,203,952, whereas it was 24,257,732, an increase of 19,053,780 over the natural growth. Statistics show that in 1790 an American family averaged 5.8; in 1900 but 4.6. During the earlier period each family averaged 2.8 children, in 1900 but 1.53, a decline of nearly 50 per cent.Wilhelm Kaufmann (“Die Deutschen im Am. Burgerkriege,”) makes an ingenious calculation of the value of the immigration of the nineteenth century to the U. S. in dollars and cents. Fifty years ago, he says, a human being had a market price. An adult slave about 1855 was valued at an average of $1,100. Estimating, for the sake of argument, a white immigrant at the same price, the 19,500,000 immigrants for the stated period would represent a value of $21,450,000,000; but as a white man performed three times as much work as a slave, besides having a larger claim on life and a much higher intelligence, a white immigrant represented four times the value of a slave. What value, for instance, was an Ericson to the Union army in the summer of 1862, or a Lieber, a Schurz, a Mergenthaler or a Carnegie? But 22 percent of the total immigration was made up of children under 15 years of age. According to the New York Immigration authorities (1870) every German immigrant averaged a possession of $150 cash on his arrival, representing a total value, as regards German immigration alone, of $750,000,000. A famous English economist says: “One of the imports of the U. S., that of the adult and trained immigrants, would be in an economic analysis underestimated at £100,000,000 ($500,000,000) a year.”—Thorold Rogers, Lectures in 1888, “Economic Interpretations of History,” (p. 407). And the American, James Ford Rhodes (Vol. I, p. 355): “The South ignored, or wished to ignore, the fact that able-bodied men with intelligence enough to wish to better their conditions are the most valuable products on earth, and that nothing can redound more to the advantage of a new country than to get men without having been at the cost of rearing them.”Because the working conditions in Germany were exceptionally favorable, immigration from the German Empire before the war had reached by far the smallest stage of that of any of the leading nations, save France, where the birthrate has been stationary for many years. The figures for 1914 were only 35,734, while the immigration from Greece was 35,832; Italian immigration in that year reached a total of 283,738 and from Russia 255,660, while England sent us35,864, Scotland 10,682 and Wales 2,183. In 1915 only 7,799 Germans arrived, while England sent us 21,562. The money brought by the Germans totaled $1,786,130, or $221.50 a head, while money brought by the English totaled $3,467,458, a little over $160 a head.German immigration was never a pauper immigration and of itself refutes the assertion that German immigration was due to fear of military service or political oppression.The first German immigration from the Palatinate, 237 years ago, was mainly due to the criminal ravages of the French under Louis XIV; that of 1848 was incident mainly to the revolution in Baden, based upon a longing of all thinking Germans for a united Germany, and that of the subsequent period was the spontaneous outpouring of an overpopulated country not yet adjusted to commercial and industrial expansion and the great spread of German enterprise in ship-building and manufacture. As soon as this development had reached a decisive stage, immigration practically ceased. Those who came here obeyed a great economic law by which every man seeks to supply an existing vacancy for his industry; they did not come as beggars, but were welcomed because they were needed. There was no religious oppression in Germany, and in Prussia Frederick the Great proclaimed in the middle of the eighteenth century the doctrine, “In my country every man can serve God in his own way.” If immigration is an infallible sign of the dissatisfaction of the immigrant with conditions at home which drives him to go to another country, the fact that less than 36,000 German immigrants arrived in America in 1914 against a total of 73,417 from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, proves that conditions were vastly better in Germany than in the United Kingdom. (The figures are from the “New York World Almanac” for 1916.)Anthony Arnoux gives the following table of the total German immigration into the United States for five years, from 1908 to 1912:190817,951190919,980191022,773191118,900191213,706The latest statistics available, made public in December, 1919, place the total number of immigrants arriving at American ports for the past 100 years at 33,200,103.From Great Britain 24.7%(including Irish)8,206,675From Germany, 16.6%5,494,539From Italy, 12.4%4,100,740From Russia, 10%3,311,400From Scandinavia, 6.4%2,134,414For the fiscal year ending in June, 1919, 237,021 immigrants were admitted and 8,626 were turned back, a net total of 245,647. Duringthe same period 216,231 immigrants left the country. The immigrants arriving totaled a per capita wealth of $112, a total of $15,831,247. Foreign-born soldiers serving in the army during the war were given citizenship to the number of 128,335.
Immigration.—How much does the United States owe to immigration, as regards the growth of population? Frederick Knapp, worked out a table covering the period from 1790 to 1860, the beginning of the Civil War, intended to show what the normal white population at the close of each decade would have been as a result of only the surplus of births over deaths of 1.38 percent each year, compared with the result as established by the official census figures.
“Natural”GrowthCensusFigures17903,231,930——18003,706,6744,412,89618104,251,1436,048,45018204,875,6008,100,05618305,591,77510,796,07718406,413,16114,582,00818507,355,42219,987,56318608,435,88227,489,662
The natural increase of the white population in 160 years would have been only 5,203,952, whereas it was 24,257,732, an increase of 19,053,780 over the natural growth. Statistics show that in 1790 an American family averaged 5.8; in 1900 but 4.6. During the earlier period each family averaged 2.8 children, in 1900 but 1.53, a decline of nearly 50 per cent.
Wilhelm Kaufmann (“Die Deutschen im Am. Burgerkriege,”) makes an ingenious calculation of the value of the immigration of the nineteenth century to the U. S. in dollars and cents. Fifty years ago, he says, a human being had a market price. An adult slave about 1855 was valued at an average of $1,100. Estimating, for the sake of argument, a white immigrant at the same price, the 19,500,000 immigrants for the stated period would represent a value of $21,450,000,000; but as a white man performed three times as much work as a slave, besides having a larger claim on life and a much higher intelligence, a white immigrant represented four times the value of a slave. What value, for instance, was an Ericson to the Union army in the summer of 1862, or a Lieber, a Schurz, a Mergenthaler or a Carnegie? But 22 percent of the total immigration was made up of children under 15 years of age. According to the New York Immigration authorities (1870) every German immigrant averaged a possession of $150 cash on his arrival, representing a total value, as regards German immigration alone, of $750,000,000. A famous English economist says: “One of the imports of the U. S., that of the adult and trained immigrants, would be in an economic analysis underestimated at £100,000,000 ($500,000,000) a year.”—Thorold Rogers, Lectures in 1888, “Economic Interpretations of History,” (p. 407). And the American, James Ford Rhodes (Vol. I, p. 355): “The South ignored, or wished to ignore, the fact that able-bodied men with intelligence enough to wish to better their conditions are the most valuable products on earth, and that nothing can redound more to the advantage of a new country than to get men without having been at the cost of rearing them.”
Because the working conditions in Germany were exceptionally favorable, immigration from the German Empire before the war had reached by far the smallest stage of that of any of the leading nations, save France, where the birthrate has been stationary for many years. The figures for 1914 were only 35,734, while the immigration from Greece was 35,832; Italian immigration in that year reached a total of 283,738 and from Russia 255,660, while England sent us35,864, Scotland 10,682 and Wales 2,183. In 1915 only 7,799 Germans arrived, while England sent us 21,562. The money brought by the Germans totaled $1,786,130, or $221.50 a head, while money brought by the English totaled $3,467,458, a little over $160 a head.
German immigration was never a pauper immigration and of itself refutes the assertion that German immigration was due to fear of military service or political oppression.
The first German immigration from the Palatinate, 237 years ago, was mainly due to the criminal ravages of the French under Louis XIV; that of 1848 was incident mainly to the revolution in Baden, based upon a longing of all thinking Germans for a united Germany, and that of the subsequent period was the spontaneous outpouring of an overpopulated country not yet adjusted to commercial and industrial expansion and the great spread of German enterprise in ship-building and manufacture. As soon as this development had reached a decisive stage, immigration practically ceased. Those who came here obeyed a great economic law by which every man seeks to supply an existing vacancy for his industry; they did not come as beggars, but were welcomed because they were needed. There was no religious oppression in Germany, and in Prussia Frederick the Great proclaimed in the middle of the eighteenth century the doctrine, “In my country every man can serve God in his own way.” If immigration is an infallible sign of the dissatisfaction of the immigrant with conditions at home which drives him to go to another country, the fact that less than 36,000 German immigrants arrived in America in 1914 against a total of 73,417 from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, proves that conditions were vastly better in Germany than in the United Kingdom. (The figures are from the “New York World Almanac” for 1916.)
Anthony Arnoux gives the following table of the total German immigration into the United States for five years, from 1908 to 1912:
190817,951190919,980191022,773191118,900191213,706
The latest statistics available, made public in December, 1919, place the total number of immigrants arriving at American ports for the past 100 years at 33,200,103.
From Great Britain 24.7%(including Irish)8,206,675From Germany, 16.6%5,494,539From Italy, 12.4%4,100,740From Russia, 10%3,311,400From Scandinavia, 6.4%2,134,414
For the fiscal year ending in June, 1919, 237,021 immigrants were admitted and 8,626 were turned back, a net total of 245,647. Duringthe same period 216,231 immigrants left the country. The immigrants arriving totaled a per capita wealth of $112, a total of $15,831,247. Foreign-born soldiers serving in the army during the war were given citizenship to the number of 128,335.
Indians, Tories and the German Settlements.Indians, Tories and the German Settlements.—The descendants and successors of those who form the very foundation of the government of the United States, bled and died for its existence, cannot suffer themselves to be segregated into a class of tolerated citizens whose voices may be silenced at will. The history of the German element is too closely interwoven with the records of the past and as an element it is too much a part of the bone and muscle of the American nation to remain silent when told that the history of the United States is to be rewritten and the deeds of their forefathers are to be forgotten for the glorification of the Tories who, with their Indian allies, burned the homes of German settlers and dragged their women and children into captivity.A gruesome chapter of their endurance is supplied by the events in New York State during the Revolutionary War, and notably those events that transpired in the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys. It was the German element in New York State which stood the brunt of the forages of Joseph Brant, the Indian chief, educated by Sir William Johnson and renowned as no other Indian in the history of America for his atrocities under the direction of his English and Tory patrons.He began operations in July, 1778, by surprising a little settlement of only seven families at Andrustown, Herkimer County, killing two and dragging the women into captivity. It was followed by the attack on the German Flats. This was a settlement of nearly 1,000 souls with about 70 houses, protected by two forts, Fort Dayton and Fort Herkimer. The rich harvest of summer had just been gathered when Brant invaded the valley. Three of the four scouts sent out to report his movements were killed by the Indians; the fourth, John Helmer, returned the last day of August, 1778, and reported the approach of the enemy. The inhabitants, so far as they were able, fled to the protection of the forts with everything movable. With the approach of darkness the next day Brant arrived near the forts with 300 Indians and 152 Tories. He immediately set fire to the abandoned houses with their barns, stables and other buildings and drove off the horses and cattle without daring to attack the forts. The attack resulted in the destruction of 63 houses, 57 barns, three flour and two saw mills, and the loss of 235 horses, 229 head of cattle, 269 sheep and 93 oxen. Two men only lost their lives.In the Schoharie Valley the summer of 1778 passed without any notable events, but the Indians under Brant in June of that year destroyed Cobelskill. The Indians lured the local company of defenders under Captain Braun into an ambush and practically wiped it out.No less than 23 of the men were killed, others were seriously wounded and only six escaped. The women and children fled into the woods, from which they were able to watch the Indians set fire to their homes and barns. Brant here did not follow up his success, but returned to the Susquehanna, where he and his loyalists wrought the fearful historic carnage among the settlements in the Wyoming Valley, and in July attacked the Mohawk Valley settlements.About this time the English government offered a prize of $8 for every American scalp.In consequence of this barbarous edict, the border war, which had so far been mainly conducted between regular military forces, degenerated into a series of savage melees. Indians and Tories sought to bring in as many scalps as possible, and murdered children, mothers and old men in order to earn the promised reward of eight dollars. More than one German settler found, on returning home from his fields in the evening, his family butchered, wife and children lying scalped and mutilated in their dwellings or in front of their doorsteps, their skulls crushed if the scalping process was too slow. Scalping became a recognized industry and was conducted for business.In the evening, after a successful raid, the Indians would stretch the scalps on sticks to dry during the night, while the captured relatives, bound hand and foot, were compelled to witness the revolting process, exposed to a similar fate at the least betrayal of grief, or doomed to suffer a slow death by torture from fire.An entire bundle of dried scalps, amounting to 1,062 in number, taken by the Seneca Indians, fell into the hands of a New England expedition against the Indians. It was accompanied by a prayer and a complete inventory addressed to the British Governor, Handimand. There were eight items, as follows:Lot 1: 43 scalps of soldiers of Congress killed in battle. 62 scalps of farmers killed in their houses.Lot 2: 92 scalps of farmers killed in their houses surprised by day, not by night, as the first lot. The red color, applied to the hoops of wood, which were used to stretch the scalp, indicated the difference.Lot 3: 97 scalps of farmers killed in their fields, different colors denoting whether killed with tomahawk or rifle ball.Lot 4: 102 scalps of farmers, mostly young men.Lot 5: 88 scalps of women, those with blue hoops cut from the heads of mothers.Lot 6: 193 scalps of boys of different ages killed with clubs or hatchets, some with knives or bullets.Lot 7: 121 scalps of girls, large and small.Lot 8: 122 scalps of various kinds, among them 29 babies’ scalps, carefully stretched on small white hoops.The accompanying prayer was worded as follows:Father, we wish that you send these scalps to the Great King that he may look at them and be refreshed at their sight—recognize our fidelity and be convinced that his presents have not been bestowed upon a thankless people.It was written by James Crawford (spelled Craufurd), January 3, 1782, from Tioga, seeming to indicate that most of the scalps came from the New York frontier. The information is based on Campbell’s “Annals of Tryon County,” pp. 67-70 (appendix).During 1779 the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys were not molested. In order to punish the Indians for their atrocities in the Wyoming Valley, as well as the western part of New York, Washington had induced Congress to fit out an expedition against the Indians under Sullivan.In August, 1779, General Sullivan and his aide, General Clinton, invaded the valley with 5,000 men, moved against the Six Nations and devastated their territory, crushing them August 29 at Newton, near Elmira, and pursuing them as far as the Genesee Valley, where he destroyed more than forty of their villages. The lack of provisions drove the Indians and their Tory friends into Canada, where they remained quiescent until 1780.But Sullivan’s course had lacked the requisite energy and, while they had suffered severely, the Indians were by no means discouraged, but, on the contrary, filled with bitter resentment, and as early as the spring of 1780 they reappeared in New York and resumed their former raids.On April 3 they surprised Riemenschneider’s Bush, a few miles north of Little Falls, burned the flour mill and carried off nineteen prisoners, among them John Windecker, George Adler, Joseph Neumann and John Garter. The latter died from mistreatment; the others were taken to Canada, but released when peace was restored.During a scouting expedition commanded by Lieutenant Woodworth of Fort Dayton the Americans came into contact with Indians double their number. A fierce hand to hand conflict ensued and only 15 of the Germans escaped; several were taken prisoners and Woodworth fell with more than half his men, who were later buried in a common grave on the spot.This encouraged the Indians to new atrocities, as this style of warfare was most to their liking. No settler was henceforth safe from surprise and attack; he slept with his gun beside him and at the least sound bounded from his bed to be prepared and to sell his life at least as dearly as possible. Now and then more extensive raids occurred. Brant was the soul and inspiration of every enemy movement. His real purposes were always disguised by skilful manouvers. His spies were everywhere and he was always well informed of everything going on in the valley. He would pretend to attack one place while, in reality, reserving his blow for another, thus keeping the settlers in a constant state of terror and doubt.In this manner he learned, toward the end of July, 1780, that General Clinton had sent the troops in Canajoharie to Fort Schuylerfor the protection of the stored supplies at that place, and on August 2, at the head of 500 Indians and Tories, suddenly hurled himself upon Canajoharie and instituted a perfect bloodbath. No effective resistance could be rendered, as the entire male population capable of bearing arms was absent. Sixteen men remained dead where they had fallen, 60 women and children were taken prisoners, the church, 63 houses, with their barns and stables, were reduced to ashes, upward of 300 cattle were killed or driven off. All the agricultural implements and tools were lost, so that the survivors were even prevented from gathering their crops ripening in the fields. The fate of Canajoharie was impending over the heads of every other settlement, and nowhere was there the least hope of assistance or the least prospect of peace and quiet.It would be tiresome to enumerate the many Indian attacks on German settlers in the valley, and these examples out of innumerable instances of heroic deeds (see “Schell”) performed by our German ancestors must suffice.The frontier history of our country abounds in such examples down to the period of the Civil War, when the Germans of New Ulm, Minnesota, again, practically for the last time as settlers, were exposed to Indian massacres in their march to extend our far-flung battle line of civilization into the regions of the primeval wilderness. This border history is dominated by the names of the German, Dutch and English race. No Frenchmen, Russians, Italians or any of the races of southwestern Europe have any share in the reduction of the forests and prairies to the spirit of American sovereignty. French and Spanish settlements remained always a thing apart with never diminishing attachments to Europe, and before and after the Revolution the French were our enemies.
Indians, Tories and the German Settlements.—The descendants and successors of those who form the very foundation of the government of the United States, bled and died for its existence, cannot suffer themselves to be segregated into a class of tolerated citizens whose voices may be silenced at will. The history of the German element is too closely interwoven with the records of the past and as an element it is too much a part of the bone and muscle of the American nation to remain silent when told that the history of the United States is to be rewritten and the deeds of their forefathers are to be forgotten for the glorification of the Tories who, with their Indian allies, burned the homes of German settlers and dragged their women and children into captivity.
A gruesome chapter of their endurance is supplied by the events in New York State during the Revolutionary War, and notably those events that transpired in the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys. It was the German element in New York State which stood the brunt of the forages of Joseph Brant, the Indian chief, educated by Sir William Johnson and renowned as no other Indian in the history of America for his atrocities under the direction of his English and Tory patrons.
He began operations in July, 1778, by surprising a little settlement of only seven families at Andrustown, Herkimer County, killing two and dragging the women into captivity. It was followed by the attack on the German Flats. This was a settlement of nearly 1,000 souls with about 70 houses, protected by two forts, Fort Dayton and Fort Herkimer. The rich harvest of summer had just been gathered when Brant invaded the valley. Three of the four scouts sent out to report his movements were killed by the Indians; the fourth, John Helmer, returned the last day of August, 1778, and reported the approach of the enemy. The inhabitants, so far as they were able, fled to the protection of the forts with everything movable. With the approach of darkness the next day Brant arrived near the forts with 300 Indians and 152 Tories. He immediately set fire to the abandoned houses with their barns, stables and other buildings and drove off the horses and cattle without daring to attack the forts. The attack resulted in the destruction of 63 houses, 57 barns, three flour and two saw mills, and the loss of 235 horses, 229 head of cattle, 269 sheep and 93 oxen. Two men only lost their lives.
In the Schoharie Valley the summer of 1778 passed without any notable events, but the Indians under Brant in June of that year destroyed Cobelskill. The Indians lured the local company of defenders under Captain Braun into an ambush and practically wiped it out.No less than 23 of the men were killed, others were seriously wounded and only six escaped. The women and children fled into the woods, from which they were able to watch the Indians set fire to their homes and barns. Brant here did not follow up his success, but returned to the Susquehanna, where he and his loyalists wrought the fearful historic carnage among the settlements in the Wyoming Valley, and in July attacked the Mohawk Valley settlements.
About this time the English government offered a prize of $8 for every American scalp.In consequence of this barbarous edict, the border war, which had so far been mainly conducted between regular military forces, degenerated into a series of savage melees. Indians and Tories sought to bring in as many scalps as possible, and murdered children, mothers and old men in order to earn the promised reward of eight dollars. More than one German settler found, on returning home from his fields in the evening, his family butchered, wife and children lying scalped and mutilated in their dwellings or in front of their doorsteps, their skulls crushed if the scalping process was too slow. Scalping became a recognized industry and was conducted for business.
In the evening, after a successful raid, the Indians would stretch the scalps on sticks to dry during the night, while the captured relatives, bound hand and foot, were compelled to witness the revolting process, exposed to a similar fate at the least betrayal of grief, or doomed to suffer a slow death by torture from fire.
An entire bundle of dried scalps, amounting to 1,062 in number, taken by the Seneca Indians, fell into the hands of a New England expedition against the Indians. It was accompanied by a prayer and a complete inventory addressed to the British Governor, Handimand. There were eight items, as follows:
The accompanying prayer was worded as follows:
Father, we wish that you send these scalps to the Great King that he may look at them and be refreshed at their sight—recognize our fidelity and be convinced that his presents have not been bestowed upon a thankless people.
It was written by James Crawford (spelled Craufurd), January 3, 1782, from Tioga, seeming to indicate that most of the scalps came from the New York frontier. The information is based on Campbell’s “Annals of Tryon County,” pp. 67-70 (appendix).
During 1779 the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys were not molested. In order to punish the Indians for their atrocities in the Wyoming Valley, as well as the western part of New York, Washington had induced Congress to fit out an expedition against the Indians under Sullivan.In August, 1779, General Sullivan and his aide, General Clinton, invaded the valley with 5,000 men, moved against the Six Nations and devastated their territory, crushing them August 29 at Newton, near Elmira, and pursuing them as far as the Genesee Valley, where he destroyed more than forty of their villages. The lack of provisions drove the Indians and their Tory friends into Canada, where they remained quiescent until 1780.
But Sullivan’s course had lacked the requisite energy and, while they had suffered severely, the Indians were by no means discouraged, but, on the contrary, filled with bitter resentment, and as early as the spring of 1780 they reappeared in New York and resumed their former raids.
On April 3 they surprised Riemenschneider’s Bush, a few miles north of Little Falls, burned the flour mill and carried off nineteen prisoners, among them John Windecker, George Adler, Joseph Neumann and John Garter. The latter died from mistreatment; the others were taken to Canada, but released when peace was restored.
During a scouting expedition commanded by Lieutenant Woodworth of Fort Dayton the Americans came into contact with Indians double their number. A fierce hand to hand conflict ensued and only 15 of the Germans escaped; several were taken prisoners and Woodworth fell with more than half his men, who were later buried in a common grave on the spot.
This encouraged the Indians to new atrocities, as this style of warfare was most to their liking. No settler was henceforth safe from surprise and attack; he slept with his gun beside him and at the least sound bounded from his bed to be prepared and to sell his life at least as dearly as possible. Now and then more extensive raids occurred. Brant was the soul and inspiration of every enemy movement. His real purposes were always disguised by skilful manouvers. His spies were everywhere and he was always well informed of everything going on in the valley. He would pretend to attack one place while, in reality, reserving his blow for another, thus keeping the settlers in a constant state of terror and doubt.
In this manner he learned, toward the end of July, 1780, that General Clinton had sent the troops in Canajoharie to Fort Schuylerfor the protection of the stored supplies at that place, and on August 2, at the head of 500 Indians and Tories, suddenly hurled himself upon Canajoharie and instituted a perfect bloodbath. No effective resistance could be rendered, as the entire male population capable of bearing arms was absent. Sixteen men remained dead where they had fallen, 60 women and children were taken prisoners, the church, 63 houses, with their barns and stables, were reduced to ashes, upward of 300 cattle were killed or driven off. All the agricultural implements and tools were lost, so that the survivors were even prevented from gathering their crops ripening in the fields. The fate of Canajoharie was impending over the heads of every other settlement, and nowhere was there the least hope of assistance or the least prospect of peace and quiet.
It would be tiresome to enumerate the many Indian attacks on German settlers in the valley, and these examples out of innumerable instances of heroic deeds (see “Schell”) performed by our German ancestors must suffice.
The frontier history of our country abounds in such examples down to the period of the Civil War, when the Germans of New Ulm, Minnesota, again, practically for the last time as settlers, were exposed to Indian massacres in their march to extend our far-flung battle line of civilization into the regions of the primeval wilderness. This border history is dominated by the names of the German, Dutch and English race. No Frenchmen, Russians, Italians or any of the races of southwestern Europe have any share in the reduction of the forests and prairies to the spirit of American sovereignty. French and Spanish settlements remained always a thing apart with never diminishing attachments to Europe, and before and after the Revolution the French were our enemies.
Inventions.Inventions.—Among the many evidences of German moral and intellectual obliquity cited to justify our indignation was their lack of inventive genius, Prof. Brander Matthews in particular alleging that the Germans had contributed nothing to making possible the automobile, the aeroplane, the telephone, the submarine, the art of photography, etc.The aeroplane, the automobile and the submarine were each made possible by the invention of the gas engine, and the gas engine was invented by Gottlieb Daimler. By combining Lillienthal’s “glider” with Daimler’s gas engine, the aeroplane became feasible. The first employment of the modern gas engine was by Daimler in running a motorcycle.Wilhelm Bauer, a Bavarian corporal, in 1850 constructed a submersible craft at Kiel, which though it eventually came to grief, was practically operated and served to spread terror in the Danish navy, which discreetly withdrew from its blockading operations. It was equipped with torpedoes but was navigated by manual operation, noother power being available at that early period. (Boston Transcript.)The first man to speak over a wire with the aid of electric power and to call his instrument a “telephone,” was Philipp Reis, of Frankfort. In 1868 the inventor wrote as follows: “Incited thereto by my lessons in physics in the year 1860, I attacked a work begun much earlier concerning the organs of hearing, and soon had the joy of seeing my pains rewarded with success, since I succeeded in inventing an apparatus by which it is possible to make clear and evident the functions of the organs of hearing, but with which one can also reproduce tones of all kinds at any desired distance by means of the galvanic current. I named the instrument ‘telephone.’” In Manchester, before the Literary and Philosophical Society, Reis’ telephone was shown in 1865 by Professor Cliften. The invention was however too soon for the world. To Reis’ great disappointment, the Physical Society of Frankfort took no further notice of the invention, the luster of which shone upon them. Other societies treated it as a scientific toy. The Naturalists’ Assembly, including all the leading scientific men of Germany, had, indeed, welcomed him at Giesen; but too late. His sensitive temperament had met with too many rebuffs, and the fatal disease with which he was already stricken told upon his energies. In 1873 he disposed of all his instruments and tools to Garnier’s Institute. To Herr Garnier he made the remark that he had shown the world the way to a great invention which must now be left to others to develop. On January 14, 1874, he was released by death. In December, 1878, a monument was erected to him in the cemetery of Friedricksdorf with the inscription under a medallion portrait: “Here rests Philipp Reis, born January 7, 1834; died January 14, 1874. To its deserving member, the Inventor of the Telephone, by the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-Main. Erected 1878.” (See “Philipp Reis, Inventor of the Telephone; a Biographical Sketch with Documentary Testimony, Translation of the Original Papers of the Inventor and Contemporaneous Publications,” by Sylvanus Thompson, B. A. DSc., Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol.)The first modern photographic lens was invented by J. Petzval, of Vienna; the rectilinear lens by Steinheil; the Jena glass and anastigmatic lens by Abbe and Schott, of Jena, Prussia.
Inventions.—Among the many evidences of German moral and intellectual obliquity cited to justify our indignation was their lack of inventive genius, Prof. Brander Matthews in particular alleging that the Germans had contributed nothing to making possible the automobile, the aeroplane, the telephone, the submarine, the art of photography, etc.
The aeroplane, the automobile and the submarine were each made possible by the invention of the gas engine, and the gas engine was invented by Gottlieb Daimler. By combining Lillienthal’s “glider” with Daimler’s gas engine, the aeroplane became feasible. The first employment of the modern gas engine was by Daimler in running a motorcycle.
Wilhelm Bauer, a Bavarian corporal, in 1850 constructed a submersible craft at Kiel, which though it eventually came to grief, was practically operated and served to spread terror in the Danish navy, which discreetly withdrew from its blockading operations. It was equipped with torpedoes but was navigated by manual operation, noother power being available at that early period. (Boston Transcript.)
The first man to speak over a wire with the aid of electric power and to call his instrument a “telephone,” was Philipp Reis, of Frankfort. In 1868 the inventor wrote as follows: “Incited thereto by my lessons in physics in the year 1860, I attacked a work begun much earlier concerning the organs of hearing, and soon had the joy of seeing my pains rewarded with success, since I succeeded in inventing an apparatus by which it is possible to make clear and evident the functions of the organs of hearing, but with which one can also reproduce tones of all kinds at any desired distance by means of the galvanic current. I named the instrument ‘telephone.’” In Manchester, before the Literary and Philosophical Society, Reis’ telephone was shown in 1865 by Professor Cliften. The invention was however too soon for the world. To Reis’ great disappointment, the Physical Society of Frankfort took no further notice of the invention, the luster of which shone upon them. Other societies treated it as a scientific toy. The Naturalists’ Assembly, including all the leading scientific men of Germany, had, indeed, welcomed him at Giesen; but too late. His sensitive temperament had met with too many rebuffs, and the fatal disease with which he was already stricken told upon his energies. In 1873 he disposed of all his instruments and tools to Garnier’s Institute. To Herr Garnier he made the remark that he had shown the world the way to a great invention which must now be left to others to develop. On January 14, 1874, he was released by death. In December, 1878, a monument was erected to him in the cemetery of Friedricksdorf with the inscription under a medallion portrait: “Here rests Philipp Reis, born January 7, 1834; died January 14, 1874. To its deserving member, the Inventor of the Telephone, by the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-Main. Erected 1878.” (See “Philipp Reis, Inventor of the Telephone; a Biographical Sketch with Documentary Testimony, Translation of the Original Papers of the Inventor and Contemporaneous Publications,” by Sylvanus Thompson, B. A. DSc., Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol.)
The first modern photographic lens was invented by J. Petzval, of Vienna; the rectilinear lens by Steinheil; the Jena glass and anastigmatic lens by Abbe and Schott, of Jena, Prussia.
English View of Paul Jones.English View of Paul Jones.—In the process of rewriting the history of the United States, as now in progress, in what light will American school children be taught to regard their great naval hero, John Paul Jones, whose remains in a Paris cemetery were exhumed about twenty years ago by order of our government and brought back to America with all the solemn pomp paid to the greatest of men? England’s estimate of him is evidenced by clippings of the contemporary English press, which Don C. Seitz a few years ago compiled into “Paul Jones, His Exploits in English Seas.” It contains clippingsof three types: first, slanders on Jones’ personal character; secondly, false reports as to his activities and capture; thirdly, editorial comment in which political morals are deduced or the consequences of his raids are touched upon.In the first category come such passages as the following:“Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser,” May 8, 1778: The captain of the Ranger, John Paul, was some time ago master of a vessel called the John, belonging to Kirkudbright, stood a trial in London for the murder of his carpenter and was found guilty, but made his escape.This is the seed, evidently, from which grew the following tale:“Morning Post and Daily Advertiser,” Thursday, September 30, 1779: “Paul Jones, or John Paul, which is his real name, is a man of savage disposition. He was for many years a commander of a coasting vessel, in which time he committed many barbarities upon his crew—one of which will forever stamp his character as a dark assassin. Between Whitehaven and Bristol he took a deep dislike to one of his crew and meditated revenge, which he performed as follows: One evening upon deck he behaved with more than common civility toward him, and calling him aside to do something of the ship’s duty, the unsuspecting man went, when Jones desired him to lay hold of a rope which was out of reach; Jones then desired him to stand on a board (the board having been so balanced that a small weight would overturn it), which he did, when he fell into the sea and was drowned.... Thus he got rid of an innocent man without being suspected of murder.”This story was repeated in a number of other papers with suitable variations, and once, on the authority of a “reliable lady of our acquaintance,” the then equivalent of our “reliable, well-informed sources.” Some of the news sheets accuse him, moreover, of being the son of a gardener, of owing his watchmaker money for several years, of knocking down his schoolmaster with a club, of cold-bloodedly sinking a boat-load of deserters with solid shot; of cowardice in refusing to fight a duel; of dishonesty in money matters; of “concealing a quantity of lead in his clothes to sink himself, should he be overcome by the English.”
English View of Paul Jones.—In the process of rewriting the history of the United States, as now in progress, in what light will American school children be taught to regard their great naval hero, John Paul Jones, whose remains in a Paris cemetery were exhumed about twenty years ago by order of our government and brought back to America with all the solemn pomp paid to the greatest of men? England’s estimate of him is evidenced by clippings of the contemporary English press, which Don C. Seitz a few years ago compiled into “Paul Jones, His Exploits in English Seas.” It contains clippingsof three types: first, slanders on Jones’ personal character; secondly, false reports as to his activities and capture; thirdly, editorial comment in which political morals are deduced or the consequences of his raids are touched upon.
In the first category come such passages as the following:
“Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser,” May 8, 1778: The captain of the Ranger, John Paul, was some time ago master of a vessel called the John, belonging to Kirkudbright, stood a trial in London for the murder of his carpenter and was found guilty, but made his escape.
This is the seed, evidently, from which grew the following tale:
“Morning Post and Daily Advertiser,” Thursday, September 30, 1779: “Paul Jones, or John Paul, which is his real name, is a man of savage disposition. He was for many years a commander of a coasting vessel, in which time he committed many barbarities upon his crew—one of which will forever stamp his character as a dark assassin. Between Whitehaven and Bristol he took a deep dislike to one of his crew and meditated revenge, which he performed as follows: One evening upon deck he behaved with more than common civility toward him, and calling him aside to do something of the ship’s duty, the unsuspecting man went, when Jones desired him to lay hold of a rope which was out of reach; Jones then desired him to stand on a board (the board having been so balanced that a small weight would overturn it), which he did, when he fell into the sea and was drowned.... Thus he got rid of an innocent man without being suspected of murder.”
This story was repeated in a number of other papers with suitable variations, and once, on the authority of a “reliable lady of our acquaintance,” the then equivalent of our “reliable, well-informed sources.” Some of the news sheets accuse him, moreover, of being the son of a gardener, of owing his watchmaker money for several years, of knocking down his schoolmaster with a club, of cold-bloodedly sinking a boat-load of deserters with solid shot; of cowardice in refusing to fight a duel; of dishonesty in money matters; of “concealing a quantity of lead in his clothes to sink himself, should he be overcome by the English.”
Jefferson on English Hyphenates and English Perfidy.Jefferson on English Hyphenates and English Perfidy.—Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, Pennsylvania: “Those who have no wish but for the peace of their country and its independence of all foreign influence have a hard struggle indeed, overwhelmed by a cry as loud and imposing as if it were true, of being under French influence, andthis raised by a faction composed of English subjects residing among us, or such as areEnglish in all their relations and sentiments. However, patience will bring all to rights, and we shall both live to see the mask taken from their faces and our citizens be made sensible on which side true liberty and independence are sought.”Thomas Jefferson to John Langdon, the Governor of New Hampshire: “But the Anglo-men, it seems, have found out a much safermeans than to risk chances of death or disappointment. That is that we should firstlet England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, and then ally ourselves with her and enter into the war. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people and what is to be our security, that when embarked for her in the war she will not make a separate peace, and leave us in the lurch. Her good faith! The faith of a nation of merchants! The PUNCIA FIDES of modern Carthage! Of the friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of a nation which never admitted the chapter of morality in her political code and is now avowing that whatever she can make hers, is hers by right! Money and not morality is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But in addition to this the nature of the English nation forbids of its reliance upon her engagements and it is well known thatshe has been the least faithful to her alliances of all nations of Europe, since the period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and corruption and that is to say, under the Houses of Stewart and Brunswick.”
Jefferson on English Hyphenates and English Perfidy.—Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, Pennsylvania: “Those who have no wish but for the peace of their country and its independence of all foreign influence have a hard struggle indeed, overwhelmed by a cry as loud and imposing as if it were true, of being under French influence, andthis raised by a faction composed of English subjects residing among us, or such as areEnglish in all their relations and sentiments. However, patience will bring all to rights, and we shall both live to see the mask taken from their faces and our citizens be made sensible on which side true liberty and independence are sought.”
Thomas Jefferson to John Langdon, the Governor of New Hampshire: “But the Anglo-men, it seems, have found out a much safermeans than to risk chances of death or disappointment. That is that we should firstlet England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, and then ally ourselves with her and enter into the war. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people and what is to be our security, that when embarked for her in the war she will not make a separate peace, and leave us in the lurch. Her good faith! The faith of a nation of merchants! The PUNCIA FIDES of modern Carthage! Of the friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of a nation which never admitted the chapter of morality in her political code and is now avowing that whatever she can make hers, is hers by right! Money and not morality is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But in addition to this the nature of the English nation forbids of its reliance upon her engagements and it is well known thatshe has been the least faithful to her alliances of all nations of Europe, since the period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and corruption and that is to say, under the Houses of Stewart and Brunswick.”
Jefferson’s Tribute to German Immigration.Jefferson’s Tribute to German Immigration.—From Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Gov. Claiborne: “Of all foreigners I should prefer Germans.”
Jefferson’s Tribute to German Immigration.—From Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Gov. Claiborne: “Of all foreigners I should prefer Germans.”
Kultur” in Brief Statistical Form.“Kultur” in Brief Statistical Form.—A brief statistical abstract of comparative data which vitally illustrates German “kultur” before the war, has been compiled by D. Trietsch and published by Lehmann of Munich under the title of “Germany: A Statistical Stimulant.”Basis of ComparisonGermanyEnglandFranceStandard of civilization:Illiterates among every 10,000 recruits2100320Expenditure for education in million dollars2199665.25Books published (1912)34,80012,1009,600Nobel prizes for scientific achievements1433Economy and public intercourse:Grain harvest in million tons25.86.1016.6Production of wheat in hectares23.621.013.3Potato harvest in million tons54.06.816.7Foreign trade (not including colonies), in million dollars2.511.711.18Post offices, in thousands, 191251.224.514.6Telephones, in thousands, 19121310733304State of prosperity, etc.:Public wealth, in billion dollars, 191453.7586.2561.25Annual income in billion dollars10.758.756.25Saving bank deposits, in billion dollars, 19114,4751,1751,125Aver. savings bank deposits, in dollars20082.2578Taxes, dollars, per capita1018.2520State of peace and amount of armament:Number of years of war between 1800 and 1896122127Expenditure for armament in 1913, in dollars, per capita5.468.267.46
“Kultur” in Brief Statistical Form.—A brief statistical abstract of comparative data which vitally illustrates German “kultur” before the war, has been compiled by D. Trietsch and published by Lehmann of Munich under the title of “Germany: A Statistical Stimulant.”
Basis of ComparisonGermanyEnglandFranceStandard of civilization:Illiterates among every 10,000 recruits2100320Expenditure for education in million dollars2199665.25Books published (1912)34,80012,1009,600Nobel prizes for scientific achievements1433Economy and public intercourse:Grain harvest in million tons25.86.1016.6Production of wheat in hectares23.621.013.3Potato harvest in million tons54.06.816.7Foreign trade (not including colonies), in million dollars2.511.711.18Post offices, in thousands, 191251.224.514.6Telephones, in thousands, 19121310733304State of prosperity, etc.:Public wealth, in billion dollars, 191453.7586.2561.25Annual income in billion dollars10.758.756.25Saving bank deposits, in billion dollars, 19114,4751,1751,125Aver. savings bank deposits, in dollars20082.2578Taxes, dollars, per capita1018.2520State of peace and amount of armament:Number of years of war between 1800 and 1896122127Expenditure for armament in 1913, in dollars, per capita5.468.267.46
Knobel, Caspar.Knobel, Caspar.—It was Caspar Knobel, a German-American, eighteen years of age, who, in command of a detachment of fourteen men of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, arrested President Jefferson Davis of the Southern Confederacy, near Abbeville, Ga., and it was a German-American, Maj. August Thieman, who was in command of Fortress Monroe while Mr. Davis was confined there. Knobel, after two days’ march without food, discovered the camp of the Confederate leader, and, throwing back the flap of his tent, placed him under arrest. He received a part of the reward offered by the Union for President Davis’ capture, and was given a gold medal. (Washington “Herald,” May 10, 1908.) Maj. August Thieman died at Valentine, Nebr., in utter destitution. He had served as an enlisted man and officer continuously for over forty-two years. His record, on file in the War Department, shows that he took active part in 242 battles, and was wounded seven times. He served in the United States, Mexico, Egypt, and other places, and held autograph letters from, and was well acquainted with Lincoln, Davis and Stonewall Jackson. It was Gov. Thieman who was in charge of Fortress Monroe while Mr. Davis and his family were prisoners there.
Knobel, Caspar.—It was Caspar Knobel, a German-American, eighteen years of age, who, in command of a detachment of fourteen men of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, arrested President Jefferson Davis of the Southern Confederacy, near Abbeville, Ga., and it was a German-American, Maj. August Thieman, who was in command of Fortress Monroe while Mr. Davis was confined there. Knobel, after two days’ march without food, discovered the camp of the Confederate leader, and, throwing back the flap of his tent, placed him under arrest. He received a part of the reward offered by the Union for President Davis’ capture, and was given a gold medal. (Washington “Herald,” May 10, 1908.) Maj. August Thieman died at Valentine, Nebr., in utter destitution. He had served as an enlisted man and officer continuously for over forty-two years. His record, on file in the War Department, shows that he took active part in 242 battles, and was wounded seven times. He served in the United States, Mexico, Egypt, and other places, and held autograph letters from, and was well acquainted with Lincoln, Davis and Stonewall Jackson. It was Gov. Thieman who was in charge of Fortress Monroe while Mr. Davis and his family were prisoners there.
Know Nothing or American Party.Know Nothing or American Party.—A political party which came into prominence in 1853. Its fundamental principle was that the government of the country should be in the hands of native citizens. At first it was organized as a secret oath bound fraternity; and from their professions of ignorance in regard to it, its members received the name of Know Nothings. In 1856 it nominated a presidential ticket, but disappeared about 1859, its Northern adherents becoming Republicans, while most of its Southern members joined the short-lived Constitutional Union party. It was preceded by the Native American party, formed about 1842, an organization based on hostility to the participation of foreign immigrants in American politics, and to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1844 it carried the city elections in New York and Philadelphia, and elected a number of Congressmen. It disappeared within a few years, after occasioning destructive riots against Catholics in Philadelphia and other places. In St. Louis a Know Nothing mob, led by E. C. Z. Judson (“Ned Buntline”), attempted to destroy Turner Hall, the German Athletic Club, but was easily repelled by a group of resolute Germans, who guarded the approaches by stationing guns at the four street corners and riflemenon top of the adjacent houses. T. W. Barnes, in his life of Thurlow Weed, writes: “If a member of the order was asked about its practices, he answered that he knew nothing about them, and ‘Americans’ for that reason soon came to be called Know Nothings!”
Know Nothing or American Party.—A political party which came into prominence in 1853. Its fundamental principle was that the government of the country should be in the hands of native citizens. At first it was organized as a secret oath bound fraternity; and from their professions of ignorance in regard to it, its members received the name of Know Nothings. In 1856 it nominated a presidential ticket, but disappeared about 1859, its Northern adherents becoming Republicans, while most of its Southern members joined the short-lived Constitutional Union party. It was preceded by the Native American party, formed about 1842, an organization based on hostility to the participation of foreign immigrants in American politics, and to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1844 it carried the city elections in New York and Philadelphia, and elected a number of Congressmen. It disappeared within a few years, after occasioning destructive riots against Catholics in Philadelphia and other places. In St. Louis a Know Nothing mob, led by E. C. Z. Judson (“Ned Buntline”), attempted to destroy Turner Hall, the German Athletic Club, but was easily repelled by a group of resolute Germans, who guarded the approaches by stationing guns at the four street corners and riflemenon top of the adjacent houses. T. W. Barnes, in his life of Thurlow Weed, writes: “If a member of the order was asked about its practices, he answered that he knew nothing about them, and ‘Americans’ for that reason soon came to be called Know Nothings!”
Koerner, Gustav.Koerner, Gustav.—One of the most conspicuous fighters in the Civil War period, “whose important life is well documented,” Prof. A. B. Faust, of Cornell University, says, “in his two-volume memoirs. They furnish abundant evidence of the fact, well established by recent historical monographs, that the balance of power securing the election of Lincoln, with all its far-reaching consequences, lay with the German vote of the Middle West. Koerner’s modesty and unselfishness were extraordinary. He repeatedly sacrificed his chance for political preferment in deference to others less capable, and he surprised his political friends at the opening of the war by refusing high military rank, because, he said, he had not had the training needed for an officer. Koerner was elected lieutenant-governor of the State of Illinois, 1853-56, and in 1861 was appointed by Lincoln to succeed Schurz as minister to Spain. Koerner had the honor of being one of Lincoln’s pall-bearers, for few men had been closer to the martyr President before the election. Schurz, Koerner and Lieber,” declares Prof. Faust, “represent at their best, the idealism and independence, the honest, unselfish patriotism, and the intelligent action of the Germans in American politics.Their existence in American politics had not been marked by the holding of many offices, but on great national issues their presence has always been strongly felt. In the fact that they were not seeking anything for themselves lay their strength, their independence and their power for good. The independent voter is the despair of the politician and the salvation of the country.”
Koerner, Gustav.—One of the most conspicuous fighters in the Civil War period, “whose important life is well documented,” Prof. A. B. Faust, of Cornell University, says, “in his two-volume memoirs. They furnish abundant evidence of the fact, well established by recent historical monographs, that the balance of power securing the election of Lincoln, with all its far-reaching consequences, lay with the German vote of the Middle West. Koerner’s modesty and unselfishness were extraordinary. He repeatedly sacrificed his chance for political preferment in deference to others less capable, and he surprised his political friends at the opening of the war by refusing high military rank, because, he said, he had not had the training needed for an officer. Koerner was elected lieutenant-governor of the State of Illinois, 1853-56, and in 1861 was appointed by Lincoln to succeed Schurz as minister to Spain. Koerner had the honor of being one of Lincoln’s pall-bearers, for few men had been closer to the martyr President before the election. Schurz, Koerner and Lieber,” declares Prof. Faust, “represent at their best, the idealism and independence, the honest, unselfish patriotism, and the intelligent action of the Germans in American politics.Their existence in American politics had not been marked by the holding of many offices, but on great national issues their presence has always been strongly felt. In the fact that they were not seeking anything for themselves lay their strength, their independence and their power for good. The independent voter is the despair of the politician and the salvation of the country.”