Our People in American History, an oration delivered at the German Centennial Jubilee, at Reading, Pa., June 19, 1876

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:

;Uf fieoDle

ill;

lieiiGaa iptoif,

AN ORATION, DIOI^IVKKKD AT

German

THE

Oenteiinial Jubilee,

AT READING,

PA.,

JUNE

19, 1876.

BY

HON. DANIEL ERMENTKOUT.

READING, PA. U3 North Sixth 8trkkt

Danikl. Mii-M':k,

975.^3

aiV

—

OUR PKOrLE Oration

On

Ron. DANTKr. Krmkntrout.

v.y

the 27th of Aun;j;re}4a-

the bones of Fatlier

re[)rad-

a letter to Gov. Morris, of his disap])ointmcnt.

my

savages

the

,000 Germans were engaged

exj)edition to (Quebec. do(;k's exj)edition, he

tlu;

two

his

were victorious, and impressed

avoided the neighborhood of Bernville for a state that in

at-

they concjuered, and

all this

lies

hav(!

but,

been

and villainy."*

Pennsylvania owned by any

om;

31 VVc

now

o]iaj)tor in

wliother

Our

in

j'KOPfj-:

:i|)])roao]i llu; jU'riod of tlu; rovoliition, ;i our history to wliich Germans of all (;r(;(;(]s,

or nutivo horn, can point

foroijirn

ancestors

—

your countrymen

— knew

with

pride.

what tyranny

and 0])j)ression were. 'I^lioy had been (h-iven or lied from a country whither they had been the victims and sport either of the

ofall, with no aid

s})ite

invaders or of their

own rulmany dangers, and in from their own country, with

iorei;jjn

Tliey liad already

ers.

i'luvx]

any, from tlie Proprietary Government, they had maintained tlicmselves and made the wilderness to bloom and blossom as the rose. 'I'lieir moral life preh'ttle, if

viously had been unexccjUional. J-^th, Ivev.

Jed.

Andniws

Jn

writes of us

gent, sober, fnioal jx'oplc, rarriy

1 7.']0, :

8th

"'rhrieta-

Militia refuse to serve un-

officers."!

why Western IVnnsylvania was

not settled as the East was, by our ancestors, was that those lands l)eing claimed by Virginia, a parish tax was

exacted for su])[)ort of Knglish State.

pany,

200 be

Establishment

that

in

Several (Jermans proposed to the Ohio (^)min

whose charge they were,

families,

to take

and

settle

with

50,000 acres of these lands, if they could

exempt from

To

this tax.

this,

though favored

l)y

Tiawrence Washington, the State of Virginia would not agree,

and thus

this section

German emigration.**

lost

the advantages of the

in 1764 we find them memoriali/iug the Governor and Assembly among

Later

still

other grievances on the inequality of rejircsentation of *Gordon,

p. 31G.

Wciser's Letter, Oct.

•(Penna. Archives, 1756-60, p. 194.

**01d Redstone, p.

24.

2, 1755.

OIJII

](y

CKOI'LK IN

coiinlics of LiuKijistcr, Yoi'k, Cmiiborlaiid, JkirUs

tlie

Northampton,

tliey alto^cithcr

having hut 10

and

meinljor.s,

Philadelphia, Chestei- and JJucks s(Midinndcnt ministers, and at l^hiladclphia

a

German

sociiety

To

or Gesellschaft.

view of their antecedents,

ask the world, in

to believe that

this

majority,

with these means of information, with their intelligenee

and character, eonld so restrain the im])nlscs of their race and blood as to pnrposely "stand in the background,"

and be

floated

by the minority, without materially help-

ing to take the resolution to

fight, is

sonable burden on our (credulity.

member that in addition to among the Indians, there

])iitting

soldiers or the descendants of soldiers, who,

topher Lndwig, believed,

an unrea-

we must rehaving smelled gunpowder were many who were old 'J'hen

"Ohne

like

Chris-

Schwefel und Salpeter

keine Freiheit" (without sulphur and saltpeter no free-

dom.)

The cial

record is right on this j)oint. Tn the ProvinConvention of 1774 and 1775 appear names like

Schlosser, Jiudwig, Christopher, Schultz, P>altzer,

—the two

Gehr

from Berks county. In the Committee of Correspondence such names as Ilillegas, Engel and others. In 1774 the large meeting was held at Heading, in which the people declared themselves for liberty. latter

The names of Germans^are found «Gov. Thomas, April reiinHylvania,

by W.

S.

2;},

1747.

Perry, D.

in

abundance

in

Kpiscropul Cljurch HistorjMn J).,

p.

'Ziio.

AMEKIOAN niSTOUY. the Viirilaiice CoiniuiLt