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THE 
 
 STRANGER'S GIFT, 
 
 CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR'S PRESENT. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 HERMANN BOKUM, 
 
 Instructor in Harvard University. 
 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 LIGHT AND HORTON. 
 
 1836. 
 
.GvBfci 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1835, by Light 
 & HoRTON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 Press of Light and Horton. 
 Samuel Harris, Printer. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Dedication, 7 
 
 Introduction, 9 
 
 The Arrival, 12 
 
 The American Germans, 23 
 
 The American Dutch, 40 
 
 The Environs of the Mohawk, 54 
 
 New England, 66 
 
 The German Emigrant, 80 
 
 The Stranger's Hope, 88 
 
 Conclusion, 101 
 
2Suc!) }n QtUUtn Inar mefn f)bcSstcr W^umbcI), 
 3Euc!) ^u cxQttnn toat mem Ictjter ^bjecfe. 
 (52^cr nicf)t IJ10 Welt m semen JFretmtren sfeijt, 
 ITertifent nfc!)t, tiass tjfe SS^elt bon fi)m erfafjre. 
 
 Goethe's Tasso. 
 
THE STRANGER'S GIFT. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is probably known to many of my readers, that 
 in Germany, Christmas time is rendered peculiarly 
 interesting and delightful, by the combination of 
 many religious and social blessings and enjoyments ; 
 that almost every family has its Christmas tree cov- 
 ered with a hundred lights and many beautiful gifts, 
 and surrounded generally by a little group of happy 
 beings, and that friends and neighbors with holy 
 rapture then remind each other of the blessed tidings 
 that ''the Saviour is born." These and many 
 similar customs which have been handed down 
 from antiquity, and preserved by the kindly disposi- 
 tion of the people, are probably generally known ; 
 but only he whose childhood has been passed in Ger- 
 many, can know how fondly the heart loves to dwell 
 again and again on these successive celebrations. 
 1 
 
10 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 The time may have gone by, when you counted 
 the number of your years by the several Christmas 
 trees, which, as if by enchantment, flourished every 
 3^ear with new hghts and new gifts, but not so the 
 childUke spirit which a parent's love then planted in 
 your hearts. The mother's eye, in which the reflec- 
 tion of the child's joy shone with increased splendor — 
 as on the smooth surface of the lake, the image seems 
 more beautiful than the object which it represents, — 
 that eye may have closed forever ; but the scenes 
 on which it once smiled, and the intensity of affec- 
 tion which these scenes served to excite and foster 
 in the child, have not passed away. They have 
 pervaded his whole being; they have filled him 
 with enthusiasm for every good and perfect deed, 
 and — however lonely he may appear — they are his 
 constant and delightful companions, which seem to 
 become dearer to him in the same degree as the 
 world around him is incapable of enjoying them 
 with him. 
 
 As the dangerous roads and steep precipices 
 which threatened the wanderer on his ascending 
 course, appear like smooth paths on the margin of 
 beautiful rivers and lakes, when he has reached 
 the top of the high mountain, so does each new 
 anniversary of these domestic festivals become a 
 season of serene repose, in which all the joys of 
 your past life, and the many sorrows which have 
 been tarned into joys, present themselves; and the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 simple fact that they are jtast seems to confer on 
 them new Ufe and beauty. Desnous of shadowing 
 forth to others, by some outward act, the hap- 
 piness which you yourself enjoy, you make again 
 some humble gift the faint emblem by which you 
 express to the friends who have sped your home- 
 ward course, how much you owe to their love. 
 
 It is to recollections like these that the Stranger's 
 Gift owes its origin. It is offered to those who 
 have cheered the stranger's path through the for- 
 eign land, and who, in return, will kindly receive 
 this token that they are remembered by him. He 
 approaches them once more as a stranger^ since at 
 the time of Christmas, he can only feel at home 
 among the scenes of the past ; yet he indulges the 
 hope that this Gift will serve to strengthen the 
 ties by which he is united to them, that it will 
 bring him near to many a kindred mind, to whom 
 he is now a stranger in the literal sense of the 
 word, and finally, that the spirit in which this 
 Gift is presented will testify to the truth that we all 
 are but strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 
 
THE ARRIVAL. 
 
 Sturzen wir uns in das Rauschen der Zeit, 
 
 Ins Rollen der Begebenheit ! 
 
 Da mag denn Schmerz und Genuss, 
 
 Gelingen und Verdruss, 
 
 Mit einander wechseln wie es kann, 
 
 Nur rastlos betliatigt sich der Mann. Goethe's Faust. 
 
 It was a dark and stormy night of the autumnj 
 182- when by the welcome sound of land ! land ! 
 the crew and passengers of a Hamburg vessel, 
 bound to the harbor of New York, were joyfully 
 assembled on the deck. Not satisfied with the 
 certainty that they had arrived m sight of the 
 continent, many of the passengers seemed to rival 
 each other in eagerly inquiring, who first pro- 
 claimed the joyful tidings, what ocular proof 
 might confirm to them this unexpected news, or 
 how great a distance yet separated them from 
 the land ; and even the most surly of the 
 crew seemed softened by the joyful excitement, 
 and condescended to satisfy those to whose in- 
 quiries he had many a time replied by sending 
 them down to the steerage. Gradually, however, 
 this tumultuous joy subsided, the voices were 
 hushed, and most of the passengers seemed desirous 
 of dwelling on the peculiar associations which that 
 little light in the far distance, "the star in the 
 
THE ARRIVAL. 13 
 
 ocean," had suggested to them. As that hght now 
 appeared, and now again vanished, with every 
 wave by which the vessel was tossed up or down, 
 so did the feeUngs and views which it had excited 
 in the breasts of the emigrants change and fluc- 
 tuate unceasingly. 
 
 Though the number of Germans who had come 
 over in that vessel was but small, the nature of 
 their occupations, and of their intellectual cultiva- 
 tion, was probably far more different than is gener- 
 ally the case in those vessels which are almost 
 filled with emigrants. The impressions, therefore, 
 which a scene like the one referred to produced on 
 them, after that first moment of general rejoicing, 
 were almost as various as their different modes of 
 life. There is one whom, from his dress and 
 accoutrements, you would judge to be a sportsman 
 by profession : he has stretched himself on the 
 deck, reclining his head very unceremoniously on 
 the body of his dog, Avho is to protect him against 
 the savages in the American wilds, and to afford 
 him support by hunting the beasts of the forest, if 
 the importations from Europe should not prove 
 sufficient. His head is filled with wild and pleas- 
 ing anticipations, and the very indistinctness with 
 which they present themselves to his mind, seems 
 to form the principal cause of his joy. His foohsh 
 enterprise will hardly call forth a smile from you. 
 But there are others who wiU better reward your 
 1* 
 
14 
 
 attention. The thoughts of that merchant, whom, 
 from his pecuharly marked features, dark coun- 
 tenance, and the quick and calculating eye, you 
 would think to be a lineal descendant of Abraham, 
 have returned into their old channel, and with more 
 comfort than ever does he take the last price-cur- 
 rent from his pocket, and compare its data with 
 the amount which he has laid out in the enterprise 
 which now carries him to America ; and the glit- 
 tering and bright appearance of the light, which 
 the vessel is now rapidly approaching, reminds him 
 of the golden earnings which this adventurous pas- 
 sage of the Atlantic is to secure to him. Little is 
 he disturbed by the loud and animated conversa- 
 tion of the peasant's family near him. It would 
 hardly have left him unmoved at a moment of less 
 excitement, for he is a kind-hearted man, and 
 has often ministered to their little wants in the 
 course of the voyage : at present, however, his 
 mercantile speculations do not admit of any other 
 thought. That peasant's family consists of father, 
 mother, and seven children, who, as they readily 
 tell you, if you speak to them, have left their 
 native country on account of the multiplicity of 
 oppressions to which they were there exposed. 
 They are all honest, and strong, and willing to 
 work ; but their want of pecuniary means has 
 troubled them greatly during the whole of their 
 voyage. Father and mother are far advanced iu 
 
THE AKRIVAL. 15 
 
 years, and therefore not without anticipations of 
 physical evils which may await them in the foreign 
 clime, yet they console each other with the recol- 
 h ction, that they have not come over for their own 
 sakes, but that their children might enjoy the 
 blessings of a free country, and have the produce 
 of their labors secured to them. 
 
 Such, and more various still were the thoughts and 
 feelings which occupied the little group of Germans, 
 while a favorable breeze wafted them nearer to 
 the long-desired shore, and the little ''sea star" 
 vanished before the light of the rising sun. The 
 multitude and variety of objects which were now 
 presented to them in rapid succession, attracted 
 their attention so greatly that they had little time 
 for composed thought, until they had approached 
 the wharves of New York, and in the crowd which 
 seemed to welcome their arrival, took a hasty fare- 
 well of each other. 
 
 - It was a few days after the scene just described, 
 when one of the Germans who had arrived in that 
 vessel was walking in the streets of Philadelphia, 
 on one of those beautiful autumnal mornings, which 
 in America give an almost unequalled charm to the 
 parting year. It was a Sabbath morning. After 
 having been entirely without the elevating influence 
 of social worship during the whole time of his 
 voyage, he had felt deeply desirous of attending 
 the morning service in an Americo-German church. 
 
16 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 The novelty of the scenes around him threatened, 
 however, to prevent his indulging in the serious 
 reflections which his pecuhar situation naturally 
 excited; for every new object seemed to him to sug- 
 gest some inference concerning the habits and the 
 character of the people. When his eye dwelt on 
 the regular and simple structure of the private 
 buildings, and he compared them with the splendor 
 of the public edifices, he ascribed this contrast to 
 the democratic principle which is hostile to every 
 external distinction. He even welcomed this same- 
 ness, however wearisome it might be to the eye, 
 since he regarded it merely as an outward type 
 of that political equality, to which the Americans 
 in a great measure, he thought, owe their present 
 greatness. And when the streets became more and 
 more crowded, and he saw the well dressed and 
 sober looking multitudes, who, like him, were 
 obviously proceeding to the house of the Lord, he 
 judged from them of the general character of the 
 people. 
 
 In these, and many other premature, though 
 perhaps not entirely unfounded conclusions, he Avas 
 interrupted by the familiar sounds of his native 
 language, in which he was addressed by the peasant 
 who had come over with him from Germany. The 
 country in which both of them had just entered as 
 strangers, became of course the subject of conver- 
 sation ; but even the youthful and enthusiastic 
 
THE ARRIVAL. 17 
 
 German was startled at the emotion with which the 
 peasant rephed to the question, how he was pleased 
 with America. 
 
 '' Oh, we are poor," exclaimed he, " and our 
 prospects are very dark ; but we are no longer un- 
 happy. There is a feeling of joy in us which is 
 inexpressible; and it seems as if the very air in 
 this country were lighter than anywhere else. We 
 feel so free ! " 
 
 His countryman was about to express his sym- 
 pathy with his companion, and to remind him, in a 
 friendly spirit, that in his new relations, he ought 
 not to be satisfied with this vague feeling of free- 
 dom and independence, but to endeavor to become 
 a freeman^ in the true sense of the word, when 
 their attention was attracted by the tones of an 
 organ, issuing forth from a large edifice at which 
 they had then arrived. A hymn was played 
 which, in America, seems to have become natur- 
 alized under the singular name of "Old Hun- 
 dred," but which to a German is familiarly known 
 as one of the best compositions of that man of 
 God, Martin Luther. It produced a thrilling effect 
 on our German friends, by the many associations 
 which it excited, and without further parley, they 
 followed the well known sounds. 
 
 It is but little known or felt what a powerful and 
 beneficial influence a foreign religious service has 
 upon the character of the emigrant. If you should 
 
18 
 
 sometimes enter such places of worship, and see " 
 the thoughtful and serious countenances with which 
 they listen to their preacher, now bending far over 
 the gallery, that not a single word of the sermon 
 may escape them, and now slowly rising in order 
 to prevent the slightest wandering of their thoughts ; 
 if, on such occasions — unlike the custom of most 
 of the American churches — you should hear the 
 whole congregation joining in the singing of a Ger- 
 man hymn, and by the heaven-ascending tones of 
 their voices taking each of them a part in realizing 
 the object for which they have come there, you 
 would almost feel inclined to the opinion that there 
 is a deeper spirit of devotion prevailing in these little 
 foreign flocks, than is generally the case in your 
 own churches; nor are you perhaps greatly mis- 
 taken. It is not only the consciousness that religion, 
 ^' the home of the spirit," is now their only home, 
 which serves to produce a deep and salutary influ- 
 ence on them; there are many peculiar circum- 
 stances combining, which serve to excite a deep, 
 solemn feeling in their hearts. Sometimes it is 
 the mere fact, that though in a foreign land, they 
 are enjoying religious instruction in their own 
 native tongue ; or it is some simple, well known 
 adage, peculiar to them, by which religious truth is 
 brought home to their hearts with almost irresistible 
 force ; or some allegories and pictures borrowed 
 from their native country ; or some striking refer- 
 
THE ARRIVAL. 19 
 
 ence to certain customs and habits, which, in a 
 christian point of view, distinguish them favorably 
 from other nations. It is by these and many other 
 means, which he alone has at his command, that 
 a faithful foreign divine may succeed in exciting 
 peculiarly deep and lasting convictions, when ad- 
 dressing his countrymen on a foreign shore. 
 
 Our friends richly experienced the powerful 
 effects of these spiritual blessings, and when they 
 met again after the service, the old peasant said 
 with deep feeling, that he could not realize the 
 thought that he had actually entered a foreign 
 land. 
 
 It is not, however, the German service in the 
 Lutheran and Reformed churches alone, which in 
 Philadelphia has produced a most favorable influ- 
 ence on the German emigrants, and has made them 
 almost forget that they have left their father-land 
 behind; there has, likewise, some attention been 
 paid to their intellectual culture. The German 
 school connected with the Lutheran church, kept 
 by an experienced teacher, and carefully fostered 
 by the Lutheran divines connected with that 
 church, is in a flourishing condition ; the German 
 Charitable Society has procured a very select 
 library of 5000 volumes, consisting of the standard 
 works in English and German literature, which is 
 every year more or less increased, and in the 
 Foreign Library there is another small, though very 
 
20 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 fine collection of German books. It is by such 
 judicious steps, that the European emigrant gradu- 
 ally ceases to be a foreigner to the land of his 
 adoption; it is by furnishing him with the neces- 
 sary religious and intellectual instruction in his 
 own native language, as long as he is yet incapable 
 of understanding any other, while at the same time 
 every effort is used to teach him the language, and 
 with it the views and feelings of his American 
 brethren, — it is by such means alone, that the emi- 
 grant will be truly naturalized. Suffer him to look 
 back with a feeling of love and longing to the 
 land of his birth, and fear not to foster that feeling 
 by allowing him to serve the Lord in his own man- 
 ner, but teach him likewise to implant the same 
 principle in bis children, who are united to this 
 hemisphere by the same ties which bind him to the 
 other; teach him that though he may not hand 
 down the name of the country to which he once 
 belonged to his posterity, he may leave them a 
 name by which all nations shall finally know each 
 other. 
 
 Though in a somewhat different manner, similar 
 trains of thought had suggested themselves to the 
 young stranger, whom we have introduced to the 
 acquaintance of our readers, when, in the afternoon 
 of the Sabbath referred to, he had been desirous of 
 attending the foreign service in the little Swedish 
 church near the Delaware, — the oldest house of 
 
THE ARRIVAL. 21 
 
 worship in the city of Philadelphia. The ancient 
 and somewhat decayed appearance of the little 
 brick building, when contrasted with the far more 
 modern steeple, bore testimony to its antiquity, as 
 far as that term can be applied to anything in 
 America, and as a monument of the past, made 
 a pleasing impression on the stranger. In one 
 respect, however, he was disappointed. The 
 descendants of the Swedes who originally built 
 that church, had intermingled so entirely with the 
 American population that even the Swedish lan- 
 guage was unknown to them. The service was 
 performed in English. In the interior of the build- 
 ing, the Swedish countenances of the winged 
 cherubs opposite the pulpit, supporting a volume in 
 which the Lord's prayer was inscribed in the 
 Swedish language, seemed to be the only remains 
 of the foreigner who once worshipped, there ; and 
 but little more could our German friend discover on 
 the cemetery which surroimded the church. It 
 was but Avith difficulty that he decyphered a few 
 Swedish names on tomb-stones which were cov- 
 ered with the moss of a hundred years. "If such 
 is the fate of the stranger in this land," said he 
 mourning to himself, " it were better to relinquish 
 all attempts at preserving our worship. We also 
 shall dwindle away as the Swedes have before us, 
 and our very children will feel as strangers towards 
 us." It was, however, but a short time that he suf- 
 2 
 
22 THE stranger's gift. 
 
 fered himself to be carried away by these sad re- 
 flections. " It is but to our perishing bodies, and to 
 the name which they bear, that they will be stran- 
 gers ; for if they have served here indeed their 
 father's God, they will be his friends and our 
 friends, forever. Even now, with the eye of faith, 
 we may see these graves opening, and multitudes 
 issuing forth, who have served here the Lord in 
 spirit and in truth. We may see them approach- 
 ing the mercy-seat, and hear a mighty voice say- 
 ing — "The Lord preserveth the stranger." And 
 many blessed spirits who have been near them 
 during their short earthly course, are following in 
 their heaven-bound path ; and again the voice is 
 heard, saying — "I was a stranger, and ye took 
 me in." 
 
 More edified by these reflections than by the 
 English sermon, which in part had been unintelli- 
 gible to him, the young stranger returned to his 
 new home full of bright hopes and prospects, and 
 with the intense desire of acting his part in realizing 
 them. 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS.* 
 
 Jeder, der in einer Sache den ersten Anfang macht, oder, nach dem spriichwort- 
 lichen Ausdruck, das Eis bricht, hat das unveiausserliche Recht einzelne Fehler 
 zu begehen ; d. i. kein billig Denkender wird ihm dergleichen hoch anrechnen. — 
 Schloetzzr's Nestor. 
 
 Every man who makes a beginning in any matter, or, according to the proverbial 
 expression, " breaks the ice," lias the inalienable right to commit some faults j 
 that is, no fair-minded person will bring him to a too strict account. 
 
 You have probably, kind reader, asked occasion- 
 ally to be admitted to the little circular aperture 
 of some popular panorama, and with the assist- 
 ance of the experienced interpreter, whose art, 
 in Germany, is in particular demand at Christmas 
 time, you have seen the most beautiful represen- 
 tations of cities and landscapes, so quickly passing 
 your view that it was almost entirely out of your 
 power to ascertain the truth of the descriptions 
 you received from its enterprising proprietor. In- 
 deed, the latter seemed to know his tale so well, 
 that you might see him count the number of those 
 who, at your right and left, were waiting for ad- 
 mission, without being at a loss even for a single 
 
 * A great portion of the matter contained in this chapter was laid before the 
 American Institute of Instruction, at their last session, and some other passages 
 have been taken from a Review written by the author, and published in the 
 seventh volume of the Christian Spectator. The modifications which some of the 
 views tlier* expressed have undergone, are partly to be ascribed to the connection 
 in which they are now presented to the public. 
 
24 
 
 word. How dissatisfied did you feel, when finally 
 the little window was closed, and you found your- 
 self almost incapable of recalling any of the dimin- 
 utive panoramas which you had seen ; and how 
 readily would you have doubled the fee, in order 
 to see it over again, if such indulgence had not in- 
 terfered with the rights of your neighbors. 
 
 It is with a similar feeling that I now look back 
 upon the many and various views which America 
 has presented to me ; and if it were possible, I 
 likewise would willingly go once more over the 
 same ground, before I describe any part of it. 
 There is one picture, however, which, like the 
 paintings of the ancient masters, seems to have 
 gained in distinctness and vividness in the course of 
 time, and of which I shall now attempt to draw 
 the most striking features. 
 
 Climate and habit combine, in Germany, to 
 make social pedestrian excursions an agreeable 
 and very general means of becoming acquainted 
 with the country, with the people and with your- 
 self, while in America, excessive heat and con- 
 tinual changes of weather, but particularly the in- 
 fluence of the political and mercantile element on 
 the social character of the people, prevent them 
 from enjoying, in any great degree, the physical 
 and intellectual advantages which a walk of several 
 hundred miles affords. It was by pedestrian excur- 
 sions that Thales, Pythagoras, and all the sages 
 of antiquity, gained new wisdom, and the apostles, 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 25 
 
 I doubt not, new strength and zeal for the holy 
 work. It is likewise pedestrianism, I venture to 
 add, and other hardening exercises, by which our 
 modern sages and divines might be benefited, at 
 least as far as their physical welfare is concerned, 
 if they would practice them at an early period 
 of their lives. There is a reviving power in the 
 feeling with which you cast off for a time the 
 regular and ever-returning cares which from day to 
 day have fettered you down. The very recollection 
 of it fills your breast with youthful vigor, and by 
 arming you with new strength for the discharge 
 of your duties, teaches you at the same time how 
 to enjoy them. 
 
 It was on one of these extensive pedestrian ex- 
 cursions that I first became acquainted with the 
 German settlements in the interior of Pennsylvania. 
 They are called German because the land was 
 originally occupied by German emigrants, and be- 
 cause those who now own it are descended from 
 them, and are thought to retain the use of the 
 German language, though in many parts of the 
 interior a native of Germany will find it very diffi- 
 cult to recognise his mother-tongue. But a very 
 small portion have carefully fostered those principles 
 of religious and intellectual cultivation which they 
 imbibed in their own country. The greater portion 
 have not only been deprived of the light which their 
 forefathers enjoyed, but have been likewise excluded 
 2# 
 
26 THE stranger's gift. 
 
 ill a great measure from the influences which 
 operate favorably on the rehgious, moral and intel- 
 lectual state of the American people. 
 
 It is well known that the great mass of the first 
 German settlers consisted of redemptioners, who 
 fled from the oppression to which they had been 
 subject in their native country. It is also known 
 that by perseverance and industry, they succeeded 
 in benefiting the country which had received them 
 hospitably, and that they obtained a rich return 
 from the produce of their agricultural labors. But 
 it is far less known how little their religious and 
 moral state corresponds to their physical well- 
 being. The frequent and entire want of instruc- 
 tion, the necessity of gaining their livelihood by 
 great and uninterrupted efibrts, and the slow but 
 certain reward which they obtained from the 
 ground they cultivated, has been the cause that 
 they seem to have become incapable of raising their 
 eyes from that ground to Him who gave them both 
 to will and to do according " to his good pleasure." 
 The situation of their ministers almost prevents 
 their usefulness, when they have to attend to the 
 spiritual wants of six or seven congregations ; and 
 attempts at extending to them other means of 
 instruction have but too often met with decided 
 opposition, and have sometimes excited the most 
 unexpected and unaccountable suspicions. A very 
 devoted and benevolent friend of mine, for instance. 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 27 
 
 endeavored sometime since to form a Sabbath 
 school near the banks of the Lecha. For a long 
 time he could not ascertain why his efforts were so 
 Httle encouraged, until he finally was informed that 
 he was suspected of forming this school with a 
 view of increasing the tolls of the bridge over which 
 the children had to pass. The state of morality, it 
 may be easily imagined, cannot be a very high and 
 devoted one where religion has so little practical 
 influence. Though the love of self does in some 
 cases apparently supply the want of the purer prin- 
 ciples of a heart-felt religion, though — thanks to 
 habit and constitution — they fulfil conscientiously 
 many of the common duties of life, there is yet no 
 pledge sufficiently sacred by which they might be 
 prevented from trespassing as often as opportunity 
 and inclination should tempt. It is not the law of 
 God, but the law of man which they respect ; and 
 he who does not incur the penalty of the latter may 
 habitually sin against the former, and yet enjoy the 
 respect and support of his neighbors. In short, we 
 are ever and ever reminded here of the poet, who 
 well observes, that 
 
 " Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, 
 As to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
 But seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 
 
 When you enter the sequestered valleys, and 
 approach the habitations of the early settlers, where 
 
28 
 
 every new view presents an enchanting picture, 
 and every step suggests a poetical thought, as long 
 as you are only occupied with inanimate nature, 
 the almost entire want of elevation in the character 
 of the inhabitants of these beautiful regions forms 
 but too sad and striking a contrast. 
 
 This general want of moral excellence, however, 
 becomes most obvious to the eye of the stranger, 
 when it is openly exhibited by those, whose duty it 
 is to be the foremost in opposing the current; when 
 the intemperate and the dissolute foreigner is en« 
 trusted with the education of the young, and when 
 thus his own vices are engrafted on the susceptible 
 minds of his pupils. Even now you may imagine, 
 that you see one of these unfortunate beings slowly 
 moving along on the hilly road. He seems uncer- 
 tain whether he is to enter the village before him, 
 when suddenly his eyes meet with an advertisement 
 which he sees nailed over the door of the little 
 village-church. A teacher is wanted, he finds, who 
 is able to read and to write ; the committee of ex- 
 amination is to meet at nine o'clock in the school- 
 room. Just then he hears the village clock striking, 
 and without further hesitation he enters the room 
 appointed. After he has given them a fictitious 
 account of his own merits, a newspaper is handed 
 to him, which he reads without difficulty; he is 
 then made to copy a certain portion of it, and 
 satisfies the examinators beyond description. They 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 29 
 
 are about to consult whether they ought to give 
 him the appointment, when he inquires with a 
 satirical smile, whether their children are not to be 
 instructed in cyphering. "Certainly," replies one; 
 "Most undoubtedly," another. "Then please to 
 examine me on the Rule of Three." " The rule of 
 three?" asks the speaker, with a ghastly counte- 
 nance, and moves slowly backward. " The rule of 
 three ! " re-echoes the whole council; and succeed- 
 ing in gaining an advance of their leader, the 
 candidate is finally left alone with the children, 
 who have been merry spectators of the scene. 
 
 Where cases of this kind are of frequent occur- 
 rence, where ignorance and immorality, when armed 
 with impudence and protected by hypocrisy, may 
 obtain the most unlimited influence over the minds 
 of parents and children, there it is a matter of con- 
 gratulation, that the schools are only open during 
 three or four of the winter months, since during the 
 remainder of the year, the labor of most of the 
 children is wanted on the farms of their parents ; 
 nay, it may be considered a fortunate circumstance, 
 that many of the Germans are opposed to having 
 their children read and write, because they think 
 that it opens the way to every kind of iniquity. At 
 the same time, however, there is much reason for 
 sorrow on account of this strong opposition to every 
 attempt at introducing among them a sound and 
 general system of education. 
 
30 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 But a few years ago an attempt was made in 
 Pennsylvania to gain the influence of the rich Ger- 
 man farmers in favor of a system of taxation, as it 
 has been estabhshed in some of the New England 
 States. '' If we have a general system of taxation," 
 was their short but logical reply, '' the children of the 
 rich and the children of the poor will have the same 
 means of being educated. It is likewise certain, 
 that the children of the poor will have time to go to 
 school, while the children of the rich are employed 
 eight months out of twelve on their farms. The 
 children of the poor therefore will obtain three times 
 as much learning as the children of the rich. In 
 the course of time they will be sent to Congress, 
 they will obtain all the good offices, and finally will 
 rule over the children of the rich. — This shall never 
 be the case !" 
 
 If after these preliminaries you should yet be 
 desirous, my reader, to become more intimately 
 acquainted with them, — if you should wish to visit 
 them at their fire-side, and to listen to their social 
 efi'usions, you will be still more confirmed in the 
 conviction, that the state of the great majority of 
 the American Germans does not admit of any ex- 
 tended comparison with the general character of 
 either America or Germany. Although the little 
 cottage which you are about to enter is unadorned 
 and even unpainted from without, and generally 
 thrown into shade by the spacious and extensive 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 31 
 
 barn, which you see by its side, you will find that 
 its interior is not without all the substantial physical 
 comforts to which you may have been accustomed. 
 Nor is the reception with which you meet, — 
 however rough and unceremonious, — wanting in 
 heart-felt hospitality. Soon, however, you are 
 strongly reminded, that in one sense of the word at 
 least, you are not at home. The wild hunter, you 
 hear, has last night been holding his spectral chase 
 through the forest, and has made himself known to 
 the inhabitants of the cottage by a strange clapping 
 of the window-shutters, nor has the horse-shoe which 
 you saw fixed over the out-door proved a sufficient 
 protection against the visitors of the Blocksberg. 
 Finally, a blue light which has been seen for several 
 successive evenings in an adjoining meadow, seems 
 to suggest very naturally the question, whether the 
 inmates of the house should sally forth that even- 
 ing, and dig for secret treasures. The consultation, 
 however, is interrupted by the sudden indisposition 
 of one of the family. The powwow-physician is 
 called, for Indian and German superstitions have 
 become intimately associated in the minds of your 
 hosts. On a tripod in one corner of the room, 
 pieces of wood are placed according to the peculiar 
 laws of the doctor's art ; and by the burning of a 
 charm, the patient is to be freed from every 
 pain. 
 
32 
 
 The amusement, however, which at first these 
 strange proceedings afforded to you, is soon sup- 
 planted by feeUngs of sorrow and compassion, 
 which the conduct of 3^our hosts naturally excites 
 in you, and you turn round to the book-shelf, to 
 seek there relief from the humiliating trains of 
 thought which these occurrences have suggested to 
 you. The Bible, some books on dreaming and 
 witchcraft, and one or two German newspapers, 
 form the whole stock. In glancing at the latter, 
 you meet with another piece of Americo-German- 
 ism — German words with English terminations, 
 or the reverse. Their intercourse with Germany, 
 however, has obviously been interrupted for many 
 years, since the few new thoughts, which the pro- 
 gress in science and art has conveyed to them, are 
 entirely expressed in the English language. To this 
 circumstance, and to the fact, that the language 
 which the American Germans speak is not a writ- 
 ten one, its utter want of euphony is to be ascribed. 
 Every written language has peculiar laws of forma- 
 tion and sound, according to which, terms which 
 are taken from other languages may become natu- 
 ralized. It is very different with a language which 
 is spoken only in a community in which there is 
 no general intercourse. The elements which they 
 borrow from other languages or dialects remain 
 foreign ingredients, both in regard to structure and 
 sound. 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 33 
 
 But to return to our newspaper. It was at first 
 only the strange mixture of German and English 
 words and terminations which attracted your atten- 
 tion more than the matter itself. But how great is 
 your astonishment, when you find that the political 
 news which the paper contains, is the very opposite 
 of what you happen to have read the very same day 
 in an English morning paper. Where such glaring 
 deceptions can be practised, you have reason to con- 
 clude that even those who know how to read, are 
 greatly in danger of becoming the tools of designing 
 men ; and a second glance at the paper seems to 
 establish this fact. You meet there with a petition 
 which opposes the interests of education, and yet 
 many of the signers have been compelled to make 
 three crosses, because they are unable to sign their 
 names ! 
 
 It is now time, however, to leave the cottage. 
 You part from your kind-hearted hosts with a hearty 
 shake of the hand, and gladly accept a seat in the 
 wagon of an old farmer from a neighboring settle- 
 ment, whose company, you have reason to hope, 
 will be a source of instruction to you. At first, 
 however, you are not successful. In vain do you 
 endeavor to imitate the compound of several low 
 German dialects in which he addresses you, and 
 which, from an entire want of cultivation, has so 
 much degenerated, and has become so greatly alloyed 
 with the colloquial English, that frequently it is 
 3 
 
34 THE stranger's gift. 
 
 almost wholly unintelligible to a German directly 
 from Europe, and accustomed only to the High 
 German, and to one or two of the Low German 
 dialects. To speak in the language of Shakspeare, 
 they seem to have been at a great feast of languages 
 and to have stolen the scraps. Having failed en- 
 tirely in your attempt, and finding the farmer as 
 unable to understand your High German, you are 
 compelled to have recourse to the English language, 
 though it may prove but a very imperfect medium. 
 
 Your new acquaintance now proves to be much 
 more communicative than you have generally 
 found the Germans on your tour. You justly 
 praise his horse, and he speaks to you in return of 
 forty other horses, which he has in his stable, of 
 the land which he owns, and which extends as far 
 as you can see, and of his grown up children, for 
 whom he has bought several other farms in his im- 
 mediate vicinity. Finally, however, the conversa- 
 tion takes a political turn, and he proclaims himself 
 as a thorough-going Anti- Jackson man. You had 
 expected the contrary, since most of the Germans 
 were in favor of General Jackson's administration, 
 although the veto which he had put on the United 
 States Bank had given rise to much difference of 
 opinion. 
 
 "It is probably on account of the Veto, that you 
 are opposed to the administration?" 
 
 '^Veto! What Veto?" 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 35 
 
 " The President's Veto against the United States 
 Bank." 
 
 ''United States Bank! What United States 
 Bank?" 
 
 He had never heard of either, partly because he, 
 hke many other Germans, had a great prejudice 
 against paper money, and partly because he could 
 not read. 
 
 " And were you then in favor of John Quincy 
 Adams 7" 
 
 "No, indeed! No one who has had anything 
 to do with the stamp act ought to be elected Presi- 
 dent." 
 
 "With the stamp act !— You are mistaken; it 
 was John Adams who once thought of introducing 
 stamped paper." 
 
 " John Adams !" exclaimed the politician, with a 
 smile which was intended to express his conviction 
 how well he was informed. " And do I not know, 
 that this is the same man, and that he has only put 
 in duincy in order to make people believe that he 
 is a different one?" 
 
 " You are most certainly mistaken," is your reply. 
 " I am intimately acquainted with the history of the 
 two gentlemen, and I assure you of the contrary." 
 
 "I know very well that you are honest in your 
 opinion," retorts the farmer with great composure, 
 " but I know as well that you are mistaken; " and 
 without admitting any further reply, he leads his 
 
36 
 
 horse to the stable, where he now has arrived, and 
 fully convinced of his infallibility in point of 
 politics, he disappears within the walls of his 
 cottage. 
 
 Such are some of the results which a pedes- 
 trian excursion into the heart of the German 
 settlements presents to us. It is only from time to 
 time that we meet with oases, as it were, in these 
 fields, which are as barren and neglected in point 
 of intellectual culture, as they are fniitful and 
 abundantly productive in agricultural respects. 
 There are a small number of institutions, which 
 have been mostly founded by those who have been 
 brought up in the midst of the Americo-German 
 population, but who, by a constant intercourse with 
 Germany, and with the most intelligent portion 
 of the English community, have preserved them- 
 selves free from the evil influences by which they 
 are surrounded. They have founded seminaries 
 and colleges, and have gradually gained the confi- 
 dence of their German neighbors, whom they alone 
 are able to approach. Their lectures are partly 
 delivered in German, and partly in English, and 
 the ministers whom they send forth are likewise 
 taught to preach in either language. Such, for 
 instance, are the institutions at Gettysburg, York, 
 Nazareth, and in a few other places. In Gettysburg, 
 particularly, a spirit of devoted piety, and an 
 enlightened zeal, has been, and is now, exerted in 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 37 
 
 behalf of the Americo-German population, though 
 their progress is often obstructed by the very popu- 
 lation which needs most the persevering efforts 
 of these pioneers. 
 
 It is out of the question to think of a strong feeling 
 of sympathy, or of striking points of relationship, 
 between the German emigrants who have enjoyed 
 the common advantages of religious and intellectual 
 cultivation, and those descendants of Germans who, 
 by their language and peculiar situation, have been 
 placed almost entirely beyond the pale of civiliza- 
 tion. Seldom, indeed, have I felt so perfectly as a 
 stranger in this fair land, as was the case on my 
 visit to those " Germans." 
 
 How very little attention is paid to the foreigners 
 who settle in the United States, and to the German 
 emigrants among the rest, we may judge from the 
 fact, that the very name which is generally applied 
 to the latter, is one which they have no right to 
 claim. They are called " High Dutch," in contra- 
 distinction to " Low Dutch," a term which is 
 applied to tlie emigrants from Holland. The use 
 of these terms probably originated in the fact, that 
 the state of Pennsylvania was partly settled by 
 German emigrants, who first arri\red in New York, 
 but left that state, because they could not agree 
 with 'the Dutch, who then occupied the greater 
 portion of it. As they came from the region of the 
 Dutch settlers, and resembled them in their religious 
 3* 
 
38 
 
 and social habits, and as the German appellation 
 by which they introduced themselves, both in form 
 and in sound, was similar to the word "Dutch," 
 this latter term was very naturally applied to them. 
 They, however, as has been partly observed before, 
 spoke the Low German, which, as it is not a written 
 language, and is principally spoken by the illiterate 
 and uncultivated, has received various local modifi- 
 cations in almost all the different states of Germany. 
 The inhabitants of the Netherlands, on the other 
 hand, though originally branching out from the 
 Teutonic stock, have had a language and a litera- 
 ture of their own for the last three or four hundred 
 years, while at the same time the political and 
 commercial relations of that country have combined 
 to obliterate the traces of the German origin of this 
 language. Neither the High German, then, nor the 
 Low German, is understood by the Dutch, unless 
 by the assistance of the grammar and the dictionary ; 
 and the Dutch or Hollandish is likewise as ill 
 understood by the Germans. 
 
 Hudibras, indeed, asserts that the helpmate of 
 the father of the human race was tempted by the 
 serpent in High Dutch^ and the learned Dietrich 
 Knickerbocker speaks of the tremendous and un- 
 couth sound of the Low Dutch language of a 
 certain crew of Low Dutch colonists ; and after 
 having quoted the opinion of certain High Dutch 
 commentators, he goes even so far as to assert that 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 39 
 
 certain individuals have mentioned a man named 
 Thuiscon, from whom descended the Teutons, or 
 the Teutonic, or in other words, the Dutch nation. 
 
 But that these and some other Enghsh writers 
 have used "High Dutch" and "Low Dutch," in- 
 stead of German and Dutch, cannot weaken the 
 justness of the distinctions we have made, and 
 which are supported both by philosophical research 
 and by the strength of the best authorities. They 
 have been infli^iced by a popular error ; for such 
 it must be considered, so long as the distinctions 
 which they have made do not present the true 
 state of things, as it exists in Germany and. Hol- 
 land, and while they are in spirit entirely opposed 
 to the terms used by the inhabitants of those coun- 
 tries to which they refer. It may not be irrele- 
 vant to add that the term Deutsch, (nearly like 
 Doitch,) and that of Dutch, by their similarity of 
 form, shadow forth the true relation of the two 
 nations to which they belong, just as we should be 
 led to conclude, from hearing of "Britain" and 
 " Bretagne," that the inhabitants of the two coun- 
 tries had a common origin ; while the terms High 
 Dutch and Low Dutch would lead us to inferences 
 which are contrary to the actual state of the lan- 
 guages to which they refer. They are neither two 
 dialects of the same great stock, nor terms which 
 refer to the same language, but to a difference of 
 locality. 
 
40 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 It is almost needless to add, after this short 
 explanation, that all the intelligent and cultivated 
 German emigrants and Americo-Germans, who have 
 become intimately acquainted with the state of this 
 population, combine in heartily desiring that soon 
 this corrupt dialect of the German language, to- 
 gether with all its evil consequences, may give way 
 to the moral and intellectual light which, for more 
 than a century, has been the source of incalculable 
 blessings to those portions of the United States 
 which have been brought under its influence. 
 
 The picture which I have presented here to my 
 readers is one of which, in a great degree, I have 
 collected myself the necessary materials in the al- 
 most immediate vicinity of Easton, Reading, Leba- 
 non, Lancaster, and other towns, which originally 
 were settled by Germans, but the population of 
 which has now in a great measure become assimi- 
 lated with the Anglo-American population, since 
 for a long time past they have been with them in 
 a constant intercourse. It is owing to the vicinity 
 of these towns, and to the gleams of light which 
 from thence are thrown in every direction, that 
 some check is offered to the friends of darkness. It 
 is very different, however, in the Western States, 
 where a scattering and continually increasing for- 
 eign population opens a wide and unrestrained 
 field to the adventurous impostor. You may meet 
 there with a Pseudo-Count de Leon, who came to 
 
THE AMERICAN GERMANS. 41 
 
 the land of liberty to establish an independent hier- 
 archico-monarchical society ; and though you may 
 see his ultimate end frustrated, after he has com- 
 pleted the ruin of many a deluded family, you will 
 find perhaps some other adventurer more successful 
 m keeping his fellow-men in intellectual and social 
 bondage. 
 
 But I refrain at present from enlarging on these 
 deeply interesting topics, since I hope to extend my 
 next pedestrian tour to the German settlements of 
 the far West. 
 
THE AMERICAN DUTCH. 
 
 My meaning, in saying he is a good man, is, to have you understand me, he is 
 sufficient. — Shakspeare. 
 
 Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book ; he has not eat 
 paper, as it were ; he has not drunk ink ; his intellect is not replenished ; he is 
 only an animal — only sensible in the duller parts. — lb. 
 
 It is not uncommon to hear the opmion expressed, 
 that in spite of the great influx of foreigners, which 
 seems to increase with every year, they must soon 
 loose their identity as a distinct community, since 
 they are everywhere surrounded hy the American 
 population, and after a few years of residence will 
 always intermingle with them, and completely 
 lose their individual character. Those, however, 
 who hold that opinion, can know but little with 
 how exclusive a spirit most of the emigrants rest 
 not until they have arrived in the neighborhood 
 of those who are similar to them in language and 
 habits, and how the unfavorable influences of such 
 isolated portions of society continue to operate, 
 though for more than a century past there may 
 have been no further emigration from the native 
 land of their fathers. 
 
 The present state of the Dutch population in the 
 State of New York partly suggested, and partly con- 
 
THE AMERICAN DUTCH. 43 
 
 firmed in my mind, the general truth of the view here 
 expressed. However I might feel inclined to see in 
 them but the living monuments of the past, which 
 by the creative power of a great writer seem to have 
 been elevated to his poetical sphere, and to have 
 been surrounded Avith a bright halo, which you 
 would almost think had emanated from them, I yet 
 could not possibly forget that they are living monu- 
 ments, and as such do not deserve only the atten- 
 tion of the poet. 
 
 Although I had never before approached the 
 majestic Hudson, I had of course not remained an 
 entire stranger to the various associations which its 
 classical banks must excite in the heart of every 
 true American. You cannot but remember the un- 
 fortunate Antony, the sounder of brass, when you 
 pass the place of his last exploit, where his restless 
 ghost, according to the Dutch historian, is still said 
 to haunt the surrounding solitudes, and to mingle 
 the sounds of his trumpet with the howling of the 
 blast ; though after you have passed the promontory 
 which derives its name from Anthony's nose, and the 
 various places, which owe their celebrity to Peter 
 Stuyvesant of headstrong memory, you will more 
 readily dwell on the historical events of which the 
 Highlands remind you, and which then serve to 
 throw all poetical associations into shade. This was 
 at least the case with me when I was passing on from 
 the spot, where the traitor's plans were frustrated by 
 
44 
 
 the capture of Andre, to the important post where 
 these plans had been conceived and developed. I 
 Hngered for some time near this beautiful though 
 sombre retreat of the Polish patriot, amid the ruins 
 of the past — so rare an enjoyment in this youthful 
 land, — and in the sight of so beautiful prospects, 
 that even now, after having completed many 
 other and extensive journeys, I cannot think of a 
 place to which I would more willingly return than 
 to West Point. I continued my journey up the 
 Hudson in the evening, and could therefore quietly 
 enjoy the beautiful visions of the past. Forests and 
 cities, and all the pleasant views which the banks 
 of the river present in the day-time, were now cov- 
 ered by the dark veil of night ; and but here and 
 there some feeble, flickering light might be seen, 
 which from time to time directed us to some new 
 landing place. 
 
 It is at such moments, when the outward world 
 gradually recedes from our view, when the objects 
 which belong to external nature present themselves 
 in dim and indistinct outlines, and serve only to 
 afford new materials for the boundless activity of 
 our imagination, — it is at such moments that the 
 inward, the unseen world rises before us with all 
 the glow and splendor of its infinite nature. The 
 spirits of our beloved, who for a time seemed to 
 have parted with us, as they have parted with all 
 earthly joys, are mingling with the forms of far- 
 
THE AMERICAN DUTCH. 45 
 
 distant friends, whom our mortal eyes may never 
 meet again, but who are near us, as soon as we 
 are ready to approach them ; and they bring with 
 them the beautiful thoughts and never-dying hopes, 
 by which we have become forever united. As the 
 exhalations which rise from the earth are often col- 
 lected in dense and far-extending clouds, and in 
 sending down refreshing rains on the parched fields, 
 prove grateful children of her who gave them birth, 
 so do such glances into the past show us how, by 
 the dev elopement of our own immortal being, we 
 have become entwined with the lives of those who 
 are dear to us, how we have grown rich ourselves 
 in adding to their growth, and with a feeling of 
 peace which surpasses all knowledge, we exclaim 
 in the language of the poet — 
 
 " Say, what binds us friend to friend, 
 But that soul with soul can blend ? 
 Soul-like were those days of yore. 
 Let us walk in soul once more ! " 
 
 Nor does the light of by- gone days and past 
 
 joys only rend asunder the mists of the present ; it 
 
 throws at the same time many of its rays on the 
 
 path before us ; it teaches us to flee from the touch 
 
 of all that is foreign and repulsive to our nature, 
 
 and to preserve the chain unbroken which with a 
 
 thousand sacred links unites us to the hour of the 
 
 past. " The Prophet's mirror hangs far behind 
 
 him ! " 
 
 4 
 
46 
 
 My musings were suddenly interrupted by the- 
 cry of " Coxsakie landing," which reminded me 
 that my turn of leaving the steam-boat had now 
 come. Together with two or three other passen- 
 gers, I was placed in the boat, lowered with 
 incredible rapidity into the river, rowed to the 
 shore, landed with my baggage, and helped into 
 the wagon which was to convey me two miles 
 farther. A few minutes after, the noise to which 
 our arrival had given rise in the little village 
 subsided, the several lights were extinguished, the 
 fire-spouting "nostrils" of our steam-boat could 
 hardly be discerned in the far distance, and I was 
 left at full liberty to admire the combination of 
 great speed and comprehensive arrangement by 
 which the traveller in America is preserved free 
 from many of the vexatious details which impede 
 his course on the continent. 
 
 The stillness of the night, and the smooth road 
 on which our wagon now was moving along on 
 the banks of the Hudson, seemed favorable to 
 conversation if my driver should prove a social 
 companion. I opened our intercourse by inquiring 
 whether he could carry me to a Dutch landlord. 
 He replied, there was a German tavern-keeper of 
 high repute in Saugerties, the place of my destina- 
 tion, who was a very wealthy and industrious 
 man, and having resided for a very long time 
 in this part of the country, he would no doubt be 
 
THE AMERICAN DUTCH. 47 
 
 able to direct me to the Dutch inhabitants ; he hke- 
 wise added, that his wife was from Dutch descent, 
 and continued to enlarge on their good merits at so 
 much length, that we had reached the door of the 
 tavern before my driver had arrived at the end of 
 his eulogy. 
 
 It was on the following morning that I had the 
 pleasure of introducing myself to my German host 
 as his countryman. But for his hair strongly 
 sprinkled with gray, you would not have thought 
 of meeting, on his face, blooming with health and 
 good nature, the marks which sixty-five winters 
 might be expected to have left there. His active 
 habits had probably preserved him from that em- 
 bonpoint, which seems to belong to his office, and 
 the readiness with which he attended to all your 
 wants, seemed hardly to admit the thought, that it 
 was habit only, and not necessity, which induced 
 him to continue in his present situation. 
 
 "A countryman of mine," exclaimed he in toler- 
 able German, I am heartily glad to see you ; " then, 
 interrupting himself, he communicated to his wife 
 by the medium of the Dutch, the joyful tidings, that 
 I was not merely descended from German ancestors, 
 but that I had actually come from Germany, and 
 turning again to me, he expressed his desire of 
 being of service to me in a somewhat singular but 
 characteristic manner. 
 
48 THE stranger's gift. 
 
 "Certainly, (said he,) we must all die at some 
 time or other, and whatever we have we must leave 
 behind. I intended to work this morning on my 
 farm, but I think it would be better if I were to 
 introduce you to our domine, and afterwards take 
 a round with you ; I assure you we have some very 
 fine country here." 
 
 It has been said that on account of the entire 
 absence of ranks and orders in America, there is 
 but little opportunity of seeking for distinction by 
 associating with those who in quality are elevated 
 above their neighbors ; and it is therefore the quafi- 
 tity of them which is to make up for this defect ; you 
 must know everybody, if you desire to pass for a 
 truly popular man. My host did not seem to form 
 an exception to this general rule, for he prided him- 
 self of being acquainted with all the people whom he 
 happened to meet. He would stop from time to time, 
 and now address one in German, now in English, and 
 now again in Dutch, listening to their ready replies 
 with a certain affable and condescending inclination 
 of the head, which plainly showed how conscious 
 he felt of his own importance. 
 
 " My horse and wagon are engaged," said he, 
 when we had been informed that the domine of 
 Saugerties was not at home, "but our neighbor will, 
 no doubt, accommodate me, and I will carry you to 
 the next domine." 
 
THE AMERICAN DUTCH. 49 
 
 I readily consented, for 1 was desirous of becoming 
 acquainted with intelligent and cultivated men, who 
 for many years had resided in the immediate vicinity 
 of the descendants of the Dutch. I was likewise 
 well pleased with my companion, who I found had 
 good reason to say, that '' it would be difficult for 
 me to find, in or about Saugerties, another individ- 
 ual, who could speak to me in such pure German, 
 as he did." The dialect of the American Germans 
 whom I met there occasionally, I could understand 
 as little as that of the American Dutch ; but I cer- 
 tainly did understand mine host of the Saugerties 
 house, — though not always without difficulty. 
 
 We started in our wagon, on one of those de- 
 lightful mornings when the transparency and per- 
 fect purity of the atmosphere seems to invest every 
 beautiful object with additional charms. With 
 every breath you draw, the peace, contentment, 
 and supreme satisfaction which reign in your breast 
 are heightened without your being able to give any 
 reason for it, and without even caring for a reason. 
 Such, at least, was the feeling with which, during 
 the whole of that little excursion along the banks 
 of the Hudson, I beheld at my left that perfect line 
 of beauty in which the Kaatskill mountains are 
 gradually rising, the numerous and ever-changing 
 tints which the golden rays of the sun paint on the 
 verdant meadows and forests with which they are 
 covered, and the diadem of silvery clouds which 
 4* 
 
50 
 
 encircled their head, while on my right the undu- 
 lating banks of the Hudson, with its variety of 
 trees, flowers and shrubbery, presented from time 
 to time some beautiful villa, surrounded by orna- 
 mented gardens, or by a grove of shadowy elms. 
 It was in the midst of one of these groves, and on 
 an elevation which commanded an extensive view 
 of the Hudson, that the country-seat of our domine 
 was situated. 
 
 With the exception of the immediate vicinity of 
 Saugerties, there is probably no other place in the 
 state of New York, where there is yet preaching, 
 once or twice every month, in a corrupt dialect of 
 the Dutch language. However well their ministers 
 may speak Dutch, they are compelled to accommo- 
 date themselves, in this respect, to their hearers, 
 in order to be understood by them. There is of 
 course no learned Professor Poddingcoft to be found 
 among them, who might instruct the children of 
 the Dutch through the medium of their own lan- 
 guage. Many of them are therefore sent to En- 
 glish schools. In general, however, they do not 
 avail themselves of the advantages which the laws 
 of the state of New York in regard to education are 
 calculated to afford them. My host, who had trav- 
 elled extensively, remarked with great justice that 
 the almost entire absence of the academies and 
 higher schools with which he had met in New 
 England, had given a very different character to 
 
THE AMERICAN DUTCH. 51 
 
 this portion of the United States. In short, though 
 for many years there have been hardly any emi- 
 grations from Holland, the distinct character of 
 these descendants of the Dutch is yet so great that 
 you often imagine to meet with the originals of 
 the graphic pictures which Washington Irving, no 
 doubt, has drawn from life ; with settlements where 
 you would look in vain for a newspaper; with 
 Dutch damsels, whose full forms and neat dresses 
 are thrown into shade by the fumes of smoke 
 which issue from their rosy lips, and with Dutch 
 farmers, of whom you may well say " that they 
 certainly will never do anything in a hurry." 
 
 Similar causes have produced almost the same 
 state of things on the opposite side of the Hudson, 
 where the descendants of a colony of Germans are 
 found, Avhich originally were sent out by Queen 
 Anne. They occupy the districts of Germantown 
 and Clermont, and have lived there somewhat iso- 
 lated, becouse the German emigrants of a later 
 date, unlike Queen Anne's colony, emigrated from 
 Germany of their own accord, and had therefore an 
 opportunity of selecting such lands as suited them 
 best, and where they might hold their lands as 
 proprietors, and not as tenants, as is the case with 
 the greater portion of the descendants of the Dutch 
 and Germans along the Hudson. 
 
 Although this almost entire absence of emigration 
 mto this part of the country has had a favorable 
 
52 
 
 influence, these settlements are yet far from even 
 approaching the intellectual and religious character 
 of their American brethren. Many of them, after 
 having lost the means of religious knowledge which 
 the preaching in their own language afforded to 
 them, are now without any instruction, since they 
 are unable to understand Enghsh preaching. The 
 darkness which is thus gathering round them is 
 now denser than it ever was before, and there is 
 but little reason to believe that the hour before the 
 breali of day has arrived. 
 
 In the course of a few days, I had become so 
 well acquainted with my kind hosts, that when the 
 time had arrived at which I intended to meet the 
 steamboat, our parting terminated in a little scene, 
 in which the younger members of the family played 
 a very active part. During the whole period that 
 I had made Saugerties the centre of my little ex- 
 cursions, the beautiful and lively children of my 
 host had always greeted my return with the loud- 
 est manifestations of joy, and vied with each other 
 in proving that though absent, I had not been for- 
 gotten. They having now been told that I was 
 not going to return very soon, one of the little girls, 
 with rosy cheeks and fair curls, which in part con- 
 cealed her sad blue eyes, laid hold on my hand as 
 if she could not suffer me to go, and told me in 
 pretty good German, that she would " always think 
 of me, and if I would call again very soon, I should 
 
THE AMERICAN DUTCH. 53 
 
 find her grown up, and ready to accompany me on 
 my walks." 
 
 There is something in the inexperienced eye 
 with which the child looks upon the dimensions of 
 space or the changes of time, which is exceedingly 
 touching. If they see an equestrian leaping Avith 
 great skill over two horses, they will tell you with 
 great naivete, that they might leap over six if they 
 chose ; and if you admire the quickness with which 
 the billows of the river are carried along, they boast 
 of being able to arrive in less time at the ocean than 
 the swiftest river. Without experience, unconscious 
 of the evil which it may have to meet on its path 
 through life, and without a memory for the good 
 which falls to its share, the child often plucks the 
 wished-for flower to pieces, when a new joy is 
 thrown in its way. It is, however, this absorbing 
 enjoyment of the present, which makes a child's 
 countenance, when brightening at the coming of the 
 stranger, in many cases, the best thermometer of the 
 degree of attachment by which he is united to its 
 parents ; and often when, by conventional rules and 
 worldly cares, their eyes have been dimmed and 
 their sympathies made dull, the unsophisticated 
 child recognizes and gladly meets the approach of 
 a kindred heart, a childlike spirit. 
 
THE ENVIRONS OF THE MOHAWK. 
 
 Es tragt Verstand und rechter Sinn 
 
 Mit wenig Kunst sich selber vor, 
 
 Und wenns euch Ernst ist was zu sagen, 
 
 IsVs nbthig Worten naclizujagen ? Goethe's Faust. 
 
 Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts 
 It to utterance. — Shakspeare. 
 
 The attention with which we ought to receive 
 the first views of the traveller, depends as much on 
 the preparatory knowledge and experience in life 
 with which he sets out on his journey, as on the 
 opportunities for observation which he may enjoy 
 in the country which he visits ; but even he who, 
 with a mind that is fully matured and developed, 
 has availed himself conscientiously of all the means 
 of information in regard to this country which a 
 European has at his command, will often hesitate 
 to communicate his first impressions to the world, 
 since he cannot but observe that almost every day 
 presents new aspects and important modifications 
 of opinions and views which he thought established. 
 If it should be out of the power of an intelligent and 
 cultivated American to keep pace with the rapid 
 changes which succeed each other in the difterent 
 and far distant parts of the United States, if you 
 should see him filled with astonishment, when, for 
 
THE MOHAWK. 55 
 
 instance, a place like Buffalo, which twelve years 
 ago was an insignificant and almost demolished 
 village, endows in a few days a literary institution, 
 in the most bountiful manner, how much more then 
 ought a foreigner to hesitate in forming and express- 
 ing general views concerning the state of this coun- 
 try, after having resided in it for a few months. 
 
 I had approached the thickly settled and well- 
 cultivated environs of the Mohawk by the way of 
 Albany and Schenectady. But rarely do you meet 
 there with some ancient meeting-house and its 
 mouldering steeple, the Dutch inscription of which 
 reminds you of the time when the first settlers of 
 this valley met there on friendly terms with the 
 sons of the wilderness ; nay, all the recollections of 
 the past seem to vanish from your mind, when you 
 see the canal crowded with passenger-boats and 
 packets, the public road along the banks of the 
 Mohawk covered with conveyances of every descrip- 
 tion, the constructing of a railroad rapidly advancing, 
 and every kind of industry and agricultural labor 
 progressing with gigantic strides. Little were the 
 expectations realized — in which I had almost un- 
 consciously indulged — of finding on this part of the 
 Mohawk a great degree of tranquillity, peace and 
 retirement. 
 
 There are many who, like the emperor Hadrian, 
 are fond of reading an interesting book while they 
 hsten at the same time to a conversation of their 
 
56 
 
 friends, enjoy the beauties of nature, see almost 
 everything that is going on in their presence, and, 
 in short, "have their eyes always open." They 
 may without fear trust their persons to a canal- 
 boat, since they will there have an opportunity of 
 satisfying all their wishes. But there are others 
 who see in a beautiful prospect more than a mere 
 combination of field, forest and river; and their 
 minds often seem to be so exclusively occupied with 
 what they see and feel that they are lost to every- 
 thing else. The involuntary state of abstraction 
 and perfect unconsciousness to the outer world, in 
 which they are thus placed, defies all exertions by 
 which you may endeavor to rouse them. In this 
 respect they are like those others — though perhaps 
 their number is but small — who, when they have 
 met with a good book, enter so fully into the spirit 
 of the author, that they might be said rather to 
 reproduce than to read the work. May they never 
 enter a canal boat, since as often as they are on 
 deck they will be in imminent danger of coming in 
 contact with one of the numberless bridges, beneath 
 which they cannot pass without making a profound 
 courtesy or a formal prostration. But even those 
 who belong to the first class, and foreigners particu- 
 larly, who enjoy the happy gift of using at least 
 two of their senses at the same time, as it were, 
 will often be in imminent danger of losing their 
 lives. I have been told — and there is much reason 
 
THE MOHAWK. 57 
 
 for believing the account authentic — of a French 
 gentleman who was occupied with his book on the 
 deck of the boat, when the man at the helm seeing 
 him near the bridge, told him in a loud voice to 
 "look out ; " the Frenchman started up in order to 
 look out, and to see what was going on, when the 
 boat had reached the bridge, and he was instantly- 
 killed, falling thus a victim rather to the wide differ- 
 ence between the literal and figurative sense of the 
 term "look out," than to his want of attention. If 
 the canal-boats should be generally provided with 
 steam engines, the danger will be greatly increased by 
 the speed of the boat, since those who are not killed 
 after having struck against one of these bridges 
 have to ascribe it principally to the slow progress 
 of the canal-boat. The bridges ought either to be 
 raised or a prohibition issued against walking on 
 deck. 
 
 By retiring to the cabin, the traveller is indeed 
 placed beyond the reach of all these dangers, but 
 he is compelled at the same time to submit to many 
 disagreeable circumstances which are peculiar to 
 his new situation. The banks of the canal are 
 often so very near the windows of the boat, that 
 they exclude every distant view, and impress you 
 with a feeling of restraint, which rises to a painful 
 degree when the boat, in entering one of the locks, 
 pushes against its walls with a noise which seems 
 5 
 
68 
 
 to threaten its ruin, though there is no actual 
 danger. Besides these somewhat disagreeable cir- 
 cumstances, which prevent the traveller from en- 
 joying a tour on the Mohawk in one of these boats, 
 it is principally the character of the great mass of the 
 population along this canal which alternately excites 
 the most lively sensations of pity and disgust, since 
 it is the lowest portion of the Irish population, 
 with which he becomes here acquainted. They 
 confirm him in the conviction, if indeed he wanted 
 confirmation, that the large mass of the population, 
 who become naturalized in this country, remain 
 foreigners in the most important sense of that term. 
 A minute discussion, however, of this important 
 subject, is as little suited to the narrow limits of this 
 volume, as it is in harmony with the spirit of hope 
 and joy, which we would endeavor to preserve 
 uninterrupted on Christmas eve. I hasten, then, 
 without further delay, to carry my readers to the 
 city of Utica, where I left the boat without much 
 regret. 
 
 After a short ride from Utica, which from many 
 an elevated point has presented 3rou with fine views 
 of the town and the surrounding country, a scene 
 of deep repose unfolds itself in the same degree 
 as you are approaching the Rural Resort, as the 
 hotel near Trenton Falls has justly been called. 
 As soon as you have alighted, you are received by 
 
THE MOHAWK. 59 
 
 the twilight shades of a heautiful forest, through 
 which a path leads you to the chasm. 
 
 It is not, however, to the cascades, but to the 
 gigantic and singular character of the rocks, tower- 
 ing up before you, that your attention is then princi- 
 pally attracted. In walking along the narrow path 
 between the foot of these rocks and the margin of 
 the stream, you meet now with castellated walls 
 and high towers with their battlements and loop- 
 holes, and now find yourself suddenly placed before 
 the immensely massive columns of some ancient 
 temple, in which all the varieties of architecture 
 seem combined ; while at some distance a little 
 hermitage, perched apparently on the high rock, is 
 peeping from the midst of its verdant enclosure, and 
 immediately near you on the banks of the stream a 
 magnificent pulpit, constructed of circular masses 
 of rock, seems to be waiting for the spirit of the 
 waters, whose voice you hear, and whose preaching 
 has hushed every evil thought within you. These 
 are no far-fetched and fanciful similes. Together 
 with a hundred other as different and as beautiful 
 pictures, they present themselves to you almost at 
 every step; now perhaps reminding you of the 
 contrast between the idea of the infinite and your 
 own transitory existence, and now again by their 
 beauty and loveliness inviting you to seek there a 
 permanent home. 
 
60 
 
 THE STRANGER S GIFT. 
 
 Behold here a tree, which mysteriously growing 
 up from amidst the crevices of the rock, stretches 
 down its longing arms to the dashing stream: 
 though far above the surface of the water, its crown 
 is almost bathing in the silvery foam : thus it con- 
 tinues constant in its devotion, until it is rewarded 
 at last with a grave by the side of the same 
 stream with which it has vainly striven to be 
 united during its short life of unsatisfied endeavor. 
 Truly does that tree bear testimony of the long- 
 ing of the spirit within you after Him who alone 
 can quench its thirst forever. The CabbaUsts, as 
 well as Swedenborg, were right in a certain sense 
 when they said, that all that exists on earth does 
 also exist in heaven. There is a prophetic voice 
 speaking in that tree, and you experience the fulfil- 
 ment of the prophecy in your heart. 
 
 Or look at this long file of cedars on the top of 
 the rock. They all have turned their evergreen 
 branches to the genial light o^ the sun, and like so 
 many floating pennons, seem to be placed there in 
 honor of the triumphant coarse of the stream. Is it 
 indeed only a simile, if we say that like these wav- 
 ing pennons, the soul of man longs to turn to the 
 sun who has given light to it ? Do we not rather 
 meet here with one of the numberless analogies 
 which unite the spiritual and natural world, and 
 which we should find to exist in all the works of 
 the latter, if our eyes were first unsealed 1 
 
THE MOHAWK. 61 
 
 Such thoughts have probably suggested them- 
 selves to many of those who have visited these 
 scenes with minds susceptible to their elevating, 
 ennobling, and — I may well use the term — spir- 
 itualizing influence. They did not confine them- 
 selves to inquiries concerning the geological order, 
 thickness or color of those rocks, but found there 
 more than the visible world presented to them. 
 
 They have also felt with us, that if on that beau- 
 tiful spot many an earthly object may be said to 
 assume an emblematical character, and to be in- 
 vested with a reality which it wants in itself, on 
 the other hand, the prose realities of this world 
 intrude themselves in so unexpected a manner that 
 every thought of beauty and sublimity seems to 
 vanish. The dashing waves of one of the most 
 picturesque waterfalls, for instance, are made sub- 
 servient to the wants of a saw-mill, which is 
 erected on the banks of the stream, and which, by 
 its unseemly appearance, and by its character of 
 humble utility, forms a most ludicrous contrast 
 with the sublime scenes by which it is surrounded. 
 Those who have it in their power ought to prevent 
 such desecration of one of the most beautiful spots 
 in the country, and preserve the visitor of Trenton 
 Falls from an unpleasant interruption of his enjoy- 
 ments. The same remark we might apply with 
 equal justice to the narrowness and shortness of the 
 walks. Mountaineers and others, who have been 
 5* 
 
62 THE stranger's gift. 
 
 much accustomed to gymnastic exercises, may 
 climb at the peril of their lives two or three miles 
 farther than the usual walk extends. Up to Boon- 
 bridge they Avill find the character of the rocks 
 equally grand and varied, and many beautiful falls 
 which deserve as greatly the attention of the visitor 
 as most of those which are now generally accessible; 
 but to the female world all these scenes are of 
 course hidden treasures. We might add, that such 
 an improvement of the means of access would pro- 
 bably induce many to continue at the Falls for a 
 longer period than is now generally done, and the 
 question whether they are not principally attracted 
 by the excellent table at the Rural Resort could be 
 more satisfactorily answered, than it is at present 
 possible, when most of the visitors arrive shortly 
 before and leave immediately after dinner. If we 
 see at Saratoga Springs, or some other fashionable 
 watering place, the beau monde assembled for many 
 weeks from almost all the different parts of the 
 Union, and then approach a beautiful retired spot 
 like Trenton Falls, and are told by the public 
 album, that they have been there like passenger 
 birds hastening home, we feel inclined to embrace 
 the opinion that a true love of natural scenery can 
 hardly be a prominent feature in the national char- 
 acter of the Americans. 
 
 But it is, perhaps, their fondness of rapid and 
 uninterrupted motion, which prevents them from 
 
THE MOHAWK. 63 
 
 indulging their taste for the beautiful in nature. 
 Unequalled quickness, and a developement that is 
 unceasing in its progress, belong certainly to the 
 most striking elements of American life. Quick, 
 indeed, has been their growth from a few weak 
 colonies into a powerful body politic, and quick is 
 the motion of every limb of that body. Quick is 
 their rotation both in office and in wealth, and with 
 greater quickness still are they hastening into matri- 
 mony. Early marriages are here as frequent as 
 German courtships of five or six years' standing 
 are rare. Their very amusements are characterized 
 by quickness. Whilst Rome had its gladiators, 
 and Spain its auto-da-fes, America is satisfied 
 with a self-moving locomotive. The beauty of 
 the American fair, and that of field, forest and 
 meadow, unfold themselves with the same ra- 
 pidity. Now if quickness is thus manifested 
 everywhere, should travelling alone be excepted 
 from if? And after they have seen in less than 
 three weeks the Falls of Niagara and Trenton, the 
 White and the Blue hills, the natural bridge in Vir- 
 ginia and the artificial one at Washington, — is it 
 astonishing, that they should find it necessary to 
 rest for some time at Saratoga Springs ? 
 
 But no ! — This topic is too important and se- 
 rious to indulge any longer in pleasantry or satire. 
 It is only the patient study of nature, which can 
 lead you to a right miderstanding of it and fill 
 
64 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 you with true love for it. And without it, you 
 can but little know with how exquisite a feeling of 
 delight the Stranger has experienced what Shak- 
 speare perhaps has only thought^ when he says — 
 
 How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank. 
 Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music 
 Creep in our ears ; soft stillness, and the night, 
 Become the touches of sweet harmony. 
 
 Without it — with all your astonishing and almost 
 miraculous progress in every branch of the useful 
 arts, and every kind of mechanism, how much of 
 elevating enjoyment, of quickening and refreshing 
 feeling, do you lose on your restless course through 
 life! 
 
 In speaking of the very desirable extension and 
 improvement of the walk on the margin of the 
 Trenton falls, we ought to mention him who under 
 God has been most conducive in presenting these 
 falls to the public eye. It was John Sherman, the 
 grandson of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of 
 the Declaration of Independence and a member of 
 the first Congress, who first discovered and made 
 known the beauties of Trenton falls. As I have 
 seen the falls only at a season of grept drought, I 
 am induced to present to my readers the following 
 extract from Sherman's description, which, as a true 
 disciple of Yale, he closes with a short exegetical 
 treatise on the creation of the world. 
 
THE MOHAWK. 65 
 
 " The view of these falls," says Sherman, " varies 
 exceedingly according to the plenitude or paucity of 
 the waters. In the autumnal floods, and particu- 
 larly the spring freshets, arising from the sudden 
 liquefaction of snow in the northern country, the 
 river is swelled a hundred fold, and comes rushing 
 in a vast body of tumultuous foam from the summit 
 rock into the broad bason at the bottom. It is at 
 this time tremendous indeed, and overpowers man's 
 feeble frame with the paralyzing impression of om- 
 nipotence." 
 
 Though you may justly complain, that his words, 
 full of meaning and power, are sometimes breaking 
 upon you like the cascades of Trenton, without 
 your being prepared for it by the gradually increas- 
 ing current of particles and adjectives, — he ob- 
 viously possessed deep poetical feeling and a strong 
 love for natural scenery, which sometimes breaks 
 through all his far-fetched images. We cannot but 
 love him, when after one of his powerful attempts 
 at poetical description, he exclaims — 
 
 " Forgive me. Nature ! — I have merely attempted 
 to illustrate my own conceptions. Others, I know, 
 are far more competent to minister in the gorgeous 
 temple of thy praise ! " 
 
 No, honest Sherman; it is the devotion of the 
 heart, and not that of the head, which is to minister 
 there, and in that respect few are better qualified 
 than thy own humble self. 
 
NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 But answer undissembling ; tell me true ; 
 
 Who art thou ? whence? where stands thy city? where 
 
 Thy father's mansion ? In what kind of ship 
 
 Cam'st thou? Why steered the mariners their course 
 
 To Ithaca ? and of what land are they ? 
 
 For that on foot thou found'st it not is sure. Cowper's Odyssey. 
 
 I do beseech you, 
 
 (Chiefly that I might put it in my prayers,) 
 
 What is your name? Shakspeare. 
 
 "Welch Gewerb treibt dich 
 
 Durch des Tages Hitze den staubigen Pfad her? 
 
 Bringst du Waaren aus der Stadt 
 
 Im Landd herum?- 
 
 In a country like ours, of which the ItaUan 
 "lasciar far" seems to be the most appropriate 
 motto, and free and voUuitary action one of the 
 most striking features, the pecuUar and very dif- 
 ferent characters of the first settlers has naturally 
 produced so powerful an influence on their descend- 
 ants that even at the present day, it is everywhere 
 visible, and will remain so for many ages yet to 
 come. He who has visited in rapid succession the 
 descendants of the Germans in Pennsylvania and 
 Ohio, of the Dutch in New York and New Jersey, 
 of the Scotch in North Carolina, of the French in 
 Louisiana, and of the English in the New England 
 
NEW ENGLAND. 67 
 
 States, will probably think with us that only after 
 the greatest familiarity with the early history of 
 America, can the traveller arrive at a very satisfac- 
 tory opinion concerning its present state, and the 
 causes to which it owes its distinct and individual 
 character; and that the practicability of applying 
 the simple principles on which the government of 
 this country is based, must necessarily depend on 
 the degree of knowledge and morality to be found 
 among the different classes of its population. 
 
 1 was impressed in a very lively manner with 
 the truth of these remarks, when, shortly after my 
 excursions into the interior of the states of Pennsyl- 
 vania and New York, I made a short journey through 
 some of the New England states. We meet no longer 
 here with the mistaken views concerning the rela- 
 tions of religion and society which gave rise to the 
 promulgation of the law " that no one shall be a 
 freeman or give a vote, unless he be converted, and 
 a member in full communion of one of the churches 
 allowed in this Dominion." "Quaker and Adamite" 
 are no longer left without food or lodging, and the 
 aversion to the established church, which caused 
 the pilgrim fathers to proclaim that no one should 
 read common prayer, or keep saints' days, and 
 which induced them to include even Christfuas 
 day in this general condemnation, has given way 
 to a more liberal and tolerant spirit, which does 
 not pretend to make religious belief and prac- 
 
68 
 
 tice subject to human legislation, as long as it does 
 not interfere with the rights of others. 
 
 But in abandoning those mistaken views of the 
 original settlers, many of their peculiar and endear- 
 ing customs are faithfully retained, and serve as a 
 sacred bond of union between the present and the 
 past. It is from this point of view that the Stran- 
 ger regards with deep interest the day which sees 
 all the members of a family collecting around their 
 head, in order to join in the enjoyments of social 
 intercourse, and to dwell with a filial spirit on the 
 day when their forefathers, with thankful hearts, first 
 assembled around the festive board. From similar 
 reasons, the custom of devoting Saturday eve to 
 contemplation aud religious exercises has been en- 
 deared to him, — a custom which prevails in most 
 of the New England states ; and when he hears 
 the chiming of the bells in the evening, he sympa- 
 thizes with the sons of New England, who are re- 
 minded by that sound of the hour when their fore- 
 fathers ceased from their labors, and with a prayer- 
 ful spirit committed their cares to the Lord. 
 
 It was not, however, by these religious customs 
 alone, that on my first tour through New England 
 I was strongly reminded of the peculiar character 
 of the original settlers of this part of the country. 
 In the political and social life, as well as in many 
 personal peculiarities of the New Englander, you 
 recognize in various forms that spirit of fearless 
 
NEW ENGLAND. 69 
 
 inquiry, of daring enterprize, and of incessant in- 
 dustry, which characterized the pilgrim fathers. 
 
 On a fine spring morning, and at that quiet hour 
 when 
 
 " The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, 
 And 'gins to pale his ineifectual fire," 
 
 I had started on foot from Hartford, with the inten- 
 tion of visiting some of the most interesting places 
 in New England. The quotation might he applied 
 Uterally to my case, when, by a sudden turn of my 
 road, I had come in sight of a host of fire-flies, which 
 were now rising in sparkling clouds, and now in 
 serpentine flights partly disappearing in the forest, 
 so that I found it at first somewhat difficult to per- 
 suade myself that it was not a conflagration which 
 I saw before me. Soon, however, I felt at home 
 among these bright and quiet companions, particu- 
 larly as they seemed to be the only inhabitants of 
 the silent forest. In Germany at that season of the 
 year, and at that hour, it is the nightingale which, 
 with her most plaintive and soul-like tones, seems to 
 express a conscious regret in giving up her dominion 
 to the lark, which, gradually rising in a beautiful 
 spiral line, ushers in the new morn with a triumphal 
 hymn. 
 
 The American forests, like the Americans them- 
 selves, seem to be without national music and song, 
 and many of the beautiful references to the inhabi- 
 6 
 
70 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 tants of the air with which we meet in the English 
 poets, can but Httle interest the American, who is a 
 stranger to those birds, while they remind the Ger- 
 man of the delightful hour in which at home he 
 listened to their songs. It is probably owing to this 
 circumstance that the mocking-bird, the " Magnus 
 Apollo " of the American forest, has been called the 
 American nightingale, though this bird is almost 
 entirely wanting in originality and individuality, 
 and copies his fellow beings with so little dis- 
 crimination, that whilst now, perhaps, you listen to 
 his sweet imitations of the robin or the thrush, you 
 may hear him, in the next moment, barking like a 
 dog. 
 
 The light of the morning presented to me a series 
 of pictures, which were not wanting in novel and 
 very striking features. The numberless meeting- 
 houses, which in New England far more than in 
 other parts of the Union are generally adorned with 
 spires and steeples, remind the traveller here again 
 of the religious spirit by which the community is 
 pervaded, and by the power of which, all these in- 
 stitutions of the gospel are supported by voluntary 
 contributions. The neat school-houses which are 
 seen from time to time at some distance from the 
 road, and the very appearance of teachers and 
 scholars, seem to speak well of the attention paid to 
 elementary instruction, and almost at every step in- 
 stances of the active and enterprising spirit present 
 
NEW ENGLAND. 71 
 
 themselves, by which the New Englander is enabled 
 to avail himself of every opportunity of improving 
 his situation, and of adding taste and comfort to the 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 I had not proceeded very far on my journey, when 
 I was joined by another pedestrian, who with very 
 little ceremony introduced himself to me as a child of 
 New England. " I know it is a Yankee question," 
 said he, ''but I cannot help asking, where do you 
 come from 7 " Having been set at ease by the readi- 
 ness with which I replied, he did not fail to express 
 various suppositions and inferences concerning my 
 person. My knapsack, and two books which I 
 carried in my hand, induced him to believe that I 
 was engaged in selling some popular work ; the 
 admiration with which I spoke of the beautiful 
 scenery on the banks of the Connecticut, made him 
 exclaim, in a voice that bespoke his anticipation of 
 success, " Surely you are a painter ; " and finally, 
 when I happened to make some inquiries about 
 the state of the public schools, he expressed the 
 positive conclusion, that I must be a teacher ! 
 
 I was more pleased than astonished or vexed 
 with this inquisitiveness, since it was not by any 
 means confined to personalities. Wherever we meet 
 with a scattered population of active mental habits, 
 without the means of acquiring extensive informa- 
 tion, we shall find the same characteristic feature. 
 Ulysses is always found ready to satisfy the ques- 
 
72 
 
 tions addressed to him ; and Paul, without even a 
 shadow of reproof, avails himself of the inquisi- 
 tiveness of the Athenians, to lead them to the 
 cross of Christ. It is this feature in the New 
 England character, which, under the influence of 
 a high degree of cultivation, and divested of 
 selfishness by the power of religion, or the habitual 
 intercourse with good society, strongly resembles 
 the ease and readiness with which strangers Icom- 
 municate in Germany, and which is often productive 
 of the most interesting meetings, the most intimate 
 friendships. It is owing to the entire absence of 
 distinct orders, and to the great conflux of foreigners, 
 which gives, as it were, a compound national char- 
 acter to this country, that this pleasing feature in 
 the social tendencies of the Americans does not 
 manifest itself with the same freedom as is the case 
 in other countries ; but it must become more promi- 
 nent, in the same degree as the higher circles of 
 society become more distinct and exclusive; how- 
 ever different the basis of this distinction may be 
 from some of the continental countries. 
 
 In returning now once more to our New Eng- 
 lander, we ought to remember that it is owing to 
 his fondness of inquiry that we find it perhaps more 
 easy in New England than in any other part of the 
 Union, to obtain important information concerning 
 the different relations of public and private life, and 
 almost every subject of general interest. 
 
NEW ENGLAND. 73 
 
 My companion, at least, did not form an excep- 
 tion to this rule. Having ascertained that I was 
 then on my way to New Haven, he directed me to 
 visit the grave of the judges of Charles I., who were 
 hospitably received by the colony, when compelled 
 to leave England ; he spoke of the dangers to which 
 they were exposed, when they were pursued by the 
 soldiers of Charles H., and of the happy manner in 
 which their minister interested his flock in their be- 
 half, by addressing them in the language of Isaiah — 
 *' Take council, execute judgment, make thy shadow 
 as the night in the midst of noon-day ; hide the out- 
 casts; betray not him that wandereth. Let my 
 outcasts dwell with thee, Moab ; be thou a covert 
 to them from the face of the spoiler." He even 
 described the cave in which the judges were con- 
 cealed, and the bridge beneath which they found a 
 safe retreat, while their pursuers were riding over 
 it to continue their idle search; and finally, con- 
 cluded with the remark, that even until the present 
 day their grave-stones had been left untouched, 
 while all the others had been removed. By these 
 and many other interesting details, I was not only 
 assisted in entering deeply into the spirit and char- 
 acter of the community to which he belonged, but I 
 likewise found that many of my views in regard to 
 the early history of New England were both modi- 
 fied and enriched by his communications ; and I 
 was more than ever confirmed in the conviction, that 
 6* 
 
74 THE STRANGER'S GIFT. 
 
 the stranger must literally intermingle with all the 
 classes of the people, if he wishes to enter into their 
 modes of thought, and into the causes by which 
 their views of life have been formed. It is by such 
 a course, and not by confining himself to the study 
 or the saloon, that in a christian spirit he will have 
 a right to adopt the well-known motto — ''I am 
 a man, and feel akin to everything human;" 
 that in the heart of America he will meet with 
 aged men who are intelligent as well as contented, 
 and little inclined to ask, in the language of the 
 French citizen — '^ Can we not be a little more equal 
 than our friends?" and with young men who are 
 ready to say, in the spirit of Telemachus — 
 
 " Shame bids the youth beware 
 How he accosts the man of many years j 
 
 that he may see a servant who combines the dignity 
 of a republican with the devotion of a Caleb, parting 
 from his hosts, who, in spite of the general influence 
 of their occupation, have preserved a warm heart 
 beating in their bosoms. After a few days of ac- 
 quaintance, they have become so much attached to 
 him, that they cannot bear the thought of being left 
 without further news from him ; and their new 
 friend, in return, readily promises to "drop them a 
 line." In short, on such excursions among the people 
 you may meet, again and again, with a spirit of 
 <' Gemiithlichkeit, Sinnigkeit und Innigkeit," — to 
 
NEW ENGLAND. 75 
 
 which the Germans sometimes, though unjustly, 
 claim an exclusive right, because their language 
 alone is able to express it. Truly, indeed, says the 
 great poet — 
 
 *' All places that the eye of heaven visits, 
 Are to the wise man ports and happy havens." 
 
 In the city of '' brotherly love," and in that of 
 '' elm trees," on the peaks of the Highlands and in 
 the cottage of the New England farmer, you may 
 often, like the traveller among the Lotophagi, feel 
 " at home," and experience without regret that 
 the recollections of the happy hours which you 
 have spent on the banks of the Connecticut, or the 
 Hudson, are imperceptibly and delightfully min- 
 gling with your reminiscences of the Rhine or — the 
 Pregel ! 
 
 It was shortly after my arrival in New Haven 
 that I became more intimately acquainted with 
 some of the modifications and alterations, which 
 the enactments of the early settlers had undergone. 
 In the same state, where once the drum, the trum- 
 pet, and the jews-harp alone were allowed to be 
 played, German ballads set to music, and accom- 
 panied by the piano, are now frequently heard from 
 American lips, and are received with general favor. 
 When Schubart's composition of the Erlkonig^ for 
 instance, was once sung and played in the presence 
 of several Americans, one of them exclaimed, with 
 
76 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 great enthusiasm and true feeling — " Who can hear 
 this without being deepl}^ moved ?" — and paid thus a 
 genuine tribute to the poet and composer, as well as 
 to the performer, a lady from Philadelphia, who with 
 a kindred spirit had deeply entered into their joint 
 production, and thus unconsciously shown, that 
 though without national music, the American may 
 sometimes feel consoled by the poetical power with 
 which he transposes himself, as it were, into the 
 musical life of other nations. 
 
 The stranger who has once visited New Haven, 
 cannot but dwell again and again on the enlightened 
 and well-directed taste for almost every branch of 
 science, which pervades the community in general, 
 and the great attention paid, particularly by the 
 female world, to German literature and music. In 
 the language of Madame de Stael : — ''On mene 
 dans cette campagne nommee ville une vie reguliere, 
 occupee et serieuse, on n'y degrade jamais son 
 esprit par des interets futiles et vulgaires." 
 
 The following translation, in which the spirit of 
 the original is most happily preserved, was prepared 
 in New Haven by the lady of whom 1 have spoken 
 above, and will serve to prove the truth of our re- 
 marks, as in part they have been suggested by it. 
 It was originally published in the Christian Specta- 
 tor, with the explanatory remarks preceding it. 
 
THE LOST CHURCH. 
 
 [The poet is speaking of the tradition respecting a lost Church, and the occa- 
 sional sounding of its bell. In this tradition lie finally recognizes the spirit of 
 martyrdom and self-devotion, of that deep and fervent, all-pervading piety which 
 once characterized the church ; and in the sound of the bell, he hears the voice of 
 conscience, whose tones of solemn admonition are reverberating in undying faith- 
 fulness.] 
 
 Far in the forest's thickly wooded green, 
 The sound of bells is heard, as from above ; 
 The rush of waters to the dark ravine 
 Sweeps not more wildly ; — yet can none remove 
 The mists which ever hang upon the sound, 
 And e'en tradition is in silence bound. 
 
 From the lost church, 't is said, the chime is borne, 
 And by the wind to this dark forest brought ; 
 The path deserted now, defaced and torn, 
 How many travellers once with ardor sought ! 
 To the lost church the narrow pathway led, 
 But every vestige of that path has fled. 
 
 As late I wandered to that leafy shade, 
 Where trodden path no longer marks the sod, 
 My soul against corruption seemed arrayed ; 
 I wept, and longed to find a home with God ! 
 
78 
 
 In this lone spot, the bell's mysterious voice, 
 With hollow murmurings, seemed to say — Rejoice ! 
 
 Darkness and silence hung on all around ; 
 Again I heard the deep and solemn chime, 
 And as I followed the unearthly sound, 
 My soul, exalted, left the things of time ; 
 Thou holy trance ! e'en now I cannot tell 
 How all my being rose beneath that bell. 
 
 An age, it seemed, had been vouchsafed to me, 
 To dream the clouds of sin and sense away ; 
 Clear as the light, a space unbounded, free. 
 Above the mists, unclosed with brightest day. 
 How bright that sun ! how deeply blue that sky ! 
 And there a minster stood in sanctity. 
 
 It shone resplendent in the gorgeous ray, 
 And winged winds seemed bearing it afar ; 
 The steeple's point had vanished quite away, 
 Far, far beyond the light of sun and star ; 
 Yet still I caught the ringing of that bell, 
 With sound more sweet than ever words can tell. 
 
 Yes, from the steeple they came floating by. 
 Yet not by mortal hand the peal was given ; 
 It breathed of light, and love, and harmony, 
 Moved by the blessed violence of heaven. 
 The very sound seemed near my heart to beat, 
 And drew within that splendid dome my feet. 
 
THE LOST CHURCH. 79 
 
 Oh ! how I felt within that sweet abode ! 
 
 The windows darkly gleamed with antique hue, 
 
 The mystic light o'er painted martyrs glowed, 
 
 And into life the holy portraits grew : 
 
 Upon a world of sainted ones I gazed ; 
 
 I heard the hymn the noble martyrs raised. 
 
 Before that altar I devoutly bowed, 
 And deepest love my all of being filled : 
 Upon the ceiling heaven's image glowed ; 
 That golden glory every passion stilled. 
 But see, the arches of the dome are rent ! 
 Up to the gates of God my eye is bent. 
 
 The splendors of that mighty dwelling-place ! — 
 Those shining walls ! — the crystal fountains there ! 
 And wonders which a creature dares not trace I — 
 But let them move the sinner's soul to prayer. 
 Oh ! ye to whom that solemn bell shall ring. 
 Take heed, and listen to its murmuring ! 
 
THE GERMAN EMIGRANT. 
 
 Viewing thee, no fears we feel 
 Lest thou, at length, some false pretender prove, 
 Or subtle hypocrite, of whom no few. 
 Disseminated o'er its face, the earth 
 Sustains, adepts in fiction, and who frame 
 Fables, where fables could be least surmised. 
 
 Cowper's Odyssey. 
 
 However impossible it may be to obtain an exact 
 statistical view of the German emigrants in this 
 comitry, since they are regarded as American citi- 
 zens after they have resided a few years among us, 
 and have submitted to certain prescribed forms, it is 
 well known that thousands and tens of thousands of 
 these emigrants are spread over most of the States 
 of the Union, and that every year brings many new 
 settlers to our shores, who disperse over this country 
 as seems to be best suited to their several occupa- 
 tions. But though in numerical respects you may 
 find it difficult to arrive at any degree of certainty, 
 it is much more easy to become acquainted with 
 many prominent features of their general character. 
 Whether you see them as pioneers, struggling 
 through every difficulty, and overcoming every 
 obstruction — or whether you visit them, when 
 collected in families and quietly enjoying the fruits 
 of their agricultural labors — or whether, finally. 
 
THE GERMAN EMIGRANT. 81 
 
 yoii meet with the German merchant and mechanic 
 mingUng in the larger cities with the American 
 population — they enjoy everywhere the reputation 
 of being a hard-working, temperate and honest 
 people, little inclined to give way to temptations to 
 which the lower classes of society are generally 
 exposed, and highly suspeptible to those religious 
 and intellectual influences which they have enjoyed 
 at home. However attached they may be to each 
 other, and to their native land and language, they 
 are found ready to adapt themselves to the customs 
 and habits of the country of their adoption, to ac- 
 quire its language, and to take a share in the vol- 
 untary burthens which are inseparable from our 
 state of society. It is to this spirit that the Ger- 
 man Charitable Societies owe their origin, to which 
 I once more direct the attention of my reader, since 
 they serve as effectual and important means of 
 bringing about the virtual naturalization of the for- 
 eigner, of making him a useful citizen in every 
 point of view. The fundamental principles laid down 
 by these societies differ in general very little from 
 each other, but the spirit in which these principles 
 have been applied by the German Charitable Society 
 of Boston — to whose Board 1 am indebted for the 
 details here communicated — and various regulations 
 which have been suggested by the peculiar situation 
 of its members, call for a more particular reference, 
 and deserve to be generally known and recommended. 
 7 
 
82 
 
 Having been formed by the German residents in 
 that city, "without regard to pohtical or rehgious 
 parties, — as their constitution expresses it, — with 
 the object of exciting among themselves a fraternal 
 spirit ; to supply the needy and newly arrived 
 with advice and employment, and the sick and 
 feeble with pecuniary assistance; " the society has 
 succeeded in fostering, among its members, a lively 
 feeling of sympathy, and a strong impulse to ad- 
 vance its object, by establishing an intelligence office, 
 "for the purpose of advertising for labor and la- 
 borers, and of collecting and communicating all 
 possible information in regard to the intercourse of 
 the German emigrants and the native Americans." 
 
 It is owing to this intelligence office, and to the 
 ad\rertisements connected with it, that many new 
 and important ties have been formed between them 
 and their American fellow citizens, and that they 
 have been encouraged and animated to persevering 
 efforts in discovering and relieving their suffering 
 countrymen. As soon as an honest journeyman or 
 active laborer happens to be thrown out of employ- 
 ment, or as often as a German emigrant arrives 
 from another part of the country, and is capable of 
 satisfying the Board in regard to his character, the 
 society pledge themselves to the public 'in regard 
 to his conduct and capacities, and in general, ob- 
 tain very readily a suitable place for him. They 
 thus confer a greater benefit on the community and 
 
THE GERMAN EMIGRANT. 83 
 
 the individual than could be done by the most 
 munificent donations ; for, as President Wayland 
 justly observes, "in general those modes of charity 
 are to be preferred, which most successfully teach 
 the object to relieve himself, and which tend most 
 directly to the moral benefit of both parties. And 
 on the contrary those modes of charity are the 
 worst which are farthest removed from such ten- 
 dencies." Again, by receiving not Germans only, 
 but also native Americans as members, the Society 
 has opened a way by which the foreigner is intro- 
 duced at once into the bosom of the community, in 
 which he is to play an active part. It is by this 
 regulation, that many little prejudices to which 
 various foreign customs may naturally give rise are 
 effectually removed ; that the intelligent and culti- 
 vated among the German population are enabled to 
 become the interpreters — not of the language only — 
 but of the true meaning of many national peculiari- 
 ties in the character of their countrymen, which the 
 American sometimes regards as dangerous merely 
 because they are different from his own. Thus the 
 honest man who, perhaps, has been falsely accused 
 or calumniated by some unprincipled countryman 
 who envies his success, is freed from every suspi- 
 cion, and enabled to go on without obstruction in 
 his honest labors. 
 
 But if in this manner the society seems to 
 have taken very judicious steps in order to in- 
 
84 THE stranger's gift. 
 
 crease and strengthen the sympathies between its 
 members and that community by which they are 
 immediately surrounded, they have hkewise taken 
 some preUminary measures to form a regular inter- 
 course with other German societies in the different 
 parts of the Union ; so that those Germans, who wish 
 to exchange one place for another, or to emigrate to 
 the West, may not be entirely beyond the reach of 
 their friends, if their situation should call for their 
 assistance. '' The Germans," we Avould say with 
 Professor Miihlenfels, " will be found admirable 
 fathers, virtuous members of society, loyal subjects, 
 eminent scholars, but — careless citizens ; " referring 
 thus to their political character ; — but we would add 
 at the same time that they are far from being incor- 
 rigible; that it is in our power to make them useful 
 also in this respect, and that those Charitable Socie- 
 ties are an important means in realizing this object, 
 by uniting the emigrant and his host in labors of 
 love. Indeed, it seems hardly possible that by his 
 own endeavors the foreigner should become capable 
 in the short space of five years to discharge faith- 
 fully the duties of a citizen of the United States, 
 after he has lived for thirty or forty years imder a 
 monarchical form of government, and when arrived 
 in this country, has been separated to a great extent 
 from the rest of the community by a difference of 
 language, or prevented by incessant labor from ac- 
 quainting himself with the peculiar character of this 
 
THE GERMAN EMIGRANT. 85 
 
 government. It seems impossible, I say, in regard 
 to the German emigrant, who is generally capable 
 and willing to assimilate with his neighbor, without 
 divesting himself of his individuality, and it is cer- 
 tainly impossible in regard to those foreigners, who 
 with an unbending and exclusive spirit keep aloof 
 from every change in the national views and pecu- 
 liarities which they imbibed in their own country. 
 "Let the Americans beware, (says a well-known for- 
 eigner,) of extending the rights of citizenship indis- 
 criminately to foreign emigrants ;" and although there 
 is often something in such laconic warnings addressed 
 to a whole people, which savors of Shakspeare's " I 
 would croak like a raven, I would bode ! I would 
 bode! " it cannot prevent us from adding, that until 
 the naturahzation laws shall be changed — which 
 indeed may never be the case — let us engage in en- 
 lightening those to whom we extend these privileges. 
 It is likely, indeed, that in less than half a century 
 the Germans in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- 
 ginia will be almost entirely absorbed by the Anglo- 
 American population, as has been the case partly 
 with the Dutch in the State of New York, and with 
 the Swedes in Delaware ; but it will be caused by 
 very different reasons. It is not owing to an entire 
 ceasing of new arrivals, but to the fact that the great 
 mass of the emigrants now direct their course to the 
 far West, where this division of language and feeling 
 
 must be perpetuated. 
 
 7# 
 
86 tHE stranger's gift. 
 
 But in tracing the consequences of the entire 
 neglect of these strangers, we cannot shut our eyes 
 against many favorable indications, which show us 
 with how much interest this subject is generally re- 
 garded. Men of the most different views in religion 
 and politics have shown a perfectly catholic spirit 
 in regard to the duties which Americans owe to them- 
 selves with reference to the foreigner. You meet now 
 with one who has adopted the gifted child of some 
 indigent family, with another who is rather a friend 
 than a master to his German servant, and with a 
 third who devotes his leisure hours to the instruction 
 of the foreigner. They cannot forget, that in this 
 free country there are many who, from causes over 
 which they have no control, remain strangers even 
 to the meaning of the word Freedom ; they cannot 
 regard the mere physical well-being of the emi- 
 grant, nor the fact that he has formally abjured his 
 allegiance to every foreign power, as sufficient to 
 make him a useful citizen in a republic. 
 
 It will be readily understood that the Stranger is 
 much more able to become acquainted with the 
 wants of his countrymen than with the means by 
 which these wants may be satisfied ; and it is 
 therefore with diffidence that he closes this chapter 
 with the inquiry, whether the usefulness of the 
 Public Schools in the principal cities of the Union 
 might not be greatly increased by the addition of 
 
THE GERMAN EMIGRANT. 87 
 
 an Anglo-German branch, in which the children of 
 the German emigrants might be instructed through 
 the medium of the German language, until they 
 are capable of proceeding with their American 
 companions. 
 
 The emigrants, when they arrive from Germany, 
 I repeat it, are ready to avail themselves of the 
 means of religious and intellectual cultivation, as 
 soon as they are placed within their power; but if 
 no steps are taken to preserve them under such in- 
 fluences, they and their children cannot but degen- 
 erate. 
 
THE STRANGER'S HOPE. 
 
 As the hart pantelh after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O 
 God. — Psalms xlii. 1. 
 
 In the midst of the realms of existence, there is a sun, which sustains and pre- 
 serves everything j and there is an eye, which is itself of sun-like nature, and 
 made for that sun. The Sun is God ; the eye is the soul. 
 
 Neither the terrors nor the dread, which come to man on the wings of the storm, 
 or in the thunder of the avalanche, or the eruptions of the volcano, — it is not these, 
 which have first proclaimed to him, that there is a God ; nor is it from the starry 
 heavens, — letters, as it were, of his creation, — that man has derived this knowl- 
 edge. Deep as the longing, which, in the new-born babe, calls for the mother, of 
 whom it yet knows nothing; loud as the crying of the young raven, after food 
 which he has never yet tasted ; strong and intense as the urgency with which the 
 eye, when unsealed, or the plant, when breaking from its capsule, seeks the light, 
 which they have never before felt ; — such is the longing which I feel through my 
 whole being, for the living fountain of all being, from which I jhave derived my 
 existence. 
 
 Should I take the wings of the morning, and fly where the last waves of the 
 visible world are lost ; should I descend into darkness, where there is no star, 
 where tlje cries of anxiety, the loud manifestations of joy, nay, where even the 
 softest breathing of life, is no longer heard ; and should I remain there, alone and 
 solitary, yet I should feel that He upholds me ; I should perceive his nearness, like 
 the rustling of the eagle's wing in the stilly night; I should perceive something 
 within me, on which it rests ; so is there a desire within my bosom, which takes 
 its way through the midst of the creation, unto God. 
 
 Translated from v. Schubart. 
 
 It was in the early part of the spring of the 
 present year, when at a social meeting of several of 
 the German residents in Boston, among other top- 
 ics, that of religion was touched, and the fact 
 stated that with the exception of domestic devo- 
 tions, they were almost entirely beyond the pale of 
 religious influence, since they had found neither 
 
THE stranger's HOPE. 89 
 
 time nor opportunity to learn English enough to 
 understand the whole of a discourse ; a fact which 
 can hardly excite our astonishment, if we remem- 
 ber that in general most of those emigrants who 
 speak a foreign language, become intimately ac- 
 quainted with the various terms which belong to 
 every-day life, while they learn but very little of 
 the language which refers to their internal and 
 spiritual life. There had been several exertions 
 made by them to satisfy their longings after re- 
 ligious knowledge, and the edifying influence of 
 social worship. The pious father of a family might 
 be seen to collect on the Sabbath his children and a 
 few friends, in order to unite in singing German 
 hymns, and in offering up a prayer in their native 
 language. Instances of this kind, however, were 
 but very rare, and the great majority of the Ger- 
 man population were almost without the light of 
 the gospel, though they might not be wholly igno- 
 rant of the treasure of which they were thus de- 
 prived. We may infer this at least from the ready 
 manner with which they assembled around one of 
 their countrymen, when they were told that he was 
 able and willing to assist them in the right under- 
 standing of the Bible. Availing themselves of the 
 spiritual hospitality^ with which they were treated 
 by their Christian brethren, they began to hold regu- 
 lar meetings. With every new Sabbath, the interest 
 with which they regarded the continuance of this 
 
90 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 Bible class was more strongly manifested, till finally 
 the power of the gospel, applied to their hearts in 
 their own mother tongue, prompted them to express 
 an ardent desire of organizing a society, that they 
 might secure to themselves the means of religious 
 instruction. 
 
 It now became obvious that the various obstruc- 
 tions and difficulties which sometimes threatened 
 to interrupt their meetings, and which even the kind- 
 ness of their friends could not entirely remove, had 
 been sanctified to their hearts as so many trials, by 
 which they were to experience that "the poor in 
 spirit are blessed." The wish above referred to 
 seemed the more deserving of attention, as experi- 
 ence has but too often taught us that individual 
 influence in such cases is but of comparatively small 
 importance, if no means are taken by which the sev- 
 eral members may be enabled to exercise a regular 
 and mutual influence on each other. As most of the 
 individuals concerned had in their youth, by con- 
 firmation, become regular members of the Lutheran 
 Reformed or Evangelical churches in Germany, it 
 was thought proper to adopt the principles of the 
 latter as the basis of the religious views, since the 
 Evangelical Church is formed by a union of the 
 Reformed and Lutheran churches. My readers are 
 probably aware of the fact, that in Prussia, and in 
 several of the lesser states of Germany, a kind of ec- 
 clesiastical compromise has taken place, between the 
 
THE stranger's HOPE. 91 
 
 Reformed or Cab/inistic and the Lutheran churches. 
 The latter have generally abandoned Luther's 
 view of consubstantiation, while the rigidity with 
 which Calvin proclaimed the doctrine of predes- 
 tination, is but little approved of by the Germ^an 
 Calvinistic divines of the present day. From the 
 works of Schleiermacher, and of his successor, 
 Tiresten, my readers may become acquainted more 
 particularly with the character of this union. The 
 governments under whose auspices it has taken 
 place frequently evince so tolerant a spirit in regard 
 to these three denominations, that at one time you 
 may meet with Evangelical divines presiding over 
 Lutheran flocks, while at another the reverse will 
 take place. The membership of the several in- 
 dividuals belonging to any particular church, as in 
 the time of the apostles — though not always in the 
 spirit which characterized that time — is decided by 
 their habitual attendance and worship with it, 
 after they have once passed through a preparatory 
 course of religious instruction, and publicly con- 
 firmed the vows made for them in their infancy. 
 
 Under the charge of a faithful minister, this ad- 
 mission of members by confirmation furnishes him 
 with the means of influencing directly and pri- 
 vately, every one of the younger members of the 
 flock, and he has thus an opportunity of in- 
 creasing the kingdom of the Redeemer, which 
 those denominations do not enjoy, who are with- 
 
92 
 
 out this early course of religious instruction. 
 It is my own individual experience, and the in- 
 fluence produced on a little class which is now 
 preparing for admission to the society in Boston, 
 which has confirmed me in this view. 
 
 As several of the Evangelical societies in this 
 country are connected with the German Lutheran 
 Synods, and as common religious opinions and a 
 common language form a natural tie between these 
 two bodies, the society resolved to send a delegation 
 to the next meeting of the Synod,which took place at 
 Clermont in the state of New York in the beginning 
 of the month of September, with a view of making the 
 necessary arrangements for the proposed connection. 
 It was then that the missionary committee of that 
 Synod — agreeably to the request made to them 
 — sent one of their ministers to the orphan flock in 
 this city, that they might have preaching in their 
 own language, and partake of the Lord's supper 
 as they had been wont to do in their native land. 
 
 Schmucker, in his Popular Theology, a work 
 which we recommend to those of our readers who 
 wish to become more intimately acquainted with 
 the relations of the Lutheran church in this country, 
 after having spoken of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, 
 and Congregational churches, remarks in regard to 
 the Lutheran church, as found in the United States, 
 that it is eclectic in its nature ; "it embraces all 
 those principles and precepts, of permanent obliga- 
 
93 
 
 tion, which are contained in the New Testament, 
 and such other regulations dictated by reason, best 
 adapted to the genius of our free repubhcan institu- 
 tions, and calculated most successfully to advance 
 the cause of Christ. The fundamental features of 
 this system are the following, viz. 1. Parity of min- 
 isters. 2. Co-operation of ruling elders as repre- 
 sentatives of the church. 3. Union of the churches 
 within the limits of a synod for the regular purposes 
 of review and government. 4. Special conferences 
 for the purpose of holding stated protracted meet- 
 ings." 
 
 In point of government, then, the Lutheran 
 churches combine some of the elements of the Pres- 
 byterian and Congregational churches, while in their 
 mode of admitting members, in their liturgies, the 
 observance of festivals, and other peculiarities of 
 less importance, they approach the views and cus- 
 toms of the Episcopal church. 
 
 An infant society, like that of Boston, might justly 
 expect to derive great advantages from the advice 
 and the exertions of the numerous body of German 
 Lutheran divines in this country ; and the fraternal 
 and truly christian spirit with which the Boston 
 delegate was received at Clermont, did not disap- 
 point them in these expectations. The synod im- 
 mediately consented that one of their number 
 should go to Boston, in order to become inti- 
 8 
 
94 THE stranger's gift. 
 
 mately acquainted with the wants of the society. 
 Being afterwards informed that they were desirous 
 of having the minister, with whom they had thus be- 
 come acquainted, permanently settled over them, the 
 members of the synod took immediately the neces- 
 sary preparatory steps for freeing their colleague, in 
 the course of next spring, from his present engage- 
 ments, and of assisting the society in other respects 
 as long as they should be in want of assistance. 
 
 It must be principally ascribed to the want of 
 connection between church and state, that in the 
 United States, perhaps, more than in any other 
 country, the slightest difference of opinion in mat- 
 ters of religion tends to produce immediately an 
 external separation between the differing members. 
 Without entering at present upon the causes or the 
 character of this spirit, we shall confine ourselves 
 to say, that its existence would have perhaps suf- 
 ficed to induce the members of tlie German society 
 to preserve the little peculiarities which distinguish 
 them from other sects. They were, however, in- 
 fluenced by far more powerful motives in continuing 
 to worship the God of their fathers in the manner 
 which was peculiar to them. The German emi- 
 grant is to be won over to the service of the Lord, 
 not only by hearing the gospel preached in his own 
 language, but by recognizing in this stranger-flock 
 the same characteristics with which he had become 
 acquainted in his earliest youth. Regarding the 
 
THE STRANQEr's HOPE. 95 
 
 subject from this point of view, we may consider 
 the very name which these foreign societies bear as 
 a matter of no trifling importance, be that name 
 Lutheran, Reformed, or Evangehcal. But while 
 they are decided in adhering to those forms, and 
 in professing those views, which have been sanc- 
 tioned to them both by habit and their individual 
 convictions — while they hope to manifest a spirit 
 which is hostile to indifference in regard to the 
 most important of human concerns — and while they 
 confidently trust that by this course they shall secure 
 to themselves the favor of God as well as the respect 
 of their fellow men, they would at the same time 
 earnestly strive to preserve in their hearts a spirit 
 of christian tolerance, which must lead them to 
 respect the religious views and professions of others, 
 however diflerent they may be from their own. 
 ''Judge not, that ye be not judged," saith the 
 Lord. 
 
 After this short historical sketch of the German 
 Evangelical Society in Boston, my reader is perhaps 
 desirous of knowing what they are to do until next 
 spring, whether they continue to be instructed in 
 the Bible, or whether they are left once more with- 
 out any other resource except their private devo- 
 tions, together with various other questions, which 
 the situation of such a society may naturally sug- 
 gest. 
 
96 
 
 " Lo, the winter is past, (said the few to each 
 other, when first assembhng,) the rain is over 
 and gone ; the flowers appear on the earth, the 
 time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice 
 of the turtle is heard in our land ! " But their 
 rejoicings were yet heightened when they were led 
 to turn their eyes from the external world, where 
 they felt, that together with their numbers their in- 
 terest in the cause of Christ was rapidly increasing ; 
 and when the autumn had gone by, and its fruitful 
 trees and well-stored granaries had been emblems 
 to them of the spiritual fruits which they had borne, 
 they again turned to each other saying — " The grass 
 withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away, but 
 the word of the Lord shall stand forever." Every 
 Sabbath you may hear them unite in prayer, and 
 in the singing of German hymns, while the want 
 of an organ is supplied by the voluntary labors of 
 three or four German amateurs; you may see 
 them listening attentively to the biblical explana- 
 tions of their teacher, or if sickness should prevent 
 him from being present, to some well-selected 
 printed sermon, read by one of their number. 
 Availing themselves thus faithfully of the means 
 of grace which they enjoy at present, they look 
 forward with love and longing to the time when 
 they shall enjoy all the religious privileges to which 
 they had been accustomed at home. Their minis- 
 ter will preach to them partly in English and partly 
 
97 
 
 in German, and those Germans who have inter- 
 married with natives will no longer be compelled 
 to go to different places of worship on account of 
 their difference of language. Nor is their resolution 
 to have English preaching in their church the only 
 proof which they have given of their readiness to 
 assimilate themselves to the Americans. But a 
 few days ago, for instance, they assembled to lis- 
 ten to the governor's proclamation, which had 
 been translated for them into German ; and though 
 many of them, unlike their American hosts, are 
 here without a family circle with which they might 
 unite in thanksgiving and praise, they were con- 
 soled by the consciousness that they felt towards 
 each other as members of the same family, as the 
 ^'children of God;" for ''our conversation," they 
 said, "is in heaven, whence alone we look for the 
 Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 It is not in accordance with my feelings and 
 views, to attend foreign service with a view of 
 acquiring a knowledge of the language in which 
 it is held, but I do not hesitate to say that 
 every American should at least once in his 
 life enter a place of foreign worship. He will 
 there meet with the most healthful portion, the 
 true elite of that foreign population : and he 
 will learn to respect them. They have prayed 
 with Agur — ''Give me neither poverty nor riches, 
 but feed me with food convenient for me;" and 
 8* 
 
9§ 
 
 their prayers have been granted. Their very 
 faces show that they are men of humble hearts, 
 whose ''pursuit of happiness" consists partly in 
 the grateful, unassuming spirit with which they 
 receive even the slightest favor conferred on them, 
 and in their earnest endeavors to guard themselves — 
 to speak in the language of Dana — against " that 
 tyranny of opinion which leaves to no man the free- 
 dom of his own thoughts; that prying spirit, which 
 mouses him out in his most secret retirements ; and 
 that meddling disposition, which puts shackles upon 
 the freedom of all his acts." 
 
 But, perhaps, you would know, reader, whether 
 they are entirely without sore trials, whether there 
 is nothing to disturb this continuation of heavenly 
 joys, whether the children of God are not often 
 filled with grief and compassion at the foolish 
 course of the worldling? 
 
 Though you may not find in this little flock the 
 external wall of separation which in many of the 
 New England congregations exists between church 
 and society, the internal division between those 
 who only attend these meethigs because their hearts 
 re-echo the chime of bells, as it were, which 
 comes to them from their "lost Church," and those 
 others, who relying for heaven solely on a Saviour's 
 blood, indulge the hope, that, justified by their 
 faith, they are the children of God, is probably 
 equally great, and as familiarly known to their 
 
THE stranger's HOPE. 99 
 
 teacher ; nor are the latter, who cannot regard this 
 passing world as their only treasure, without many 
 peculiar temptations ; but they have found, and 
 they hope to find consolation and comfort under all 
 the trials imposed on them in that blessed faith 
 which they profess. 
 
 Even now you might almost imagine to see a 
 tear glistening in their eyes, and a smile of resigna- 
 tion passing over their sad countenances, when you 
 hear them complain with a voice of deep sadness, 
 that at a time when in Germany all the spiritual 
 influences, to which the heart of man is accessible, 
 seemed to be concentrated, they are to remain with- 
 out the preached gospel, without the reviving 
 power of the holy ordinances, brought near and im- 
 pressed on their hearts by the medium of a lan- 
 guage which they can understand. But even at 
 such times they are not left without hope, for they 
 remind each other again and again, that this is the 
 last Christmas which they are to spend as an orphan 
 flock in a foreign land. 
 
 After havi]ig joined you, kind American reader, 
 in celebrating the day which has secured to you — 
 as is devoutly to be hoped — the enjoyment of politi- 
 cal independence ; after having met you with hearts 
 full of gratitude in the presence of Him, who has 
 prospered you in almost all the enterprises in which 
 you have engaged since that memorable day, we 
 now indulge the hope that you also will not disdain 
 
100 
 
 to enter into our Christmas joys. It is on this day 
 that we celebrate a world's deliverance from misery 
 and sin, and that we offer thanks and praise to Him 
 who '' will have all men to be saved and come to a 
 knowledge of the truth." We have told you, that 
 particularly on this day the images and pictures of 
 the past are rising before our inner view, but that we 
 experience at the same time that a gleam of hope is 
 thrown into the time to come. It is with this de- 
 lightful consciousness that we now take leave of you, 
 reader. It is with the hope that this little flock, which 
 the Holy Spirit has planted here, may under His in- 
 fluence be watered and abundantly strengthened and 
 increased by the shepherd who is to take charge of 
 this flock, that every one of its members "may 
 be encompassed within the gentle enclosures of 
 redeeming love," and that finally they may be foimd 
 among the thousands and thousands who are say- 
 ing — "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re- 
 ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength j 
 and honor, and glory, and blessing \ " 
 This, reader, is the the Stranger's Hope. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 It has been said of Goethe, that he never entered 
 upon a new enterprise without being fully con- 
 vinced that he should be able to carry it through. 
 I should heartily rejoice if I had imitated the pru- 
 dent course of the great poet in regard to this little 
 volume. I need not state explicitly, that it is the 
 spontaneous production of a few leisure hours, and 
 that from want of time its pablication has been 
 much hurried, since my reader has no doubt be- 
 come aware of it from various defects in style and 
 manner. And yet I would not ask his indulgence 
 on account of the imperfect form in which this 
 little Gift is presented, without at the same time 
 expressing the hope, that the Christmas spirit in 
 which these pages have been written will dispose 
 him to regard them with the eye of a friend rather 
 than a critic. It is likewise owing to want of time, 
 that I^have been prevented from developing satisfac- 
 torily many of the views, the expression of which 
 a sense of duty did not permit me to delay, and 
 from adding others which it was my intention to 
 communicate; though I hope to find, in the course 
 of next year, an opportunity of embodying them in 
 
102 THE stranger's GIFT. 
 
 another "Gift." To direct the attention of the 
 stranger's Friend to the situation of the emigrant, 
 who often arrives friendless on our shores, and to 
 draw closer — as far as may be in my power — the 
 intellectual bonds, by which at present this country 
 is united to the land of my birth, are two of the 
 principal though not the only ends I have proposed 
 to myself in reference to this little publication. 
 
 The somewhat peculiar manner in which my 
 views of life have been formed has put me in the 
 possession of facts, and has permitted me to make 
 observations which I wish to communicate to my 
 fellow men, because I believe that they may be 
 benefited by becoming acquainted with them. 
 It will not be very difficult then, I hope, to ex- 
 press what I am certain I ought to say. At one 
 time the simple historical style may prove the most 
 successful, at another time the garb of fiction may 
 serve to make palatable some wholesome but un- 
 welcome truth; while in a third case, perhaps, 
 faithful translations from our distinguished writers 
 may be found the most successful means of ad- 
 vancing my views. 
 
 But it is time now to bid you farewell, kind 
 reader. May you feel at this season of joy that " it 
 is more blessed to give than to receive ; " a truth 
 which I have experienced at my own heart in 
 preparing this Christmas Gift for you. May you not 
 be without a hospitable roof, if you should ever 
 
CONCLUSION. 103 
 
 sojourn in a foreign land, and, when at home, may 
 you be mindful of the beautiful advice, addressed 
 to you in the sacred volume — " Be not forgetful to 
 entertain strangers, for thereby some have enter- 
 tained angels unawares." 
 
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