Overview

The motives for migration began to change early in the second period of migration. While economic betterment continued to be a consideration for migrants, politics became increasingly important. This was especially true for the so-called “German Forty-Eighters,” those individuals who had been active in the unsuccessful German Revolution of 1848. Having failed in their attempt to overthrow what they perceived to be the ancient feudal system that defined the German provinces, these migrants hoped to find political independence and economic opportunity in the United States.

Their migration to the United States coincided with the emergence of the anti-slavery movement in the United States and in Missouri. Many of the German migrants opposed the expansion of slavery and slavery itself because they identified it with the feudalism they sought to escape. Less concerned about the well-being of slaves than about the perceived negative impact of slavery on the American economy, they viewed slavery as stifling capitalism. Their opposition to slavery led many German immigrants to become involved in Missouri politics as members of the Republican Party. Ultimately, some historians have argued, German immigrants in Missouri, and especially in St. Louis, contributed to the effort to maintain Missouri’s commitment to the Union, thereby helping to preserve the Union during the American Civil War. In large part, the political successes of German politicians in Missouri stemmed from the disfranchisement of Southern-sympathizing Democrats who were denied the vote both during and after the war, as a result of the 1865 Missouri Constitution. That constitution was not abandoned until 1875, when a new constitution was put in place. Subsequently, German influence on Missouri politics declined, but did not disappear.

Historical Context

Leadership over the continued flood of German immigrants was not totally in the hands of the so called “Forty- Eighters,” but a large portion of those settled in St. Louis and beyond were attracted to the anti-slavery cause by radicals coming from Germany and France, most notably the Austrian theatrical promoter Henry Boernstein, former publisher of Karl Marx and other radicals in Paris. Boernstein established himself as head of the Anzeiger des Westens newspaper in 1850. Although many Germans continued to support the Democratic Party and the Whig Party, the anti-slavery cause was galvanized into action by Senator Stephen Douglas’s 1854 effort to invalidate the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by opening new lands to the west of Missouri to slavery. Boernstein severely attacked the Jesuit Order and the Catholic Church, which he lambasted in his Mysteries of St. Louis (1850), a novel that was translated from German to English by Friedrich Muench. Boernstein also attacked Walther’s Lutherans for their defense of the legitimacy of slavery and their primary loyalty to Missouri over the Union. It was the Forty-Eighters who adopted the Republican Party as their own in that party’s first presidential campaign in 1856.

Kansas descended into bloody partisan warfare between pro-slavery partisans, largely raised among Anglo-Americans in Missouri, and anti-slavery forces financed and promoted by abolitionist newspapers and churches in the East and Midwest. The presidential election of 1860 led to street-fighting in St. Louis between the pro-secession Minute Men and the German Black Huntsmen (Schwarze Jäger) of south St. Louis. The great question in St. Louis was over who was to control the large stores of weapons at the Saint Louis Arsenal. Through a series of frantic maneuvers, the pro-Union leaders in St. Louis allied with those in the city who were willing to bear arms to defend the Union, which included the “Turners” (politically-active exercise clubs), German and Czech men with military experience, and Forty-Eighters of various ethnic backgrounds. Four regiments were formed and armed immediately in the Arsenal under colonels Francis Preston Blair, Jr., US Congressman, Franz Sigel, former minister of war of the revolutionary Baden government of 1848-49, the theatrical impresario and publisher Henry Boernstein (veteran of five years in the Austrian army), and Nicolaus Schüttner (leader of the Schwartze Jäger street gang).

With the state occupied by the Union Army in 1862, Missouri Germans still faced a precarious position. For example, President Lincoln’s removal of General John C. Fremont, after he ordered the slaves of pro-Southern owners to be freed, greatly distressed Missouri Germans, who had become renowned for their staunch anti-slavery sentiment. Making matters worse, Missouri had descended into bitter guerilla warfare, and many German farmers were killed or found their lands expropriated by pro-Confederate Missourians. State elections held in the middle of the war brought a “radical” Missouri government into power, which promoted the formation of “Colored Regiments” and promoted abolition in the state. Missouri Germans strongly supported this new radical régime.

At the end of the war, the radical government persisted until voted out of office by former pro-Southerners who eventually recovered the vote and the right to hold office. The chief newspaper for the Germans was now the Westliche Post, led by Carl Schurz, a former Forty-Eighter and major general who would be elected to a term as US Senator from Missouri. Schurz departed Missouri but continued to be the leading German in American public life for the rest of the century.