But who, today, would know what Mr. Strong means by Teutonia? Other than ourselves.
That said, I take comfort in knowing that things that always been as they are, while each generation believes things have never been worse.
German ancestry is still the largest ethnic group in the U.S. We don't notice it because the Germans have so thoroughly assimilated and few speak German anymore. My mother's family has an English sounding surname, but I was really surprised a couple of years ago to find evidence they actually came from Germany.
When I read these articles and excerpts, I like to make my lists of similarities, differences, and analogies from then to today. As far as the opinion of “Teutonia” goes, eventually it didn’t become a problem. The Teutons became American. When this article was written, my great-great grandfather was one of those “Teutons,” having gotten off the boat from Stettin in 1848. By this time, he’s settled into life as a tailor in Watertown Wisconsin and is already father of three. There will be two more before the war and another four after. Watertown is mostly German, so he’s right at home.
While I read, speak and write German, it’s not from having grown up with it. My mother, on the other hand, grew up speaking Macedonian in the home, as her mother never spoke English. Grandpa came off the boat in 1906 from Macedonia and sent for Grandmother Bobolinka later. But I never spoke Macedonian and the “Macedonian Tribune” on Grandpa’s table was all Greek to me. (Nerdy henkster joke; the written Macedonian language uses Cyrillic text).
So for ancestry, I’m half German and half Macedonian. What does it mean, other than that I am orderly and methodical about nursing my grudges? Nothing. I am an American.
And that’s were we have changed and not for the better. This whole “tossed salad” concept of immigration has all the ingredients of a disaster. I don’t mind honoring an ethnic heritage. Heck, we have a moslem Middle-Eastern restaurant in town and I love to eat there. The seasoned beef/eggplant is to die for (another nerdy henkster joke?). But the point is that everyone who comes to America needs to become Americans first, and “something else” second.
Which brings me to the one sticking sore in American society; not ethnicity, but race. That’s where you get the biggest analogy to “the Teutons will riot” aspect of this article. That one has proven intractable, first because whites didn’t want to give the black man a chance, and then black man didn’t really get a fair chance because the democrats kept him drugged and shackled on the plantation with the welfare state. We really didn’t give blacks a reason to be Americans until about a generation ago. And there are undoubtedly many successful and productive black people in America now. But there are far too many who are not, and have very little prospect of ever being productive. Not because they are oppressed by the “white man” but are sold into a dependency bondage often by their own leaders.
I often wonder what our nation would have been if we had passed the Civil Rights Act (which was the right thing to do) but did not pass the “Great Society” welfare programs. My gut tells me we would be a whole lot better off.