I'm glad also that the article mentioned the role of German immigrants in helping to elect Lincoln--and then supporting his administration in its fight against the Slave Power and secession.
This is a very much overlooked aspect of our history, and illustrates a larger point: that the US has often benefited from its role as safe haven for progressives around the world.
The German immigrants mentioned were refugees from the failed German revolutions of 1848-49, when it looked--for a very brief moment--that the various German states would unite to become a parliamentary democracy. That hope was crushed by the German right with the result that the leaders of the movement had to flee into exile. Many of them ended up in England or America, where they joined progressive movements there.
The resulting German-American community was a thriving part of American politics until World War One, when anti-German hysteria led to the closing of German language newspapers, and the banning of teaching German in many American schools. The progressive German-American community never recovered. Ironically, this helped bring the German-American right to the forefront in the 1930s, financed by the Nazis and opposed to US aid to Britain after 1939. Not only the suppression of progressive German-American groups and leaders, but also the resentment fostered by the hysteria--led in large part by the Wilson administration 1917 to 1920--helped fuel sympathy for the Bund and other right-wing groups.
Americans are cheated of so much when they remain ignorant of their own history, good and bad. Knowing where we've been so often helps as we try to figure out where we are now, and how we got here, and how to move on to some place better.
Thanks again for posting.
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