CHAMPIONS of FREEDOM
A Tribute to Lincoln’s Turners
Based on an address by Governor George JH. Earle, of Pennsylvania. Address delivered in Soldiers’ Memorial Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, February 13, 1938, to reconsecrate four flags borne by Lincoln’s Turner bodyguard in 1861.
Always dedicated to the principles of the rights of man as well as the preservation of the union, the German-American Turners have repeatedly made them selves a deciding factor in the preservation of American freedom.
The United States first felt the influence of this organization when the American Turners were supporters of the Pathfinder Fremont and the strongest opponents of slavery.
Since the first American Turnverein had been founded less than seven years at that time, it is evident that the Turners of that day were true citizens, thinking in terms of fundamental Americanism and eternal human rights.
Consistent with their principles of Freed, the Turners championed the cause of free speech. Reformers like Wendell Phillips depended upon the Turners to protect them against pro-slavery mobs. Orators like Carl Schurz proclaimed to all the citizens of the land the glorious gospel of liberty—the principles of Turners.
Most significant of all is the fact that the first man in America to mention the name of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency was a Turner, in Belleville, Illinois, His name was Gustav Koerner; years later Lincoln sent him as American ambassador to Spain. He was also a delegate, along with Carl Schurz, to the convention that nominated Lincoln, and he was finally selected as a pallbearer in the President’s funeral.
In the party conventions and the elections that followed, the liberty-loving German people played a most important part—forty-two men, born in Germany, sat in the Chicago convention that nominated Lincoln and in the six pivotal States, without which he could not have been elected, 450,000 German votes were cast for Lincoln and swung the election.
They supported him so strenuously that in Baltimore their hall was burned down by enemies of the Union, and many Turners had to flee from the city to save their lives.
On the evening before the inauguration betting was even that Lincoln would never be inaugurated. Two companies of sharp-shooting Turners (several of whom are shown in the picture on the next page) formed his bodyguard. He was inaugurated and it was the loyal support of the German- American citizens that gave his administration its firmest backing.
For Missouri, the Turnverein of St. Louis had formed a military organization and at the outbreak of the war, three well-drilled companies were ready for immediate service. They saved Missouri for the Union by their capture of Camp Jackson after 800 German volunteers rallied during the night at the St. Louis Turner Hall.
.On the next day the first American officer to die for the Union in the Civil War was shot from ambush. He was Constantin Blandowski, and he was a member of the St,. Louis Turnverein
But that was only a prelude to what the Germans were to do for their country during the war. One man out of every ten in the Union Army was born in Germany. Their total number can safely be estimated at over 200,000. Several whole regiments were exclusively German. Missouri alone furnished 30,000 German born soldiers, when in proportion to population there should have only been 7,000.
It has been said that the widow of Jefferson Davis said, “We could have won the war if it hadn’t been for the Dutch.”
Obviously, the 700,000 Germans that came to American shores after the disastrous Revolution if 1848 were among the best citizens America ever received, and they knew more of the principles of true Americanism than many people today who deny to their fellow citizens the elementary rights of human beings.
German-American people today are foremost in the support of the progressive principles set forth in the immortal words of Lincoln:
“That government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
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