York. There was no greater rejoicing on the day of the inauguration of George Washington. By threats the judges tried to subdue the shouting, but they might as well have tried to stem the flow of the tides. An English naval officer made an allusion to the acquittal of the Seven Bishops, which renewed the popular demonstration. The aged Hamilton, whose bodily infirmities could not keep him from serving his people and nation, was the hero of the hour, and on leaving, he was accompanied by an escort and martial music.

Zenger also deserves a large share of the glory in this brilliant victory. He was the one to provoke the fight for the freedom of the press, and then he added to his services by giving in his newspaper a complete verbatim account of the trial, a valuable piece of legal and historical literature.' He possessed the genuine newspaper instinct and persistence. When in prison, his bail having been fixed at so high a sum, eight hundred pounds, that it was impossible to procure release, he went on publishing his newspaper energetically. He communicated with and dictated to his assistants, availing himself, it is said, of a crack in the door of his prison, and his newspaper appeared without interruption. Peter Zenger was no mere typesetter, but a live and fearless journalist of the modern stamp. The Zenger trial laid the foundation of the liberty of the press in America, and Peter Zenger himself was the founder of the first independent newspaper in the country.

This report, printed in full in the works of Kapp and Rutherford, named in the footnote above, puts to shame the charge of ignorance sometimes made against the "Palatine apprentice." Equally unfair is the statement that the "poor printer" knew not the importance of the stand he was taking. We might in the same way find fault with Luther or Columbus because they did not realize at the time the full consequences of the radical steps they were taking.

CHAPTER V

THE GERMANS IN PENNSYLVANIA

The various religious sects - The Lutherans, German Reformed, and United Brethren, the three most influential denominations - Statistics, and characteristics of the Pennsylvania German farmer, and the sixteen points enumerated by Dr. Rush, the "Tacitus" of the Pennsylvanians Industrial activity of the Pennsylvania Germans - Their printingpresses, newspapers, schools.

THE principal port of entry for German immigrations before the Revolution was Philadelphia. Some Germans, as will be seen, entered at northern ports; after the illstarred arrival of the Palatines, however, only a few immigrants landed at New York; Baltimore1 and Charleston received more Germans, though the exact number is difficult to ascertain; but probably all ports combined did. not surpass Philadelphia. The immigrations before the Revolution may be divided into three periods. The earliest, from 1683 to 1710, is the least in amount, and represents the initial movement. An increase came between 1710 and 1727, the latter being the year when records of the immigration were begun, with names of persons and generally of the country whence they came. The reason for recording the immigration was its great increase, sometimes amounting to from five to eight thousand a year, and the consequent fear that this swelling German population, together with the large Scotch-Irish immigration, might change the character of the state

1 Including Annapolis and Alexandria, i. e., all the Germans coming by way of Chesapeake Bay.

politically and socially. Though there recurred from time to time a nativistic agitation, nothing was done prohibitive of immigration.

After the settlement of Germantown, in 1683, and its subsequent accessions, the second strong current of German immigration into Pennsylvania was that of the Swiss Mennonites, about 1710. They were of the same religious faith as the original settlers of Germantown, who had been Mennonites before joining the Quakers, and whose favorable reports from Pennsylvania no doubt induced their brethren to try their fortunes also in the land of Penn. The movement gained strength in 1711, when the Mennonites of Bern were offered free transportation down the Rhine, the privileges of selling their property and taking their families with them, provided they would pledge themselves never to return to Switzerland. The Mennonites of Holland offered them a helping hand, especially the Dutch ambassador, Runckel. The Swiss Mennonites selected as their settlement a tract of ten thousand acres on Pequa Creek, Conestoga, in what is now Lancaster County (organized in 1729), their patent being made out in the names of Hans Herr and Martin Kundig. The industrious and gentle Mennonites lived on good terms with the Conestoga and Mingo Indian tribes, and with the help of the later German immigrants, that soon poured into the county, Lancaster became the

1 Some of the names of the Lancaster County Swiss are the following: Aeschlimann, Brubacher, Baumgartner, Brechbühl, Bucher, Bübler, Bürki, Ebersold, Egli, Fahrni, Flückiger, Frick (from Zurich), Galli, Gäumann, Gerber, Goshnauer, Graf, Gut, Haldimann, Hauri, Huber, Jeggli, Krähenbühl (Krehbiel), Kuenzi, Landis, Maurer, Meili, Neukomm, Oberli, Ringer, Rohner, Rubeli, Rubi, Ruegsegger, Rupp, Schallenberger, Schürch, Stähli, Strahm, Wenger, Wisler, Zürcher. Cf. Kuhns, The German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania: a Story of the So-called Pennsylvania Dutch, pp. 46, 47. Holt & Co., 1901.

garden spot and pride of Pennsylvania. Another very old settlement of the Mennonites was that at Skippack in Montgomery County, where a number of the old Germantown Mennonites settled as early as 1702. One hundred acres were presented by Van Bibber for a church, erected about 1726.

In doctrine the Mennonites resembled the Quakers closely. They would not bear arms, they believed in the separation of church and state, the freedom of conscience, simplicity of dress and life. They refused to take oaths, and baptized only on the profession of faith. Their founder was Menno Simons (1492-1559) of Friesland. In the seventeenth century there was a schism, dividing the sect into Ammenites' (or Upland Mennonites) and Lowland Mennonites. The former were the more conservative and rigorous in doctrine and in dress. The use of buttons, for instance, was considered a vain thing, and hooks and eyes became the substitute. They are also called Amish, and their number in the United States to-day is about fifteen thousand.2

Another sect which chose Pennsylvania as a place of refuge very early in the history of the province was that of the Dunkards or Tunkers. Their name is derived from their method of baptism, dipping (in German, eintunken).

1 After the founder, Jacob Ammen, of the Canton Bern, Switzerland. There were other divisions in the Mennonite Church, such as the formation of the Reformed Mennonites. On this subject, see Kuhns, German and Swiss Settlements of Pennsylvania, pp. 178 ff. The chapter on "The Religious Life of the Pennsylvania Germans,” pp. 153-192, is an excellent presentation of the subject of the German sectarians of Pennsylvania.

2 The last census (1900) reports the number of Amish as Of old Amish as

Together

13,413

2,438

15,851

The total number of Mennonites in the United States, including the Amish, is 59,892.

As in the case of the Mennonites, there was with them no infant baptism, they refused to take oaths or bear arms, and to accept public office. They would not institute a lawsuit against brethren of the order, and they lived the simple life. Alexander Mack was the founder, in 1708, establishing a congregation at Schwarzenau in Westphalia, In course of time all of the Dunkards came to Pennsylvania, the first group of twenty families arriving in 1719. They were distributed among the settlements of Germantown, Skippack, Oley (in Berks County), and Conestoga. Their leader, Peter Baker (Becker), sometime minister under Mack, made a tour of all the Tunker settlements in 1723, instituted among them a revival of their religion, and succeeded also in gaining many new members. One of the most prominent Tunkers was the printer Cristopher Sauer, the publisher of a German newspaper with a wide circulation throughout the province. The paper made him one of the most influential men among the German settlers, and gave prominence to religious principles that the Tunkers had in common with the Mennonites, Quakers, and Anabaptists, such as rigorous simplicity in dress and habits, refusal to bear arms, take oaths, or accept public office, principles which were opposed to the more strenuous and militant rule of life exhibited by the patriarch of the Lutheran Church, Mühlenberg, and his friend of the Reformed Church, Schlatter, who was soon to appear in Pennsylvania.

Conrad Beissel had been chosen assistant to Baker, in the fold of the Tunkers, but, " being wise in his own conceit," Beissel soon caused trouble in the church, on the issue of Sabbath observance. He declared that the day of rest should be celebrated on the seventh day, and when a council held at Conestoga, where the founder, Alexander Mack, who had come to visit Pennsylvania, was present,