a final word on the subject, yet it represents a sincere attempt at a judicial view. As shown in another chapter, Münch, when a younger man, was a leader in the camp of the first immigration (die Grauen). The important fact is that, when the period of slavery agitation arose, all petty differences were laid aside for the patriotic attempt to combine all the German forces against slavery and the disruption of the Union. It would be an invidious task to attempt narrow distinctions between the various German immigrations of the nineteenth century.' In the most general way it may be said that the first immigration resembled more closely the sturdy German folk of the eighteenth century; the second contained a larger number of refugees, whose influence was strongly felt in the political and cultural development of the United States; while the third immigration, coming after 1866 and also after the Franco-Prussian War, in culture and education more closely akin to the second immigration, contained a larger number of men seeking, with advantage to themselves, the advancement of the commerce and manufactures of the American nation; a large number also being destined to become prominent in the technical and professional branches. But the exceptions to these general rules are too numerous to encourage dogmatic statements. The question of such distinctions is not one of vital importance in a discussion of the influences of the

1 Gustav Körner's book, Das deutsche Element in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, 1818–1848, gives an excellent account of the Germans who came to the United States before the March Revolution of 1848, with an underlying purpose of showing that the earlier immigration achieved more than the later. A champion of the "forty-eighters" has never appeared, though materials are abundant for his arguments, and for a work of the dimensions of Körner's. Particularly in politics, journalism, and music the "forty-eighters" accomplished more than the earlier immigrations, as can be observed in the second volume of this work.

German element in the United States. In taking account of the latter, all immigrations of the nineteenth as well as of the preceding centuries are equally concerned; each is important in its time and place, and its influence is greatly determined by the conditions of period and location.

Having traced chronologically the settlements of the Germans from the earliest period to the present, having noted their location and distribution throughout the territory of the United States, and having sketched very briefly their activities in peace and war, we have received the necessary historical basis for approaching the subject of the influence of the German element in the United States. The latter is the theme of the second volume of this work.

END OF VOLUME I