THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ
have known German regiments in the Union Army in the ranks of which hardly an English word was heard, and these regiments did not consist of mere adventurers fond of fighting or serving merely for pay, but in the main of German-American citizens eager to serve their adopted country in its hour of need, whether they could read and speak English or not.
I have already mentioned that there are many foreign-born citizens among us whose American patriotism is in one respect finer than that of many a native. This republic being the land of their choice, they want to be and to remain proud of that choice, and to have that pride recognized as just. A man of that class is as sensitive of any reason for casting a slur upon the character of the Republic, as a bridegroom would feel and resent a shadow cast upon the fair fame of his bride. More than once I have heard one of my countrymen, when anything discreditable to the American nation had happened, exclaim with a pathetic accent of sincerest grief: “Ah, what will they think of this in the old country! I hope they will never hear of it.” And such truly patriotic sighs were uttered, and perhaps felt, not in English, but in German.
That the existence of the German press tells for the preservation in this country of the German language as a language of social and business intercourse is to a limited extent true. But what harm is there in this? While it is of great use to the older immigrants, it does not keep their children from learning English, even in settlements which are preponderatingly German, for such settlements are no longer isolated as the original German settlements in Pennsylvania were. But it does give the younger generation the advantage of knowing two languages. That kind of American patriotism which takes umbrage at an American citizen's knowledge of a foreign tongue besides the English—a sort of patriotism I have here
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