USA > Maryland > History of the German Society of Maryland > Part 5
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Your most obedient servant, CHRISTIAN MAYER, President of German Society of Maryland.
Letter to Charles Ridgely, Jr., Esq. :
July 15th, 1817.
Sir :- The bearer has been referred to me by two officers of the German Society, which has made it my duty as pres-
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ident of this society to take notice of his case. It is to be lamented, that the want of understanding the language is frequently the occasion of injustice on part of the master and more frequently his agents, and of impropriety of con- duct on the part of the servant. Where this is the case, it has generally been found the interest of the master to suffer the servant to seek another employer, as seldom any good has resulted from coercion. I understand that you have consented to release this man on condition of his re- funding what you paid for his family. It will be impossible in the short space of time you have allowed him, to procure either the money or security for its payment. Mr. W. J. C. Karthaus who has a new settlement in Pennsylvania, has offered to take him and his family there at his expense, to employ them at the highest wages, and to retain from that a portion toward the debt due you, for which he will ac- count to the society to be refunded to you. We have no doubt in the course of a reasonable time the man will be able to discharge his debt toward you and I think you run little hazard letting him go on these terms. I have the honor, etc., etc.
CHRISTIAN MAYER, President of the G. S. of Md.
In this manner the society did its utmost under the cir- cumstances to aid and relieve emigrants in distress. It was not incorporated and had no legal standing in the courts of law. The laws as afore-remarked were utterly inadequate to give the redemptioners the protection and the remedies they were entitled to in a Christian civilized country. The legislature was not in session and would not meet until December, 1817, when the appeal for a
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charter of the society and the carefully prepared laws by the counsellors, Messrs. Hoffman and Frick, and the president for the remedy of the evils complained of could be submitted to be enacted.
It was the constant effort of the society to increase its influence, membership and to raise funds to carry on its noble work. By a resolution of the board and letters of the president, Dr. J. Baer, of Fredericktown, and Dr. Schnebly, of Hagerstown, were kindly requested to solicit subscriptions among the many German and Swiss and descendants of them who were settled in those towns and vicinity by publishing the constitution and proceedings of the society in the German newspapers then published in their respective towns.
To make the membership more attractive by social features, a grand banquet was arranged and held at Johann A. Kaminsky's Hotel, on Bank street, on Friday, the 26th day of December, 1817. It was attended by most all the prominent German-Americans of the city. Thirteen official toasts were on the program and after each toast an appropriate popular song. The first toast was "To the Land We Live In," the song, "Ubi bene, ibi patria."
It seems "The Star Spangled Banner," which only a few years before had been composed in our city, had not yet become widely known, for, thereafter, it was gen- erally in the regular order at each of their banquets.
"To the Land of our Ancestors" was the second toast. and "To the German Confederation (Bund)" the third; iourth, "German Industry and Honesty;" may both be- come proverbial in this country. Fifth, "German art and
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invention." Sixth, To the memory of George Washing- ton. Seventh, To the memory of Benjamin Franklin. Eighth, To the memory of Luther, Zwingli and Arch- bishop Dalberg. Ninth, "To the memory of Frederick the Great, not as a conqueror, but as wisest of monarchs and first servant of the people of his country." Tenth, "To the memory of the Muhlenbergs and all German- Americans who distinguished themselves in the cause of Liberty, Religion and Science." Eleventh, "All emigrants, may they never be ungrateful to the country which adopted them."
Twelfth, "To our Sister Societies."
Thirteenth, "To the Ladies of America, Germany and Swiss."
This closed the official program, but by no means the flood of kindliness, good cheer and enthusiasm which had been engendered, and being now released from the formalities of the program called forth and toasted to the memory of numerous illustrious men with eloquent re- marks of their virtues and great services rendered to man- kind. The president, Christian Mayer, not losing sight of the ulterior object of the banquet, gave as toast, "May the legislature of our State be favorable to the objects and purpose of our society," and spoke of the adoption of the laws for the better protection of emigrants and re- demptioners, submitted by the society to the legislature, then in session at Annapolis.
Mr. J. B. von Kapff, the first vice-president, then pro- posed a toast, "To the President of the United States of America, James Monroe." Dr. A. J. Schwartze, a re- nowned physician of the city and third vice-president,
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proposed a toast, "To the German Society of Maryland ;" then toasts were drank to the memories of Herman the Cherusker, to General Blücher, Baron De Kalb, William Tell, Adelung, Klopstock, Lessing, Herder, Wieland, Theodor Koerner, Goethe, Schiller, Mozart, Hayden, Handel, the German language, a number of physicians and scientists, and after the vice-president, General John Stricker, had retired, a toast, "On the Victory of North Point, may it always be remembered that a descendant of a German was the first to defeat the hostile British demon- stration against Baltimore." After the withdrawal of President Mayer a toast to him as a philanthropist, etc .. was drank. There were thirty-eight toasts as reported in the Federal Gazette.
The banquet was a great success, an enthusiastic affair and long remembered in Baltimore. The object of the society became thereby more widely known and popular, which was of great assistance in obtaining from the legis- lature on the third of February, 1818, the following charter or act of incorporation by Chapter 100:
WHEREAS, the arrival of Germans and Switzers from Europe, and the numerous settlements made by them in various parts of the Union, have induced a number of per- sons in this State to associate themselves for the purpose of removing or lessening their distresses in a strange land, and these persons having applied to the General Assembly of Maryland, for an act of incorporation. Therefore :
SECTION I. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MD., That Christian Mayer, John Stricker, Augustus J. Schwartz, Bernard J. Von Kapff, Henry Schroeder, Justus Hoppe, John Frederick Fries, Con-
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rad Schultz, James Keerl, Augustus Hammer, Frederick Leypold, Frederick and E. Amelung, Michael Kimmel, William Krebs, Louis Brantz, Philip P. Eckel, Jacob Small, Lawrence Thomsen, Louis Mayer, David Hoffman and William Frick, the present Officers of the German Society of Maryland and all persons who are or may hereafter be- come members of said Society and their successors, shall be and they are hereby created and made one community, corporation and body politic, for ever hereafter, by the name, style and title of "The German Society of Mary- land."
SEC. 2. AND BE IT ENACTED, that the said corpora- tion, and their successors by the name, style and title afore- said, shall be capable in law of purchasing, receiving, hold- ing, selling, leasing and conveying, all manner of lands, tenements, goods, chattels, rents, annuities, liberties, fran- chises or other property, real, personal or mixed ; provided always, that the clear annual value or income from the property of the said corporation shall not exceed the sum of $5,000 exclusive of the monies arising from annual or other stated subscriptions or payments.
SEC. 3. AND BE IT ENACTED, that the said corpora- tion and their successors by the name aforesaid, shall be for ever hereafter able and capable in law to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, in all or any court of justice, and it shall and may be lawful for them to have and use a common seal, and the same to break, alter and renew, at pleasure, and generally to do all things and acts which may be necessary to carry into effect the benevolent designs of said corporation.
SEC. 4. And be it enacted, that said corporation and their successors, shall be capable of making such rules and by-
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laws as may be necessary for the regulation and govern- ment of said corporation, the same not being contrary to the laws and constitution of this State, or of the United States.
Two weeks later, on February 16, 1818, the law pre- pared by the officers of the society was passed. It was entitled :
AN ACT RELATIVE TO GERMAN AND SWISS REDEMPTIONERS.
Whereas, it has been found that German and Swiss emi- grants, who for the discharge of the debt contracted for their passage to this country are often obliged to subject themselves to cruel and oppressive imposition by the mas- ters of the vessels in which they arrive, and likewise by those to whom they become servants, BE IT ENACTED :
SECTION I. Providing for the appointment by the gov- ernor of a trustworthy person, skilled in the German and English languages, as register of all contracts for appren- ticeship of German or Swiss emigrants arriving in this State.
SEC. 2. Regulates the manner of making these contracts, and none shall be valid, unless the same be drawn by the register or approved by him.
SEC. 4. Provides for the recording of these contracts, or indentures, in a court of record.
SEC. 5. Provides that the master must give every minor under the age of twenty-one years at least two months' schooling annually during his servitude.
SEC. 6. No emigrant shall in any case be bound to serve longer than four years.
SEC. 7. That no German or Swiss emigrant arriving here shall be detained longer than 30 days on board of the
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vessel after such arrival, and receive during the detention on board good and sufficient provisions, without increase in the period of their servitude.
SEC. 8. Makes it the duty of the register to remove on shore any sick emigrant or any emigrant having been cruelly or ill-treated by the officers of the ship, at the expense of the vessel. If no purchaser is found for him within sixty days after arrival, the master or owners of the vessel have no further lien on such emigrant.
SEC. 9. That no children shall be answerable for the passage money of their parents, dead or alive, nor parents for their deceased children, nor a husband for his deceased wife, nor a wife for her deceased husband, any pretense of custom in contract, promise or agreement made beyond sea, to the contrary notwithstanding.
SEC. IO. That the masters of the vessels arriving, in case of the death of any German or Swiss emigrant, within ten days after arrival deliver to the register an accurate in- ventory of all the property of such emigrant on board of such vessel. The register shall then sell such property, pay the master the passage-money, provided that if the passen- ger died before the expiration of one-half of the voyage no passage-money shall be due, and the heirs of the deceased shall be entitled to the proceeds, and if after advertisement and due search no heirs of the deceased can be found within three years after the arrival of the ship, then the proceeds to go to the German Society of Maryland.
By these laws the society received an official recogni- tion. It possessed talent, influence and money, and now it had also the powerful arm of the law to assist it in its noble efforts in behalf of the oppressed.
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It was now the care of the society to see that these ex- cellent laws were duly carried out. This depended on the character and ability of the person the governor would appoint as register. The register was to be skilled in the German and English language; he was to prepare or approve of all contracts of apprenticeship and had the most extensive authority and it was his duty to see that. all the provisions of the law were complied with.
On September 10, 1818, a meeting of the officers of the society was held and Lawrence Thomsen, secretary, was unanimously recommended to the governor as a suit- able person for the office as register of German and Swiss emigrants, and that he be solicited by the president of the society to appoint Mr. Thomsen to that office.
Mr. Thomsen was appointed. He proved to be a faith- ful and very efficient officer and held the office until his death on the 20th of April, 1819. His early demise was lamented by the society and the community in general, as the loss of a man who, by his talents, his amiable char - acter and general usefulness, had secured to himself in private and public life the highest esteem.
On December 14, 1818, the president referred to Con- rad Schultz and Samuel Keerl, managers, the case of apparent hardship between William Jacob Myers, tobac- conist, and a servant girl of his whom he had agreed to set free, but on condition to pay him a sum of money which is represented not to be in due proportion to what he paid for her time. The matter was adjusted by these gentlemen and the girl was set free. Different was the ending for the master of the redemptioner.
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JOHANN BODENWERBER.
In January, 1819, a German, named Johann Boden- werber, appealed to the society for protection. He was a servant of one Henry Freeburger, who had treated him with the utmost cruelty and inflicted such injuries on him that he was for a long time laid up in the hospital under medical treatment. The president first tried to obtain a release of Bodenwerber from his bondage, and wrote the following letter to Freeburger :
"Sir :- If as a small atonement for the barbarous treat- ment, which Johannes Bodenwerber experienced from you, you will give up his indentures, the officers of the German Society will prevail on the Magistrate who issued a peace warrant against you, to have the prosecution withdrawn. Should you unexpectedly not consent to this lenient meas- ure, you may depend upon the Society's utmost endeavors to bring you to deserved shame and punishment. I have before me a physician's certificate which fully justifies my using this language to you.
(Signed)
CHRISTIAN MAYER,
President of German Society of Maryland."
It is gratifying to us that Henry Freeburger in his cupidity and hardness of heart did not accept this proposi- tion, for he was promptly indicted by the grand jury and tried in the Criminal Court of Baltimore city and found guilty and sentenced.
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Johann Bodenwerber, however, was released from his bondage, became a free man again and married his sweet- heart. The papers of Bodenwerber and of his sweet- heart, that is, their pass-ports and certificates of their good moral conduct from different public authorities of their native country, which had been in the custody of the German Society, were delivered to them, together with a sum of money and the good wishes of the society. The president speaks of Bodenwerber as a very worthy man who deserved a better fate.
On Saturday, the 26th day of December, 1818, the society celebrated the first anniversary of its re-organi- zation by a grand dinner at Williamson's Hotel, com- mencing at four o'clock p. m. The customary thirteen official toasts were drank, the United States of America heading the list. Many voluntary toasts followed and a merry time. Over $500 had been given to needy emi- grants in the past year.
In the early days of the month of January, 1819, arrived in our port the Swedish ship "Prima," Cap- tain Moxwold, after a long, perilous, tempestuous voyage from Bergen, Norway, with upward 250 German and Swiss emigrants, mostly redemptioners, in the great- est distress. These emigrants must have been shipwrecked or from other cause, in distress have found refuge in that far northern city of Bergen, for the German So- ciety passed at a meeting resolutions of profuse thanks to the magistrate of the city of Bergen and other public functionaries of his majesty, the King of Sweden, and to A. Gruning, Esq., consul for the Hanseatic cities at Chris- tiania for the extraordinary generosity to these emigrants
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during their stay in Norway, assuring them that the offi- cers and all the members of the society who have heard the history of these unfortunate strangers are animated by the liveliest sentiments of gratitude for the unex- ampled humanity and liberality extended towards these emigrants. These resolutions were duly transmitted by the president and secretary of the society. On the arrival of the ship here the captain did not have the money to pay the foreign tonnage tax required by our laws, and the poor passengers were not allowed to land and in their distress had to remain on board the ship. An appeal for aid was made to the German Society, which thereupon directed its officers to make a sufficient deposit with the collector of the port to permit the landing of the pas- sengers and their baggage.
President Mayer sent the following letter :
The Honorable William A. Crawford,
Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Washington, D. C.
Sir : The Swedish ship "Prima" Capt. Moxwold arrived here some days ago from Norway with upward 250 Ger- man emigrants in great distress. The collector of this dis- trict could not admit this ship to an entry, unless the for- eign tonnage be paid or secured, as he is not yet officially informed of the treaty with Sweden recently ratified. To alleviate the distress of the redemptioners on board the "Prima," I have this day made the requisite deposit, which the master of the ship had not the means to do, and the ship is entered and leave given to land the passengers and their baggage. I have now to request, that you, sir, will be pleased to give direction to the collector respecting the ton-
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nage this Swedish ship is chargeable with, that he may settle with me for the deposit made.
I have the honor to be most respectfully, sir, Your most obedient servant, CHR. MAYER,
President of the Incorporated German Society of Maryland.
The society granted a loan to Joseph Fiedler, one ot the redemptioners of the "Prima," of fifty dollars for one year, and gifts of smaller sums to others, but still greater trouble came with this ship to the society, which brought discord among its officers with the sequence of the resig- nation of its able counsellors-at-law and eventually the resignation of its zealous worthy president. It was the Case of the "Breuning Boys."
Among the redemptioners of the ship "Prima" was the Breuning family, consisting of husband and wife with their two infant sons, Christian and Adam. Mr. Law- rence Thomsen, the State Register of Redemptioners, went on board to draw and prepare all contracts for ap- prenticeship as prescribed by law for emigrants who had come under the redemptioner system and found masters willing to take them in service. The ship was crowded and the register was engaged in making out and signing apprenticeship contracts in one part of the ship, when a Mr. W. Denny, a farmer from Queen Anne county, see- ing the Breuning boys, was so pleased with their appear- ance that he offered the captain of the ship a liberal sum of money to buy them as redemptioners. The captain accepted the money, and the farmer, without having them bound and indentured by Mr. Thomsen and without the
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parents understanding what was going on with their children, placed the boys in his boat, which was laying alongside of the ship, and shoved off. The mother seeing her only children thus carried away, cried out and lamented, crazed with grief and anguish. Mr. Thomsen called to Mr. Denny and ordered him to bring back the boys. He would return him the money he paid, but neither the order of this officer nor the piteous cries and lamentations of the mother and father of the boys made an impression on the farmer. He had a good bargain in the service of these boys until they were respectively twenty-two years of age, with no record when that time would come, and he sailed with them away across the Chesapeake Bay to Queen Anne county. It was a clear case of kidnapping. To make matters still worse the bereaved and grief-stricken parents were afterwards sold to a farmer in Pennsylvania, where they bitterly bewailed the loss of their children. All this was reported by Mr. Thomsen to the president of the society and aroused his sympathy and abhorrence. He was determined to act at once with the greatest energy in behalf of these unfortu- nate children and their parents. The only way to obtain the freedom of these lads from the custody of Mr. Denny was by a proceeding of obtaining a writ of "habeas cor- pus," to be issued by the circuit court of Queen Anne's county, commanding Mr. Denny to bring the lads into court for adjudication. The matter was therefore to be referred to the counsellors of the society for action. The society had some time prior received a complaint from a German gardener named Stoffel, who was brought to this country in the ship "Superb," and under a contract en-
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tered into in Holland, held in servitude by John Carrere, Esq., of this city, the owner of the ship "Superb." Stoffel had just grievances against Mr. Carrere, and these were referred to the counsellors to seek redress for him by law. The counsellors had sent to the society an opinion un- favorable to the legal rights of Stoffel in his just com- plaints. The president's son, Charles F. Mayer, Esq., a member of the bar, who became a leading lawyer of the State, to whom this opinion was submitted, gave a dia- metrical different opinion of the law, and was in favor of taking legal steps in behalf of Stoffel. The president agreed with his son's views, and was not in harmony with the lawyers of the society. He, therefore, sent them the following letter :
February Ist, 1819.
David Hoffman and William Frick, Esq.
Gentlemen :- I have yesterday received the opinion you favored me with, and shall consequently in my official ca- pacity desist from countenancing the gardener Stoffel's complaint against W. Carren. But permit me, gentlemen, to observe, that although it is surely not illegal in Holland for one man to become gardener for another for three years without wages, yet that species of domestic servitude, which is nothing but a temporary slavery, which makes one man the property of another, and divests him of all civic rights, is utterly unknown to the laws and customs of the Nether- lands,-there is even no feudal serf or adscriptus glebae in that country. If, therefore, Stoffel's contract is to be ex- ecuted here as it would be interpreted in Holland, he is not Mr. Carren's indented servant (Leibeigener), but his hired domestic upon wages advanced.
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Give me leave to state a simile: Suppose Stoffel had agreed with Captain Weems to be transported to the north- west coast of America, to be there maintained in the usual manner, could he have no right to complain if he were fed on rotten whale and putrid fish oil? With all due deference, I crave your permission to submit the opinion of my son on this case.
I am at the same time under the necessity of calling your attention to another matter. Last week a misunderstand- ing took place between a passenger on board the ship "Prima," now in this port, and an inhabitant of Queen Anne's county, whose name Mr. Thomsen will inform you of, about the terms of servitude or apprenticeship of the former's two infant sons. Mr. Thomsen not being able to accommodate the difference, requested the man from Queen Anne's to return the two lads on board to the cap- tain, but instead of doing so, the man carried off the boys in his boat, without having them bound. I beg, gentlemen, you will by addressing the chief judge of the district in which Queen Anne is situated or by any other means you may deem advisable, endeavor to redress this wrong and punish the offender.
I have the honor to be, etc.,
CHRISTIAN MAYER, Pres. of G. S. of Md.
The president, however, did not wait for the attorneys to act, not even for a reply to his letter. He seems to have lost confidence in them, and on the 5th of February, 1819, sent them the following rather discourteous letter :
"Wm. Frick and David Hoffman, Esqs.
Sirs :- Before the receipt of your respected letter of yes- terday it had been suggested to me to enclose to a store-
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keeper at Centreville, with whom Mr. Thomsen has an open account, a petition to the judge of that district for a habeas corpus, accompanied by a deposition of Mr. Thomsen, stat- ing the facts of the case and a request to his correspondent to employ counsel at the expense of the German Society. I am glad, gentlemen, that by this mode of proceeding I am enabled to spare you from perhaps unnecessary trouble."
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