USA > Pennsylvania > The Fatherland: (1450-1700) : showing the part it bore in the discovery, exploration and development of the western continent with special reference to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ; pt. I. of a narrative and critical history > Part 7
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decoction of lye known as the so-called Schweden- trank ; the merciless extortions, the wanton destruc- tion of cattle, grain, crops and domiciles; all these and similar tribulations fell to the lot of Germany during the eventful thirty years from 1618 to 1648.
The armies upon either side were a mere rabble and a gathering of outlaws, robbers and plunderers, who cared more to extort contributions from the de- fenceless peasant and helpless citizen than to face an armed foe in the cause of the banners under which they fought.
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Female Harpies.
There was but little attempt at uniforming the troops, and with the exception of the French and Hollanders, they were never provided with any dis- tinctive clothing. The great majority of soldiery on both sides could only be told from beggars or stroll- ing vagabonds by the arms they carried. So univer- sal was this the case, that prior to going into battle the various companies would adopt some mark, as a white or red band around the sleeve, or a green sprig in their hats, so that they might distinguish them- selves from the foe. Another difference between the armies of the Thirty Years' War and of later wars, was the large number of camp-followers ( Tross,) and of women (Tross-weiber) ; these two classes in some cases amounted to more than three or four times the number of troops in the field. 129a No soldier went to the wars in those times unless he took a wife or Tross-woman with him, who not only attended to the cooking, washing and mending for her soldier, but on the march also carried all baggage for which there was no room in the baggage-train.
It was these female camp-followers who were the most dreaded plunderers, and who subjected the helpless matron and maiden of the captured towns and villages to tortures to which death would have been preferable.
Nothing was left undone by these harpies to ex- tract any hidden valuables from the poor victim who
12% 'Geschichte des dreisigjahrigen Krieges," Leipzig 1882. Vol. iii, P. 221.
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The Fatherland 1450-1700.
was handed over into their clutches. A favorite method of torture with them was to remove the flints from the gun-locks, and insert in their place the thumb of the victim, thus improvising one of the most painful instruments of torture.
Another favorite method of these she-monsters was to pierce the tongue and draw a fine horse-hair through it, and then either lead their prisoner thereby or else draw it back and forth. Boring holes in the knee-caps 130 was humane in comparison with other excesses which are upon record, and vouched for in many instances.131
At last, after such a terrible scourge of thirty years' duration, the negotiations which commenced in 1643, having for their object a lasting peace, were brought to a close in the year 1648.
The convention which brought this great struggle to a peaceful end, was the outcome of an Imperial diet held at Regensburg, when it was decreed that a meeting of deputies should be convened at Frankfort, in May, 1642. This was, however, delayed until a year later, when the convention adjourned until the following year. It was then resolved that the various peace commissioners should assemble at Münster to treat with the French, and at Osnabruck with the Swedes, and to perfect a protocol which would lead to a lasting peace.
These negotiations extended over several years,
120 "Geschichte des dreisigjahrigen Krieges," Leipzig 1882. Vol. iii, p. 222.
131 Ibid
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Peace of Westphalia.
and it was not until October 24, 1648, that peace resolutions were signed by all parties at Münster. This is what is known in history as the Peace of Westphalia. 132 A large silver medal was struck to commemorate the close of this memorable struggle ; a fac-simile of this token showing both obverse and reverse is here reproduced.132a
The chief diplomats engaged in this Congress 182b were Count Troutmannsdorf and Dr. Volmer, upon the part of the Imperialists ; d'Avaux and Servien for the French ; while count Oxenstierna, son of the great chancellor, and baron Salvius, represented the Swedish interests. In addition to the above, France and Sweden, against the will of the emperor, secured the participation of the estates of the empire in the negotiations.183
132 For a full account of these negotiations, see Gindley, dreissig- jahrigen Krieges, Leipzig 1882. Vol. iii, pp. 174, et seq. 132g A specimen is in the collection of Mr. Harry Rodgers of Philadel- phia.
132b Terburg, the artist, painted a large canvas representing the final scene of this memorable Congress. This painting is now in the Royal gallery at London.
133., By this peace, the religious and political state of Germany was settled ; the sovereignty of the members of the Empire was acknowl- edged. The changes which had been made for the advantage of the Protestants since the religious peace in 1555, were confirmed by the determination that everything should remain as it had been at the be- ginning of the [so-called] normal year, 1624. The Calvinists received equal rights with the adherents of the Augsburg Confession or the Lutherans. This peace gave the death-blow to the political unity of Germany. It made the German empire, which was always a most dis- advantageous form of government for the people, a disjointed frame without organization or system, a condition from which the nation did not recover until the glorious wars against France in 1870-I.
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The Fatherlad 1450-1700.
The final peace, however, was not executed until June 26, 1650, when the historic parchment was signed at Nürnberg, 134 where the occasion was made one of great rejoicing, the chief feature of which was the banquet given in the town hall by the Im- perial general, Piccolomini.
The Fatherland, at the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia, was in a pitiable condition. It had suffered an irreparable loss of men and wealth, an unheard-of reduction of population, great increase of poverty, and a retrogression in all ranks of its inhab- itants. This was followed by famine and pestilence, and in view of these terrible conditions we may well accept the statement that the population of the Fatherland fell from sixteen millions to four millions, and ended with the almost total annihilation of Ger- many's wealth and influence. 134a
Formerly, the German emperor was the acknowl- edged head of western nations. Now he was shorn of all but the merest shadow of imperial power, and his domain served his enemies and neighboring rulers as a ready object for division and compensation.
In former years the fleet of the German Hansa ruled the ocean, and brought all sorts of foreign products to German ports. Now the glory of com-
134 The rulers of Europe, at the time of the peace of Westphalia: Emperor, Ferdinand IV; Pope, Innocent X; Sultan, Achmet II, son of Ibraim; France, Louis XIV; Spain, Philip IV; England, Charles I; Poland, Casimir; Denmark and Norway, Frederick III; Sweden, Queen Christina; Bohemia, Ferdinand IV; Hungary, Ferdinand IV.
13h& Sachsse, Ursprung und Wesen des Pietismus Wiesbaden, 1884.
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Decline of the Empire.
mercial supremacy had been gradually wrested from them, first by the Italians, then by Spain, and later by Holland and England. Thus was Germany cut off from sharing in the riches of the newly discovered regions, or extending her power and influence by colonization.
Nor would it have been possible for Germany un- der the then existing conditions to aspire to colonial or foreign possessions, for she had by no means been able to maintain her own borders.
Holland and Sweden had long since recognized the importance of foreign extension, which policy re- sulted in the establishment of West India compan- ies, under whose auspices attempts at settlement were made upon the shores of the Hudson and the Delaware, movements in which we again find Ger- man blood prominently represented.
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DUTCH AND SWEDISH ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION.
ARIOUS EXPEDI- tions were sent out to America from Holland at an early date, and we have vague accounts of attempts at settlements under Cor- nelius Mey 135 and Ver- ROYAL ARMS OF HOLLAND. hulst.185a It was not, how- ever, until the formation of the Dutch West India Company, an organization projected by Wil- helm Usselinx,135b that the first successful effort at colonization was made. This colony was led by Peter Minuet, a German from Wesel,186 who landed on Manhattan island, May 4, 1626, and there laid the foundation of New Amsterdam, and at the same time that of the Reformed faith in America.
The German soldier, Peter Minuet, was the first governor of the colony of New Netherlands, and acted as ruling elder of the church in the infant settlement.137 It is a fact worthy of special mention
THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, KING OF SWEDEN. (BORN DEC. 9, 1594, DIED NOV. 16, 1632.)
(FROM PAINTING AT HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.)
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First Organized Congregation.
that the congregation founded on Manhattan island during the reign of Peter Minuet, was the first fully organized Protestant church on the American conti- nent,18 with a settled pastor, with regularly chosen officers, a list of communicant members, and the stated administration of sacraments.
Treaties were made with the Indians and commer- cial relations were opened with the Puritans in Mass- achusetts. The settlers, among whom German blood was largely represented, came here to found
135 The first attempt at Dutch settlement in America was made in the year 1623, under Director Cordelius Mey.
135ª The attempt to found a colony under Verhulst was made in the year 1625.
For the thirty-five different spellings of the name of this pioneer promoter, the reader is referred to Jamison's Willem Usselinx, New York, 1887. Willem Usselinx was born at Antwerp in June, 1567. The exact date of his death is not known, as no record of either his death or burial have thus far been found. He probably died in the year 1647, at the age of eighty years. It does not appear from any of his numerous writings that he ever was married or had any children.
136 Peter Minnewit (Minuet, Menewe, Meneve, or Menuet) was born at Wesel on the Rhine, of Protestant parentage. Little is known of his early life. There is also a doubt as to the time and place of his death. The most generally accepted account and evidently the true one, is that he was drowned in the harbor of St Christophers, during a a sudden squall upon his return voyage to Sweden. Kapp, in his mono- graph "Peter Minnewit aus Wesel," München 1866, without citing any authority, states that his death and burial took place at Fort Christina, sometime during the year 1641. The former is however no doubt the true account: certain it is that Minnewit never returned to Europe.
137 Pastor Michaelius, who served the Reformed Church at New Am- sterdam in 1628, mentions the fact in his "Bericht" that the Director Minnewit of Wesel who had acted as Diakon of the Reformed church in his native city, had now assumed the same function in the new church here.
138 Peter Minuet, by Rev. Cyrus Cort, Dover, Del., p. 23.
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The Fatherlad 1450-1700.
homes for themselves and their families ; others, again, to establish commercial relations with the old world, and to develop the resources of the new coun- try. All this was in direct contrast to what had thus far been the policy of the heartless and bigoted Spaniard.
As a matter of impartial history ;- to the German soldier and adventurer, Peter Minuet, belongs the credit for inaugurating the humane and christian policy of peaceful negotiation and fair dealings with the Indians ; a policy for which so much praise has been showered upon William Penn by poet, painter and historian. Yet here, upon the banks of the North river, stood Peter Minuet, a native born Ger- man, and director of the Dutch West India Com- pany, bargaining with the Indians for their land (Manhattan island) before he would permit any set- tlement to be made by his colonists.139 This scene was enacted just eighteen years before the birth of William Penn and was re-enacted by the same pious adventurer on the banks of the South (Delaware) river some years later, when in the services of Sweden.140
Under the administration of Minuet, trade and commerce flourished in the new settlement, immi- grants continued to arrive, and the colony from the outset entered upon a career of tranquillity and prosperity.
139 Winsor, Critical History. Vol. iv, p. 398.
140 This treaty or purchase was concluded from five chiefs of the Minquas, belonging to the great Iroquois race.
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German Influence.
Now, what have been the results from this small colony upon the strip of island shore, established there by this German adventurer and christian soldier, Peter Minuet, who was the first European to deal honestly and frankly with the aborigines of the North American colonies, and found a settlement upon principles of humanity and religious tolerance ?
The answer is that after the lapse of almost three centuries, the small settlement of Dutch and Ger- man nationality has become the Empire state of the American Union, while the little town founded on the extreme end of Manhattan island is now the commercial metropolis of America; and I am proud to say that German influence is to-day even more paramount in commercial, industrial and social circles than it was when the first civil government was established there by the German, Peter Minuet.
After the States- General of Hol- land, in 1629, in- troduced the feudal system into their American possessions by ROYAL ARMS OF SWEDEN. what is known as the " Charter for Exemptions and Freedom," Usselinx severed his connection with the Dutch West India Company, and in the next year, 1630, we find him, with his restless activity, seeking to interest Swe-
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The Fatherland 1450-1700.
den's king in a similar project for colonization in the western world. Two years later, (1632) Peter Minuet also resigned his commission under the Dutch com- pany, and returned to Germany.
As the Swedes at that time were at the height of their power in Germany, it occurred to Usselinx to interest German capital and population in the scheme as well as the Swedish nation. For this purpose he
AUTOGRAPH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.
issued a pamphlet called Mercurius Germaniae, 141 that is Herald of Germany (or German Mercury) setting forth to the Germans the advantages of his commercial project, and offering them inducements to engage in it, under the amplified charter which was to admit them to participation with the Swedes.
This plan was approved by the king, Gustavus Adolphus, by a patent issued at Nürnberg, dated but a few days prior to the fatal November day when the great Swede fell at Lutzen. An ampflication of this charter had also been prepared, with the king's ap- proval, in favor of the German nation. This docu- ment was dated Nürnberg, October 16, 1632, but was left unsigned by the king.
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Mercurius Germaniae.
MERCVRIVS GERMANIA.
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TITLE PAGE OF MERCURIUS GERMANIAE. ORIGINAL AT HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
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The Fatherlad 1450-1700.
The patent, however, was signed at Heilbronn, April 10, 1633, by the Swedish chancellor, Axel Oxenstjerna142 who, though a Swede by birth, was a German by adoption and education. In the follow- ing May the chancellor, while still at Heilbronn, issued a commission which seems to have been drawn up for the king's signature, empowering Usselinx as chief director of the new South Company to proceed with its immediate organization.
Usselinx, having obtained his enlarged grant, at once issued a German prospectus of 127 pages folio, under the title Argonautica Gustavi- ana. 143 The first item in the contents of the book is a proclamation or patent by Oxen- stjerna, dated Frank- fort, June 26, 1633, giving notice of the re- SEAL AND AUTOGRAPH OF OXENSTIERNA. newal of the charter, with amplifications and the re- appointment of Usselinx, and charging all to assist in so good a work.144 Meetings were held in differ- ent cities 143 during the next twelve months to organ-
141 " Mercurius Germaniae, that is, Special Exposition for Germany." See Jamison, Willem Usselinx, p. 312.
142 Ibid, 317.
143 This is supposed to be the earliest German book or pamphlet on Emigration. For the bibliography of the Argonautica, see Ibid, Appen- dix No. 26.
144 Ibid, 319.
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TITLE PAGE OF ARGONAUTICA GUSTAVIANA. ORIGINAL AT HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
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The Fatherlad 1450-1700.
ize regular colonies, but just at the time when success seemed assured, the vicissitudes of war, upon the well contested field of Nördlingen, put an end to the undertaking so far as Germany as a nation was concerned.
For a time the project lagged, but it was gradually revived, and in the autumn of 1637 a small expedi- tion, consisting almost entirely of Hollanders and Germans, set out from Gottenberg under Peter Minuet. This little fleet reached the shores of the South (Delaware) river about the middle of March, 1638. Here the scenes enacted twelve years previously on Manhattan island were repeated. 146 On March 29, 1638, a treaty was made with the Indians upon the spot where Wilmington now stands.147 A colony was started, and the foundation laid of the first regularly organized Lutheran church in America,148 one of whose chief objects was the christianizing of the Indians, for which the catechism of Luther was translated into the Indian vernacular and printed at an early time long before the century had passed into history.
145 Accounts of some of these meetings held at Frankfort on the Mayn and at Nürnberg, are still in existence.
146 Peter Minuet Memorial, p. 29.
147 Vide History of New Sweden, by Acrelius; also Ferris, Original Settlements on the Delaware, p. 43.
148 The colonists at first had their public worship in the fort erected at the landing place. This was the first place dedicated to divine worship in the Christian name on the banks of the Delaware. The first pastor of this congregation was the Rev. Reorus Torkillus, who came out with the expedition, and officiated until his death in 1643.
THE PENNSYLVANIA-GERMAN SOCIETY.
OXEL OXENSTIERNA. THE GREAT SWEDISH CHANCELLOR. (BORN 1583. DIED 1654.)
(FROM ORIGINAL . CANVAS AT HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.)
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Lutheran Catechism.
LUTHERI Catechismus/
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ANNO M DC XCVI.
.TITLE PAGE OF LUTHERAN CATECHISM IN THE INDIAN LANGUAGE. ORIGINAL IN HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
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The Fatherlad 1450-1700.
Peter Minuet, the brave German soldier, never re- turned from this voyage; but his expedition, small as it was, had sowed the germ of another of the original states of the American Union.
CONCORDIA RESPARVA CRESCUN
THE FRENCH WARS OF CONQUEST.
ETURNING ONCE more to Europe, it is found that when event- ually France, under the rule of Louis XIV, be- came the political and in- tellectual leader of Europe, a policy was ARMS OF THE CHUR-PFLATZ. inaugurated whereby her borders were extended eastward at Germany's ex- pense. The royal power was asserted by the king, who, aided by Mazarin, used it to further his ambi- tions and unjust plans of aggrandizement. Thus it became possible for him to maintain his wars of con- quest in Holland, devastate Würtemberg and the Palatinate, occupy the city of Strasburg, and event- ually detach Alsace and Lorraine.
In this course of rapine and murder upon German soil, the French were neither opposed by the German
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The Fatherland 1450-1700.
emperor Leopold, nor by England, which was then rent by internal dissension. In justice to the em- peror, it may be said that at that critical period he was even harder pushed in the far east by the Turks, whose triumphant advance was only checked under the walls of Vienna by the bravery of the German- Polish contingent which had been hurriedly gathered.
Sweden had also taken a threatening position in the north, and made attempts to extend her domain southwards from Pomerania :- efforts which were only checked by the glorious victory of the great elector upon the field at Fehrbellin (1675.)
None of these unfortunate warlike movements, however, would have placed the Fatherland in the helpless condition here shown, had it not been for the internal dissensions, political and religious, caused by the quarrel between the emperor and the petty local rulers.
We will now take a glance at the religious situ- ation of Germany at this critical period. After the close of the long war in Europe, Germany, under the continued strain of warlike excitement, was natur- ally slow in recuperating religiously, financially and intellectually ; and in the evangelical sections we again have a long period of unrest, which to some extent spread to the Catholic church, and in which mystical theology played an important part. This condition resulted in what is known as the Pietistical movement in Germany-a striving after some system of personal and practical piety, in opposition to the stiff and dogmatical theology as taught by the clergy
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Separatists in Germany.
after the close of the great war. This movement, in its different phases, spread throughout Europe, and was not confined to the Lutheran church : it extended into the Catholic as well as Calvinistic countries. The Jansenism of Holland, the Quietism of France, the Quakerism of England, all sprang from the same tidal wave of religion as the German Pietism.
The Mennonites, after suffering much persecution, had been recognized as a denomination in the Netherlands, and by the civil authorities were granted equal religious and civil rights with the Reformed : (1626) an act which was afterwards strengthened by a mandate of toleration from the States-General. Under this shelter of religious protection the English Quakers were enabled to introduce their doctrine on the continent at an early day.149 William Ames went to Holland as early as 1655, and at once entered upon an active missionary career. His ministrations extended from Hamburg in the north to Bohemia in the south, and from the Hague to the kingdom of Poland. In the Palatinate and down the Rhine to- wards Switzerland, wherever any Mennonites were to be found, there William Ames and his co-laborers, William Caton, Stephen Crisp, George Rolf and others, preached the doctrine of inward light. The missionaries made Amsterdam their headquarters ; and two of them- Crisp and Caton-married Dutch women,150 and thus became citizens of Holland. A number of pam- ARMS OF AMSTERDAM.
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