"Welcomed at first, and their labor in advancing the general prosperity recognized, the extent of the immigration began as early as 1717 to occasion apprehensionb on the part of English settlers, which increased to positive hostility, as years brought no cessation of the stream. In 1728, Governor Thomas estimated the Germans as constituting three-fifths of the entire population. The words of Benjamin Franklin in 1751 may be recalled as a proof of the vastness of the movement:"Why should the Palatine boors be suffered to swarm into our settlements,and, by herding together, establish their language and manners, to the exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our Anglicifying them, and they will never adopt our language or customs any more than they can acquire our complexion. Dr. William Smith, the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, thought it possible that the Provincial legislature would be forced to appoint an official interpreter, that one-half of the legislators might be able to understand the other half, and to save Pennsylvania from the threatened heathenism, organized a 'Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Germans!' Alarmists were constantly raising the cry of an imminent peril of an alliance between the Pennsylvania Germans and the French, on the west, that would be fatal to English dominance. Franklin was soon made to feel that he had committed a political blunder by his strongly expressed hostility to the immigrants, and tried to explain that the term "boor" he had employed, was only a synonym for 'farmer'; while he freely conceded the important contribution they made to the development of Pennsylvania. "Their industry and frugality are exemplary. They are excellent husbandmen and contribute greatly to the improvement of a country." In 1738, the Governor, in a message to the Provincial Assembly, had declared:"This Province has been for some time the asylum of the distressed Protestants of the Palatinate, and other parts of Germany; and I believe it may with truth be said that the present flourising condition of it is in great measure owing to the industry of these people." When in 1729, Thomas Mackin, the Principal of the Philadelphia Academy, undertook to celebrate the growing prosperity of the Province, he both alludes to the numbers and the importance of our fathers in the words: Twas hither first the british crossed the main; Thence many others left their native plain; And from Germania, crowded vessels come. Hibernia's sons forsake their native home; Since every stranger may partake a share. Hence still more culture shall the soil receive, And every year increasing plenty give. Cleared from the woods more fruitful land they gain, And yellow Ceres fills the extended plain. Here bubbling fountains flow through every mede, Where flocks and herds delight to drink and feed. The marshy grounds improved rich meadows yield, The wilderness is made into a field." the end ==== PENNA-DUTCH Mailing List ==== New? Looking for a quick connection? Visit the surnames list associated with this mail list at http://members.aol.com/PennaDutch/pdlsurnames.html