29. Eliminating Confession.—In 1786 the New York Ministerium was organized in Albany, N. Y., by Pastors Kunze, of New York City, H. Moeller, of Albany, and J. S. Schwerdfeger, of Fellstown, and two lay delegates, one from New York, the other from Albany. Eight of the eleven pastors in this district took no part in the organization. Six years elapsed before another meeting convened. The minutes of the first convention state: "In view of the fact that only three pastors and two delegates appeared, those present considered it advisable to look upon themselves only as a committee of the Lutheran Church in the State of New York." The Lutheran Cyclopaedia says: "Though no records prior to the meeting at Albany are extant, Dr. Kunze stated in 1795, and again in 1800, that the New York Ministerium, revived in 1786, had been organized as early as 1773 by F. A. C. Muhlenberg, then pastor in New York." (490.) Dr. Jacobs: "Concerning the fact that any meeting was actually held, we are in ignorance; but Dr. Kunze, who ought to be most competent authority, declares: 'To the late Dr. Henry Muhlenberg belongs the immortal honor of having formed in Pennsylvania a regular ministry, and, what is somewhat remarkable, to one of his sons, who officiated as Lutheran minister from the year 1773 to 1776 in the city of New York, that of having formed the Evangelical Ministry of New York State.' The thought was carried out in 1786." (300.) In a letter to his father, then visiting in Georgia, F. A. C. Muhlenberg mentions a meeting of the Lutheran ministers in the Province of New York, planned for April, 1774. (Graebner, 450.) The Ministerium organized at Albany was a duplicate of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. According to the Minutes a resolution was adopted to regard "the constitution of the Ev. Luth. Church of Pennsylvania as their law." (469.) In 1792 the New York Ministerium adopted the new constitution of the Pennsylvania Synod, which contained no reference to the Lutheran Confessions whatever, merely retaining the name Lutheran. At the convention in Rheinbeck, 1797, Dr. Kunze being the leading spirit and president, the New York Ministerium passed the notorious resolution: "Resolved, That, on account of the intimate relation subsisting between the English Episcopalian and Lutheran Churches, the identity of their doctrine, and the near approach of their church-discipline, this consistory will never acknowledge a newly erected Lutheran church in places where the members may partake of the services of the said English Episcopal Church." (628.) Seven years later this resolution was rescinded, not, indeed, for confessional reasons, but in the interest of expediency and policy, because in 1804 G. Strebeck, with a part of his English congregation in New York, had been received by the Episcopalians. Spaeth remarks with respect to the Rheinbeck resolution: "A fitting parallel to this resolution is found in the advances made by the Mother Synod of Pennsylvania toward a union with the German Reformed Church, first in 1819 for the joint establishment of a common Theological Seminary, and afterward, in 1822, for a general union with the Evangelical Reformed Church. See Minutes of 1822." (C.P. Krauth, 1,320.)
30. President Quitman the Rationalist.—The unionism and indifferentism of the New York Ministerium naturally developed and merged into Socinianism and Rationalism under its liberal, but most able and influential leader, Dr. F. H. Quitman (1760-1832). "Quitman," says Graebner, "was a stately person, over six feet in height and of correspondingly broad and powerful build. Already at his entrance in Halle, one of the professors greeted the nineteen-year-old giant with the words, 'Quanta ossa! Quantum robur! What bones! What power!'" In his subsequent intercourse with the polite world Quitman acquired a fine tact and measured, dignified ways. At the same time he was a man of excellent parts, a master at repartee, with a keen intellect and a firm will, and in every respect a born leader." (532.) He was the only Lutheran minister who ever received, and perhaps desired [?] [tr. note: sic!] to receive, the degree of D. D. from Harvard University. Quitman, a disciple of Teller and of Semler in Halle, was a determined protagonist of German Rationalism. In 1807 this outspoken and consistent Socinian was elected president of the New York Ministerium, remaining in this office till 1825. When Quitman accepted the call to the Schoharie congregations, which he served beginning with the year 1795, he vowed that he would preach the truth according to the Word of God and "our Symbolical Books." Before long, however, he began to reveal the true inwardness of his character. In his revised edition of Kunze's catechism, which appeared in 1804, authorized by Synod, the 94th of the "Fundamental Questions," which treated of the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper, was omitted. Ten years later, 1814, in his own catechism, which was likewise published with the approval of Synod, he omitted and denied such fundamental doctrines as those of the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the Vicarious Atonement, Justification for the sake of Christ, etc. In this book Quitman and the New York Ministerium declare: "The Gospel teaches us that Christ suffered and died in order to seal with His blood the doctrine which He had preached." (533.) Two years later a "Lutheran Hymn-book" appeared, containing an un-Lutheran order of service, the Union formula of distribution, a rationalistic order for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, rationalistic prayers to the "great Father of the Universe," etc. Also this book appeared "by order of the Ev. Luth. Ministerium of the State of New York," and with a preface signed by President Quitman and Pastor Wackerhagen. (535.) When the tercentenary of the Reformation was celebrated, Quitman, again by order of the New York Ministerium, published several sermons bearing on this event. Here he says: "Reason and Revelation are the only sources from which religious knowledge can be drawn, and the norms according to which all religious questions ought to be decided. . . . Are not both, Reason and Revelation, from heaven, always in agreement and the one supporting the other?" Again: "The true sense which the Reformers connected with the term 'faith' is still more apparent from the XX. Article of the Augsburg Confession, where they explicitly declare that faith 'which is productive of good works justifies man before God.'" (653.) This rank Socinianism and Rationalism of Quitman and the Ministerium became firmly intrenched and was protected from attack by the constitution of 1816, which contained the paragraph: "And we establish it as a fundamental rule of this association that the person to be ordained shall not be required to make any other engagement than this, that he will faithfully teach, as well as perform all other ministerial duties, and regulate his walk and conversation, according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as contained in Holy Scriptures, and that he will observe this constitution while he remains a member of this Ministerium." (655.) Within the New York Ministerium, therefore, ministers could no longer be required by their congregations to pledge themselves on the Lutheran Confessions. According to the constitution doctrinal discussions were permitted on the floor of Synod, but only with the express proviso "that the fundamental principle of Protestantism, the right of free research, be not infringed upon, and that no endeavor be made to elevate the Ministerium to an inquisitorial tribunal." (679.) Thus the entire heritage of the Reformation, together with its Scriptural principle and cardinal doctrine of justification by faith, had gone by the board, the unionism and indifferentism of the Halle pastors having served as the first entering wedge—just as in Halle Pietism and subjectivism, an essentially Reformed growth, foreign to sound objective Lutheranism, had given birth to the ugly child, afterwards, when grown up, named Rationalismus Vulgaris.
JOHN CHRISTOPHER HARTWICK.
31. The Eccentric Wandering Bachelor.—Hartwick (Hartwig, Hartwich, Hardwick) was born 1714 in Thuringia, Saxony. Coming to New York in 1746, Berkenmeyer had him subscribe to the Loonenburg Church constitution. His parish included the congregations at Rheinbeck, Camp, Staatsburg, Ancrum, and Tar Bush. The capriciousness with which Hartwick, who remained an eccentric bachelor all his life, performed his pastoral duties soon gave rise to dissatisfaction. Complaints were lodged against him with Berkenmeyer, who finally wrote against him publicly. In 1750 Muhlenberg conducted a visitation in Hartwick's congregations, and reports as follows: "He went to Pennsylvania too often, and that without the permission of his congregations, etc. He did not sufficiently prepare the young for confirmation, by simple instruction in the Catechism; is too austere in his dealings with the people; does not always permit them to see him; does not maintain order at public worship; begins services an hour or two after the time fixed; has long hymns sung and preaches long, so that those who come from a distance must drive till late into the night and are compelled to neglect their cattle. He is headstrong (koppich), that is, self-willed, and will not allow any one to tell him anything or to give him advice. He says he did not come here to learn from the people, but to teach them. Nor did he, said they, cultivate the friendship of the old spiritual father Berkenmeyer, while pastors were to set a good example. Such and similar were the complaints made by his opponents." (G., 412.) The upshot of the deliberations was that Raus was appointed vicar of the congregations, while Hartwick agreed to spend six months in Pennsylvania, where he previously, 1748, had participated in the organization of the Pennsylvania Synod. In 1752 Hartwick preached to the Dutch congregation of New York, an honor that was denied him in 1750 because of his hostility to Berkenmeyer. January 8, 1751, Hartwick addressed a pastoral letter to his congregations, in which he not only displays a lack of Lutheran knowledge, but also refers to Berkenmeyer as "brother Esau" and speaks of his opponents as "Edomites" and "Esauites." In the spring of 1751 Hartwick returned to his congregations. When it became impossible for him to maintain his position any longer, he went to Reading, in 1757. In the following year he returned to Columbia and Duchess Co., N. Y. Subsequently, wandering about aimlessly, he was seen, now in Hackensack and Providence, now (1761) as Muhlenberg's successor in the country congregations, then in Maryland, 1763 in Philadelphia, then in Winchester, Va., 1767 in New York, attending the unionistic church dedication, 1774 in Boston, and ten years later again in New York, whither he returned to ingratiate himself with the Lutherans who had not emigrated to Nova Scotia with Houseal. Known everywhere, but at home nowhere, and usually an unwelcome guest, Hartwick died suddenly, July 16, 1796, at East Camp. The last lines of the dreary inscription on his tombstone are: "The brief span of our days is seventy to eighty years, and though it was ever so precious, its sum is trouble and sorrow. On the wings of time we hasten to a long eternity." In the original the epitaph reads as follows: "Hier ruhet Johann C. Hartwich Prediger der Evangelisch Lutherischen Kirche. gebohren in Sax Gotha de 6 Jenner 1714 Gestorben den 16 Julius 1706 Seines alters 82 Jahre 6 Monat.—Das kurzgesteckte Ziel der Tage Ist siebenzig is achtzig jahr Ein innbegrif von muh und plage Auch wenn es noch so kostlich war. Geflugelt eilt mit uns die zeit In eine lange ewigkeit." (657.)
32. Hartwick Seminary and Dr. Hazelius.—In 1754 Hartwick purchased 21,500 acres of land in Otsego Co., N. Y., which he endeavored to colonize with a Lutheran congregation. "The lease was to contain a clause pledging every colonist to unite with the church within a year; to recognize Pastor Hartwick or his representative as his pastor and spiritual adviser; to attend his services regularly, decently, and with devotion; to contribute to the maintenance of the church, school, and parsonage according to ability; to have his children baptized, and to send them to school and confirmation instruction until they were confirmed. The validity of the lease was to depend on the fulfilment of these conditions." (454.) The plan failed, and Hartwick, in a will, executed shortly before his death, left his estate, valued at about $17,000, to found a theological seminary. Among the conditions were that heathen authors should never be read in this institution, and that a catechism be prepared and agreed upon by pastors of various churches, in which, all controversial points being avoided, the essential questions of the Christian religion were to be answered by classic Bible-verses containing the Christian doctrines. A request was appended to the will, in which Congress was asked to promote in every possible way the undertaking planned by him "in the interest of humanizing, civilizing, moralizing, and Christianizing, not only the aborigines of North America, but all other barbarous peoples with whom the United States may have connection or intercourse." (658.) In 1797 the income of Hartwick's estate was used to pay Dr. J. C. Kunze, of New York, for his theological instruction, Rev. A. T. Braun, of Albany, for instruction in the classics, and Rev. J. F. Ernst for teaching the children on the patent (Otsego County) where the seminary was to be located. The foundation for a building was laid in 1812, which was dedicated December 15, 1815, and opened by Dr. Hazelius and A. Quitman (later renowned as a lawyer, statesman, and general) with 19 students. A charter was obtained in 1816 containing the provision that the director must always be a Lutheran theologian, and that the majority of the trustees must be Lutherans. When the English congregations separated from the New York Ministerium in 1867, Hartwick Seminary remained in their hands. In 1871 the trustees requested the Franckean, Hartwick, New York, and New Jersey Synods each to nominate three trustees, the institution thus coming under the control of these synods. The first director of Hartwick Seminary was Dr. Hazelius, who was born in Silesia in 1777, and educated at the institution of the Moravians in Germany. He came to America in 1800 and was made instructor in the classics at the Moravian institution at Nazareth, Pa. Before long he was employed in the theological department. In 1809, Hazelius was ordained as Lutheran pastor of Germantown. He was connected with Hartwick Seminary for fifteen years, when he was called to Gettysburg Seminary. Three years later (1833) he accepted a call to the seminary of the South Carolina Synod at Lexington, where he died in 1853. Hazelius, who did not leave the Moravians for doctrinal reasons, held that Lutherans and Reformed do not differ fundamentally. Accordingly, he also approved of distributing the Lord's Supper at the same altar, to Lutherans according to their practise, to others in the manner of the Reformed. The minutes of the proceedings of the General Synod held at Winchester, Va., May 21, 1853, record the following: "Whereas, It has pleased the God of all and Head of the Church to remove from this transitory scene, and to take home to Himself, our venerable and beloved father in Christ, the Rev. Ernest Lewis Hazelius, D. D., we, who have been privileged to sit at his feet, and to be instructed by him in the various departments of sacred service, desire to unite in a public expression of our grief at his departure from among us, and of our high regard for his name and memory; therefore, Resolved, That we duly appreciate and gratefully acknowledge the importance, efficiency, and happy results of his long, faithful, and untiring labors as a minister of our Church; first a pastor, then, for fifteen years, as the first professor and principal of Hartwick Seminary, afterwards as professor at the Theological Seminary of this body at Gettysburg, for two years, and, lastly, up to October, 1852, as Professor of Theology at Lexington, in the Theological Seminary of the Synod of South Carolina." (44.)
GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.
33. Early Germans in America.—In the Colonial days, next to the English, the Germans were foremost in settling and developing our country. Long before the Puritans thought of emigrating to America, Germans had landed in various parts of the New World. As early as 1538, J. Cromberger established a printing-office in the City of Mexico, from which he issued numerous books. From 1528 to 1546 German explorers came to Venezuela also with a printing-press and with fifty miners to explore the mountains. A number of German craftsmen accompanied the first English settlers who came with Captain John Smith to Virginia. Soon after Henry Hudson had discovered the river which bears his name, Christiansen, a German, became the explorer of that stream. He also built the first homes on Manhattan Island, 1613, and laid the foundations of New Amsterdam and Fort Nassau, the present cities of New York and Albany. Peter Minuit (Minnewit), the first Director-General of New Netherland, was also a German, born in Wesel, on the lower Rhine. He arrived in New Amsterdam on May 4, 1626, and one of his first acts was the purchase of Manhattan Island, 22,000 acres, from the Indians for trinkets valued at $24. He remained at his post till 1631, when he, soon after, became the founder and first director of New Sweden, at the mouth of the Delaware River. He lost his life in the West Indies during a hurricane. His successor in New Sweden was another German, Printz von Buchau, during whose regime, from 1643 to 1654, the colony became very successful and thereby aroused the jealousy of the Dutch, who, while Buchau was on a trip to Europe, attacked the colony and annexed it to New Netherland. When New Netherland, in 1664, fell a prey to the English, the colony had among its citizens numerous Germans, most of them Lutherans. A native of Hamburg, Nicholaus de Meyer, became burgomaster of New York in 1676. Another German, Augustin Herrman, made the first reliable maps of Maryland and Virginia. J. Lederer, a young German scholar, who came to Jamestown in 1668, was the first to explore Virginia and part of South Carolina. Lederer's itinerary, written in Latin, was translated by Governor Talbot of Maryland into English and published 1672 in London; etc. However, it was at Germantown, at present a suburb of Philadelphia, that Germans broke ground for the first permanent German settlement in North America. A group of Mennonites, 33 persons, landed October 6, 1683. They were received by William Penn and Franz Daniel Pastorius, a young lawyer from Frankfort on the Main. In Germantown Gerhard Henkel preached before 1726, and St. Michael's Church was begun 1730 and dedicated by the Swede J. Dylander in 1737. Pastorius had landed in America with several families on August 20 of the same year in advance of the Mennonite emigrants, in order to prepare for their arrival. The official seal of Germantown bore the inscription: "Vinum, Linum et Textrinum," the culture of grapes, flax-growing, and the textile industries being the principal occupations of the colony. In 1690 W. Rittenhaus established in Germantown the first paper-mill in America. Here also Christopher Sauer, a native of Westphalia, published the first newspaper in German type, and in 1743 the first German Bible, antedating, by forty years, the printing of any other Bible in America. The Germans in the cloister Ephrata, Pa., established by the Tunker, or Dunkards, also owned a printing-press, a paper-mill, and a bookbindery. They published, in 1749, the Maertyrer-Spiegel, a folio of 1514 pages, the greatest literary undertaking of the American Colonies. To the Germans enumerated must be added the German Reformed; the Moravians, who founded Bethlehem and Nazareth in Pennsylvania; the Salzburgers in Georgia; the Palatines in New York; etc. And what may be said of Germantown, is true also with regard to Philadelphia. June 6, 1734, Baron von Reck wrote concerning the conglomerate community of this city: "It is an abode of all religions and sects, Lutherans, Reformed, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Catholics, Quakers, Dunkards, Mennonites, Sabbatarians, Seventh-day Baptists, Separatists, Boehmists, Schwenkfeldians, Tuchfelder, Wohlwuenscher, Jews, heathen, etc." (Jacobs, 191.) Concerning the thrifty character and all-round good citizenship of the German immigrants in Pennsylvania generally, McMaster remarks: "Wherever a German farmer lived, there were industry, order, and thrift. The size of the barns, the height the fences, the well-kept wheat fields and orchards, marked off the domain of such farmer from the lands of his shiftless Irish neighbor." "They were," says Scharf in his History of Maryland, 2, 423, "an industrious, frugal, temperate people, tilling their farms, accustomed to conflict with savage and other enemies on the border, and distinguished for their bold and independent spirit." (Jacobs, 235.) Also in the cause of liberty and humanity the German immigrants in America stood in the front ranks.
34. First Anti-Slavery Declaration in America.—The importation of negro slaves to America was practised by the English and Dutch since the sixteenth century, without disapproval on the part of the Puritans and Quakers, who boasted of being the fathers of liberty and the defenders of human rights. The inhabitants of Germantown, led by Pastorius, were the first to draw up, on February 18, 1688, a protest against this trade in human flesh and blood. The remarkable document, addressed to the meeting of the Quakers in Pennsylvania, reads as follows: "This is to ye Monthly Meeting held at Richard Warrel's. These are the reasons why we are against the traffick of men Body, as followeth: Is there any that would be done or handled at this manner? to be sold or made a slave for all the time of his life? How fearful and fainthearted are many on sea when they see a strange vessel, being afraid it should be a Turk, and they should be taken and sold for slaves into Turckey. Now what is this better done as Turcks doe? Yea rather is it worse for them, which say they are Christians; for we hear that ye most part of such Negers are brought hither against their will and consent; and that many of them are stollen. Now, tho' they are black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have other white ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe to all men, like as we will be done our selves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who buy or purchase them, are they not all alike? Here is liberty of conscience, which is right and reasonable; here ought to be likewise liberty of ye body, except of evildoers which is another case. But to bring men hither, or to robb and sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe there are many oppressed for conscience sake; and here there are those oppressed which are of a black colour. And we, who know that men must not commit adultery, some doe commit adultery in others, separating wifes from their husbands and giving them to others; and some sell the children of those poor creatures to other men. Oh! doe consider well this things, you who doe it; if you would be done at this manner? and if it is done according to Christianity? You surpass Holland and Germany in this thing. This makes an ill report in all those countries of Europe, where they hear off, that ye Quackers doe here handel men like they handel there ye cattel. And for that reason some have no mind or inclination to come hither, and who shall maintaine this your cause or plaid for it? Truly we can not do so, except you shall inform us better hereoff, that Christians have liberty to practise this things. Pray! What thing on the world can be done worse towards us, then if men should robb or steal us away, and sell us for slaves to strange countries, separating housbands from their wifes and children. Being now this is not done at that manner, we will be done at, therefore we contradict and are against this traffick of menbody. And we who profess that it is not lawful to steal, must likewise avoid to purchase such are stollen but rather help to stop this robbing and stealing if possible; and such men ought to be delivered out of ye hands of ye Robbers and sett free as well as in Europe. Then is Pennsylvania to have a good report, instead it hath now a bad one for this sacke in other countries. Especially whereas ye Europeans are desirous to know in what manner ye Quackers doe rule in their Province; and most of them doe look upon us with an envious eye. But if this is done well, what shall we say is done evill? If once these slaves (which they say are so wicked and stubborn men) should joint themselves, fight for their freedom and handel their masters and mastrisses as they did handel them before, will these masters and mastrisses tacke the sword at hand and warr against these poor slaves, like we are able to believe, some will not refuse to doe? Or have these Negers not as much right to fight for their freedom, as you have to keep them slaves? Now consider well this thing, if it is good or bad? and in case you find it to be good to handel these blacks at that manner, we desire and require you hereby lovingly, that you may inform us here in, which at this time never was done, that Christians have such a liberty to do so, to the end we shall be satisfied in this point, and satisfie lickewise our good friends and acquaintances in our natif country, to whose it is a terrour or fairfull thing that men should be handeld so in Pennsylvania. This is from our Meeting at Germantown held ye 18. of the 2. month 1688, to be delivered to the monthly meeting at Richard Warrel's. gerret hendericks derick op de graeff Francis Daniell Pastorius Abraham op Den graeff." (Cronau, German Achievements, 20.) This protest was submitted at several meetings of the Quakers. But it was not before 1711 that the Quakers introduced "an act to prevent the importation of Negroes and Indians into the province," and still later that they declared against slave-trading. Also the Salzburgers in Georgia were opposed to slavery, though Bolzius himself was compelled to buy slaves on account of the lack of white laborers. The Germans also were first and most emphatic in condemning the cruelties connected with the "white slavery" of the so-called Redemptioners.
SLAVERY OF REDEMPTIONERS.
35. Cruelly Deceived by the Newlanders.—Toward the middle of the eighteenth century there were some 80,000 Germans in Pennsylvania, almost one-half of the entire inhabitants. In 1749 about 12,000 arrived. Benjamin Franklin and others expressed the fear: "They come in such numbers that they will soon be able to enforce their laws and language upon us, and, uniting with the French, drive all Englishmen out." Many of the Germans were so-called Redemptioners, who, in payment of their freight, were sold and treated as slaves for a stipulated number of years. Most of them had been shamefully deceived and decoyed into the horrors of this "white slavery" by Dutch and English merchants and conscienceless agents whom Muhlenberg called Newlanders (Neulaender). In Holland they were called "soul-traders." By means of stories of the fabulous wealth acquired in America they enticed Germans and other emigrants into the signing of papers in the English language which not only committed them and their children to slavery, but sometimes separated husband and wife, parents and children. The following is an instance of the revolting horrors connected with this trade: In 1793, when the yellow fever prevailed in Chester, a cargo of Redemptioners was sent thither, and a market for nurses opened. (Jacobs, 236.) In Pennsylvania this kind of slavery continued from about 1740 to the second decade of the nineteenth century. Quakers and other "friends of liberty and humanity" exploited the system. Foremost among those who exposed and condemned it were Germans, notably Muhlenberg, who described the abominable business of the Newlanders as follows: "These Newlanders first make themselves acquainted with the merchants in the Netherlands. From them they receive, in addition to free freight, a certain gratification (douceur) for each family or each unmarried person which they enlist in Germany and bring to the traders in Holland. In order to attain their object, they resort to all manner of tricks. As long as the comedy requires it, they make a great show in dress, frequently look at their watches, and make a pretense of great wealth, in order to excite a desire within the hearts of people to emigrate to so happy and rich a country. They give such descriptions of America as make one believe it to contain nothing but Elysian fields, bearing seed of themselves, without toil and labor, mountains full of solid gold and silver, and wells pouring forth nothing but milk and honey, etc. Who goes as a servant, becomes a lord; who goes as a maid, becomes a milady; a peasant becomes a nobleman; a citizen and artisan, a baron!" Deceived and allured by such stories, Muhlenberg continues, "The families break up, sell what little they have, pay their debts, turn over what may be left to the Newlanders for safe-keeping, and finally start on their journey. Already the trip on the Rhine is put to their account. In Holland they are not always able to depart immediately, and frequently they get a small amount of money, advanced by the traders, on their account. The expensive freight from Holland to America is added, also the head-money. Before they leave Holland, they must sign a contract in the English language. The Newlanders persuade and reassure the people [who, not understanding the English, knew not what they were signing] that they, as impartial friends, would see to it that, in the contract, no wrong was done their countrymen. The more freight in persons a merchant and captain can bring in a ship, the more profitable it is, provided that they do not die en route, for then it may be disadvantageous. For this reason the ships are kept clean, and every means is employed to deliver healthy ware to the market. For a year or so they may not have been as careful, suffering to die what could not live. When parents die on the ships and leave children, the captains and the most intelligent of the Newlanders, acting as guardians and orphan-fathers, take the chests and inheritance in their safe-keeping, and the orphans, arriving on the land, are sold for their own freight and the freight of their deceased parents; the real little ones are given away, and the inheritance of their parents just about pays for the manifold troubles caused to the guardians. This crying deceit moved some well-disposed German inhabitants of Pennsylvania, especially in and about Philadelphia, to organize a society, which, as much as possible, would see to it that, at the arrival of the poor emigrants, they were dealt with according to justice and equity." When a ship of emigrants has arrived in the harbor of Philadelphia, Muhlenberg proceeds, "the newcomers are led in procession to the court-house, in order to take the oath of allegiance to the King of Great Britain; then they are led back to the ship. Hereupon the papers announce that so and so many German people are to be sold for their freight. Whoever is able to pay his own freight receives his freedom. Those having wealthy friends endeavor to obtain a loan from them to pay the freight; but these are few. The ship is the market. The buyers pick out some and bargain with them as to the years and days of service, whereupon they make them bind themselves before the magistrate by a written instrument for a certain period as their property. The young, unmarried people of both sexes sell first, their lot being a good or a bad one, for better or worse, according to the character of the buyer and God's providence or permission. We have frequently noted that children who were disobedient to their parents, and left them stubbornly and against their will, here found masters from whom they received their reward. Old and married people, widows and the frail, nobody wants to buy, because there is here already an abundance of poor and useless people who become a burden to the state. But if they have healthy children, then the freight of the old people is added to that of the children, and the children must serve so much longer, are sold so much dearer, and scattered far and wide from each other, among all manner of nations, languages, and tongues, so that they rarely see their old parents or brothers and sisters again in this life; many also forget their mother-tongue. In this way the old people leave the ship free, but poor, naked, and weak, looking as though they were coming from the graves, and go begging in the city at the doors of the German inhabitants; for, as a rule, the English, afraid of infection, close the doors on them. Such being the conditions, one's heart might bleed seeing and hearing how these poor human beings, who came from Christian lands into the New World, partly moan, cry, lament, and throw up their arms because of the misery and separation which they had never imagined would befall them, partly call upon and adjure all elements and sacraments, yea, all thunderbolts and the terrible inhabitants of hell to smash into numberless fragments and torment the Newlanders and the Dutch merchants, who deceived them! Those who are far away hear nothing of it, and the properly so-called Newlanders only laugh about it, and give them no other consolation beyond that given to Judas Iscariot by the Pharisees, Matt. 27, 4: 'What is that to us? See thou to that!' Even the children, when they are cruelly kept and learn that they must remain in bondage all the longer on account of their parents, conceive a hatred and bitterness toward them." (G., 474 ff.)