Saber and Scroll Journal Volume VI Issue II Spring-Summer 2017 Saber
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Saber and Scroll Journal Volume VI Issue II Spring-Summer 2017 Saber and Scroll Historical Society 1 © Saber and Scroll Historical Society, 2018 Logo Design: Julian Maxwell Cover Design: Ruthenian woman, photograph by Augustus Sherman, c. 1906. Members of the Saber and Scroll Historical Society, the volunteer staff at the Saber and Scroll Journal publishes quarterly. saberandscroll.weebly.com 2 Journal Staff Editor in Chief Michael Majerczyk Copy Editors Anne Midgley, Michael Majerczyk Content Editors Jeff Ballard, Tormod Engvig, Mike Gottert, Kathleen Guler, William F. Laawson, Michael Majerczyk, Anne Midgley, Jack Morato, Chris Schloemer, Christopher Sheline Proofreaders Aida Dias, Tormod Engvig, Frank Hoeflinger, Anne Midgley, Michael Majerczyk, Jack Morato, John Persinger, Chris Schloemer, Christopher Sheline, Susanne Watts Webmaster Michael Majerczyk Academic Advisors Emily Herff, Dr. Robert Smith, Jennifer Thompson 3 Contents Letter from the Editor 5 Marie Paradis and the French-Canadian Connection: Quebec’s Impact on the United States 7 Anne Midgley A Passion for Liberty: German Immigrants in the Creation of the Republican Party and the Election of Lincoln 31 Molly L. Fischer Strange Bedfellows: Nativism, Know-Nothings, African-Americans, and School Desegregation In Antebellum Massachusetts 51 Stan Prager The Impact of Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants and Their Descendants on the United States 77 Daniel Rosko Conflicting Pre-colonial Relations as Foundations of Frosty Associations between the Aghem and Their Neighbours in Colonial Administrative Units 1921-1937 Protus Mbeum Tem, PhD 89 Exhibit and Book Reviews 107 4 Letter from the Editor Hi everyone. I hope you are well. I want to thank everyone who contributes to our journal and provides support, including our authors, Saber and Scroll leadership, our academic advisors, the journal team, and of course, the American Public University System. This was another productive summer at the Saber & Scroll Journal. This issue of the Saber & Scroll Journal includes articles focused on immigration and population movements. In her article “Marie Paradis and the French-Canadian Connection: Quebec’s Impact on the United States,” Anne Midgley discusses the impact French-Canadian immigrants had, and continue to have, on the United States. The immigration theme continues with an article by Molly L. Fischer, “A Passion for Liberty: German Immigrants in the Creation of the Republican Party and the Election of Lincoln,” which centers on the Forty-Eighters and their lasting effect on American politics. Stan Prager provides readers with a discussion of American politics during the antebellum period and the influence of nativism in “Strange Bedfellows: Nativism, Know-Nothings, African-Americans, and School Desegregation in Antebellum Massachusetts.” Daniel Rosco provides an analysis of the contributions made by the Carpatho-Rusyn people in “The Impact of Carpatho- Rusyn Immigrants and Their Descendants on the United States.” And writing from Cameroon, Dr. Protus Mbeum Tem discusses the influence of European colonialism on the Aghem, Bebas, Befang, and Esimbi peoples in “Conflicting Pre-colonial Relations as Foundations of Frosty Associations between the Aghem and their Neighbours in Colonial Administrative Units 1921-1937.” This issue also includes two exhibit reviews. Deanna Simmons provides a review of the History Galleries at the recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture. William F. Lawson provides a review of The National D-Day Memorial. Furthermore, Dr. Robert Smith provides readers with two book reviews, Charles Leerhsen’s Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty and Jeff, Shaara’s, The Frozen Hours: A Novel of the Korean War. Dana Dawson reviews Adam Cohen’s Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck. Michael R. Majerczyk 5 Journal Staff Editor-In-Chief Michael Majerczyk Content Editors Jeff Ballard, Tormod Engvig, Mike Gottert, Kathleen Guler, William F. Lawson, Michael Majerczyk, Anne Midgley, Jack Morato, Chris Schloemer, and Christopher Sheline Copy Editors Michael Majerczyk, Anne Midgley Proofreaders Aida Dias, Tormod Engvig, Frank Hoeflinger, Anne Midgley, Michael Majerczyk, Jack Morato, John Persinger, Chris Schloemer, Susanne Watts Webmaster Michael Majerczyk Academic Advisors Emily Herff, Dr. Robert Smith, Jennifer Thompson 6 Marie Paradis and the French-Canadian Connection: Quebec’s Impact on the United States Anne Midgley From the time that the first Europeans set foot on North American soil, immigration has fashioned the social and cultural fiber of what is now the United States. While the British heritage of the original thirteen American colonies shaped much of eighteenth-century American culture, colonial America was already a melting pot. On the eve of the American War of Independence, the population of the American colonies numbered about 2.8 million people. Those of English descent represented the largest sub-group; however, peoples of many other racial and ethnic groups resided in the colonies, including almost half a million African-Americans, many of whom were enslaved. The Scots-Irish, Germans, Irish, Swiss, French, Dutch, and Scots comprised some of the larger non -English populations. On-going immigration drove population growth during the course of much of the eighteenth century. At the turn of the century, the colonies contained approximately 262,000 people—on the eve of the Revolution, that number had increased more than ten-fold. By the time of the 1840 census, the population had grown to seventeen million. Immigration continued unabated and growing tensions of nativism1 influenced the US Census Bureau to begin capturing the nativity of the American populace. The 1850 census introduced a question regarding birthplace, asking each individual to identify the state, territory, or country of birth.2 The 1870 US census recorded an aggregate population of 38,115,641. In cold, emotionless language, the census estimated the effect of the recent Civil War on the nation’s population count and arrived at an estimate that the United States had suffered “a direct loss to the male population of not less than 850,000.”3 The census also calculated an indirect loss to the nation’s population, as nearly 1.5 million men were at war and “withdrawn from domestic life.” The census estimated a population loss due to the disruption in the flow of immigrants. In the four years preceding the war, immigration grew the population by almost 650,000. However, the four years following the war saw immigration soar to almost 1.2 million new arrivals. During the four war years though, the United States welcomed only 553,605 new arrivals; a likely loss of over 350,000 potential new Americans occurred due to the war.4 Despite the calamity of war, by the 1870 census foreign-born residents 7 represented 14.4 percent of the United States population. Immigration remained high through the rest of the nineteenth century and into the early decades of the twentieth century, with the percentage of foreign-born dropping to the single digits during the 1940 census and staying relatively low until it saw a sharp increase in the 2000 census. The count of foreign-born residents surged in the 2010 census, reaching almost thirteen percent. The population influx in recent years has been largely of Hispanic origin; the 2010 census reflects over thirty-nine million foreign -born residents with over fifty-three percent from Latin America and the Caribbean. Mexico alone accounted for almost thirty percent of the foreign-born population.5 With the current heated immigration debate in the United States, it is worthwhile to turn to the nineteenth century and study the effects of immigration upon the United States, the immigrant population, and the immigrants’ country of origin. Numerous studies, such as Alison Clark Efford’s German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era and Susannah Ural Bruce’s The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865 have examined the German and Irish immigration surges of the mid-nineteenth century.6 Likewise, a great deal of scholarship exists on the impact of the Italian and Eastern European immigration waves of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. “Eastern European Immigrants in the United States,” by Paula E. Hyman provides a lengthy bibliography of both primary and secondary sources.7 There are far fewer studies on French-Canadian immigration to the United States. Yet a significant influx of French-speakers from Quebec in the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries provided Canada’s southern neighbour with a people already closely tied to the nation—a people who brought their own language and culture to America and provided a substantial boost to Roman Catholicism in the United States. In many ways, the French Canadian immigrant of the nineteenth century was similar to the Hispanic immigrant of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. However, unlike immigrants from the Old World and from the Spanish New World, the influx of Canadians to the United States brought a people who had been closely tied to the origin and development of America, and who for over one hundred and fifty years prior to America’s independence from Great Britain, had been considered an archenemy of the English colonists. 8 New France Unlike the vast majority of immigrants to the United States in the mid- nineteenth century, the author’s great grandmother, Marie Iantha Paradis was a child of the New World. While the 1870 census reported over 5.5 million foreign-born residents, the vast majority—4.9 million—hailed from Europe. Less than nine percent emigrated from Canada.8 Before examining the causes and effects of the French -Canadian immigration to the United States, however, it is important to consider the variety of ways in which the founding of Canada related to that of the United States. Rather than relying solely on famed French explorers and settlers, this paper will also provide examples of Paradis’s own ancestors to illustrate the establishment and settlement of New France.