The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective League — John Shaqi
The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective LeagueHough, Emerson
History
The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective League
Hough, Emerson
American Protective League; Propaganda, German; World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- United States
One of these clerical gentlemen who have remained loyal to the
Kaiser, though not to Christ, is the Reverend John Fontana, Lutheran
clergyman of New Salem, North Dakota. He was convicted for preaching
sedition, and got a three-year sentence in a Federal Court. This did
not deter his likewise loyal Kaiserliche congregation. By a vote of
fifty-seven to twenty-two the members decided to continue him as their
beloved pastor. Yet this is what Judge Amidon said to Fontana when he
was arraigned,—words which ought to be printed in large letters and
displayed prominently in every street of every city of every portion of
America. The Judge said to the prisoner:
You received your final papers as a citizen in 1898. By the oath
which you then took, you renounced and abjured all allegiance to
Germany and the Emperor of Germany, and swore that you would bear
true faith and allegiance to the United States. What did that
mean? That you would set about earnestly growing an American soul,
and put away your German soul.
Have you done that? I do not think you have. You have cherished
everything German and stifled everything American. You have
preached German, prayed German, read German, sung German. Every
thought of your mind and every emotion of your heart through all
these years has been German. Your body has been in America, but
your life has been in Germany. You have influenced others who have
been under your ministry to do the same thing.
There have been a good many Germans before me in the last month.
They have lived in this country, like yourself, ten, twenty,
thirty, forty years, and they have had to give their evidence
through an interpreter. It has been an impressive part of the
trial. As I looked at them and tried, as best I could, to
understand them, there was written all over every one of them,
“Made in Germany.” American life had not dimmed that mark in the
least.
I do not blame you and these men alone. I blame myself. I blame
my country. We urged you to come; we welcomed you; we gave you
opportunity; we gave you land; we conferred upon you the diadem of
American citizenship—and then we left you.
When we get through with this war, and civil liberty is made safe
once more upon this earth, there is going to be a day of judgment
in these United States. Foreign-born citizens and the institutions
which have cherished foreigners are going to be brought to the
judgment of this Republic. That day of judgment looks more to me
to-day like the great Day of Judgment than anything that I have
thought of for many years. There is going to be a separation on
that day of the sheep from the goats. Every institution that has
been engaged in this business of making foreigners perpetual in
the United States will have to change—or cease. That is going to
cut deep, but it is coming.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account