Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration by Harold Holzer is one of the most talked-about Civil War books of 2024. Here is my review. Holzer is a regular at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg and he was given a choice opportunity to talk about his new book on Lincoln and immigration on the opening day of the conference.
Holzer says that the massive number of immigrants coming in during the 1840s and 1850s and the anti-immigrant movement that met the refugees was a major political issue before the Civil War. “The immigrants came looking for food and freedom,” says Holzer. The situation was, in the 1840s that there were few rules to keep immigrants out. While immigrants might be resented, there was not ICE or other Federal enforcement authorities. The Constitution did not give authority over immigration to the Federal government.
Lincoln was impressed by the response of immigrants to the firing on Fort Sumter. Political loyalty to the Union impressed Lincoln during the rebellion. Immigrant officers functioned not just as leaders in battle, they also helped mobilize their communities for the Union cause. 200,000 Germans were organized by immigrant leaders into the Union armies.
During the upswing in anti-immigrant sentiment, Lincoln had defended immigrants and communicated in foreign languages with immigrants. And while many Irish voters opposed Lincoln, the future president never joined in the Know Nothing efforts to exclude them. While the Democrats accused Lincoln of suppressing the Irish vote, Lincoln said that he wanted immigrants, including Irish, to have the freedom to vote.
Lincoln said that in addition to native-born voters descended from the Revolutionaries, that “Germans, Irish, French, and Scandinavians…[immigrants] who are our equals. If they look back to trace their connections by blood they find none. But the Declaration said that all men are created equal and they have that right to claim that promise as though they were the blood of the blood of those who wrote that Declaration of Independence. He did not say that immigrants were poisoning the blood of America. They were enriching the blood of America.”
While Germans were rallying after Fort Sumter, the Irish too took to the streets. Holzer said that the attack on Fort Sumter was worse than if the British fleet had sailed into New York Harbor and bombarded the city. The 69th New York Militia under Col. Michael Corcoran responded to the call to defend Washington. Corcoran was facing court martial for refusing to parade his Irish-regiment past the Prince of Wales, but Lincoln thought it was so important to show Irish support for the Union that he had the charges dismissed.
Some of the immigrant generals did not perform well during the war, but the immigrants in the ranks fought bravely. The immigrants suffered grave losses, but many nativist newspapers blamed every defeat on the immigrants, particularly Germans. One German newspaper said that the “bigots, witch-burners, temperance men, and Know Nothings who hate the German population from the bottom of their souls were relishing the opportunity to attack the ‘cowardly Dutchman.'”
Lincoln said that he regarded the immigrants as “one of the principal replenishing streams appointed by providence to repair the ravages by war.” Holzer said that according to Lincoln, God had willed immigration as well. Lincoln pushed for a better immigration law to provide help to those seeking to come into the United States.
Lincoln saw the future of America as one that included people from around the world.
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
