Mo. German immigrants helped keep state in Union

Immigrants have shaped this country and this story tells some of what German immigrants did for Missouri in 1860, when they voted for Abraham Lincoln. DP

By KRIS HILGEDICK - Jefferson City News-Tribune

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Drawn by Missouri's fertile valleys and rolling wooded hills, German immigrants made significant contributions to the Union Civil War effort.

Missouri was settled by a variety of people. But settlers from the Old South - the land holders - dominated the state politically and economically.

"They were over-represented in the political system, shall we say," historian Ken Luebbering said. "Slave owners comprised only 2 percent of the population in 1860, but their attitudes were important in the political culture."

Germans were not welcomed by everyone. Clairborne Fox Jackson - Missouri's governor in 1861 - declared in a speech: "Germans seeking homes in Missouri should be met on the threshold, knocked on the head and driven back."

"Jackson understood they were a tide that were going to change things," declared Luebbering. "And he didn't like it."

In 1830 only a few hundred Germans lived here. But by 1860, the population had grown to about 90,000.

So, Germans began to outnumber slave-holders 3-to-1.

"Things were going to change and they did in the 1860 elections," Luebbering said.
Three main groups - pro-secession Democrats, centrists and anti-slavery Republicans - dominated that election.

Luebbering estimates that Republican Abraham Lincoln might have received as few as 24,000 votes across the entire South. But St. Louis Germans cast 15,000 votes for him.
"It gives you some idea of the preponderance of support for Lincoln that came from the German community," Luebbering said.
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