The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 85, July 1981 - April, 1982 Page: 413
497 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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William von Rosenberg's Kritik
statement he had correctly identified Prince Leiningen as president of
the Society.
[Further:] "Only a few members were informed of the Society's
actual objective. Only the leaders knew of England's interest in the
success of the enterprise .... The stipulated price was also to be paid
them for the emigrants. ... This information was kept secret from
all the other members."
Of the many critics who have written about the German Society,
the Author of the article discussed here and [August] Siemering, along
with his defender in Texas Vorwiirts [Julius Schuetze], are the only
ones who have dared accuse the Society's members of this most repre-
hensible behavior, and they have produced no valid proof, which
after all any reader is entitled to expect. A. Siemering, his adherent,
and his defender have [all three] posed the following question: "What
could move the German princes to induce their subjects to emigrate
en masse to Texas?" Of course, the answer is self-evident if one reads
the public documents with an open mind and considers that the So-
ciety's guiding genius was Count [Carl] Castell, who always had the
idea of an enterprise like the British East India Company. It was
Castell who urged the other members against their wills to become
more deeply involved in the undertaking.
As I have remarked before, the only writers who have accused the
Society of dishonesty are Siemering, his ally [who writes] in Der Aus-
wanderer, and his defender in Texas Vorwarts. They have invented,
however, the actions for which they reproach the Society, namely that
the organization was founded with British money and that in return
for premiums paid by the British government the princes sent German
emigrants to Texas before it became a state.
Siemering's defender in Texas Vorwiirts (No. 45) makes futile ref-
erences to the so-called "cornerstone document" and he alludes to the
State Archives without citing specific evidence for his case.85 He must
Rosenberg maintains, had little or no real political influence. The prince attained the
rank of general in the Prussian cavalry and became commander of the first cuirassier
regiment at Dusseldorf, where he lived until 1848. He became a member of the Society
in 1844. Meyers Konversations-Lextkon, VI, 720; Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, Texas,
1844-1845, 2.
84Two avowed goals of the Society, inspired by Castell, were: (1) the opening of new
markets abroad for the products of German industry; and (2) the development of mari-
time commerce. King, John O. Meusebach, 34; Benjamin, Germans in Texas, 33-34.
85Schuetze cites accurately the introductory lines of the "cornerstone document" (see
note 82), which, however, contain nothing remotely suggestive of a conspiracy with
England. Schuetze goes on to make broad reference to unspecified comments in "a diplo-
matic report" from Ashbel Smith about England's diplomatic relations with Texas and413
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 85, July 1981 - April, 1982, periodical, 1981/1982; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101208/m1/471/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.