BALTIMORE 1861: WE WANT RAPP
A Letter, Translated and Edited by ALICE H. FINCKH
On June 30, 1861 Wilhelm Rapp, erstwhile
editor of the Baltimore Wecker,1
wrote a letter
to his father in Germany describing the bloody
riots which took place on April 19 and 20 in
Baltimore. The offices of the Wecker on Fred-
erick Street and Rapp himself were among the
chief targets of the mob. As Dieter Cunz
points out in The Maryland Germans, accounts
of the damage done have differed considerably 2
and Rapp's letter, written nine weeks after the
events, is an important first-hand account
which sheds light on several aspects of them.
The German original of the letter is in the pos-
session of Mr. William R. Kemper of Chicago,
a grandson of Wilhelm Rapp. Part of it was
translated and published in The Forty-eighters,
edited by A. E. Zucker,3 but its importance in
the annals of those times merits a fuller publi-
cation of it in these pages. The letter begins
with a description of Rapp's new life in Chi-
cago as an editor on the Illinois Staatszeitung
and a brief discussion of political opinions of
the day. It continues:
"And now a few words about my
experiences in Baltimore, some of
which have already become known in
Germany. From October 1857 until
the time of the secession riots in April
1861 I lived in this city whose in-
famous reputation is the result of the
murderous bands which were allowed
to rise to political power. During all
this time I was the sole editor of the
Wecker whose policy I maintained
from the first day to the last in line
with the principles of the Republican
party. From the very beginning my
position was difficult: the publisher
of the paper, a man named Schnauf-
fer,
4
is an ignorant, stupid, timid per-
son and, contrary to the prevailing
custom in American journalism, (of
which he understands nothing what-
ever) he constantly tried to interfere
with me because he did not like the
boldly free tone of the paper. He
always had to give in to me, and the
Wecker remained Republican because
the readers always took my side when
our quarrels became public. Still it
was bitter for me constantly to have
to fight battles behind the scenes.
Added to all this was the fact that
although the paper appeared daily I
had absolutely no help whatever
either with the editorials or in arrang-
1
Wilhelm Rapp (1828-1907) had been a student of theology at Tübingen when the revolutions of 1848
broke out and he joined the Tübingen volunteers. He served a year's jail sentence and came to America in
1852 after a short stay in Switzerland. He edited the Turnzeitung 1855-1856, and the Wecker 1857-1861 and
1866-1872. [See Carl Wittke, Refugees of Revolution, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952), p. 274;
and Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans, p. 273.]
2
Page 306.
3
Pages 102-104.
4
Wilhelm Schnauffer was the brother of the brilliant founder of the Wecker, Carl Heinrich Schnauffer.
After the latter's death in 1854, when the paper had been in existence only three years, it was taken over
by his widow for a time and then by his brother. Other persons do not deal so harshly with Wilhelm
Schnauffer as does Rapp in this letter.
[79]
ing the news items. I even had to
translate the telegrams which arrived
till all hours of the night, and there-
fore I was very much overworked.
In spite of these difficulties I stuck it
out in Baltimore because I was rather
proud (and rightly so) to be the out-
post of the freedom party in the slave
state of Maryland, "a forlorn post in
the war for freedom." At first, I must
say, the slaveholders' party, the so-
called Democratic party, left me alone
because at that time it was still domi-
nated in Baltimore by the powerful
Know-Nothing-Party. When the main
political battles came, however, I be-
gan to have trouble, especially last
fall during the big presidential cam-
paign when my life was really in
danger a number of times. While the
other German paper in Baltimore, the
Correspondent vacillated between
Breckenridge and Douglas, arid the
Anglo-American press was divided be-
tween Breckinridge and Bell, I held
out fiercely day after day for Lincoln.
Supported by courageous German
and American friends I arranged pub-
lic meetings in favor of the Republi-
can presidential candidate. Two of
these meetings were broken up by
raging mobs of Democrats. During
one meeting held in the open air in
Richmond Market the howling mob
bombarded us with bricks, rotten eggs
and other Democratic missiles, and
fired pistols at me and at several Ger-
mans and Americans who stood on
the platform with me. None of us
was seriously hurt, but my neck and
chest were dripping with egg yolks
(I looked like a canary bird) when I
returned to my office to write a nice
article thanking the Democratic party
for awarding me its own typical
medals of honor at Richmond Market.
Another time, a mob of several thou-
sand bullies surrounded our meeting
place (the Front Street Theater) and
hurled bricks and acid at us. They
wanted to hang me when I went
home but a police guard with drawn
revolvers protected me from the
threatening crowd.
Better times came for me when
Lincoln won the election on Novem-
ber 6 last year and in spite of the
shameless terrorism of the slave hold-
ers and their minions an unexpectedly
large number of votes was cast in
Maryland for him. Since I had been
one of the pre-election leaders of the
victorious party my favor was sought
even by some of the people who had
previously hounded me. But things
got so much the worse from February
1861 on, for even in Baltimore the
terrible Southern conspiracy gained
more and more and its leaders who
had always considered me obnoxious
now placed me at the head of their
black list. During March they con-
tented themselves with making all
sorts of threats, hoping to frighten me
enough so that I would leave the city.
Then after the bombardment of Fort
Sumter when the Southerners became
increasingly arrogant my life was no
longer safe in Baltimore. I was in-
sulted on the street in broad daylight
and received many threats of murder.
The Friends of the Union began to
lose courage and one after another of
my most trustworthy supporters left
town. Every attempt to organize the
patriots for armed resistance against
the ruthless conspirators failed.
The Union government at that
time had no troops. The police—who
never had liked the Republicans—
tended to side entirely with the
traitors, and I was advised to hide or
to leave the city. However, I did not
leave my post; I stood firm day after
day and fought calmly against the
conspiracy. Then the bloody seces-
sion riots of April 19 and 20 broke
out; it was at noon on April 20 that I
was visited at my home by several
upright men who begged me to with-
draw to a hiding place since the
drunken mob which was roaming the
streets was shouting my name and
preparing to march to the office of the
Wecker in order to kill me. After I
had eaten my lunch I went calmly to
the offices of the Wecker in order to
organize armed resistance against the
[80]
rioters if possible. But except for
Mrs. Schnauffer, the wife of the pub-
lisher,
5
all the others had lost courage.
Only she and I and one lone, breath-
less party member who had sought
refuge with us, were in the office when
suddenly the whole street was filled
with drunken ruffians, some of them
armed, who advanced against the
door and shouted, "We want Rapp."
I was still on the ground floor with
only a door separating me from the
raging mob.
The crowd kept shouting that it
wanted only me and that it would not
touch Mrs. Schnauffer (consideration
for the female sex is inborn even in
the most ordinary Americans). Stones
pounded against the building and the
beasts outside tried everything they
could to storm it and drag me out
until at last a squad of police ap-
peared and draped a Secessionist rag
out of one of the windows. They told
the mob that I had escaped and after
a while the crowd thinned out. How-
ever, a few of the worst of the rioters
hung on the near-by street corners to
watch for me. When twilight came I
left the building, ducked right past
one of the corners occupied by these
lookouts and down the street to the
Berliner Weissbier brewery belonging
to Mr. Pringsheim. Like all the other
buildings, this one had been locked in
order to keep out those beasts in
human form, but when I called I was
let in without the fellows on the cor-
ner noticing anything in the dim twi-
light, and was shown to a hiding
place. From there I could hear how
a fresh mob went roaring past, firing
pistols and shouting, "Where is
Rapp? Hang him! Hang him!"
They marched to the offices of the
Wecker, smashed the lower door, and
then decided to leave when the terri-
fied neighbors assured them that I
had long since fled miles away.
The next morning at eight o'clock
I left my hiding place and went to
the Wecker offices which looked com-
pletely deserted. A few drunken
Irishmen staggered around in front
and told me pleasantly that they
would find "that damned black Re-
publican newspaper writer and hang
him." Luckily they did not know me
personally. Urged by my neighbors I
returned to my hiding place by a
slightly roundabout route and since
the rabble continued its orgies in the
streets all day I was not able to leave
it. That evening I sent for a barber
whom I knew to be friendly to me
and he shaved off my beard. The
next morning at three o'clock I left
my hiding place dressed in black from
head to foot, and clean shaven, and
walked to the railroad station at a
leisurely pace in order to escape to
Washington on the early train. But
the early train did not run; railroad
service had been halted. I could not
go back into the city for I would
have been recognized in broad day-
light in spite of my changed appear-
ance, and the streets were now fully
in the hands of the victorious Seces-
sionist mobs. Therefore, I decided to
make my escape on foot and I walked
down the railroad tracks without
hindrance because I was taken for a
harmless clergyman, and had no fur-
ther difficulties. I arrived in Wash-
ington that same day since I soon
obtained a ride.
That is the story of my flight from
Baltimore! Many of my friends there
had left on the two preceding days,
and most of them had gone to Phila-
delphia because Washington was still
very much in danger of a surprise
attack by the Secessionists. The rest
of what happened in the Baltimore
rebellion you know through the news-
papers. In Washington I was, of
course, very well received in govern-
ment circles and the whole Northern
press, including that of the Democrats,
reported very flatteringly and favor-
ably on my work and ordeal in Balti-
more, as it had already done in con-
nection with the Lincoln campaign.
Postmaster General [Montgomery]
Blair offered me a juicy plum in the
5
This may have been Mrs. Carl Heinrich Schnauffer, the wife of the founder of the paper. (See Cunz,
op. cit., p. 306.)
[81]
customs service or the post office in
either Washington or Baltimore—
whichever I wished—but I decided to
accept an offer of a position as an
editor of the Illinois Staatszeitung
which the publishers, honest Messrs.
Hiffgen and [Georg] Schneider, had
made.
Although this position pays much
better and is much more pleasant
than working on the Wecker, I had
refused the first offer some time ago
because I felt that I owed the sacri-
fice to my party in Baltimore. Before
I moved here to Chicago I visited
Baltimore again; indeed, three days
later I was back there when the city
was finally and permanently occupied
by Union troops. Some of the people
who had thirsted for my blood a few
days before now appeared to be ex-
tremely friendly as General Scott
drew his strategic circles closer and
closer around the traitor city. I did
not feel like accepting again the posi-
tion of editor of the Wecker no mat-
ter how sweetly Schnauffer offered it
to me since I could not have stood
being overworked any longer. In fact,
as my doctor said, with the lack of
exercise and the resultant increase in
my weight I should certainly have
suffered a stroke within a few years.
A great many people suggested that
I start my own paper in Baltimore,
but I did not want to do this since I
did not wish to compete with
Schnauffer, and anyway, in these
times of uncertain business outlook I
much prefer the position of a well
paid editor such as I now have to
that of a business man, which is what
a newspaper publisher is and should
be...."
The letter concludes with some per-
sonal remarks regarding relatives and
former acquaintances of his father
who had visited Rapp in Chicago.
[82]
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