Editing Anti-German sentiment (section)

==== Post-independence Era ====
{{further|Fries's Rebellion}}
Pennsylvania was a major state and a former colony that saw an attraction and influence of German immigrants from the colonial era. A key event where German-Americans faced hardships was during the [[Fries's Rebellion]]. The participants in Fries's Rebellion were primarily German-speaking farmers, many of whom were recent immigrants or descendants of German immigrants. Their cultural and linguistic differences may have contributed to perceptions of them as outsiders or "other" by some in the broader American society. The rebellion was primarily a response to the federal government's enforcement of a new direct tax, commonly known as the Direct Tax of 1798 or the House Tax. President [[John Adams]] granted pardons to Fries and several others who had been convicted of treason. Adams was motivated by the more specific constitutional interpretation of treason. He later remarked that the rebels were "obscure, miserable Germans, as unfamiliar with our language as they were with our laws," and suggested that they were being manipulated by prominent figures in the opposing political party.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chernow |first=Ron |title=Alexander Hamilton |publisher=Penguin |year=2004 |location=New York, NY |pages=578}}</ref>

[[File:Screen-Shot-2021-02-16-at-1.webp|thumb|"1850s political cartoon by John H. Goater: Irish and German caricatures 'stealing an election' with chaos at the 'Election Day Polls', fueling fears of immigrant political power."]]

In the 19th century, the mass influx of [[German Americans#19th century|German immigrants]] made them one of the largest European group of [[Americans]] by ancestry. This wave of migration triggered the formation of [[Nativism (politics)|nativist]] and reactionary movements which were similar to those movements which exist in the contemporary [[Western world]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 April 2019 |title=When German Immigrants Were America's Undesirables |url=https://www.history.com/news/anti-german-sentiment-wwi}}</ref> These would eventually culminate in 1844 with the establishment of the [[Know-Nothing Party|American Party]], which had an openly [[xenophobic]] stance. One of many incidents described in a 19th-century account included the blocking of a funeral procession in New York by a group who proceeded to hurl insults at the pallbearers. Incidents such as these led to more meetings of Germans who would eventually form fraternal groups such as the [[Sons of Hermann]] in 1840, which was founded as a means to "improve and foster German customs and the spread of benevolence among Germans in the United States".<ref>Albert Clark Stevens, ''The Cyclopædia of Fraternities'', 2nd ed., New York: Treat, 1907, [https://books.google.com/books?id=H-K3AAAAIAAJ&dq=Philip+Merkel&pg=PA282 p. 283]</ref>