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clean-cut that the Swede who voted against Abraham Lincoln
was a rare specimen.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the Swedes are as
susceptible to environment as other peoples. Svante Palm,
who was among the earliest Swedish immigrants and
who settled near Austin, Texas, in 1855 wrote to the
editor of Hemlandet that he could not indorse all the
sentiments voiced in his editorials. [1] We agree on
know-nothingism, wrote Palm, but on slavery we hold
entirely different opinions. We live in a slave state and
are in daily contact with masters and slaves. We find
the slaves better treated than the working classes in
Sweden. Some of us Swedes own slaves and all want
to own them as soon as we can. Our countrymen in the
northern states write that they are treated worse than
slaves. The abolitionists in the north are fanatics. We
citizens of a slave state are good, renhåriga democrats
and believe in state rights.
Palm’s letter aroused much criticism among
Swedish-Americans. The editor of Hemlandet received many
letters expressing surprise that a Swede would defend the
institution of slavery. [2] A letter from Texas assured
him that not all of Palm’s countrymen shared his
sympathy with slavery. He knew of not a single Swede
around Austin who had purchased a slave, although
many were able financially. He admitted that wages
in Sweden were poor, but saw no comparison between
the condition of the laboring classes in that country and
the slaves in the south.
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