IN AMERICA 139
Die Republik der Arbeiter and to serve as the official organ of the
Bund and as the mouthpiece of its founder; and the founding of a
communist colony where the theories of the Garantieen might be
put into practice.
Weitling's decision to return to the United States after the fail
ure of the Revolution of 1848 had attracted the attention not only
of New York papers such as the Schnellpost, but also of German-
language papers as far west as the Columbus (Ohio) Westbote,^2
for the name of the communist leader was widely known in
German-American circles.
When Weitling immigrated to the United States, he found
America in ferment. The slavery question was moving rapidly
toward a final crisis. The Compromise of 1850 did not provide
the solution which the politicians of both major parties desired,
and the Fugitive Slave Law had rubbed new salt into the wounds
of sectional controversy. The question of the expansion of slavery
into the territories was an issue so acute that it presently shattered
all old party alignments. The demand for free homesteads for
actual settlers was gathering support rapidly and was especially
strong among new arrivals eager to vote themselves a farm. The
tide of immigration reached a new high in the early 1850's as Irish
men and Germans poured through the American ports of entry,
and either settled in eastern cities or fanned out on the agricultural
frontier of the Middle West and Northwest. Labor was in the
process of organizing for better wages, better conditions of em
ployment, and social reforms of many kinds. Though the popular
interest in Fourierism probably had passed its zenith, many native
and foreign-born Americans still were dreaming of ideal Utopias
to be planted in the open spaces of the Mississippi Valley.
The New York City of the early 1850's, in which Weitling now
established his home, had a large German section, extending along
upper William Street and into the neighboring streets from Pearl
to Beekman. Many refugees lived in the small two-story houses
on William Street, and in this neighborhood Forty-eighters could
(^2) Columbus Westbote, October 12, 1849.