Bennett Law

The Bennett Law was a highly controversial state law passed in Wisconsin in 1889, that required the use of English to teach major subjects in all public and private elementary and high schools. It affected the state's many German-language private schools (and some Norwegian schools), and was bitterly resented by German-American communities. The German Catholics and Lutherans each operated large networks of parochial schools in the state, and the language used in the classroom was German and the teachers would have to be replaced with bilingual teachers.

The law seemed to be non-controversial law to require school attendance when it passed and few paid much attention to the language provision at first. In practice the law was never enforced. Republican politicians had long avoided antagonizing the Germans. However in 1888 the professionals were pushed aside and the party nominated William D. Hoard, a dairy farmer with no political experience as governor. He found the opposition of the Germans to the Bennett Law an insult to the English language, and he tried to mobilize the Yankee population of the state behind his reelection in 1890 by hammering at the necessity to have all children speak English. (Most German children were bilingual in the cities and towns, but not in rural Wisconsin.)

The Germans were incensed not only at the blatant attack on their language and culture, but also on their religion, for the parochial schools were set up and funded by the parents in order to inculcate the community's religious values. Furthermore the idea that the state could intervene in family life and tell children how to speak was intolerable.

By June 1890 the state's Missouri Synod and Wisconsin Synod (the main German Lutheran groups) had denounced the law. After strong lobbying by Catholic Archbishop Frederick Katzer of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and other parochial leaders, Democrats, led by Yankee William F. Vilas took up the German cause and nominated Milwaukee Mayor George W. Peck, also a Yankee, for governor. Irish Catholics, who had been feuding with the Germans, generally supported the law, but the Germans organized thoroughly and supported Peck. Combined with popular reaction against the new Republican tariff, the result was a major victory for the Democrats, their first in decades in Wisconsin. The Edwards law was a similar law in Illinois, where the same forces were at work to produce a Democratic win.

The law was repealed in 1891, but Democrats used the memories to carry Wisconsin and Illinois in the 1892 presidential election. It was the last major attack on German language schools until 1914. In 1925 in Pierce v. Society of Sisters the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that attacks on parochial schools violated the First Amendment.

References

* Jensen, Richard J. "The Winning of the Midwest, 1888-1896" (1971).
* Whyte, William Foote. "The Bennett law campaign in Wisconsin" "Wisconsin Magazine Of History." Volume: 10 /Issue: 4 (1926-1927) [http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/u/?/wmh,5642 online edition]

External links

* [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=739 Message calling for repeal by Governor George W. Peck, 1891]
* [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-031/ Americanization and the Bennett Law]