SNIP
>Because we were founded as a nation against religious persecution, you knucklehead. The founders studiously avoided the institution of a national religion. They prescribed freedom of religion. Their religion was in many cases what drove them from where they were born, where discrimination of religion was A-OK. Not here, they said. And salud to them. Yes, the founders were Christian. But they pointedly did not implement a Christian state. Pretty smart guys, I think.

Folks today tend to forget the many things that caused people to emigrate. Just as a reminder, Hans Barlien emigrated from Norway in
1837. He was born in Overhalden, lived for a time in Trondhjem, then in Cliristiania and then at Ovengaarden, Namsdaleidet, in the Beitstaden parish. He was a representative of the ideas of the French revolution and had many friends who were called Barlians. He had some literary talent and once had his own press (which got him into trouble back in Norway). From America, he wrote to his Norwegian friends back in Norway:

"Now at last I am able to breathe freely. Here no one is persecuted on account of his religious belief. Every one is permitted to worship God in the manner that agrees with his conscience. Pickpockets or lawyers, unscrupulous creditors, corrupt officials and vagabonds have here lost all power to injure the people. Every occupation is free, and every one reaps the fruits of his industry and by a wise legislation the American citizen is secure against oppression. The so-called free constitution of Norway has hitherto served only to oppress the people with higher taxes, to increase the emoluments of officials, and to promote luxury and idleness. The results of all this will soon appear, and such a condition must necessarily lead to general ruin."

There you have it. We are a nation of French revolutionists. :o)

For some humor, read the rest of the letter:

http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume03/vol3_02.htm

It reminds me of statements made by my great grandparents (and sometimes grandparents) in Wisconsin when I was growing up. The terrible things the Norwegians would say about the Germans and the Germans would say terrible things about the Poles and the Danes....some of it came from the attitudes in their home country and others by misunderstandings when suddenly living as neighbors in a new harsh country.

Also, I came across this letter where Ole Knudson Nattestad describes the difficulty and fear in coming to America:

http://www.archive.org/stream/firstchapterofno00andeuoft/firstchapterofno00andeuoft_djvu.txt

"As the next oldest of 3 brothers, I did not have the right of primogeniture to my father's farm, which according to law and custom
would go to the oldest son. My ambition was to become a farmer, and I hoped some day to be able to buy a farm in my own neighborhood. Then my brother entered the military school in Christiania and I was to mange the farm in his absence. I entered upon my task cheerfully, worked with all my might, and kept a careful account of income and disbursements. To my great surprise I soon found out, that in spite of all my toil and prudence, I did not make much headway. When the year was ended I had little or nothing left as a reward for my labor, and it was clear to me that it would not do to buy an expensive farm and run in debt for it.
Farming did not pay in the locality where I was born. I then tried the occupation of an itinerant merchant. I could earn a little in this way, but the laws were against me and I did not like to carry on a business of such a nature, that it was necessary to keep my affairs secret from the lendsmand (under-sheriff). Then I worked a while as a blacksmith. This furnished me enough to do, but it was difficult to collect the money I earned. The law did not permit me to work at my trade in a city. Then (1836) my younger brother, Ansten, and I went across the mountains to the western part of Norway to buy sheep, which we intended to sell again.

While we were stopping in the vicinity of Stavanger, we heard much talk about a country which was called America. This was the first time we heard this word. We saw letters written by Norwegians who were living in America, and we were told that Knud Slogvig, who many years before that had emigrated in a sloop (Restaurationen) from Stavanger had lately visited his native land, and had given so favorable reports about America that about 150 emigrants from Stavanger Amt and from Hardanger had gone back with him and had sailed that very summer (1836) in 2 brigs from Stavanger across the ocean. They had gone in spite of all sorts of threats and warnings about slavery, death and disease, This was the first large exodus after the emigration of the sloop party in 1825. All that we here saw and heard was so new, and came to us so unexpectedly, that we were not at once able to arrange all the reports into a systematic whole and thus get a correct idea of conditions in the new world. But when I spent the following Christmas with Even Nubbru, who
was a member of the Storthing from Sigdal, we discussed the hard times in my native valley, and I suggested that I might have better luck in some other part of the country. In replying, Even Nubbru remarked that wherever I went in the world, I would nowhere find a people who had as good laws as the Americans. He had accidentally just had the opportunity of reading something about America in a German newspaper, and he admired the free institutions of America. This information had a magic effect on me, as I looked upon it as an injustice that the laws of Norway should forbid me to trade, and not allow me to get my living by honest work as a mechanic, wherever I desired to locate. I had confidence in the judgement of the member of the Storthing and I compared his remarks with
what I had heard about America in the vicinity of Stavanger. Gradually I got to thinking of emigration, and while considering the matter on my way home, the idea matured into a resolution. My brother Ansten did not need to be asked a second time. He was willing at once; he approved of my plans, and in April, 1837, we were ready for our journey. When we left home we had together about 800 dollars, Norwegian money, but this sum gradually grew less on account of our expenses on the way, and besides we lost considerable in changing our money into American coin. Ansten also paid the passage for Halsten Halvorson Brække-Eiet, who now (1869) resides in Dodgeville, and is looked upon as an excellent blacksmith.

Our equipment consisted in the clothes we wore, a pair of skees and a knapsack. People looked at us with wonder and intimated that we must have lost our senses. They suggested that we had better hang ourselves in the first tree in order to avoid a worse fate. We went on skees across the mountains from Rolloug to Tin, and thence in a direct line over hills and through forests to Stavanger, where we expected to get passage across the sea. We did not worry about the roads, for a 3 of us were experts on skees and our baggage caused us no inconvenience. In Stavanger we told everybody that we were going to America and wanted to secure a passage across the sea. This open-heartedness came near spoiling our plans. The report of the 3 mountaineers soon spread over the whole city, and high government officials came to see our passports. We were now told that the bailiff's passport only permitted us to go to
Stavanger, while the certificate from the pastor correctly stated that we intended to leave the country and emigrate to America. We were not posted in such things and thought our papers were in order, especially as the documents we carried gave testimony that we were men of good habits and Christian conduct. No suspicious remarks were made, but in the evening there came a man who was angry on account of the wrong the officials were going to do us, and related that if had been resolved that we were to be arrested the following day and then be sent from lendsman to lendsman to our native valley, as we intended to leave the country without permission being given in the passport from the bailiff. The government here, he said, was in a bitter rage against all emigration, and we could not count on any mercy. On this man's advice we departed secretly from Stavanger under cover of night in order to avoid the danger
that threatened us, and without attracting any attention, we got to Tananger. Here we met a skipper, who with his yacht, loaded with
herring, was ready to sail to Gothenborg. He promised to take us on board, but when we told him what had happened to us in Stavanger, he became doubtful. He praised our honesty, and on our assurance that we would assume all responsibility, if he got into trouble, he decided to accept us as passengers. We acted discreetly while we were ashore, and we felt greatly relieved when we finally got to sea. In Gothenborg we had no mishaps, and we secured passage in a vessel loaded with Swedish iron and bound for Fall River, Mass. The journey lasted 32 days, and we paid $50 each for transportation and board. From Fall River, we went to
New York, where we met a few Norwegians, who helped us to get to Rochester. Here we talked with some of our countrymen, who 12 years before had come in the Sloop from Stavanger, and that brought the first Norwegian immigrants to America. Rochester and vicinity did not meet our expectations in regard to the new world. Many of the first immigrants had left the first settlement in Kendall and had gone west to find new homes, particularly to La Salle county, Ill., near Ottawa on the Fox River. The Fox River colony received a very considerable increment by the great exodus from Stavanger in 1836, that is, the year before I came to America. The most of these immigrants had located in that settlement. This we learned in Rochester, and there we heard for the first time the
name Chicago. We determined to go west and see what we could find.

When we had reached Detroit, I was walking in the streets to look at the town. There I accidentally met a man, by whose clothes I could see that he was from the western coast of Norway. I greeted the man and he returned my greeting, and the meeting was like
that of two brothers who had not seen each other for yea^s. He informed -me that he had left Bergen some months before, together with about TO (should be 84) passengers, and that the whole company of which the university graduate, Ole Rynning, was the leader, had been waiting a week for transportation to Chicago. We were glad to meet our countrymen and we joined the party in which there was at least one (Rynning) who could speak English. On landing in Chicago we met Bjorn Anderson Kvelve from the Stavanger country. He had come to America the year before (1836)^ and had traveled through various parts of Illinois, but all that he had heard and seen had only served to make him dissatisfied with this side of the ocean. Broken down in soul and body, he stood before us as a victim of misery and produced a scene so terrible that it never will be blotted from my memory. 'God bless and comfort you,' said he, 'there is neither work nor land nor food to be had, and by all means do not go to Fox Eiver; there you will all die from malarial fever.' These words had a terrible effect on our little flock, many of whom had already lost all courage. Like demons from the lower world all the evil warnings about the terrors that awaited the emigrants to America were now called to mind, and even the bravest wel'e as by magic stricken by a panic w^hich bordered on insanity. The women wrung their hands in despair and uttered terrible shrieks of woe. Some of the men sat immovable like statues, with all the marks of profound despair in their fact's, while others made threats against those wlinm they regarded as the promoters of emigration and the leaders of the party.

http://www.archive.org/stream/firstchapterofno00andeuoft/firstchapterofno00andeuoft_djvu.txt

And interestingly, on Norwegian immigrants and religion:

Some of the early Norwegian immigrants had no profound religious convictions, and might properly be called agnostics. I have myself known a considerable number both of the sloopers and of those who came in 1836 and in 1837, w^ho were not only destitute of religious convictions, but who seemed utterly to despise and were fond of ridiculing ministers, churches, the Bible and religious people. I could mention many of these by name, but I forbear. It seems that some of these agnostics had acquired their hostility to the church and to religion before they emigrated from Norway. They merely became louder and more outspoken in their ridicule and denunciations after they got their feet on the free soil of America. But still the great majority of these early immigrants were devoted to religion. Many were Lutherans, a few became Mormons after arrival, and among these a considerable number were so-called Readers or Ilaugians.

Before returning to Norway in June, 1845, Dietrichson had visited a considerable number of the Norwegian settlements, and his book
contains many important facts in regard to them. He visited our dear Fox River settlement in the spring of 1845, and says there
were at that time about 500 Norwegians in the colony. Some of them, he says, were Presbyterians, some Methodists, some Baptists, some Ellingians, some Quakers and some Mormons. Elling had but few adherents, but about 150 were Mormons. Ole Heier (Omdal)
"was bishop and could heal the sick," Gudmund Haugaas was "high priest after the order of Melchezedek in the church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints." He was also "counsel of the highest Mormon bishop." Norwegian Immigration by Rasmus Anderson, 1896.