The American clergy regards the majority of the German-Americans as "hopeless" and they are quite right...

The German usually dies in the denomination in which he was born, even if only for the reason that he does not take the trouble to formally separate himself from it. The coolness toward all religion is a characteristic trait that until now has deterred the American sectarian propaganda from any systematic attack on the Germans.... But now at the recent meeting of the Baptist Bible and Publishing company, it has been resolved to bombard the German infidels with Baptist tracts...Ads. Reed from Minnesota expressed terrible fear of the German infidels. He thought that of 5 million Germans, 4 millions had habits which he regarded as"immoral" (meaning of course, the Sunday habits and the beer)...The Chicago Times adds the following effusion of its ire. "The attreistic German element in the North is being let alone, even though it undermines the fundaments of the Sabbath, makes beer drunkards respectable and slowly but surely it honeycombs the North with its infidelity. Here is a really good occasion for people who geniunely care about religious influence,2and yet ten dollars are being spent in the South for the conversion of a Negro, where hardly one is used for the Germans."

We see in the wrath of the Times a compliment to the Germans and a recognition of the positiveness of their character.