And Colonel Hays doubtless repeated it to you as the intimate gossip about Foster.
"I have an article written by Colonel Hays and published in and cut from The Courier-Journal some twelve years after the composer's death, in which he sketches the life and work of Stephen Collins Foster.

In that article he lays especial stress upon the surprising originality of the Foster themes and of their musical setting.

He praises their distinct American or rather native inspiration and flavor, and describes from his own knowledge of Foster how they were 'written from his heart.' No mention or suggestion in it of any German or other origin for any of those melodies that the world then and now cherishes as American in costume, but universal in appeal.

While you may have heard something in Schubert's compositions that suggested something in Foster's most famous song, still I venture to say it was only a suggestion, such as often arises from the works of composers of the same general type.

Schubert and Foster were both young sentimentalists and dreamers who must have had similar dreams that found expression in their similar progressions.
"The German musicians from whom Foster got inspiration to work were Beethoven, Glueck, Weber, Mozart.