After advocating assassination attempts against the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhem IV, in his left-wing newspaper, he was forced to leave Germany. He settled in St. Louis and became editor of the German newspaper Anzeiger des Westens (The Western Advertiser). This newspaper was founded by Wilhelm Weber in 1835 and had a long anti-slavery tradition. He is known for his anti-Jesuit novel, which translated into English is The Mysteries of St. Louis: Or. The Jesuits on the Prairie des Noyers, A Western Tale. The book attacks the St. Louis Jesuits. Bornstein also founded the anti-Christian "Society of Free Men" and engaged in many heated attacks against Catholics and Lutherans. He was a Colonel during the Civil War, and due to his absence his newspaper folded. He then returned to Europe and worked in Vienna.