|
Dromo's Den
|
|
[Up] [Dromo's Den] Carl Schurz Biography SCHURZ,
Carl (1829-1906). A German-American soldier, political leader, and
journalist. He was born March 2, 1829, at Liblar, Prussia, and was educated at
the Cologne Gymnasium and at the University of Bonn, where he became the
associate of Gottfried Kinkel (q.v.) in the publication of a liberal newspaper.
Because of his connection with the revolutionary movement of 1848-49 he was
forced to retire to Switzerland. In 1850 Schurz returned secretly to Germany and
with great skill succeeded in bringing about the memorable escape of Kinkel from
the fortress of Spandau. After a residence in Paris, as correspondent for German
papers, and in London, where he was a teacher, he emigrated to the United States
in 1852 settling first in Philadelphia and afterward in Wisconsin, where he made
Republican campaign speeches in German in 1856 and where he was an unsuccessful
candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1857. In 1859 he began to practice law in
Milwaukee. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1860 and
delivered both English and German speeches, of remarkable eloquence, during the
canvass of that year. In 1861 he was appointed Minister to Spain by President
Lincoln, but resigned on the outbreak of the Civil War and joined the army.
As brigadier general he commanded a division at the second battle of Bull Run,
and as major general he led the Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville and
participated in the battles of Gettysburg and Chattanooga. At the close of the
war he made a tour of inspection through the Southern States as a special
commissioner appointed by President Johnson to
inquire into the condition of affairs in the seceded States. Later under Grant
he opposed a radical programme for the South. He was Washington correspondent of
the New York Tribune in 1865-66,
founded the Detroit Post in 1866, and
the next year became editor of the St. Louis Westliche Post, on which Joseph Pulitzer
(q.v.) was for a time his associate. From
1869 to 1875 Schurz served as United States Senator from Missouri. He opposed
many of the measures of the Grant administration, took a leading part in the
organization of the Liberal Republican movement, and in 1872 presided over the
Cincinnati convention which nominated Greeley for
President. He supported Hayes in 1876 and afterward
served in his cabinet as Secretary of the Interior (1877-81). In 1881-83 he was
editor in chief and one of the owners of the New York Evening Post. In the presidential campaign of 1884 he made vigorous
speeches, favoring the election of Cleveland. During
his term of office as Secretary of the Interior and after his retirement from
public life he was an enthusiastic advocate of civil-service reform. As an
upholder of "sound money" he opposed Bryan in 1896, but four years
later supported him, disagreeing with the McKinley
Philippine policy. In 1904 he supported Justice A. B. Parker (Democrat) for the
presidency. He died in New York, May 14, 1906. Schurz wrote an excellent
biography of Henry Clay (2 vols., 1887) in the American
Statesmen Series, and one of Abraham Lincoln (1891), and was a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1913 a monument to him was erected on
Morningside Drive, New York. Consult the Reminiscences
of Carl Schurz (3 vols., New York, 1907-08), a record to 1869 only, but with
a sketch of Schurz's political career (1869-1906) by Frederic Bancroft and W. A.
Dunning. Bancroft also selected and edited Speeches,
Correspondence, and Political Papers of Carl Sehurz (6 vols., New York,
1913). |