Carl Schurz
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| Carl Schurz | |
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| In office March 12, 1877 – March 7, 1881 |
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| Preceded by | Zachariah Chandler |
| Succeeded by | Samuel J. Kirkwood |
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| In office March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1875 |
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| Preceded by | John B. Henderson |
| Succeeded by | Francis M. Cockrell |
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| Born | March 2, 1829 Liblar, Germany |
| Died | May 14, 1906 (aged 77) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Margarethe Meyer |
| Profession | Politician, Professor, Lawyer |
Carl Schurz (March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army general in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished author, newspaper editor and journalist, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.[1]
His wife Margarethe Schurz and her sister Bertha von Ronge were instrumental in establishing the kindergarten system in the United States.[2] During his later years, Schurz was perhaps the most prominent Independent in American politics, noted for his high principles, his avoidance of political partisanship, and his moral conscience.
He is famous for saying: "Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right." Many streets, schools, and parks are named in honor of him, including New York City's Carl Schurz Park.
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[edit] Early life
Schurz was born in Liblar (now Erftstadt) on March 2, 1829, the son of a schoolteacher. He studied at the Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne, and then entered the University of Bonn, where he became a revolutionary, partly through his friendship with Gottfried Kinkel, then a professor, and Johannes von Ronge.
In Bonn, he became a member of the nationalistic Studentenverbindung Burschenschaft Franconia Bonn. He assisted Kinkel in editing the Bonner Zeitung, and was active in the Revolution of 1848; but when Rastatt surrendered, he escaped to Zürich. In 1850, he returned secretly to Germany, rescued Kinkel from prison at Spandau and helped him to escape to Scotland. Schurz went to Paris, but the police forced him to leave France on the eve of the coup d'état, and he remained in London until August 1852, making his living by teaching the German language. He married Ronge's sister-in-law in July 1852 and moved to America, living for a time in Philadelphia. Schurz is probably the best-known of the Forty-Eighters, the German emigrants who moved to the United States after the failed liberal revolutions.
[edit] Politics in the United States
In 1856, after a year in Europe, he settled in Watertown, Wisconsin, and immediately became prominent in the Republican Party of Wisconsin. In 1857, he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for lieutenant-governor. In the Illinois campaign of the next year between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, he took part as a speaker on behalf of Lincoln—mostly in German—which raised Lincoln's popularity among German-American voters. Later, in 1858, he was admitted to the Wisconsin bar and began to practice law in Milwaukee. In the state campaign of 1859, he made a speech attacking the Fugitive Slave Law and arguing for state's rights, since Wisconsin's state Supreme Court had declared the Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional, although the stance injured his political standing in the southwestern part of Wisconsin, settled by Southerners. Outside of the state, in Faneuil Hall, Boston, on April 18, 1859,[3] he delivered an oration on "True Americanism", which, coming from an alien, was intended to clear the Republican party of the charge of "nativism". The Germans of Wisconsin unsuccessfully urged his nomination for governor by the Republican party in 1859. In the 1860 Republican National Convention, Schurz was spokesman of the delegation from Wisconsin, which voted for William H. Seward; he was on the committee which announced his nomination to Abraham Lincoln.
[edit] Civil War
In spite of Seward's objection, grounded on Schurz's European record as a revolutionary, Lincoln sent him in 1861 as ambassador to Spain. He succeeded in quietly dissuading Spain from supporting the South and returned to America in January 1862, resigned his post, was commissioned brigadier general of Union volunteers in April, and in June took command of a division under John C. Frémont, and then in Franz Sigel's corps, with which he took part in the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was promoted major general of volunteers on March 14 and was a division commander in the XI Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville, under General Oliver O. Howard, with whom he later had a bitter controversy over the strategy employed at that battle and their defeat by Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. He was at Gettysburg, (a victory for the Union commanding XI Corps, and at Chattanooga (also a victory for the Union side). Later, he was put in command of a Corps of Instruction at Nashville. He briefly returned to active service except in the last months of the war when he was with Sherman's army in North Carolina as chief of staff of Henry Slocum's Army of Georgia. He resigned from the army as soon as the war ended.
[edit] Postbellum politics
In the summer of 1865, President Andrew Johnson sent Schurz through the South to study conditions; they then quarrelled because Schurz approved General H.W. Slocum's order forbidding the organization of militia in Mississippi. Schurz's report, suggesting the readmission of the states with complete rights and the investigation of the need of further legislation by a Congressional committee, was ignored by the President. In 1866-1867, he was chief editor of the Detroit Post and then became editor and joint proprietor with Emil Praetorius of the Westliche Post (Western Post) of St. Louis. In the winter of 1867-1868, he travelled in Germany – the account of his interview with Otto von Bismarck is one of the most interesting chapters of his Reminiscences. He spoke against "repudiation" and for "honest money" during the Presidential campaign of 1868.
From 1869 to 1875, he was United States Senator from Missouri. He gained political clout with Republicans from German-American support in the Midwest. He made a great reputation with his speeches urging financial responsibility. During this period, he broke with the administration: he started the Liberal Republican movement in Missouri, in 1870, which elected B. Gratz Brown governor; and, in 1872, he presided over the Liberal Republican convention which nominated Horace Greeley for President (Schurz's own choice was Charles Francis Adams or Lyman Trumbull). The convention did not represent Schurz's views on the tariff. He opposed Grant's Santo Domingo policy—after Fessenden's death, Schurz was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs—his Southern policy, and the government's selling arms and making cartridges for the French army in the Franco-Prussian War. But, in 1875, he campaigned for Rutherford B. Hayes, as the representative of sound money, in the Ohio governor's campaign.
[edit] Interior Secretary
In 1876, he supported Hayes for President, and after winning, Hayes named him Secretary of the Interior and followed much of his advice in other cabinet appointments and in his inaugural address. In this department, Schurz put in force his theories in regard to merit in the Civil Service, permitting no removals except for cause, and requiring competitive examinations for candidates for clerkships. His efforts to remove political patronage met with limited success. As an early conservationist, he prosecuted land thieves and attracted public attention to the necessity of forest preservation.
Schurz reformed the Office of Indian Affairs and successfully opposed a bill transferring it to the War Department. The Indian Office was the most corrupt of the Interior Department. Positions as agents, farmers, teachers, and other positions on Indian reservations were based on political patronage. The offices were seen as political reward and license to use the reservations for personal enrichment, with no work required. Restoration of the Indian Office to the War Department, which was based on rules and patriotic service, instead of politics, was thought by Indians and others to enable the Indian Office to do some good for Indians, instead of Bureau employees. However, political pressure and parochialism kept the Indian Office in the Department.[citation needed]
Schurz's role in the abrogation of treaties made with various native American Indian tribes, during his brief tenure as Interior Secretary, is extensively chronicled in Dee Brown's seminal tome on how the West was lost, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." While not an architect of the campaign to push Native Americans off of their lands and into tribal reservations situated on some of the most unforgiving land in the American west, Schurz - referred to by the natives quoted in Bury My Heart as "Big Eyes" - is repeatedly mentioned as concurring with the advice of Generals Sherman and Sheridan in his capacity as Secretary of the Interior, with responsibility for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That concurrence spelled doom and death for many hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.
[edit] Retirement and death
Upon his retirement in 1881, Schurz moved to New York City, and from the summer of 1881 to the autumn of 1883 was editor-in-chief and one of the proprietors of the New York Evening Post. In 1884, he was a leader in the Independent (or Mugwump) movement against the nomination of James Blaine for president and for the election of Grover Cleveland. From 1888 to 1892, he was general American representative of the Hamburg American Steamship Company. In 1892 he succeeded George William Curtis as president of the National Civil Service Reform League and held this office until 1901. He succeeded Curtis as editorial writer for Harper's Weekly in 1892–1898, actively supporting electoral reform. In 1895 he spoke for the Fusion anti-Tammany Hall ticket in New York City. He opposed William Jennings Bryan for president in 1896, speaking for sound money and not under the auspices of the Republican party; he supported Bryan four years later because of anti-imperialism beliefs, which also led to his membership in the American Anti-Imperialist League. In the 1904 election he supported Alton B. Parker, the Democratic candidate. Carl Schurz lived in a summer cottage in Northwest Bay on Lake George, New York which was built by his good friend Abraham Jacobi.
Throughout his life, Schurz never hesitated to deliver his opinion, and was known by politicians as elevated as Presidents Lincoln and Johnson for his frequent, vitriolic letters. Because of his strongly worded speeches and editorials and his deeply held convictions, he was a hero to his supporters, but widely disliked by his critics. He had a strong connection to the immigrant community. He told a group of German immigrants at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 how he expected them to fit into American society:
- I have always been in favor of a healthy Americanization, but that does not mean a complete disavowal of our German heritage. Our character should take on the best of that which is American, and combine it with the best of that which is German. By doing this, we can best serve the American people and their civilization.
Schurz published a number of writings, including a volume of speeches (1865), an excellent biography of Henry Clay (1887), essays on Abraham Lincoln (1899) and Charles Sumner (posthumous, 1951), and his Reminiscences (posthumous, 1907–09). In his later years he wrote his memoirs.
Schurz died in New York City and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York.
[edit] Schurz on "The True Americanism"
What is the rule of honor to be observed by a power so strongly and so advantageously situated as this Republic is? Of course I do not expect it meekly to pocket real insults if they should be offered to it. But, surely, it should not, as our boyish jingoes wish it to do, swagger about among the nations of the world, with a chip on its shoulder, shaking its fist in everybody's face. Of course, it should not tamely submit to real encroachments upon its rights. But, surely, it should not, whenever its own notions of right or interest collide with the notions of others, fall into hysterics and act as if it really feared for its own security and its very independence.As a true gentleman, conscious of his strength and his dignity, it should be slow to take offense. In its dealings with other nations it should have scrupulous regard, not only for their rights, but also for their self-respect. With all its latent resources for war, it should be the great peace power of the world. It should never forget what a proud privilege and what an inestimable blessing it is not to need and not to have big armies or navies to support. It should seek to influence mankind, not by heavy artillery, but by good example and wise counsel. It should see its highest glory, not in battles won, but in wars prevented. It should be so invariably just and fair, so trustworthy, so good tempered, so conciliatory, that other nations would instinctively turn to it as their mutual friend and the natural adjuster of their differences, thus making it the greatest preserver of the world's peace. This is not a mere idealistic fancy. It is the natural position of this great republic among the nations of the earth. It is its noblest vocation, and it will be a glorious day for the United States when the good sense and the self-respect of the American people see in this their "manifest destiny." It all rests upon peace. Is not this peace with honor? There has, of late, been much loose speech about "Americanism." Is not this good Americanism? It is surely today the Americanism of those who love their country most. And I fervently hope that it will be and ever remain the Americanism of our children and our children's children.
[edit] Schurz on Patriotism
The man who in times of popular excitement boldly and unflinchingly resists hot-tempered clamor for an unnecessary war, and thus exposes himself to the opprobrious imputation of a lack of patriotism or of courage, to the end of saving his country from a great calamity, is, as to "loving and faithfully serving his country," at least as good a patriot as the hero of the most daring feat of arms, and a far better one than those who, with an ostentatious pretense of superior patriotism, cry for war before it is needed, especially if then they let others do the fighting.
– Carl Schurz, April, 1898
[edit] In memoriam
Schurz is memorialized in numerous places around the United States:
- Carl Schurz Park, a 14.9 acre (60,000 m²) park in New York City, adjacent to Yorkville, Manhattan, overlooking the waters of Hell Gate. Named for Schurz in 1910, it is the site of Gracie Mansion, the residence of the Mayor of New York since 1942.
- Carl Schurz Drive, a residential street located on the northern end of his former home of Watertown, Wisconsin.
- Schurz School, an elementary school located in Watertown, WI.
- Carl Schurz Park, a private membership park located in Stone Bank (Town of Merton), Wisconsin, on the shore of Moose Lake.
- Karl Bitter's 1913 statue of Schurz at Morningside Drive and 116th Street in New York City.
- Carl Schurz High School, an historic landmark in Chicago, built in 1910.
- Schurz Hall, a student residence at the University of Missouri.
- Carl Schurz Elementary in New Braunfels, Texas
- Carl Schurz and Abraham Jacobi Memorial Park in Bolton Landing, New York
- The US Postal Service issued a 4-cent stamp with his name and face.
- In World War II the United States liberty ship SS Carl Schurz was named in his honor.
- Mount Schurz, a mountain in eastern Yellowstone, north of Eagle Peak and south of Atkins Peak, named in 1885 by the United States Geological Survey, to honor Schurz's commitment to protecting Yellowstone National Park.
- Statue at Menomonee Park in Oshkosh, WI
Several memorials in Germany also commemorate the life and work of Schurz:
- Streets named after him in Berlin-Spandau, Bremen, Erftstadt-Liblar, Giessen, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Köln, Rastatt, Paderborn, Pforzheim, Pirmasens, Leipzig, Wuppertal
- Schools in Bonn, Bremen, Berlin-Spandau, Frankfurt/Main, Rastatt and his place of birth Erftstadt-Liblar
- an urban area in Frankfurt/Main
- a fountain in Rastatt
- German Armed Forces barracks in Hardheim
- German federal stamps in 1952 and 1976
The United States Army base in Bremerhaven, Germany was also named for Schurz - Karl Schurz Kaserne. The base served as a logistical hub for U.S. forces in Germany. The base was returned to the German government in 1996, following the end of the Cold War.
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Yockelson, Mitchell, "Hirschhorn", Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, Heidler, David S., and Heidler, Jeanne T., eds., W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Schurz, Carl 1829 - 1906
- ^ Schurz, Margarethe [Meyer] (Mrs. Carl Schurz) 1833 - 1876
- ^ Hirschhorn, p. 1713.
- ^ Sturm und Drang Over a Memorial to Heinrich Heine. The New York Times, May 27, 2007.
[edit] Further reading
- Bancroft, Frederic, and Dunning, W. A., Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, (three volumes, New York, 1907-08)
- Bancroft, Frederic, Speeches, Correspondence, and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, (six volumes, New York, 1913)
- Trefousse, Hans L., Carl Schurz, (U. of Tenn. Press, 1982)
- Brown, Dee, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," 1971
[edit] External links
- Carl Schurz at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Works by Carl Schurz at Project Gutenberg
- German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA in Washington, DC
| Preceded by William Preston |
U.S. Minister to Spain 1861 |
Succeeded by Gustavus Koerner |
| Preceded by John B. Henderson |
United States Senator (Class 1) from Missouri 1869–1875 Served alongside: Charles D. Drake, Daniel T. Jewett, Francis P. Blair, Jr., Lewis V. Bogy |
Succeeded by Francis M. Cockrell |
| Preceded by Zachariah Chandler |
United States Secretary of the Interior 1877–1881 |
Succeeded by Samuel J. Kirkwood |
| Military offices | ||
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| Preceded by John Sedgwick |
Commander of the XI Corps (ACW) January 19, 1863 - February 5, 1863 |
Succeeded by Franz Sigel |
| Preceded by Adolph von Steinwehr |
Commander of the XI Corps (ACW) March 5, 1863 - April 2, 1863 |
Succeeded by Oliver O. Howard |
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