Carl Schurz

Carl Schurz
Schurz photographed by Mathew Brady, c. 1877
13th United States Secretary of the Interior
In office
March 12, 1877 – March 7, 1881
PresidentRutherford B. Hayes
Preceded byZachariah Chandler
Succeeded bySamuel J. Kirkwood
United States Senator
from Missouri
In office
March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1875
Preceded byJohn B. Henderson
Succeeded byFrancis Cockrell
United States Minister to Spain
In office
July 13, 1861 – December 18, 1861
PresidentAbraham Lincoln
Preceded byWilliam Preston
Succeeded byGustav Körner
Personal details
Born
Carl Christian Schurz

(1829-03-02)March 2, 1829
Liblar, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation (now Erftstadt)
DiedMay 14, 1906(1906-05-14) (aged 77)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Other political
affiliations
Liberal Republican (1870–1872)
SpouseMargarethe Meyer
EducationUniversity of Bonn (BA)
Signature
Military service
AllegianceGerman revolutionaries
United States
Branch/serviceUnited States Volunteers
(Union Army)
Years of service1848
1862–1865
RankMajor general
Battles/wars

Carl Schurz (German: [ʃʊɐ̯ts]; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He migrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent member of the new Republican Party. After serving as a Union general in the American Civil War, he helped found the short-lived Liberal Republican Party and became a prominent advocate of civil service reform. Schurz represented Missouri in the United States Senate and was the 13th United States Secretary of the Interior.

Born in the Kingdom of Prussia's Rhine Province, Schurz fought for democratic reforms in the German revolutions of 1848–1849 as a member of the academic fraternity association Deutsche Burschenschaft.[1] After Prussia suppressed the revolution Schurz fled to France. When police forced him to leave France he migrated to London. Like many other "Forty-Eighters", he then migrated to the United States, settling in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1852. After being admitted to the Wisconsin bar, he established a legal practice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He also became a strong advocate for the anti-slavery movement and joined the newly organized Republican Party, unsuccessfully running for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin. After briefly representing the United States as Minister (ambassador) to Spain, Schurz served as a general in the American Civil War, fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg and other major battles.

After the war, Schurz established a newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri, and won election to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first German-born American elected to that body.[2] Breaking with Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, Schurz helped establish the Liberal Republican Party. The party advocated civil service reform, sound money, low tariffs, low taxes, and an end to railroad grants, and opposed Grant's efforts to protect African-American civil rights in the Southern United States during Reconstruction. Schurz chaired the 1872 Liberal Republican convention, which nominated a ticket that unsuccessfully challenged President Grant in the 1872 presidential election. Schurz lost his own 1874 re-election bid and resumed his career as a newspaper editor. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1878.[3]

After Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the 1876 presidential election, he appointed Schurz as his Secretary of the Interior. Schurz sought to make civil service based on merit rather than political and party connections and helped prevent the transfer of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the War Department. Schurz moved to New York City after Hayes left office in 1881 and briefly served as the editor of the New York Evening Post and The Nation and later became the editorial writer for Harper's Weekly. He remained active in politics and led the "Mugwump" movement, which opposed nominating James G. Blaine in the 1884 presidential election. Schurz opposed William Jennings Bryan's bimetallism in the 1896 presidential election but supported Bryan's anti-imperialist campaign in the 1900 presidential election. Schurz died in New York City in 1906.

  1. ^ Dvorak, Helge (2002). "Schurz, Carl Christian". Biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Burschenschaft (in German). Vol. Band I: Politiker Teilband 5: R-S. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter. pp. 372–376. ISBN 3-8253-1256-9.
  2. ^ "Schurz, Carl (1829-1906)". Wisconsin Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  3. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-05-12.