★ ★  Schurz, Carl

Carl Schurz

Born: March 2, 1829
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Birthplace: Liblar, Rhein – Erft – Kreis, Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany

Father: Christian Schurz 1796 – 1876
(Buried: Saint Paul Evangelical Reformed Church, Monee, Illinois)​

Mother: Marianne Jussen 1798 – 1877
(Buried: Saint Paulus Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri)​

1st Wife: Margarethe Meyer 1833 – 1876
(Buried: Ohlsdorfer, Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Germany)​

2nd Wife: Frances Chapman 1846 – 1924
(Buried: Doylestown Presbyterian Church, Doylestown, Pennsylvania)​

Children:

Agathe Schurz 1852 – 1915​
(Buried: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York)​
Marianne Schurz 1857 – 1929​
(Buried: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York)​
Emmy Savannah Schurz 1864 – 1867​
(Buried: Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan)​
Carl L. Schurz 1871 – 1924​
(Buried: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York)​
Herbert Schurz 1876 – 1900​
(Buried: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York)​

Education:

Attended Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne, Germany​
Attended University of Bonn, Germany​

Occupation before War:

1848: One of the Founders of Bonner Zeitung Newspaper
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Member of Prussian Constitutional Convention​
1849: Served in military campaign in Palatinate and Baden​
1849: Part of the force that surrendered at Fortress of Rastatt​
1850: Helped Kinkel escape from prison to Edinburgh, Scotland​
1851: Forced to leave France on the eve of the coup d’etat​
1851 – 1852: German Language teacher in London, England​
1852: Immigrated to the United States from London, England​
Member of the Republican Political Party​
1857: Unsuccessful Candidate for Lt. Governor of Wisconsin​
1858: Speaker on behalf of the Lincoln U.S. Senate Campaign​
Attorney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin​
1859: Made a speech attacking the fugitive slave law​
1860: Wisconsin Leader at Republican Party National Convention​

Civil War Career:

1861: United States Minister to Spain​
1861: Helped to dissuade Spain from supporting the Confederacy​
1862 – 1863: Brigadier General, Union Army Volunteers​
1862: Served in the Second Battle of Bull Run, Virginia​
1863 – 1865: Major General Union Army Volunteers​
1863: Division Commander at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia​
1863: Division Commander at the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania​
1863: Division Commander at the Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee​
Commander of a Union Army Corps of Instruction at Nashville, Tennessee​
Chief of Staff to Major General Henry W. Slocum in Georgia​
1865: Sent South by President Johnson to study conditions​

Occupation after War:

Chief Editor of Detroit Post Newspaper
Editor and Joint Proprietor of Wstilche Post Newspaper
1867 – 1868: Traveled to Germany for interviews Otto Von Bismarck​
1869 – 1875: United States Senator from Missouri​
1870: Helped form the Liberal Republican Political Party​
1872: Chairman of Liberal Republican Party National Convention​
1877 – 1881: United States Secretary of Interior Department​
1881 – 1883: Editor of New York Evening Post & The Nation
1884: Leader of the Mugwump movement against James G. Blaine​
General American Representative of Hamburg American Steamship Co​
1892 – 1901: President of National Civil Service Reform League​
1892 – 1898: Editorial Writer of Harper’s Weekly Newspaper
1895: Speaker of Fusion anti Tammany Hall Ticket in New York City​
1896: Opposed William J. Bryan Speaking out against the Campaign​
1900: Supporter of William J. Bryan for his anti-imperialism beliefs​
Member of the American Anti – Imperialist League​
1904: Supporter of Alton B. Parker’s Presidential Campaign​

Died: May 14, 1906

Place of Death: New York City, New York

Cause of Death: Bilateral Septic Pneumonia

Age at time of Death: 77 years old

Burial Place: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York
 
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Carl Schurz, German-American Statesman: My Country Right or Wrong by Peter T. Lubrecht Sr.

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This is the story of a nineteenth-century hero: Carl Schurz led German revolutionary refugee immigrants, "48ers," to make major contributions to American society. His career as a reformer, orator, foreign ambassador, Civil War general, United States senator, Secretary of the Interior and newspaper editorial writer was instrumental for the abolition of slavery, civil service reform, Southern reconstruction, indian affairs and general "muckraking" in the face of old-school backroom politics. He campaigned for Abraham Lincoln and examined the plight of the freedmen in the South, seeking a vote and property for them. As a senator from Missouri, he fought corruption; as the Secretary of the Interior, he organized the Indian Bureau, and pioneered the early ecology movements. He spent the last twenty-six years of his life in New York, as a newspaper editor and writer. Carl Schurz was the public voice of reason in the press of the "Gilded Age." His statement, "My country right or wrong, if right to be kept right; and if wrong to be set right," has been quoted regularly in twenty-first century media.


Carl Schurz: A Biography by Hans L. Trefousse

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The biography of Carl Schurz is a story of an amazing life. At the age of 19, Schurz, a student at the University of Bonn, became involved in the Revolution of 1848. Participating in the revolutionary army, he managed to escape through a sewer during the siege of Rastatt, flee across the Rhine to France, and come back to rescue his professor, Gottfried Kinkel, from a jail near Berlin. This deed made him famous, and when he came to American in 1852, Schurz was nominated for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin on the Republican ticket. He quickly rose in the party and was the head of the Wisconsin delegation at the 1860 National Convention. He worked hard for the cause, and Lincoln rewarded him with the post of Minister to Spain. At the outbreak of war he returned to join the Union Army, became a Major General, and took part in several important battles. After the war, he moved to Missouri, was elected Senator from that State, and became a role model for his fellow German Americans. In 1871 he became one of the main figures in the Liberal Republican movement, and in 1877 President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him Secretary of the Interior.

After his retirement from the cabinet, Schurz became active in the politics of New York, as an advocate of municipal and civil service reform. He was a leading Mugwump who supported Grover Cleveland in 1884 and at the end of his life became a violent opponent of imperialism. He died in 1906.

Carl Schurz, the man, his story, his ideals and his example, are particularly appropriate today because of the light his life sheds on the never-ending problems of immigration, assimilation, and the retention of ethnic identity. Carl Schurz's career furnishes a model example for all of these.



Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
The Schurz monument by the eminent sculptor Karl Bitter in NYC is a wonderful (opinion) tribute to the man. Perhaps I'll write something up about it for the Monument Threads.
 
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