Karl Schurz

(born March 2, 1829)

by Paul A. Schons

Originally published by the Germanic American Institute in March, 2000

"Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny."
--Carl Schurz

Carl Schurz came to the United States in 1852. As many who came to America, he did so to escape. He was a student at the University of Bonn in 1848 when the attempted democratic revolution in Germany began. His ideals of liberty and human rights drew him into the conflict. When the uprising was put down he was arrested and imprisoned. He escaped from prison, however, and fled to Switzerland. From there he made his way to the United States where he found a new home in Watertown, Wisconsin.

The same ideals which had brought him into difficulties in Germany soon drove him to become involved in politics in his new homeland. He was outraged by the practice of slavery and became a leader in the antislavery movement.

He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860 and there strongly supported the nomination of Abraham Lincoln. After his election, Lincoln appointed him as Minister to Spain. When the Civil War began he volunteered and quickly rose to the rank of brigadier general. He led troops in the Second Battle of Bull Run, and the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Chattanooga.

After the war he became an advocate for rights for the liberated slaves. His views were a bit too liberal, however, for the mood of the times and his recommendations were ignored by President Johnson.

Schurz then turned to journalism. For a time he edited the Detroit Post. Later he moved to Missouri and became the editor of a German-language paper, the St. Louis Westliche Post.

From his new home in Missouri he was elected to the U.S. Senate where he served from 1869 to 1875. As a senator he struggled against the political corruption he found in Washington. He left the Senate, but remained strongly involved in national politics. He was a leading supporter of Rutherford B. Hayes. When Hayes was elected he appointed Schurz Secretary of the Interior. In that post he promoted civil-service reform and worked intensely for improved conditions for Native Americans.

When he left government service he returned to journalism. He edited the New York Evening Post and The Nation. He also wrote editorials for Harper’s Weekly.

In an address to a New York meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in 1896 he spoke of his ideas concerning the proper role of the United States with its vast resources and potential as a military power: “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.” Clearly the high ideals which had been the motivating force with the student at the University of Bonn stayed with him throughout his life.

On the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1929 the German Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic, Gustav Stessemann said of him, “Carl Schurz managed to combine his love for Germany with a loyalty to his American homeland in a marvelous unity reflecting the striving of his great personality which, here as well as there, was concerned with profound moral goals that are not restricted to a single nation, but apply to all mankind.” On the subject of the German heritage and its place for Americans Schurz had said in a speech at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, “I have always been in favor of a healthy Americanization, but that does not mean a complete disavowal of our German heritage. It means that 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.”