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
President	Rutherford B. Hayes
Preceded by	Zachariah Chandler
Succeeded by	Samuel J. Kirkwood
United States Senator from Missouri
In office March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1875
Preceded by	John B. Henderson
Succeeded by	Francis Cockrell
United States Minister to Spain
In office July 13, 1861 – December 18, 1861
President	Abraham Lincoln
Preceded by	William Preston
Succeeded by	Gustav Körner
Personal details
Born	Carl Christian Schurz (1829-03-02)March 2, 1829 Liblar, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation (now Erftstadt)
Died	May 14, 1906(1906-05-14) (aged 77) New York City, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Other political affiliations	Liberal Republican (1870–1872)
Spouse	Margarethe Meyer
Education	University of Bonn (BA)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	German revolutionaries United States
Branch/service	United States Volunteers (Union Army)
Years of service	1848 1862–1865
Rank	Major general
Battles/wars	German revolutions of 1848–49 American Civil War (1861–1865)

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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.