The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-29
CARL scHuRz's TURNING POINT
It Was Louis NapoIeon's Coup d. Etat
That Sent Him to America.


Now an event occurred which gave to
my fate an unexpected and decisive turn,
says the late Carl schurz in his re-
mniscences, now appearing in Mcclure s
Magazine
The reports which we Ohe German
revolutionary refugees in Bondon) had re-
eeived from our friends in Paris made
us believe that Louis Napoleon. the pres
ident of the French republic, was an OBJ
jeet of general contempt, that he play
ed a really ridiculous figure with his
manifest ambition to restore the empire
in France and to mount the throne.
All of a sudden on December 2, 1851, the
news arrived IN London that Louis Ma
poleon had actually undertaken the long
expected coup d'etat.
Exciting reports arrived in rapid sue
cession. Members of the national assem-
bly, had tried to organize resistance, but
were soon dispersed by military force AT
last the news came that the people, too,
were beginning to build barbados.
1t is impossible to describe the state
of mind produced among the exiles by
these reports We Germans ran to the
meeting places of the French clubs be-
cause we expected to receive there the
elearest and most reliable tidings.
In these clubs we found a feverish ex-
element bordering upon madness. Our
French friends shouted and shrieked and
gesticulated and hurled opprobrious
names at Louis Napoleon and cursed his
helpers, and danced the Carmagnole and
sang Ca Ira"
The most glorious bulletins of the pro-
gress of the street fight went from mouth
to mouth Some of them were proclaim
ed by Wild looking revolutionary exiles
who had jumped upon tables, and frantic
screams of applause welcomed them. So 1t
went on night, day. and again a
night Sleep was out of the question.
There was hardly time for the neces-
sary meals.
The reports of victory were followed by
others that sounded less favorable. They
could not and would not be believed. They
were 1.-THE dispatches of the usurper and
his slaves they led ''tney could not
do otherwise than lie"
The messages became more and more
gloomy. The barricades which the people
had erected had been taken by the army
without much trouble. On the fourth, a
serious battle occurred on tne streets,
but there, too, the troops had remained
masters of the field.
Then the soldery rushed into the houses
and murdered without discrimination or
compassion. At last there vas he quiet
of the graveyard in the great city. The
popular rising had been comparatively
insignificant and powerless
The usurper, who had but recently been
represented as a weak minded adven-
turer. the mere nephew Of his uncle. III
succeeded in subjecting Paris. The de-
partments did not move; there was no
doubt the republic was at an end, and
f.,1I CHI OLE ha
pect of the new revolutionary upheaval,
which. on the impulse coming from
France, was expected to spread liver the
whole European continent.
Stunned by all these terrible reports,
we quietly returned to our quarters.
After / had recuperated by long sleep
/ tried to become clear in my mind about
the changed situation of things. 1t was a
foggy day and | went out. because /
found It impossible 70 sit still within
my four walls.
Absorbed in my thought, wandered on
without any definite aim and found my
self at last in Hyde PARK, wf"i {. in spite
of the chilly air, | sat down on bench.
One thing seemed certain to me. All the
efforts connected with the revolution of
1913 were now hopeless period of de-
cided anC general eacton was bound to
come.
With this conviction my own situation
became equally clear to me. 1t would
have been childish to give myself up
to further illusory hopes of a speedy re
turn to the fatherland To continue our
plottings and thereby bring still more
mischief upon others appeared to me a
reckless and wicked game. | had long
recognized the exiles life to be empty and
enervatlng. I felt an irresistible impulse
not only to find for myself a well regu-
lated activity, but also to do something
really and truly valuable for the general
good.
But where and how? The fatherland
was closed to me- England was to me a
foreign country and would always re-
main So Where, then? ITO America" /
said to myself 1.-THE ideals of which I
have dreamed and for which I have
fought I shall find there, II not fully
realized, hopefully struggling for full
realization. In that struggle I shall per-
haps be able to take some part. 1t is
new world, a free world. a world of
great ideas and aims. In that world there
is perhaps for me a new home"