The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-11-13

Franz Sigel, the son Of Gen.
] Franz Sigel, famous as an exile
from autocratic Germany in
l848-49 and as one of the bravest
of the brave in the civil war,
| needs no Introductory note. MIR.
! Sigel is now resident of New
| York City, and the following
| article is an extract from the
New York Times.
| / am full blooded German, de-
scended from German "Forty-eight-
ers.' My father, General Franz Sigel,
his brothers, and my maternal grand
father were driven from Germany on
account of their participation in the
revolution of 1S4S in Germany.
My forebears had all sacrificed
| the home OF their birth in their de-
votion to the cause of liberty. Later
| they fought for the union and the
freedom of the slaves. Only one, a
maternal uncle, ever revisited Ger
many, and he, too, returned to fight
on the union side. None ever went
back to Germany to live.
In April, 1861, my father enlisted
in the same struggle. He is fire.
quently referred to as one who did
much for the nation in it's crisis of
1861; he is at times mentioned in
the public press as one whose
example might well be emulated now
by the youth of German descent.
What during his lifetime was his
attitude on Americanism and Ger
man-Americanism? ?" If we sons are
to follow where he would have led,
where does the path lead?
He was an educated man, had
been graduated from a recognized
cadet school in Carlsruhe, Baden,
became a trained soldier, and had
been at Heidelberg. He knew and
spoke English before he came here,
but his German accent never left
him The language of our home was
German, and l continue that custom
in my own home My wife speaks
no German, but our boy and speak
nothing but German together. / well
remember that my father told me to
speak English with him in public.
because it was an insult to other
citizens to speak in their presence a
language that they did not under
stand Once l took him to public
function at my college; the professor
of German, my lifelong friend. when
he met my father in roomful of
other visitors addressed him in Ger
man, thinking to please him. But
the reply came in English. and the
professor at once accommodated
himself to the change.
Franz Sigel knew the constitution
of the United States and what 1t
meant for the rights of humanity
long before he came to this country,
and he knew it better than many
| Americans who were born and died
here. His passion was the liberty of
man. When he revolted against the
government of Baden he knew the
goal he was aiming to reach. AS
adiutant general, under the comman-
der of the Baden revolutionists, Lud-
wig Mieroslawsk, Pole who spoke
no German, he himself probably
wrote an order OF the day" dated
HEADQUARTERS, Rastatt, June 81.
1S49," which hangs on my wall. 1t
is addressed to the revolutionary
army in camp at that fortress, and
concludes:
1.-THE limit of our camp is the
boundary between the traitors to
and the defenders of Germany.
Freedom or. slavery-let that be the
motto that shall resound in the ears
of the enemy from the threats of
Z 600 determined men,"
I have also hanging on my wall, as
my father had it hanging on his wall
as long as I can remember. list of
twenty eight of his brothers in arms
subsequently captured, condemned,
and shot as traitors, entitled Ger
many's Martyrs to Freedom" The
remnant of the revolutionary army
about 7.O00-escaped under my faith
er's leadership into Switzerland from
the Prussians under Prince William,
afterward the first German emperor.
Many of them and their families emf
grated to America.
The uniication of Germany under
the German emperor, in 1871, was a
realization in part of the hopes of
the Forty eigthers." That it was
not complete may be gathered by
what my father wrote In an article in
the International Magazine about
four years later. He said of Ger
many that it was a great empire and
hat "the long-cherished hopes of