Carl Schurz Carl Christian Schurz ( ; March 2 , 1829 – May 14 , 1906 ) was a German revolutionary , American statesman and reformer , U . S . Minister to Spain , Union Army General in the American Civil War , U . S . Senator , and Secretary of the Interior . He was also an accomplished journalist , newspaper editor and orator , who in 1869 became the first German - born American elected to the United States Senate . Schurz , a native of Liblar , Germany , attended a Gymnasium in Cologne and then enrolled in the University of Bonn in 1847 . He was studying to obtain a doctorate degree and to become a professor of History when his studies were interrupted by the German Revolution . At age 19 , Schurz became a leader of a student movement that encouraged democracy , influenced by Gottfried Kinkel . He joined the revolutionary army , fighting in several battles against the Prussian Army . When the revolutionary army was defeated at Rastatt in 1849 , Schurz escaped to Switzerland , knowing that the Prussians intended to kill their prisoners . He returned to Germany , where he led a secret mission that freed Gottfried Kinkel from prison . Schurz then resided in Paris , until he was expelled by French authorities in 1851 . He migrated to England , where he married Margarethe Meyer . In 1852 , they emigrated to the United States , originally residing in Philadelphia . Schurz and his wife moved to Wisconsin , where he joined and campaigned for the Republican Party . In 1861 , President Abraham Lincoln appointed Schurz Minister to Spain . After returning from Spain in 1862 , Schurz was appointed Union Brigadier General by Lincoln . During the Civil War , although Brig . Gen . Schurz served with distinction , known for his personal bravery and military discipline , his " German regiments " in 1862 were heavily criticized by the press for retreating during the Second Battle of Bull Run at Chancellorsville . After the war , Schurz was elected a Senator from Missouri in 1868 . In 1869 , he became the first U . S . Senator to offer a Civil Service Reform bill to Congress . During Reconstruction , Schurz was opposed to federal military enforcement and protection of African American civil rights , and held nineteenth century ideals of Anglo superiority and fears of miscegenation . In 1870 , Schurz formed the Liberal Republican Party , which opposed President Ulysses S . Grant ' s annexation of Santo Domingo , and his use of the military to destroy the Ku Klux Klan in the South under the Force Acts . Schurz lost the 1874 Senatorial election to Democratic Party challenger and former Confederate , Francis Cockrell . After leaving office , he worked as an editor for various newspapers . In 1877 , Schurz was appointed Secretary of Interior by President Rutherford B . Hayes . Although Schurz honestly attempted to reduce the effects of racism toward Native Americans and was partially successful at cleaning up corruption , his solutions towards American Indians " in light of late twentieth - century developments " , were repressive . Indians were forced to move into low quality reservation lands that were unsuitable for tribal economic and cultural advancement . Promises made to Indian chiefs at White House meetings with President Rutherford B . Hayes and Schurz were not always kept . During his later years , Schurz was perhaps the most prominent independent in American politics , noted for his high principles , his avoidance of political partisanship , and his moral conscience . His wife , Margarethe Schurz , was instrumental in establishing the kindergarten system in the United States . Schurz is famous for saying : " My country , right or wrong ; if right , to be kept right ; and if wrong , to be set right . " Early life . Schurz was born in Liblar ( now part of Erftstadt ) , Prussia on March 2 , 1829 , the son of a schoolteacher . He studied at the Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne , and learned piano under private instructors . Financial problems in his family obligated him to leave school a year early , without graduating . Later he graduated from the gymnasium by passing a special examination and entered the University of Bonn . German revolution . At Bonn , he developed a friendship with one of his professors , Gottfried Kinkel . He joined the nationalistic Studentenverbindung Burschenschaft Franconia at Bonn , which at the time included among its members Friedrich von Spielhagen , Johannes Overbeck , Julius Schmidt , Carl Otto Weber , Ludwig Meyer and Adolf Strodtmann , sponsored by his former comrade - in - arms , Joseph Benson Foraker . In response to the early events of the revolutions of 1848 , Schurz and Kinkel founded the " Bonner Zeitung " , a paper advocating democratic reforms . At first Kinkel was the editor and Schurz a regular contributor . These roles were reversed when Kinkel left for Berlin to become a member of the Prussian Constitutional Convention . When the Frankfurt rump parliament called for people to take up arms in defense of the new German constitution , Schurz , Kinkel , and others from the University of Bonn community did so . During this struggle , Schurz became acquainted with Franz Sigel , Alexander Schimmelfennig , Fritz Anneke , Friedrich Beust , Ludwig Blenker and others , many of whom he would meet again in the Union Army during the U . S . Civil War . During the 1849 military campaign in Palatinate and Baden , Schurz was adjunct officer of the commander of the artillery , Fritz Anneke , who was accompanied on the campaign by his wife , Mathilde Franziska Anneke . The Annekes would later move to the U . S . , where each became Republican Party supporters . Anneke ' s brother , Emil Anneke , was a founder of the Republican party in Michigan . Fritz Anneke achieved the rank of colonel and became the commanding officer of the 34th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War ; Mathilde Anneke contributed to both the abolitionist and suffrage movement s of the United States . The revolution in Germany ultimately failed . When the fortress at Rastatt , the last holdout , surrendered with Schurz inside , Schurz escaped to Zürich . In 1850 , he returned secretly to Prussia , rescued Kinkel from prison at Spandau and helped him to escape to Edinburgh , Scotland . Schurz then went to Paris , but the police forced him to leave France on the eve of the coup d ' état of 1851 , and he migrated to London . Remaining there until August 1852 , he made his living by teaching the German language . Marriage and U . S . migration . While in London , Schurz married fellow revolutionary Johannes Ronge ' s sister - in - law , Margarethe Meyer , in July 1852 and then migrated to America . Living initially in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , the Schurzes moved to Watertown , Wisconsin , where Carl nurtured his interests in politics and Margarethe began her seminal work in early childhood education . Schurz is probably the best known of the Forty - Eighters , the German emigrant s who came to the United States after the failed liberal revolutions . U . S . political career . In 1855 , Schurz settled in Watertown , Wisconsin , where he immediately became immersed in the anti - slavery movement and in politics , joining the Republican Party . In 1857 , he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for lieutenant - governor . In the Illinois campaign of the next year between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A . Douglas , he took part as a speaker on behalf of Lincoln — mostly in German — which raised Lincoln ' s popularity among German - American voters ( though it should be remembered that Senators were not directly elected in 1858 , the election being decided by the Illinois General Assembly ) . Later , in 1858 , he was admitted to the Wisconsin bar and began to practice law in Milwaukee . In the state campaign of 1859 , he made a speech attacking the Fugitive Slave Law , arguing for states ' rights . In Faneuil Hall , Boston , on April 18 , 1859 , he delivered an oration on " True Americanism , " which , coming from an alien , was intended to clear the Republican party of the charge of " nativism " . Wisconsin Germans unsuccessfully urged his nomination for governor in 1859 . In the 1860 Republican National Convention , Schurz was spokesman of the delegation from Wisconsin , which voted for William H . Seward ; despite this , Schurz was on the committee which brought Lincoln the news of his nomination . Minister to Spain . In spite of Seward ' s objection , grounded on Schurz ' s European record as a revolutionary , Lincoln sent him in 1861 as ambassador to Spain . He succeeded in quietly dissuading Spain from supporting the South . Civil War . Persuading Lincoln to grant him a commission in the Union army , Schurz was commissioned brigadier general of Union volunteers in April , and in June took command of a division , first under John C . Frémont , and then in Franz Sigel ' s corps , with which he took part in the Second Battle of Bull Run . He was promoted major general of volunteers on March 14 and was a division commander in the XI Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville , under General Oliver O . Howard , with whom he later had a bitter controversy over the strategy employed at that battle , resulting in their defeat by Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson . He was at Gettysburg ( a victory for the Union ) commanding the Third Division of Howard ' s XI Corps , and at Chattanooga ( also a victory for the Union side ) , at which he served with the future Senator Joseph B . Foraker , John Patterson Rea , and Luther Morris Buchwalter , brother to Morris Lyon Buchwalter . Senator Charles Sumner ( R - MA ) was a Congressional observer during the campaign . Later , he was put in command of a Corps of Instruction at Nashville . He briefly returned to active service , where in the last months of the war when he was with Sherman ' s army in North Carolina as chief of staff of Henry Slocum ' s Army of Georgia . He resigned from the army when the war ended . Reported on the South . In the summer of 1865 , President Andrew Johnson sent Schurz through the South to study conditions ; they then quarrelled because Schurz approved General H . W . Slocum ' s order forbidding the organization of militia in Mississippi . Schurz ' s report , suggesting the readmission of the states with complete rights and the investigation of the need of further legislation by a Congressional committee , was ignored by the President . Newspaper career . In 1866 , Schurz moved to Detroit , where he was chief editor of the " Detroit Post " . The following year , he moved to St . Louis , becoming editor and joint proprietor with Emil Preetorius of the " Westliche Post " ( Western Post ) , where he hired Joseph Pulitzer as a cub reporter . In the winter of 1867 - 1868 , he traveled in Germany – the account of his interview with Otto von Bismarck is one of the most interesting chapters of his " Reminiscences " . He spoke against " repudiation " ( of war debts ) and for " honest money " ( the gold standard ) during the Presidential campaign of 1868 . U . S . Senator . In 1868 , he was elected to the United States Senate from Missouri , becoming the first German American in that body . He earned a reputation for his speeches , which advocated fiscal responsibility , anti - imperialism , and integrity in government . During this period , he broke with the Grant administration , starting the Liberal Republican movement in Missouri , which in 1870 elected B . Gratz Brown governor . After Fessenden ' s death , Schurz was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs where Schurz opposed Grant ' s Southern policy as well as his bid to annex Santo Domingo . Schurz was identified with the committee ' s investigation of arms sales to and cartridge manufacture for the French army by the United States government during the Franco - Prussian War . In 1872 , he presided over the Liberal Republican convention , which nominated Horace Greeley for President . Schurz ' s own choice was Charles Francis Adams or Lyman Trumbull , and the convention did not represent Schurz ' s views on the tariff . Schurz campaigned for Greeley anyway . Especially in this campaign , and throughout his career as a Senator and afterwards , he was a target for the pen of " Harper ' s Weekly " artist Thomas Nast , usually in an unfavorable way . The election was a debacle for the Greeley supporters : Grant won by a landslide , and Greeley died shortly after the election . In 1875 , he campaigned for Rutherford B . Hayes , as the representative of sound money , in the Ohio governor ' s campaign . Secretary of Interior . In 1876 , he supported Hayes for President , and Hayes named him Secretary of the Interior , following much of his advice in other cabinet appointments and in his inaugural address . In this department , Schurz put in force his theories in regard to merit in the Civil Service , permitting no removals except for cause , and requiring competitive examinations for candidates for clerkships . His efforts to remove political patronage met with only limited success , however . As an early conservationist , he prosecuted land thieves and attracted public attention to the necessity of forest preservation . During Schurz ' s tenure as Secretary of the Interior , there was a movement , strongly supported by Gen . William Tecumseh Sherman , to transfer the Office of Indian Affairs to the War Department . Restoration of the Indian Office to the War Department , which was anxious to regain control in order to continue its " pacification " program , was opposed by Schurz , and ultimately the Indian Office remained in the Interior Department . The Indian Office had been the most corrupt of the Interior Department . Positions therein were based on political patronage and were seen as granting license to use the reservations for personal enrichment . Schurz realized that the service would have to be cleansed of such corruption before anything positive could be accomplished , so he instituted a wide - scale inspection of the service , dismissed several officials , and began civil service reforms , whereby positions and promotions were to be based on merit not political patronage . Schurz ' s leadership of the Indian Affairs Office was not uncontroversial . While certainly not an architect of the campaign to push Native Americans off their lands and into tribal reservations , he continued the practice of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of resettling tribes on reservations . In response to several nineteenth - century reformers , however , he later changed his mind and promoted an assimilationist policy . New York City . Upon leaving the Interior Department in 1881 , Schurz moved to New York City . That year Henry Villard acquired the " New York Evening Post " and " The Nation " and turned the management over to Schurz , Horace White and Edwin L . Godkin . Schurz left the " Post " in the autumn of 1883 because of differences over editorial policies regarding corporations and their employees . In 1884 , he was a leader in the Independent ( or Mugwump ) movement against the nomination of James Blaine for president and for the election of Grover Cleveland . From 1888 to 1892 , he was general American representative of the Hamburg American Steamship Company . In 1892 , he succeeded George William Curtis as president of the National Civil Service Reform League and held this office until 1901 . He also succeeded Curtis as editorial writer for " Harper ' s Weekly " in 1892 and held this position until 1898 . In 1895 he spoke for the Fusion anti - Tammany Hall ticket in New York City . He opposed William Jennings Bryan for president in 1896 , speaking for sound money and not under the auspices of the Republican party ; he supported Bryan four years later because of anti - imperialism beliefs , which also led to his membership in the American Anti - Imperialist League . True to his anti - imperialist convictions , Schurz exhorted McKinley to resist the urge to annex land following the Spanish - American War . In the 1904 election he supported Alton B . Parker , the Democratic candidate . Carl Schurz lived in a summer cottage in Northwest Bay on Lake George , New York which was built by his good friend Abraham Jacobi . Death . Schurz died at age 77 on May 14 , 1906 in New York City and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery , Sleepy Hollow , New York . Publications . Schurz published a number of writings , including a volume of speeches ( 1865 ) , a two - volume biography of Henry Clay ( 1887 ) , essays on Abraham Lincoln ( 1899 ) and Charles Sumner ( posthumous , 1951 ) , and his " Reminiscences " ( posthumous , 1907 – 09 ) . His later years were spent writing the memoirs recorded in his " Reminiscences " which he was not able to finish — he only reached the beginnings of his U . S . Senate career . In memoriam . Schurz is commemorated in numerous places around the United States : Several memorials in Germany also commemorate the life and work of Schurz : The United States Army base in Bremerhaven , Germany was also named for Schurz - Karl Schurz Kaserne . The base served as a logistical hub for U . S . forces in Germany . The base was returned to the German government in 1996 , following the end of the Cold War . Schurz was portrayed by Edward G . Robinson in John Ford ' s film " Cheyenne Autumn " ( 1963 ) , which shows in part his efforts to secure fair treatment for Native Americans . Highlights of Schurz ' s career are dramatized in the third part ( “ Little Germanies ” ) of Engstfeld Film ' s four - part series " Germans in America " ( 2006 ) . External links . Retrieved on 2008 - 08 - 12