On October 29, 1855, recent German immigrant Carl Schurz wrote his wife, Margarethe Meyer Schurz, expressing hope for their future happiness. A political refugee from the tumultuous revolutions of 1848 External, Schurz soon gravitated toward political life in the United States. Exactly five years later, Schurz corresponded with his wife from Lincoln’s presidential campaign trail.
The sun has risen bright and clear, and the view spread out before
me presents so cheerful and sweet a picture that I am distinctly
encouraged to hope we shall be very happy here.
Hon. Carl Schurz of Missouri. [between 1860 and 1875]. Brady-Handy Collection. Prints & Photographs DivisionAlthough Schurz initially supported William H. Seward for the Republican nomination, he welcomed the prospect of a Lincoln presidency and assured the nominee that
. . . I shall carry into this struggle all the zeal and ardor and
enthusiasm of which my nature is capable. The same disinterested motives
that led me and my friends to support Gov. Seward in the Convention, will animate and urge us on in our work for you, and wherever my voice is heard and my influence extends you may count upon hosts of true and devoted friends.
Schurz’s efforts on behalf of Lincoln and his commitment to the nascent Republican Party resulted in his appointment as envoy to Spain. A year later, Schurz returned to America to serve as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war’s conclusion and Lincoln’s assassination, Schurz toured the South on behalf of President Andrew Johnson.
In his report to Johnson, the former abolitionist urged extension of
the franchise to freedmen as a condition for the South’s readmission to
the Union. Johnson ignored his recommendations. After a stint as a journalist, Schurz served as a U.S. senator from
Missouri from 1869 to 1875. Over the course of his term, dissatisfaction
with the corruption of the Grant administration and disappointment
with its Reconstruction policies
led Schurz to take an active role in the short-lived reformist Liberal
Republican Party. By 1876, however, he was back in the traditional
Republican fold advocating the election of Rutherford B. Hayes, who he
believed would restore integrity to government.
My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.
As secretary of the interior under Hayes, Schurz had lasting impact
on the American environment. For the first time, the Department of the
Interior addressed conservation issues. During Schurz’s tenure, the U.S. Geological Survey was officially established
as a bureau within the department. Schurz himself urged the creation
of forest reserves and a federal forest service. Although these
recommendations were not enacted until 1891 and 1905, respectively,
Schurz’s administration is considered a turning point in the history of
government participation in the American conservation movement. First Official Investigation of Indian Grievances, Visit of Secretary Schurz to the Spotted Tail Indian Agency External. In Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Oct 4, 1879. p.69. Denver Public Library Digital CollectionsExternalAfter leaving government in 1881, Schurz returned to journalism. As an editor for national publications including The Nation and Harper’s Weekly,
he continued to influence U.S. opinion and policy and was recognized as
perhaps the leading spokesman for German Americans. Never one to place
party loyalty before principle, he urged reformist Republicans to vote
for Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1884. Continuing his early advocacy of clean government, Schurz headed the
National Civil Service Reform League from 1892 to 1901. Though his
anti-imperialism placed him strongly at odds with President Theodore
Roosevelt, he lived to see the latter create the Forest Service
in 1905 and vigorously expand the conservation policies he himself had
advocated. Carl Schurz died the following year at age seventy-seven.
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