Carl Schurz.
The riper years of Carl Schurz are so generally identified with the peaceful and progressive things that are the fruits of the rostrum of the orator and the sanctum of the editor that it seems hard to associate him with the stormy and romantic incidents that crowded his youth. Born in Liblar, Rhenish Prussia, on March 2, 1829, he was educated at the Cologne gymnasium, and at the age of seventeen entered the University of Bonn. When, in 1848, the revolutionary spirit became actively in evidence, he, together with Gottfried Kinkel, a professor of the university, started a liberal newspaper. As the consequence, the young men were forced to flee from Bonn. Later, Schurz received a commission as adjutant in the revolutionary army, and upon the fall of Badstadt was compelled to fly to Switzerland. His friend Kinkel was captured and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. Schurz, however, did not desert his friend, but returning to Germany, by the exercise of marvelous courage and ingenuity, liberated Kinkel, and went with him to Scotland. Subsequently, and in Paris, Mr. Schurz entered the journalistic profession. In 1855 he, accompanied by his young wife, whom he had married while under the ban of the German authorities, came to America and settled in Philadelphia. Afterward he went to Madison, Wisconsin, where he became identified with local political affairs. He soon became a prominent figure in state politics. In the interval he had been admitted to the bar and now opened an office in Milwaukee. In 1860 he was a member of the national republican convention, and when Lincoln became president he was made minister to Spain. During the Civil war he served with distinction under General Franz Sigel, who had been his old commander in Germany. In 1866 he was made Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune. Later he established the Detroit Post. He disposed of his interest in it, and in 1867 removed to St. Louis, where he became editor of the Westliche Post. In January, 1869, Mr. Schurz was made United States senator for Missouri. He has taken an active and even strenuous part in presidential campaigns for many years. In 1884, 1888 and 1892 he supported Mr. Cleveland. When he visited Europe, in 1888, he was cordially received by Prince Bismarck and other German leaders. He is an author, having published several books, including a life of Henry Clay and an essay on Abraham Lincoln. His screeds are often seen in periodical literature.