Carl Schurz

Carl Schurz carried the ideals of the failed German revolutions of 1848 into an unusually varied American public career. He served as a Union general, United States senator, secretary of the interior, journalist, and president of the National Civil Service Reform League. Civil-Service Reform and Democracy reflects his long campaign to replace patronage with public employment based on competence and integrity. A 1900 Cooper Union address was published as For American principles and American honor; in it, Schurz opposed overseas imperial policy after the Spanish-American War. The Library of Congress preserves his papers, including speeches, articles, and political correspondence on both causes. His writing is inseparable from his role as a reformer who repeatedly placed stated principles above party loyalty.