Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/993

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SCHOELCHER— SCHOPIELD.

acting in " La Belle Hel^ne/' She achieved a success even more signal in " La Grande Duchesse de Gerol- stein" during the Universal Ex- position of 1867, and appeared in the same part at London in July, 1868. In the following year she returned to the Bouffes-Parisiens.

SCHOELCHER. Victor, writer and politician, son of a porcelain manufacturer, born at Paris, July 21, 1804, on Quitting the College Louis-le-Orand, where he had re- ceived his education, joined the Liberal party opposed to the Re- storation, and wrote for the press. As an ardent Republican, he was opposed to the monarchy of July, 1830, and placed his fortune and his pen at the service of various democratic journals. He advocated the abolition of neg^ slavery ; went, in 1829, to Mexico, Cuba, and the United States, and, shocked by the aspect of forced servitude, called loudly for immediate emancipation. After having visited the French, English, Danish, and Spanish colo- nies in the West Indies, he proceeded to Greece, Egypt, and Turkey, and in 1847 set out for the west coast of Africa, ascended the Senegal to within thirty leagues of the Cata- racts, visited the French establish- ment on the Gambia, and returned to France to draw up his observations on the negroes of Africa. After the revolution of Feb. 1848, he entered the Ministry of Marine, aa Under-Secretary ; issued, March 4, a decree proclaiming the principle of emancipation ; and instituted a commission to prepare the law for the immediate enfranchisement of the negroes in the French colonies. To M. Schoelcher is due the decree for abolishing flogging in the French navy. He was elected to the Con- stituent Assembly for Guadaloupe and Martinique, as the liberator of the slave, and returned for the former to the Legislative Assembly. He continued to defend emancipa- tion in the tribune and in the press, and had to sustain a hard struggle

with the slave-owners. His pro- position for the abolition of the punishment of death came on for discussion just as the coup d'^oi suppressed the Assembly. Ex- pelled from France, he took refuge in England. He refused to take advantage of the amnesty pro- claimed by the Empire, and did not return to France until after the commencement of the war with Germany, and the earlier defeats sustained by the French troops in Aug. 1870. After the 4th of Sep- tember, he was nominated Colonel of the Staff of the National Guards, and a member of the Commission of Barricades, being intrusted with the duty of organising the Legion of Artillery, which he commanded throughout the siege of Paris. In Feb. 1871, he was returned as repre- sentative of the department of ^e Seine, to the National Assembly, and was also chosen for Martinique and Gulano. He elected to sit for Martinique. M. Schoelcher voted with the Extreme Left. He was elected a Senator for Life Bee. 16, 1875. In Ofct. 1882, he accepted the office of political director of a new colonial journal, the Moniteur des Colonies. He has published a number of valuable works on the subject of slavery ; also ** The Life of Handel," Lond., 1867 ; and "The Sunday Rest," Lond., 1870.

SCHOFIELD, Gbn. John McAl- lister, born in Chataoqua county. New York, Sept. 29, 1881. He gra- duated at the Military Academy at West Point, in 1858; remained there for five years as Instructor in Natural Philosophy ; and from 1858 to 1861 was Professor of Natural Phi- losophy at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War he was ap- pointed Brigfadier-G«neral of volun- teers, and served with credit in Missoiuri and Eiansas. In 1864 he joined the army of Ben. Sharman, and bore a prominent part in all its operations to the close of the war. In 1864 he was made Brigadiei^