Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/466

 452 IIARDEXBERG HARDERWYK 1870 were 32,930 bushels of wheat, 586,508 of Indian corn, 19,799 of oats, 15,138 of Irish and 32,143 of sweet potatoes, 83,872 Ibs. of butter, and 7,884 bales of cotton. There were 2,684 horses, 2,202 mules and asses, 3,146 milch cows, 7,298 other cattle, 7,139 sheep, and 34,- 936 swine. Capital, Bolivar. HARDENBERG, Friedrieh YOU, baron, better known under his nom de plume of NOVALIS, a German author, born at his family estate of Wiederstedt, Saxony, May 2, 1772, died there, March 25, 1801. He was educated at the gym- nasium of Eisleben, and at the universities of Jena, Leipsic, and Wittenberg. He studied philosophy and jurisprudence, and prepared himself for the practice of the law, but ac- cepted an appointment as auditor in the salt works of Weissenfels, of which his father was director. His delicate and sensitive mind re- ceived a fatal shock from the death in 1797 of a young lady, Sophie von Kuhn, with whom he was in love. The moral beauty of his life, the spiritual penetration and suggestiveness of some of his writings, and his enthusiastic love for the chivalric periods of Christianity and history, made him the idol of his friends; and although his works are but few and fragmen- tary, he holds a position in German literature as one of the chief representatives of the ro- mantic school. A full collection of his writings was prepared by Friedrich von Schlegel and Tieck, with a biography by Tieck, and pub- lished in Berlin in 1802 (5th ed., 1838). An English translation of his Heinrich von Ofter- dingen appeared in Cambridge, Mass., in 1842. HARDENBERG, Karl August yon, prince, a Ger- man statesman, born at Essenroda, Hanover, May 31, 1750, died in Genoa, Nov. 26, 1822. He received a brilliant education, travelled ex- tensively abroad, and on his return to Hanover in 1778 entered the civil service. Shortly af- terward he was sent on a diplomatic mission to London. The discovery of an intrigue between his wife and an English prince caused him to leave Hanover after having separated from her, and to enter the service of the duke of Brunswick. In 1786 he was deputed to de- liver the will of Frederick the Great, which had been deposited with the duke, to his succes- sor, Frederick William II. At that sovereign's recommendation he became in 1790 minister of the margrave of Anspach and Baireuth, at the time when the French actress Clairon, who had ruled the margrave and his people for 17 years, was supplanted in his affections by Lady Craven, who, however, could only be won by marriage. In 1791 Hardenberg effected the arrangement by which the territory of the margrave was ceded to Prussia, in considera- tion of a large annuity, which enabled that prince to reside with Lady Craven in affluence in England, and Hardenberg was made minister of state and governor of the ceded provinces. After the breaking out of the war with France in 1792, the king appointed him administrator of the army, and in 1795, as an ambassador for Prussia, he signed the treaty of peace at Basel. In 1797, on the accession of Frederick William III., he was intrusted with the direction of the affairs of Franconia. In 1804, after Berna- dotte's invasion of Han over, Hardenberg became prime minister for a short time. His bold re- buke of Napoleon's invasion of the German territory irritated the emperor ; and when the victory of Austerlitz and the treaty of Pres- burg, in December, 1805, had strengthened Napoleon's position, and humbled the power of Prussia, the king, through fear of war, sacrificed his minister, and Haugwitz was ap- pointed in his stead. For a time Hardenberg continued in the ministry of foreign affairs, but Napoleon declared, July 4, 1807, that he would not conclude the peace of Tilsit unless Harden- berg was dismissed, and the latter withdrew accordingly, and passed some time in exile in Russia. Returning to Berlin in 1810, he be- came chancellor of state, and carried out with zeal the policy of reforms shortly before in- augurated by Stein. Permission was granted to citizens and agricultural laborers to acquire and possess real estate, and to the nobles to engage in industrial and commercial pursuits without prejudice to their dignity. The bur- dens which hitherto lay exclusively upon the humbler classes were removed, the estates of the clergy were appropriated for the liquida- tion of the public debts, new resources were developed for the replenishment of the ex- hausted treasury, the army was reorganized, a new and improved system of national educa- tion was introduced, and harmony was re- stored between king, nobles, and people by an equal distribution of taxes and privileges. Finally, serfdom was abolished. Hardenberg aided powerfully in rousing the enthusiasm of the Germans in 1813 against Napoleon, signed the treaty of peace in 1814 as the repre- sentative of Prussia, and in reward for his services was raised to the rank of prince (June 3), and presented with the rich do- main of Neuhardenberg. He accompanied the allied sovereigns to London, attended the con- gress of Vienna, and took part in the treaties of Paris in 1815. In 1817 he organized the council of state, of which he became president, and was present on behalf of Prussia at the congresses of Troppau, Laybach, and Verona (1820-'22). In the latter part of his adminis- tration he reformed the system of taxation, and regulated the national archives. He left memoirs of his times from 1801 to the peace of Tilsit, which were deposited in the national archives, not to be opened until 50 years after his death. The Memoires (Tun homme d'etat (Paris, 1828 ; German, Leipsic, 1828), contain- ing some of his despatches, has been erroneous- ly ascribed to him ; Alphonse de Beauchamp is supposed to be the author. His biography was published by Klose in Halle in 1851. HARDERWYK, or Hardenvijk, a town of the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland, on the E. shore of the Zuyder Zee, 80 m. E.