Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/711

 SCHURZ 687 muscles of his hand, and to shortening the months of practice necessary to acquire tech- nical facility, he experimented upon his fingers with a machine of his own invention, which finally deprived the sinews of the third finger of his right hand of their natural elasticity, and made it impossible that he should ever become a pianist. In April, 1834, in connec- tion with several friends, he founded the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, which he long conduct- ed in a broad, generous, and noble spirit. The years from 1837 to 1840 were rendered un- happy by the resistance of Friedrich Wieck to the marriage of Schumann with his daughter Clara, an eminent pianist. Schumann finally appealed to the law to compel the father's consent, and obtained a favorable decision from the royal court of appeals ; and the mar- riage took place in September, 1840. Up to this period nearly all his compositions had been for the piano. During this year he de- voted himself to compositions for the voice, producing 138 songs, some for one and some for more voices ; very many of these have be- come classic. In this year also he was made doctor of philosophy by the university of Jena. Between 1840 and 1854 he produced those great works upon which his fame chief- ly rests: his symphonies, his quintet opus 44 and quartet opus 47, " Paradise and the Peri," " The Pilgrimage of the Eose," and many other works of large scope. In 1850 he succeeded Ferdinand Hiller as director of music at Dtis- seldorf ; but he lacked many of the essential qualities of a good conductor, and in 1853 his engagement terminated. Even before this time the mental malady that darkened his closing years had begun to develop itself. In Febru- ary, 1854, he threw himself into the Rhine. He was rescued and removed to a private asy- lum at Endenich, but never recovered his rea- son. His works embrace almost every vari- ety of composition for voice and instruments. A second edition of his Gesammelte Schriften uber Mmik und Musiker appeared in Leipsic in 1875 (2 vols.). SCHIIRZ, Carl, an American statesman, born at Liblar, near Cologne, Prussia, March 2, 1829. He was educated at the gymnasium of Cologne and the university of Bonn, which he entered in 1846. At the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he joined Gottfried Kinkel, professor of rhetoric in the university, in the publication of a liberal newspaper, of which for a time he was the sole conductor. In the spring of 1849, in consequence of an unsuc- cessful attempt to promote an insurrection at Bonn, he fled with Kinkel to the Palatinate, entered the revolutionary army as adjutant, and took part in the defence of Rastadt. On the surrender of that fortress he escaped to Switzerland. In 1850 he returned secretly to Germany, and with admirable skill and self- devotion effected the escape of Kinkel from the fortress of Spandau, where he had been condemned to 20 years' imprisonment. In 728 VOL. xiv. 44 the spring of 1851 he was in Paris, acting as correspondent for German journals, and he afterward spent a year in teaching in London. He came to the United States in 1852, resided three years in Philadelphia, and then settled in Madison, Wis. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he delivered speeches in German in be- half of the republican party, and in the follow- ing year was defeated as a candidate for lieu- tenant governor of "Wisconsin. During the contest between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln for the office of United States senator from Illinois, in 1858, he delivered his first speech in the English language, which was widely republished. Soon after he removed to Mil- waukee and began the practice of law. In the winter of 1859-'60 he made a lecture tour in New England, and aroused attention by a speech delivered in Springfield, Mass., against the ideas and policy of Mr. Douglas. He was an influential member of the republican na- tional convention of 1860, being largely instru- mental in determining that portion of the plat- form relating to citizens of foreign origin, and spoke both in English and German during the canvass which followed. President Lincoln appointed him minister to Spain, which post he resigned in December, 1861, in order to enter the army. In April, 1862, he was com- missioned brigadier general of volunteers, and on June 17 assumed command of a division in the corps of Gen. Sigel, with which he took part in the second battle of Bull Run. He was made major general, March 14, 1863, and at the battle of Chancellorsville commanded a division of Gen. Howard's corps (the llth), which was routed by Jackson. He had tem- porary command of the llth corps at the bat- tle of Gettysburg, and subsequently took part in the battle of Chattanooga. On the close of the war he returned to the practice of law. In 1865-'6 he was the Washington correspon- dent of the New York "Tribune," and in 1866 he made a report, as special commissioner ap- pointed by President Johnson, on the condi- tion of the southern states, which was submit- ted to congress. In the same year he removed to Detroit, where he founded, the "Detroit Post;" and in 1867 he became editor of the Westliche Post, a German newspaper published in St. Louis. He was temporary chairman of the republican national convention in Chicago in 1868, and labored earnestly in the succeed- ing canvass for the election of Gen. Grant. In January, 1869, he was chosen United States senator from Missouri, for the term ending in 1875. He opposed some of the leading mea- sures of President Grant's administration, and in 1872 took a prominent part in the organiza- tion of the liberal party, presiding over the convention in Cincinnati which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency. He visited Europe in 1873, and again in 1875, being re- ceived with much consideration in his native country. On his return he took part in the political canvass in Ohio, in which he opposed