FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND POLITICAL 
 PHILOSOPHY 
 
FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 HIS LIFE AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 LEWIS R. HARLEY, PH.D. 
 
 THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, AGENTS 
 66 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
 1899 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1899, 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Novboootj -press 
 
 J. S. Gushing & Co. Berwick & Smith 
 Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 
 
TO MY FORMER TEACHER 
 
 JOHN BACH McMASTER, Lrrr.D. 
 
 233)10 Uolume 10 Enscrifati 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS volume is the result of studies in history and 
 politics in the University of Pennsylvania, where those 
 portions of the work relating to political philosophy 
 were read in the seminary conducted by Dr. Edmund 
 J. James. The author subsequently decided to prepare 
 a biography of Lieber, and thus present in a single 
 volume the story of his life and an exposition of his 
 political writings. The subject is an interesting one, 
 beginning with that exciting period of German history 
 when the gymnasia and the universities developed a 
 new type of manhood that insisted on national unity 
 and constitutional government. After tracing the 
 career of Lieber through many vicissitudes, it is a 
 labor of great profit to study his life and writings in 
 a new sphere of activity in the United States. No one 
 can examine his works without being impressed with 
 the personality of the man. He was fond of looking l 
 at the moral side of political life. No Right without 
 its Duties, no Duty without its Rights, was his favorite 
 motto, and this lofty sentiment pervades all his books. 
 His aptitude for historical studies enabled him to look 
 at the progress of the nations with a true perspective, 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 thus rendering his advice of great value. He had a 
 marked influence on the thinking of men who grew 
 up in the middle of this century, and at the present 
 day it would be well for the young citizen to read care 
 fully his great treatises on the state. 
 
 Menzel claims that Germany has derived no benefit 
 from the emigration of her sons ; but Lieber enriched 
 the fatherland, as well as America, with his great pro 
 ductions on civil liberty. His influence as an educator 
 led to a deeper respect in this country for German cul 
 ture, and thus Germany has been well repaid for her 
 contributions to our civilization. 
 
 In the preparation of this work the author has re 
 ceived valuable assistance from Hon. Andrew D. White, 
 Ithaca, N.Y., Hon. M. Russell Thayer, Philadelphia, 
 Judge-Advocate General G. Norman Lieber, Washing 
 ton, D.C., Professor Edmund J. James, University of 
 Chicago, Professor Albert H. Smyth, Central High 
 School, Philadelphia, and Professor J. H. Van Amringe, 
 Columbia University. 
 
 LEWIS R. HARLEY. 
 
 CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA, 
 April, 25, 1899. 
 
CONTENTS 
 i 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Early Life School Days The Waterloo Campaign Imprisonment 
 
 Flight to Greece i 
 
 II 
 
 Life in Rome Niebuhr Return to Prussia Departure for England 33 
 
 III 
 
 Lieber s Arrival in America Eight Years of Struggle Professorship 
 
 in South Carolina College 51 
 
 IV 
 
 His Southern Exile Longing for the North Visits Europe His 
 
 Resignation 70 
 
 The Call to Columbia College in the City of New York Life in the 
 
 North 82 
 
 VI 
 Lieber s Views on Education His Position as a Teacher . . .100 
 
 VII 
 
 Political Philosophy: Political Ethics Legal and Political Herme- 
 neutics Civil Liberty Penal Law The Pardoning Power 
 
 Our Constitution 117 
 
 ix 
 
x CONTENTS 
 
 VIII 
 
 PACK 
 
 Political Philosophy (Continued) : International Law Military Law . 141 
 
 IX 
 
 Lieber as an American Opinion of England, Germany, and France 
 
 His Attitude on Partisan Questions 155 
 
 X 
 
 Range of his Studies Methods of Work Extensive Correspondence 168 
 
 XI 
 
 Religious Views Personal Character 181 
 
 APPENDIX. . 195 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 199 
 
 INDEX ...... 209 
 
The whole earth is the monument of illustrious men. PERICLES. 
 Non scholae discimus, sed vitae. SENECA. 
 Patria cara, carior Libertas, Veritas carissima. LIBBER. 
 Aristotle forever, but truth even for longer than that. LIBBER. 
 No Right without its Duties, no Duty without its Rights. LIBBER. 
 
FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 i 
 
 EARLY LIFE SCHOOL DAYS THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 
 
 IMPRISONMENT FLIGHT TO GREECE 
 
 IN the closing chapter of his " History of Germany," 
 Wolfgang Menzel shows in an interesting manner 
 how famine, religious persecution, and despotism have 
 scattered the Germans far and wide over the face of 
 the globe. These emigrants turned in large numbers 
 to America, as a land of promise, and Menzel claims 
 that the peasants who made their permanent home in 
 the United States formed the flower of the German 
 colonists in the West. 1 But this tide of emigration 
 consisted not only of the German peasantry, who settled 
 along our western frontier, and exposed themselves to 
 the ravages of the Indians ; the patriot, the author, the 
 professor, and the student from the halls of the univer 
 sity, also found here an asylum of liberty. Thus, German 
 tyranny added to our population a group of young men 
 who became an intellectual power to the nation, and 
 
 1 " History of Germany," by Wolfgang Menzel, vol. 3, p. 449. 
 
2 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 who honored both their fatherland and America by the 
 fruits of scholarship and a zealous defence of free insti 
 tutions. Prominent among the number was Francis 
 Lieber, the subject of this biography. 
 
 JTo write a biography of Francis Lieber is to tell the 
 story of a life dedicated to the cause of liberty, by blood, 
 word, and pen. Born in the city of Berlin, March 18, 
 1800, his career belongs to a period of world-important 
 events. He received his patriotic consecration as a 
 mere boy, and in the period of the Napoleonic wars he 
 learned the vital importance of German unity. In 
 defence of this principle, he shed his blood at Waterloo ; 
 while as a student he labored with great enthusiasm to 
 promote the national feeling. When he realized at last 
 that there was no freedom at home, he decided to become 
 a political exile. In 1827, he came to the United States, 
 where, as a teacher and author, he expounded the princi 
 ples of constitutional liberty, and the rights and duties 
 of the citizen in a free state. 
 
 /Francis Lieber was the tenth child of Frederick Wil 
 liam Lieber, an iron dealer in Berlin, whose family con 
 sisted of nine sons and three daughters. The father at 
 one time possessed considerable wealth, but he lost much 
 of his property in the war with Poland. The grand 
 father had also experienced the fortunes of war, having 
 been wounded and carried away a prisoner when the 
 Russians pillaged Berlin in 1760. The Lieber family 
 resided in the Breite Strasse, the scene of the terrible 
 
SCHOOL DAYS 3 
 
 struggle between the king s troops and the people in 
 the revolution of 1848. From his earliest years, young 
 Lieber aspired to distinction, and exhibited the won 
 derful enthusiasm that distinguished him throughout 
 life. He was not especially ambitious during his first 
 years at school, owing to a dislike for Professor Hartung, 
 who showed his partiality and favoritism to the rich and 
 titled scholars. His instruction in theology was given 
 by Pastor Pauli, a man for whom he had the greatest 
 respect. In his conduct, Lieber was wild and inatten 
 tive, trying the patience of his teachers. He became 
 much unsettled by continually striving to win fame. 
 His first idea was to be a second General Schill, and to 
 this end he studied for a while in the Pepiniere, a school 
 for the training of surgeons. He also desired to be a 
 Linnaeus, and actually began work in the Botanic 
 Garden, near Berlin; but the cruel treatment that he 
 received from the director of the Garden soon led to 
 another change of occupation. Thus the boy was con 
 stantly aiming to imitate great men, a feeling which in 
 his manhood developed into an honorable ambition to 
 accomplish something for himself j 
 
 At the beginning of this century, the German states 
 had not only lost all national energy, but their conquest 
 was threatened by Napoleon. To a youth of Lieber s 
 ideal nature the preparations for war then being made 
 were a strong impulse to patriotism. Prussia was, 
 indeed, a military camp, and serious efforts were put 
 
4 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 forth to rescue the country from the follies and vices 
 of the preceding century. The revolutionary move 
 ments in France were followed by various forms of 
 immorality, which swept like a pestilence into Ger 
 many, being sheltered by the new doctrines of human 
 ism. The courts were infected, and the middle classes 
 were rendered weak at the very time when there 
 should have been a display of every manly virtue. 
 Menzel says : " Good and evil advanced hand in hand, 
 as enlightenment progressed. Men, confused by the 
 novelty of the ideas propounded, were at first unable 
 to discern their real value. The transition from 
 ancient to modern times had, however, become neces 
 sary, and was greatly facilitated by the tolerance of 
 the great sovereign of Prussia, who, notwithstanding 
 that, by his predilection for French philosophy and his 
 inclination toward rationalism, he at first gave a false 
 bias to the moral development of Germany, greatly 
 accelerated its progress. He gave his subjects full 
 liberty to believe, think, say, write, and publish what 
 ever they deemed proper, extended his protection to 
 those who sought shelter within his territories from 
 the persecution of the priests, and enforced universal 
 toleration." 1 One writer compares the German rulers 
 at the close of the eighteenth century to petty Neros, 
 Caligulas, and Louis the Fifteenths. French influence 
 prevailed on every hand. "Generally speaking," says 
 
 1 " History of Germany," by Wolfgang Menzel, vol. 3, p. 77. 
 
POLITICAL REVERSES IN GERMANY 5 
 
 Menzel, " Paris was the sun, during all the eighteenth 
 century, around which the petty courts and the 
 nobility of Germany revolved. They looked to that 
 sun for all life and light. To have gone at least once 
 to Paris was indispensable to any one who pretended 
 to be fashionable; but at home also everything was 
 French, even the language. They had French maids 
 for their children, French governesses and teachers, 
 French fencing and dancing masters. They wore only 
 French dresses, and they sent to Paris and Lyons 
 enormous sums extorted from the people to pay for 
 all kinds of articles of fashion. They had only 
 French cooks and French hair-dressers. No court 
 could get along without its Italian opera and its 
 French ballet, with pretty Italian or French girls, who 
 were generally the mistresses of the princes, of the 
 courtiers, and of the noblemen." 
 
 This social degradation was soon followed by polit 
 ical reverses. On July 12, 1806, sixteen princes of 
 western Germany concluded under Napoleon s direc 
 tion a treaty, by the terms of which they seceded 
 from the German empire, and formed the Rhenish 
 alliance, which, it was understood, should be subject 
 to the emperor of France. On August i, of the 
 same year, Napoleon publicly refused to recognize the 
 empire of Germany; while five days later, Francis II. 
 abdicated, and announced the dissolution of the em 
 pire. Before the close of the summer, Prussia made 
 
6 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 an open declaration of war against France. No ade 
 quate preparations had been made for the struggle, 
 and the Prussian army took the field without any 
 definite plan of action. The army itself was in a 
 miserable condition. Defeat for the Prussians was 
 inevitable from the beginning, and after his great 
 victory at Jena, Napoleon entered Berlin, October 17, 
 1806. No resistance whatever was offered, and the 
 arsenal with five hundred pieces of artillery, the mili 
 tary stores, the sword of Frederick the Great, and the 
 private correspondence of the king and queen fell into 
 the hands of the victors. Napoleon even took down 
 the chariot of triumph from the Brandenburg Gate, 
 and sent it and the sword of Frederick the Great as 
 trophies to Paris. The officials of the city displayed 
 the most cowardly submission, and issued a proclama 
 tion containing the motto, "Tranquillity is the first duty 
 of the citizen." The loud demonstrations in favor of 
 Napoleon astonished him, so that he exclaimed : " I know 
 not whether to rejoice or feel ashamed." But many of 
 the common people looked in sadness and despair upon 
 Napoleon s entrance into their city. I Lieber, at that time 
 a boy of six years, lay in the window watching the French 
 army pass the house, and he was so grieved at the dis 
 grace that he wept aloud. Shortly after this, Lieber had 
 the pleasure of meeting General Schill, and from this 
 brave hero he conceived the notion of being a great 
 soldier himself. Schill was a man to be admired, 
 
GENERAL SCHILL AND LIEBER 7 
 
 handsome, impetuous, and a favorite with the people. 
 Although wounded at Jena, he afterward formed in 
 Pomerania a guerrilla troop of young men. He ren 
 dered valuable service to the country by stopping the 
 French couriers and securing plunder from the enemy. 
 When the Prussian fortresses surrendered, one after 
 another, Schill distinguished himself in the defence 
 of Colberg. On the evacuation of Berlin by the 
 French in 1808, he led the Prussians into the city, 
 and was received with an enthusiastic welcome. The 
 people of Berlin were eager to have Schill s brave 
 soldiers take quarters and dine with them. Lieber s 
 father invited several home, and they talked of Col- 
 berg the whole day. The young man was determined 
 to see his favorite hero, and his experiences are re 
 lated in the Southern Literary Messenger, for June, 
 1836:- 
 
 " I had not seen Schill, the object of our wishes, 
 but, soon after his arrival at Berlin, I began to make 
 a heraldic collection, and it struck me that it would be 
 a fine beginning could I place at the head the seal of 
 Schill. So I went one day to his quarters, and told 
 the sergeant in waiting that I wished to see Schill. I 
 peremptorily refused to tell him my business, and after 
 some conversation was admitted. I found Colonel 
 Schill in the garden, shooting with the pistol at a 
 target. He asked me what I wanted. Your seal, sir/ 
 said I. And why my seal ? was the reply. * Because, 
 
8 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 said I, * I love you, and wish to begin my collection 
 with your coat-of-arms. Does your father love me, 
 too ? he asked. Yes, replied I ; all the Berlin people 
 do. He seemed much moved, turned toward the other 
 officers, while he treated me in the kindest manner, 
 and said something which I now forget, but the import 
 of which may be easily surmised. He then asked me 
 to take luncheon with them, and I remember that he 
 helped me to a glass of wine, saying, Boy, be ever true 
 to your country ; here, let s touch glasses on its welfare. 
 I remember nothing of his appearance, except the kind 
 expression of his large blue eyes. I was a great man 
 among my schoolfellows the next day, and refused to 
 exchange one of the seals, which Colonel Schill had 
 given me, for the arms of the emperor of Austria. 
 When the signet of the king of Saxony was added, I 
 parted with one of Schill s, but still I thought the 
 advantage of the bargain on the other side." 
 
 By the treaty of Tilsit in 1807, Prussia ceded half 
 her territory and half her population, while the amount 
 of money extorted by the French during the progress 
 of the war exceeded one hundred million dollars. Na 
 tional disaster was apparently complete, but even before 
 the close of the war serious attempts at reform were 
 made. Stein was placed at the head of the state, while 
 Scharnhorst was commissioned to effect the reorgani 
 zation of the army. One stipulation of the treaty of 
 Tilsit restricted the standing army of Prussia to forty 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN 9 
 
 thousand men, but General Scharnhorst evaded this 
 regulation by making successive levies, each being dis 
 missed as soon as thoroughly trained. The material 
 equipment of the army was greatly improved, and to 
 raise funds for this purpose, even the women rendered 
 valuable assistance. They contributed their jewels and 
 wedding rings, receiving iron rings in exchange, bearing 
 the imperial signet, " We gave gold for iron." The chil 
 dren also gave their aid to the cause by putting their 
 small but precious savings into the public treasury. 
 
 Serious preparations were now being made for a 
 general uprising against Napoleon. Every effort was 
 put forth to produce a moral and intellectual awaken 
 ing of the nation. Stein assisted in founding a secret 
 society, the Tugendbund, or League of Virtue. After 
 an existence of a little more than a year, the Tugendbund 
 was discovered by Napoleon s spies, and, in 1810, the 
 king of Prussia was compelled to order its dissolution. 
 Stein and Scharnhorst were deprived of their offices, 
 and favorites of Napoleon were placed in power. The 
 rising spirit of Prussia was also indicated in establish 
 ing the University of Berlin. One of the greatest losses 
 which befell the country by the peace of Tilsit was 
 that of the University of Halle. Humboldt, Wolf, and 
 Stein at once set at work to found the University of 
 Berlin, and the institution was opened on Michaelmas, 
 1810, with an attendance of 458 students. Although 
 there had been a great outpouring of genius in litera- 
 
10 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 ture, it appeared to be wholly indifferent to political 
 liberty. \ " While storm and thunder roared so appal 
 lingly in France," says Freytag, " and blew the foam of 
 the approaching tide every year more wildly over the 
 German land, the educated class hung with eye and 
 heart on a small principality in the middle of Germany, 
 where the great poets thought and sang, as if in the 
 profoundest peace, driving away dark presentiments 
 with verse and prose." l Seeley compares the litera 
 ture and culture of the time to some pernicious drug, 
 which caused men to forget their country and their 
 duties. Thus, the University became a necessity in 
 order to establish a centre of influence which should 
 be felt in every department of life in Germany. How 
 well this work was accomplished is shown by the 
 course of events between 1810 and 1815. 
 
 No individual did more to arouse the national spirit 
 among the German youth than Friedrich Ludwig 
 /Jahn, the author of the modern system of gymnastics. 
 He was a German patriot, born at Lanz, Prussia, in 
 1778. In 1809 he went to Berlin, where he became a 
 teacher at the Kolnisches gymnasium. From patriotic 
 motives, he established gymnasia, where young men 
 were fitted to endure the fatigues of war. His motto 
 was, " Frisch, frei, frohlich, und fromm " ; " strong, 
 free, joyful, and pious." No French was allowed to 
 be spoken ; national songs were sung ; and every effort 
 
 1 " Life and Times of Stein," by J. R. Seeley, vol. 2, p. 77. 
 
DR. JAHN AND LIEBER Ir 
 
 was put forth to make the gymnasia nurseries of patri 
 otism. Dr. Jahn called these schools the Turnschulen, 
 and the members wore a short black frock coat, a black 
 cap, linen trousers, a bare neck with turned-over shirt 
 collar. Besides gymnastics, he taught German man 
 ners, and discouraged local jealousies and provincial 
 isms. When marching with the young Turners out 
 of Berlin, Dr. Jahn would ask the new ones as they 
 passed beneath the Brandenburg Gate, " What are you 
 thinking of now ? " If the boy did not know what to 
 answer, Jahn would give him a box on the ear, say 
 ing as he did so, " You should think of this, how you 
 can bring back the four fine statues of horses that once 
 stood over this gate, and were carried by the French 
 to Paris." [Lieber was brought under the influence of 
 Dr. Jahn as early as 1811, and for a period of eight 
 years they were closely associated. They often jour 
 neyed together into the neighboring provinces for the 
 purpose of arousing an interest in gymnastic exer 
 cises. 
 
 Dr. Jahn not only taught the young men gymnas 
 tics, but he made constant appeals to their national 
 spirit. They met in great numbers in the Hasenhaide, 
 outside the southern gates of Berlin, attracted thither 
 by the charm of Dr. Jahn s eloquence. His influence 
 at this time is described in the following interesting 
 manner by one of his fellow-countrymen : 
 
 "Jahn inquired into the sources and reasons of the 
 
12 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 perverseness and unnatural life of the German youth. 
 He found in the history of the nation the springs of 
 whatever was most noble and beautiful that a nation 
 could boast of, but he also found that these buds of 
 promise had not been unfolded or cherished in public 
 life ; its system of laws had been supplanted by a for 
 eign one ; its freedom had been undermined and 
 shaken ; even its language, morals, and customs had 
 received a foreign varnish. 
 
 " His attention was soon turned toward the means 
 of removing the evils under which his countrymen lan 
 guished, and he believed they were only to be found 
 in the education of the youth. \ Much had been done 
 for education within the last fifty years. Pestalozzi s 
 efforts and ideas necessarily interested him above all 
 others ; but they could not satisfy him. Jahn s soul 
 took up these ideas from a higher point; the whole 
 youth, the whole people, must at once be taken hold 
 of, and brought to those views. 
 
 " Out of this idea arose his Teutsches Volksthum 
 ( German Nationality ), a work written in language 
 which, in richness, power, and depth, can be compared 
 to no other. In this Jahn drew, with a firm and mas 
 terly hand, all the features of the purest, noblest human 
 ity, as it had manifested itself in the strong and tender 
 character of the German people at all times^and pointed 
 out the means for the preservation and further progress 
 of their character. Through the whole work there 
 
THE GYMNASIA ! 3 
 
 breathes a holy love for the people and his fatherland, 
 for virtue and honor, for truth and justice. 
 
 " Jahn troubled himself but little whether the people 
 understood this powerful call. Almost at the same 
 time with the appearance of his * Volksthum, he en 
 tered actively himself into the education of the youth. 
 Altogether independent and undisturbed, he com 
 menced his work in sport; he began to practise gym 
 nastics with a few boys in Berlin in 1808. The times, 
 which were agitated by great events, conspired with his 
 efforts ; men, at whose heart lay the good of their coun 
 try, helped him in every way. The German people 
 was to be waked from its slumber; it had to learn to 
 feel its own power, that it might again be free." 
 
 The gymnasium became also a popular subject for 
 poetical inspiration. The following lines on " The 
 Gymnast s Creed," 1 written by the German patriot, 
 Charles Pollen, are filled with beautiful sentiment: 
 
 Sound thunders of jubilee, storm of song ! 
 
 Inspiration has kindled her lightnings ; 
 
 The oak tree of manhood, the true German tower, 
 
 In Germany once more is planted : 
 
 Liberty s cradle, thy coffin, Oppression ! 
 
 Is carved from the wood of the Gymnast s tree. 
 
 A Gymnast is he who, with weapons and armor, 
 Storms over the plains and through gulfs, 
 On his prancing steed rushes into the waves, 
 
 1 " Life of Charles Pollen," by E. L. Follen, p. 47- 
 
14 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 Swings into the air, leaps into the caves, 
 
 Who knows no liberty without equality, 
 
 In whose heart only God and his country glow ! 
 
 Arise, thou Gymnast ! thou German, come on ! 
 Up, ye noble, ye warlike young men ! 
 With crowned error truth yet is contending, 
 Still the devil is fighting with virtue. 
 
 Sword-blades, quit your rust ! from your skins rush, new wine ! 
 From vapors, north wind ! Green May, from the frost ! 
 
 The far-reaching influence of the University and the 
 gymnasia became a potent force in the popular upris 
 ing against Napoleon after his defeat in the Russian 
 campaign. On February 3, 1813, a call to arms was 
 made, and in Berlin nine thousand men were enlisted 
 in three days. The schools closed their doors, the 
 students having deserted their books, in order to 
 flock to their country s standards. "Clothing, food, 
 and arms were still wanting," writes Charlton T. 
 Lewis, " but the people rivalled one another in their 
 gifts. Those who had no money brought what goods 
 they had. Brides gave their wedding rings, and young 
 girls their hair. Women sent their husbands, sons, 
 and lovers, and it was a disgrace to remain behind." 
 People of all classes now resolved to deliver Germany 
 from the hands of its oppressors, and this determina 
 tion is forcibly expressed by Carl Theodore Korner, 
 in a letter to his father : " Germany rises ; the Prus 
 sian eagle, by the beating of her mighty wings, awakes, 
 in all true hearts, the great hope of German freedom. 
 
THE REVIVAL OF POETRY ! 5 
 
 My poetic art sighs for my country let me not 
 prove myself her unworthy son. Now that I know 
 what happiness can ripen for me in this life now 
 that the star of fortune sheds on me its most cheering 
 influence now this is, by Heaven! a sacred feeling 
 which animates me this mighty conviction that no 
 sacrifice can be too great for that greatest mortal 
 blessing, our country s freedom." 1 
 
 The revival of poetry also did much to kindle a 
 new zeal in the hearts of the people. A group of 
 young poets sang of liberty and fatherland. Among 
 this number were Korner, Arndt, Ruckert, and 
 Schenkendorf, all of whom, by their patriotism and 
 melodious verses, inspired thousands of the German 
 youths to take up arms against the common foe. Sen 
 timents dear to the loyal heart in every land are ex 
 pressed in the following poem by Korner, "The Last 
 Hope": 
 
 Why knit ye the brow, so stern and so dark, 
 Why stare at the night, so wild and so stark, 
 
 Brave spirits, who never should tremble ? 
 The storm is howling, and heaving the tide, 
 The earth is reeling on every side ; 
 
 Our trouble we will not dissemble. 
 
 The fires of hell are rising again. 
 Much generous blood has been lavished in vain, 
 Still the wicked, the powerful, glory. 
 
 1 " The Life of Carl Theodore Korner," written by his father, and trans 
 lated from the German by G. F. Richardson, p. 25. 
 
1 6 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 But never despair ; your help is in God ; 
 Not in vain the beginning is crimsoned with blood ; 
 Tis the day-star that rises so gory. 
 
 If once there was need of courage and might, 
 Now gather all courage and strength for the fight, 
 
 Lest the ship in the haven yet perish. 
 The tiger is crouching ; ye young men, awake ! 
 Ye old men, to arms ! my countrymen, break 
 
 From the slumbers of death, which you cherish. 
 
 What avails it to live, if liberty fall? 
 What is there so dear in this Infinite All, 
 
 As our own mother country, that bore us? 
 We ll free our dear country, or hasten our way 
 To the free, happy fathers, yes, happy are they 
 
 Who have died in the struggle before us. 
 
 Then howl on, ye storms, and roll on, thou tide, 
 And tremble old earth, on every side ! 
 
 Our free spirits bid you defiance. 
 The earth that we tread on beneath us may sink; 
 As freemen we ll stand, and never will shrink; 
 
 With our blood we will seal our alliance. 
 
 Lieber s elder brothers, Edward and Adolf, were 
 among the first to answer the call to arms in 1813. 
 The departure of the young men caused great excite 
 ment in the family, and the parents, although weeping, 
 felt proud that their sons were to bear arms in the 
 
 v r*"" 
 
 defence of their country. "When my brothers were 
 gone," wrote Lieber to G. S. Hillard, " I rushed to my 
 room, knelt down before a small press in which I had 
 my herbarium (I was then an ardent botanist), and took 
 
THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 1 7 
 
 a most solemn oath, with a voice as loud as my sobbing 
 allowed of, that I would study French, enter the French 
 army, come near to Napoleon s person, and rid the 
 earth of that son of crime and sin. I tell you I did 
 it fervently, devoutly, unreservedly. I was then thir 
 teen years old; I remember very distinctly that the 
 idea of sacrificing two armies, while the sacrifice of one 
 life might stop all misery, seemed to me preposterous." j 
 The campaign closed with the banishment of Napoleon 
 to Elba, and the brothers returned home severely 
 wounded. Lieber, who listened with envy to their 
 account of the campaign, was soon called into the 
 service of his country. In his " Letters to a Gentleman 
 in Germany," he relates how, after Napoleon escaped 
 from Elba, his father one day hurried into the room, 
 where he was studying Loder s "Anatomical Tables," 
 exclaiming : " Boys, clean your rifles ; he is loose again, 
 Napoleon! He has returned from Elba." 2 This 
 was inspiring news to Lieber, and after obtaining the 
 consent of his parents, he at once made preparations to 
 enlist. His mother, a noble German woman, declared 
 that if she had been the mother of twenty sons, she 
 
 1 Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 298. 
 
 2 " Letters to a Gentleman in Germany," by Francis Lieber. Philadelphia : 
 Carey, Lea, and Blanchford, 1834, pp. 99-126. This volume contains Lieber s 
 " Reminiscences of the Battle of Waterloo," written at Weehawken, overlook 
 ing New York city, as he recalled the fact that he had arrived in that city 
 seven years before " on the same day, and had put his foot on land in the 
 same hour that, in 1815, a ball had prostrated him." 
 
1 8 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 would have sent them all. One of the brothers who 
 was wounded in the campaign of 1813, returned to his 
 regiment, while Lieber and another brother joined the 
 Colberg regiment/ so named in honor of the brave 
 defence of the fortress of Colberg in 1806. The regi 
 ment had been in more than twenty engagements 
 during the campaign of 1813. The boys selected it 
 - because it was stationed nearest to the frontier, and, 
 therefore, surest to get into the fight. Early in the 
 month of May, they marched from Berlin to join their 
 regiment. On the 25th of the same month, they passed 
 in review before Prince Blucher, and Lieber longed 
 to be tried in battle. Girls followed their lovers to 
 the army, and in his regiment there were several who 
 served with distinction in the ranks. Lieber first saw 
 fire in the battle of Ligny, in which both he and his 
 brother were wounded. 
 
 Although worn out by marching through torrents 
 of rain and over deep roads, the young men found it 
 a constant inspiration to be under the command of 
 Prince Blucher. He cheered the troops with the 
 words : " My children, we must advance ; I have prom 
 ised it ; do not cause me to break my word." Blucher 
 was the last general to yield in the battle of Jena. 
 " At Pomerania," says Charlton T. Lewis, " he was 
 seized with that passion of pain at the shame of Prus 
 sia, which at times took away his reason, so that he 
 would dash at the flies on the wall with his drawn 
 
THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN ! 9 
 
 sword crying, Napoleon !" 1 He had a great admira 
 tion for the Colberg regiment, and as he rode by, he 
 would exclaim: "Ah, my Colbergers, wait, wait a 
 moment; I ll give you presently something to do." 
 JLieber s next engagement was in the battle of NamurJ \s 
 at the beginning of which he dropped down exhausted 
 from the fatigue of the march. A fellow-soldier had 
 some eggs, and gave Lieber one, which strengthened 
 him so much that he could take his place in the line. 
 In a few minutes he received two wounds, one in 
 the neck and the other in the chest, which left him 
 a cripple for life, j In his " Letters to a Gentleman in 
 Germany," he relates an account of his sufferings, and 
 a dream that he had as follows : " I now fell into a 
 deep swoon. The ideas of approaching death, the 
 burning thirst and the fever created by my wounds, 
 together with the desire which had occupied our minds 
 so often during the last days of seeing once more good 
 quarters, produced a singular dream, which was as 
 lively and as like reality as it was strange. I dreamed 
 that I had died and arrived before the gates of 
 Heaven, where I presented my billet. Saint Peter 
 
 1 "A History of Germany," by Charlton T. Lewis, p. 592. 
 
 The histories trace BlUcher s descent from a noble race, which at a very 
 early period enjoyed high repute in Mecklenburg and Pomerania. In 1271, 
 Ulric von Bliicher was bishop of Ratzeburg. A legend relates that, during a 
 time of dearth, an empty barn was, on his petitioning heaven, instantly filled 
 with corn. In 1356, Wipertus von Bliicher also became bishop of Ratze 
 burg, and on the pope s refusal to confirm him in his diocese on account of 
 his youth, his hair turned gray in one night. 
 
20 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 looked at me, and I was admitted into a wide saloon 
 where an immense table was spread out, covered with 
 the choicest fruits and with crystal vessels filled 
 with the most cooling beverages. I was transported 
 with joy, yet I asked, Do people here eat and drink ? * 
 Saint Peter answered, that those who wished to enjoy 
 those refreshments, as was probably my case, were at 
 liberty to do so; but that those who were unwilling 
 to partake of them felt no evil effects in consequence; 
 life was possible there without food. I went to one 
 of the crystal bowls, and drank in deep draughts the 
 refreshing liquid. I awoke, and found a soldier bend 
 ing over me and giving me out of his canteen what 
 I long believed to be wine, so deliciously and vivify- 
 ingly did it course through every vein ; but at a later 
 period I happened to meet the same soldier, and 
 learned that this reviving liquid was simply water." 
 Lieber was carried away to have his wounds dressed 
 in the hospital at Liege. 1 He was finally received in 
 a respectable Belgian family, the Lesoines, who took 
 the most touching care of him. Returning to the 
 regiment before he had fully recovered his strength, 
 he fell sick with a severe attack of typhus fever, and 
 was sent to the hospital at Aix-la-Chapelle. From 
 here he was transferred to the hospital at Cologne, 
 
 1 " Rufus Choate used to say that I was picked up for the exclusive pur 
 pose of being shipped to America, there to write my < Political Ethics. 1 " 
 LIEBER IN A LETTER TO GENERAL GARFIELD, December 10, 1870. 
 
THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN 2I 
 
 where, some time after peace had been declared, he 
 was fully restored to health. His arrival home was a 
 surprise to the family, who had given him up for dead. 
 His personal effects consisted only of a dog, that had 
 gone through the Waterloo campaign, where it lost the 
 end of its tail by a ball. But he had grown rich in 
 experience, and he became an enthusiastic advocate 
 of Jiberty and German unity. 
 
 jAt the close of the Napoleonic wars, the students 
 who had fought in the volunteer service returned to the 
 gymnasia and the universities, where they took up their 
 studies with a new zeal. They had received a fresh 
 consecration on the battlefield, and were prepared to 
 resist tyranny in every form. Lieber entered the Gray 
 Cloister gymnasium in Berlin, and came again under 
 the influence of Dr. Jahn. ; The Turners increased 
 very rapidly in numbers after the downfall of Napoleon, 
 and Dr. Jahn, their leader, began to arouse the sus 
 picions of the government by his zeal for freedom. 
 
 [The doctrines of the French Revolution gave a 
 strong impulse to free political thought in Germany. 
 A new constitution, derived from the freshness of 
 nature, was advocated. While this was, in some re 
 spects, a return to the contrat social, it implied, how 
 ever, a modification according to German forms, j Three 
 weeks before the battle of Waterloo a royal decree 
 was published in Berlin, which announced that a con 
 stitution should be formed, and that a national assembly 
 
22 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 should meet as the representative body of the people. 
 After the battle of Waterloo this promise was not only 
 forgotten, but a vigorous policy of reaction began. The 
 ancient empire was replaced on June 8, 1815, by a 
 German confederation of thirty-nine states, i The eleven 
 states of first rank alone held a full vote, the secondary 
 states merely holding a half or a fourth part of a 
 vote ; as, for instance, all the Saxon duchies collectively 
 had one vote. In constitutional questions relating to 
 the confederation the six states of highest rank were 
 to have each four votes ; the next five states three votes ; 
 Brunswick, Schwerin, and Nassau each two votes, and 
 all the remaining states each one vote. Austria was 
 to hold the permanent presidency. -This constitutional 
 system meant that Germany had simply changed rulers. 
 While the despotism of Napoleon had lasted fourteen 
 years, that of Metternich was to be endured for thirty- 
 three years. " The despotism of Napoleon," writes 
 Colonel G. B. Malleson, " was the despotism of the 
 conqueror who had swept away the old system, and 
 who terrorized over its former supporters. The 
 despotism of Metternich, not less actual, used as its 
 willing instruments those very supporters upon whose 
 necks Napoleon had placed his heel. His system was 
 /the more dangerous to human freedom because it was 
 disguised." 1 To the German Confederation Metternich 
 added the Holy Alliance as a means of suppressing all 
 
 1 " Life of Prince Metternich," by Colonel G. B. Malleson, p. 2. 
 
THE POLICY OF METTERNICH 23 
 
 demands for popular government. The machinery of 
 oppression was now apparently complete, and the most 
 determined efforts were made to crush the spirit of 
 liberty V~] Gorres, in the Rhenish Mercury, made loud 
 complaints against the government for entirely ignoring 
 the liberal party. 1 In July, 1815, the Mercury was 
 placed under the care of a censor, and a year later 
 it was suppressed, while Gorres was threatened with 
 the house of correction. Shortly after the peace of 
 Paris in 1815, Privy-Councillor Schmalz endeavored 
 to create a prejudice against the patriotic movement 
 by sending to the king a memorial entitled : " What 
 have we to fear or to hope from Secret Political Associ 
 ations in Germany?" The author of this pamphlet 
 made a base effort to spread a reactionary sentiment. 
 He claimed that these societies were similar to the 
 Tugendbund, which was dissolved in 1810; and that 
 they threatened the tranquillity of the state, and even 
 its very existence, by the most alarming intrigues. 
 Schmalz evidently forgot that, at one time, the fore- 
 
 1 Joseph Johann Gbrres, a distinguished writer on religious, political, and 
 scientific subjects, was born at Coblentz, January 25, 1776. His sympathies 
 were, from the first, with the revolution. His first political tract was entitled 
 " Universal Peace, an Ideal." He then commenced a republican journal, Das 
 Rot he Blatt. In 1806 he removed to Heidelberg, where he lectured in the 
 University. After the battle of Leipsic he sought to arouse the people 
 through the Rhenish Mercury. After the suppression of this paper Gorres 
 became a political pamphleteer. His pamphlet, "Germany and the Revolu 
 tion," was suppressed. He was ordered arrested, but escaped to Switzerland. 
 He died July 29, 1848. 
 
24 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 most men of Prussia had belonged to the Tugendbund, 
 and that this body had been a power in the war against 
 Napoleon. 
 
 The desire among the students for German unity was 
 clearly shown by the organization of the Burschenschaft 
 (students league) in the universities in 1816. In ancient 
 times, Germany was considered an aggregate of four 
 lands, or leading provinces ; namely, Saxony, Bavaria, 
 Swabia, and Franconia. The students in the universi 
 ties were divided into associations called Landsmann- 
 schaften (countrymanships). These associations finally 
 degenerated; false notions of honor existed; duels 
 were frequent, and the few tyrannized over the many. 
 At the time of the wars of liberation, these sectional 
 unions were so corrupt, that the Burschenschaft, or 
 union of all the students, was formed. A court of 
 honor, known as the Ehrenspiegel, was established in 
 the Burschenschaft, empowered to settle all differences 
 according to the rules of morality and justice. A good 
 idea of the power of the Burschenschaft may be formed 
 from the account of the general celebration which took 
 place October 18, at the Wartburg. The object was to 
 celebrate at the same time the battle of Leipsic and the 
 Reformation. More than five hundred young men from 
 the different universities were present, and Professors 
 Fries, Kieser, and Oken, of Jena, also took an active part 
 in the exercises. The black, red, and yellow tricolor, 
 the ancient colors of the empire, was raised for the first 
 
THE WARTBURG CELEBRATION 25 
 
 time on this occasion. The glories of the past were 
 recalled, and plans for future action were discussed. 
 
 The exercises connected with the celebration were 
 brought to a close in the evening by consigning to the 
 flames a copy of Schmalz s famous pamphlet, the police 
 codex of Kamptz, and Kotzebue s German History. 
 The government was now thoroughly alarmed, and 
 preparations were made to take severe measures against 
 the press and the universities. An article written by 
 Alexander Stourdza, of Moldavia, on the situation in 
 Germany, was circulated at the Congress of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle in the autumn of 1818. This pamphlet caused 
 the greatest excitement, both from the fact that it was 
 written at the command of the Czar of Russia, and be 
 cause it made a direct attack on the press and the 
 universities. While Stourdza s article reviewed various 
 social evils of that day, he was particularly bitter in 
 his denunciation of the German universities. 1 The 
 young men at Jena arose in a spirit of indignation, 
 and two of them challenged Stourdza to fight a duel. 
 He fled from Weimar, acknowledging that he had 
 written the article at the command of Alexander of 
 Russia. 
 
 The Czar of Russia now determined to carry still 
 further his policy of interference in German affairs. 
 In 1817, he sent the Russian state-councillor, Augustus 
 von Kotzebue to Weimar, to act as a spy, and gather 
 
 1 " Life and Times of Stein," by J. R. Seeley, vol. 2, p. 442. 
 
26 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 information concerning the liberal party. Kotzebue, 
 although a native of Weimar and educated at Jena, 
 spent many years of his life in the service of Russia. 
 He was a dramatist of considerable ability, but his 
 moral principles were lax, and in his writings he 
 sought to encourage the license of the day. In 1813, 
 he returned to Weimar, but soon made his permanent 
 residence at Mannheim. He continued to receive a 
 large salary from Russia, and in return he acted the 
 despicable part of a spy upon his fatherland. In his 
 paper, the Literary Weekly, he turned to ridicule the 
 principles of the liberal party, " and exercised his 
 powers of wit upon the individual eccentricities of 
 the students affecting the old German costume of 
 precocious boys and doting professors." 1 He also 
 sent secret despatches to St. Petersburg, filled with 
 suspicions against the universities; but when he 
 openly approved Stourdza s memorial, the abhorrence 
 of his character aroused the German youth to a defi 
 nite plan of action. The Burschenschaft at Jena was 
 often called the " Uncompromising," because its mem 
 bers had sworn to carry out uncompromisingly the 
 principles of truth and justice. Karl Ludwig Sand, 
 of Wunsiedel, was a member of this body, and he 
 was pursuing his studies at Jena, when the feeling 
 against Kotzebue reached its height. Sand was a 
 young man of noble character, and he possessed great 
 
 1 History of Germany, 1 by Wolfgang Menzel, vol. 3, p. 374. 
 
THE MURDER OF KOTZEBUE 27 
 
 religious zeal. In brooding over the wrongs of his 
 country, he thought himself called upon by Provi 
 dence to put an end to Kotzebue s life. He recalled 
 how Frederic Staps, after Austria s downfall, had 
 made an attempt upon Napoleon. Sand himself, like 
 young Lieber, had once vowed to take Napoleon s life, 
 and he now regarded Kotzebue as a proper victim of 
 revenge. On March the 23d, 1819, he went to 
 Mannheim to carry out his resolution. He reached 
 Kotzebue s house late in the afternoon, and after an 
 exchange of greetings, thrust a dagger into his heart, 
 crying, "Take that, thou traitor to the fatherland!" 
 He then stabbed himself and rushed out of the 
 house, exclaiming, " Long live my German father 
 land!" Kneeling down in the street, he stabbed him 
 self a second time, uttering the prayer, " I thank thee, 
 God, for this victory ! " His wounds were tended with 
 the greatest care, and he so far recovered as to suffer 
 the penalty for murder. On May 20, 1820, he was 
 beheaded at Mannheim in the presence of many uni 
 versity students, who dipped their handkerchiefs in 
 
 his blood. 
 
 / 
 
 During these years of excitement, i Lieber also suf 
 fered for the cause of liberty. From his earliest years, 
 his father s house had been a favorite place for the 
 meetings of the patriots. There, as a mere boy, he 
 and his companions had formed a secret association, 
 in which every member had to cut his ringer and sign 
 
28 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 his name with his own blood. 1 The followers of Jahn 
 continued to meet at Lieber s house, and a number of 
 them published a book of songs entitled, " Lieder flir 
 Jung und Alt." This work aroused the suspicions of 
 the government, and after the murder of Kotzebue, 
 the arrests of teachers and students became frequent 
 occurrences. The Carlsbad decrees of October 18, 
 1819, placed a censorship over the press, appointed a 
 commission at Mayence for the investigation of polit 
 ical intrigues, abolished the Burschenschaft and the 
 gymnasia, and placed the universities under the in 
 spection of government deputies. Dr. Jahn was 
 arrested in July, 1819, on the charge that his schools 
 were liberal and political clubs. Taken from his 
 dying child, he was imprisoned successively in Span- 
 dau, Kustrin, and Colberg. He was liberated after 
 a confinement of five years ; he then went to Freiburg, 
 where he was a professor for many years. In 1848, 
 he was a member of the national assembly at Frank 
 fort. On August 2, 1872, a monument to him was 
 unveiled on the Hasenhaide, the old Turner grounds, 
 near Berlin. Lieber s arrest occurred a few days after 
 that of Dr. Jahn, and he was charged with being an 
 enemy of the state. His papers were all seized, and 
 several foolish political essays were found, but nothing 
 to convict him of criminal acts. After four months 
 imprisonment he was released, and the officials informed 
 
 1 "Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 3. 
 
IMPRISONMENT 2 9 
 
 him that, although he had not been found guilty of 
 any punishable acts, he could not be matriculated in 
 any Prussian university, and could never receive an 
 appointment under the government. He was also 
 prohibited from entering the other German univer 
 sities, with the exception of Jena, where he remained 
 for some time, receiving the degree of doctor of phi 
 losophy in 1820. He was immediately ordered away 
 from Jena by the Minister of Instruction, and the 
 next year was spent in the study of surveying at 
 Halle and Dresden. Referring to this period of his 
 life, he wrote in 1868; " I have this very moment read 
 in the German papers that Bismarck said in the 
 Chamber the very thing for which I was hunted down 
 in 1820 and 1821." 
 
 [Lieber s residence in Dresden was very brief on 
 account of the uprising of the Greeks against the 
 Turkish yoke in 1821. ; The revolt against despotism 
 became general throughout Europe. " From the 
 mouth of the Tagus," writes Professor Wilhelm 
 Muller, "to the Neva and the islands of the Grecian 
 Archipelago all was effervescence and fermentation, 
 and hot streams of national exasperation were poured 
 upon those feudal dynasties which had forgotten 
 nothing and learned nothing. " The Germans, sup 
 pressed at home, entered into the cause of the Greeks 
 with the warmest enthusiasm. Unions were formed 
 in Germany, and many young men, including profes- 
 
30 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 sors, students, and tradesmen, gathered at Marseilles, 
 
 there to embark for Greece. jLieber determined to 
 v^ I 
 
 join a party of Germans who were about to offer 
 their services to the Greeks. 4 His difficulties in leav 
 ing Germany are related as follows, by Judge Thayer: 
 "It was impossible for him to obtain a passport for 
 any length of time, and particularly for a journey to 
 France, yet he had to make his way to Marseilles, 
 where he intended to embark for Greece. He took, 
 therefore, a passport for a journey to Nuremberg, and 
 for the short period of a fortnight only. Once in pos 
 session of it, he emptied an inkstand over the words 
 which declared it to be limited to so short a space of 
 time. He then had it signed in every small place on 
 his route to Nuremberg, so that, to use his own 
 words, it finally looked formidable enough/ Arrived 
 in Nuremberg, he accounted for the defacing inkblot 
 by the awkwardness of a police officer, and had the 
 paper signed for Munich. There he chose a time 
 when the chief officer of the legation had gone to 
 dinner, and had it further signed for Switzerland, pre 
 tending to be in a great hurry. He travelled on foot 
 through Switzerland, and thence to Marseilles. In 
 this manner and by such shifts did this great histori 
 cal scholar, this profound writer upon the laws of 
 nations, this great philosopher who explained and 
 illustrated the nature of civil government and the 
 origin and meaning of laws, whose works have been 
 
FLIGHT TO GREECE 3I 
 
 of incalculable benefit to liberty and have added so 
 many new ideas to political science, escape from his 
 native land." 1 Reaching Marseilles in December, 1821, 
 he joined a motley crowd of Germans, Danes, Poles, 
 French, and Italians. The German societies furnished 
 a small vessel, and on January 10, 1822, they sailed 
 from Marseilles, armed with daggers, pistols, swords, 
 and guns. The vessel sailed very fast, and on Janu 
 ary 20, the hills of the Peloponnesus were in view. 
 The next day the port of Navarino was reached, 
 where thev landed amidst singing and the firing of 
 muskets. [Lieber s experiences in Greece were the 
 most bitter of his life. , _. " All came," writes Colonel 
 Napier, "expecting to find the Peloponnesus filled with 
 Plutarch s men, and all returned thinking the inhabi 
 tants of Newgate more moral." Lieber s party were 
 refused food and shelter, and they were compelled to 
 sell their clothing and watches to obtain money for 
 their journey. On the way to Tripolis they passed 
 by a robbers den, where sixty armed peasants took 
 their horses. After journeying through the country 
 and visiting several Greek towns, Lieber became so 
 disgusted with the miserable condition of the peo 
 ple that he reached the following conclusions : i, that 
 the cowardice and incapacity of the Greeks made 
 them unfit to defend or free their country; 2, that no 
 individual, not even an experienced commander, could 
 
 la Lieber s Miscellaneous Writings," vol. i, p. 18. 
 
32 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 assist them; 3, that a small army, properly equipped, 
 might scour the whole country and rescue it; 4, that 
 by this means the country might be preserved to 
 Christianity. 
 
II 
 
 LIFE IN ROME RETURN TO PRUSSIA DEPARTURE FOR 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 J ""DISAPPOINTED with his experiences in Greece, 
 ^J and unable to procure the means for subsistence, 
 Lieber resolved, in March, 1822, to return to his 
 native country. At Missolonghi, rendered immortal 
 by the name of Lord Byron, he took passage in a 
 small vessel bound for Ancona, on the shores of the 
 Adriatic in Italy. After a stormy voyage, he entered 
 the port of Ancona on Easter eve, with but a scudo 
 and a half in his pocket. As a death had occurred 
 on the ship soon after entering the port, he was held 
 in quarantine for forty days. Having no means to 
 defray the quarantine expenses, .and fearing that he 
 should be obliged to pay the captain by serving on 
 board the vessel, he at once wrote for assistance 
 to an old fellow-student who had gone to Rome to 
 study art. Lieber s friend received the letter, and at 
 once forwarded all the ready money that he pos 
 sessed. On being released from quarantine, a fresh 
 difficulty arose on account of the gap in his passport 
 On his journey from Dresden to Marseilles, where he 
 
 D 33 
 
34 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 embarked for Greece, he had been given a provisional 
 passport on the French frontier, while his regular 
 papers were forwarded to Paris. His difficulties were 
 increased by an order from Rome charging the offi 
 cials not to endorse the passport of any traveller from 
 Greece, except for a direct journey home. The police- 
 officer at Ancona, therefore, refused to sign Lieber s 
 papers, and he exclaimed to the officer, "Would you 
 prevent me from seeing Rome ? " The officer replied : 
 " You see, carissimo mio, I cannot do otherwise. You 
 are a Prussian, and I must direct your passport home 
 to Germany. I will direct it to Florence; your min 
 ister there may direct it back to Rome. Or I will 
 direct it to any place in Tuscany which you may 
 choose ; for through Tuscany you must travel in 
 order to reach Germany." Lieber now despaired 
 more than ever of seeing the Eternal City, but glanc 
 ing at a map of Italy, he found that the southwest 
 ern border of Tuscany approached to within a few 
 miles of Rome. Pretending that he had a friend at 
 Orbitello, a city of Tuscany, he induced the officer to 
 direct the passport to that city. A coach was hired, 
 and he made a hurried departure from Ancona. He 
 was compelled to inform the coachman that his real 
 destination was Rome, and not Orbitello ; and by 
 paying a small sum, all objections were overcome. 
 When near Rome, Lieber left the coach; passed the 
 sentinels in safety, and succeeded in finding the 
 

 ^ LIF 
 
 FE IN ROME 35 
 
 friend who had come to his assistance with money, 
 while at Ancona. But he could not long enjoy the 
 wonders of Rome without permission from the authorities ; 
 and this was to be obtained only by means of a certifi 
 cate from the Prussian minister. He now determined 
 to call on the minister, Niebuhr, and make a frank 
 statement of his misfortunes and difficult position. 
 He thought that " a scholar who had written the his 
 tory of Rome could not be so cruel as to drive me 
 from Rome without allowing me time to see and 
 study it." Niebuhr resided in a magnificent palace 
 on the remains of the theatre that Augustus had built 
 and dedicated to Marcellus. Lieber s heart almost 
 failed him as he approached this historic site. He 
 had never met Niebuhr, and now he was to be 
 brought into his presence in a most forlorn condition. 
 His appearance was anything but prepossessing, as he 
 describes it in his " Reminiscences " : " My dress con 
 sisted, as yet, of nothing better than a pair of unblacked 
 shoes, such as are not unfrequently worn in the Levant ; 
 a pair of socks of coarse Greek wool; the brownish 
 pantaloons frequently worn by sea-captains in the 
 Mediterranean; and a blue frock-coat, through which 
 two balls had passed a fate to which the blue cloth 
 cap had likewise been exposed. The socks were 
 exceedingly short, hardly covering my ankles, and so 
 indeed were the pantaloons; so that, when I was in 
 a sitting position, they refused me the chanty of meet- 
 
36 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 ing, with an obstinacy which reminded me of the 
 irreconcilable temper of the two brothers in Schiller s 
 1 Bride of Messina. " 
 
 Lieber was most kindly received by the minister, 
 and through him the necessary permission was obtained 
 to reside in Rome. Niebuhr also loaned him a sum of 
 money, from a fund, placed at his disposal by Prince 
 Henry, for the relief of their countrymen who might 
 return from Greece. He was invited to dine with 
 Niebuhr and his family, and he felt greatly embar 
 rassed, as his naked extremities were exposed to the 
 remarks of the children. Niebuhr took a great interest 
 in the young man, and they spent hours in conversa 
 tion^ The library was placed at Lieber s disposal, and 
 he often returned burdened with books, much to the 
 
 amusement of his benefactor. He soon became a daily 
 \r * - 
 
 visitor to the palace, and one day Niebuhr invited 
 him to take up his residence in the family, and assist 
 in the education of his son, Marcus. This invitation 
 was accepted, and it proved to be the most important 
 step in Lieber s career. He often remarked that he 
 owed to Niebuhr a much more correct view of antiquity, 
 and through him he learned that "the same springs of 
 action were applicable in modern and in ancient time$, !J 
 His new position seemed to be profitable both to 
 himself and to Niebuhr, as the latter describes with 
 charming interest in his " Memoirs " : "A young man has 
 lately arrived, a Mr. Lieber, of Berlin, who had gone 
 
RELATIONS WITH NIEBUHR 
 
 37 
 
 to Greece as a volunteer, and has returned, partly that 
 he might not die of starvation, partly because he found 
 the boundless corruption of the Moreans, and, withal, 
 their cowardice, insufferable. His veracity is unquestion 
 able, and the horror which his narratives inspire is not 
 to be described. All this has plunged him into deep 
 melancholy, for he has a very noble heart. He has 
 deeply moved and interested us, and we are trying to 
 cheer his spirits by friendly treatment, and to banish 
 from his thoughts the infernal scenes which he has 
 witnessed. [He is one of the youths of the noble period 
 of 1813 (when he served in the army and was wounded) 
 who lost themselves in visions, the elements of which 
 they drew from their own hearts; and this terrible 
 contrast between his experiences and all that he had 
 imagined all that impelled him into distant lands - 
 has broken his heart] He is now here in a state of 
 destitution. I shall at all events give him aid; but I 
 mean to propose to him, in the first instance, to come 
 to us and assist us in instructing Marcus, and in my 
 literary work." 
 
 In after years, Lieber often said that his life had 
 been made up of many geological layers. Of these, no 
 doubt, his residence in Rome was one of the most 
 important, fin Niebuhr s house, he wrote his first 
 book, the "Journal of my Residence in Greece;!, and 
 he frequently remarked, as he recalled that time, " I 
 feel as if I were writing of some creature in the plio- 
 
38 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 cene period." 1 To the student, there is no privilege 
 equal to that of daily companionship with a rarely 
 gifted man. Compared with this, schools and courses 
 of study sink into utter insignificance. To inspire 
 young men with high ideals and with correct views 
 of the world, should be the great ambition of every 
 teacher; but few, indeed, are able to rise above the 
 duties of routine instruction. During his residence in 
 Rome, Lieber enjoyed advantages such as the schools 
 and universities cannot offer. He had at his disposal 
 books and the treasures of art ; but, above all, he had 
 with him the minister and great historian, who showed 
 at all times the most fatherly interest. While every 
 scholar has longed to see Rome, but few have been 
 able to dwell there with a Minister of State, whose 
 labors had already exercised a powerful influence upon 
 human science. Niebuhr was born in Copenhagen, in 
 1766, and he was educated in the University of Kiel. 
 According to Lieber s account of the historian, he was 
 very thin and small in stature. His voice was high- 
 pitched. His sight was very poor, and spectacles 
 were so indispensable to him, that once having left 
 his " Dollands," Lieber was obliged to make a day s 
 journey to get them. He lived frugally and drank 
 
 1 " This work was translated into Dutch, with the tempting title of the 
 German Anacharsis, with a fancy portrait of the author. The Dutch pub 
 lisher sent a box of very old Hock to the author as an acknowledgment of 
 the profit he had made out of this involuntary Anacharsis." SOUTHERN 
 LITERARY MESSENGER, vol. 22, p. 366. 
 
RELATIONS WITH NIEBUHR 
 
 39 
 
 only wine and water. He shaved himself, walking up 
 and down the room, talking the while when there was 
 no one present. He was an habitual snuff-taker, but 
 smoking was very offensive to him. He could study 
 and write amidst any noise and confusion. Rolling on 
 the floor with his children was a frequent indulgence, 
 and in all things his simplicity was great. His capacity 
 for the languages was remarkable. In 1807, his father 
 wrote : " My son has already learnt the following lan 
 guages, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Danish, 
 English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Persian, 
 Arabic, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Slavonic, Polish, 
 Bohemian, Illyrian. With the addition of Low Ger 
 man, this makes in all twenty languages. Forgive this 
 effusion of my heart concerning my son. I did not 
 mean to boast of him." 1 His memory was remark 
 able, and a great part of the Greek and Roman poetry 
 had imprinted itself so indelibly in his mind that 
 he could recite hundreds of verses without stumbling. 
 Even in his later years, he retained every poem which 
 appealed strongly to his heart. In conversation with 
 Lieber, he once said: "Without a strong memory, I 
 never should have been able to write my history, for 
 extracts and notes would not have been sufficient; 
 they would again have formed an inaccessible mass, 
 
 1 " The Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebuhr, with Essays on 
 His Character and Influence," by the Chevalier Bunsen and Professors Brandis 
 and Lorbell, p. 42. 
 
40 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 had I not possessed the index in my mind." Niebuhr s 
 residence in Rome gave him an intimate knowledge 
 of the. relics of the ancient city. On one occasion, 
 while passing through Verona to Rome, he discovered 
 in the Cathedral library of the former city, the " Institu 
 tions " of Gaius. He also spent much time in Rome in 
 an accurate examination of the manuscripts of the 
 
 /Vatican library. (At the time that Niebuhr conceived 
 
 v . . 
 
 the idea of writing a history of Rome, classical phi 
 lology and politics began to exert a great influence 
 on historiography. Historians began to examine more 
 carefully the genuineness of the sources of history. 
 They realized., also, that in the history of a state, the 
 chief stress should not be laid on wars, and the per 
 sonal relations of princes, but on the growth of its 
 form of government and constitution. Niebuhr placed 
 the Roman constitution in the very foreground of his 
 picture. His extensive knowledge of the languages 
 enabled him to make the most careful examination 
 of the sources of history. He took great delight in 
 applying the knowledge that he gathered, and he 
 loved science wherever it appeared. 
 
 \~~/This was the Rome that Lieber enjoyed.] He could 
 now well forget the disappointments of earlier life, for a 
 larger and more beautiful world had been opened to 
 his view. But Niebuhr resigned the embassy at Rome 
 in March, 1823, and Lieber s ties with the family of 
 the historian were soon to be broken.^ They left Rome 
 
RETURN TO PRUSSIA 41 
 
 in May, and journeyed together through Florence, Pisa, 
 and Bologna, and then to the Tyrol. At Innspruck 
 they parted, Niebuhr to pass some time in the libraries 
 of Switzerland, and Lieber to journey alone toward 
 Berlin. Throughout life Lieber held the memory of 
 Niebuhr in the profoundest veneration, and erected a 
 monument to him in his " Reminiscences," published 
 in 1835, after he had made his home in America. In 
 the dedication of the volume to Mrs. Austin, Lieber 
 wrote : " I could not have graced with your name any 
 pages dearer to me, though painfully dear, I own 
 leaves written in the greatest of cities, and under the 
 roof of my best friend, now perused in distant America, 
 he dead, and I in exile. I felt as if I walked through 
 an Italian garden, charming, indeed, with perfuming 
 flowers and lovely alleys and fountains, with the luxuri 
 ant trees of the South in blossom, the fragrant orange 
 and the glowing pomegranate, and with vistas far and 
 wide to the distant deep blue mountains. But I felt, 
 too, as if I walked alone in it. With all these joyous 
 colors of bright spring around me, and the cloudless 
 azure vault above me, I felt the grief of loneliness, 
 and every spot reminded me of him, and what I owe 
 him." 
 
 Travelling on foot through Erlangen, Stuttgart, 
 Nuremberg, and Dresden,\Lieber finally reached Berlin 
 on August 10, 1823. His experiences in Greece and 
 the year spent in Rome had wrought a great change 
 
42 FRANCIS LIBBER 
 
 in him. He had become quieter ; had cultivated a taste 
 for the fine arts, and was writing many poems. His 
 boyish enthusiasm had given way to the love of more 
 serious intellectual pursuits, and on reaching Berlin 
 he at once determined to resume his studies in the 
 University, j It will be remembered that, before going 
 to Greece, he had been prohibited from studying in 
 Prussia. It became necessary for him, therefore, to 
 secure this permission from the authorities of the state, 
 and it was not until after frequent petitions had been 
 made that his request was granted. His aged parents 
 had been reduced to privation by the loss of property 
 during the Napoleonic wars, and he was compelled to 
 ask the state for aid in carrying on his studies. From a 
 fund set aside for needy students, he was given a small 
 sum, and he at once began a course in trigonometry and 
 v calculus in the University under Dr. Ohm. But Prussia 
 still continued under the paternal system, and the move 
 ments of the people against tyranny in Spain, Italy, 
 and Greece created an influence that was deeply felt 
 throughout all Germany. . Prince Metternich continued 
 his policy of oppression, and the Holy Alliance was 
 used by him as an instrument for this purpose. At 
 the Congress of Verona in 1822, the revolt of the 
 Greeks was treated as rebellion against legitimate 
 authority, and the uprising was discouraged. The 
 Carlsbad resolutions, establishing a censorship over the 
 press and the universities, were endorsed, and in Decem- 
 
IMPRISONMENT AT KOPENICK 43 
 
 her of that year a Secret Committee of Inquiry, com 
 posed of three members, one from each nation, was 
 appointed to detect and arrest the so-called conspirators 
 of central Europe. ; Although Lieber had conducted 
 himself as a peaceable citizen since his return to Berlin, 
 he was closely watched by the police. Various secret 
 clubs, such as the Jungerbund and the Burschen- 
 schaft, still existed among the students in the uni 
 versities, and the patriots believed that these societies 
 were calculated to restore the former greatness of 
 Germany. These clubs were looked upon in distrust 
 by the government, and on February 12, 1824, Lieber 
 was summoned to appear at Kopenick, a small town 
 eight miles from Berlin. He was wanted merely as 
 a witness, but he was glad to be released, and he made 
 every effort to be transferred to another university. 
 He first sought permission to continue his studies at 
 Bonn, but in May, 1824, he was sent to Halle. The 
 police followed closely in his path, and in August 
 of that year fie was arrested and imprisoned at 
 Kopenick, not for any misdeeds, but for refusing to 
 give to the officials certain information that he pos 
 sessed, j The year 1824 was particularly noted for the 
 large number of arrests among the student body; but 
 not satisfied with this, Prussia issued a decree pro 
 hibiting her subjects from visiting foreign universities, 
 especially the University of Basle, to which many 
 German students had formerly resorted. The tyranny 
 
44 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 of Prussia, encouraged by the Holy Alliance, was 
 directed not only against the students, but many of 
 the lecturers and professors suffered as well. A case 
 of pathetic interest was that of Charles Theodore 
 Christian Pollen. The son of Christopher Pollen, he 
 was born in Romrod, September 4, 1796. He was 
 educated at the University of Giessen, served in the 
 Napoleonic wars, and returned to the University in 1817, 
 to take the degree of doctor of civil law. The next 
 year he was elected lecturer on pandects at Jena. He 
 was arrested on suspicion of complicity with Sand in 
 the Kotzebue murder, but, being acquitted, he returned 
 to Giessen. Here he incurred the dislike of the gov 
 ernment through his liberal ideas in politics, and in 
 1820, he was compelled to take refuge in Paris. But 
 France soon expelled all foreigners, and Dr. Pollen 
 went to Zurich, where he became professor of Latin 
 in the Cantonal School. From here he proceeded to 
 Basle, to become professor of civil law. But he was 
 marked by the powers. On August 17, 1824, three 
 notes were received by the authorities at Basle, from 
 Prussia, Austria, and Russia, demanding him to be 
 given up to the tribunal of inquisition which the king 
 of Prussia had established at Kopenick. Dr. Pollen 
 escaped to America and located in Boston. He became 
 instructor in German at Harvard, and in September, 
 1826, he took charge of the new gymnasium which 
 had just been established in Boston. Dr. Pollen was 
 
DR. CHARLES FOLLEN 45 
 
 a disciple of "Father Jahn," and an intimate friend 
 of Dr. Charles Beck, who was the first instructor of 
 gymnastics in America, having in 1825, established 
 physical culture in the Round Hill School, Northamp 
 ton. It was the original intention of Dr. John Warren 
 and the other supporters of the gymnasium in Boston to 
 place it in charge of " Father Jahn," but he was unwill 
 ing to come to America. Dr. Follen also took charge 
 of the gymnastic exercises in Harvard College ; but, in 
 1827, he resigned his position in the Boston gymnasium, 
 and, by an interesting coincidence, he was succeeded 
 by Lieber. The same year Dr. Follen began the study 
 of theology under Dr. Channing, and in 1828 began 
 to preach. Three years later Harvard made him pro 
 fessor of German literature ; 1 but his zeal in the anti- 
 slavery movement created a prejudice against him, and 
 in 1834, the chair was abolished. In 1836 he was 
 ordained" as a Unitarian minister, and in 1840, while 
 on a trip from New York to Boston, he lost his life 
 by the burning of the steamship Lexington. He 
 honored Harvard with his learning and his writings, 
 just as Lieber afterward increased the fame of two 
 of our American colleges. 
 
 Lieber, confined in prison at Kbpenick, was, like- \^ 
 
 1 German had never been taught in the College before Dr. Pollen s con 
 nection with it, and after difficulty a class of eight was formed. Dr. Peabody, 
 in his " Harvard Reminiscences," claims that there were but very few persons 
 in New England at the time who could read German. 
 
46 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 wise, soon to flee for refuge to America. His friend 
 and benefactor, Niebuhr^ had returned to Bonn, and he 
 
 -v 
 
 at once made a personal effort to have the young man 
 released. [Four times he petitioned the king, and he 
 also visited Lieber in prison in order to comfort him. 
 Late in April, 1825, after numerous promises and de 
 lays, he was set free. But there was no freedom for 
 him in Prussia. He could not leave Berlin, even on 
 a visit, without permission from the police, and to 
 journey into a neighboring state, he first had to obtain 
 the consent of the tribunal of inquisition at Kopenigk., 
 In the brief intervals, when not hounded by the police, 
 Lieber enjoyed the charms of Berlin society, and he 
 spent much of his time with the literary people. He 
 counted among his friends, Chancellor von Hitzig, 
 E. T. W. Hoffmann, the family of General von Schack, 
 and Henrietta Herz. He tried to gain a livelihood by 
 writing and teaching, and was a tutor for some time 
 in the family of Count von Bernstorff. Prison life had 
 m) effect upon his cheerful disposition. He spent the 
 time in reading Shakespeare and Goethe, and in writ 
 ing poems of love and liberty.^ He often referred to 
 the days spent in the Bastile at Kopenick, as a period 
 in which enjoyment was the chief element of his intel 
 lectual life. ^He was much influenced at this time by 
 Goethe, and he once remarked that the more his youth 
 had been guided by the ideas of sacrifice for others, 
 the more he plunged into the idea of the day, of the 
 
FAREWELL TO GERMANY 47 
 
 hour. In 1826, a number of the poems which he had 
 written as a prisoner, were published, under the title 
 of " Vierzehn Wein- und Wonne-lieder, by Arnold 
 Franz." 
 
 [Early in the year 1826, Lieber began to think seri 
 ously of leaving Germany. . In February, he took up 
 the study of the English language, and a few weeks 
 later he made a farewell visit to a married sister resid 
 ing at Zullichau. "Fatherland," in all the ages, has 
 been a sacred word. With the Greeks, their native 
 land was holy, for the gods dwelt there. In modern 
 times, the word suggests a thousand affections and in 
 fluences, and to break the ties of country must plunge 
 the soul into the deepest anguish. Lieber, who after 
 ward wrote so beautifully of the nature of modern pa 
 triotism in his " Political Ethics," passed through this 
 experience as the ties of home and country were 
 severed. But like the ancients, he loved the father 
 land for its favors, and he loved it also for its seventy. 
 Before taking the final step, he, therefore, made one 
 more effort to secure permanent employment at home. 
 Niebuhr again came to his assistance, and addressed 
 a letter of recommendation to Count Bernstorff, the 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 For some reason, Lieber never presented this letter 
 to Count Bernstorff, and it seems that he was now 
 ready to carry out his plan of leaving Germany. [On * 
 May 17, 1826, he left Berlin with his brother EdwardJ 
 
48 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 unknown to the other members of the family. They 
 journeyed to Hamburg, and from thence to Eppendorff 
 and Blankenese, reaching the latter place on May 21. 
 The next day he boarded the ship Perseverance, and 
 May 26 arrived at Gravesend. He at once \ pro 
 ceeded to London, where he experienced the hardest 
 time of his life, " doing uncongenial work, and physi 
 cally laboring like an American army mule." He spent 
 much time in visiting the art-galleries and museums, 
 and in studying the Lancastrian Schools. He gained 
 a livelihood by writing, and by teaching at six shillings 
 a lesson. / His students came from the most prominent 
 families, among them being the children of Mrs. Sam 
 uels, Rothschild s sister. He also taught at the resi 
 dence of Mr. Oppenheimer, giving Italian lessons to 
 the daughter Matilda, whom he afterward married. 
 While Lieber resided in London, University College 
 was in course of organization, and he intended to apply 
 for the chair of the German language. He wrote to 
 Germany for testimonials, and Niebuhr promptly re 
 sponded, enclosing a warm letter of recommendation. 
 He reminded Lieber, however, that the competition 
 would be great, and that he would probably be unsuc 
 cessful in his application. He advised him to become 
 acquainted with Lord Brougham, and, if possible, to 
 meet Mr. Grote. Niebuhr had no exalted opinion of 
 the new University, claiming that it was erected by po 
 litical elements belonging to an age gone by, and that 
 
FROM ENGLAND TO AMERICA 
 
 49 
 
 its warmest friends were violent political economists, 
 who restricted their interest to the physical welfare of 
 the people. Before Lieber could make a formal appli 
 cation for a professorship in the University his plans 
 were again changed. About this time he became 
 acquainted with Mrs. Austin, the authoress, who intro 
 duced him to Mr. John Neal, an American, residing in 
 Portland. Lieber now began to think of going to 
 America. He gave the subject serious attention, when 
 he learned that Dr. Bond, of Boston, was in London 
 looking for a teacher in gymnastics/] The resignation 
 of Dr. Pollen as director of the Boston gymnasium, 
 early in 1827, led at once to a correspondence with 
 Lieber in reference to the position. With this bright 
 prospect for the future in view, he at once decided to 
 [accept the place, and early in June of the same year he v 
 took passage for New York. Before embarking for , 
 America he wrote to Niebuhr, describing his plans. 
 Niebuhr approved of his resolution, and urged him to 
 go, at the same time advising hnnj " Only beware that 
 you do not fall into an idolatry of the country, and that 
 state of things which is so dazzling because it shows 
 the material world in a favorable light. You are 
 able to do this if you will be watchful over yourself; 
 you have judgment and philosophical tact enough to 
 protect yourself. Remain a German, and, without 
 counting hour and day, yet say to yourself that the 
 hour and day will come when you will be able to re- 
 
50 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 _. 
 
 Niebuhr also urged \with great emphasis that 
 he should write no political dissertations and generali 
 ties. But Lieber disobeyed the advice of his old friend, 
 for he became an American citizen as soon as possible ; 
 while his greatest fame rests upon his political writings. 
 Although he heeded not the entreaty in Schiller s " Wil 
 liam Tell," 
 
 " Cleave to thy fatherland, thy country dear, 
 And with thy whole heart cling thou closely to it. 
 For rooted in thy country is thy strength ; 
 Away in yon strange world, thou stand st alone," 
 
 he yet loved his native land ; but he became an Ameri 
 can by choice, seeking a refuge here because persecuted 
 for liberty. 
 
Ill 
 
 LIEBER S ARRIVAL IN AMERICA EIGHT YEARS OF STRUGGLE 
 - PROFESSORSHIP IN SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE 
 
 in tlie h * stor y of tne world has so much 
 wisdom and humanity been shown as in their 
 civilization. Each new colony has been received into 
 the Union as soon as it had the required number of 
 inhabitants, and allowed the same rights as the older 
 ones. This proves that they are free from jealousy 
 and tyranny, and that they are ruled by just laws. 
 I know no people who show more love for all that is 
 noble. No nation has ever made such rapid prog 
 ress." 1 Thus wrote Lieber at sea, on June 10, 1827, 
 
 < Cb,^ W*J. L 
 
 whOe on his way to America. Although he did not 
 expect to find a paradise in the New World, he re 
 garded this as a land of promise where civilization 
 was making her home; and he looked forward to the 
 prospect of an active life, and an opportunity to make 
 an honorable use of his talents. Landing at New 
 York on June 20, he at once journeyed to Boston.j 
 Through the kind words of Dr. Pollen, he was favor 
 ably known before arriving here. 2 Dr. John Warren 
 
 1 " Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 70. 
 
 2 On July 8, 1827, Lieber wrote to Miss Oppenheimer : " It appears that the 
 testimonial Niebuhr sent me when I thought of applying for a professorship 
 
 5* 
 
52 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 received him at Boston with a cordial welcome, and 
 his first impressions of our country were of a most 
 exalted character. He attended the Fourth of July 
 celebration, where he met the governor and other 
 state officials. A procession was then formed, com 
 posed of the governor, lieutenant-governor, the senate 
 and representatives, the faculty and students of Har 
 vard College, and invited guests. They marched to 
 the Old South Church, to hear the oration, after 
 which they returned to the State House, where a col 
 lation was served. Lieber was asked by the governor 
 to give a toast, and he proposed, " Liberty to all the 
 civilized world." A gentleman then honored him by 
 giving, " The Germans, who, although not yet enjoy 
 ing liberty, have nevertheless been the pioneers of 
 liberty, the inventors of the art of printing." What a 
 contrast this scene afforded to the zealous advocate of 
 liberty, who for this cause had suffered in the prison 
 cell at Kopenick ! While in Germany it was looked 
 upon as a crime for an individual to express a senti 
 ment of freedom, in America he saw a great people 
 rejoicing on their natal day, and blessing the memory 
 of their heroes. It is no wonder that he wrote at 
 this time : " How is it that the Europeans pride 
 themselves on their historical development? Let them 
 
 at the London University, and which I had fortunately sent to Follen, that he 
 might show it to others if he thought proper, and let them see what manner of 
 fish they had caught, has made a great impression." 
 
THE BOSTON GYMNASIUM 53 
 
 come here, and they will find far more of real living 
 history than on the old continent, where institutions 
 are changed at the arbitrary will of some powerful 
 monarch or his ambitious minister. The law reigns 
 here. Every citizen honors it as his birthright. He 
 knows that it is necessary, and abides by its 
 mandates." 
 
 IJLieber at once entered upon his duties in charge 
 of the Boston gymnasium. He brought with him to 
 America a strong testimonial from General von Pfuel, 
 who had established a number of swimming schools 
 in the German cities. This letter spoke of Lieber s 
 ability to conduct a swimming school successfully, and 
 he soon added this feature to the gymnasium. The 
 success of the enterprise was assured from the start. 
 The swimming school was visited by the mayor and 
 other prominent citizens of Boston; while on one 
 occasion, President Adams came to examine Lieber s 
 plan. He praised the school, expressing the wish 
 that there were many such establishments in the 
 country, as he had never found greater refreshment 
 after mental exertion than from swimming. 
 
 ;The swimming school having closed for the season * 
 in September, Lieber found himself in a strange land 
 without any permanent employment. ] Before coming 
 to America, he had written to Niebuhr, expressing his 
 wish to become correspondent to the best German 
 papers. Niebuhr at once communicated with Baron 
 
54 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 Cotta, 1 and made known the desires of his young 
 friend. The Baron gave the matter a favorable recep 
 tion, and offered a list of seven papers to which Lieber 
 might correspond, the most important being the All- 
 gemeine Zeitung. *< In a letter to Lieber, on September 
 12, 1827, Niebuhr gave specific directions in regard 
 to the nature of the correspondence, stating that it 
 should include extensive statistical and ethnographic 
 accounts, moral and personal relations, political events 
 and legislative acts, and descriptions of the neighbor 
 ing British provinces, and the South American states. 
 Niebuhr had a high ideal of the newspaper corre 
 spondent. He remarked in this letter : " The task is 
 not easy. I require of a correspondent of a newspaper 
 the same that I endeavored to do in my reports to 
 the king when I was minister, and what I, as Secretary 
 of State for Foreign Affairs, should expect from every 
 diplomatic agent. It is all-important to be conscien 
 tious and true to the letter. The correspondent of a 
 newspaper is the ambassador, not of its proprietor, 
 but jof the public." 2 
 \/ \ This experience in newspaper work gave Lieber an 
 
 1 Johann Friedrich Freiherr Cotta von Cottendorf (1764-1832) was the son 
 of Johann George Cotta, founder of the illustrious Cotta publishing house. 
 He was educated at Tubingen, and in 1787 he undertook to conduct the 
 publishing business at Tubingen. In 1798, he started the Allgemeine Zeitung, 
 of which Schiller was to be the editor. In 1795, he founded with Schiller 
 the Horen, a periodical devoted to German literature. Cotta was an unfailing 
 friend of young struggling men of talent. 
 
 2 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. I, p. 72. 
 
PROJECTS OF AUTHORSHIP 55 
 
 extensive knowledge of American affairs, and sug 
 gested to him the idea of editing an encyclopaedia, 
 based upon Brockhaus "Conversations-Lexikon." Many 
 years later Dr. la Borde, of South Carolina Col 
 lege, frequently conversed with Lieber about this 
 period of his life, of which the following interesting 
 account is given in the "History of South Carolina 
 College": "One afternoon in Boston, when a dark 
 cloud was resting upon his mind, he threw himself 
 upon his bed, and indulged in profound reflection. 
 4 What shall I do ? was the overwhelming question. 
 He felt that his brain was the only thing which he 
 could draw upon for support. But how was that 
 brain to be used ? In what channel were his labors 
 to be directed? In reading the lives of eminent 
 scholars, how often do we find that at the outset they 
 have been borne down, and for a period made miser 
 able by this burdensome and heartrending thought. 
 Many a genius, under similar circumstances, has sunk 
 never to rise again. A volume of the Conversations- 
 Lexikon happened to lie on a table in his room. As 
 his eye rested upon it, he exclaimed aloud, That s 
 the thing; I ll write an encyclopaedia. He wrote out 
 a plan at once, carried it to some of the leading men 
 of Boston, and they gave it a hearty approval." 
 
 In this project, Lieber was assisted by some of our 
 most prominent scholars and statesmen. Bancroft, 
 Everett, Dr. Pollen, and many other scholars spoke 
 
56 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 in the highest terms of the proposed encyclopaedia; 
 while Judge Story, Dr. J. G. Palfrey, J. K. Paulding, 
 George Ticknor, Dr. Walter Channing, and Dr. Orville 
 Dewey were among the chief contributors. In Janu 
 ary, 1828, definite arrangements were made with Carey, 
 Lea and Carey, of Philadelphia, for the publication of 
 the work, and it was decided to give it the title, " En 
 cyclopaedia Americana." The "Encyclopaedia" was to 
 consist of thirteen volumes, the first appearing in the 
 year 1829. The amount of labor required in its prep 
 aration was enormous. Twelve translators and many 
 contributors were constantly employed. Lieber had 
 to think of a thousand different things. One moment 
 he would dip into French philosophy, and the next he 
 would be writing an article on " Cookery." He had 
 trouble with the printers, and often it was necessary 
 for him to rewrite articles that others had prepared. 
 Judge Story rendered Lieber the most valuable assist 
 ance, which is gratefully remembered in the following 
 language : " I shall never forget the offer he made to 
 contribute some articles when I complained of my 
 embarrassment as to getting proper articles on the 
 main subjects of law for my work intended for the 
 general reader. Many of these were sent from Wash 
 ington while he was fully occupied with the important 
 duties of the Supreme Court. 1 He himself made out 
 
 1 " The fact is that I am constantly engaged in writing for the press, my 
 new and second volume on Equity, and my progress against this printer s devil 
 
PROJECTS OF AUTHORSHIP 57 
 
 the lists of articles to be contributed by him, and I do 
 not remember ever having been obliged to wait for 
 one. The only condition this kind-hearted man made 
 was that I should not publish the fact that he had 
 contributed the articles in the work until some period 
 subsequent to their appearance. The contributions 
 of Judge Story comprise more than one hundred and 
 twenty, pages, closely printed in double columns. I 
 may add that Judge Story made his offer at a time 
 when he, to whom it was made, was known to very 
 few persons in this country, and had but lately arrived 
 here; and that he took at once the liveliest and most 
 active interest in the whole enterprise, and contributed 
 much to cheer on the stranger in his arduous task." 
 I The "Encyclopaedia" proved to be a financial success. 
 In 1829, immediately after the first two volumes had 
 been published, four thousand copies were sold. It 
 brought Lieber into prominence, and he enjoyed the 
 companionship of great men. ; He had occasion to pay 
 frequent visits to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
 and Washington. Judge Marcy received him cordially 
 and promised to help him. He called on the Presi 
 dent, and was pleased to find a volume of the " Ency- 
 
 and all his imps is necessarily slow. Think of this : that I have published a 
 volume of six hundred and ninety pages last year, and am to write another of 
 the same size this year. Besides, I have a crowded correspondence of all 
 sorts, and am like a miller compelled to wait and give each his turn at 
 the mill in due order." LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH STORY, vol. 2, 
 p. 230. 
 
58 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 clopaedia" on the table. He dined with Mr. Gallatin, 
 and declared that he felt quite clerical among all the 
 reverend black coats. He still retained charge of 
 the swimming school, and swam occasionally with Mr. 
 Audubon, the ornithologist. He expressed a desire to 
 accompany Audubon to Labrador, but added, " I must 
 work, work, work." The " Encyclopaedia " was so im 
 portant a publication in its day that it deserves more 
 than a passing notice. When Lieber began work upon 
 it, he was practically a stranger, but he soon became 
 known as the pioneer in this kind of literature] He 
 rendered a most valuable service in editing a work, 
 the purpose of which was the diffusion of knowledge. 
 In the preparation of the "Encyclopaedia," Lieber re 
 ceived a rich compensation by gaining a more accurate 
 knowledge of the institutions and history of our country. 
 The work was designed to be an American encyclo 
 paedia, and in preparing his share of the articles, it 
 became necessary for him to make a careful study of 
 a number of topics relating to our national life. The 
 knowledge thus gained was of inestimable value to 
 him in the preparation of his various philosophical 
 works. 
 
 Lieber was now in more prosperous circumstances, 
 and on September 21, 1829, he married Miss Matilda 
 Oppenheimer, whom he first met in England./ Their 
 union was blessed with four children, a daughter who 
 died in infancy, and three sons, Oscar Montgomery, 
 
PROJECTS OF AUTHORSHIP 59 
 
 Hamilton, and Guido Norman. 1 This was a busy 
 period for Lieber. He was constantly engaged in 
 preparing lectures for the Athenaeum and the Boston 
 Society of Useful Knowledge, or in writing articles for 
 the " Encyclopaedia " and for Cotta. He soon became 
 prominent in educational circles, and on October 20, 
 1830, he attended an important gathering of scholars 
 in New York City. On January 6 of this year, a plan 
 was suggested for the establishment of a university 
 in New York City, and in the month of September, 
 
 1 Oscar Montgomery Lieber, a geologist, was born in Boston, Sept. 8, 1830, 
 and died in Richmond, July 22, 1862. He was educated at Berlin, Gottingen, 
 and Freiburg. He was state geologist of Mississippi from 1850 to 1851, and 
 was engaged in the geological survey of Alabama from 1854 to 1855. In 
 1856 he was made geological surveyor of South Carolina. In 1860, he 
 accompanied the American astronomical expedition to Labrador, as geologist. 
 At the beginning of the Civil War, he entered the Confederate army, and 
 died of wounds received at Williamsburg. He was the author of an assayer s 
 guide, and had also translated from the German, " The Analytical Chemist s 
 Assistant," by Friedrich Woehler, of Gottingen. 
 
 Hamilton Lieber was born in Philadelphia, June 7, 1835, and died in 
 Baden-Baden, Germany, October 18, 1876. He entered the volunteer army 
 as a first lieutenant in the Ninth Illinois Regiment. He was badly wounded 
 at Fort Donelson, where he lost his left arm. In 1866, he was made captain 
 and military storekeeper. 
 
 Guido Norman Lieber was born in Columbia, South Carolina, May 21, 
 1837. He graduated at South Carolina College, 1856, and at the Harvard 
 Law School in 1859. In that year, he was admitted to the New York bar. 
 At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Eleventh Infantry, U. S.army, 
 and was appointed regimental adjutant. He was bre vetted several times for 
 bravery, and was finally transferred to the judge-advocate general s office, 
 Washington. From 1876 to 1882, he was professor of military law at West 
 Point, when he was transferred to the department of Military Justice, Wash 
 ington. He is at present judge-advocate general. 
 
60 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 the friends of the proposed university appointed a com 
 mittee to invite delegates. On the day selected for the 
 meeting, one hundred members, representing various 
 educational institutions, were present. Lieber took 
 an active part in all of the proceedings. Topics for 
 discussion were announced relating to European uni 
 versities, organization of American colleges, systems of 
 college discipline, advantages of a large city as the seat 
 of a university, extensive libraries, instruction by public 
 lectures, necessity for educating classical teachers, im 
 portance of a department of English language, a national 
 society for the promotion of science and literature, 
 importance of civil and political institutions of our 
 country as a subject of study, and religious instruction 
 in colleges. Lieber read an exhaustive paper on the 
 organization, courses of study and discipline of German 
 universities, which was received with deep interest. 
 He was a prominent member of several committees, 
 and he won the respect of the most learned scholars 
 present by his clear views on educational questions. 
 The convention adjourned on October 23, and in some 
 respects it was one of the most important gatherings 
 of college men ever held in this country. 
 
 In 1834, Lieber s abilities were recognized by the 
 Trustees of Girard College, when they invited him to 
 submit a plan for the organization of that institution. 
 He entered upon the preparation of this plan with a 
 pious feeling. He drew up an elaborate constitution, 
 
PROJECTS OF AUTHORSHIP 6 1 
 
 consisting of two hundred and sixty-nine articles, be 
 sides seventy-eight rules and regulations. 1 Writing 
 from Paris in 1834, Edward Livingston said of the 
 plan : " You have written three lines which ought for 
 ever to be impressed upon the minds of all teachers, 
 whether of science, politics, or religion. I know of no 
 truth more happily expressed, than that there is a re 
 ligion under all the variety of sects; there is a patriot 
 ism under all the variety of parties ; there is a love of 
 knowledge and true science under all the variety of 
 theories. " 
 
 Lieber s journal during these years, shows his keen 
 anxiety for some permanent position. Some of the 
 most distinguished lawyers of the country urged 
 him to study law as a profession, and Judge Story 
 was particularly anxious that he should pursue this 
 course. 
 
 He made an effort to secure a foreign mission, and 
 in this he was encouraged by Mr. Diddle. 2 Disap 
 pointed in this ambition, he wrote : " Castles in the air 
 about Europe. Oh, that they might become realities ! 
 
 1 " A Constitution and Plan for Girard College for Orphans," with an In 
 troductory Report by Francis Lieber. Carey: Philadelphia, 1834. 
 
 2 " As to an appointment under government, I cannot think of any office I 
 should desire, except one that is not very likely to be given to me, a charge 
 d*affaires-$\\\v at one of the northern courts, or, at any rate, in Europe. I 
 have long wished it in order to write a work which has long been in my 
 mind; the Life and Times of William, the Founder of the Netherlands Re 
 public, the only parallel hero to Washington." LIEBER IN A LETTER TO 
 Miss DOROTHEA Dix. 
 
62 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 I cannot say I have homesickness for Germany, but 
 for Europe, for science and art." His mind was also 
 filled with many projects of authorship. In 1827, he 
 wrote to Jared Sparks, suggesting a German edition 
 of Washington s writings. He thought they would be 
 of great value for general history, and that through his 
 friend, Niebuhr, a German publisher could be secured. 
 At another time, the idea of writing a constitutional 
 history of Rome occurred to him, while he also had some 
 correspondence with Secretary of State, Livingston, in 
 regard to preparing a history of representative govern 
 ments. He made proposals to the Harpers about a 
 Life of Prince Bliicher, and suggested to Mr. Stone 
 of New York his project of an advertising paper. He 
 called the attention of some of our statesmen to the 
 - v importance of a Board of Statistics as a department in 
 the government. He knew the value of such a Board 
 to Prussia, and he unfolded his plan in the following 
 letter to Jared Sparks on Jan. 25, 1834: "I wish to 
 inform you of yet another scheme I have in view. No 
 one can know better than yourself that it is of great 
 importance to the United States to collect in some 
 way or other the statistics of this country. If it is 
 important in all countries, Prussia and France have 
 already boards of statistics, and the British government 
 has lately established something similar, it is pecul 
 iarly so in this country on account of the character 
 of those subjects on which government legislates, as 
 
PROJECTS OF AUTHORSHIP 63 
 
 well as on account of the character of our general 
 government, which renders the collection of statistics 
 peculiarly difficult. Mr. Livingston, when Secretary of 
 State, was not even able to collect information as to 
 the taxation of citizens of the United States. I have, 
 therefore, in view, to propose to Congress to make an 
 appropriation for the collection of all possible materials 
 used in giving light in all matters connected with pub 
 lic economy and the statistics of the United States. I 
 have a plan, how this is to be effected, in my mind. 
 Persons of all parties to whom I have communicated it, 
 appeared to be much pleased with it, and promised to 
 give it all support in their power. I shall proceed some 
 time this winter to Washington, well harnessed with 
 letters. What do you, knowing Congress well as to 
 such matters, think of my plan? Do you think it 
 feasible? And if so, can you give me any advice, 
 direction, support? Will you give me some letters? 
 I have a very kind letter of introduction from Mr. 
 Appleton to Mr. Clay, and shall ask Mr. Sergeant for 
 one to Mr. Binney. I know Mr. McLane, Mr. Wood- 
 bury, and Mr. Butler. Will it be necessary to write 
 to Mr. Everett, or should I write to Mr. Ticknor to 
 write to Mr. Webster about it? I would beg you 
 not to mention anything about this affair to anybody 
 in Boston or Washington until I go." Lieber s re 
 sources in subjects for authorship had no limit. At 
 one time he had the following subjects in his head: 
 
64 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 Letters on my Trip to Niagara, Principles of Legis 
 lation, Penology, Education and Journey to Europe. 
 He was anxious to secure a position that would afford 
 him leisure for these many literary tasks. On one 
 occasion, he wrote : " I have suffered much in these 
 days. I cannot yet write without a bleeding heart. 
 It is painful to write in a journal after hopes have 
 been blighted, of which the preceding pages show 
 so many traces. God grant that I find at last a 
 fixed spot." 
 
 One of Lieber s truest friends in this period of 
 uncertainty was Charles Sumner. They became ac 
 quainted in Washington, in 1834, while Sumner was 
 a guest at the house of Mrs. Elizabeth Peyton. Sev 
 eral members of Congress, and other persons of dis 
 tinction, among them Lieber, stopped here also. He 
 was introduced to Sumner by a note from Richard 
 Peters, and a long friendship at once began. From 
 1834 to 1872, they were regular correspondents, 
 except for an interval of eight years, of which I shall 
 speak in another chapter. Lieber had a real affec 
 tion for Sumner, and his letters were frequent and 
 lengthy. More than one thousand of these letters 
 were preserved by Sumner, and they indicate a mutual 
 attachment rarely to be met. When Sumner was about 
 to sail for Europe in 1837, Judge Story wrote: "What 
 poor Lieber will do without you, I know not. He 
 will die, I fear, for want of a rapid, voluminous, and 
 
RELATIONS WITH SUMNER 65 
 
 never-ending correspondence." Lieber s capacity for 
 literary work was extraordinary, and in his enthusi 
 asm, he often set heavy tasks upon his friends, and 
 put their good natures to a strain. He made con 
 stant requisitions upon Sumner in the preparation of 
 his books, and was promptly honored with the infor 
 mation wanted. He wrote to Sumner in 1837: "Let 
 me thank you, my dear friend, most heartily, for your 
 kind additions of stock to my work in your last. 
 The interest I see you take in my book cheers me 
 much. Contribute more and more. It will all be 
 thankfully received ; only I am afraid I shall be em 
 barrassed how to use it. I cannot all the time say, 
 contributed by a friend, and yet I do not want to 
 plume myself with your feathers . . . and, my dear 
 fellow, if it were not asking too much, I would beg 
 you to grant me a pigeon-hole in your mind while 
 abroad ; say, if you would, a memorandum book with 
 this title: All sorts of stuff for Lieber. " But 
 Sumner was amply repaid for his kindness, for he 
 found in Lieber an excellent guide in political phi 
 losophy, and frequently sought his advice on inter 
 national questions. His deep affection for Lieber is 
 shown in the following letter: "You are one of the 
 few men I wish to see with a fortune, because I believe 
 you would use it as one who has God s stamp should. 
 It will be only a novum organon for higher exer 
 tion. You love labor so lovingly, and drive it 
 
66 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 with such effect, that I would risk you with Croesus s 
 treasury." 1 
 
 Through all these years of toil, Lieber yearned for 
 the time to write upon subjects that had long occu 
 pied his mind. He was dissatisfied with his work on 
 the " Encyclopaedia," and felt that it must eventually be 
 supplanted. He had ambitions to leave a work behind 
 him that would live in spite of the changes of time ; 
 but he did not have the leisure to concentrate his 
 thoughts. In 1834, he made his residence in Phila 
 delphia, where he became acquainted with Nicholas 
 Biddle and Hon. Thomas Drayton, formerly of Charles 
 ton, South Carolina. These gentlemen, with Judge 
 Story, interested themselves in Lieber s behalf to 
 c obtain for him either the presidency or a professorship 
 ^m South Carolina College,] which at the time was being 
 reorganized. The governor of South Carolina became 
 an ardent supporter of Lieber for a place in the new 
 faculty, and on June 5, 1835, he was unanimously 
 elected professor of history and political economy. 
 This College was a good field for the introduction of 
 the subjects belonging to Lieber s chair. The ten- 
 
 1 Lieber once wrote to Sumner in regard to wealth : " What you say 
 respecting my probable application if I were rich, is true. I would not, 
 indeed, like Lord Egerton, translate, if I had, like him, ninety thousand 
 pounds sterling a year; but whenever I have had money and time, I have 
 not only been more industrious, but my mind has been more productive. So 
 if you know some old Girard, have no fear ; tell him to leave me a million, 
 and I will make young men of talent work and produce in a way that it shall 
 be a pleasure to contemplate." 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE 67 
 
 dency of the Southern youth to enter public life, made 
 history and politics the most popular subjects of the 
 course. As early as 1815, the Board of Trustees 
 favored a professorship of political economy. In 
 1823, Dr. Thomas Cooper suggested that lectures be 
 given in this subject, and the next year he began a 
 course. The career of Dr. Cooper in the College, 
 immediately preceding that of Lieber, is of peculiar 
 interest to the student of educational history. He 
 was born in London in 1759, and was educated at 
 Oxford. Opposing the political views of Burke in a 
 pamphlet, he left England under a threat of prosecu 
 tion. He took up his residence at Northumberland, 
 Pennsylvania, with his friend, Dr. Priestley. At this 
 time, the country was in a state of excitement over 
 the alien and sedition laws, and in the year 1800, he 
 was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a 
 fine of four hundred dollars for a violent attack on 
 President Adams. After being released from prison, 
 he became in succession land commissioner, judge, 
 professor of chemistry in Dickinson College, professor 
 of chemistry and mineralogy in the University of 
 Pennsylvania, and professor of chemistry, and after 
 ward president of South Carolina College. Jefferson 
 had also selected him as a professor in the newly 
 founded University of Virginia; but his liberal reli 
 gious views were offensive to the people, and he was 
 compelled to resign. Jefferson expressed his regret in 
 
68 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 the following language : " I do sincerely lament that 
 untoward circumstances have brought on us the irrep 
 arable loss of this professor, whom I have looked to 
 as the corner-stone of our edifice. I know no one 
 who could have aided us so much in forming the 
 future regulations for our infant institution ; and 
 although we may, perhaps, obtain from Europe equiv 
 alents in science, they can never replace the advan 
 tages of his experience, his knowledge of the character, 
 habits, and manners of our country, his identification 
 with its sentiments and principles, and high reputa 
 tion he has obtained in it generally." 
 
 In 1819, Dr. Cooper was elected professor of 
 chemistry in South Carolina College, and a year 
 later, on the death of Dr., Maxcy, he succeeded to 
 the presidency of the institution. His career as pro 
 fessor and president was one of restless activity. His 
 weak discipline, together with his infidel views nearly 
 wrecked the College. He lectured on the Pentateuch, 
 and made vigorous attacks upon the orthodox view of 
 geology. Dr. Sims, in his autobiography, writes of 
 Dr. Cooper as follows : " It is a wonder that a coun 
 try as full of Presbyterianism and bigotry as that was 
 at the time, should have tolerated a man in his posi 
 tion, especially when advocating and teaching upon 
 such an unnecessary subject. Dr. Cooper lived before 
 his day. If he had flourished now, in the days of 
 Darwin, and Tyndall, and Huxley, he would have 
 
SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE 69 
 
 been a greater infidel than any or all three of them 
 together." Dr. Cooper s teachings aroused the greatest 
 opposition throughout the state. As the trustees of the 
 College remained loyal to him, the campaign was car 
 ried to the state legislature. On December 7, 1831, 
 the House of Representatives ordered the Board of 
 Trustees " to inquire whether Dr. Cooper has wilfully 
 and unnecessarily promulgated any opinions which are 
 justly offensive to any considerable portion of the people 
 of the state." On December 8, 1832, the Trustees 
 disposed of the charges against Dr. Cooper by unani 
 mously exonerating him. But as popular feeling 
 continued strong against him, he proposed, in 1833, 
 his willingness to resign the presidency, retaining the 
 position of chemical lecturer. The Board agreed to 
 this proposition, at the same time granting him the 
 salary of a full professor. The College was now 
 reduced to a most wretched condition, with an attend 
 ance of not more than twenty-five students. The 
 only hope was in a complete reorganization, and on 
 December 3, 1834, the Board of Trustees resolved 
 that " the president, professors, and instructors of the 
 College be requested to resign for the purpose of hav 
 ing the vacancy filled by such persons as the Trustees 
 may hereafter elect." As before stated, Lieber s election 
 to the professorship of history and political economy 
 was a part of the reorganization scheme that the 
 College authorities agreed upon at this time. 
 
IV 
 
 HIS SOUTHERN EXILE LONGING FOR THE NORTH 
 
 VISITS EUROPE HIS RESIGNATION 
 
 IT was Lieber s fate to encounter many obstacles in 
 his career. As a boy his soul longed for liberty, and 
 for this he fought in the Waterloo campaign ; but re 
 turning home, his hopes were blasted, and he was even 
 confined to a prison cell. Realizing that there was no 
 liberty in Prussia, he determined to assist the struggling 
 Greeks to obtain that which was denied him at home. 
 Again he met with disappointment, and he became dis 
 gusted with the miserable condition of the degraded 
 Moreans. In America, civilization and liberty were 
 making their home, and he turned to this land of 
 promise to realize his fondest dreams. But he found, 
 even in America, a portion of the human race enslaved, 
 and this earnest advocate of liberty was compelled to 
 make his home in the very midst of the slave power. 
 He had no desire to go to the South, but after a strug 
 gle of eight years in the North he felt compelled to 
 accept the position in order to provide for his family. 
 It also afforded him the opportunity to write his " Po 
 litical Ethics," " Legal and Political Hermeneutics," and 
 
 7 
 
HIS SOUTHERN EXILE 7 ! 
 
 " Civil Liberty and Self-Government," the three great 
 works upon which his fame will chiefly rest. Although 
 he made many warm friends in South Carolina, he was 
 not at home there. On February 28, 1835, ne wrote 
 to his friend Mittermaier : " I must bid farewell to all 
 that is most precious and dear to me, and shall be com 
 pelled to live in a slave state ; yet I shall then have a 
 settled sphere of activity, and shall be able to exert my 
 influence in the right direction. It will give me the 
 means of supporting my family, and the time to write 
 on subjects which have long occupied my mind. But 
 I must then depend still more upon my friends, and 
 especially upon you. What could I do in my exile 
 without your support, and without literary connection 
 with Europe?" In his diary, October 10, 1835, he ex 
 pressed his feelings as follows : " I feel, now, far removed 
 from active, progressive, and intellectual life. And then 
 slavery! This nasty, dirty, selfish institution." On 
 October 27, 1835, he wrote to Sumner: "How do I 
 like the South ? Why, if you promise to keep strictly 
 to yourself what I write on such subjects, I will tell you 
 that, as a scientific European feels when he arrives in 
 the United States, so does a man feel when he goes 
 from the North to the South. The people seem to be 
 fine, open-hearted; in fact, I have become acquainted 
 with some who made a most excellent impression. As 
 for the rest, it is far, far behind the North, and my wife 
 and myself are homesick for the North. 
 
72 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 " Pray, write me what you pick up in regard to sci 
 ence, for we live in an absolute desert here. Surely, 
 forever I could not live so; I would rather go to Ala 
 bama and become a planter, make a competency in five 
 years, and then become a writer." l 
 
 The same longing for the North is found in a letter 
 to Mittermaier, May 13, 1841 : " You can scarcely imag 
 ine with what longing I look for the arrival of a vessel 
 which is to bring me new publications from Europe, 
 for you can have no conception how a man in my situa 
 tion feels. I live at the South, it is true, but with 
 respect to culture and intellectual life, and all a man 
 requires who takes part in the stirring movements of 
 our times, I might as well be in Siberia. There is no 
 use in deluding myself, nor have I the disposition to do 
 so. If Herder complained of a disappointed life, oh, 
 how much greater reason have I to despair ! Not that 
 I would compare my gifts of mind with his, but some 
 thing exists within me which strives for improvement 
 and development, and stands in need of its element as 
 much, in proportion, as the soul of a Descartes or a 
 Mozart. A little while since, I had some hope that an 
 opportunity might offer for my return to the North. I 
 had some expectations ; but, at present, I have no 
 prospects whatever in view, and so I am drying up and 
 even losing energy." 
 
 No student can read Lieber s yearnings to leave 
 
 1 " Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 109. 
 
HIS SOUTHERN EXILE 73 
 
 the South without sympathizing with him in his exile. 
 During a brief visit to Germany in 1844, he wrote to 
 his wife : " Is there no escape from Columbia ? Many 
 would say, Why not go to Prussia? Why not take a 
 professorship ? I answer, the inexperienced or uncon- 
 scientious only can enter into such situations which 
 they know will expose them to a constant inner con 
 test. The whole present tendency in Prussia is a 
 most melancholy one. It is at war with everything 
 noble in our time, and must, therefore, become worse 
 and worse. You see that only an employment of a 
 very peculiar kind would suit my soul, and even then 
 I know I shall always have grave days. Boston, I 
 say, God grant me Boston." 
 
 He was opposed in the South on account of his 
 attitude on the slavery question, and this frequently 
 caused him to pour forth bitter laments. In 1847, he 
 wrote from Philadelphia to his wife: "As to the 
 accusation in regard to the slave question, I am not 
 sorry; for I have often thought that I should be glad 
 if pressed out of my chair, so that I need not after 
 ward reproach myself with having carelessly abandoned 
 a good place, and led my dear wife and children into 
 want. I shall write them a substantial answer on my 
 return, which you shall read. I wish to do nothing 
 without calm consultation with my good wife. I say, 
 away, away from South Carolina, and I should sup 
 port you, anyhow." Lieber was also greatly annoyed 
 
74 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 by the attacks of the South Carolina Calvinists upon 
 his religious views, and it is no wonder that he often 
 exclaimed : " Take me away from this land where the 
 skies are so blue and the negroes so black ! " 
 
 The association of friends who tried to remove him 
 to the North, he called the Lieber Emancipation Soci 
 ety. He finally declared to his friends in Boston, 
 that he could no longer remain in the South, and that 
 he should return to Germany, if no acceptable offer 
 were made to him from the North. In July, 1845, 
 an effort was made to establish a new professorship 
 for him in the Law School of Harvard University. 
 Judge Story was at the head of the movement. The 
 Trustees of the University reported that the funds would 
 soon be sufficient to establish a chair of history, as some 
 wealthy citizens had promised their assistance. Judge 
 Story died in September, 1845, and Lieber lost a dear 
 friend to whose influence he owed so much. This 
 sad event destroyed the whole plan, and Lieber was 
 compelled to give up the idea of returning to the 
 North. When William Preston wrote home from the 
 North, " They cannot understand here how we keep 
 Lieber in our parts," Lieber said, " The matter is 
 very simple ; because they give me the means to 
 support my family." 
 
 On November 29, 1854, Dr. James H. Thorn well 
 resigned the presidency of the College, to take effect 
 in December, 1855. Although Lieber was tired of 
 
THE COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 75 
 
 his Southern exile, he desired the vacant position on 
 account of the prominence it would give him. As 
 the College was a state institution, an election of 
 president attracted widespread attention and became 
 a political issue. Lieber now acquired a notoriety 
 that was distasteful to him. The newspapers took 
 sides in the contest, and he was treated as an ordi 
 nary candidate for public office. The first editor to 
 nominate him was a former Methodist preacher, while 
 all the up-country papers favored him with the great 
 est zeal. The low-country papers were against him, 
 as that region was the seat of the anti-national feel 
 ing. Many of his supporters were former students, 
 and he was delighted with the spontaneous movement 
 in his behalf. Although the people admired Lieber s 
 abilities, they remembered his bold utterances against 
 secession in 1851, and no general support could be 
 rallied in his favor. He had also offended the Presby 
 terians, charging them with using the weapon of hatred, 
 instead of love, truth, and the gospel. He shrank from 
 the idea of future punishment, and called know-nothing- 
 ism " a child of Calvinistic bitterness." At first, a 
 majority of the Trustees were in his favor, and the 
 alumni insisted on his election, but his " Union " letter, 
 and religious views carried the day against him. Dr. 
 Thornwell, the retiring president, urged another pro 
 fessor, Dr. C. F. McCay, a Presbyterian, who had been 
 in the College only a year, with the hope of defeating 
 
76 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 both and naming a new man. Lieber stood at the head 
 for several ballots, when to the surprise of Dr. Thorn- 
 well, Professor McCay was elected. His administration 
 proved an absolute failure, and in 1857, he was com- 
 pelled to resign. On his defeat, Lieber at once resigned 
 his professorship to take effect in December, 1856. He 
 gave as his reason for this step, " not that I have been 
 passed over, although a large number of Trustees voted 
 for me, and for several ballotings I stood at the head ; 
 but because a professor, unknown to the Trustees, and 
 utterly incapable of ruling this institution, has been 
 elected, and because the College will go to ruin." He 
 claimed that he was too old to play the College consta 
 ble for another man, and spoke of himself as a " prome 
 nading " workman. His resignation was accepted by 
 the Board of Trustees of the College in December, 
 1856, when the following resolutions were adopted: 
 
 " Whereas, The resignation of Dr. Lieber has been accepted by this 
 Board : 
 
 Resolved, That the Board of Trustees have a full appreciation of the 
 eminent learning and just reputation of Dr. Lieber. 
 
 Resolved, That the Board tender to Dr. Lieber their hearty and sin 
 cere good wishes for his future welfare and prosperity." 
 
 The alumni of the College presented him with two 
 massive silver vessels, as a token of their esteem, and 
 adopted a series of resolutions which were conveyed 
 to him by a committee consisting of William C. Preston, 
 Governor Manning, James L. Petigru, Richard Yeadon, 
 
RESIGNS HIS PROFESSORSHIP 77 
 
 and Joseph B. Allston. In referring to the resignation, 
 Dr. la Borde, the historian of the College, pays the 
 following beautiful tribute : " I have but a single addi 
 tional remark to make. He must take his place as a 
 star of the first magnitude. In all future time, the 
 State will regard his name as one of the brightest and 
 most illustrious on the roll of the Faculty. That he 
 honored her cherished Institution, that he spread her 
 fame to distant lands, and contributed in large measure 
 to her exaltation and glory, none will question. He 
 will live forever in her history, and never, never, will 
 it be forgotten that her chosen temples of learning 
 were adorned by his ministrations, and that he de 
 voted the best portion of his life to her service and 
 honor." 
 
 ! On January 7, 1857, Lieber and his family took final 
 leave of South Carolina, and settled in New York City. 
 He had spent more than twenty years in his Southern 
 exile, but they were years of great productiveness, and 
 he came to the North with the laurels of scholarship, 
 while his writings had extended his fame even to 
 foreign lands. 
 
 During his relations with South Carolina College, 
 Lieber applied himself closely to his duties, while most 
 of his leisure time was devoted to the preparation of his 
 three great works. Besides these, he wrote a great 
 many essays on various subjects, which have been 
 republished in his " Miscellaneous Writings." He also 
 
78 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 made an occasional tour to the North in order to break 
 the monotony of life in his Southern exile. 
 
 He often longed for Europe, for science and for art, 
 and on March 18, 1844, he sailed from New York on 
 a visit to the fatherland. On account of his absence 
 from Prussia, he was excluded from the general pardon 
 extended to all political offenders at the time of 
 William s coronation. In 1841, he sent a petition to 
 the king, making application for a pardon. This was 
 granted in 1842, and Lieber was given permission to re 
 turn to Prussia. In his tour abroad, he passed through 
 England, and was delighted to find his " Political 
 Ethics " in use. He dined with de Tocqueville at Brus 
 sels ; travelled to the Waterloo battlefield, and found 
 the spot where he had been wounded. Toward the 
 end of July he hastened on to Berlin. He had a long 
 talk with the king, who began by saying : " I am very 
 sorry that you are going away again. I thought that 
 we might be able to keep you here. It is a great pity." 
 In his diary, Lieber describes the king as a polite man 
 with small blue eyes and thin sandy hair. He was 
 greatly interested in American affairs, and made care 
 ful inquiries into our penitentiary system. Lieber 
 recommended to him the appointment of inspectors- 
 general of prisons, with the duty to lecture in the uni 
 versities on penology. The king expressed a wish to 
 appoint him a prison inspector, with a definite sum 
 to defray the expense of moving, and thirteen hundred 
 
VISITS EUROPE 79 
 
 thalers for a position in the Department of Justice, with 
 permission to lecture in the University on penology. 
 On his refusal of the offer, the king exclaimed : " Has 
 Prussia so deeply offended you that you cannot for 
 give ? " Lieber spent some time also in Alsace and 
 Baden, where he saw women ploughing. The same 
 sight had often made him sad in South Carolina, where 
 he saw negro women do this kind of work. In January, 
 1845, he returned to America, and resumed his College 
 work. Shortly after his return, he received another 
 invitation to enter the Prussian service, and to give 
 lectures in the University of Berlin, but the offer was 
 declined. 
 
 Lieber s interest was aroused by the revolutionary 
 movements in Europe in 1848, and in June of that 
 year he once more started abroad. In February, 1848, 
 Louis Philippe was driven from the throne, and France 
 was declared a republic. This event increased the 
 political ferment in Germany which had been grow 
 ing for more than thirty years. In March, a general 
 movement began in the smaller German states in the 
 west, demanding freer constitutions and popular re 
 forms. The revolution spread with great rapidity, and 
 the patriotic party made a demand for national unity, 
 with a representation of the people in the Diet of the 
 confederation. The king promised to strive for Ger 
 man unity, and a national assembly was proposed. 
 But the revolutionary party was impatient for a sud- 
 
8o FRANCIS LIBBER 
 
 1^ 
 
 den change. There were serious outbreaks in a num 
 ber of towns, and the riots became alarming in Berlin, 
 Frankfort, Dresden, Baden, and the Palatinate. When 
 the news of this popular uprising Beached Lieber, he 
 was unable to continue his lecture in the College. 
 He said : " My young friends, I am unfit for you this 
 afternoon. News has arrived that Germany, too, is 
 rising, and my heart is full to overflowing. I " 
 " but I felt choked. I pointed toward the door. The 
 students left it, gave a hearty cheer for old Germany. 
 I hurried home and fell on my bed, and cried like a 
 child, no, far more, like a man."_ He reached Bre 
 men on July 7, 1848, after a trip of thirteen days from 
 New York. At Frankfort he dined with Mittermaier, 
 Von Mohl, Wurm, and Burgermeister Schmidt. At 
 Heidelberg there was a large mass meeting, and the 
 Republic was openly spoken of, but it was always the 
 French Republic. He realized the difficulty of a revo 
 lution in Germany, and in a letter to his wife while 
 abroad, he predicted that blood would flow ; that there 
 would be a real civil war in order to effect German 
 unity and overthrow the princes. He saw on all sides 
 an inconceivable ignorance in everything that pertained 
 to civil liberty ; there was no experience, and the de 
 bates showed the want of all comprehension. He 
 said : " There is all the time a state which I should 
 designate as a brewing tempest, but the storm is ready 
 in any moment to break forth." Lieber returned to 
 
VISITS EUROPE 8 1 
 
 America in September, 1848, and on reaching home, 
 he once more resumed his duties in the College. His 
 interest in the struggle continued, as his son, Oscar, 
 a student at Freiburg, took part in the riots against 
 the princes at Dresden, in the spring of 1849. After 
 spending four days and nights in the barricades, the 
 young man came out of the struggle without injury, 
 and Lieber wrote : " His coat was riddled, his pow 
 der-flask perforated, his hat shot into; but God has 
 protected the ardent lad." 
 
 The events of 1848 in Europe made a deep impres 
 sion on Lieber s mind, as may be seen upon examin 
 ing the frequent references in his "Civil Liberty and 
 Self-Government." 
 
THE CALL TO COLUMBIA COLLEGE IN THE CITY OF NEW 
 YORK LIFE IN THE NORTH 
 
 T lEBER S name had been favorably known to the 
 JL/ authorities of Columbia College for a number 
 of years. His address at the meeting held in 1831 to 
 consider the founding of the University of the City of 
 New York gave him a reputation on academic questions. 
 This movement alarmed the friends of Columbia Col 
 lege, and its Trustees were at once aroused to greater 
 activity. While the authorities of the College had 
 always exerted themselves to make the course a good 
 one, they were stirred to unusual efforts by the founding 
 of the University. The first steps taken were to make 
 important changes in the College curriculum. While 
 the existing course of study was preserved entire as the 
 Full Course, another was adopted, which was called the 
 Scientific and Literary Course. This course was not 
 much of a success, and it seemed to be in advance of 
 the time. Nothing very effective, however, could be 
 done, because the money necessary was not in hand. 
 Further changes were contemplated in 1853, when com 
 mercial activity made it necessary to remove the institu- 
 
 82 
 
PLANS FOR COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 83 
 
 tion from College Place. On October 3 of this year, 
 a committee was appointed to consider the removal of 
 the College. A preliminary report was made in Novem 
 ber, 1853, recommending the proposed change in loca 
 tion, and on July 24, 1854, the committee made its full 
 report to the Trustees. In 1857, a new site for the 
 College was purchased in the section bounded by Forty- 
 ninth and Fiftieth Streets, and Fourth and Madison 
 Avenues. The development of the plan for enlarging 
 the scope of instruction went on with that for the 
 change of location. As early as 1853, Lieber was 
 requested by President King to give his views regard 
 ing a university in New York. Nothing definite was 
 accomplished until September 10, 1856, when a com 
 mittee was appointed to consider the reorganization of 
 the courses of instruction. On January 12, 1857, the 
 Trustees directed the committee " to bring in the full 
 statute to comprehend the whole scheme of College 
 and University instruction comprehended by their 
 former report." 1 The committee made a final report 
 on March 2, 1857, after consulting the members of the 
 Faculty and seeking the advice of prominent educators 
 in various parts of the country. In September, 1856, 
 Lieber was asked to give his opinion on the proposed 
 grammar school, the organization of undergraduate 
 
 1 Addresses of the Newly appointed Professors of Columbia College, with 
 an Introductory Address by William Betts, LL.D., February, 1^858. New 
 York: By authority of the Trustees, 1858. 
 
84 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 courses, and on post-graduate courses in the College. ( 
 As to the appointment of professors, Lieber wrote: 
 " All college appointments of a higher kind in this 
 country ought to be made by a standing committee 
 of three, elected say, for three or four years the 
 appointments to be confirmed by the Board. The 
 committee ought always to propose their candidate 
 with a written report containing the reasons of appoint 
 ment." He also urged that non-resident professors be 
 engaged to deliver courses of lectures. In regard to 
 controverted questions, whether religious, moral, politi 
 cal, or scientific, Lieber claimed that the highest 
 freedom of thought ought to be permitted. Within a 
 year, the plan had matured in his mind, and in Feb 
 ruary, 1857, he made additional suggestions to the com 
 mittee, ^vhich, on account of their comprehensive scope 
 are given in full : 
 
 SUGGESTIONS ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 "i. It seems more important to begin the Univer 
 sity at once, although on a limited scale, than to wait 
 until a fully organized institution can be called into 
 existence. Four professors, say one of languages or 
 literature, one of history and political sciences, and 
 two for the natural sciences would seem sufficient to 
 make a beginning. Growth and organic expansion 
 have formed the strength and health of the greatest 
 institutions of learning and of charity. 
 
PLANS FOR COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 85 
 
 " 2. The principle of fees for admission to the dif 
 ferent courses ought to be adopted at once. It is of 
 great importance to the students as well as for the 
 professors so important, indeed, that I consider it, 
 under all circumstances, essential to success. 
 
 " 3. There ought to be three classes of professors, 
 viz. : 
 
 " a. Full, or ordinary professors, residing in the city. 
 
 " d. Professors appointed to teach a single course 
 each term persons eminent in some specialty, or 
 following some profession, residing in this city. The 
 salary .ought to be proportionately less. The talent 
 collected in so large a place as New York ought to 
 be utilized as much as possible by an institution 
 intended for the cultivation and diffusion of knowl 
 edge. 
 
 " c. Occasional lecturers invited to deliver a course, 
 or persons at a distance, but periodically repairing to 
 New York to deliver a certain course of lectures. Our 
 railways enable us to carry out the principle of multi 
 plying the usefulness of a public teacher, adopted as 
 early as under Trajan, in a far more effectual way. 
 
 "4. The professors designated under a, and so 
 much of c as may be especially appointed by the 
 Trustees, to form the University Senate at least for 
 the present. They elect, from among themselves, a 
 dean for a limited term, say for two years. The dean 
 is the connecting link between the Senate and the 
 
86 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 Trustees, the presiding officer of the Senate, and the 
 executive officer of the University. 
 
 " 5. Whenever the University shall have sufficiently 
 expanded to form separate Faculties, such as a Fac 
 ulty of law or jurisprudence, of philosophy and ethi 
 cal branches, of natural sciences, etc., then each 
 Faculty shall elect its own dean ; and the Faculties 
 united shall form the Senate, which shall elect its own 
 chancellor from among its own members for a limited 
 term the chancellor (or rector) to be the connecting 
 link between the University and the Trustees. 
 
 " 6. After the first four professors have been ap 
 pointed by the Trustees, the Senate ought to have 
 the exclusive right to nominate professors for new 
 professorships and for all vacated chairs, and the duty 
 to accompany their nomination with a report to the 
 Trustees stating the reasons why the nominations 
 have been made. So soon as there will be different 
 Faculties, each Faculty shall have the duty to pro 
 pose to the Senate for nomination persons to fill 
 chairs belonging to that particular Faculty. The Sen 
 ate will then make the nomination to the Trustees. 
 
 " 7. The Board of Trustees will establish no new 
 chair, after the foundation of the first four chairs, 
 without first obtaining the opinion of the Senate. 
 
 "8. Every person, whether a graduate of any col 
 lege or not, shall have the right to attend any course 
 of lectures for the common fees of admission, and 
 
PLANS FOR COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 87 
 
 some courses ought always to be delivered at such 
 hours of the day as to make it possible for persons 
 engaged in the various pursuits of life to attend them. 
 Merchants, engineers, theological students, teachers, 
 lawyers, manufacturers, agriculturists (during the win 
 ter months), navigators, mechanics, etc., ought thus 
 to have the opportunity of profiting by the liberal 
 diffusion of knowledge provided for by the Univer 
 sity. 
 
 "9. Nevertheless, there shall be regularly matricu 
 lated students, who, after having attended certain 
 prescribed courses, and having duly passed certain 
 prescribed examinations, shall receive degrees and 
 diplomas, bestowed by the Senate. 
 
 "10. A University building, in an accessible part 
 of the city, would be of great convenience, but it is 
 not indispensably necessary. There are many universi 
 ties of renown in Europe without University buildings. 
 In order to make a beginning without delay, a con 
 venient house might be readily hired or bought. It 
 would not even be necessary that all University lectures 
 should be delivered in this house ; a professor of chem 
 istry, for instance, or a professor of the fine arts, might 
 find it convenient to lecture in other places. The 
 Senate, or the Senate and Trustees, would be the 
 proper authorities to regulate this matter. 
 
 "n. College professors may be, but need not neces 
 sarily be, University professors. 
 
88 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 " 1 2. Annual prize questions ought to be established ; 
 a, for matriculated students ; b, for competitors at large 
 in the United States and out of them. 
 
 "13. The Senate should have the right to grant, 
 to persons properly qualified, permission to deliver 
 courses of lectures in the University. These licentiates 
 will have no salary, but shall receive the fixed fees of 
 admission to their own lectures. The Senate shall give 
 the license to lecture on certain and distinctly stated 
 branches only. The Senate can annul the license at 
 any time ; nor shall it be given for a longer period than 
 five years, after which it may be renewed. The pro 
 posed delivery of lectures by licentiates is to be pub 
 lished with the intended lectures of the professors, 
 previous to the beginning of each semi-annual term. 
 The licentiates would correspond to the private docents 
 of the German universities, where they have been found 
 of great use. The appointment of private docents grew 
 out of the privilege of lecturing, which the degree con 
 ferred upon every graduate in the early universities; 
 indeed, this was the early meaning of the degree 
 A.M." 
 
 - 
 While the time had not yet arrived for the adoption 
 
 of so broad a scheme as that which Lieber proposed, 
 an important step was taken in this direction. At first, 
 delays arose in finding proper accommodations for the 
 College, but when the removal was completed, it became 
 
PLANS FOR COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 89 
 
 possible to carry out the plan suggested by the com 
 mittee. This plan contemplated the retaining of the 
 Classical Course for three years, and the establishment 
 of a Scientific Course to occupy three years. These 
 two courses were to meet at the beginning of the 
 Senior year, and the students were to be prepared to 
 undertake any of the studies to be thereafter taught. 
 Three schools, namely; of philosophy or philology, of 
 jurisprudence and history, and of mathematics and 
 physical science were to be organized, into which the 
 students were to enter at the beginning of the Senior 
 year ; and at the end of that year, those who had pur 
 sued the Classical Course were to receive the degree 
 of bachelor of arts, and those who had pursued the 
 Scientific Course, that of bachelor of science. The 
 studies of these schools were not to end with the first 
 degree, but were to continue two years longer, forming 
 what was to be called the Post-Graduate Course. In 
 1857, the Senior class was divided into the schools of 
 letters, jurisprudence, and science, and the committee 
 in charge of the subject was authorized by the Board of 
 Trustees to open the Post-Graduate Course of instruc 
 tion on the first Monday of December, 1858. It was 
 also resolved to add several professors to the Faculty, 
 and the following appointments were made; James 
 D. Dana, professor of geology and natural history; 
 Arnold Guyot, professor of physical geography; George 
 P. Marsh, professor of the English language, and T. 
 
QO FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 W. Dwight, professor of law. 1 The chairs, held by 
 Professors McVickar, McCulloch, and Hackley, were 
 divided on account of the arduous duties connected 
 /therewith. I At the same time, the new chair of history 
 and political science was created, to which Lieber was 
 called on May 18, 1857. He received an immense 
 number of congratulations, and North and South alike 
 spoke highly of the appointment. He was proud of 
 the honor conferred upon him, and wrote to Hamilton 
 Fish, one of the Trustees, suggesting that he make a 
 motion to have the chair called the chair of history 
 and political science. Lieber added that he desired 
 to write to de Tocqueville, and tell him that he had 
 been made professor of the greatest branches in the 
 greatest city of the greatest union that of history 
 and political science. To Hillard, he expressed his 
 gratification as follows : " Yesterday your fat fogy of 
 a friend was unanimously elected professor of history 
 and political science in Columbia College and for the 
 University Course. It is pleasing to remember that 
 both times when chairs were given to me, it was done 
 unanimously by bodies of Trustees consisting of some 
 twenty-five members." 
 
 The call of Lieber to Columbia College must be 
 regarded as an important event in American educa 
 tional history, and Dr. Herbert B. Adams speaks of 
 it as " the first recognition by a Northern college of 
 
 1 With the exception of Professor Dwight, these were temporary appoint 
 ments as lecturers. 
 
LIBBER S CALL TO COLUMBIA 91 
 
 history and politics as properly coordinated sciences." 1 
 " At the College of South Carolina," Dr. Adams con 
 tinues, " Lieber had taught history, political economy, 
 and philosophy as a homogeneous group. The pres 
 ence of the latter subject in his professorship betrays 
 a survival of the old scholastic connection of meta 
 physics and politics, a connection which lasted long at 
 Harvard, Columbia, and many other colleges. It was 
 the great ambition of Lieber to associate history with 
 the political sciences, and to make these subjects an 
 independent and homogeneous department." 
 
 j The subjects assigned to Lieber s chair were modern i 
 history, political science, international law, civil and 
 common law. The Senior class took modern his 
 tory, political philosophy and political economy, using 
 as texts Weber s " Outlines of Universal History," Lie 
 ber s "Civil Liberty" and Say s "Political Economy." 
 To the Junior class, he gave two hours a week through 
 out the year on mediaeval history, while the Sophomores 
 had Roman history, from Wilson s " Outlines," down to 
 the fall of the Western Empire. The Freshman class 
 used the same text-book and were taught the history of 
 Greece down to 146 B.C. 2 No one but a man endowed 
 
 with Lieber s capacity for work would have been able 
 
 ~*e 
 
 1 " The Study of History in American Colleges and Universities," bj 
 Herbert B. Adams, Ph.D. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1887. 
 
 2 For a full account of Lieber s methods of teaching, see Chapter VI ; see 
 also his remarks on Studies in Appendix. 
 
F 
 
 92 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 to carry a burden like this. Physically robust, and pos 
 sessing a genuine enthusiasm for his subject, his life 
 was crowded with industry, both in the lecture-room 
 > ."S and in other departments. Learning history from one 
 
 of the chief authorities of the century, his work assumed 
 
 J 
 
 the highest character. One of his colleagues at Co- 
 lumbia College, Prof. J. H. Van Amringe, writes:: "I can 
 personally testify that his work had a very great influ 
 ence in broadening the views of the students who came 
 under him, and in making them understand the affairs 
 of the world, and the genesis and bearing of historical 
 truths anywhere enunciated or exemplified." 
 
 With his College duties, his extensive correspondence, 
 his intimate relations with public men, and the approach 
 of the Civil War, Lieber s career in the North became 
 one of intense activity. He had intended to spend the 
 summer vacation of 1861 in Europe, but he abandoned 
 the trip, feeling that he would be worried by constant 
 , -talk about the Rebellion. His position as a professor 
 of public and international law brought him into much 
 prominence during this period. \ His advice was con 
 stantly sought by Sumner, Garfield, 
 
 and other leading statesmen, and he was quoted as an 
 authority on the many leading questions that arose 
 during the War. He was one of the founders of the 
 Loyal Publication Society, which distributed more than 
 one hundred thousand pamphlets, ten bearing the name 
 of " Francis Lieber." The War Department at Wash- 
 
REACTION IN HIS DEPARTMENT 
 
 93 
 
 ington also recognized his abilities, and, in 1862, at the 
 request of General Halleck, he prepared his work on 
 " Guerrilla Parties Considered in Reference to the Laws 
 and Usages of War." In 1863, at the instance of Presi 
 dent Lincoln, he wrote " Instructions for the Govern 
 ment of Armies of the United States in the Field," which 
 was published by the War Department as General 
 Orders, No. 100. ! Both of these works are discussed 
 at length in the chapter on Military Law. 
 
 In the meantime, a number of changes in the work 
 of the College were under consideration. The gradu 
 ate department established in 1857, was abolished the 
 next year. It appears that the time had not yet ar 
 rived for so broad a scheme of advanced work. A 
 
 s 
 
 more serious reaction occurred in 1865, as a result of 
 the suggestions in President Barnard s annual report. 
 This report contained the following recommendations: 
 " All the subjects embraced in the two departments 
 of philosophy and English, and of history and politi 
 cal science, might be better put into the hands of a 
 single instructor, with a tutor to assist him, than be 
 disposed of as at present. It is quite doubtful, in the 
 view of the undersigned, whether modern history, in 
 the proper sense of the word, ought to occupy any 
 considerable space in the teaching of our colleges. 
 The subject is too vast, and practically so exhaustless, 
 that the little which can be taught in the few hours 
 of class instruction (if that is all the learner ever 
 
94 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 knows) amounts to but a small remove from absolute 
 ignorance. There are certain large outlines that can 
 be sketched boldly out; but that being done, the in 
 structor will much more profitably employ himself in 
 furnishing the student with something of the bibli 
 ography of history in giving him, in short, a guide 
 for his private reading than in attempting any detail 
 of the growth and decline of particular peoples, or the 
 rise and fall of particular empires." 
 
 Acting on these suggestions, the Trustees on July 
 6, 1865, abolished the chair of history and political 
 science in the College, and the department was placed 
 in charge of the professor of philosophy and English 
 literature. The same day, Lieber was transferred to 
 the Law School, and made professor of constitutional 
 history and public law, where he remained until his 
 death in 1872. 
 
 Lieber was disappointed at the conservative action 
 of the College authorities in 1865, and he expressed 
 his feelings to Dr. Andrew D. White, as follows : " I 
 have spoken much of the necessity of teaching history 
 
 and political economy in colleges. The present presi- 
 
 * 
 
 dent of Columbia College has declared the former too 
 comprehensive, and the latter too deep a science, to 
 be taught in colleges; and in the middle of the nine 
 teenth century these two branches have been abolished 
 
 N^ v* j 
 
 in Columbia College ! It was done at a time when, 
 
 y 
 
 in impoverished Virginia, immediately after her sub- 
 
CAREER IN THE LAW SCHOOL 
 
 95 
 
 jection, the legislature appropriated some money for 
 chairs of history and political economy in the College 
 of which Lee became president. It cuts me to the 
 very heart, but so it is. Keep this in mind, and let it 
 stir you and incite you the more not to forget these 
 noble and necessary branches in the Cornell College. 
 Nowhere is it so necessary to hold before the eyes of 
 young men a mirror of the sacredness and gravity of 
 political duties or the obligation of a citizen, as in a 
 country in which his rights and privileges are almost 
 unlimited." ; 
 
 Although Lieber was naturally disappointed at the 
 set-back that his work received from President Bar 
 nard, his services in the College were of vast impor 
 tance, as the later development of the graduate and 
 professional schools indicates. There seems to be a 
 close parallel between the ideas of 1857, and those of 
 later times, as far as history and political science are 
 concerned. 1 Lieber s connection with Columbia College 
 in 1857, marked an epoch in the scientific teaching 
 of these subjects, and another epoch was begun in 
 1880, when the Trustees of the College resolved to 
 .establish a school of political science, open to ad 
 vanced collegiate students, with courses leading to 
 the degree of doctor of philosophy. As Lieber had *~ 
 carried German ideas into Columbia College in 1857, 
 these ideas continued to prevail when his mantle fell 
 upon his successor, Dr. John W. Burgess, who had 
 
96 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 studied history and political science with the late 
 Professor Droysen, of Berlin. 
 
 With Lieber s advent in the Law School, the last 
 period of his academic career begins. The School 
 was organized in 1858, and under the administration 
 of Dr. T. W. Dwight its growth was rapid. Many 
 years before this time, Chancellor Kent had delivered 
 lectures on law in the College, but after a brief 
 period, they were discontinued. On the establish 
 ment of the Law School, Dr. T. W. Dwight was 
 appointed professor of municipal law. With him 
 were associated as a Faculty, Professors Lieber and 
 Nairne, who were also members of the College Fac 
 ulty, while in 1860, Dr. John Ordronaux was made 
 professor of medical jurisprudence. On Lieber s 
 transfer to the Law School, the Trustees outlined 
 the scope of his work by a resolution of October 9, 
 1865. He was required to deliver one lecture weekly 
 to each class during the academic year. To the 
 Junior class, he lectured on the constitutional his 
 tory of England, and also on modern political history; 
 while his lectures to the Senior class included the 
 subjects of United States history and government. No 
 adequate conception of the nature of Lieber s work in 
 the Law School can be gained from the above state 
 ment of his courses. * -He led his students into those 
 chosen fields of investigation which had won for him 
 a reputation throughout the world. Professor Van 
 
CAREER IN THE LAW SCHOOL 97 
 
 Amringe makes the following statement in regard to 
 Lieber s career in the Law School : " Professor Lieber s 
 connection with the School continued until his death 
 in the autumn of 1872; and he gave, yearly, a course 
 of lectures upon those special subjects in which he 
 had gained great distinction for his learning, origi 
 nality, and independence of thought, extensive re 
 search, and sound judgment, viz., The History of 
 Political Literature; Political Ethics; The Origin, 
 Development, Objects, and History of Political So 
 ciety; Constitutional Government, etc." 1 Since Lie 
 ber s death, his place was temporarily held by Hon. 
 George H. Gusman, Charles W. McLean, and Dr. 
 John W. Burgess, of Amherst College, until 1876, 
 when the chair of history, political science, and 
 international law was created, and Dr. Burgess was 
 elected to fill it. 
 
 ^During the last ten years of his career, Lieber took 
 an absorbing interest in the subject of International 
 Law. In 1860, the "scientific clover-leaf" was formed 
 with Bluntschli and Laboulaye, and in the following 
 years, his essays on International Law appeared. He 
 had now arisen to the highest dignity as a publicist, 
 his ideal being to form a permanent alliance of the 
 leading international jurists, and thus prepare the 
 way for a commonwealth of nations. He also wrote 
 
 1 "Historical Sketch of Columbia College, from 1754 to 1876," by Profes 
 sor J. H. Van Amringe, p. 84. 
 
98 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 many letters to the New York Evening Post, signed 
 " Americus," and his last work was a treatise on " The 
 Rise of the Constitution," which was almost ready for 
 the press at the time of his death. 
 
 In 1865, the Secretary of War endeavored to secure 
 an appropriation for a lecturer on the Law and Usages 
 of War on Land, at West Point. The plan was to get 
 the appointment for Lieber in recognition of his valuable 
 services during the War. This was never accomplished, 
 but he was afterward appointed to classify and arrange 
 the Rebel Archives in the office of the War Department, 
 and he was engaged in this work for several months. 
 i, His knowledge of international law led to his selection 
 as umpire according to the terms of the Mexican Con 
 vention for Settling Claims. After the signature of the 
 treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, claims and com 
 plaints were made by citizens of the United States, 
 on account of injuries to their persons and their property 
 by authorities of Mexico, and similar claims and com 
 plaints were made on account of injuries to the persons 
 and property of Mexican citizens by the authorities of 
 the United States. By a convention, July 4, 1868, 
 between the two nations, it was agreed to refer the 
 settlement of the claims to a board of commissioners 
 and an umpire. The deliberations continued from July 
 31, 1869, to November 20, 1876. A thousand and 
 seventeen claims were presented by the United States, 
 and nine hundred and ninety-eight by Mexico, and 
 
OTHER ACTIVITIES 99 
 
 their aggregate amount exceeded half a billion dollars. 
 The total amount allowed was about four millions. 
 !The appointment of umpire was reluctantly accepted 
 by Lieber, only after it had been urged upon him by 
 Hon. Hamilton Fish and Mr. Marescal, the Minister 
 of Mexico. The chief characteristic of this work was 
 the admirable decisions of the umpire, who disposed of 
 each case by the one rule of common sense and justice. 
 Lieber had contemplated the resignation of his profes 
 sorship and commission on May i, 1872, in order to 
 visit Europe. But the Senate confirmed a treaty with 
 Mexico, which extended his commission as umpire until 
 January, i, 1873, and he was compelled to change his 
 plans. This was his last important work, being not yet 
 completed at his death in October, 1872. 
 
VI 
 
 LIEBER S VIEWS ON EDUCATION HIS POSITION AS A 
 
 TEACHER 
 
 I IEBER brought with him to America a high 
 L-J ideal of the political significance of educatiojn. 
 He had seen Germany, humiliated by a foreign foe, 
 depend upon the schools for her regeneration; there 
 fore, he looked upon education as one of the chief 
 interests of the State, and his writings on the sub 
 ject attracted general attention. In 1826, he wrote 
 an essay on the Lancastrian Schools, first published 
 in the Literarische Blatter der Borsen-Halle, number 
 122. It contains an intelligent description of the 
 Lancastrian system of education, according to which 
 the more advanced pupils teach the others, and 
 an earnest appeal in behalf of its introduction into 
 Germany. His views on the subject of a university 
 in New York City have been referred to in a former 
 chapter. In his plan for the organization of Girard 
 College, published in 1834, he claimed that our country 
 stood in need of a polytechnic school. In Girard Col 
 lege, he would have the youth instructed as to the 
 political character of man, the nature of our institu- 
 
 100 
 
VIEWS ON EDUCATION IOI 
 
 tions, and the mechanism of nations ; while he recom 
 mended mechanical education in workshops. The 
 plan made provision for gymnastics and a swimming 
 school, and urged scientific singing as the best exer 
 cise for the development of the chest. The branches 
 to be taught were morals, religion, writing, drawing, 
 grammar, literature, mathematics, pure and applied, as 
 tronomy, architecture, natural sciences, machine build 
 ing, politics and history, mental and moral philosophy, 
 French, Spanish, German, and Latin. All instruction 
 was to be vested in the five faculties of mathematics, 
 history, philosophy, philology, and arts. Lieber gave 
 the following explanation of his proposed plan : " The 
 scientific character, therefore, which I believe it is neces 
 sary to give to the College is, that it shall be a poly 
 technic college and a seminary for teachers ; two things 
 which may be admirably combined, and I shall consider 
 it as my happiest labor if the following Constitution 
 shall appear to you to provide for these wants, and I 
 shall thus contribute my mite to assist our nation in 
 fulfilling its great and proud task, imposed upon it by 
 history." 
 
 In 1835, Lieber s views on "The Relation Between 
 Education and Crime," appeared in the form of a 
 letter addressed to Bishop White. In this essay, he 
 gave the following as the sources of many crimes: 
 i. Deficient education, early loss of parents, and conse 
 quent neglect are some of the most fruitful sources of 
 
102 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 crime ; 2. That few convicts have learned a regular 
 trade, and if they were bound to any apprenticeship, 
 they have abandoned it before the time had lawfully 
 expired; 3. That school education is, with most con 
 victs, very deficient, or entirely wanting; 4. That in 
 temperance, very often the consequence of a loose 
 education, is a most appalling source of crime ; 5. 
 That by preventing intemperance, and by promoting 
 education, we are authorized to believe that we shall 
 prevent crime in a considerable degree. 
 
 Lieber laid great stress upon the importance of 
 education in politics. He believed that the State 
 should be interested not only in the promotion 
 of education among the poor, but that a com 
 plete system of public instruction comprehends all 
 institutions which are necessary for society, and which 
 cannot be established by private means. He main 
 tained that even the lowliest cottager has a right to 
 the highest possible degree of cultivation in the 
 sciences. He looked upon the following four qualities 
 as of much importance in education applied to politics: 
 the habit of obedience, of independence, of reverence, 
 and of honesty. 
 
 In his inaugural address, delivered on February 17, 
 1858, on assuming the chair of history and political 
 science in Columbia College, Lieber made an eloquent 
 plea for a national university in our country, sharing 
 the views held by Washington and other statesmen of 
 
A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 103 
 
 the day. For twenty years he had been urging the 
 establishment of a real university in America, and, in 
 1857, at his suggestion, Columbia College took a step 
 in that direction. His inaugural address has a pecul 
 iar interest to-day on account of the recent discussion 
 on the national university. It serves also to illustrate 
 his exalted ideal of the relation of the State to higher 
 education. 
 
 After referring to the. national crisis which led to 
 the establishment of the University of Berlin, Lieber 
 spoke in the following beautiful language : - 
 
 " We are, indeed, not prostrated like Prussia after 
 the French conquest, but we stand no less in need 
 of a broad national institution of learning and teach 
 ing. Our government is a federal union. We loyally 
 adhere to it and turn our faces from centralization, 
 however brilliant, for a time, the lustre of its focus 
 may appear, however imposingly centred power, that 
 saps self-government, may hide for a day the inherent 
 weakness of military concentrated politics. But truths 
 are truths. It is a truth that modern civilization 
 stands in need of entire countries; and it is a truth 
 that every government, as indeed every institution 
 whatever, is, by its nature, exposed to the danger of 
 gradually increased and, at last, excessive action of 
 its vital principle. One-sidedness is a universal effect 
 of man s state of sin. Confederacies are exposed to 
 the danger of sej unction, as unitary governments are 
 
104 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 exposed to absorbing central power centrifugal 
 power in the one case, centripetal power in the other. 
 That illustrious predecessor of ours, from whom we 
 borrowed our very name, the United States of the 
 Netherlands, suffered long from the paralyzing poison 
 of disjunction, and was brought to an early grave 
 by it, after having added to the stock of humanity 
 such worshipful names as William of Orange, and 
 De Witt, Grotius, De Ruyter, and William the Third. 
 There is no German within my hearing that does 
 not sadly remember that his country, too, furnishes 
 us with bitter commentaries on this truth ; and we 
 are not exempt from the dangers common to mortals. 
 Yet as was indicated just now, the patriot, of us 
 moderns ought to consist in a wide land covered by 
 a nation, and not in a city or a little colony. Man 
 kind have outgrown the ancient city-state. Countries 
 are the orchards and the broad acres where modern 
 civilization gathers her grain and nutritious fruits. 
 The narrow garden beds of antiquity suffice for our 
 widened humanity no more than the short existence 
 of ancient states. Moderns stand in need of nations 
 and of national longevity, for their literatures and 
 law, their industry, liberty, and patriotism; we want 
 countries to work and speak, write and glow for, 
 to live and die for. The sphere of humanity has 
 steadily widened, and nations alone can nowadays 
 acquire the membership of that great commonwealth 
 
A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 105 
 
 of our race which extends over Europe and America. 
 Has it ever been sufficiently impressed on our minds 
 how slender the threads are that unite us in a mere 
 political system of states, if we are not tied together 
 by the far stronger cords of those feelings which arise 
 from the consciousness of having a country to cling 
 to and to pray for, and unimpeded land and water 
 roads to move on ? 
 
 " Should we, then, not avail ourselves of so well 
 proved a cultural means of fostering and promoting 
 a generous nationality, as a comprehensive university 
 is known to be ? Shall we never have this noble 
 pledge of our nationality? All Athens, the choicest 
 city-state of antiquity, may well be said to have been 
 one great university, where masters daily met with 
 masters, and shall we not have even one for our 
 whole empire, which does not extend from bay to 
 bay, like little Attica, but from sea to sea, and is 
 destined one day to link ancient Europe to still 
 older Asia, and thus to help completing the zone of c 
 civilization around the globe ? " 
 
 As we contemplate the recent development of our 
 American universities, the words of Lieber have a spe 
 cial significance. We are just entering upon that 
 promising era of liberal education, which he anticipated } 
 forty years ago, and which is beginning to glow with 
 the far-reaching spirit of a stronger nationality. 
 
 On January 15, 1831, Lieber wrote to Ranke, the 
 
; . ^ 
 
 
 1 06 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 historian, as follows : " As it is said of the great Coper 
 nicus that to the fact that he happened to live in Italy 
 is due the sublime idea of his planetary system, so it is 
 important for the historian to live in a politically active 
 country, such as England or the United States. In 
 Germany, the student of history can learn it only in the 
 libraries ; in Italy, in retrospection ; but in England and 
 America, in its actual existence. And for the present 
 time, of which the key is the democratic principle, 
 I mean this only in opposition to the feudal principle, 
 and not with regard to power, the United States and 
 France seem to me to be the high schools of history." 1 
 When Lieber was elected professor of history and 
 political economy in South Carolina College, he be 
 came the first full professor of these branches that the 
 College ever had, and he gave more extended courses 
 than were offered at the time in the largest institutions 
 of the country. It was not until two hundred years 
 after the founding of Harvard, that the study of history 
 was given any prominence in that institution. In 1839, 
 a special chair was endowed, and Jared Sparks was 
 made professor of ancient and modern history. Before 
 this time, it was customary to devote an hour to history 
 on Saturday mornings for half a year. As early as 1822, 
 general history, as distinguished from classical, appeared 
 in the curriculum of Yale College, and the same year, 
 Kent s "Commentaries" became a Senior study. No 
 
 1 " Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 89. 
 
POSITION AS A TEACHER 107 
 
 further development took place until 1847, when Dr. 
 Woolsey became president of the College. Then polit 
 ical philosophy was added to the course, and while 
 Woolsey was engaged in gathering materials for his great 
 works, Lieber was composing his famous treatise on 
 "Civil Liberty." In 1857, the same year that Dr. Andrew 
 D. White carried new methods in history to the Uni 
 versity of Michigan, Lieber began his career in Colum 
 bia College. As early as 1773, John Vardill was ap 
 pointed professor of natural law at Columbia, while in 
 1775, he was made professor of history and the lan 
 guages. A great stimulus was given to historical stud 
 ies in the College by Dr. McVickar, who, in 1817, was 
 made professor of philosophy, and within a year, polit 
 ical economy was added to his department, i It was v 
 not until Lieber s call to Columbia that the College gave 
 a prominent place to institutional history, and the year 
 1857, may be regarded as a landmark in historical cul 
 ture among our Northern colleges. 
 
 Lieber s scheme of historical instruction was far 
 more comprehensive than any undertaken before his 
 time. During his early years at South Carolina Col 
 lege, the Freshman class studied ancient history to 
 the Peloponnesian War; the Sophomores to Alex 
 ander the Great; the Juniors studied modern history, 
 while he lectured to the Seniors on political economy. 
 In Columbia College, his range of subjects was far 
 more extensive, including modern history, political 
 
108 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 science, international law, civil law, and common law. 
 The Trustees had a very large conception of the 
 powers of endurance of the historical professor. To 
 day, the subjects assigned to Lieber would be dis 
 tributed among half a dozen men. It is no wonder 
 that President Barnard was dissatisfied with the 
 arrangement, and urged that the chair of history be 
 abolished. But the Trustees continued the same 
 policy after Lieber had been transferred to the Law 
 School, as the resolution of October 9, 1865, indicates. 
 Many of Lieber s former students and associates 
 have related interesting memories of his work as a 
 teacher. Colonel C. C. Jones, the historian of Georgia, 
 was one of his pupils in South Carolina College, and 
 he regarded it a genuine privilege to learn at his 
 lips. His classes were always crowded, and he tried 
 to impress upon the students the continuity of his 
 tory, the unity of the human family, and the great 
 principles that underlie human society. The sur 
 roundings of his lecture-room all tended to enkindle 
 in the student a desire for liberal knowledge. I There 
 were to be found, of course, the ordinary maps, 
 charts, and globes that are indispensable in the room 
 of the historical professor. He made free use of 
 blackboards, one of which he assigned to the illustra 
 tion of historical lectures. He called it the "battle 
 blackboard," and it was permanently marked in col 
 umns headed: name of the war; in what country or 
 
POSITION AS A TEACHER 109 
 
 province the battle ; when ; who victorious over whom ; 
 effects of the battle; peace. He directed his students 
 always after having finished an important period, to 
 make synchronistic tables of the same. They pasted 
 yards of paper together in order to be able to get 
 around the earth. Many of the students told Lieber 
 that these tables opened to them an entirely new 
 field. The walls of his lecture-room were also graced 
 with the busts of the great men of ancient and mod 
 ern times, and each new class contributed one or 
 two. There, as mute witnesses of the past, stood 
 Homer, Demosthenes, Socrates, Cicero, Shakespeare, 
 Milton, Kant, Goethe, Humboldt, Luther, Washing 
 ton, Hamilton, and William Penn. The illustrious 
 trio, Webster, Calhoun, and Clay were also repre 
 sented, as were two of the favorite public servants of 
 South Carolina, Preston and McDuffie. Washington s 
 bust was at the entrance to his lecture-room, with 
 these words painted under it on the wall: Fortis et 
 Probus Justus et Tenax. He was fond of quoting 
 the maxims of great scholars, and one day while tell 
 ing the Juniors that they came to college to learn 
 not for the college, but for life, the words of Seneca 
 occurred to him, Non schola discimus, sed vita; 
 "we do not learn for the school, but for life." This 
 
 idea fastened on his mind, and he had made a tab 
 let with these words : Non scholcz sed Vita ; Vita 
 utrisque, "not for the school, but for life; the life 
 
HO FRANCIS LIBBER 
 
 here and hereafter." This tablet was fastened against 
 the wall right over Washington s bust, and this bust 
 was immediately over Lieber s head when he lectured. 
 Lieber s colleagues in the Faculty of South Caro 
 lina College had the highest regard for his worth as 
 a teacher, to which Professor la Borde bears the 
 following willing testimony : " To his classes, he poured 
 out his learning in one continued stream ; and some 
 times it confounded from its very profusion. Full of 
 enthusiasm in the pursuit of knowledge, he always 
 exhibited the greatest earnestness of purpose. Of the 
 amount of his labors in the College, it is not easy to 
 form a correct estimate. His whole time, with but 
 little relaxation, was devoted to the severest toil. From 
 his study to his classroom, from his classroom to his 
 study this was his life ; and yet with all this labor, 
 his spirit was fresh, and his ardor unabated. Never 
 have I known a more unsatiable appetite, and he was 
 ever in search of food for its gratification. But not 
 to indulge in metaphor, I have never met a more 
 inquiring mind. He was always in quest of knowl 
 edge and drew it from every source. Like Franklin, 
 he would extract it even from the ignorant and un 
 thinking, and thus he levied his contributions upon 
 all. All know how suggestive a fact may be to a 
 thoughtful mind, and what beautiful superstructures 
 of knowledge have been reared from the humblest 
 beginnings. Overflowing with knowledge on such a 
 
TRIBUTE FROM JUDGE THAYER m 
 
 variety of subjects, he had it in his power to render 
 a particular service to the young men of the College, 
 which I have always regarded of immense value. In 
 the many public exercises which they are required to 
 perform, such as speeches at the exhibition, at com 
 mencement, before the societies, and prize essays, 
 nothing was more common than to seek a conversa 
 tion with Lieber, who would suggest the plan of 
 discussion, and point to the best sources of informa 
 tion. His lectures and published works, too, furnished 
 a mine of thought and knowledge, from which the 
 richest treasures were drawn." 
 
 One of Lieber s most intimate friends was Hon. 
 M. Russell Thayer, of Philadelphia. They became 
 acquainted during the Civil War, while Mr. Thayer 
 was a representative in Congress, and Lieber was a 
 frequent guest at his house. On January 13, 1873, 
 Mr. Thayer delivered a eulogy on his life and char 
 acter before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in 
 which he spoke of his work as a teacher in the fol 
 lowing language : [ " His method of teaching was such I 
 as to make the subject attractive in the highest de 
 gree to his students, and they thoroughly understood 
 everything they learned. He never read lectures, but 
 expounded his subjects in terse, familiar language, and 
 impressed them by copious and happy illustrations. 
 At the end of every recitation he gave out what for 
 the next time they ought to read collaterally, and 
 
112 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 what peculiar subjects or persons they ought to study 
 besides the lesson. He caused them to read poetry 
 and fiction in connection with history, in order to see 
 how great writers had conceived great characters. He 
 relied much upon the blackboard. To one he would 
 give chronology, to another geography, to another 
 names, and to another battles. Four large black 
 boards were in constant use at the same time, and 
 often a considerable portion of the floor besides. All 
 names were required to be written down, sometimes 
 sixty or seventy by one student, with a word or two 
 showing that the writer knew what they meant. All 
 places were pointed out on large maps and globes. 
 All definitions were written on the blackboard, in 
 order that there might be no mistake. He always 
 appointed a lesson, but the students when they came 
 did not know whether they were to recite or listen 
 to a lecture ; so that they always had to be prepared. 
 Notes of his lectures were to be taken, and he 
 required each student to have a blank-book, wherein 
 they must enter titles of books and subjects to be 
 studied in later life such as were necessary for an 
 educated man ; and he was particular in requiring 
 this blank-book to have a firm cover. He used to 
 say that books were like men, of little use without a 
 stiff back." 
 
 Lieber fully realized the solemn responsibilities con 
 nected with his position as a teacher of history and 
 
POLITICAL VALUE OF HISTORY 113 
 
 politics. With him, history was something vastly more 
 important than a mere record of the growth of nations. 
 He sought to discover the sure principles upon which 
 human society is founded ; to point out conspicuous 
 examples of virtue or vice ; to examine the operation 
 of wise laws, and to remind the student of the national 
 ruin that inevitably follows the disregard of right and 
 duty. In his inaugural address in South Carolina 
 College, in 1835, he portrayed in vivid language the 
 arduous task and the potent influence of the historical 
 teacher. He said : " I know of but few stations more 
 dignified than that of a public teacher of history; 
 scarcely of one more elevated than that of a teacher 
 appointed by a republic to instruct her children in civil 
 history. For if history is a science important to every 
 one, it is peculiarly so to republicans to members of 
 a community which essentially depends upon institu 
 tions. If they have to defend them against open attacks 
 or plausible heresies, they must know them, must be 
 well acquainted with their essential character, as well 
 as with the insinuating plausibility and the ruinous con 
 sequences with which those undermining heresies have 
 been advanced with other nations and in distant ages. 
 History is the memory of nations ; oh ! how many have 
 been lost for want of this memory, and on account of 
 careless, guilty ignorance ! " To say that Lieber taught 
 history and political science, conveys no adequate 
 notion of the scope of his work. His course of study 
 
114 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 could not be stated in terms of a curriculum. It was 
 an inspiration, which infused the noblest sentiments 
 into the minds of his pupils. In his " Civil Liberty and 
 Self-Government," he reviews the character of his work 
 as a teacher of history in the following dedication to his 
 
 former students : " When you were members of this 
 V 
 
 institution, I led you through the history of man, of 
 
 rising and of ebbing civilization, of freedom, despotism, 
 and anarchy. I have taught you how men are destined 
 to be producers and exchangers, how wealth is gathered 
 and lost, and how, without it, there can be no progress 
 and no culture. I have studied, with many of you, the 
 ethics of states and of political man. You can bear me 
 witness that I have endeavored to convince you of man s 
 inextinguishable individuality, and of the organic nature 
 of society ; that there is no right without a parallel duty, 
 no liberty without the supremacy of law, and no destiny 
 without earnest perseverance that there can be no 
 greatness without self-denial. Through you, my life and 
 name are linked to the Republic, and it seems natural 
 that I should dedicate to you a work intended to com 
 plete that part of my Political Ethics which touches 
 more especially on liberty. You will take it as the gift 
 of a friend, and will allow it kindly to remind you of 
 that room where you were accustomed to sit before your 
 teacher with the busts of Washington, Socrates, Shakes 
 peare, and other laborers in the vineyard of humanity 
 looking down upon us." 
 
THE MODERN TEACHER OF HISTORY 115 
 
 Lieber regarded the environment and position of the 
 teacher of history in this country as especially favora 
 ble to productive work. In contrasting antiquity with 
 modern times, he saw in the former but one leading 
 nation at any given period, while in our day, "several 
 nations strive in the career of progress like the coursers 
 of the Greek chariot." While in ancient times, the 
 philosopher made his appearance after the period of 
 high vitality had passed, the modern teacher lives 
 in a productive age, and has aided in bringing on 
 greater epochs of progress. He defined the teacher 
 of to-day as one whose lot is not merely the summing 
 up of the political life of a golden age never to be 
 surpassed. While Schlegel called the historian " the 
 prophet of the past," Lieber would honor him as " the 
 sower of fresh harvests." While the ancient historian 
 could speak only of the ruin of departed states, Lieber 
 pictured for the modern teacher a bright career in guid 
 ing statesmanship, in modifying the course of passion, 
 and in giving an impulse to essential reforms. 1 
 
 Although living in an intensely political age, Lieber 
 belonged to no party while teaching. His was the 
 position of the publicist, and he experienced what 
 calmness, resolution, and steadiness of soul it required 
 to lecture on the subjects belonging to his chair. He 
 enjoyed, especially at Columbia College, the utmost 
 freedom in teaching. Realizing that he could obtain 
 
 1 " Miscellaneous Writings," vol. i, p. 373. 
 
Il6 F&ANCIS LIEBER 
 
 no party reward from his position, his highest ambition 
 was to be known as a wise and earnest teacher. With 
 a sacred trust placed in his hands, he kept before him 
 at all times the motto : 
 
 " PATRIA CARA, CARIOR LIBERTAS, VERITAS CARISSIMA." 
 
VII 
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY : POLITICAL ETHICS LEGAL AND 
 
 POLITICAL HERMENEUTICS CIVIL LIBERTY PENAL 
 
 LAW THE PARDONING POWER OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 - V - - ^ t 
 - - ^ 
 
 one occasion Lieber wrote from his Southern 
 exile : " Did I live an active life in some high 
 sphere of action, I should not care for discomforts, or 
 even poverty. Give me an army to conquer, and I 
 should be satisfied with one wooden bowl, as Omar 
 was. There are few in the world who can realize my 
 situation. People who live in intellectual and social 
 communion do not know how much they owe, as to 
 incitement, the starting of ideas, and their regulation 
 and modification, to that communion. The mere see 
 ing a few persons who reflect and think, it need not 
 be in the same line, and who are befriended with us, 
 stirs, animates, vivifies. The mind is sharpened again 
 as the razor on a strop. Now, I have not one, not 
 even one, here who sympathizes with me, still less one 
 from whom I could derive stirring knowledge in my 
 sphere." Such were Lieber s feelings when he began 
 to write upon those subjects that had long occupied 
 
 117 
 
Il8 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 his mind. It was not given to him to lead an active 
 life in the North, or to receive a foreign mission where 
 he might enjoy Europe, with her science and her art. 
 The solitude of the South deprived him of these pleas 
 ures, but opened up to him instead a career of rich 
 production. The very loneliness of his situation con 
 tributed to the fame of his writings ; for in treating 
 the subject of political science he had to venture upon 
 an untrodden path, where friends could offer but little 
 advice. His work required mental isolation, and he 
 once said : " My book, as it is before the public, I have 
 been obliged to spin solitarily out of my brain, as 
 the spider spins its cobwebs." It is a most inter 
 esting study to follow Lieber in his transition from a 
 young enthusiast for freedom, writing poems on love, 
 liberty, and friendship, to a great publicist, known by 
 his works in every land of progress. 1 On coming to 
 America, his deep enthusiasm for freedom was followed 
 by a careful study of the principles of well-ordered lib 
 erty. He realized that it was a dangerous path he had 
 to follow. In his inaugural address in Columbia Col 
 lege, on February 17, 1858, he showed how the intense 
 
 1 " We wonder, as we become acquainted with him in the writings of 
 his mature life, how there could have been any froth of liberty in his youth 
 which brought suspicion upon him, and can only account for the treatment 
 he received from the police of his native country by that dread of revolution 
 which French movements during a generation had aroused, and which, with 
 unnatural sharpness of sight, saw in the youthful deliverers of their country 
 the foes of kings. 11 DR. T. D. WOOLSEY, IN INTRODUCTION TO CIVIL LIB 
 ERTY AND SELF-GOVERNMENT. 
 
SCHOOLS OF LAW AND POLITICS 119 
 
 interest in history and politics had developed schools, 
 and he warned all against the danger of falling into 
 serious errors. During his youthhood in Germany two 
 opposing schools of law and politics existed. "The 
 so-called historical school sprang up, which seems to 
 believe that nothing can be right but what has been, 
 and that all that has been is therefore right, sacrificing 
 right and justice, freedom, truth, and wisdom at the 
 shrine of Precedent and at the altar of Fact. 
 Another school has come into existence, spread at 
 this time more widely than the other, and considering 
 itself the philosophical school by way of excellence. 
 I mean those historians who seek the highest work of 
 history in finding out a predetermined type of social 
 development in each state and nation, and in every 
 race, reducing men to instinctive and involuntary be 
 ings, and society to nothing better than a bee-hive." 1 
 But Lieber rose above these opposing forces. He 
 had an ideal nature, but his contact with the stern 
 realities of life had toned him down. While many 
 political philosophers had merely formed ideals, he 
 had learned by cold experience. His enthusiasm had 
 brought him into conflict with the Prussian authorities, 
 while the Waterloo campaign, the prison life, the flight 
 in exile, his disappointment in Greece, his farewell 
 to the Old World and his life in the New all had 
 made him conscious of the power of facts. While his 
 
 1 " Miscellaneous Writings, 1 vol. i, p. 340. 
 
120 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 philosophy belonged to the system of Naturrechtslehre, 
 so popular in Europe at the time, he escaped its many 
 errors on account of his knowledge of history and of 
 practical life. 1 In a tribute to Lieber, Dr. Bluntschli 
 remarked: "The settlement of the old-time conflict of 
 schools, and the union of the philosophical and histori 
 cal methods, in contrast to the dangerous one-sidedness 
 of either of the two, was a mark of great progress, ef 
 fected gradually, and for the most part, since 1840, in 
 the jurisprudence and political science of Germany; 
 somewhat later, however, in Italy. Lieber belongs to 
 the first representatives of this peaceful alliance, al 
 though, indeed, it had been tried by the best politicians 
 long before, by Aristotle and by Cicero, and recom- 
 
 / mended by Bacon." 2 
 /"""* . UUvv^ ; 
 
 [When Lieber made his home in America, no sys 
 tematic political philosophy existed here. It was not 
 the purpose of the Revolutionary fathers to construct 
 a science of politics, but they wrote with the view of 
 meeting great emergencies. Dr. Dunning says : " Our 
 political literature, therefore, while unquestionably vo 
 luminous, is a literature of concrete controversy rather 
 
 1 " Lieber s historical learning saved him from the most extreme and often 
 absurd conclusions of the school with which he was identified ; but his erudition 
 itself brought confusion into the presentation of his ideas. It is a serious task 
 to follow his system through the mass of illustrations and digressions in which 
 it is imbedded." ESSAYS ON THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION, BY 
 W. A. DUNNING, p. 361. 
 
 2 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. 2, p. 9. 
 
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY IN AMERICA, 121 
 
 than of abstract speculation." Although Jefferson and 
 Hamilton founded political parties, they wrote no sys 
 tematic philosophy. John C. Calhoun s " Disquisition 
 on Government," is remarkable as a political essay, 
 but it forms no complete philosophy of the State, 1 and 
 Webster, who defended the principle of national unity, 
 spoke as a lawyer rather than a philosopher. In prac 
 tical politics there had been a more rapid development. 
 /At the time that Lieber began his great works, the 
 older generation of statesmen had passed away, and 
 a new element was to be found in Congress. ; The 
 country was developing with great rapidity, and the 
 line of statehood had crossed the Mississippi River. 
 The slavery agitation had begun with the Missouri 
 Compromise, and new political forces were at work in 
 the evolution of democracy. Jackson, the first Presi 
 dent from the mass of the people, had been called to the 
 executive office, and the force of the doctrines of the 
 Declaration was being felt, especially in the Northern 
 states. A great extension of the suffrage had taken 
 place, and property and religious qualifications were 
 gradually removed. At that time, in the language of 
 Chief Justice Waite, a new problem of political science 
 was being solved, " whether it was possible to successfully 
 work a scheme, contemplating the contemporaneous 
 supremacy, in each of the thirteen independent com 
 monwealths, of two governments, distinct and separate 
 
 1 " Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction," by W. A. Dunning. 
 
122 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 in their action, yet commanding with equal authority, 
 the obedience of the same people, so that each in its 
 allotted sphere should perform its functions without 
 impediment to or collision with the other." l /As Lieber 
 had longed for national unity in Germany, he naturally 
 became a follower of the ideas of Hamilton and Mar 
 shall; and while the whole country was agitated over 
 the debates of Calhoun, Hayne, and Webster, on the 
 nature of the Union, Lieber was preparing his " Politi 
 cal Ethics," the nearest approach to a political science 
 then known in America?] 
 
 On his appointment" in South Carolina College, 
 Lieber at once began to labor at this great production. 
 In the summer of 1835, he wrote to Sumner: "My 
 book is matured. It is all clear in my mind, even 
 the six books into which I divide it, and the chapters 
 of these books, with a mass of notes. I am now read 
 ing a long list of books, in order to receive, perhaps, 
 new ideas or to be led to new views, to glean, perhaps, 
 additional authorities, and to strengthen myself. The 
 title, I think, will be, On Political Ethics, or the 
 Citizen considered with regard to his Moral Obliga 
 tions arising from his Participation in Government. " 
 His plan was to lecture in the College on the subject, 
 and thus to write the whole continually. He was 
 warmly encouraged by Judge Story and Sumner, who 
 
 1 " Constitutional History as Seen in American Law," p. 55. 
 
 2 " Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction," by W. A. Dunning, p. 360. 
 
POLITICAL ETHICS 
 
 read the manuscript and rendered other valuable assist 
 ance; while he derived great advantage from the 
 kindness of his friend, Mr. G. S. Hillard, of Boston. 
 " He has done to me," says Lieber, " and I fondly 
 hope through me to the public, a service which literary 
 men will know how to appreciate, especially those 
 who write in an idiom which they have not learned 
 from their mother s lips." He entered into this work 
 with all the enthusiasm that marked every undertaking 
 of his life. The boldness of the work enticed him, and 
 he believed that the book would be widely noticed, 
 as the whole subject was so vital to his time. 
 
 The manuscript of the " Political Ethics " was com 
 pleted in June, 1838, and Lieber made arrangements 
 to have it published through Messrs. Little and Brown, 
 of Boston. The influence of the work was very great 
 from the start, the first edition being almost exhausted 
 by September, 1839. Lieber launched forth the work 
 in a characteristic letter to Hillard, in which he said: 
 " Seven hundred pages ! It is enough to drag a man 
 with cork and bladder to the bottom. With such a 
 book tied to my feet, I shall struggle in future to 
 float on the lake of literature like a man entangled 
 in weed. ... No use in croaking; the book is 
 printed ; so go, my broad-bottomed duck, swim and 
 float like a Dutch galliot as long and as well as thou 
 canst. I have written my name on the stern. If it 
 sinks, the name sinks with it." 
 
~ ^MV^; 
 124 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 The keynote to the " Political Ethics " is, " No right 
 without its duties, no duty without its rights." 1 ,; His 
 field included not only a discussion of natural rights 
 and a theory of the State, but also that large group 
 of subjects not included in either political or legal 
 science public opinion, parties, factions, opposition, 
 the obligation to vote, influence in voting, friendship 
 in politics, love of truth, perseverance, newspaper pub 
 lishing, the duty of representatives, judges, advocates, 
 and office holders, and the pardoning power. After 
 defining ethics as the science which treats of our 
 moral character, the good that is within us, and the 
 application of this good in our various relations be 
 tween man and man, Lieber emphasizes the necessity 
 
 1 " Lieber had himself translated it into French by the two words, Droit 
 oblige, and the English formula was printed at the head of all his letters. 
 One day he noticed that the Socie te Internationale at the Congress of Geneva 
 had appropriated this device, and still later, during the reign of the Paris 
 Commune, that they had inscribed on some banners, <Pas de droits sans 
 devoirs, pas devoirs sans droits. 1 We have his letter before us in which he 
 expresses his vexation, and the disgust which he felt at the profanation of his 
 favorite maxim." G. RQLIN-J^EQUEMYNS, IN THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW. 
 
 "In my inaugural in Columbia College in 1859, I sa ^ again what I had 
 said before, and what occurred to my mind as early as when I sailed to Greece 
 in 1822, that right and duty were like the St. Elmo s flame in the Mediter 
 ranean. I was on the deck of our little schooner, when I observed a little 
 flame at the end of the yard-arm. That is bad, indeed, said the captain ; 
 and then told me that the flames were called Castor and Pollux, or St. Elmo s 
 fire. If both appeared at the same time, it foretold a fine sailing ; if only one 
 appeared, foul weather was apprehended. Thought I, this is like right and 
 duty : both together, and all is well ; right alone, despotism, duty alone, 
 slavery." LIEBER IN A LETTER TO JUDGE THAYER, November 5, 1869. 
 
NATURAL RIGHTS 
 
 of man s individuality, in connection with morality and 
 sociality, as a basis of civilization. Following this, 
 he recognizes another science, natural law, the object 
 of which is to show the rights which man has accord 
 ing to his inherent, ethical nature. In this, he claims 
 to have shown more clearly than any other writer, the 
 idea of the word "nature," if applied to man.; His phi- 1 
 losophy embodies natural rights, not in primitive, 
 "but in highly civilized) man, thus reversing the order 
 of his predecessors, who looked for the natural con 
 dition of man in an ante-political state. Lieber s the 
 ory of natural law is based upon the axiom, " I exist 
 as a human being, therefore I have a right to exist 
 as a human being." The science itself is defined as 
 the body of rights which we deduce from the essential 
 nature of man ; at the same time, natural law and 
 ethics are considered different, the former treating of 
 the individual s rights, and of his obligations flowing 
 from the fact of each man s being possessed of the 
 same rights.^: Lieber s system includes a third science, 
 that of politics^ proper, which ascertains how these 
 rights are best secured, and what form of government 
 to adopt. It is this application of ethics to man s 
 political relations which he calls political ethics. 
 From this ethical point of view, the State is an insti 
 tution for a distinct moral end, philosophers being 
 agreed that politics should not admit of immorality. 
 According to Lieber s philosophy, the State is a 
 
126 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 society founded upon the relation of right ; hence it is 
 a jural society. 1 That he was not a follower of Rous 
 seau, is clearly shown in the following extract on the 
 nature of the State : " The State is aboriginal with 
 man ; it is no voluntary association ; no contrivance of 
 art, or invention of suffering; no company of share 
 holders ; no machine, no work of contract by individuals 
 who lived previously out of it ; no necessary evil, no ill 
 of humanity which will be cured in time and by civili 
 zation ; no accidental thing, no institution above and 
 separate from society ; no instrument for one or a few ; 
 no effect of coercion, or force of the powerful over the 
 weak ; no mystery founded on something beyond com 
 prehension, or on an extra-human base ; the State is a 
 form and faculty of mankind to lead the species toward 
 greater perfection it is the glory of man." 2 This doc 
 trine implies that the State is the natural condition of 
 man; that even in the patriarchal system, the unde 
 fined attributes of the State were united in one person ; 
 that from the earliest ages the idea of property existed ; 
 that justice was administered ; that rights were acknowl 
 edged, and that where these conditions are found, there 
 is the State, although it may be in an incipient condi 
 tion. 3 
 
 1 Referring to this definition, Lieber once said, " Hence the necessity for 
 me to form even a new word Jurat." 
 
 2 "Political Ethics," vol. i, p. 162. 
 
 8 " Down to this time, the two names which stand highest in our American 
 literature of political science are Francis Lieber and Theodore D. Woolsey. 
 
\ 
 
 / r , 
 
 SOVEREIGNTY 127 
 
 Lieber claimed to be the first to make sovereignty 
 an^attribute of society, giving a new definition of it, 
 and separating it from supreme power. His philoso 
 phy recognizes sovereignty as a power inherent in and 
 existing in society. The argument may be briefly 
 stated thus : " There is an absolute necessity of man s 
 living with man in relations of right, of rules which 
 guide his actions, of power to enforce these rules when 
 not willingly obeyed, or of deciding where the rights 
 of various individuals clash with each other an abso 
 lute necessity of man s living in society and of his being 
 protected therein. And this absolute necessity, with 
 the power necessarily flowing from it over all outward 
 relations, we call sovereignty." He maintained also 
 that he was the first to give the real attributes of 
 sovereignty public opinion, law, and power. He de 
 fines public opinion as an irresistible sentiment of the 
 community giving life to the law, and forming the link 
 between society and the State; law, as public opinion 
 transferred over into public will ; and power, as a force 
 drawn from the sovereignty of society, and whoever 
 opposes this power must yield. 
 
 The former was, as everybody knows, a European, educated under European 
 institutions, and a refugee from their oppression, as he regarded it. The 
 latter was Lieber s ardent admirer, we might almost say disciple. It is not 
 strange that they should have suffered under the power of the old influences, 
 and should have confounded in some degree, at least, state and government 
 in their reflections." POLITICAL SCIENCE AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, BY 
 DR. J. W. BURGESS, vol. i, p. 70. 
 
128 FRANCIS LIBBER 
 
 The " Political Ethics " treats also the subjects of legiti 
 mate governments, the best form of government, obe 
 dience to the laws, political parties, representatives, etc. 
 Lieber made a conscious effort throughout the work 
 to reconcile the differences of the historical and the 
 philosophical school. That he was eminently success 
 ful in this endeavor is shown by the testimony of 
 Bluntschli and other foreign publicists. 
 
 This great work attracted the attention of scholars 
 on both sides of the Atlantic. In England, it was 
 compared favorably with the works of Montesquieu ; 
 while in America, it won the admiration of our fore 
 most lawyers and historians. Judge Story said of it: 
 " It contains by far the fullest and most correct de 
 velopment of the true theory of what constitutes the 
 State, that I have ever seen. It abounds with pro 
 found views of government, which are illustrated with 
 various learning. To me, many of the thoughts are 
 new, and striking as they are new. I do not hesitate 
 to say that it constitutes one of the best theoretical 
 treatises on the true nature and objects of govern 
 ment which has been produced in modern times, con 
 taining much for instruction, much for admonition, 
 and much for deep meditation, addressing itself to 
 the wise and virtuous of all countries. It solves the 
 question what government is best by the answer, 
 illustrated in a thousand ways, that it is that which 
 best promotes the substantial interests of the whole 
 
/," LEGAL AND POLITICAL HERMENEUTICS " 129 
 
 people of the nation upon which it acts. Such a 
 work is peculiarly important in these times when so 
 many false theories are afloat, and so many disturb 
 ing doctrines are promulgated."/ Judge Kent re 
 garded the " Political Ethics " as a sure pilot in the 
 most dangerous navigation, 1 and he wrote to Chan 
 cellor de Saussure, of South Carolina: 
 
 " Lieber s eminence as a scholar in history, political 
 economy, ethics, principles of government, geography, 
 and belles-lettres, would elevate the reputation of any 
 university in our country. His talents, his learning, 
 and his great moral worth are conceded by all his 
 extensive acquaintance, among whom are some of the 
 first scholars and jurists in the United States." 
 
 The favorable reception of the " Political Ethics " 
 made Lieber all the more ambitious of literary 
 honors. He wrote to Sumner: " I will not rest un 
 til I force the political and legal world to quote me. 
 Let me but have leisure, and not live on the out 
 skirts of the literary world, and I will do it." The 
 appearance of his " Legal and Political Hermeneutics " 
 in 1839, contributed much to the fulfilment of his 
 
 1 Dr. Francis Lieber in his < Manual of Political Ethics has shown with 
 great force and by the most striking and apposite illustrations, the original 
 connection between right and morality, and the reason and necessity of the 
 application of the principle of ethics to the science of politics and the 
 administration of government. The work is excellent in its doctrines, and 
 it is enriched with various and profound erudition." KENT S COMMEN 
 TARIES, vol. i, p. 3. 
 
FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 desire for fame. A native of a common-law coun 
 try, he felt that his opinion on this subject would 
 command universal respect. One of the first articles 
 that he read after landing in New York, was in a paper 
 opposed to the administration of President Adams. 
 The writer founded his objections on the construc 
 tion of the Constitution of the United States. Lie- 
 ber s interest became thoroughly aroused, and when 
 he began his work on " Political Ethics," he was led to 
 reflect more thoroughly on construction and inter 
 pretation. His original intention was that the " Her- 
 meneutics"; should form two chapters in the " Political 
 Ethics," but when he came to write down his ob 
 servations, he found that they extended much beyond 
 the proposed limits. This led him, at the advice of 
 several professional gentlemen, to publish the material 
 as a separate volume. He approached the subject 
 with the utmost confidence, knowing full well its 
 strong, as well as its weak points, and as it was com 
 pleted, he claimed it to be entirely his own. | His 
 distinction between interpretation and construction is 
 especially important, and has been widely adopted by 
 legal writers. Interpretation is defined as " the art 
 of finding out the true sense of any form of words ; 
 that is, the sense which their author intended to con 
 vey, and of enabling others to derive from them the 
 same idea which the author intended to convey." 
 Construction, on the other hand, is regarded as the 
 
"LEGAL AND POLITICAL HERMENEUTICS " 131 
 
 drawing of conclusions respecting subjects that lie 
 beyond the direct expression of the text. He com 
 pared his style in the " Hermeneutics " to that of a 
 series of recipes in a cookery book. ^ 
 
 He adds also a few rules on the interpretation and 
 construction of constitutions. Written instruments of 
 government, Lieber claims, should be construed closely, 
 because their words have been well-weighed, and be 
 cause they form the great contract between the people 
 at large. This he thinks is especially important in 
 federal constitutions, which distinctly pronounce that 
 the authority and power granted therein is all that 
 is granted, and that nothing shall be considered as 
 granted, except what is mentioned, as is the case with 
 the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 Lieber was the first to give expression to many of 
 the principles contained in the " Legal and Political 
 Hermeneutics/jand he entered a difficult field in which 
 there was much doubt, but little intelligent conclusion. 
 [His conclusions soon became familiar political truths, u- 
 and the book served as a guide for judges and states 
 men; while it also found its way as a text-book into 
 the colleges and universities/ Chancellor Kent called 
 this work, "a treatise replete with accurate logic, and 
 clear and sound principles of interpretation, applicable 
 
 1 In 1880, a revised edition of the "Legal and Political Hermeneutics" 
 was prepared by W. G. Hammond, professor of law in the Iowa State 
 University. 
 
132 
 
 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 to the duties of the lawgiver, and the science of juris 
 prudence." Professor Greenleaf and Rufus Choate com 
 mended it in the highest terms, while Henry Clay 
 declared that " no one can come out of the perusal of 
 the treatise without finding himself better prepared than 
 he was before to expound any writing or instrument 
 which he may be called upon to consider." 
 
 Lieber s best known and greatest contribution to the 
 literature of political science is his work on V Civil Lib- 
 
 V r I L- 
 
 erty and Self-povernment," 1 which appeared in 1853. 
 This treatise is a fitting monument to the struggles for 
 liberty in every land and age, but it is especially appro 
 priate to the close of our first half-century. During 
 this period, the love of liberty became a universal aspi 
 ration among mankind, and the political societies of 
 the world adopted hundreds of written constitutions. 
 While only a few of those constitutions have survived, 
 they all serve to illustrate the character of the age. 
 Lieber compared the time to the epoch of the Refor 
 mation. " Every marked struggle in the progress of 
 civilization," he said, " has its period of convulsion." 
 While patriots had fought and bled for great ideas, the 
 political institutions of the world were not yet in a 
 settled condition. In expounding the real nature of 
 
 1 On " Civil Liberty and Self-Government," Philadelphia : Lippincott, 
 2 vols., 8vo. London: Bentley, I vol., 8vo. 1859, 2d ed., enlarged and 
 corrected, 2 vols., 8vo., 1874, 3d and revised edition, by T. D. Woolsey, 
 pp. 622, i vol., 8vo 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY 133 
 
 political liberty, he tfeas led mankind through a maze 
 of doubts and false principles to the clear light of truth. 
 The "Civil Liberty and Self-Government" bears testi 
 mony in almost every page of the great struggle for free 
 institutions in Europe. The author had been pro 
 foundly impressed by the events of 1848 in Germany, 
 while his disgust for the new empire of Napoleon III. 
 was so marked, that there frequently appears in the 
 book a contrast between Anglican and Gallican liberty. 
 In the " Civil Liberty and Self-Government," Lieber 
 endeavors to answer the questions: In what does 
 civil liberty consist? How is it maintained? What 
 are its means of self-diffusion, and under what forms 
 do its chief dangers present themselves? In answer 
 ing these questions, he discusses ancient and modern 
 liberty, ancient, mediaeval, and modern states, national 
 independence and personal liberty, the rights of per 
 sonal locomotion, emigration and petition, liberty of 
 conscience, supremacy of law, taxation, division of 
 power, representative government, the independence 
 of the judiciary, parliamentary law, institutional self- 
 government, etc. , The term "civil liberty" is defined - 
 as a protection or check against undue interference, 
 whether this be Jrom individuals, from masses, or 
 from government. 1 j This definition includes certain 
 measures, institutions, and guarantees or forms of 
 government, by which the people secure an unim- 
 
 1 " Civil Liberty and Self-Government," p. 40. 
 
134 FRANCIS LIBBER 
 
 peded action in those civil matters which appear 
 most important. The idea of Anglican liberty was 
 entirely his own. He claimed that while the English 
 had written on the Constitution, he had treated of 
 the elements and analyzed the amount of actual lib 
 erty enjoyed by free nations. Anglican liberty he 
 describes as that system of guarantees which our 
 race has elaborated, of those rights which experience 
 has shown to be most exposed to danger of attack 
 by the strongest power in the State. 1 The most im 
 portant guarantees enumerated are the prohibition 
 of general warrants, the habeas corpus, bail, a well- 
 conducted penal trial, freedom of communion, the 
 right to assemble and petition, freedom of speech and 
 of the press, liberty of conscience, protection of private 
 property, and subordination of the military power. 
 He next considers a class of guarantees which relate 
 more particularly to the government of a free country. 
 Among these, are publicity, the division of govern 
 ment into three distinct functions, the representa 
 tive system and the independence of the judiciary. 
 The last constituent of liberty which he treats is 
 that of local self-government. This he calls the cor 
 ollary of liberty, since the idea of self-government is 
 founded on the willingness of the people to take care 
 of their own affairs. He characterizes Anglican lib 
 erty by union, Gallican liberty by unity, the French- 
 
 1 " Civil Liberty and Self-Government, 1 p. 54. 
 
CIVIL LIBERTY 
 
 35 
 
 man wanting the government to be a solid unit, his 
 only concern being, who shall receive the power which 
 government gives ? Much prominence is given to our 
 American system in the great division of Anglican 
 liberty. Besides the guarantees already enumerated, 
 Lieber states that there are checks and guarantees 
 peculiar to ourselves, which constitute American liberty. 
 These are republican federalism, separation of the 
 Church from the State, greater equality, an acknowl 
 edgment of abstract rights in the citizen, and a more 
 popular cast of the whole system. Besides the above, 
 he mentions our ballot system, with its devices to 
 prevent intimidation, the fact that the Executive can 
 not adjourn Congress, that no ex post facto law or 
 bill of attainder can be passed, and that we do not 
 allow our legislatures to become omnipotent. He 
 emphasizes also another characteristic of American 
 liberty the freedom of our rivers. While in all 
 periods of history, the agency of rivers has been 
 thwarted by man, he sees in America a navigable 
 river flow of forty thousand miles entirely free to the 
 fleets of commerce. Above all, he states that our 
 liberty is further guarded by a written constitution ; 
 that while England has an accumulative constitution, 
 ours contains the elements of certainty, and we can, 
 at all times, feel assured that we have a positive form 
 in which to trust. 
 
 The chapter on institutional liberty and the essays 
 
136 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 on the institution were original with Lieber. 1 It was 
 his theory that the value of a nation s history can 
 always be tested by the degree of institutional energy 
 which that nation has displayed. This part of the 
 " Civil Liberty and Self-Government " traces the love 
 and habit for liberty to their source in a vast system 
 of institutions, of which the various forms of local 
 government in Great Britain and the United States 
 are familiar types. Lieber remarks that " institutional 
 self-government distinguishes itself above all others 
 for tenacity, and a formative, assimilative, and trans 
 missible character" tenacious, for although the hosts 
 of the conqueror could destroy cities and lay waste 
 the fairest regions, these institutions remained invinci 
 ble ; formative, assimilative, and transmissible, for 
 wherever English power extends, the vital character 
 of self-government prevails. Thus, he fittingly calls 
 England the great mother of republics, and shows 
 how the United States each year assimilates several 
 thousand foreigners by means of our peculiar institu 
 tions of liberty. 
 
 /This work was received with great favor, both at 
 home and abroad. In 1854, it was adopted as a 
 text-book in Yale College, and the same year Mitter- 
 rnaier began its translation into the German language. 
 It proved of great value to the judges of the courts, 
 the Chief Justice of Michigan acknowledging that he 
 
 1 " Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 264. 
 
PENAL LAW 
 
 137 
 
 could not have written certain decisions without the 
 " Civil Liberty." j Lieber was confident that his fame as 
 an authority in political philosophy was now secure. 
 He wrote to his son Hamilton : " I know that I shall be 
 acknowledged by high authorities, and that my book 
 will be cited years hence ; but whether it will have 
 an extensive sale is another matter." As in his earlier 
 writings,- he endeavored likewise in the "Civil Liberty" \ 
 to unite the philosophical and the historical spirit. In 
 this, he claimed to be more successful than any other 
 writer since the time of Aristotle. 
 
 [_Lieber was interested throughout his life in the v 
 subject of penal law. When de Beaumont and de 
 Tocqueville published their report on American 
 prisons, they requested him to translate it into 
 English, which he did in 1833, adding copious notes, 
 for which he received the thanks of some of our 
 leading jurists. In 1835, he wrote to Mittermaier: 
 " Do not fear that I shall give up writing my penology. 
 It is one of the thoughts which has taken possession 
 of my mind, and which will occupy me until I have 
 mastered it. The whole subject in its elementary, 
 legal, psychological, material, and historical aspects 
 is clear in my mind, entirely so, and I shall not rest 
 until I have accomplished the work. Still, I beg you 
 to encourage me, for it does my soul good to have the 
 approval of able men. I hope to show that it is the 
 duty of the State to reform the criminal; at all 
 
138 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 events, it must be her aim not to make him any 
 worse. In this respect, I differ from Feuerbach, and 
 all other publicists. On the other hand, I am far 
 from taking the sickly religious and sentimental view. 
 I have seldom seen any good result from exciting the 
 prisoner s feelings in religious matters, but a great 
 deal of good has been done by bringing him to a 
 proper knowledge of his relation to the Creator. The 
 experience of the superintendents of prisons confirms 
 me in this opinion." The proper occasion never came 
 for Lieber to make a full and systematic presentation of 
 his thoughts in a volume, but in 1838, his views on 
 penal law were published as an essay by the Philadel 
 phia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Prisons. 1 
 The sentiment of this treatise is well^-expressed in the 
 phrase, "mild laws, firm judges, calm punishments." 
 He lays down forty-one rules to govern sound punish 
 ment, the leading ones being, that we must strive to 
 produce the greatest effect with the fewest means; 
 the means must effect the object we wish to obtain; 
 the means must not defeat or counteract the object we 
 strive for; punishment must proceed from the State, 
 and not be left to private revenge; the State in pun 
 ishing protects, and it should know of no revenge; 
 punishment ought to be calm in character and pos 
 sessed with certainty; the State in punishing, must 
 never sink to the level of the offender. 
 
 1 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. 2, p. 471. 
 
OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 [ Jn 1848, the friends of Prison Discipline requested w 
 Lieber to make a report on " The Pardoning Privilege 
 and its Abuse," which the legislature of New York 
 afterward published as a document. 1 j While admitting 
 that the pardoning power is a necessity, he agrees in 
 many particulars with the penal reformer, Beccaria, 
 whom he quotes as follows: "As punishments become 
 more mild, clemency and pardon are less necessary. 
 Happy the nation in which they will be considered as 
 dangerous! Clemency, which has often been deemed 
 a sufficient substitute for every other virtue in sover 
 eigns, should be excluded in a perfect legislation where 
 punishments are mild, and the proceedings in criminal 
 cases regular and expeditious." Lieber s report con- 1 
 tains several valuable suggestions for a reform of the 
 pardoning power, some of which have been embodied 
 in the later state constitutions. } His other chief con-, 
 tributions to political science are two lectures on "What 
 is Our Constitution League, Compact, or Govern 
 ment?" delivered in 1861 ; a fragment on "Nation 
 alism and Internationalism," written in 1868, and 
 dedicated to General Grant, and a treatise on " The Rise 
 of our Constitution and its National Features," almost 
 ready for publication at the time of his death. His 
 views on the Constitution are thoroughly national, and 
 he looked upon the United States as a nation full of 
 vigor and strengthened by unity. His paper on " Na- 
 
 x " Civil Liberty and Self-Government," p. 431. 
 
1 40 FRANCIS LI 
 
 v/tionalism and Internationalism,"; attracted the attention 
 of European scholars, and the, Italian publicist, Garelli, 
 called it the " Golden Tract." ^ In this paper, Lieber 
 regards the national polity as the normal type of modern 
 governments. While the city-state was the leading type 
 of antiquity, and the feudal system of the Middle Ages, 
 he characterizes the present as the national period, in 
 which many leading nations flourish at the same time 
 under the protection of one law of nations. He out 
 lines for the term " nation," the following comprehensive 
 definition, which has been widely adopted by later 
 writers : " The word nation, in the fullest adaptation 
 of the term, means, in modern times, a numerous and 
 homogeneous population (having long emerged from the 
 hunter s and nomadic stage), permanently inhabiting 
 and cultivating a coherent territory, with a well-defined 
 geographical outline, and a name of its own the 
 inhabitants speaking their own language, having their 
 own literature and common institutions, which distin 
 guish them clearly from other and similar groups of 
 people; being citizens or subjects of a unitary govern 
 ment, however subdivided it may be, and feeling an 
 organic unity with one another, as well as being con 
 scious of a common destiny." 
 
 1 " Miscellaneous Writings," vol. 2, p. 221. 
 
VIII 
 
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY CONTINUED I INTERNATIONAL LAW 
 
 MILITARY LAW 
 
 IN considering Lieber s services to the development 
 of international law, Dr. Bluntschli wrote : " Lieber 
 was the first to propose and encourage the idea of 
 professional jurists of all nations to come together for 
 consultation and to establish a common understanding." l > 
 He thus crowned his declining years with the noblest 
 work of the publicist - an endeavor to secure permanent . 
 friendship among the great nations of the earth. " In 
 ancient times," he said, u one people always swayed and 
 led," but modern nations exist together and agree in 
 much, having one alphabet, the same system of notation, 
 one division of time, one mathematical language, a 
 united mail and telegraph system, an international 
 literature, and a common history of civilization. He 
 observed that the process of internationalizing is now 
 going on, and with it, the all-pervading law of interde 
 pendence. In describing the new character of modern 
 nations he wrote : " The civilized nations have come 
 to constitute a community of nations, and are daily 
 
 1 " Miscellaneous Writings," vol 2, p. 7. 
 141 
 
142 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 forming more and more, a commonwealth of nations, 
 under the restraint and protection of the law of nations, 
 which rules, vigore divino. They draw the chariot of 
 civilization abreast, as the ancient steeds drew the car 
 of victory." 1 
 
 Lieber s correspondence during the last ten years 
 of his life indicates that his chief interest was in the 
 subject of international law. He wrote frequently to 
 Sumner, Garfield, Andrew D. White, Judge Thayer, 
 Dr. Bluntschli, and von Holtzendorff, proposing a 
 congress of all maritime nations, to deliberate some 
 of the questions, relating to the law of nations, that 
 were left unsettled at the peace of Paris. He sug 
 gested that each power should send two jurists, and 
 he had in mind more than twenty canons that might 
 be settled by such a congress. He soon came to the 
 conclusion that it would be much better to establish 
 a private congress, " whose work would stand as an 
 authority by its excellence, truthfulness, justice, and 
 superiority in every respect." His contributions to 
 international law consist of the following essays: 1 
 " The Value of the Plebiscitum in International Law ; " 
 " The Latin Race ; " " Suggestions on the Sale of 
 Arms by the United States Government during the 
 Franco-Prussian War ; " " International Arbitration," and 
 " International Copyright." In " The Value of the 
 
 1 " Miscellaneous Writings, 11 vol. 2, p. 223. 
 9 Ibid., p. 301. 
 
INTERNATIONAL LAW 143 
 
 Plebiscitum," published in the New York Evening 
 Post, in 1871, the point is raised whether it was 
 according to good faith and international honor for 
 Germany to acquire French territory, without the 
 inhabitants of the respective territories having ex 
 pressed themselves in a plebiscitum. Lieber regarded 
 the plebiscitum as a Bonaparte innovation and a 
 failure, arising among people the least expert in 
 international politics. In his treatise on " The Sale 
 of Arms by the United States during the Franco- 
 Prussian War," 1 he defined contraband of war as 
 " everything, animate or inanimate, deemed at the 
 time necessary for the commission of acts of hostility 
 between belligerents on sea or land." His definition 
 included arms, war-ships, ammunition, and all ma 
 terials indispensable for the pursuit of war, while all 
 materials for sustenance, comfort, and necessity were 
 excluded. He took occasion to offer the following 
 suggestions to be observed in international polity : - 
 
 !An act of Congress, of March 3, 1825, authorized the President to sell 
 injured arms belonging to the United States. At the close of the Civil War 
 the government had a large number of muskets on hand, not damaged 
 within the meaning of the act of 1825 ; accordingly, in 1868, Congress passed 
 an act authorizing the Secretary of War to dispose of the military stores on 
 hand. Although President Grant issued a proclamation of neutrality on the 
 outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, it was charged that the vessel, Ville de 
 Paris, carried a load of arms to France, sold not by our government directly, 
 but through intermediate agents. A committee of investigation of the House 
 of Representatives reported that since our government was engaged in such 
 sales prior to the war between France and Germany, it had a right to continue 
 the same during the war.. 
 
144 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 1. Let all privateering be done away with, and 
 acknowledge private property of citizens belonging 
 to belligerents on the high seas as it is acknowledged 
 on the land. 
 
 2. Adopt the rules of the treaty of Washington. 
 
 3. Define contraband of war as he defines it. 
 
 4. Let it be proclaimed that the law of nations is 
 the supreme law of the race. 
 
 5. Protect persons and property of aliens though 
 they belong to belligerents. 
 
 6. Protect internationally literary property. 
 
 On September 17, 1865, Lieber sent a letter to 
 Hon. William H. Seward, outlining, in a formal 
 manner, his views on international arbitration. This 
 letter was called forth by the contention between 
 Great Britain and the United States over the Alabama 
 Claims. Lieber was opposed to the practice of 
 choosing monarchs as arbiters between nations, and 
 he favored the plan of referring international compli 
 cations to the law faculty of a foreign university. He 
 would rather trust a case of great importance to a 
 Hugo Grotius or to a law professor than to the ruler 
 of any empire. " Great universities," he said, " have 
 been appealed to in former times, though it was 
 generally in theological matters. Within the different 
 countries, such as France or Germany, they have 
 indeed been appealed to, and still are occasionally so, 
 
INTERNATIONAL LAW 145 
 
 at least in the last-mentioned country, in civil and 
 penal matters; why should we not seize upon these 
 institutions, themselves characteristic of our own 
 civilization, in international matters? The adoption 
 of the proposed plan would be a signal step in the 
 progress of our race. There is no nobler sight than 
 the strong be they single men or nations laying 
 down their strength, like a sword by their side, saying, 
 We shall abide by the judgment of the just; let 
 justice be done. " 
 
 Lieber realized the necessity of bringing emigration 
 and immigration within the domain of international 
 law by special treaties. While admitting that emigra 
 tion is one of the inalienable rights of man, he claimed 
 that the State, by its attributes of national sovereignty, 
 has the right to regulate, or even to prohibit immi 
 gration in cases of great necessity. In a letter to Dr. 
 Bluntschli, he proposed the following regulations : 
 
 First. Health on board the ships. 
 
 Second. The prohibition of transporting criminals 
 or paupers. 
 
 Third. The appointment of international officials 
 at the chief seaports. 
 
 Fourth. Good treatment of immigrants. 
 
 He wrote a letter to Secretary of State Fish, urging 
 the establishment of a National Board of Immigration ; 
 and in 1871, he prepared a bill to establish a record 
 
146 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 of naturalization in the Department of State, which 
 Garfield introduced in the House of Representatives. 
 This measure required that a record should be kept 
 of every declaration of intention, and of every final 
 naturalization, and that there should be published 
 annually a complete list of all foreign-born citizens of 
 the United States naturalized during the past year. 
 While the bill failed to become a law, it showed 
 Lieber s high purpose of placing immigration under 
 national control. 
 
 His views on the international copyright were out 
 lined in 1840, in the form of a letter to Hon. William 
 C. Preston, United States Senator from South Caro 
 lina. Lieber was one of the first to advocate the inter 
 national copyright in this country. He was familiar 
 with its operations abroad, Prussia being the first 
 government to adopt this system. In 1837, a law 
 was passed that every country might secure copyright 
 for its authors in Prussia upon granting reciprocity, 
 while, in 1840, England followed her example. He 
 justified the international copyright from the very nature 
 of property itself, and where intellectual exertion is 
 united with manual labor, mankind are all the more 
 willing to acknowledge the individual title in property. 
 Literary compositions, he claimed, were entitled, beyond 
 a doubt, to be classed as individual property, since per 
 sonal and intellectual activity appear clearest in them, 
 ieber s services to international law)jare beautifully 
 
INTERNATIONAL LAW 
 
 described by two foreign writers, Dr. Bluntschli and 
 G. Rolin-Jaequemyns. " Lieber had great influence, 
 I may add," writes Dr. Bluntschli, in founding the 
 Institut de Droit International, which was started in 
 Ghent, in 1873, and forms a permanent alliance of 
 leading international jurists from all civilized nations, 
 for the purpose of working harmoniously together, 
 and thus serving as an organ for the legal conscious 
 ness of the civilized world. Lieber was the first to 
 propose and to encourage the idea of professional 
 jurists of all nations thus coming together for consul 
 tation, and seeking to establish a common understand 
 ing. From this impulse proceeded Rolin-Jsequemyns 
 circular letter, drawn up in Ghent, calling together a 
 number of men eminent for their learning. This latter 
 proposal to found a permanent academy of international 
 law met with general acceptance, but this was merely 
 a further development of the original idea of Lieber, 
 which was at the bottom of the whole scheme. His 
 notion was now approved, and the efficiency of the 
 association was thus assured for the future." \ To this 
 may be added the following tribute from G. Rolin- 
 Jaequemyns : 1 " Lieber s attention in late years was 
 especially directed to international law, to the future 
 of this science, and to its practical application. While 
 he rejoiced in the success of Germany, his native 
 country, he did not desire for it an unlimited empire, 
 
 1 LitteWs Living Age, vol. 117, p. 125. 
 
l^g FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 and he was deeply impressed with the advantages which 
 would result to civilization from the friendly rivalry of 
 several great nations. He cherished the dream, for 
 the realization of which he desired our cooperation, of 
 coming to Europe, to this very spot, in order to take 
 part in a congress of international jurists, who should 
 be occupied in establishing the rights of the people on 
 a rational, firm, and practical basis." 1 
 
 During the Civil War, Lieber not only rendered 
 valuable service to the country by opposing secession 
 and defending our national institutions, but he also 
 made a permanent contribution to the science of 
 military law. He was frequently called to Washing 
 ton for consultation in the War Department, and in 
 1863, he was requested by the Secretary of War to 
 prepare a code of instructions for the government of 
 the armies in the field, i The need of such a code 
 was severely felt during the first two years of the 
 war. The conditions prevailing then are well de 
 scribed by Major George B. Davis, in his " Outlines of 
 International Law," as follows: "The Federal govern 
 ment had succeeded in placing in the field armies of 
 unexampled size, composed, in great part, of men 
 taken from civil pursuits ; most of whom were un- 
 
 1 "Under all circumstances, the memory of this friend, whom we have never 
 seen in this world but through the eyes of the soul, will ever be present to us ; 
 and whether in writing or in directing the Review we shall endeavor to 
 honor him by being faithful to his motto, Droit oblige. " G. ROLIN- 
 
 J^EQUEMYNS, IN THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW. 
 
MILITARY LAW 
 
 familiar with military affairs, and so utterly unac 
 quainted with the usages of war. These armies were 
 carrying on hostile operations of every kind, over a 
 wide area, and questions of considerable intricacy and 
 difficulty were constantly arising, which required, for 
 their decision, a knowledge of international law which 
 was not always possessed by those to whom these ques 
 tions were submitted for decision. Conflicting de 
 cisions and rulings were of frequent occurrence, in 
 different armies, and, at times, in different parts of 
 the same field of operations ; and great harm not in 
 frequently resulted before the decisions could be re 
 versed by competent authority." In order to remove 
 these difficulties and secure unity of action in the 
 field, JLieber was commissioned to prepare a code, 
 which should conform to the existing usages of war, 
 and contain such modifications and additions as the 
 pending conflict might require. The code, after re 
 vision by a board of officers, was published by the 
 War Department in April, 1863, as " Instructions for 
 the Government of Armies of the United States in 
 the Field, General Orders, No. 100." The use of these 
 rules, prepared by Lieber, thus became obligatory 
 upon all the armies of the United States. <The diffi 
 culty of preparing this code is evident when the fact 
 is recalled that no work of the kind then existed in 
 any language. " I had no guide, no groundwork, 
 no text-book," Lieber wrote to General Halleck. " I 
 
150 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 can assure you, as a friend, that no counsellor of 
 Justinian sat down to his task of the Digest with a 
 deeper feeling of the gravity of his labor, than filled 
 my breast in the laying down for the first time such 
 a code, where nearly everything was floating. Usage, 
 history, reason, and conscientiousness, a sincere love 
 of truth, justice, and civilization, have been my guides ; 
 but of course the whole must be still very imperfect." 
 In this work, as in the " Political Ethics," and " Civil 
 Liberty and Self-Government," law is founded on the 
 basis of morality. Throughout the code, two leading 
 ideas prevail ; the one, a desire to save even our enemies 
 from unnecessary injury and destruction ; the other, 
 the necessity of displaying the greatest energy in the 
 conduct of war, so as to speedily bring hostilities to 
 an end, and restore conditions of peace. The work 
 is much broader in its character than a mere code of 
 arbitrary rules. / His fondness for an ethical treatment 
 of great subjects is shown in the following paragraphs : 
 
 " As martial law is executed by military force, it 
 is incumbent upon those who administer it, to be 
 strictly guarded by the laws of justice, honor, and 
 humanity virtues adorning a soldier even more than 
 other men, for the very reason that he possesses the 
 power of his arms against the unarmed. 
 
 " The law of war does not only disclaim all cruelty 
 and bad faith concerning engagements concluded with 
 
MILITARY LAW 
 
 an enemy during the war, but also the breaking of 
 stipulations solemnly contracted by the belligerents 
 in time of peace, and avowedly intended to remain 
 in force in case of war between the contracting 
 parties. It disclaims all extortions and other trans 
 actions for individual gam, or acts of private re 
 venge or connivance at such acts. . . . Men who 
 take up arms against one another in public war do 
 not cease on this account to be moral beings, respon 
 sible to one another and to God. 
 
 " Modern times are distinguished from earlier ages 
 by the existence, at one and the same time, of many 
 nations and great governments related to one another 
 in close intercourse. Peace is their normal condition ; 
 war is the exception. The ultimate object of all mod 
 ern war is a renewed state of peace. 
 
 "Ever since the formation and coexistence of mod 
 ern nations, and ever since wars have become great, 
 national wars, war has come to be acknowledged not 
 to be its own end, but the means to obtain great ends 
 of state, or to consist in defence against the wrong; 
 and no conventional restriction of the modes adopted 
 to injure the enemy is any longer admitted, but the 
 law of war imposes many limitations and restrictions, 
 on principles of justice, faith, and honor." 
 
 It is interesting at this day to read in the code 
 Lieber s views on slavery. He says: 
 
152 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 " Slavery, complicating and confounding the ideas 
 of property (that is of a thing), and of personality 
 (that is of humanity), exists according to municipal 
 law or local law only. The law of nature and nations 
 has never acknowledged it. The digest of the Roman 
 law enacts the early dictum of the pagan jurist, that 
 so far as the law of nature is concerned, all men are 
 equal. . . . 
 
 " Therefore, in a war between the United States 
 and a belligerent which admits of slavery, if a person 
 held in bondage by that belligerent be captured by ;or 
 come as a fugitive under the protection of the mili 
 tary forces of the United States, such person is im 
 mediately entitled to the rights and privileges of a 
 freeman. To return such person into slavery would 
 amount to enslaving a free person, and neither the 
 United States nor any officer under their authority 
 can enslave any human being. Moreover, a person so 
 made free by the law of war is under the shield of 
 the law of nations, and the former owner or state can 
 have, by the law of postliminy, no belligerent lien or 
 claim of service." 
 
 " As a matter of fact," writes Hon. Samuel J. Bar 
 rows, 1 " there were eight states of the Union in which 
 slavery was not abolished until two years after these 
 instructions to our soldiers, and then by constitutional 
 
 1 The Forum, July, 1898, p. 562. 
 
MILITARY LAW 
 
 amendment. But the paragraph shows that Dr. Lie 
 ber preferred the laws of humanity to some enacted 
 by the states, and sanctioned by the Supreme Court. 
 He succeeded, therefore, in making a military code 
 which, in regard to slavery, was two years ahead of 
 the Thirteenth Amendment." 
 
 / Lieber regarded his code as a distinct contribution ^ 
 by the United States to civilization, and he predicted 
 that it would be adopted as a basis for similar works 
 by the English, French, and Germans. The greatest 
 writers on the law of war have accepted it as a stand 
 ard authority. This is verified by the testimony of 
 Dr. Bluntschli : " These instructions, prepared by Lie 
 ber, prompted me to draw up, after his model, first, 
 the laws of war, and then, in general, the law of 
 nations, in the form of a code, or law book, which 
 should express the present state of the legal con 
 sciousness of civilized peoples. Lieber, in his corre 
 spondence with me, had strongly urged that I should 
 do this, and he lent me continual encouragement." : 
 Lieber s " Instructions " are published as an appendix ^ 
 to a number of works on international law, and they 
 were recognized as the chief authority, when the Insti 
 tute of International Law assembled at Oxford, Sep 
 tember 8, 1880, for the purpose of preparing a manual 
 of the laws of war on Iand7\ 
 
 Major George B. Davis claims that, since the code 
 
 1 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. 2, p. 13. 
 
154 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 was prepared for the Civil War, it does not give a 
 full expression of the views of our government on the 
 subject of external war. 1 The best authorities claim, 
 however, that our Civil War presented the general 
 conditions of an international war ; and that during 
 the Franco- Prussian War there was but one case that 
 could not be settled by the rules of Lieber s " Instruc 
 tions." 2 The code is still in use, and it was reprinted 
 and issued to the army during the recent war with 
 Spain. !h "tUe \~itc 
 
 Lieber s other chief contributions to military law 
 consist of an essay on " Guerrilla Parties Considered 
 with Reference to the Laws and Usages of War," pre 
 pared in 1862 at the suggestion of General Halleck, 
 and a paper on the " Status of Rebel Prisoners of War," 
 written in 1865. Besides preparing these works, his 
 correspondence with the War Department was volumi 
 nous, and his advice was sought on a great variety of 
 questions. 
 
 1 Outlines of Internationa] Law," by Major George B. Davis, p. 397. 
 
 2 The Forum, July, 1898, p. 558. 
 
IX 
 
 s 
 
 LIEBER AS AN AMERICAN OPINION OF ENGLAND, GER 
 MANY, AND FRANCE HIS ATTITUDE ON PARTISAN 
 
 QUESTIONS 
 
 JUDGE THAYER, of Philadelphia, remarks that 
 Lieber was a thorough American in all his feel 
 ings, as much so as if he had been born here. 1 He 
 admired both America and England, for he believed 
 in a republican government, as organized in the in 
 stitutions of these countries. And yet his love for 
 Germany continued throughout his life. On one oc 
 casion he wrote : " Can you not imagine how deeply 
 a native German must feel again that bitter truth 
 which envenoms his whole life, the sad historic fact 
 that Germany has been cheated out of her noble birth 
 right of being a great and manly nation, that God 
 called her to be one of the disposing earthly gods, 
 when they sit in council and determine history, but 
 that man made her a waiting servant?" 2 At another 
 time he said : " Germany s greatest glory is her authors, 
 but alas ! how much is wanting to the greatest glory 
 
 1 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. I, p. 35. 
 
 2 " Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 274. 
 
 155 
 
156 * FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 of that noble nation, because her law and government 
 are not glorious." During the Franco-Prussian War he 
 yearned to go to the assistance of his native country, 
 and on July 22, 1870, he wrote: " I am writing at ran 
 dom, for my very soul is filled with that one word, one 
 idea, one feeling Germany. The stream of blood 
 which will flow will probably not be very long, but 
 very wide, wide like a lake, and very deep." A few 
 days later he again wrote : " My German letters confirm 
 that all Germans are animated by the noblest feelings, 
 and are ready to sacrifice money, life, anything, in de 
 fence of their country. The fathers of families, sup 
 porting them by their hands, refuse to be refused, 
 until the king is obliged to telegraph, Accept them/ 
 and judges, and civil officers of high station volunteer, 
 and join the ranks. And I sit here and write like a 
 dullard. It is very hard." 
 
 Lieber s admiration for the institutions of England is 
 well-expressed in his " Civil Liberty and Self-Govern- 
 ment " : " We belong to the Anglican race, which carries 
 Anglican principles and liberty over the globe, because 
 wherever it moves, liberal institutions and a common 
 law full of manly rights and instincts, with the princi 
 ples of an expansive life follow it. We belong to that 
 race whose obvious task it is, among other proud and 
 sacred tasks, to rear and spread civil liberty over vast 
 regions in every part of the earth, on continent and 
 isle. We belong to that tribe which alone has the 
 
ENGLAND AND FRANCE 157 
 
 word self-government. We belong to that nation whose 
 great lot it is to be placed, with the full inheritance 
 of freedom, on the freshest soil in the noblest site be 
 tween Europe and Asia, a nation young, whose kin 
 dred countries, powerful in wealth, armies and intellect, 
 are old. It is a period when a peaceful migration of 
 nations, similar in the weight of numbers to the war 
 like migration of the Middle Ages, pours its crowd into 
 the lap of our more favored land, there to try, and at 
 times, to test to the utmost, our institutions institu 
 tions which are our foundations and buttresses, as the 
 law which they embody is our sole and sovereign 
 master." 
 
 Lieber s hatred for French institutions was intense, 
 and the forms of imperatorial sovereignty prevailing 
 in France appeared to him worse than those of Russia. 
 On April 21, 1848, he wrote to Charles Sumner: "I 
 do not believe in a French republic. They will have 
 a kingless government, indeed, for some years, perhaps 
 a lustrum; but it cannot be a republic, because they 
 have no institutions for it ; they seek republicanism in 
 a wrong place, and they dabble in generalities. Beau 
 tifully as Lamartine s proclamations are written, and 
 noble as some, perhaps most, sentiments in them are, 
 they contain also many radical follies. The ease with 
 which the republic has been proclaimed and received 
 bodes ill for its permanency. It reminds one of the 
 change of a Parisian fashion. I plucked Louis Phi- 
 
158 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 lippe long ago out of my heart, and have long con 
 sidered Guizot like a moth bent on rushing into the 
 flame. I allow that there was cause for an emeute, 
 but nothing has shown me yet that there was cause 
 for a revolution." Lieber had no confidence whatever 
 in the doctrine, " Vox populi vox Dei," once so popular 
 in France. He claimed that it was unrepublican, and 
 that no true friend of freedom would wish to be in 
 sulted by the supposition that he believes each human 
 individual an erring man, and that nevertheless the 
 united clamor of erring man has a character of divinity 
 about it. He believed that every true and stanch 
 republican wants liberty, but no deification either of 
 himself or others. 
 
 As an American, Lieber did not become a partisan, 
 although in his time our country passed through the 
 most violent civic strife. He could not endorse slav 
 ery, and the people of South Carolina soon realized 
 that he was not one of them. Referring to this fact 
 in his diary, he says : " Nothing positive has happened, 
 no offence given, and could we descend to it, we both 
 agree we could make ourselves the most popular 
 people, build a house in the sand-hills, smoke our 
 own hams, keep two horses, no matter if we could 
 pay for them. Oh, how they would carry me in their 
 arms. But nothing could make me more one of them, 
 and give me greater renown, than a pamphlet written 
 for the South, especially in favor of slavery. I would 
 
HIS UNION SENTIMENTS 159 
 
 sooner cut off my right hand ! " While in the South, 
 Lieber was prudent in his utterances on slavery, but 
 he was too manly to defend it as a positive good. 
 When the proposed admission of California as a free 
 state, led to a secession movement in South Carolina, 
 Lieber wrote to Hillard: "I love my wife, God 
 knows it, yet I know I should not feel her loss 
 more than the breaking up of the Union. What a 
 prospect ! What a nipping of the fondest hopes ! 
 What a blast to Europe ! " The Union men of South 
 Carolina, desiring to strengthen the national feeling, 
 resolved to celebrate by a mass meeting at Greenville, 
 the Fourth of July, 1851. Lieber was invited to ad 
 dress the meeting, but as he was not able to be pres 
 ent, his speech was read. It was filled with the 
 strongest Union sentiments, and was widely published 
 in the papers of the day. About the same time, he 
 made public his views on slavery in a series of five 
 letters addressed to John C. Calhoun, touching the 
 Wilmot Proviso, the right of extending slavery into 
 the territories, the Southerner s plea that the slaves 
 are his property, etc. 
 
 In one of the letters, he remarked: 
 
 " It is not the North that is against you. It is 
 mankind, it is the world, it is civilization, it is history, 
 it is reason, it is God that is against slavery. 
 
 "... You preach that the Bible is the book of 
 
160 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 salvation, but you are obliged to forbid millions even 
 to learn to read. Other people have established, lately, 
 institutions for the instruction and melioration of even 
 idiots, and everywhere the subject of general school 
 education forms one of the highest questions of 
 national policy, but you must condemn millions to 
 ignorance. 
 
 "... Slavery in the Southern states has produced a 
 state of things which is not rare in history. Indeed, 
 every great change must probably go through that 
 stage, namely; when the minority sway for a con 
 siderable time the majority, because the existing state 
 of things, which is to be changed, is so interwoven 
 with ancient associations and the inmost feelings of 
 the community, that it is easy to raise the hue and 
 cry of heresy against every one who thinks differently 
 or doubts ; and timidity, want of concert, and a fear 
 of being made to appear in favor of enemies, keep 
 the majority for a long time from becoming manifest. 
 It was so in the two centuries preceding the Refor 
 mation. But what a gush when once the dam was 
 broken." 
 
 Lieber regarded the election of Buchanan as a 
 victory of Southern bullyism, the North yielding be 
 cause the South threatened to secede. He immedi 
 ately began to predict that the Union would not last. 
 He pronounced the Dred Scott decision as illegal, 
 
HIS UNION SENTIMENTS r 6i 
 
 unjuridical, unphilosophical, and unethical. In the 
 election of 1860, he decided to vote for Mr. Lincoln. 
 He believed that Breckinridge was supported by a 
 corrupt administration, which had dealt fraudulently 
 with the Kansas question. He felt sure that were 
 Mr. Breckinridge elected, he would have the African 
 slave-trade reopened. 1 Writing to Allibone in 1860, 
 Lieber said: "What we Americans stand in need of 
 is a daily whipping, like a naughty boy. It were 
 very wicked to pray to God for a chastising calamity 
 to befall our whole nation, as it fell on Prussia in 
 1806, and led to regeneration; but as a historian, I 
 have a right to say that when nations go on reck 
 lessly as we do, dancing, drinking, laughing, defying 
 right, morality and justice, money-making and murder 
 ing, God in his mercy has sometimes condescended 
 to smite them, and to smite them hard, in order to 
 bring them to their senses, and make them recover 
 themselves." 
 
 At a meeting of the Loyal National League, Union 
 Square, New York, on April n, 1863, Lieber ex 
 pressed his Union sentiments in the language of the 
 true philosopher. He read a paper entitled, " No 
 Party now, but all for our Country," in which he en 
 couraged all Americans to support the government; to 
 
 1 " As to the African slave-trade, you know very well that I have always 
 maintained that there is no blot so black in the history of Europe as the 
 establishment of the negro trade." LIEBER TO HIS SON, OSCAR, 1860. 
 
1 62 FRANCIS LIEBER. 
 
 approve the Conscription Acts ; to insist on a speedy 
 extinction of slavery; to abhor the secret societies 
 which favored the rebellious enemy; to resist every 
 partition of any portion of our country, and to pro 
 nounce every foreign minister accredited to our 
 government, who tampered with our enemies, as fail 
 ing in his duties toward us. He closed by urging 
 every American, " be he such by birth or choice, to 
 join the loyal movement of those national leagues, 
 which is naught else than to join and follow our 
 beckoning flag, and to adopt for his device OUR 
 COUNTRY." Lieber presided over a German-Repub 
 lican mass meeting in New York City in the fall of 
 1863, and when the news reached South Carolina, 
 the Euphradian Society of the College expelled him 
 from honorary membership, and his bust and portrait 
 were removed from the halls of the College. In 1864, 
 he was invited by the Fremont men to become presi 
 dent of their Campaign Club ; but he declined, stating 
 that he was opposed to every personal-election move 
 ment, as it would only tend to weaken the forces of 
 the Union party. He believed that the nomination 
 of General Fremont could have no other effect than 
 the division of the party, but not his election. In a 
 letter to General Halleck on the presidential situa 
 tion, Lieber remarked that the universal support of 
 McClellan by the anti-administration people, and the 
 apathy of the loyal people for Lincoln had brought 
 
HIS UNION SENTIMENTS 163 
 
 about a condition requiring the nomination of a new 
 man. He urged that Lincoln should withdraw, and 
 that Grant be taken up. In advocating this course, 
 he had nothing against Lincoln, but he realized that 
 individuals wear out quickly in revolutionary times. 
 He added : " We must have a new man against a 
 new man, and we cannot have him without Mr. 
 Lincoln s withdrawal. Oh, that an angel could de 
 scend and show him what a beautiful stamp on his 
 name in history such a withdrawal would be ! " 
 
 Although Lieber was so firm a Union man, the 
 Civil War knocked rudely at his door. His eldest 
 and most promising son, Oscar Montgomery, marched 
 under the flag of shame and laid down his life for 
 the cause of secession, while Hamilton, who had 
 joined the Illinois militia, lost his left arm at Fort 
 Donelson. In a letter to Hillard, Lieber described 
 his feelings as follows : " I am very unhappy. Oscar 
 is so imbued with all that I hold worst in South 
 Carolina, that hardly anything is left between us but 
 the thread of paternal and filial affection. I enter 
 thus upon the last stage of old age! Such things 
 must have happened in the Reformation; but that 
 does not mitigate its bitterness. Unfortunately, too, 
 my whole life has been spent, and my very profession 
 obliges me to pass my days in meditating on all that 
 is going to ruin in corruption and violence." Again, 
 to Dr. S. Tyler, he wrote : " If you ever go to Rich- 
 
1 64 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 mond, go to the churchyard, where you will find my 
 hope expressed on the tombstone of my son, Oscar. 
 He fell on the Southern side, and his two brothers 
 went to Richmond to place the tombstone on the 
 grave. They have fought and bled on the Union side. 
 You see the Civil War has knocked rudely at my door." 
 Although Lieber took a deep interest in all public 
 measures, and followed closely the current of politi 
 cal thought, his mind was not adapted to take a 
 practical, every-day part in current politics. His 
 heart was bound up in the welfare of his country, 
 and he could not descend to the level of the parti- 
 \/ san. He had a popular interest, however, in the 
 
 V ^. 
 
 tariff agitation, which, after 1840, assumed so much 
 importance in our country. He was a firm believer 
 in free trade, and defended his position on this ques 
 tion with numerous essays and lectures. He soon 
 became one of the distinguished champions of the 
 cause, and was styled by Secretary of the Treasury, 
 Robert J. Walker, " the philosophic head of the Free 
 Traders of the United States." Lieber s attitude on 
 this question was in direct harmony with his politi 
 cal philosophy. He was the apostle of civil liberty, 
 and in reviewing the industrial history of nations, he 
 saw a direct connection between civil liberty and 
 commerce. He looked upon protection as the first 
 measure that nations resort to, when they rise to civil 
 liberty, while " unshackled trade is always the second 
 
FALLACIES OF PROTECTIONISTS 165 
 
 and higher stage of experience and analyzing reflec 
 tion." 1 Civil liberty, he claimed, has had the general 
 effect of fostering self-reliance, and of quickening the 
 brains of men, two qualities so important in an enter 
 prising commerce. The most complete exposition of 
 his views on this subject is found in " Notes and 
 Fallacies of American Protectionists." 2 These Notes 
 consisted originally of outlines for his College lectures. 
 They afterward appeared in the New York Even 
 ing Post, and upon revision, were published by the 
 Free Trade Society in New York. He denounced 
 protection as a veiled communism, destroying indi 
 vidualism and seriously interfering with production. 
 Worse than this, he regarded protective tariffs as 
 "despotic, often tyrannical in the extreme, and incom 
 patible with civil liberty." He hated all forms of 
 despotism, and feared that the tariff had a tendency 
 to disloyalize the people, j 
 
 He interpreted the whole course of modern history 
 as assisting to increase production, exchange, and con 
 sumption. The general diffusion of industry, the 
 security afforded by the law of nations, the greater 
 uniformity of ideas and concepts, the spread of reli 
 gious liberty, the wise provisions for education, the 
 longevity of nations, the opportunities for investing 
 the smallest savings, the rational views concerning 
 
 1 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. I, p. 325. 
 
 2 Ibid., vol. 2, p. 391. 
 
1 66 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 interest on money, the honor attached to labor, the 
 safety afforded by freedom, the abolition of slavery, 
 the decreasing waste in wars, the means of inter 
 communication all have contributed to intensify 
 exchange. 1 In closing his argument against the pro 
 tectionists, he says : " No artificial legislation or fanci 
 ful regulation can make people wealthier. Exchange 
 and production go constantly hand in hand, and all 
 the wisdom and knowledge about markets and free 
 trade, commerce, production, and increase of wealth, 
 may be put in the short and inexorable formula with 
 which I shall conclude these notes, to make it possi 
 bly more impressive for some readers namely : 
 
 " PRODUCT FOR PRODUCT " 
 
 His lack of partisan zeal is well described in a 
 letter to the author, from Hon. Andrew D. White, 
 as follows : " As regards taking a practical, everyday 
 part in current politics, I never thought him of the 
 build for that. In fact, I once saw a curious exhibi 
 tion of his inability to take such a part. He had 
 been elected a delegate to a State Republican Con 
 vention, and came up to Syracuse, where I then was, 
 to attend it. As he was my guest, I suggested to 
 him, when the time arrived for calling the conven 
 tion together, that we should go to the hall where 
 it was held; but he was engaged in very earnest 
 
 1 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. 2, p. 458. 
 
LACK OF PARTISAN ZEAL 167 
 
 political talk with me, and put off going, probably 
 with the idea that not much would be done until his 
 arrival. He reached the hall about an hour late, found 
 it in all the noise and uproar which generally attends 
 the sessions of such bodies, and as we listened to a 
 roll-call, found that another delegate had claimed his 
 seat, and had been admitted, in his absence. He 
 heard the name of his opponent called and responded 
 to, said not a word, listened a little longer, then pro 
 posed that we should take a walk, and he never went 
 near the convention again." 
 
X 
 
 RANGE OF HIS STUDIES METHODS OF WORK EXTEN 
 SIVE CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 AS a boy, Lieber s first desire was to become a 
 botanist. 1 He soon abandoned this idea, how 
 ever, and continued his studies in the gymnasium in 
 charge of Jahn. At Berlin and Halle he was especially 
 interested in the higher mathematics and history. At 
 Rome, under the guidance of Niebuhr, he became 
 further acquainted with the riches of historical and 
 political studies. He was also an accomplished linguist 
 and was familiar with nearly all the European lan 
 guages. He acquired a knowledge of the English 
 language with comparative ease, and his works have 
 so vigorous a style that we might well say he is one 
 of the few writers who have placed political science 
 in a literary form. In 1828, Lieber was deeply en 
 gaged in the study of the North American Indians, 
 and he urged a plan to found a society for the promo 
 tion of the study of the Indian languages. In a letter 
 to Hon. Albert Gallatin, in 1837, he emphasized the 
 great importance of the foreign languages, laying 
 special stress upon a study of the ancient classics. 2 
 
 1 "Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 5. 
 
 2 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. I, p. 499. 
 
 1 68 
 
METHODS OF WORK 
 
 Lieber had great physical strength and wonderful 
 powers of endurance, thus rendering it possible for 
 him to accomplish a vast amount of work. He was 
 below medium height in stature, stout and muscular. 
 His intellectual head was fitted for bronze or marble, 
 and his countenance indicated the great man that he 
 was. His well-developed mind was made still more 
 comprehensive in its power by his wonderful memory. 
 In his " Reminiscences of Niebuhr," he spoke of the 
 memory as "the most useful and indispensable of all 
 instruments in all pursuits." Lieber s friend, Judge 
 Thayer, relates that "at one time in his student life 
 in Germany, he allowed himself only four hours sleep, 
 and his food at that period often consisted of nothing 
 but bread and apples." He rarely retired before half- 
 past twelve or one o clock at night, and was up at 
 half-past six, for at seven o clock he had a lecture every 
 morning; while in the summer, he had one at six 
 o clock. He was never idle. During his last impris 
 onment, he composed a volume of poems, " Wein- und 
 Wonne-lieder," which was published in Berlin. In 
 his diary, the following entry is occasionally found, 
 " Worked from eight to half-past six without interrup 
 tion." His habits of industry continued throughout 
 life. As late as 1857, while preparing his minor works 
 for publication, he would begin at half-past seven 
 o clock in the morning and remain at his writing table 
 until four, with only ten minutes interruption for 
 
170 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 luncheon. From his earliest youth, he placed great 
 value upon chronological tables in his studies. While 
 at Halle, he amused his fellow-students, who often 
 found him asleep on a sofa, with " Bredow s Tables " 
 on his face. He even made for himself tables of the 
 development of special great and important laws. 
 From his earliest university days, and even previous 
 to them, he loved to lie down by the hour ; hold syn 
 chronistic tables over his head, and let the mind travel, 
 collect, and find threads. Many thoughts which struck 
 his hearers in later years as he uttered them, he could 
 trace to these synchronistic wanderings of early life. 
 Regarding methods of study, Lieber wrote to his son 
 Oscar, in 1840: "Whenever you get a book, you must 
 decide whether you will read or study it through at 
 once, or put it away as a book of reference. If the 
 latter is the case, you must read the contents. If they 
 are not given, look over the index. If that is want 
 ing, you must glance over the book, so that, at all 
 events, you know what subjects are treated of in the 
 work. If you put it on the shelf without this, you 
 might as well not possess it at all. Mark this for all 
 your life ; the question is always important when we 
 possess or own a thing, Are we master of it?" 
 
 Lieber s studies covered a wide range of subjects. 
 He explored not only the secret recesses of history, but 
 he entered other fields as well. While preparing the 
 " Encyclopaedia Americana," he found it necessary to 
 
SHAKESPEARE AND MILTON 
 
 make a careful study of French philosophy. He was 
 a great admirer of Aristotle, designating him "the 
 greatest human intellect." On one occasion he wrote, 
 "Aristotle forever, but Truth even for longer than 
 that." He was fond of poetry, and he made the fol 
 lowing estimate of the greatness of Shakespeare to his 
 friend, Hillard : " Do you know, Hillard, that every 
 year I grow older, Shakespeare grows upon me with 
 increased power, by successive squares of the orig 
 inal root, although I do not become in the least de 
 gree more indulgent to his faults. But he is so great, 
 so much greater than Milton, who, I cannot help feel 
 ing, occasionally falls into what I call the Ciceronian 
 style." Lieber compared the minds and souls of such 
 men as Shakespeare and Aristotle to the palace of 
 Diocletian at Salona, within whose trusty walls later gen 
 erations have built the entire city of Spolatio, nestling 
 there with its dwellings and gardens and shops, secure 
 against priests, Turks, and other ruthless people. The 
 patriotic blindness of Milton always made a deep im 
 pression upon Lieber. Speaking of the blind poet, he 
 said : " Milton, too, was the first who made liberty of 
 the press a positive subject for political philosophy, 
 and expressed his opinions openly and distinctly. And 
 how perfect was his language ! English was for him 
 the lyre in Orion s hands. Therefore, all the greatest 
 orators of England Chatham, Burke, all took Mil 
 ton for their example, for with him they found the 
 
I 7 2 FRANCIS LIBBER 
 
 purest English, free from platitudes or bombast." 
 Burns was to Lieber an unspeakably lovely, tender, 
 and soulful poet, and he paid the following beautiful 
 tribute to the Scottish bard : " When I was young, I 
 could never read Plutarch without a heart big with tears, 
 not that the things related called for tears, the frame 
 of mind that sterling book put me into was one of 
 Wehmuth, and painful longing. Now the scene is 
 shifted. It is Burns that affects me thus. I can 
 hardly read a line of his without that joy-pain, that 
 soothing grief, which fills the heart of man in such 
 thousand different degrees on this earth, from the feel 
 ing evoked by the very first tiny white floweret in 
 spring, to that which overwhelms the soul when we 
 read for the thousandth time the Sermon on the 
 Mount." Lieber regarded Goethe as a thorough ego 
 tist. The Germans, he thought, wanted a downright 
 plain prose more than any other nation. Speaking of 
 the work of Lessing, Goethe, and Herder, he said: 
 " They have done much, but with our tendency to float 
 in the abstract, we have always a great love for images. 
 They indicate a little what is meant, or what with the 
 author himself is indistinct and foggy, and which he 
 would give up were he obliged to speak in decent, plain 
 prose. It is infinitely easier to write in high-flown lan 
 guage and use images, than to use sound, plain, strong, 
 correct, precise, penetrating, and lasting language." 
 Lieber criticized American literature because no 
 
EXTENSIVE CORRESPONDENCE 173 
 
 revolutionary song worth talking of, was produced. 
 He observed that, at the time when every American 
 seemed to feel deeply and warmly for Poland, not one 
 song was written. He remarked further: " Why look at 
 our own poets in our own struggles. When Webster, 
 Clay, and every one wrestled for, or against the Union, 
 no Longfellow sang; and by heaven, there was a 
 chance. It seems that somehow the Anglican does 
 not know how to seize, in poetry, on an occasion, and 
 give in rhyme, its very soul and savor." These illus 
 trations show that his knowledge of history was 
 adorned with the treasures of other learning; thus 
 enabling him to pour out profusely in his works the 
 best thoughts of all ages, and make even the pro- 
 foundest subjects glow with the richness of reminis 
 cence, and the transparency of historic truth. 
 
 Lieber enjoyed a correspondence and acquaintance 
 with many of the distinguished scholars of this 
 country and of foreign lands. His relations with 
 Humboldt were most pleasant, and before he had 
 met the great scientist, he wrote thus to his parents : 
 " I am glad that you sent me a picture of Humboldt. 
 In order to admire this giant as he deserves, one 
 ought to have lived in both hemispheres. If it were 
 allowable to use the term for any mortal, he, more 
 than any other, would lead me to call him Humboldt 
 Divus. I am now reading the last volume of his 
 works, and feel an enthusiastic adoration for this 
 
174 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 priest of science ; for what he has investigated, dis 
 covered, and accomplished is far more than he him 
 self could ever have hoped. I shall propose to Silli- 
 man to try to get the insignificant name of Rocky 
 Mountains, so inconvenient for other languages, 
 changed to the name of Humboldt Andes." During 
 his visit to Germany in 1844, Lieber met Humboldt, 
 who received him in a friendly way. It was chiefly 
 through his influence that the king offered to Lieber 
 the chair of penology in the University of Berlin. An 
 intimate friendship sprang up between the two scholars, 
 and in 1859, Lieber honored the great scientist with 
 a memorial address on his life and character before 
 the American Geographical Society. 1 Lieber often cor 
 responded with Bunsen, while Mittermaier was one of 
 his warmest friends. It was Mittermaier who urged him 
 so strongly to write a treatise on penology, and who 
 translated the " Civil Liberty and Self-Government " into 
 German. Lieber had a large circle of friends among the 
 public men of our own country. Webster, he regarded 
 as not sufficiently truthful for a Northern senator, lacking 
 the greatest and rarest of qualities of a statesman or a 
 ruler, a union of the sense of power with the nat 
 uralist s perception of the pulsations of life. In com- 
 
 1 " For the young who hear me, I conclude with Humboldt s own words, in 
 the last letter he wrote before setting sail for South America: Man must will 
 the good and the great; the rest comes as decreed. " MISCELLANEOUS 
 WRITINGS, vol. i, p. 410. 
 
AMERICAN ORATORY 175 
 
 menting on Webster s visit to South Carolina College, 
 Lieber remarked that he remained cold, torpid, like 
 an alligator, and in his intercourse was absent to a 
 degree of discourtesy and rudeness. He appreciated 
 Webster s oratory, however, and on one occasion, 
 wrote : " To test Webster s oratory, which has ever 
 been attractive to me, I read a portion of my favorite 
 speeches of Demosthenes, and then, always aloud, 
 parts of Webster s ; then returned to the Athenian ; 
 and Webster stood the test." Lieber knew Beecher 
 quite well, and in 1839 went to hear him lecture on 
 Burns. He was not pleased with Beecher s oratory, 
 remarking : " It was general talk, extremely well- 
 worded talk, still talk, ornamented with that curse of 
 American oratory of the present time, something to 
 make the audience laugh. Woe to the nation that 
 holds these things to be the highest efforts of the 
 mind, and they are held to be such. We lack as yet 
 entirely in this country a set of men, to acknowledge 
 and stamp broadly and deeply, high, substantial, non- 
 popular merit." As to Everett s orations, he thought 
 there was too much varnish in them. He was also 
 in the most intimate relations with Professor Joseph 
 Henry of the Smithsonian Institution, and spent 
 some of the happiest days of his life with him. They 
 both were deep thinkers, liberal, genial, and candid, 
 and they stood soul to soul together in their views 
 on many great questions. 
 
176 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 The friendships formed by Lieber continued true 
 throughout life. His intimate relations with Sumner 
 were broken off, however, during a period of eight 
 years, from 1853 to 1861. One of Summer s biog 
 raphers claims that the estrangement arose from the 
 fact that Lieber in South Carolina, came to take a 
 milder view of slavery than he carried there from the 
 North, and that he dissented altogether from Sumner s 
 radical treatment of the subject. Sumner looked upon 
 Lieber as an apologist of slavery, and grieving over 
 the matter, told him so in a letter. This was not 
 agreeable to Lieber, and he closed the correspondence. 
 From Lieber s own writings another view of the con 
 troversy may be obtained. It appears that he had 
 dissented from the views in Sumner s Anti-war, Fourth 
 of July oration, and he also took exceptions to the 
 manner in which he was elected Senator. Although 
 Lieber s objections were stated in the most friendly 
 spirit, Sumner was deeply offended. When Lieber 
 wrote to him for important documents for his branches, 
 he received in return newspapers with articles about 
 ill-treated negroes, marked with thick lines. Lieber 
 finally wrote to Sumner requesting him to stop ; that 
 he, living in the midst of slavery, knew the institution 
 perfectly well. The next letter from Sumner contained 
 the charge that Lieber had turned a pro-slavery man, 
 to which he replied : " This is an ill-requital for a life 
 actually spent in the service of liberty, by my blood, 
 
QUARREL WITH SUMNER ! 77 
 
 word, and pen." This unpleasant correspondence was 
 closed by a letter from Sumner in which he reminded 
 Lieber, that while visiting at Longfellow s, he had 
 made the statement that the negroes were physically 
 well-treated on the plantations, and better than in the 
 West Indies. Lieber did not reply to this letter, and 
 for eight years, the estrangement between the two 
 scholars continued. This difference arose from the 
 fact that Sumner took a radical, sectional view of the 
 great political issue of the day, while Lieber was not 
 a partisan, and he recognized it as his duty to treat 
 public questions in the spirit of the philosopher. Sum- 
 ner s charge that his old friend had compromised with 
 slavery was without foundation. Lieber was hated in 
 the South because he did not defend the institution 
 of slavery, while from his earliest boyhood he had 
 been an apostle of freedom. He not only hated op 
 pression, but in his "Civil Liberty and Self-Govern- 
 ment," he has described for all ages the immortal 
 foundations of liberty and free institutions. Lieber 
 spoke of this unpleasant affair with Sumner in the 
 following candid manner : " Sumner requires adulation ; 
 I am no flatterer. I can love and devotedly love; 
 I feel the luxury of being thankful, and the delight of 
 admiring ; but I am, above all, a man that loves truth, 
 and adulation goes against my grain whether it be 
 applied to me or expected of me." In 1861, Lieber 
 addressed a note to Sumner, and their old-time pleas- 
 
178 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 ant relations were restored. Sumner learned to know 
 the character and abilities of his friend better than ever 
 before, and he frequently sought his advice on impor 
 tant public questions. He was just as willing to return 
 the kindness, and he assisted Lieber s sons to obtain 
 positions in the army. 1 
 
 Probably the most intimate of Lieber s connec 
 tions abroad was that with Dr. Bluntschli, of Heidel 
 berg, who honored him with the following beautiful 
 tribute : 2 " The intimate personal connection in which 
 I stood with Lieber in his declining years, although, 
 indeed, through interchange of letters, and not through 
 meetings face to face, was for me a constant stimulus 
 and source of satisfaction. This relation with Lieber 
 was animated and strengthened by great and world- 
 historic events ; first of all, the war for the American 
 Union, from 1861 to 1865; then the war between 
 Austria and Prussia in 1866; and finally, the Franco- 
 Prussian War. From 1860 to 1870, Francis Lieber, 
 in New York, Edward Laboulaye in Paris, and I, in 
 Heidelberg, formed what Lieber used to call a * scien 
 tific clover-leaf, in which three men, devoting them 
 selves especially to political science, and at the same 
 
 1 Speaking of Sumner s character, James Ford Rhodes remarks in his 
 "History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850": "His faults 
 were venial, and such as we might look for in a spoiled child of a city of cul 
 ture. He was vain, conceited, fond of flattery, overbearing in manner, and 
 he wore a constant air of superiority." 
 
 2 " Miscellaneous Writings," vol. 2, p. 7. 
 
SCIENTIFIC CLOVER-LEAF 179 
 
 time uniting the historical and philosophical methods, 
 combining theory with practical politics, and belong 
 ing to three different nationalities, to three states, 
 and to three peoples, found themselves growing to 
 gether by the ties of common sympathy, and thus, 
 figuratively speaking, representing also the community 
 of Anglo-American, French, and German culture and 
 science. The personal tie, indeed, is now, alas, broken. 
 Lieber is dead. Laboulaye had already virtually sepa 
 rated from us, for he could not overcome the bitter 
 ness caused by his feelings and experience during the 
 Franco-Prussian War. But that community of thought, 
 science, and endeavor which we represented for three 
 peoples and for three civilizations is not broken up, 
 but will broaden and deepen and become more fruit 
 ful as surely as the peculiar spirit and individual 
 forms of nationality existing of their own right, find 
 their true harmony and highest end in the develop 
 ment of humanity." 
 
 Since the above beautiful words were written, these 
 three publicists have closed their earthly careers, but 
 in our own country there has been erected a fitting 
 memorial to them. A few years ago, the German 
 citizens of Baltimore purchased the Bluntschli library, 
 and presented it to Johns Hopkins University. Lie- 
 ber s widow desired that the manuscripts of her hus 
 band should be associated with those of his old 
 friend, and she gave his papers to the University, 
 
180 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 along with copies of his various works. The works 
 of Laboulaye have also been added, so that "the 
 community of thought, science, and endeavor " of 
 which Bluntschli wrote, is now perpetuated in the 
 collected writings of these three men in the library of 
 Johns Hopkins University. 1 
 
 1 " Bluntschli and Lieber never met face to face ; they were friends, how 
 ever, by long correspondence, and by common sympathies. Lieber used to 
 say that he in New York, Bluntschli in Heidelberg, and Laboulaye in Paris, 
 formed a scientific clover-leaf, representing the international character of 
 French, German, and Anglo-American culture." STUDY OF HISTORY IN 
 AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, p. 180. 
 
XI 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS PERSONAL CHARACTER 
 
 NO one has ever expressed a deeper reverence for 
 the Christian religion than Lieber, and yet he 
 was hated in the South because he was not a bitter 
 Calvinist, and because he attended the Episcopal and 
 not the Presbyterian church. Before he went to South 
 Carolina, he was represented by the more zealous as an 
 infidel in disguise. But Lieber was not only a Chris 
 tian believer, whose life was pure and consistent; he 
 ably defended this religion in his public writings, by 
 showing its influence in the course of history. It is 
 true, as a defender of civil and religious liberty, he 
 despised all attempts to coerce the conscience. This 
 is shown by the following note made in his diary on 
 February 28, 1837 -, 1 "This morning Professor Jones, 
 of the Theological Seminary, preached in the college 
 chapel, hell, eternal damnation. God looks in de 
 spair upon the damned. Such positive blasphemies 
 were uttered, that I felt excessively sorry for having 
 taken Oscar with me. The idea of eternal damna 
 tion, even of the very worst, is so abhorrent and un- 
 
 1 "Life and Letters of Francis Lieber/ by Thomas Sergeant Perry, p. 115. 
 
 181 
 
1 82 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 philosophical that it is very difficult to me to imagine 
 any reflecting man that believes seriously in it." To 
 a fellow-member of the Faculty of South Carolina Col 
 lege, who had been charged with teaching unbiblical 
 doctrines, Lieber declared that the Bible is the great 
 est truth of all, and, therefore, finds the most mani 
 fold misapplications and distortions. 1 He added: 
 " Natural philosophy, geology, political economy, the 
 lightning rod, vaccination, the disbelief in witchcraft, 
 navigation, the Royal Society of London, taking inter 
 est on money, printing, civil liberty, making roads, 
 gardening, astronomy, anatomy, the belief in a western 
 continent, a proper division in universal history, the 
 abolition of the title, the political independence of 
 nations, the separation of the Church from the State, 
 the belief in spectres, inquiries into human language, 
 the annihilation of the jus divinum, all, all have 
 suffered from misapplications of the most truth-loving 
 and most truth-preaching of all books." Referring to 
 the action of Ferdinand VII., who through the influ 
 ence of the Spanish priesthood, had abolished the 
 chair of natural philosophy in the University of Sala 
 manca, Lieber exclaimed: "A fine God, that of these 
 priests ! Whether you approach him by reading the 
 Bible, or by reading nature, you are alike led to athe 
 ism. O God of truth, how long ? how long ? " 
 
 In 1850, Lieber wrote an essay on the necessity of 
 
 1 " Life and Letters of Francis Lieber," by Thomas Sergeant Perry," p. 240. 
 
RELIGIOUS VIEWS 
 
 religious instruction in colleges, in which he held that 
 every college in the Union would be essentially defec 
 tive without a chair for the evidences of Christianity 
 and biblical knowledge in general. Considered purely 
 as a branch of knowledge, he regarded Christianity an 
 indispensable element of liberal education, while this 
 kind of instruction seemed to him doubly important 
 since man is a religious being, and if true religion is 
 not imparted, he will cling to a bad one. 1 
 
 Lieber believed that without the Reformation in 
 England, the world could not have been what it is, 
 and that we should not have the whole body of essen 
 tial principles of civil liberty and representative gov 
 ernment. He recognized the fact that the moral value 
 of the individual became immeasurably raised by Chris 
 tianity; that it was not confined to the limits of the 
 State, but that a new territory had been discovered 
 beyond the State in which man is something impor 
 tant besides being a citizen. He firmly believed that 
 wherever this religion spread, the individual, moral 
 value of man was acknowledged, and that something 
 beyond the State was preached, so that the State now 
 becomes the means to obtain something still higher. 
 The following beautiful estimate of Lieber s religious 
 feelings is found in Scribners Monthly Magazine, 
 October, 1873: "He had known sorrows deep and 
 trying, but he bore them with the philosophy of a 
 
 1 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. 2, p. 525. 
 
1 84 FRANCIS LIBBER 
 
 thinker, and the humility of a Christian. Nowhere in 
 Francis Lieber s great mind lingered that arid unbe 
 lief which makes Gibbon say that all religions are 
 equally true in the eyes of the people, equally false 
 in the eyes of the philosopher, and equally useful in 
 the eyes of the statesman. Francis Lieber was a 
 Christian, and when the angel of sorrow brushed his 
 heart with her wing, she but added a new tenderness 
 and a profounder faith to that which was there before. 
 Sorrow, to such a mind, is but a visit from the gods. 
 Great and terrible is the honor; may we none of us 
 be found unequal to it ! " Darwinism was despised 
 by Lieber as a wayward and repulsive dogmatism. He 
 preferred rather the cosmogony of the unethical Greek 
 mythology. He had, in fact, but very little time to 
 devote to the natural sciences, as his studies were 
 along other lines ; but he was intimate with a number 
 of naturalists, and he had a good knowledge of their 
 theories. 
 
 Lieber was an ardent lover of the fine arts. " What 
 will become of the world when there is no Raphael, 
 no Apollo Belvedere, no Angelo? and that time 
 will come," he exclaimed. He took great delight 
 in poetry, flowers, perfumes, and little children. While 
 in the South, he was frequently visited by a whole 
 coachful of little girls from the Preston house, who 
 would bring baskets of flowers for his lecture room. 
 He often said that the mob of riotous, sweet little 
 
LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL 185 
 
 girls were very much like the flowers. He always 
 had flowers on his desk, and one of his students, a 
 son of Judge Preston, repeatedly brought him roses. 
 He had a particular weakness for delicate perfumes, 
 and a bottle of Lubin s violet might be found in 
 every room of his house. Speaking of Lieber s love 
 for the beautiful, Dr. la Borde, in his " History of 
 South Carolina College," writes as follows : " He is 
 fond of the beautiful, and is arrested in admiration 
 whenever it is presented. It is beneath the dignity 
 of my subject to say that he will almost steal a 
 flower, that he may send it with a complimentary 
 note to a young lady. He loves to look out upon 
 a May-day when the earth teems with buds and 
 blossoms, and how responsive is his heart, with its 
 hopes and joys. Shall I add that he has a youthful 
 fondness for the society of girls, and that no young 
 gallant can surpass him on such occasions in light 
 and airy conversation. But I must not forget his 
 sympathy with little children ; those flowers that 
 make the hovel s earthen floor delightful as the 
 glades of paradise. He will play with them by the 
 hour, and leading the way, forget his manhood, and 
 become as one of them. Does this not speak volumes 
 for his heart ? Shall I say more ? He has left South 
 Carolina College, but his affections still linger around 
 it. He loves the trees under whose shades he 
 walked for twenty years, the lecture room where he 
 
1 86 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 so long labored in the cause of knowledge ; and the 
 ivy which he planted, and which now spreads itself 
 in rich luxuriance over the house which he occupied, 
 has fastened its tendrils upon his heart, and is 
 entwined in everlasting embrace around it." 
 
 Lieber s cheerful disposition made him one of the 
 most conspicuous ornaments in society during his 
 earlier residence in New York. He spoke English 
 with that terseness which accompanies its acquirement 
 as a foreign language. He was ready with wit and 
 repartee. At a party, a lady once told him that he 
 showed great knowledge of English in his ability to 
 understand all jokes. "Yes," he said, "but sometimes 
 I say a stupid thing. That is because I have not 
 yet conquered all the delicatesse of the language; the 
 stupidity is in the language, not in me." On another 
 occasion, he was asked by a lady for some informa 
 tion about a Louis Quinze dress, and he answered 
 the question with a profound treatise on powdered 
 hair, concluding as follows : " I demand for my wages, 
 to see you en Marquise, and I am always yours, 
 whether I am endusted or embooked, or whether you 
 are envioleted, enrosed, or enpinked." 
 
 Lieber possessed a nature susceptible to enjoyment 
 and sorrow alike. Judge Thayer relates that on 
 one occasion, when the competitors for a prize in 
 Lieber s department of the Law School at Columbia 
 College were writing the prize papers, at the end of 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER ^7 
 
 the period he was requested by the students to 
 extend the time for one of their number. " But 
 why ? " he asked. The answer was, " He was 
 wounded at Fort Fisher in the right arm, and can 
 not write as fast as we can." Lieber turned away, 
 overcome with emotion, and could only nod his 
 assent. He was possessed with the keenest sensibili 
 ties from his earliest years. While a student at Jena, 
 he journeyed on foot to Dresden, living on bread 
 and plums by the way, to see the Madonna di San 
 Sisto of Raphael. As he stood before the picture, 
 he was so overcome by his feelings that his emotions 
 attracted the attention of a lady, whom he afterward 
 discovered to be one of the daughters of the great 
 Tieck. She spoke to him and encouraged his 
 sentiment. 1 
 
 It was a source of much regret to Lieber s many 
 friends, when, on account of advancing age, he with- 
 
 1 Steffens had a similar experience while a student at Freiburg. He 
 went on a certain occasion to Dresden to visit the art galleries. His 
 mind became so overwrought that he almost reeled ; but when the guide 
 led him on to the picture of the Madonna, he broke down completely. 
 The scene is described as follows in his "German University Life" : "At 
 last we stood before a picture of uncommon size. A woman s figure 
 seemed to be floating on clouds, and in her arms she bore a child whose 
 face was of strange and ineffable beauty. My feelings had reached their 
 height. I could bear them no longer, and burst into violent and uncon 
 trollable weeping. I tried to govern myself, for I felt that every eye was 
 upon me, and at length I succeeded. And then I learned that the picture 
 which had so moved me was the most celebrated of the gallery, the Madonna 
 of San Sisto, Raphael s great work." 
 
1 88 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 drew from society. It is related that at a dinner 
 given by Mr. Ruggles to the Bishop of Litchfield in 
 1871, Lieber appeared with all the grace of former 
 years ; but on being rallied after dinner on his neglect 
 of that society which so eagerly sought him, he said 
 with much feeling, " All noble things are difficult ; 
 society is difficult after you get old." Lieber was a 
 good lover, and a good hater as well. He once de 
 clared to Judge Thayer that he should not like to go 
 to heaven if Louis XIV. were there. Dr. la Borde, 
 of South Carolina College, who was associated with 
 Lieber for many years, pays the following tribute to 
 him as a man : " Associated with him for thirteen 
 years as his colleague in the faculty, and sustaining 
 toward him relations of confidence throughout that 
 period, I think that I have had ample opportunities 
 for forming a right estimate, and that my judgment 
 is entitled to some measure of value. He knows his 
 strength, and never distrustful of his powers, always 
 exhibits a spirit of bold self-reliance. In the ardor 
 of discussion, he may become too dogmatic and per 
 emptory, and act like one who never shows mercy, 
 or gives quarter. This may create the impression 
 that his character is cast in too stern a mould to 
 allow of the existence of the tender and sympathetic 
 affections. But this is a mistake. His heart is as 
 large as his brain, and endued with a tender sensi 
 bility. He can carry out the lesson of the poet: 
 
HIS HOME LIFE 
 
 to feel another s woe, 
 To hide the fault I see. 
 
 I know that he is kindly natured, free to forgive, 
 and incapable of malice. His personal morality is 
 without reproach, and he illustrates in his life the 
 doctrines so impressively inculcated in his published 
 works." * 
 
 Lieber s character was rilled with simplicity and 
 candor. While he did not desire notoriety, he thought 
 that his fame would endure, and rest mainly upon his 
 published works. His home life was particularly 
 beautiful, and his wife venerated him. The interior 
 of his residence in New York City was filled with 
 many evidences of his lofty ideals, and it is well 
 described by Judge Thayer, as follows : 2 
 
 " Over the door of his house in New York, he had 
 placed Die Studirende Eule, the owl studying, and 
 he dated his notes from The Owley, declaring that 
 he bore strong resemblance to that bird. On the ceil 
 ing were painted these words: 
 
 Patria Cara 
 Carior Libertas 
 Veritas Carissima. 
 
 Over the door of his library hung the panel of a 
 bench saved from the fire which destroyed the chapel 
 
 1 " History of South Carolina College," by M. la Borde, M.D., p. 408. 
 
 2 "Miscellaneous Writings," vol. i, p. 42. 
 
190 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 of South Carolina College, on which he had painted 
 the saying of Socrates, * All noble things are difficult. 
 On the seal which he had adopted in his youth, were 
 the words, Perfer et Sperne. In his library hung 
 what he called his Stella duplex William of Orange 
 and Washington, engravings of which he had arranged 
 and framed upon one card with on one side, the motto 
 of William of Orange, Sczvis tranquillus in undis and 
 on the other (Washington having no motto of his own) 
 Tenax et Integer. Another Stella duplex, similarly 
 arranged, contained the likenesses of Hampden and 
 Pym ; above them the words, Nulla vestigia retrorsum, 
 
 and underneath, 
 
 MDCXL 
 
 Claris Civibus 
 
 Probis et audacibus 
 
 Heres gratus et compos 
 
 Libertatis expugnatae 
 
 Et defensor. 
 
 to 
 
 " In his bedroom, he had busts of Plato, Schiller, and 
 Alexander Hamilton, whom he greatly admired, and 
 over the mantelpiece, his favorite Hugo Grotius." 
 \ Lieber died suddenly on October 2, 1872. He had 
 
 AMMP- v 
 
 been only slightly indisposed for a few days with a 
 cardiac affection, and while listening to his wife who 
 was reading to him, he gave a cry of pain, and almost 
 immediately expired. His death was, therefore, a se 
 vere blow to his family, and its announcement was 
 read with sorrow by multitudes of scholars on both 
 
HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 continents to whom he was endeared. The funeral 
 services, held at the Church of the Incarnation, on 
 Monday, October 7, were conducted by Bishop Potter, 
 while the following distinguished men acted as pall 
 bearers: President F. A. P. Barnard, ex-President 
 T. D. Woolsey, of Yale, Dr. H. Drisler, professor of 
 Greek, J. H. Van Amringe, professor of mathematics, 
 Drs. Detmold and Dwight, William Cullen Bryant, 
 Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, and Hon. M. Russell Thayer. 
 The interment was made at Woodlawn Cemetery, 
 where a bronze bust by J. Q. A. Ward, marks the 
 distinguished publicist s grave. 
 
 One who best knew Lieber declared that when he 
 died, the whole world sustained an irreparable loss. 
 Conquering hardships in his youth, his maturer years 
 were filled with greatest industry, while even in old 
 age, he retained the powers of his brilliant mind. 
 However restricted may have been his popular influ 
 ence as an author, his opinions and writings have 
 been valued by the foremost thinkers of the age in 
 almost every land. The scholars of two continents 
 sought to honor him and learned societies gave him 
 recognition. He received the degree of LL.D. from 
 Harvard, and the French Institute elected him and Arch 
 bishop Whately corresponding members the same day. 
 The extent and depth of his knowledge, and his broad, 
 manly way of applying it, are everywhere illustrated in 
 his works. There was something very noble and kindly 
 
192 
 
 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 about his way of discussing great subjects. It has been 
 charged against him that he was a doctrinaire, but this 
 is one of those unjust flings that amount to nothing. 
 While strongly grounded in the best thoughts of writers 
 on political subjects, he was as independent in his think 
 ing as any wise man is likely to be. That his politi 
 cal philosophy was largely evolved out of the thoughts 
 of previous writers, for hundreds, nay, thousands of 
 years, is true, and this is, indeed, a great merit of it, 
 as it is of almost all thinking of any permanent value 
 to rpankind. The Princeton Review, of October, 1858, 
 gives the following excellent summary of the character 
 of his political works: " Lieber is a man who stands 
 on the altitudes of history, and not on a mere politi 
 cal platform. His work is, therefore, based upon the 
 grand memories of the past, and not upon the shift 
 ing politics of a day. Most political writers have 
 looked at political life from one point of view that 
 of their own times. But Lieber has looked at it from 
 every period presented in each successive cycle of 
 human progress, and has not only appreciated the 
 results of the working of the various institutions, but 
 has noted the growth and the mutations from age to 
 age of the institutions. In the true scientific spirit, 
 Lieber brings to his expositions of principles all the 
 resources of abstract reasoning; well knowing, and, 
 indeed, so declaring that all progress is founded in 
 historic development and abstract reasoning. While, 
 
HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 193 
 
 therefore, Lieber lights the torch of science at no lights 
 but those of experience, he adds to it that prescience of 
 reason which is to direct the statesman s forecast into 
 the future." 
 
 r 
 
 \_No Right without its Duties, no Duty without its 
 Rights, was Lieber s favorite motto, and the author 
 has endeavored to show how his life was moulded by 
 
 this principle. \ 
 o 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 PROFESSOR LIEBER S REMARKS ABOUT STUDIES AD 
 DRESSED TO THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 
 AUGUST, 1857. 
 
 FOR THE HONORABLE THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE 
 
 Remarks by Francis Lieber: 
 
 The Board of Trustees has passed a statute which directs 
 that every professor shall be employed fifteen hours a week 
 in instructing the undergraduates, or three hours each day. 
 
 The Seniors belonging to the undergraduates are to receive, 
 according to the new organization, what, for brevity s sake, I 
 shall call university instruction, partially or wholly so ; that is, 
 they are to receive lectures, to which I have proposed to myself 
 to add stated repititoria, or stated examinations of the class, so 
 that I shall be able to keep myself informed of the progress of 
 each student, and give the proper stimulus to taking regular 
 notes, and to the consulting of those works which I may indi 
 cate in the course of the lectures. 
 
 There is to be an additional post-graduate course of two 
 years, consisting likewise in courses of lectures, to be delivered 
 by the professors. This is an addition to the fifteen hours of 
 instruction to be given by each professor each week to the 
 undergraduates. I suppose there will be demanded, say, four 
 lectures delivered by each professor each week in the post 
 graduate course. Now, I wish to show to the Honorable the 
 Board of Trustees that this is not feasible. I shall restrict my 
 
196 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 remarks to myself alone. I have conversed with no fellow- 
 professor. On the other hand, I believe that I may fairly be 
 considered as a representative of my colleagues. At all events, 
 what I shall have the honor to state here is the result of a very 
 long and extensive college experience, and of a knowledge of 
 what is performed in American and European colleges and 
 universities. 
 
 I have never in my life delivered the same lecture twice over, 
 and hold it to be one of the first duties of a conscientious and 
 ardent professor always to adapt his lectures both to the spirit 
 and temper of his class and to the current events of the times. 
 Without it his lectures must lack the true inspiriting and inciting 
 character. They will turn out hollow and flat. Routine may 
 give some information, but it cannot impart and infuse true 
 knowledge, which becomes part and parcel of the hearer s self ; 
 it cannot inspire with a love of the subject, and is unable to 
 elevate the minds of the hearers, which is the thing desirable 
 above all others in higher teaching, and especially in America, 
 and most especially in a large distracting city like New York. . 
 
 A sound, animated, and inspiriting lecture cannot be de 
 livered without, at the least, three hours immediate preparation. 
 By immediate preparation I understand that preparation which 
 a teacher, fully master of his subject, requires to arrange his 
 notes, refer to works and manuscripts, and mentally to prepare 
 his whole lecture. So that two lectures require, with the two 
 hours of delivery, eight full hours. A recitation which to be a 
 proper one, requires at least an hour s immediate preparation, 
 so that two lectures and a recitation would require at the very 
 least ten hours, to which must be added the time of going to 
 the college and from the college to the place of lecturing (say, 
 the Cooper Institute). In one word, some eleven or twelve 
 hours each day would be consumed, and consumed with intense 
 activity of the mind. 
 
 I hardly ever occupy an entire hour with recitation alone. 
 Twenty minutes or half an hour are almost always occupied 
 with what in Cambridge is called occasional lecturing. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 But it is one of the sine-qua-nons of an efficient professor that 
 he should actively and ardently study several hours each day. 
 If he does not go on expanding his knowledge and widening 
 his mind to the last hour of his professorship, he is a worthless 
 teacher, and a book to be read to the hearers might be fitly 
 substituted for him at greatly diminished cost. A professor 
 ought to be a living being with a living, that is an active, 
 expanding, and creative mind. 
 
 It is, moreover, not only desirable, but in my opinion a neces 
 sary requisite, for a prosperous institution of learning, that its 
 professors sustain and increase its reputation abroad, and con 
 tinually strive to elevate its rank by occasional proofs of their 
 intellectual life in the shape of works and other compositions 
 which give evidence to the world that they are active fellow- 
 workmen in the great vineyard of knowledge. The reputation 
 of a college is the opposite to that which was desired of Csesar s 
 wife. You must hear of it. Even the mere numerical increase 
 of students requires it. A college, to enjoy the confidence of 
 the community, ought to be heard of, and ought to be known 
 to the whole land as a busy, active institution. It can be 
 known thus chiefly by the publications of its officers alone. 
 
 Where, then, are the professors to take the time for these 
 necessary labors necessary also for the intellectual progress 
 of the professors themselves; for, a literary man will soon 
 become a passive mental voluptuary if he does not from time 
 to time concentrate his mind on a distinct and original work 
 intended to stand the great test by publicity. Without this a 
 scholar is apt to collapse. 
 
 In no university that I know of and I know nearly all - 
 does a professor deliver more than two lectures a day. I know, 
 indeed, of none where this is done. Sometimes a professor 
 delivers two lectures on one day, but then on others none. 
 
 In South Carolina College, where I labored for more than 
 twenty years, I was occupied each week eight hours in lectures 
 and recitations, and my time has always been engaged in teach 
 ing or studying fully and uninterruptedly. My hours of rest 
 
198 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 are never more than six ; for many long periods they have been 
 less. 
 
 I have made inquiries, and the answers to my questions show 
 that professors in other American institutions think that two 
 lectures a day is too much for an active mind. 
 
 I think, then, that three hours of daily employment in teach 
 ing in the undergraduate and post-graduate course is the very 
 maximum that ought to be demanded. It is too much in my 
 opinion, and I feel sure that the Trustees will find it so after a 
 trial. In German gymnasiums, where recitations, as we call 
 them, obtain, never more than three a day in the loiver classes 
 are required of each teacher, and these classes correspond to 
 our schools. I know that in American schools a teacher is 
 frequently engaged six or seven hours, but he is engaged a 
 great part of the time in the passive occupation of merely 
 hearing recitations, and what are the consequences ? Nor does 
 the Board desire to establish a school, but, on the contrary, they 
 have nobly resolved to elevate Columbia College in a manner 
 proportionate to the just demands of our country, and com 
 mensurate to the means at its disposal. 
 
 FRANCIS LIEBER. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
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200 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
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 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. Report of a Committee of the Trustees of Colum 
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 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. Resolutions passed by the Trustees of Columbia 
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 COOLEY, T. M. Principles of Constitutional Law; by Thomas M. 
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 DAVIS, G. B. Outlines of International Law, with an Account of its 
 Origin and Sources, and of its Historical Development ; by George 
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 DE BEAUMONT, G. On the Penitentiary System in the United States, 
 and its Application in France, etc. ; by G. de Beaumont and A. de 
 Tocqueville. Translated, with Introduction, Notes, and Additions, 
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 DE TOCQUEVILLE, A. Democracy in America ; by A. de Tocqueville. 
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 Dix, M. - Memoirs of John Adams Dix ; compiled by his son, Morgan 
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 DUNNING, W. A. Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction, and 
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 FISKE, J. Appleton s Cyclopaedia of American Biography; by James 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 2OI 
 
 FOLLEN, E. L. The Life of Charles Follen ; by E. L. Follen. Bos 
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 FRANCIS, J. W. Old New York, or Reminiscences of the Past Sixty 
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 GARFIELD, J. A. The Works of James A. Garfield ; edited by Burk A. 
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 GARRISON, WILLIAM LLOYD. The Story of his Life, Told by his Chil 
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 GAULLIEUR, H. The Paternal State in France and Germany; by 
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 GOERRES, PROFESSOR. ~ Germany and the Revolution; by Professor 
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 GOODWIN, M. W. Historic New York ; by Maud Wilder Goodwin. 
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 GRIMKE, A. The Life of Charles Sumner; by Archibald Grimke. 
 New York : Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1892. 
 
 HAMMOND, W. G. Legal and Political Hermeneutics ; by Francis 
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 Iowa State University. St. Louis : F. H. Thomas & Co., 1880. 
 
 HARE, J. L C. American Constitutional Law; by J. I. Clark Hare, 
 LL.D. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1889. 
 
 HARLEY, L. R. Francis Lieber : The Political Philosopher ; by Lewis 
 R. Harley. Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois, 
 1896. 
 
202 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 HENDERSON, J. C. Thomas Jefferson s Views on Public Education; 
 
 by John C. Henderson. New York : G. P. Putnam s Sons, 1890. 
 HINSDALE, B. A. The American Government, National and State ; by 
 
 B. A. Hinsdale. Chicago and New York : The Werner Company. 
 HINSDALE, B. A. How to Study and Teach History, with particular 
 
 reference to the History of the United States; by B. A. Hinsdale. 
 
 New York : D. Appleton & Co., 1897. 
 HOLLS, F. W. Franz Lieber, Sein Leben, und Seine Werke ; by F. 
 
 W. Holls. New York : Steiger & Co. 
 HURD, J. C. The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States ; 
 
 by John C. Hurd, LL.D. 2 vols. Boston : Little, Brown & Co., 1858. 
 HURD, J. C. The Theory of Our National Existence as Shown by the 
 
 Action of the Government of the United States since 1861; by 
 
 John C. Hurd, LL.D. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1881. 
 JOURNAL of the Proceedings of a Convention of Literary and Scientific 
 
 Gentlemen, held in the Common Council Chamber of the City of 
 
 New York, October, 1830. New York : Leavitt & Carvill, 1831. 
 KENT, J. Commentaries on American Law ; by James Kent. Boston : 
 
 Little, Brown & Co., 1896. 
 
 KENT, W. Memoirs and Letters of Chancellor Kent ; by his Great- 
 Grandson, William Kent. Boston : Little, Brown & Co., 1898. 
 KLEMM, L. R. European Schools; by L. R. Klemm. New York: 
 
 D. Appleton & Co., 1891. 
 KRUSI, H. The Life and Work of Pestalozzi; by Herman Krtisi. 
 
 New York : American Book Company, 1875. 
 LA BORDE, M. History of South Carolina College ; by M. la Borde. 
 
 Columbia, S. C. : Peter B. Glass. 
 LALOR, J. J. Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy and 
 
 United States History ; edited by John J. Lalor. New York : 
 
 Maynard, Merrill & Co. 
 LEWIS, C. T. A History of Germany from the Earliest Times ; by 
 
 Charlton T. Lewis. New York : Harper & Brothers, 1874. 
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 2 vols. Second edition, revised. Edited by Theodore D. Wool- 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 203 
 
 LIEBER, F. Legal and Political Hermeneutics ; by Francis Lieber. 
 
 Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 
 
 _Civil Liberty and Self-Government ; by Francis Lieber. Third 
 edition, revised. Edited by Theodore D. Woolsey. Philadelphia : 
 J. B. Lippincott Co., 1891. 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings : Reminiscences, Addresses, and Essays ; 
 
 by Francis Lieber, LL.D. Edited by Daniel C. Oilman. Phila 
 delphia : J. B. Lippincott Co., 1881. 
 
 A Constitution and Plan for Girard College for Orphans, with an 
 
 Introduction by Francis Lieber. Philadelphia : Carey, Lea & 
 Blanchard, 1834. 
 
 - Encyclopaedia Americana. Edited by Francis Lieber. 13 vols. 
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 Letters to a Gentleman in Germany on a Trip to Niagara. Phila 
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 Tagebuch meines Aufenthaltes in Griechenland wahrend de 
 
 Monate Januar, Februar, und Marz, im Jahre 1822. Leipzig: 
 Brockhaus, 1823. 
 
 The Relation Between Education and Crime ; by Francis Lieber. 
 
 Philadelphia : Carey, 1832. 
 
 No Party Now, But All for Our Country : An Address by Francis 
 
 Lieber, read at the meeting of the Loyal National League, Union 
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 LIEBER, G. N. The Use of the Army in Aid of the Civil Power ; by 
 G. Norman Lieber, Judge-Advocate General U. S. Army. Wash 
 ington : Government Printing Office, 1898. 
 
 LIEBER, G. N. Remarks on the Army Regulations, and Executive Regu 
 lations in General ; by G. Norman Lieber, Judge- Advocate General, 
 U. S. Army. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1898. 
 LODGE, H. C. Daniel Webster in American Statesmen Series; by 
 
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 duction and Biographical Notices; by Henry Wadsworth Long 
 fellow. New York: James Miller, 1863. 
 
 LONGFELLOW, S. Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; edited by 
 Samuel Longfellow. In 2 vols. Boston : Ticknor & Co., 1886. 
 
204 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 MALLESON, G. B. Life of Prince Metternich, International Statesmen 
 
 Series ; by Colonel G. B. Malleson. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippin- 
 
 cott Co., 1888. 
 MCPHERSON, E. The Political History of the United States during the 
 
 Great Rebellion ; by Hon. Edward McPherson. New York : D. 
 
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 1842 ; by Wolfgang Menzel. Translated from the Fourth German 
 
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 & Sons, 1890. 
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 by Colyer Meriwether. Washington : Government Printing 
 
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 1880. 
 MONROE, W. S. Bibliography of Education ; by Will S. Monroe. New 
 
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 Ouvry, C.B. London: Kerby & Endean, 1873. 
 PALMER, B. M. The Life and Letters of James Henry Thornwell, 
 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 2O c 
 
 PARKER, F. W. Talks on Pedagogics; by Francis W. Parker. New 
 
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 J>ERRY, T. S. Life and Letters of Francis Lieber ; by Thomas Ser 
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 PHILLIPS, W. A. The War of Greek Independence, 1821-1833; by 
 
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 1889. 
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206 FRANCIS LIEBER 
 
 SIMMS, W. G. The History of South Carolina from Its First European 
 Discovery to Its Erection into a Republic ; by William Gilmore 
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 STEFFENS, H. German University Life. The Story of my Career as 
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 liam W. Story. Boston : Little, Brown & Co., 1851. 
 
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 VON KOTZEBUE, A. Sketch of the Life and Literary Career of Augus 
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 WILSON, W. Division and Reunion, in Epochs of American History 
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 Green & Co., 1893. 
 
 The following periodicals contain articles relating to Lieber and his 
 works : 
 
 American, vol. 5, p. 170. 
 
 Appleton s Popular Science Monthly, vol. 52, p. 406. 
 
 Critic, vol. 2, p. 351. 
 
 Dial, vol. 3, p. 199. 
 
 Harper s Magazine, vol. 48, p. 63. 
 
 Illinois Wesleyan Magazine, vol. i, p. i. 
 
 International Review, vol. 8, p. 50; vol. 10, p. 333. 
 
 Literary World, vol. 13, p. 393. 
 
 Littell s Living Age, vol. 117, p. 125 ; vol. 156, p. 820. 
 
 London Quarterly Review, vol. 53, p. 290. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 207 
 
 Nation, vol. 32, p. 189. 
 
 New York Evening Post, October 30, 1860. 
 
 New York Tribune, October 3, 1872. 
 
 North American Review, vol. 34, p. 262 ; vol. 43, p. 120. 
 
 Putnam s Monthly, vol. 2, p. 566. 
 
 Saturday Review, vol. 55, p. 90. 
 
 Scribner s Magazine, vol. 6, p. 711. 
 
 Southern Literary Messenger, vol. 2, p. 535 ; vol. 22, p. 366. 
 
 The Edinburgh Review, April, 1841. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ADAMS, H. B., history and politics as 
 coordinated sciences, 91. 
 
 Allibone, S. A., 161. 
 
 Arndt, E. M., a younger German poet, 15. 
 
 Austin, Mrs., dedication of "Reminis 
 cences" to, 41; befriends Lieber in 
 London, 49. 
 
 Barnard, F. A. P., president of Columbia 
 College, 93; discourages the course 
 in modern history, 94; at Lieber s 
 funeral, 191. 
 
 Barrows, S. J., 152. 
 
 Basle, University of, 43. 
 
 Belligerents, status of, 144. 
 
 Berlin, pillaged by the Russians, 2; 
 society in, 5 ; taken by Napoleon, 6. 
 
 Bliicher, anxiety to deliver Prussia, 18; 
 his ancestors, 19 note. 
 
 Bluntschli, J. K., 97, 128; his opinion of 
 Lieber s services to international law, 
 141; interested in a congress of na 
 tions, 142; tribute to Lieber, 147; his 
 personal relations with Lieber, 178, 
 1 80 note ; his library, 179. 
 
 Bond, Dr. 49. 
 
 Boston, 45, 49, 51, 55, 59. 
 
 Buchanan, election of, 160. 
 
 Burgess, J. W., succeeds Lieber at Colum 
 bia College, 95, 97; opinion of Lieber s 
 writings, 127 note. 
 
 Burschenschaft, organized in the univer 
 sities, 24; at Jena, 26; abolished by 
 the government, 28; secret clubs simi 
 lar to, 43. 
 
 Calhoun, J. C, letters to, from Lieber, 
 159. 
 
 Calvinism, in South Carolina, 74, 75, 
 181, 182. 
 
 Carlsbad, decrees of, 28. 
 
 "Civil Liberty and Self-Government," 71, 
 81, 117, 132-137. 
 
 Colberg, defence of, by Schill, 7; regi 
 ment of, 1 8, 19; Jahn, imprisoned at, 
 28. 
 
 Columbia College, changes in the college 
 course, 82; removal to a new site, 83; 
 suggestions on Columbia University, 
 84-88; post-graduate course, 89; Lie 
 ber s call to, 90; changes in the work 
 of the college, 93; the Columbia Law 
 School, 96. 
 
 Constitution of the United States, 130, 
 
 139- 
 
 Construction, nature of, 130; construc 
 tion of constitutions, 131. 
 
 Cooper, Dr. Thomas, career in South 
 Carolina College, 67; his early life, 
 67; troubles with the government, 
 67; Jefferson s opinion of, 68; be 
 comes president of the college, 68; 
 religious views, 68; opposition to, 69. 
 
 Cotta, Johann F., employs Lieber as a 
 correspondent, 54; a prominent pub 
 lisher, 54 note. 
 
 Czar of Russia, interference of, in Ger 
 man affairs, 25. 
 
 Dana, J. D., professor in Columbia Col 
 lege, 89. 
 
 209 
 
2IO 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Davis, G. B., views of, on international 
 law, 148, 149. 
 
 De Tocqueville, visited by Lieber, 78; 
 report of, on American prisons, 137. 
 
 Droysen, Johann G., 96. 
 
 Dunning, W. A., views of, on American 
 political literature, 120 and note. 
 
 Dwight, T. W., professor of law in Co 
 lumbia College, 90; his success in the 
 Law School, 96. 
 
 Education, Lieber s early interest in, 59, 
 60, 82; his views on, 100; education 
 and crime, 101; national education, 
 103; political value of, 112. 
 
 Emigration from Germany, i; Menzel s 
 views of, I. 
 
 "Encyclopaedia Americana," 55; its suc 
 cess, 58. 
 
 Euphradian Society, Lieber expelled 
 from membership in, 162. 
 
 Fish, Hamilton, 90, 145. 
 
 Follen, Charles, poetry of, 13; his early 
 life, 44; professor at Jena and Giessen, 
 44; takes refuge in Switzerland, 44; 
 escape to America, 44; professor at 
 Harvard, 45; tragic death, 45. 
 
 France, revolutionary movements in, 4; 
 treaty with the princes of western 
 Germany, 5; exactions levied on 
 Prussia, 8; Lieber s hatred of, 157. 
 
 Franco-Prussian War, sale of arms by 
 the United States in, 143; use of Lie 
 ber s "Instructions" in, 154. 
 
 Frederick the Great, 4. 
 
 Free trade, advocated by Lieber, 164. 
 
 Fremont, J. C, 162. 
 
 French philosophy, 4. 
 
 Gallatin, Albert, 58, 168. 
 Garelli, the Italian publicist, 140. 
 Garfield, presents to Congress a bill on 
 immigration, prepared by Lieber, 146. 
 General Orders, No. 100, 93; adopted 
 
 in the army, 149; humane character 
 of, 150; adopted by great writers on 
 the law of war, 153. 
 
 Germany, loss of national energy in, 3; 
 forms of immorality in, 4; alliance 
 with Napoleon, 5; miserable condi 
 tion of the army, 6; efforts to arouse 
 patriotism in, 10-16; devotion of the 
 people, 14; impulses to free political 
 thought, 21; new constitutional sys 
 tem, 22; in ancient times, 24; censor 
 ship of the press and universities, 42; 
 secret clubs, 43; revolutionary move 
 ments of 1848, 79; riots in, 80 ; ac 
 quires French territory, 143; Lieber s 
 love for, 155. 
 
 Giessen, University of, 44. 
 
 Girard College, plan of organization, 60; 
 opinion of Edward Livingston, 61; 
 Lieber s plan in detail, 100. 
 
 Gorres, Joseph J., editor of the Rhenish. 
 Mercury, 23; a pamphleteer, 23 note. 
 
 Greek revolution, 29; extent of the up 
 rising, 29; sympathy of the Germans, 
 30; wretched condition of the Greeks, 
 
 31- 
 
 Grotius, Hugo, 144. 
 
 Guyot, Arnold, 89. 
 
 Gymnasia, establishment of, 10; their 
 
 influence on the youth, 14; closed by 
 
 the government, 28. 
 
 Halle, loss of the University of, 9; Lieber 
 
 a student at, 29, 168. 
 Halleck, 93, 149, 154. 
 Hartung, Professor, Lieber s teacher, 3. 
 Hillard, G. S., 16, 90; his assistance to 
 
 Lieber, 123; Lieber s correspondence 
 
 with, 159, 171. 
 History, the United States and France 
 
 high schools of history, 106; history 
 
 in American colleges, 106; the teacher 
 
 of history, 115. 
 Hitzig, Chancellor von, 46. 
 Holy Alliance, a means of suppressing 
 
INDEX 
 
 211 
 
 demands for popular government, 22; 
 an instrument of Prince Metternich, 42. 
 
 Immigration, restrictions favored by Lie- 
 ber, 145; a national board of, pro 
 posed, 145. 
 
 Institutional liberty, 136. 
 
 International law, 141; Lieber s chief 
 interest, 142; methods of arbitration, 
 144; international copyright, 146. 
 
 Interpretation, meaning of, 130; inter 
 pretation of constitutions, 131. 
 
 Jgequemyns, G. R., tribute to Lieber, 
 147, 148 note. 
 
 Jahn, Friedrich Ludwig, system of gym 
 nastics, 10; early life of, 10; his meth 
 ods, ii; his relations with Lieber, 21; 
 imprisonment, 28; invited to America, 
 
 45- 
 Jena, University of, 24; patriotism of 
 
 the students, 25; the Burschenschaft 
 
 of, 26; Lieber takes his degree at, 29. 
 Jones, C. C, historian of Georgia, 108. 
 Jural, a jural society, 126; word coined 
 
 by Lieber, 126 note. 
 
 Kent, Chancellor, lecturer at Columbia, 
 
 96; opinion of the " Political Ethics," 
 
 129 and note. 
 King of Prussia, visited by Lieber, 78; 
 
 interested in our prison system, 78; 
 
 offers Lieber a position, 79. 
 Kopenick, prison at, 43; tribunal of 
 
 inquisition at, 44; Lieber imprisoned 
 
 at, 45- 
 
 Korner, Carl T., love of liberty, 15; his 
 poetry, 15. 
 
 Kotzebue, Augustus von, a spy for Russia, 
 25; his literary abilities, 26; his mur 
 der, 27. 
 
 La Borde, M., historian of South Caro 
 lina College, 77; account of Lieber as 
 a teacher, no; describes Lieber s love 
 
 of the beautiful, 185; tribute to Lie 
 ber s character, 1 88. 
 
 Lancastrian schools, 48, IOO. 
 
 " Legal and Political Hermeneutics," 70; 
 purpose of the work, 130; its favor 
 able reception, 131. 
 
 Lieber, Francis, early life, 2; school 
 days, 3; relations with General Schill, 
 7; becomes a pupil of Dr. Jahn, ii; 
 in the Waterloo campaign, 17-21; in 
 the Gray Cloister gymnasium, 21; 
 joins a secret association, 27; arrest 
 and imprisonment, 28; receives his 
 degree at Jena, 29; embarks for 
 Greece, 30; goes to Rome, 33; meets 
 the historian, Niebuhr, 34; becomes a 
 member of Niebuhr s family, 36; his 
 advantages at Rome, 38; leaves Rome 
 for Berlin, 41 ; studies in the Uni 
 versity, 42; imprisoned at Kopenick, 
 43 ; decides to leave Germany, 47 ; be 
 comes a tutor in London, 48; accepts 
 directorship of the Boston gymnasium, 
 49; takes passage for New York, 49; 
 takes charge of the gymnasium, 53; 
 writes for the German papers, 54; 
 edits an encyclopaedia, 55-58; his mar 
 riage, 58; his family, 59; writes a 
 plan for Girard College, 60; schemes 
 of authorship, 61-64; relations with 
 Sumner, 64; professor of history and 
 political economy in South Carolina 
 College, 66; his Southern exile, 70; 
 longing for the North, 71, 72; oppo 
 sition to, in the South, 73; defeated 
 for the college presidency, 75; resig 
 nation, 76; removal to New York, 77; 
 visits Europe, 78; prepares a plan for 
 Columbia College, 84-88; elected pro 
 fessor of history and political science, 
 90; his active life in the North, 92; 
 his career in the Law School, 96; his 
 services in the War Department, 98; 
 his views on education, 100-107; his 
 methods of teaching, 108-112; his 
 
212 
 
 INDEX 
 
 high ideals as a teacher, 112-116; 
 his political philosophy, 117-137; in 
 terest in penal law, 137; interest in 
 the law of nations, 141-148; con 
 tributions to military law, 148-154; 
 as an American, 155; his hatred of 
 France, 157; his views on slavery, 
 159-161; his sorrows, 163; interest 
 in free trade, 164; lack of partisan 
 zeal, 1 66; range of his studies, 168; 
 methods of work, 169; interest in 
 literature, 171; his correspondence, 
 173; on bad terms with Sumner, 176; 
 relations with Dr. Bluntschli, 178; his 
 papers in Johns Hopkins library, 180; 
 religious views, 181 ; a lover of the fine 
 arts, 184; love of the beautiful, 185; 
 a favorite in society, 1 86; simplicity 
 of his character, 189; his death, 190. 
 
 Lieber, Guido Norman, son of Francis 
 Lieber, 59 and note. 
 
 Lieber, Hamilton, son of Francis Lieber, 
 59 and note ; wounded at Fort Donel- 
 son, 163. 
 
 Lieber, Oscar Montgomery, son of Fran 
 cis Lieber, 58, 59 note; died in the 
 Confederate service, 163. 
 
 Loyal Publication Society, 92. 
 
 Marsh, G. P., professor in Columbia Col 
 lege, 89. 
 
 Menzel, views on German emigration, I ; 
 his account of society in Germany, 4. 
 
 Metternich, Prince, despotism of, 22; 
 continues his policy of oppression, 
 42. 
 
 Mexican Claims, Lieber umpire of, 98, 
 
 99- 
 
 Military Law, 93, 148-154. 
 
 Mittermaier, receives letters from Lieber, 
 71, 72; visited by Lieber, 80; trans 
 lates the " Civil Liberty " into German, 
 136; his regard for Lieber, 174. 
 
 Miiller, Wilhelm, describes the state of 
 Europe, 29. 
 
 Napoleon, threatens Germany, 3; makes 
 treaty with western Germany, 5 ; enters 
 Berlin, 6; defeat in Russia, 14; escape 
 from Elba, 17. 
 
 Nation, Lieber s definition of, 140. 
 
 National University, Lieber urges the es 
 tablishment of, 103-105. 
 
 Natural law, the science of, 125. 
 
 Niebuhr, Ba rthold George, minister to 
 Rome, 35; assists Lieber, 36; char 
 acter of, 38; his view of history, 40; 
 resigns the embassy at Rome, 40; 
 visits Lieber in prison, 46; recom 
 mends Lieber for a position, 47; his 
 opinion of University College, London, 
 48; urges Lieber to remain a German, 
 50; recommends Lieber to Baron 
 Cotta, 53. 
 
 Ohm, Dr., Lieber studies with, 42. 
 Oppenheimer, Mr., Lieber teaches in the 
 
 family of, 48; Lieber marries the 
 
 daughter, Matilda, 58. 
 
 Pauli, teaches Lieber theology, 3. 
 Penology, Lieber s interest in, 64, 137, 
 
 138. 
 
 " Political Ethics," 47, 70; plan of the 
 work, 122; completion of, 123; key 
 note of, 124; favorable reception of, 
 128, 129. 
 
 Preston, William C., 74, 76. 
 
 Prussia, the army of, 6; loss of territory, 
 8; establishes a university, 9; tyranny 
 of, 43, 44; tendency of, in 1844, 73; 
 Lieber visits, 78; riots in 1848, 80. 
 
 Ranke, Leopold von, 105. 
 Rationalism, spread of, in Prussia, 4. 
 Rebel Archives, classified by Lieber, 98. 
 "Reminiscences of Niebuhr," 41, 169. 
 Revival of poetry, 15. 
 Rhenish Mercury, complaints of, against 
 
 the government, 23; suppression of, 
 
 23- 
 
INDEX 
 
 213 
 
 Rome, Lieber goes to, 34; resides there 
 
 a year, 36. 
 Rtickert, one of the younger poets, 15. 
 
 Sand, Karl Ludwig, at Jena, 26; his 
 character, 27; assassinates Kotzebue, 
 27 ; suffers penalty of death, 27. 
 
 Schenkendorf, poetry of, 15. 
 
 Schill, General, defends Colberg, 7; 
 meets Lieber, 8. 
 
 Schools of law and politics, 1 19. 
 
 Scientific "clover-leaf," 178, 180 note. 
 
 Seeley, J. R., his account of German 
 literature, 10. 
 
 Seward, W." H., Lieber writes to, on arbi 
 tration, 144. 
 
 Sims, Dr., opinion of Dr. Cooper, 68. 
 
 Slavery, 70; Lieber s hatred of, 71; 
 his views on, expressed to Calhoun, 
 
 159. 
 
 Society for alleviating the miseries of 
 prisons, 138. 
 
 South Carolina College, professorship in, 
 66; reorganization of, 66; Dr. Cooper s 
 career in, 67; Lieber a candidate for 
 the presidency of, 75; Dr. la Borde, 
 historian of the College, 77. 
 
 Southern Literary Messenger, 7, 38 
 note. 
 
 Sovereignty, of the State, 127; an at 
 tribute of society, 127. 
 
 Sparks, Jared, Lieber suggests various 
 schemes to, 62; professor of history in 
 Harvard, 106. 
 
 State, the, a jural society, 126; Lieber s 
 theory of, 126. 
 
 Story, Judge, assists Lieber with his en 
 cyclopaedia, 56 and note ; recommends 
 Lieber for a professorship, 66; death 
 of, 74. 
 
 Sumner, Charles, friendship for Lieber, 
 64; extensive correspondence, 64; 
 quarrels with Lieber on the slavery 
 question, 176-178; Sumner s charac 
 ter, 178 note. 
 
 Thayer, M. Russell, 30; friendship for 
 Lieber, 1 1 1 ; describes Lieber s meth 
 ods of teaching, 1 1 1 ; refers to Lieber s 
 attachment to America, 155; describes 
 Lieber s student life, 169; describes 
 Lieber s sympathies, 186; gives an 
 account of Lieber s home life, 189. 
 
 Thornwell, James H., resigns presidency 
 of South Carolina College, 74; pre 
 vents Lieber s election, 75. 
 
 Tilsit, treaty of, 8; stipulations of, 9. 
 
 Tugendbund, 9, 23. 
 
 Turnschulen, n. 
 
 Universities, influence of, on national 
 life, 103; in arbitrations, 144. 
 
 University College, founding of, 48, 52 
 note. 
 
 University of Berlin, opening of, 9; in 
 fluence of, 103. 
 
 Van Amringe, J. H., character of Lieber s 
 work, 92, 97. 
 
 Waite, Justice, 121. 
 Walker, R. J., 164. 
 Warren, Dr. John, interested in Boston 
 
 gymnasium, 45; receives Lieber at 
 
 Boston, 51. 
 
 Waterloo, campaign of, 17-21. 
 White, Andrew D., 94; describes Lieber s 
 
 lack of partisan zeal, 166. 
 Woolsey, T. D., preparing his works, 
 
 107; on Lieber s character, 118 note. 
 
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