THE 
 
 LIFE, CHARACTER, AND WRITINGS 
 
 FRANCIS LIEBER. 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 JANUARY 13, 1873. 
 
 BY 
 
 HON. M. RUSSELL THAYEK, 
 
 ASSOCIATE JUDGE OF THE DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CITY 
 AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. 
 
 18T3. 
 
 
DISCOUESE. 
 
 IN a letter from Eome, dated June 7, 1822, Barthold 
 George Niebuhr, the historian of Rome, wrote thus 
 to his sister-in-law, Madame Hensler : 
 
 " A young man, Lieber of Berlin, has arrived here 
 who went as a volunteer to Greece, and at length 
 returned, partly not to die of hunger, partly because 
 the rascality of the Moreans and their cowardice 
 became insufferable to him. His veracity is beyond 
 suspicion and his tales fill the hearer with horror. He 
 is sad and melancholy, because his soul is very noble. 
 He interests and touches us much, and we try to cheer 
 him by kindness. He belongs to the youth of the 
 beautiful time of 1813, when he fought and was se 
 verely wounded. He is now here without a cent. I 
 shall help him at any rate." 1 The young man, whose 
 arrival in Rome was thus noticed, was twenty-two 
 years of age. Of a gentle, but brave and self-reliant 
 nature, of studious habits, a philosophical turn of 
 mind, and very fond of books, he had already experi 
 enced much of the roughest discipline of life. His 
 
 1 Biographic Information (Lebensnacliricliten) concerning Barthold 
 George Niebuhr, from Letters by himself and Recollections of some of his 
 intimate friends. Vol. ii. p. 496, Hamburg, 1838, 3 vols. 
 

 few years had been divided between the gymnasium, 
 the university, the camp, and foreign lands. He was 
 yet to become one of the profoundest and clearest 
 writers upon political science of the present century, 
 one of the chief ornaments of the world of letters, 
 the expounder of the principles of civil liberty, and 
 one of the truly great men of his adopted country. 
 In his later years he used to say that his life con 
 sisted of many geological layers. 
 
 FKAXCIS LIEBER, a son of Frederic "William 
 Lieber, was born on the 18th March 1800, in a house 
 situated in the Breite Strasse of Berlin the same 
 street in which, on his birth-day in 1848, the chief 
 fight took place between the King s troops and the 
 people. His father, a man of business, had lost 
 much of his property during the war, and having a 
 large family, great economy was necessary. Young 
 Lieber was brought up in the most simple habits, 
 and accustomed to a hardy life. His childhood fell 
 in the momentous times of Napoleon s gigantic wars. 
 He once related to me that he well remembered, when 
 a child of six years, sitting in the window of his 
 father s house and crying bitterly as he beheld the 
 French army marching into Berlin after the dis 
 astrous day of Jena. From his earliest school years 
 he was an ardent student, and a favorite with his 
 teachers; always receiving excellent testimonials. 
 Some of these he preserved. Among them that of 
 the clergyman who had prepared him for confinna- 
 
tion, who spoke of his great desire for instruction, 
 and of his earnest devotion. At school he was dis 
 tinguished for his love of truth and justice. He was 
 fond of athletic exercises, and was a great " Turner" 
 under Jahn. He was an excellent swimmer, an 
 accomplishment of which he afterwards made use 
 when he first came to Boston, where he established 
 a swimming school. He informed me that upon one 
 occasion he swam four hours without resting. At 
 the age of fifteen his studies were interrupted by 
 the loud blast of that trumpet of war which again 
 called the youth of Germany to the defence of the 
 homes which all supposed had been rendered secure 
 by the victory of Leipzic two years before. 
 
 In his "Letters to a gentleman in Germany," repub- 
 lished in England under the title of " The Stranger 
 in America," Lieber relates how, in 1815, his father 
 one day came into the room where he was studying 
 Loder s Anatomical Tables, and said to him and his 
 brother, " Boys, clean your rifles Napoleon is loose 
 again; he has returned from Elba." What followed 
 will be best told in his own words. It is a chapter 
 not without interest in the life of a scholar. 
 
 "My heart beat high ; it was glorious news for a boy of fifteen, 
 who had often heard with silent envy the account of the campaigns 
 of 1813-14 from the lips of his two brothers, both of whom had 
 marched in 1813, in common with most young men of good family, 
 as volunteer riflemen, and returned as wounded officers. One of 
 those, cured of his wounds, rejoined his regiment ; another of my 
 brothers and myself followed the call of government to enter the 
 army as volunteers, though our age would have exempted us from 
 all obligation. 
 
Which regiment should we choose ? Of course one which was 
 garrisoned near the enemy s frontier, so that we should be sure not 
 to have a peaceable campaign in a distant reserve. There was a 
 regiment among the troops near the frontier of France, which en 
 joyed a particularly high and just reputation ; its name was Col- 
 berg, bestowed in honor of its valiant defence of the fortress of 
 Colberg in the year 1806 the only Prussian fortified place at that 
 wretched time which did not surrender to the French. It was 
 composed of brave and steady Pomeranians, a short, broad- 
 shouldered, healthy race ; in more than twenty ranged engage 
 ments during the campaign of 1813-14 had they shown themselves 
 worthy of their honorable name. My brother and myself selected 
 this regiment. When the day of the enlistment of the volunteers 
 arrived, we went to my father and said : Well, then, we are going ; 
 is it with your consent ? Go^to your mother, he replied. We 
 went to her ; our hearts were full, she had suffered so much during 
 the first campaign. With a half choked voice I said ; Mother, 
 we are going to be enrolled shall we ? She fell into our arms, 
 that noble woman, and sobbed aloud. l Go ! was all her bleed 
 ing heart allowed her to utter ; and, had she been the mother of 
 twenty sons, she would have sent them all. We had to wait from 
 , ten to one o clock before we could get a chance to have our names 
 
 il^YW^ taken down, the throng was so great. 
 
 ^AQ^f In the beginning of May we were marched from Berlin to our 
 regiment. My father accompanied us to the place of rendezvous. 
 When the bugle called us to the line we looked for him to take the 
 last leave ; he had stolen himself away. A great many people 
 accompanied us out of the city ; the beautiful Brandenburg gate 
 was soon behind us ; we began to sing. I looked but forward, 
 happy that it was now my lot to bear arms in defence of my 
 country. On the 16th we crossed the Rhine ; on the 25th of May 
 we passed in review before Prince Blucher in Namur. On the 
 26th we marched to a village called Yoistin and incorporated 
 with our regiment. On the 3d of June we had our first parade 
 with the regiment, and the colonel declared that we had the bear 
 ing of old soldiers ; he was satisfied with us. We longed to be 
 put to the test. I saw on that day, for the first time, the woman 
 who was a sergeant in our regiment, and distinguished herself so 
 much that she could boast of three orders on her gown when, 
 after the peace, she was married in Berlin to another sergeant. In 
 a second regiment of our brigade was another girl serving as a 
 
 ry (]&, 
 
 
 , ^ 
 
soldier, but she was very different from our sergeant. Her sex 
 was discovered by mere accident; she had marched instead of her 
 brother, that he might support their aged parents. 
 
 We marched to Longueville, seven leagues from Brussels. On 
 the 9th we received lead to cast our balls ; the rifles being of 
 different calibres, for each man had equipped himself. It is one 
 of the most peculiar situations a man of reflecting mind can be 
 in, when he casts his bullets for battle near at hand. In the 
 evening I was lying with two comrades, one of whom was a Jew, 
 in a hay-loft; the crazy roof allowed us to see the brilliant stars. 
 We spoke of home. My father, said one, told me he was sure 
 he would never see me again, though he never tried to keep me 
 I feel as if I should fall. A ball entered his forehead in the first 
 battle and killed him on the spot. The second, the Jew, said, 
 Nobody has foretold my death, yet I believe I shall remain on 
 the field. He fell at my side, in the battle of Ligny, before he 
 had fired a shot the ball cutting his throat. And I, said I, 
 shall be brushed, but I think I shall return home, though with a 
 scratched skin. Thus strangel} every prophecy of that night 
 was fulfilled. 
 
 On the morning of the 15th the generale was beaten. Hos 
 tilities had begun on the 14th. We marched the whole day and 
 the whole night; in the morning we arrived not far from the 
 battle-field of Ligny, and halted. Before us was a rising ground 
 on which we saw innumerable troops ascending from the plain, 
 with flying colors and music pla}dng. It was a sight a soldier 
 likes to look at. I cannot sa}^ with Napoleon, that the earth 
 seemed proud to carry so many brave men; but we were proud 
 to belong to these brave and calm masses. Orders for charging 
 were given ; the pressure of the coming battle was felt more and 
 more. Some soldiers, who carried cards in their knapsacks, 
 threw them away, believing that they bring bad luck. I had 
 never plaj^ed cards and carried none; but this poor instance of 
 timid superstition disgusted me so that I purposely picked up a 
 pack and put it in my knapsack. Our whole company consisted 
 of very young men, nearly all lads who were impatient for battle, 
 and asking a thousand questions, in their excitement, of the old, 
 well-seasoned sergeant-major, who had been given to us from the 
 regiment. His imperturbable calmness, which neither betrayed 
 fear nor excited courage, but took the battle like a muster, 
 amused us much. 
 
8 
 
 We now marched again up the sloping plain, and by one o clock 
 in the afternoon arrived on the battle-ground. Fortune held us 
 first on a harassing reserve; the French field-pieces played hard 
 upon us, shells fell around us and took several men out of our 
 column. We were commanded to lie down, and I piqued myself 
 on making no motion when balls or shells were flying over us. 
 Behind us stood some cavalry. One of their officers had been a 
 near neighbor to us in Berlin ; he rode up to me and asked me to 
 write home should he fall; he would do as much for me should I 
 be shot down. He soon after fell. We longed most heartily to 
 be led into the fire, when our officer, a well-tried soldier, spoke 
 these few words : My friends, it is easier to fight than to stand 
 inactive exposed to fire. You are tried first by the severest test; 
 show, then, that you can be as calm as the oldest soldiers. My 
 honor depends upon your conduct. Look at me, and I promise 
 3 7 ou shall not have a bad example. At length, about two o clock, 
 our column was ordered to drive the enemy out of the left side of 
 the village. Our colonel rode up to us and said, Riflemen, you 
 are young, I am afraid too ardent; calmness makes the soldier; 
 hold 3 ourselves in order. Then he turned around. March! 
 and the dull, half-muffled drum from within the deep column was 
 heard beating delicious miisic. When the bugle gave the signal 
 to halt we were in front of the village of Ligny. The signal was 
 then given for the riflemen to march out to right and left of the 
 column, and to attack. Our ardor now led us entirely beyond 
 proper limits; the section to which I belonged ran madly, with 
 out firing, toward the enemy who retreated. My hindman fell; 
 I rushed on, hearing well but not heeding the urgent calls of our 
 old sergeant. The village was intersected with thick hedges from 
 behind which the grenadiers fired upon us; but we drove them 
 from one to the other. I, forgetting altogether to fire, and what 
 I ought to have done, tore the red plume from one of the grena 
 dier bear-caps, and swinging it over my head, called triumphantly 
 to my comrades. At length we arrived at a road crossing the 
 
 * w O 
 
 village lengthwise, and the sergeant-major had now succeeded in 
 his attempt to bring us somewhat back to our reason. There was 
 a house, around the corner, of which he suspected that a number 
 of French lay. Be cautious, said he to me, until the others 
 are up; but I stepped round where a grenadier stood, about 
 fifteen paces from me; he aimed at me. My antagonist s ball 
 
9 
 
 grazed my hair on the right side; I shot and he fell. This was 
 my first shot fired in battle. 
 
 Of our whole company, which, on entering the engagement, 
 numbered about one hundred and fifty strong, at night only 
 twenty or thirty combatants remained. The old soldiers of our 
 regiment treated us ever, after this battle, with signal regard, 
 while before it they had looked upon us as beardless boys. We 
 marched all night. It rained the whole of the 17th, but we 
 marched a great part of that night also. Rain fell in torrents, 
 and the roads were very bad. Early in the morning of the 18th 
 we found part of our regiment, from which we had been separated. 
 Our men were exhausted, but old Blucher allowed us no rest. 
 As we passed the Marshal, wrapped up in a cloak and leaning 
 against a mound, our soldiers began to hurrah. Be quiet, my 
 lads, said he, hold your tongues; time enough after the victory 
 is gained." We entered the battle of Waterloo with Blucher, in 
 the afternoon ; you know the history of that memorable day. 
 
 The great body of the Prussian and English armies marched 
 toward Paris; but half our army corps, to which I belonged, 
 received orders to pursue Yandamere, who had thrown himself 
 into Namur. We marched the whole of the 19th; the heat was 
 excessive, and our exhaustion and thirst so great that two men 
 of our regiment became deranged in consequence. At four in the 
 afternoon we went to bivouac; we started early again, and now 
 my strength forsook me, I could not keep up with the troops, and 
 began to lag behind. Suddenly, at about noon, I heard the first 
 guns. The battle of Namur had begun. When I arrived where 
 my regiment stood, or, as I should rather say, the little band 
 representing it, I dropped down ; but fortunately one of my 
 comrades had some eggs, one of which gave me great strength. 
 Our colonel came up to us, saying: Riflemen, you have twice 
 fought like the oldest soldiers I have no more to say. This 
 woods is to be cleared; be steady bugleman, the signal! and 
 off we went with a great hurrah ! driving the French before us 
 down a hill toward Namur, which lay on our front. When I saw 
 our men rushing too fast down the hill, I was afraid that some 
 enemies might be hid under the precipice to receive them. Hold 
 ing myself with my left hand by a tree, I looked over the preci 
 pice and saw about seven Frenchmen. They will hit me, I 
 thought, and, turning around to call to our soldiers, I suddenly 
 experienced a sensation as if my whole body were compressed in 
 2 
 
10 
 
 my head, and this, like a ball, were quivering in the ear. I could 
 feel the existence of nothing else ; it was a most painful sensation. 
 After some time I was able to open my eyes, or to see again with 
 them. I found myself on the ground ; over me stood a soldier 
 firing at the enemy. I strained every nerve to ask, though in 
 broken accents, whether and if so where I was wounded! You 
 are shot through the neck. I begged him to shoot me; the idea 
 of dying miserably, half of hunger, half of my wound, alone in 
 the wood, overpowered me. He, of course, refused, spoke a word 
 of comfort that perhaps I might yet be saved, and soon after 
 himself received a shot through both knees, in consequence of 
 which he died in the hospital, while I am writing an account of 
 his sufferings here in America. My thirst was beyond descrip 
 tion ; it was a feverish burning. I thought I should die, and 
 prayed for forgiveness of my sins as I forgave all. I recollect 
 I prayed for Napoleon, and begged the dispenser of all blessings 
 to shower His bounty upon all my beloved ones, and if it could 
 be, to grant me a speedy end of my sufferings. I received a 
 second ball, which, entering my chest, gave me more local pain 
 than the first; I thought God had granted my fervent prayer. I 
 perceived, as I supposed, that the ball had pierced my lungs, and 
 tried to breathe hard to hasten my death. A week afterward, 
 while I lay ill with my two wounds, in a house at Liege, one of 
 my brothers was in the hospital at Brussels, and another at Aix- 
 la-Chapelle we were just distributed at the points of a triangle." 
 
 At the close of the "Waterloo campaign, as soon as 
 he was recovered from his wounds Lieber returned 
 to his studies, and joined the Berlin Gymnasium. 
 These gymnasia had been established by Dr. Jahn 
 during the French dominion, in order to impart 
 physical vigor and with it moral energy to the 
 German youth, after the pedantic period of wigs and 
 queues, so as to make them fit at a later period to 
 bear arms. The gymnasia became therefore in a 
 manner patriotic schools. After the downfall of 
 Napoleon they naturally became schools of liberal 
 
11 
 
 sentiments of civil freedom. Jahn and many others 
 were arrested as suspected persons, and because 
 young Lieber was considered his favorite pupil he 
 too was arrested. He now became an author, but 
 malgre lui, for the government published several 
 songs of liberty which were found among his papers, 
 to prove how dangerous a person this lad was. He 
 was detained in prison several months, beguiling the 
 tediousness of his confinement by diligent study and 
 reading. Upon his discharge from prison without 
 a trial, he was told that although the charges against 
 him had not been proved, he was nevertheless pro 
 hibited from studying at the Prussian universities. 
 He consequently went to Jena, where he took his 
 degrees in 1820. To those who were acquainted 
 with Lieber, and who knew the intense love of 
 liberty which animated his soul, and the scorn in 
 which he held all systems which deprive man of 
 w^hat he believed to be by nature the birthright of 
 all, and the hatred which he felt for despotic power 
 whether proceeding from royal prerogative or demo 
 cratic absolutism a phrase which he himself in 
 vented his imprisonment by the Prussian govern 
 ment of that day, will not appear remarkable. At 
 that very time he maintained, in opposition to his 
 republican friends, that German unity was the first 
 of needs for Germany, and that it would be obtained 
 only by a revolutionary king or kaiser. "Writing 
 nearly fifty years afterwards [in 1868], he says : " I 
 have this very moment read in the German papers, 
 
12 
 
 that Bismarck said in the chamber the very thing for 
 which we were hunted down in 1820 and 1821." 
 "No man could be more deeply impressed than was 
 Francis Lieber with the truth of that saying of 
 Aristotle "The fellest of things is armed injustice." 
 In 1820 permission was granted him to study at 
 Halle, but with the intimation that he never could 
 expect public employment. Although he lived in 
 a very retired manner, devoted to his books, and 
 taking no part whatever in political movements, he 
 remained under the surveillance of the police and 
 subject to constant annoyance from them. His posi 
 tion became so irksome that he at length took refuge 
 in Dresden. While living there, not unwatched, the 
 Greek revolution broke out. * He instantly resolved 
 to abandon his country and to take part in the war 
 of independence. It was impossible for him to 
 obtain a passport for any length of time, and par 
 ticularly 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 Nuremburg, and for the short period of a 
 fortnight only. Once in possession 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 !NTurem- 
 burg, so that, to use his own words, "it finally 
 looked formidable enough." Arrived in Nurem- 
 burg, he accounted for the defacing ink-blot by the 
 awkwardness of a police officer, and had the paper 
 
13 
 
 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, pretending 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 historical 
 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 
 of incalculable benefit to liberty and have added so 
 many new ideas to political science, escape from his 
 native land! 
 
 The enthusiasm which led him to volunteer in the 
 cause of Grecian independence met with a severe 
 disappointment. The history of that brief and 
 unfortunate struggle is well known. His own ex 
 perience is vividly portrayed in his Journal in Greece 
 written in Rome, and published at Leipzic in 1823, 
 and republished at Amsterdam in the same year 
 under the title of "The German Anacharsis." After 
 suffering great hardships he embarked at Messa- 
 longhi in 1822 in a small vessel bound for Ancona. 
 One scudo and a half was all that remained in his 
 purse after paying the price of his passage. From 
 Ancona his desire to see Rome induced him to make 
 his way to that city, which he had much difficulty in 
 reaching and entering, owing to the great gap in his 
 passport. He has himself related how he entered by 
 stealth the Porta del Populo, as if the porches of the 
 
14 
 
 churches near it and the obelisk were nothing new to 
 him, and how his heart beat as he approached the 
 tame-looking sentinel of the Papal troops, more than 
 it ever had beaten at the approach of any grenadier 
 of the enemy, and the indescribable delight he felt 
 when he had safely passed him, and felt and saw that 
 he was in Rome. In Rome he found a friend who 
 shared his room with him ; but he could not reside in 
 Rome for any length of time without having permis 
 sion to do so from the police, and that he could not 
 obtain without a certificate from the minister of his 
 country that his passport was in order. The very 
 contrary was the case. In fact, he was ashamed to 
 show his passport at the Prussian legation. He 
 resolved, therefore, to disclose frankly his situation 
 to Mr. Niebuhr, the Prussian ambassador to the 
 Papal See, " hoping," as he said, "that a scholar who 
 had written the history of Rome could not be so 
 cruel as to drive him from Rome without allowing 
 him time to see and study it." The Prussian am 
 bassador resided at the Palazzo Orsini, or, as it is 
 frequently called, Teatro di Marcello, for the palace 
 is on and within the remains of the theatre which 
 Augustus built and dedicated to his nephew Marcel- 
 lus. "My heart," says Lieber, "grew heavier the 
 nearer I approached this venerable pile to which a 
 whole history is attached, from the times of an 
 tiquity, through the middle ages when it served as 
 a castle for its proud inmates, and down to the 
 most recent times. The idea that I might be dis- 
 
15 
 
 believed, prevented me for a moment from proceed 
 ing any farther toward that building under an 
 engraving of which in my possession I find that I 
 afterwards wrote these words, In questa rovina 
 retrovai la vita. 7 
 
 Of his reception by Niebuhr he has left a most 
 interesting account. 
 
 "He received me," says he, "with kindness and affability, re 
 turned with me to his room, made me relate my whole story, and 
 appeared much pleased that I could give him some information re 
 specting Greece, which seemed to be not void of interest to him. 
 The conversation lasted several hours, when he broke off asking 
 me to return to dinner. I hesitated in accepting the invitation, 
 which he seemed unable to understand. When I saw that my 
 motive for declining so flattering an invitation was not under 
 stood, I said, throwing a glance at my dress, ; Realty, sir, I am not 
 in a state to dine with an excellency. He stamped with his 
 foot and said with some animation, Are diplomatists always be 
 lieved to be so cold hearted ? I am the same that I was in Berlin 
 when I delivered my lectures. Your remark was wrong. No 
 argument could be urged against such reasons. I recollect that 
 dinner with delight. His conversation abounding in rich and 
 various knowledge and striking observations, his great kindness, 
 the acquaintance I made with Mrs. Niebuhr, his lovely children 
 who were so beautiful that when at a later period I used to walk 
 with them, the women would exclaim, Ma guardate, guardate, che 
 Angeli / A good dinner, which I had not enjoyed for a long time, 
 in a high vaulted room, the ceiling of which was painted in the 
 style of Italian palaces, a picture by the mild Francia close by, 
 the sound of the murmuring fountain in the garden, and the re 
 freshing beverages in coolers which I had seen but the day before 
 represented in some of the most masterly pictures of the Italian 
 school in short my consciousness of being at dinner with Me- 
 buhr in his house in Rome and all this in such bold relief to my 
 late and not unfrequently disgusting sufferings, would have rcn. 
 dered the moment one of almost perfect enjoyment and happiness, 
 had it not been for an annoyance which I have no doubt will ap 
 pear here a mere trifle. My dress consisted as yet of nothing 
 
better than a pair of unblacked shoes, such as are not (infrequent 
 ly worn in the Levant ; a pair of socks of coarse Greek wool, the 
 brownish pantaloons frequently worn by sea-captains in the Medi 
 terranean, and a blue frock coat through which two balls had 
 passed, a fate to which the blue cloth cap had likewise been ex 
 posed. 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 charity of meeting, with the 
 obstinacy which reminded me of the irreconcilable temper of the 
 two brothers in Schiller s Bride of Messina. There happened to 
 dine with Mr. Niebuhr another lady besides Mrs. Niebuhr, and 
 m % y embarrassment was not small when towards the conclusion of 
 the dinner the children rose and played about on the ground, and 
 I saw my poor extremities exposed to all the frank remarks of 
 quick-sighted children, fearing as I did at the same time the still 
 more trying moments after dinner when I should be obliged to 
 take coffee near the ladies, unprotected by the kindly shelter of the 
 table. Mr. Niebuhr observed, perhaps, that something embarrassed 
 me and redoubled if possible his kindness. After dinner he pro 
 posed a walk and asked the ladies to accompany us. I pitied 
 them, but as a gentleman of their acquaintance had dropped in 
 by this time, who gladly accepted the offer to walk with us, they 
 were spared the mortification of taking my arm. Mr. Niebuhr 
 probably remembering what I had said of my own appearance in 
 the morning, put his arm under mine and thus walked with me a 
 long time. After our return, when I intended to take leave, he 
 asked me whether I wished for anything. I said I should like to 
 borrow his history. He said he would get a copy for me. As to 
 his other books, he gave me the key of his library to take what 
 ever I liked. He laughed when I returned laden with books, and 
 dismissed me in the kindest manner." 
 
 Very soon afterwards Niebuhr invited young Lie- 
 ber to live with him, assisting him, if agreeable to 
 him, in the education of his son Marcus. The invita 
 tion was accepted, and Lieber passed a year of un 
 alloyed happiness in Rome, living in the family of the 
 historian, sharing his confidence and affection, the 
 daily companion of his walks, and of his conversation, 
 
17 
 
 pursuing all the while his studies and storing his 
 mind with the treasures of Roman antiquity and art. 
 In the spring of 1823, when Niebuhr quitted the 
 embassy at Rome, he took Lieber with him to Naples 
 whence they returned to Rome. Thence they went 
 by the way of Florence, Pisa, and Bologna, to the 
 Tyrol, and in Innspruck Lieber took leave of that 
 family in the bosom of which he had passed so many 
 days of happiness. Niebuhr died in January 1831. 
 Long afterwards, in his new home across the ocean 
 on the banks of the Congaree, the great publicist 
 embalmed his love and gratitude to Nlebuhr in that 
 beautiful and imperishable record which contains his 
 reminiscences of the friend of his youth. In his 
 dedication of the volume to his friend, Mrs. Austin of 
 London, he says "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 in 
 deed with perfuming flowers and lovely alleys and 
 fountains, with the luxuriant trees of the south in 
 blossom, the fragrant orange and the glowing pome 
 granate, 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." The 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 " Beminiscences of ISTiebuhr" was republished in 
 England by Bentley, and translated into German by 
 the son of Hugo, the civilian. 
 
 When Lieber was in Rome with Niebuhr, the 
 King of Prussia, visiting that city after the congress 
 of "Verona, saw him there, and promised Niebtthr 
 that if Lieber desired to return to Prussia he should 
 not be molested. From Innspruck he therefore re 
 turned to Prussia, but he had hardly arrived in Berlin 
 before he was again arrested upon the old charges of 
 enmity to the government, entertaining republican 
 sentiments and belonging to a secret association : 
 and he was cast into the State prison of Koepnick. 
 On the 22d March 1823 Niebuhr writes : " It has 
 been said that Lieber was to be released on his 
 father s birthday, but nothing has come of it. Such 
 carelessness in leaving a good man to languish in 
 fetters makes me indignant, though no cruelty is 
 intended." And again : " April 6th, I visited poor 
 Lieber yesterday in the Bastile of Koepnick. Oh 
 my God !" He was at length, after some months 
 liberated through Niebuhr s pressing solicitations, a 
 kindness which was the greater as Niebuhr s own 
 political sentiments were regarded with some suspi 
 cion by the men in power. While at Koepnick he 
 wrote a little volume of poems, " Wein und Wonne 
 Lieder," which was published at Berlin under the 
 name of Arnold Franz. Fearing renewed persecu 
 tion he took refuge in England. He arrived in Lon 
 don in 1825, where he resided for a year, writing for 
 
19 
 
 German periodicals and giving lessons in the lan 
 guages for his support. He always said it was the 
 hardest time of his life " doing uncongenial work, 
 and physically laboring like an American army 
 mule." 
 
 In 1827 he came to the United States with warm 
 recommendations from Niebuhr, whose letters show 
 his great estimation and affection for his young 
 friend, and from other eminent men. In a letter Sept. 
 13, 1827, Niebuhr wrote to him: "I approve of 
 your resolution to go to America so entirely that, had 
 you been able to ask my advice beforehand, I should 
 have unqualifiedly urged you to f go. 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 so favorable a light. 
 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 come." He also 
 advised him, perceiving, no doubt, the bent of his 
 mind, to write no political dissertations, and closed 
 his letter with these words, " the paper is filled to the 
 margin and therefore I can only add God bless you. 
 My wife and children send their love. Marcus thinks 
 and speaks of { you as if we had left Rome but a few 
 weeks ago." \ Bivt^notwithstanding his reverence^ 
 and affection for his friend, Lieber did not obey his 
 injunctions in the two particulars in regard to which 
 he had been most emphatic in his advice. He be- \ 
 came an American citizen at the earliest possible 
 
20 
 
 moment when the law would permit him to do so, and 
 his great and enduring fame rests upon his political 
 writings; not, I need hardly say, upon fugitive dis 
 sertations upon the politics of the day that most 
 ephemeral of all literature, but upon those masterly 
 and laborious works upon political science, which are 
 a vast and rich mine of thought upon the subjects 
 of which they treat, while the learning, originality, 
 and power which distinguish them have made them 
 an authority in all lands and before all tribunals. ") 
 
 He arrived at New York June 20, 1827, and pro 
 ceeded to Boston, where he took up his residence. 
 There he commenced his laborious work, " The Ency 
 clopedia Americana," in thirteen volumes, in which 
 he was employed five years. During this time he 
 also prepared, with the assistance of his wife, and 
 published the translation of a French work on the 
 Revolution of 1830, and a German work on Casper 
 Hauser by Feuerbach. He always looked back with 
 pleasure to his residence in Boston, where he num 
 bered among his most highly esteemed and intimate 
 friends Story, Pickering, Channing, Sullivan, Tick- 
 nor, Prescott, and many other distinguished men. 
 In 1832 he removed to New York, where he pub 
 lished a translation of De Beaumont and De Tocque- 
 ville s work on the Penitentiary System, with an 
 introduction and many notes which were in turn 
 translated in Germany. "While in New York he 
 received from the trustees of Girard College, at the 
 head of whom was Nicholas Biddle, the honorable 
 
21 
 
 commission of preparing a plan of education and 
 instruction for that institution. This brought him to 
 Philadelphia in 1833, where he remained about two 
 years, and where was published, besides his plan of 
 education, "Letters to a Gentleman in Germany." 
 He employed himself also at this time in writing a 
 supplement to his Encyclopedia, but, owing to the 
 deranged condition of the monetary affairs of the 
 country resulting from General Jackson s war upon 
 the United States Bank, the supplement was not 
 continued. In Philadelphia he made many valued 
 friends who remember with delight the charms of his 
 society and the singular fascination of his conversa 
 tion, so replete with instruction, so full of experience 
 of the world and of kno wledge of events and of men, 
 and so much brightened by the playfulness of a cheer 
 ful mind and the gayety of a sparkling wit. 
 
 In 1835 he was appointed to the professorship of 
 History and Political Economy in South Carolina 
 College. He remained in that position, residing at 
 Columbia, for a period of more than twenty years 
 always highly honored by the distinguished men of 
 the South and discharging the duties of his chair 
 with great success and a constantly increasing repu 
 tation. Here he wrote and published the great works 
 upon which his fame will chiefly rest ; the three 
 principal of which are, his "Manual of Political 
 Ethics," 2 vols., published in 1838; "Legal and 
 Political Hermeneutics, or the Principles of Interpre- 
 
22 
 
 tation and Construction in Law and Politics," 1 vol., 
 published in 1839; and his "Civil Liberty and Self- 
 Government," 2 vols., published in 1853. It is diffi- 
 ~7^ cult, within the limits of such a discourse as this, to 
 convey any adequate idea of the weight and value of 
 these great works. They were positive additions of 
 the greatest importance to the knowledge previously 
 possessed upon these subjects. They embodied in a 
 profound, original, and comprehensive system the prin 
 ciples upon which human society and government re 
 pose. They traced to their true sources all the social 
 and governmental relations and expounded their rea 
 sons, their history, their distinctions, and their philo 
 sophic significance and results, with a clearness of 
 exhibition, a force of argument, a wealth of learning, 
 a power of illustration, and a highi moral ^purpose 
 
 never before seen in the same field. /In his Eblitical 
 g 4^ 
 
 fethics he shows how the principles 01 ethics are ap 
 plicable to political affairs, by what moral laws we 
 ought to be governed in political cases, what con 
 science and experience prescribe for a citizen in his 
 relations to government, the law, and society. He 
 treats of the State, its nature, origin, objects and just 
 relations, of primordial and inalienable rights, of soci 
 ety and its sovereignty, of true allegiance, of law and 
 its provinces and administration, of government and 
 its powers and abuses, of constitutions written and 
 unwritten, of crimes and their punishment, of indus 
 try and its relations to the State, of the reciprocal 
 

 23 
 
 relation of rights and duties, of political virtue, of 
 wealth and poverty in its influence on society and 
 states, of education, of woman and her relations to 
 society, of the press, of elections and voting, of legis 
 latures and judges, of parties in the government, of 
 majorities and the rights of minorities, of executive 
 officers and their duties, of jurors, advocates, and 
 witnesses, of war and the duties of the soldier, of re 
 ligion, justice, and patriotism, which he called the 
 three pillars of society and the State. Everywhere 
 among learned and scientific men, this great work 
 created a profound impression. Chancellor Kent in \ 
 his Commentaries commended it in the strongest terms 
 for the excellence of its doctrines and its various 
 and profound erudition, and observed that " when he 
 read Lieber s works, he always felt that he had a sure 
 pilot on board, however dangerous the navigation." 
 In a letter to Lieber, Judge Story said of it : " It 
 contains by far the fullest and most correct develop 
 ment of the true theory of what constitutes the State 
 that I have ever seen. It abounds with profound 
 views of government, which are illustrated with 
 various learning. To me many of the thoughts are 
 new and as striking as they are new. I do not hesi 
 tate to say that it constitutes one of the best theoreti 
 cal 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 
 
24 
 
 question what government is best by the answer, 
 illustrated in a thousand ways, that it is that which 
 
 *>r : 
 
 best promotes the substantial interests of the whole 
 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 disturbing doc 
 trines are promulgated." " It bears testimony," wrote 
 Henry Hallam, "to your exertions in the great field 
 of philosophical jurisprudence." " It is remarkable," 
 wrote "William H. Prescott, " that you should have 
 brought together such a variety of pertinent illustra 
 tions from all sources, familiar as well recondite, by 
 which you have given life and a popular interest to 
 your philosophy. It is a book so full of suggestion 
 that the reader has done only half his work when he 
 has read a chapter, for it puts him on a train of think 
 ing for himself which he must carry on after he has 
 closed the volume." In his Ferdinand and Isabella, 
 Mr. Prescott declares of Lieber s works, that they 
 could not have been produced before the nineteenth 
 century. ""What strikes me particularly," wrote 
 "William Kent, "is the vast range of illustration, 
 your writings have drawn from current literature, 
 contemporaneous history, and a thousand sources 
 which after all my conversations with you still amaze 
 me. It is this faculty of yours to range over all 
 things, great and small, past and present, and extract 
 a moral, or a rule, or a philosophic deduction, hived 
 like the honey bag o the bee, which strikes me the 
 most in your books. You would have made a great 
 
25 
 
 common-law lawyer. The whole turn of your mind 
 is that way, your taste for English history and prefer 
 ence for English liberty, all show your predominating 
 inclination." "In my opinion," wrote Chancellor Kent 
 to Chancellor De Sausure 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 great moral worth are conceded by all his exten 
 sive acquaintance, among whom are some of the first 
 scholars and jurists in the United States." By Eng 
 lish critics the Political Ethics was compared favor 
 ably with the great work of Montesquieu and re 
 garded as pre-eminent among works on political 
 science. 
 
 The " Legal and Political Hermeneutics," which 
 followed the Political Ethics, is a most lucid treatise 
 on the principles and science of interpretation and 
 construction in law and politics. It is spoken of in 
 terms of the highest admiration by Professor Green- 
 leaf, a very competent judge, who adds, in respect to 
 Lieber s writings generally, "he always leaps into 
 the deepest water and always comes up like a good 
 swimmer." Kufus Choate wrote, June 25, 1854, " I 
 consider very few of my cases prepared without dip 
 ping into you, and what the Ethics don t furnish 
 the Hermeneutics do." Lieber s distinction between 
 interpretation and construction has been generally 
 adopted by legal writers. There was something more 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 in these commendations of great and learned men, it 
 is well observed by a writer in the Nation, than mere 
 compliment, for "many of the topics discussed were 
 at the time new, doubtful, and difficult, and Lieber 
 lived to find conclusions which he had arrived at 
 and was the first to express thirty years ago, 
 referred to by writers of the present day as familiar 
 political truths, without, perhaps, any conception on 
 the part of the writers, of the source whence they 
 were derived." 
 
 But the best known of his productions is his work 
 on " Civil Liberty and Self-Government." A work 
 which Has received the highest commendation not 
 only in this country, but in Europe also. Professor 
 Creasy, of London, in his " Eise and Progress of the 
 British Constitution," very frequently quotes from 
 it, adding the highest praise, while on the continent 
 such publicists as Von Mohl and Mittermaier, 
 confirm the correctness of his judgment. To them 
 may be added Garelli, the eminent Italian jurist, 
 and many other distinguished writers upon inter 
 national and public law. "Dr. Lieber," says Pro 
 fessor Creasy, " is the first who has pointed out the 
 all-important principle of English and American 
 liberty, that every officer remains individually re 
 sponsible for whatever he does, no matter whether 
 he acts under the order of his superiors or not a 
 principle wholly unknown in other countries." His 
 Civil Liberty and Self-Government was intended as 
 a sequel to that portion of his Political Ethics which 
 
, 
 
 ^ 
 
 upon civil institutions. He called it "institutional . 
 liberty," a very happy and original formulation of 
 the truth that political liberty is dependent upon 
 certain fundamental institutions which are necessary 
 for its existence. In this great work he handled the 
 most difficult subjects in the most masterly manner, 
 reasoning always with a bold and independent 
 spirit, animated with a constant love of truth and 
 liberty^ striking always heavy blows at every form 
 of oppression, and embellishing his argument with 
 a copiousness of illustration from history which 
 makes the whole work attractive in the highest 
 degree. He treats of ancient and modern liberty, of 
 ancient, medieval, and modern states, of national 
 independence and personal liberty, of the rights of 
 personal locomotion, communion, emigration, and 
 petition, of liberty of conscience, of property, of 
 the supremacy of law, of high treason, of bail and 
 trial, of publicity in political affairs, of taxation, 
 of division of power, of responsible ministers and 
 representative government, of the independence of 
 the judiciary, of parliamentary law, of the bi 
 cameral system, of institutional self-government, of 
 the wealth and longevity of states, and a hundred 
 other topics of like importance ; and there is not one 
 which he touches, upon which he does not cast a 
 new light, and which he does not exhibit in a form 
 more clear and attractive than that in which such 
 subjects have been hitherto placed. Mr. Bancroft 
 
28 
 
 has justly said of this great work of Lieber, that "it 
 entitles him to the honors of a defender of liberty." 
 
 His truthful and independent mind always pur 
 sued an even course, avoiding all pernicious extremes, 
 pandering to no man s prejudices, and fearing no 
 man s judgment. He hated a demagogue if possi 
 ble more than he hated" a tyrant, and he hated the 
 latter as an enemy of his race. " The doctrine vox 
 populi vox Dei" said he, "is essentially unrepublican, 
 as the doctrine that the people may do what they 
 list, under the Constitution, above the Constitution, 
 (and against the Constitution, is an open avowal of 
 disbelief in self-government. The true and staunch 
 ! republican wants liberty, but no deification of him 
 self or others. He wants a firmly built self-govern 
 ment and noble institutions, but no absolutism of 
 any sort, none to practise on others, and none to 
 have practised on himself. He is too proud for the 
 vox populi vox Dei. He wants no divine right of the 
 people, for he knows very well that it means nothing 
 but despotic power of insinuating leaders. He 
 wants the real rule of the people, that is, the insti 
 tutionally organized country which distinguishes it 
 from a mere mob, for a mob is an unorgaiiic multi 
 tude with a general impulse of action. Woe to the 
 country in which political hypocrisy first calls the 
 people almighty, then teaches that the voice of the 
 people is divine, then pretends to take clamor for 
 the true voice of the people, and lastly gets up the 
 desired clamor." 
 
29 
 
 I The influence of these great works of Lieber upon I/ 
 the public mind of the world has been very great, 
 particularly in this country and in England, while 
 the civilians and scholars of all lands have borne 
 testimony to the originality, the genius, and the 
 power which they display. He had a large and 
 comprehensive mind which grasped a subject firmly, 
 turned it over and over, exmined it as a whole and 
 in all its details, and never let it go until under the 
 strong rays of reason, and in the light of the highest 
 morality and truth, its true proportions and just 
 relations stood clearly revealed. 
 
 In one of his works he has said that memory is 
 "the most useful and indispensable of all instru 
 ments in all pursuits." He himself had a most 
 wonderful memory. His mind was a great store 
 house where seemed to be preserved, ready for use, all 
 his extensive and varied learning all that he had 
 read, or heard, or witnessed, in the wide range of a 
 great and multifarious experience. Yet he was never 
 pedantic. He never quoted for mere ostentation or 
 ornament of speech. He never fell into the error 
 of betraying the pleasure which a quoting aujjior 
 derives from having overcome the difficulty of a 
 foreign language. He was perfectly familiar with 
 Greek and Latin, thoroughly accomplished in all 
 classical learning, ancient and modern, and spoke 
 and wrote most of the languages of Europe. His 
 English is written with as much ease and purity as 
 if it had been his native tongue. It is, indeed, 
 
30 
 
 most remarkable that, having come to this country 
 at the age of twenty-seven, he should so thoroughly 
 have mastered the language that his works are 
 written in a style which, for strength, vigor, perspi 
 cuity, exactness of expression, simplicity and idio 
 matic accuracy, might serve as a model for such 
 compositions. In the treatment of his subjects he 
 was eminently practical. He wasted little labor 
 upon mere ornament, but every sentence was solid 
 and compact with thought. 
 
 He was honest and conscientious, intrepid in his 
 defence of truth and liberty, unsparing in his expo 
 sure and denunciation of falsehood and tyranny. He 
 loved to tear away the mask which concealed per 
 nicious errors, and to reveal truth in all the majesty 
 and stately beauty which belongs to her. If I were 
 asked to describe the leading characteristics of his 
 mind, I would say that they were an intense love of 
 knowledge, an intense love of truth, and an intense 
 >UV patriotism. If I were asked what were his most 
 useful faculties, I would answer, his strong, reten 
 tive memory, and his broad, clear, sagacious 
 common sense and solid judgment. If I were asked 
 what were his most attractive personal qualities, I 
 would say the charming simplicity and candor of his 
 character, his delightful and instructive conversa 
 tion, and the quiet, playful humor which lighted up 
 and animated his social intercourse. 
 
 Besides the three great works which have been 
 particularly mentioned, Lieber wrote many other 
 
31 
 
 things of great value, among the principal of which 
 may be mentioned "The Origin and Development of 
 the First Constituents of Civilization;" "Great 
 Events described by Great Historians ;" " Essays 
 upon Property and Labor ;" " The Laws of Pro 
 perty ;" " Penal Laws and the Penitentiary System ;" V 
 "On Prison Discipline;" "The Relation between 
 Education and Crime;" "The Pardoning Power;" 
 " International Copyright ;" " The Character of the 
 Gentleman ;" " The Study of Latin and Greek as 
 Elements of Education;" on "Laura Bridgman s 
 Vocal Sounds ;" on " Anglican and Gallican Liberty" 
 (translated into German with many notes and addi 
 tions by Privy Counsellor Mittermaier) ; on the 
 "Post-Office and Postal Reforms ;" on the " Indepen 
 dence of the Judiciary ;" on " Two Houses of Legis 
 lature," and a very large number of minor tracts and 
 publications. 1 
 
 Of "Property and Labor," Professor Greenleaf 
 wrote, in October 1842 : " The feature of your book 
 which strikes me most strongly is the strong common 
 sense and sound reason manifested in regard to the 
 origin of property ; brushing away at a stroke the 
 cobweb theories of previous tenancy in common and 
 of social compact. To me all the theories I had 
 
 V 
 
 1 He wrote many able articles on public questions which appeared in the 
 New York Evening Post over the signature " Americus." The last one he 
 ever wrote appeared in that Journal, Sept. 24, 1872, and was entitled " Ke- 
 ligion and Law." He also contributed many valuable papers to the " Revue 
 de Droit International." M. Rolin-Jaequemyns, the learned editor of that 
 revieAv has, in a recent number, paid a very eloquent and affectionate tribute 
 to the memory of Lieber. 
 
32 
 
 previously met with upon the original title to indi 
 vidual property appeared visionary and unsound. 
 But you have spoken directly to my understanding 
 and borne me along with you, my mind joyously 
 assenting to each successive step in the induction." 
 
 In 1844 Lieber visited his native city of Berlin. 
 He had an interview with the king, Frederic Wil 
 liam IY. who received him very cordially, and 
 insisted that he must now remain in Prussia. " We 
 must do something" said the king, "to keep you 
 here, you must not be lost to us." He was accord 
 ingly offered a new professorship of Poenology in 
 the University of Berlin, with the inspectorship of 
 all the prisons in the kingdom. But neither the 
 request of the king nor the friendship of Humboldt 
 could overcome his preference for the land of his 
 adoption. His memory, however, recalled in singular 
 contrast with the honors then bestowed upon him the 
 political persecution which compelled him who had 
 in his youth borne arms for his country and bled in 
 her cause, to steal away by stealth from his native 
 land. 
 
 In December 1856 Doctor Lieber resigned his 
 professorship in South Carolina College. The reso 
 lutions adopted by the alumni of that institution 
 and conveyed to him by their committee, Wm. C. 
 Preston, Gov. Manning, Jas. L. Pettigru, Richard 
 Yeadon, J. H. Hudson, and Jos. B. Allston 
 attest their profound regret and their sense of the 
 loss which that institution suffered by his departure. 
 
33 
 
 In 1857 he was elected to a similar professorship in 
 Columbia College, [NTew York, and subsequently to 
 the chair of political science in the Law School of 
 the same institution. He continued in the discharge 
 of the duties of that position to the time of his 
 death, which occurred at his house in New York, on 
 the afternoon of the 2d October 1872. His habits 
 of industry continued until the close of his life. He 
 was engaged, at the time of his death, in writing a 
 work upon the Rise of the Constitution, and had so 
 far progressed in it as to insure, it is hoped, its 
 publication ; for it cannot but prove a most valuable 
 addition to that department of the law. I may 
 state here, in passing, that he wrote the article " Con 
 stitution" in Bouvier s Law Dictionary. During 
 the period of his connection with the Law School of 
 Columbia College his writings upon various sub 
 jects were too numerous to receive a detailed notice 
 here. They were upon a great variety of subjects, 
 and all of them displayed the strength of argument 
 and wonderful power of illustration which charac 
 terize all his works. The general character of his 
 political writings is happily drawn in the Princeton 
 Review, of October 1858. " Lieber is a man who 
 stands on the altitudes of history, and not on a mere 
 political platform. His work is, therefore, based 
 upon the grand memories of the past, and not upon 
 the shifting 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 
 
 5 
 
at it from every period presented in each successive 
 cycle of human progress and has not only appreci 
 ated the results of the working of the various 
 institutions, but has noted the growth and the muta 
 tions 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 
 
 >j 
 
 progress is founded in historical development and 
 --abstract reasoning. /"While, therefore, Lieber lights 
 the torch of science atT^no lights but those of ex 
 perience, he adds to it that prescience of reason which 
 is to direct the statesman s forecast into the future." 
 One of the most important considerations relating to 
 his works is the fact that he was a republican, and 
 believed in liberty as organized and guaranteed by the 
 institutions of this country. He, therefore, viewed 
 political principles and institutions from a point 
 different from that occupied by the great European 
 writers upon the same subjects*.. 
 / j^jQDuring the late civil war Lieber rendered very 
 
 ^ valuable service to the government and the country. 
 He was one of the first to point out, by his pen, the 
 madness of secession, and to impress upon the coun 
 try the value of the institutions which wera en 
 dangered. As early as 1851, in an address delivered 
 in South Carolina, he had warned the South of the 
 ruin with which the doctrine of secession threatened 
 it and the whole country. During the whole war his 
 pen was constantly at work supporting the govern- 
 
35 
 
 ment and upholding the Union. 1 He was frequently 
 suTn^necTTo^Washington by telegraph by the Sec 
 retary of war for consultation and advice upon the 
 most important subjects. His correspondence with 
 the secretary, and with Gen. Halleck while Gen- 
 eral-in-chief, is very voluminous. The Code of 
 war, prepared by him upon the requisition of the 
 President of the United States, and promulgated in 
 general orders of the war department, UTo. 100, 
 (1863) as "Instructions for the government of the 
 armies of the United States in the field," is one of 
 the greatest works of his later years. He thereby 
 conferred not only a benefit upon his own country, 
 but added a new chapter, replete with noble and 
 humane sentiments, to the law of war. M. Laboulaye 
 has justly described these instructions as a master 
 piece, and they suggested to Blunt schli the plan of 
 codifying the law of nations, as may be seen in his 
 letter to Lieber, which serves as a preface to his work 
 Droit International Codifie. Blunt schli published as 
 an appendix to his Code the whole of Lieber s In 
 structions for the Army. Dr. Lieber used to call this 
 work his " old hundred." 
 
 His pamphlet on "Guerilla Parties, considered 
 with reference to the laws and usages of War," 
 written at the request of Major-General Halleck, 
 
 1 He was president, and one of the founders of the Loyal Publication 
 Society, in 1863, and wrote some of its most popular publications. Among 
 them "Slavery, Plantations, and the Yeomanry ;" "The Arguments of Se 
 cessionists ;" "No Party Now, but All for our Country;" "Amendments 
 to the Constitution submitted to the consideration of the American People." 
 
C 36 / 
 
 was another important contribution to the cause of 
 his country and to the law of war. At the close of 
 the war he was placed in charge of the Eebel Ar 
 chives for the purpose of classifying and arranging 
 them, a duty which occupied him for several months ; 
 and he was, at the time of his death, the umpire of the 
 commission for the adjudication of Mexican claims. 
 Among the most perfect of all his minor writings 
 at this period, was the small fragment entitled 
 "Nationalism," which Garelli, the Italian publicist 
 and author of." La Pace" calls Vaureo opuscolo the 
 Golden Tract. It contains within a very small com 
 pass a greater amount of political philosophy and 
 a more condensed statement of the general truths 
 derived from historic experience than was perhaps 
 ever before embraced within the same space. It 
 j closes with this grand thought. "The civilized 
 nations have come to form a community 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." 
 
 7~ America owes a large debt to Lieber. Probably 
 no man has instructed so many of our countrymen in 
 the truths of history, the canons of ethics, and the 
 Principles of political science. Nearly forty years of 
 I/his life were spent in that service, years crowded also 
 with industry in other departments, and in which he 
 produced those great works which will in the future 
 take their place beside the most important which 
 
37 
 
 have appeared in the history of jurisprudence. His 
 method of teaching was such as to make the subject 
 attractive in the highest degree 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 what peculiar 
 subjects or persons they ought to study, besides the 
 lesson. He caused them to read poetry and fiction, 
 in connection with history, to see how great writers 
 had conceived great characters. He relied much 
 upon the blackboard. To one he would give chro 
 nology, to another geography, to another names, to 
 another battles. Four large blackboards were in 
 constant use at the same time, and often a consider 
 able part 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. Foreign names were 
 always written on the blackboard behind him. He 
 always appointed a lesson, but the students when they 
 came did not know whether they were to recite or 
 to 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, 
 
38 
 
 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 re 
 quiring this blank book to have a firm cover. He 
 used to say that books were, like men, of little use 
 without a stiff back. He frequently bound books 
 himself. He was a man of generous mind, and was 
 full of sensibility. He loved his students and was 
 greatly beloved by them. On one occasion the com 
 petitors for the prize in his department of the law 
 school at Columbia College, were writing their prize 
 papers on the National elements in our Constitution, 
 their genesis and history. For this purpose they 
 were allowed two or three hours, during which they 
 were obliged to complete their essays without assist 
 ance. At the end of the time, he w^as requested by 
 his students to extend it for one of their number. 
 "But why?" he asked. The answer was, "He was 
 wounded at Fort Fisher in the right arm, and cannot 
 write as fast as we can." The instructor could only 
 nod his assent and was obliged to turn quickly away 
 to conceal the emotion which overcame him. 
 
 He was more than a mere teacher of a profound 
 science. He embraced every opportunity to infuse 
 the noblest sentiments into the minds of his pupils ; 
 so that he could truly say, as in his prefatory address 
 to his former pupils prefixed to his Civil Liberty. 
 " 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 
 
39 
 
 right without a parallel duty, no liberty without the < 
 supremacy of the law, and no high destiny without 
 perseverance that there can he no greatness without 
 self-denial." 
 
 He was thoroughly American in all his feelings 
 as much so as if he had been born here. Few persons 
 were so well acquainted with our history, or understood 
 so well tire character of our institutions. Few were so 
 well versed in the political changes of this country, or 
 knew so many of its leading men. He took a lively in 
 terest in all public measures, and followed attentively 
 the course of legislation. He watched with anxiety 
 every political crisis, and wrote and worked for what he 
 considered the right side of every question. His in- \^\ 
 terests and affections were bound up in America. He^ 
 admired her institutions, but was not blind to their 
 weak points, and labored constantly to strengthen 
 and improve them. He often took an active part in 
 public affairs, but never sank to the low level of a 
 partisan. He felt an interest in all which concerned 
 the welfare of his country, and was proud of all that 
 added to her glory and her greatness. Yet his heart 
 was true to his native land, and when the great war 
 broke out which ended in the establishment of her 
 supremacy and unity, he chafed because he could not 
 go to her assistance. On the 22d of July 1870 he wrote, 
 " I am writing at random, 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 
 
 
 
40 
 
 very deep." And again on the 18th August 1870, 
 " My German letters confirm that all Germans are ani 
 mated by the noblest feelings, and are ready to sac 
 rifice money, life, everything, in defence of their 
 country. The fathers of families, supporting 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." He was then seventy years of age, but 
 the patriotic fire burned as brightly in his bosom as 
 in the young days when he challenged the justice of 
 despotic government or volunteered in the cause of 
 Greece. In truth Francis Lieber belonged to the 
 whole world. His thoughts and the course of his 
 studies led him to regard nations only as different 
 members of the same household. He illustrated in 
 his life and writings the full force of the saying ubi 
 libertas ibi patria. He hated oppression in every 
 place and under every form. I once heard him say 
 that his feelings were such towards Louis XIV. that 
 he did not know how he could possibly speak to him 
 if he met him in the next world. His catholic spirit 
 overleaped in its sympathies all geographical lines 
 and compassed all men in its boundless affection and 
 solicitude. He regarded all Christian and civilized 
 states, as members of the same family, whose inter 
 course based upon reciprocal justice and kindness is 
 necessary for the happiness of each, for " we are," as 
 he himself said when speaking of Europe and Amer- 
 

 41 
 
 ica, " of kindred blood, of one Christian faith, of simi 
 lar pursuits and civilization, we have one science 
 and the same arts, we have one common treasure of 
 knowledge and power. Our alphabet and numeric 
 signs are the same, and we are members of one family 
 of advanced nations." 
 
 i?or England, next to his native land and his 
 adopted country, he had the greatest admiration. 
 He called her a " royal republic," as Thomas Arnold 
 many years later called her a kingly comwonwealth. 
 He had studied profoundly her constitutional history 
 and the development of her institutions. There is 
 no more eloquent passage in all his works, than that 
 in the introduction to his Civil Liberty, in which 
 he describes hep as leading the van of nations in the 
 dissemination of liberal principles a passage of so 
 much beauty that I cannot forbear to quote it here. 
 
 " England was the earliest country to put an end to feudal 
 isolation, while still retaining independent institutions, and to 
 unite the estates into a powerful general parliament able to 
 protect the nation against the crown. In England we first see 
 applied in practice and on a grand scale the idea which came orig 
 inally from the Netherlands, that liberty must not be a boon of 
 the government, but must derive its rights from the people. Here 
 too the people always clung to the right to tax themselves, and 
 here from the earliest times the administration of justice has 
 been separated from the other functions of government and de 
 volved upon magistrates set apart for this end a separation not 
 yet found in all countries. In England power of all kinds, even 
 of the crown, has ever bowed, at least theoretically, to the supre 
 macy of the law, and that country may claim the imperishable 
 glory of having formed a national representative system of two 
 houses, governed by a parliamentary law of their own, with that 
 important element at once conservative and progressive of a 
 
 
42 
 
 lawful loyal opposition. It is that country which alone saved 
 judicial and political publicity, when secresy prevailed everywhere 
 else; which retained a self-developing common law and estab 
 lished the trial by jury. In England the principles of self-govern 
 ment were not swept away, and all the chief principles and guar 
 antees of her great charter and the petition of rights have passed 
 over into our constitutions. We belong to the Anglican tribe 
 which carries Anglican principles and liberty over the globe, be 
 cause wherever it moves liberal institutions and a common law 
 full of manly rights and instinct with the principle of an expan 
 sive life accompany 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 con 
 tinent and isle. We belong to that tribe which alone has the 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, between Europe and Asia a nation young, 
 whose kindred countries, powerful in wealth, armies, and intellect, 
 are old. It is a period when a peaceful migration of nations, sim 
 ilar in the weight of numbers to the warlike migration of the early 
 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 insti 
 tutions institutions which are our foundations and buttresses, as 
 the law which they embody and organize is our sole and sover 
 eign naaster." 
 
 Lieber was extremely fond of historical as well as 
 political studies and probably no man in this country 
 had a more extensive or accurate knowledge of 
 historical subjects. Not only was he acquainted with 
 their minute details, but he explored their most hidden 
 recesses. To use an expression which was familiar 
 with him, he read history "between the lines." He 
 knew its secret springs and was complete master of its 
 philosophy. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
 of which he was so long a member, fitly unites the ex 
 pression of its profound regret at the loss of this great 
 
scholar, jurist, and philosopher, with those which pro 
 ceed from the whole world of science and of letters. j/ 
 
 Of his personal habits, sentiments, and peculiarities fyv^* 
 I may add a few words. He was a firm believer in 
 the Christian religion. His life was pure and con 
 formed to its precepts. He was a Protestant and 
 zealous defender of religious as well as civil libertyj 
 Nothing roused his indignation more than any al 
 tempt, proceeding from whatever quarter, to coerce 
 men s consciences. Referring in one of his letters to 
 the fact that in the first quarter of this century, Fer 
 dinand VII. through the influence of the Spanish 
 priesthood, had abolished the chairs of natural phi 
 losophy in the University of Salamanca, because the 
 study of those sciences led to infidelity, he exclaims, 
 " A fine God that of those priests ; whether you ap 
 proach him by reading the Bible or by reading Na 
 ture you are alike led to atheism. O God of Truth, 
 how long? how long?" There was nothing which 
 he abhorred so much as tyranny, and none whom he 
 hated so much as tyrants. Of Louis Napoleon he 
 said "His success has been owing to his being 
 entirely untrammelled by conscience or honor, to his 
 unlimited arrogance and his perfect freedom from 
 shame." 
 
 A In his views of the Constitution he was eminently-* 
 national. He adopted the views of Hamilton and 
 Madison. He hated the doctrine of state-rights (in 
 the political sense in which it is commonly re 
 ceived), which he looked upon as the dry rot in the 
 
44 
 
 ship of state. He believed the United States to be 
 a nation and not a league of states. 1 He was opposed 
 to that nice and strict construction of the constitution 
 which would deprive the national government of its 
 vigor and its unity. At the same time he defended 
 the right of local self-government in all matters re 
 lating properly to the people of the several States. 
 He was opposed to all efforts to confuse the bound 
 aries which define the just limits of State and National 
 authority. He was extremely hostile to a tariff, and 
 a firm believer in free-trade, of which he was one of 
 the most able champions, and to the defence of which 
 he devoted many of his hours, writing many pam 
 phlets and articles in support of his views. 
 
 He had very little time to devote to the natural 
 sciences, for his studies lay in other directions, but 
 he was well acquainted with their history and princi 
 pal facts and theories, and with the lives of the great 
 men eminent in those pursuits. He thoroughly de 
 spised the Darwinian theory of natural selection and 
 development, and always spoke of it as Darwin s beast 
 humanity. "When great truths impressed them 
 selves upon his mind he was in the habit of formu 
 lating them in a few weighty words. Thus in treating 
 of the relationship of right and duty, he showed the 
 intercompleting relation of the two, and the fatal mis 
 take of supposing that liberty consisted in rights alone, 
 and expressed it in the aphorism Nullum jus sine 
 
 1 See his powerful argument in the pamphlet entitled " What is our Con 
 stitution League, Pact or Government ?" 1861. 
 
officio nullum officium sine jure. No right without its 
 duties, no duty without its rights ; and this motto he 
 had engraved at the top of his letters for many years 
 before his death. 
 
 He was jealous of his fame and greatly gratified 
 when his works were appreciated. He did not dis 
 guise the pleasure he felt upon one occasion at hear 
 ing that a set of his works had been ordered from 
 Australia. In one of his letters he speaks of the 
 pleasure with which he had just read one of his earlier 
 productions written thirty years before, and immedi 
 ately apologizes for his self-admiration by telling 
 the following story : " I once stood with the famous 
 Mrs. Herz, the Platonic friend and student of Schleir- 
 macher, when she was quite old, before her own por 
 trait taken when she was young. She looked silent 
 ly at the picture for some time, and then said she 
 was very beautiful. I was young then, but just re 
 turned from Greece and Rome and Niebuhr. The 
 waves of my soul were short and boiling, and this 
 saying touched me much." 
 
 He was a great lover of the fine arts. " What, 7 he 
 once wrote, " will become of the world when there 
 will be no Raphael, no Apollo Belvidere, no Angelo 
 and that time will come." He took great delight 
 in nature. A flower, even a leaf sometimes gave him 
 the greatest pleasure. He was very fond of little 
 children and their sayings. In recent letters which 
 passed between himself and the poet Longfellow these 
 two communicated to each other the sayings of some 
 
46 
 
 little children. Children loved him, and in the cars 
 and other places he would constantly make acquain 
 tance with them and relate their sayings when he 
 came home. He disliked all slang expressions and 
 had an especial contempt for the common expression 
 "a self-made man." A man once said to him, " Sir, I 
 am a self-made man." " Indeed !" replied Lieber, "what 
 a pity I was not present. I have long wished to be 
 present when a man was making himself." He was 
 very fond of fine and delicate perfumes, and used to 
 say it was his only extravagance. He would often 
 bring home little boxes filled with Lubin s violet, in 
 which he particularly delighted. A little bottle stood 
 in every room in which he habitually came. 
 
 It was his habit in reading or studying to use a 
 great number of book-marks. These consisted of 
 narrow strips of pasteboard, upon each one of which 
 was usually written some important historical date, 
 some pregnant maxim, or some weighty saying. He 
 was exceedingly industrious, as may be easily seen in 
 the great number and variety of his productions. 
 His table and every chair in the room were always 
 covered with books and papers. He was very seldom 
 idle. At one period of his student life in Germany 
 he allowed himself only four hours of sleep, and his 
 food at that period often consisted of nothing but 
 bread and apples. "While in South Carolina it was 
 his habit to write at his books until one o clock and 
 often later in the night, and afterwards to rise early 
 enough to be in his class-room and deliver his lee- 
 
47 
 
 ture from 7 to 8 o clock ; always preferring that hour 
 that he might have more time during the day for 
 his own work. Over the door of his house in New 
 York he had placed "Die Studirende Eule" the 
 owl studying ; and on the ceiling were painted these 
 
 words 
 
 Patria Cara 
 Carior Libertas 
 "Veritas Carissima. 
 
 Over the door of his library hung the panel o 
 saved from the fire which destroyed the chapel of 
 South Carolina College, on which he had painted 
 the saying of Socrates XAAEIIA TA KAAA all noble 
 things are difficult. On the seal, which he 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 
 whom he had arranged and framed upon one card, 
 with, on one side, the motto of "William of Orange 
 Scevis tranquillus in undis, and on the other (Wash 
 ington 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 retrorswm, and underneath 
 
 MDCXL. 
 
 Claris Civibus 
 Probis et audacibus 
 Heres grains et compos 
 Libertatis expugnatce 
 Et defensor. 
 
48 
 
 In his bed-room he had busts of Plato, Schiller and 
 Alexander Hamilton, whom he greatly admired, and 
 over the mantel-piece his favorite Hugo Grotius. 
 
 He was very fond of poetry, and when those who 
 loved him came, after his death, to examine his papers 
 they found scattered everywhere through his jour 
 nals, on scraps of papers, and on packages of weigh 
 tier matters, some little poem, some great thought, 
 some beautiful sentiment. His correspondence was 
 very extensive, embracing many of the most distin 
 guished men of this country and abroad, Humboldt, 
 Niebuhr, Bunsen, Mittermaier,Laboulaye, Bluntschli, 
 Heffter, Von Holzendorff, De Tocqueville, Rolin-Jae- 
 quemyns, Pierantoni, and many others renowned in 
 letters and science. He enjoyed the sprightly letters 
 of bright and refined women and they were always 
 deeply interested in him. His own letters, like his 
 conversation, charmed every one with the humor with 
 which they abounded, and the instruction which they 
 conveyed. (His disposition was happy and cheerful, 
 but at times, especially when during the war pnblic 
 calamaties seemed to threaten his country clouded 
 by an indescribable sadness. From his earliest years 
 he formed strong attachments. He had the most de 
 voted friends. His love for his mother was most 
 touching, and his domestic life was beautiful in its 
 simplicity and devotion. As one who knew him best 
 and loved him most has truly said " few men com 
 bined so much greatness and power with so much 
 loveliness." 
 

 49 
 
 His death was very sudden and was caused by an 
 affection of the heart. He had been unwell for a day 
 or two and remained at home. His wife was reading 
 to him. It was her constant habit to do so and was 
 one of the greatest enjoyments of his life. He inter 
 rupted the reading with an expression of pain and 
 almost immediately expired. He was in the seventy- 
 third year of his age. 
 
 Doctor Lieber was married on the 21st Sept. 1829, 
 and left at his death a widow and two sons. Captain 
 Hamilton Lieber and Major ]STorman Lieber, both of 
 them officers in the Army of the United States. 
 
 Nature gave to Francis Lieber a robust frame. 
 He was short in stature, compact and muscular. In 
 his younger days noted for his strength. His head 
 was massive. His eyes deep-set, beneath a brow 
 broad and noble. His countenance indicated the 
 thoughtful repose and conscious power of a great 
 mind. 
 
 [Thus have I -endeavored with a feeble hand to de 
 lineate the character of a great man, conspicuous 
 alike for his patriotism and attainments ; whose 
 writings impressed his thoughts indelibly upon the 
 ago, and like those of Grotius and Montesquieu con 
 stitute a distinct landmark in the history of public 
 law and political science. A man whose learning 
 and intellectual power have conferred honor upon 
 our country, and whose usefulness as a citizen has 
 merited its gratitude. If my ability had been equal 
 to my love and reverence for his memory, the picture 
 
 4 . 
 
50 
 
 would have been more worthy of him and would have 
 better portrayed his noble qualities. But his im 
 perishable works are his best memorial, and his fame 
 will be secure in the lap of history ; for as he himself 
 said, at the unveiling of the Statue of Humboldt, 
 quoting the grand words of Pericles, " r IE WHOLE 
 EARTH is THE MONUMENT OF ILLUSTRIOUS MEN." 
 
The death of Doctor Lieber, on the afternoon of the 2d inst., at 
 the age of seventy-tw.o years, was the close of a checkered as well as a 
 distinguished career^/ He- witnessed the humiliation of his country at Jena, 
 and helped to revenge her in the Hundred Days, and he saw her completed 
 triumph over the hated enemy at Hetz aud Sedan. Born in 1800, he was at 
 the age of fifteen a soldier of the German army of invasion, and was wounded 
 at Namur. He used to relate an anecdote of the field of "Waterloo, which 
 illustrates his strong "sense, his pugnaoity, and his dogged self-reliance. See 
 ing, as the time for engaging the enemy came on, that some of his companions 
 superstitiously threw away their packs of cards, aud being angered at this 
 weakness, he, though no card-player, picked up one of the packs and put it 
 into his knapsack. A youth like this may be supposed to have had views of 
 rights and duties not precisely in accord with those of the Holy Alliance, 
 and we find him uuder arrest before he was twenty-one years old as sus 
 pected of sedition. Disgusted, he sought Greece aud the revolution, reach 
 ing his goal by taking certain liberties with his passports, and having on his 
 arrivarhardly a farthing in his pocket. IsTo fighting, no glory or money, 
 was then obtainable. Young Lieber saon made his way back as far as Italy, 
 where JSTiebuhr, then Ambassador to the Vatican, and the Chevalier Bunsen 
 befriended him and made him a friend. He has pleasantly recorded his re 
 collection of the great historian, in a wo; - k published later, in this country. 
 From Italy he went to Germany again ; thence, being again " suspect," to 
 England, where he taught private pupils and wrote for German periodical 
 publications; thence, at the age of twenty-seven, to this country. Here he 
 made friends, lectured, taught school, gave instruction in swimming, for he 
 believed in physical education alsa; mad? an " Encyclopaedia Americana" 
 (based upon Brockhaus s " Conversations- Lexicon "), which was of very good 
 service ; wrote many volumes on numerous social subjects and matters of 
 jurisprudence, and law, and political philosophy; became a professor in the 
 South Carolina College ; lost that place on account of his loyalty, which was 
 unflinching, aud, finally, was appointed to a professorship in Columbia Law 
 School in this city. This position, which he received in 1858, he held at the 
 hour of his death. 
 
 The subject to which Dr. Lieber s writings were chiefly devoted a 
 knowledge of the principles or universal rules which ought to prevail in 
 
 government, general law, and politics is a department of knowledge associ 
 ated with the names of Aristotle, Plato, and Montesquieu. It is one for which 
 the writer must have not only an especial aptitude, but which, at the present 
 day, demands a vast extent of knowledge and years of laborious application 
 before anything can be produced to which the world will attach a permanent 
 value. The writers in this department have been many. Those who bave 
 attained distinction have been few, and Dr. Lieber may fairly be considered 
 one of the number. The volumes upon which his reputation as a publicist 
 will chiefly rest are his " Manual of Political Ethics," "Legal and Political 
 Hermeneutics ; or, The Principles of Interpretation and Construction in Law 
 and Politics " ; and his " Civil Liberty and Self-Government " ; in addition to 
 which he has written numerous tracts, such as " The Origin and Development 
 of the First Constituents of Civilization," essays upon " Property and Labor," 
 " The Laws of Property," " Penal Laws," " Penitentiary Systems," " Prison 
 Discipline," " The Kelation between Education and Crime," The Pardoning 
 Power," " The Regulation of Armies," "International Copyright," "Ifatiou- 
 ality and Intel-nationality," etc., etc., etc. It would be impossible within 
 our limits to speak adequately of works embracing so wide a range, and 
 upon subjects so important. Among them, his "Manual of Political Ethics," 
 a work in two volumes, is one of the most remarkable and valuable. It is a 
 storehouse of political wisdom, embracing a great variety of topics upon 
 which the conclusions of the writer are given, and is distinguished for its 
 profoundness, originality, and its exhaustive treatment of one of the most 
 difficult of subjects. Chancellor Kent commends it for its erudition and the 
 excellence of its doctrines ; Judge Story for its sound common sense, varied 
 learning, and profound views of government. By English critics it was com- 
 
pared favorably with the great work of Montesquieu, and regarded as pre-emi 
 nent among works on political science. Professor Greenleaf, a very com 
 petent judge, speaks of "The Legal and Political Hermeneutics " as a most 
 lucid exposition of the principles and admirable illustration of the science of 
 interpretation and construction, and says in respect to Lieber s writings 
 generally, that he always leaps into the deepest water, and always comes up 
 like a good swimmer an observation borne out by the remark of Chancellor 
 Kent, that when he read Lieber s books he always felt that he had a sure 
 pilot on board, however dangerous the navigation. There was something 
 more in this than mere compliment, for many of the topics discussed in the 
 " Political Ethics " were at the time new, doubtful, and difficult ; and Liebcr 
 lived to find conclusions which he had arrived at, and was the first to express 
 thirty years ago, referred to by writers of the present day as familiar politi 
 cal truths, without perhaps any conception on the part of the writer of the 
 source whence they were derived. His " Civil Liberty and Self-Gov 
 ernment was written to complete that portion of his " Political Ethics " 
 which treats of liberty as a political right, the security of which depends 
 upon civil institutions, or, as he denominates it, " institutional liberty." 
 This is perhaps the best-known of his [productions, and has received the 
 highest commendation not only in this country, where his reputation never 
 stood sufficiently high, although the war made his name and his patriotism 
 known to his countrymen, but in Europe also. Professor Creasy of London, 
 author of "The Rise and Progress of the British Constitution," calls it a 
 great work, and publicists on the Continent like Yon Hohl and Mittermaier 
 confirm that judgment. One other foreign judgment of him as a publicist 
 may be added, that of Garelli, the eminent Italian jurist, author of "La 
 Pace/ who calls Lieber s pamphlet on " Nationality " I aureo opuscolo 
 the Golden Tractate. A writer upon such weighty topics can scarcely hops 
 to be appreciated during his life. He must be content to abide the slow 
 judgment of posterity, and Lieber, who, from his childhood, was of a sensi 
 tive organization, felt this want of appreciation, especially in his old age, and 
 particularly in this country, to the exposition of whose institutions the chief 
 labor of his life may be said to have been devoted. He could not, and 
 would not if he could, write a brilliant, superficial, and attractive work like 
 De Tocqueville s " Democracy in America/ for the aim of his writings was 
 not speculative thought but utility. In the treatment of bis subjects he was 
 eminently practical. "With his strong common sense and conscientious 
 honesty, he was enabled to dispel the visionary dreams of many previous po 
 litical writers, and to reach political truths which rest upon a sure and solid 
 i foundation. He had great breadth and comprehensiveness, and, as a writer, 
 I was lucid and axiomatic, but lacked constructiveness, or the power of judi 
 ciously arranging and treating a subject, and treating of it in its appropriate 
 parts. This may account for the fact that his " Political Ethics has attracted 
 so little attention in the United States, for it is only those who have care 
 fully perused and studied it who can duly appreciate the extent of his 
 erudition, or the value and importance of his views. He was not very suc 
 cessful in definitions. His power as a writer lay in making things plain by 
 illustrations, and, throughout his volumes, what was new and obscure, or 
 difficult, is made at once palpable by some homely image, or by a felicitous 
 
 reference to some historical anecdote or incident. His value to us was the 
 greater, as he was one- of the few publicists who believed in republican gov 
 ernment ; who had an equally clear insight into its merits and its defects ; 
 who, for forty-three years, had been a keen observer of its practical working 
 in this country ; and who was able to write upon it with a breadth of view 
 and an extent of knowledge that commanded attention and respect, 
 rank as a writer will be that of a political moralist of weight and authority, 
 and as an expounder alike of the true nature of political liberty and of the 
 way to secure it; and it is gratifying to be able to say that his life was 
 throughout in consonance with his teachings. 
 
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