Abraham Lincoln: An Essay (Illustrated)

Carl Schurz (March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a well known and celebrated German revolutionary who came to the United States and participated in the Civil War as a general for the Union. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, eventually becoming the first German-born American to be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1869. He is famous for saying, "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”

In 1855, Schurz settled in Wisconsin, where he immediately became immersed in the anti-slavery movement and in politics, joining the Republican Party. In 1857, he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for lieutenant-governor. In the Illinois campaign of the next year between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, he took part as a speaker on behalf of Lincoln—mostly in German, helping raise Lincoln's popularity among German-American voters.

Schurz wrote this essay about Lincoln after the war. This edition includes images of Schurz and Lincoln.