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MEMOIKS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
/
Memoirs of Gustave Koemer
1809-1896
Life-sketches written at the suggestion
of his children
Edited by
Thomas J. McCormack
Volume I
THE TORCH PRESS. PUBLISHERS
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
1909
COPYRIGHT 1909
BY MARY K. ENGELMANN
k
PREFACE
The personal memoirs of Gustavus Koerner were not
written for publication. Had such been the design, many
details relating to his domestic and social life had probably
been omitted. During the closing years of a long and eventful
life, his children urged the octogenarian to write the history
of his life, realizing, as he himself fully realized, that the most
valuable heritage which one can leave to one's descendants is
one's own history, provided it is the history of an active,
unselfish, and useful life.
It is a source of regret that so few of the autobiographies
of our prominent men deal with the details of their domestic
and social life. It is probably due to the fact that the writers
regard it as a sanctuary to be withdrawn from the public
gaze, the key to which, when they are gone, is forever lost.
Yet how much more thorough would be our understanding
of their lives and actions, were we permitted to lift the cur-
tain, and get occasional glimpses of what lies hidden by its
folds !
The details of student life at the German universities in
the beginning of the last century ; its intense idealism, which
dealt with a world of dreams, yet which, when properly util-
ized by the great chancellor, a man utterly devoid of senti-
ment, made the creation of a vast empire possible, are sketched
in these memoirs with a charming simplicity. The domestic
life of German families of culture in the Fatherland; the
emigrants' trials and struggles in the primeval forests of the
vi MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Far West; the struggles of the young lawyer to make a pre-
carious living at a time when judges and preachers rode the
circuit, must be of interest to the careful student of the history
and growth of a young nation.
In common with others of his contemporaries who at-
tained eminence, Koerner had to overcome the disadvantages
of a foreign birth and of very limited means. An indomitable
energy, however, and a sincere desire to be of use to his
fellowmen, enabled him to overcome these obstacles, until both
in the ranks of the legal profession, and among the statesman
of the land, he gained an eminence attained by few. Compar-
ing him with the foremost of his contemporaries of German
lineage, it may justly be said, that while he lacked the forensic
eloquence of Carl Schurz, and while the erudition of John B.
Stallo may have been greater, he surpassed both in a thorough
understanding of constitutional limitations as applied to Am-
erican institutions, and was a far better judge of the needs
of the nation in measures and men than either of them. Thus,
while in the National Convention of 1860, Schurz was one of
the leading advocates of the nomination of William H. Sew-
ard for the Presidency, Koerner was equally emphatic as a
supporter of Abraham Lincoln. History has long since ren-
dered her verdict as to which of these two candidates was apt
to be the fittest leader of the nation in the hour of its greatest
need. It is a remarkable coincidence that while Koerner was
thus active in giving to the people a President, who, with
boundless love and toil, reunited the fragments of a nation,
and who, of all his predecessors, left the sweetest memory be-
hind him, he also materially aided in starting the nation's
greatest military leader, U. S. Grant, on his phenomenal
career.
PREFACE vii
In religious belief Koerner was an agnostic. Growing up
in the atmosphere of German universities, the hot-bed of ag-
nosticism, it could hardly be otherwise. But he was equally
free from the intolerance of the zealot and that of the skeptic.
While rejecting the mythology of the Christian religion, he
was a firm believer in its ethics, as being superior to any
which has heretofore actuated mankind. Freedom of con-
science meant for him what it ought to mean, the right of
every human being to formulate his own religious belief. He
fully realized the truism, that it is not what one believes, but
what one does, actuated by such belief, that determines the
merit of his faith. His letter to Robert Ingersoll, contained
in these Memoirs, is a lasting monument to his just conception
of the freedom of conscience. In the small western community
in which he lived, he was the absolute arbiter of men's opin-
ions on public questions, because his integrity and his ab-
solute freedom from partisan bias were such, that on all
public questions his fellow townsmen were willing to conform
their views to his without question.
His domestic life, like that of most of our public men of
note, was exemplary. Although he felt keenly the early loss
of all his sons but one, he bore the affliction with the fortitude
of the philosopher. But the loss in later years of his wife
and life-long companion, inflicted a blow from which he never
recovered.
Taking his life in its entirety, he was a man to whom the
beautiful sentiment of the German poet was particularly ap-
plicable :
"Denn der das Beste that fur seine Zeit,
Der hat genug gethan f iir alle Zeiten. ' '
St. Louis, June, 1909. R. E. ROMBAUER.
EDITORIAL PREFATORY NOTE
The scope and design of the present Memoirs have been
adequately indicated in the foregoing Preface by Judge Rom-
bauer. The task of the editor has been solely that of inter-
preting, rectifying, and preparing for print the text of the
Memoirs as it was presented to him in a typewritten copy of
the original.
The original manuscript not having been accessible, this
task involved the verification of proper and historical names
and places, the interpretation of doubtful passages, para-
graphing, the correction of sentence-structure and of certain
Germanisms and solecisms of style, (the original was written
in English when the author was over eighty years of age and
was not intended for publication,) and the typographical
preparation of the text for the press generally. At the same
time, it having been the express wish of the family of the
author that the Memoirs be left as nearly as possible in the
shape and order in which he wrote them, these corrections
have been restricted to a minimum, and the author's individ-
ualities of style, and the personal note and flavor of his char-
acterizations and descriptions, have been preserved as far as
practicable.
The limitation indicated, and the conditions of the edit-
ing, will thus account for certain repetitions, for some dis-
crepancies in the use of variant forms of proper names, and
for the absence of all foot-notes and editorial explanations of
possible errors of memory or of historical and literary ref-
x MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
erence by the author.* Yet, even here, and save in the impos-
sible ease of obscure proper names, the verifications of the
editor have extended at least to determining the general accu-
racy of the author's statements; and any errors that may
occur on this score, and that are not corrected in the index,
are attributable to the state of the original text.
By the frequent interpolation of descriptive sub-headings,
it is hoped that the purely historical and general discussions
of the work will have been so relieved from the matter of
purely personal and local interest that the reader will have
little difficulty in discovering the passages that possess for him
the greatest interest, and that the natural discursiveness and
diffuseness of the text, as published under the intimated con-
ditions, will thus, in great measure, be offset. An exhaustive
index, supplied at the end of the second volume, will conduce
to the same end.
All mention of contemporaneous events and persons in the
work is to be interpreted with reference to the date and
period in which these Memoirs were written, namely,
between the years 1889 and 1895. The narrative ceases with
the year 1886.
THOMAS J. McCoRMACK.
LaSalle, Illinois, August, 1909.
* For example, Vol. I, page 91, the author compares his German
poem "Die Saalnixe" erroneously to the "Erlkoenig" (it should be the
"Fischer") of Goethe. (See Kattermann's "Gustav Koerner, ein
Lebensbild, " Cincinnati, 1902). And, similarly, with regard to other
possible partly erroneous quotations or references.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME I
CHAPTER I. BIRTH, PARENTAGE AND EARLY REC-
OLLECTIONS ; "' ' . . . : ;" .. '. ' 1 to 18
A Childhood Eecollection, p. 3. My Naming,
p. 3. Napoleon in Frankfort, p. 4. A
Family Incident of the Napoleonic Campaign
of 1813, p. 6. The Bavarians in Frankfort
(1813), p. 10. The Allied Monarchs and Their
Armies in Frankfort, p. 11. Family Connec-
tions with Famous German Patriots, p. 13.
Anniversary of the Battle of Leipsic, p. 16.
The Year 1815. Bluecher, p. 17.
CHAPTER II. SCHOOL LIFE . * ... . 19 to 36
At the Musterschule, p. 19. My Eeading, p.
21. Home Life in Frankfort, p. 22. Re-
ligious Training. Family Portraits, p. 24.
At College, p. 28. Henry Hoffmann and
"Struwwelpeter," p. 30. Early Poetical Ef-
forts, p. 32. Von Leonhardi, p. 35.
CHAPTER III. SCHOOL LIFE CONTINUED. EASILY
TRAVELS . . . ; ; . . 37 to 69
The Political Situation and the Greek War of
Independence, p. 38. Athletic Sports, p. 42.
Early Professional Plans, p. 43. Social
Life, p. 44. The Thilenius Family, p. 46.
Attractions of Frankfort, p. 50. Early
Travels, p. 51. Business Reverses, and Art
Matters, p. 53. Early Travels Continued, p.
56. Last Days in Frankfort, p. 66.
CHAPTER IV. UNIVERSITY LIFE JENA . 70 to 108
To Jena by Stage-coach, p. 71. Student Life
in Jena. The Burgkeller, p. 75. The Ger-
man Burschenschaft, and the Movement for
National Unity, p. 81. Altenburg, p. 87.
Student-friends, p. 88. A Trip to Southern
Germany, p. 92. Munich, p. 94. Salzburg
and the Tyrol, p. 97. Back to Jena, p. 105.
xii MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
CHAPTER V. LAST YEAR AT JENA (1829-1830) 109 to 136
Protestant Tricentennial, p. 111. Trip Through
the Hartz Mountains, p. 112. Jena Again.
Visit to Leipsic, p. 114. Berlin and North-
ern Germany, p. 116. Mecklenburg. Lue-
beck. Kiel, p. 119. Schleswig and Hamburg,
p. 126. Political Disturbances of 1830, p.
129. A Pistol Duel in Jena, p. 133. Con-
cluding Eeflections on Jena, p. 136.
CHAPTER VI. MUNICH . . . 138 to 169
From Jena to Erlangen, p. 139. Life and
Studies in Munich, p. 141. Munich Celeb-
rities, p. 144. The Munich Emeute of Christ-
mas Eve, 1830, p. 146. Arrest and Imprison-
ment, p. 150. Life in a Munich Prison, p.
152. Release, p. 160. Salzburg and the
Bavarian Tyrol, p. 162. Duels in Munich,
p. 163. Farewell to Munich, p. 166. Home-
ward Bound. The Suabian Alp, p. 167.
CHAPTER VII. HEIDELBERG ... . . 170 to 186
The Heidelberg Burschenschaft, p. 173. Hei-
delberg Acquaintances, p. 174. Refugee
Poles in Germany, p. 176. Hecker. A Hei-
delberg Duel, p. 179. Imsbach and the
Engelmann Family, p. 181.
CHAPTER VIII. THE HAMBACH FESTIVAL '/ 187 to 195
Wirth and the Press Unions, p. 187. The
Hambacher Schloss Festival, p. 189. The
Speeches, p. 191. Concluding Meetings, and
Results, p. 194.
CHAPTER IX. BEFORE THE STORM . . 196 to 215
First German Law Suit, p. 196. Political
Events, p. 197. Associates in Frankfort, p.
199. Revolutionary Propaganda, p. 203.
The Situation in Cassel, p. 204. Dr. Syl-
vester Jordan, p. 204. In Goettingen, p.
206. Liberalism in Saxony, p. 208. Affairs
in Jena. Fritz Reuter, p. 210. The Cause in
Bavaria, p. 212.
CHAPTER X. THE THIRD OP APRIL, 1833 t . 216 to 242
Plans of the Revolutionists, p. 217. Confer-
ence with Schueler in Metz, p. 220. The Be-
ginning, p. 223. Official Report of the
Frankfurter Attentat, p. 224. Koseritz and
the Wuertemberg Rising, p. 231. Further
Ramifications of the Plot, p. 232. Pro Domo
Sua, p. 232. The Outcome and the Flight,
p. 235. Refuge in France, p. 240.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Xlll
CHAPTER XL IN FRANCE . i ^ r/'J ..g 243 to 264
Paris, p. 255. The Havre Emigrants, p. 258.
CHAPTER XII. FROM HAVRE TO ST. Louis >* 265 to 285
A Transatlantic Voyage in 1833, p. 266. New
York in 1833, p. 272. Up the Hudson, p.
275. From Albany to Buffalo in a Canal-
Boat, p. 277. From Cleveland to the Ohio
via the Canal, p. 280.
CHAPTER XIII. EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS
IN ILLINOIS .'-.;;.. . . . 286 to 310
The Outlook, p. 286. Seeking a Home in Illi-
nois, p. 290. St. Louis in 1833, p. 293. On
a Farm in Illinois, p. 296. Deer-hunting, p.
304. German Emigration Societies, p. 306.
Early Neighbors, p. 309.
CHAPTER XIV. FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA t/ 311 to 345
Foot-tour Through Missouri in 1833, p. 312.
Early Foreign Settlements in Missouri, p.
320. Home in Illinois Again, p. 323.
Studies and Journalistic Labors, p. 325.
Polish Visitors, p. 332. An Illinois Court, and
Politics, p. 334. Local and Family Remin-
iscences, p. 337. A Methodist Camp-meeting,
p. 343. Departure for Kentucky, p. 344.
CHAPTER XV. STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 346 to 367
A Visit to Henry Clay, p. 349. Professional
and Social Life in Lexington, p. 351.
Church-going Experiences, p. 356. Friends
in Lexington, p. 357. A Debating Club, p.
361. An Incident of the River-trip Home, p.
365.
CHAPTER XVI. BEGINNING THE PRACTICE OF
THE LAW (1835-1836) . . . . 368 to 418
Accessions to the German Settlement, p. 369.
An Examination at the Illinois Bar, in 1835,
p. 371. First Law-case, p. 376. European
Politics in 1835, p. 379. Political Situation in
the United States, p. 381. William Lloyd Gar-
rison, p. 385. New Arrivals, p. 386. Prac-
tice of Law, p. 389. Kaskaskia, p. 390. The
Family in Germany, p. 395. A Trip to Chi-
cago in 1836, p. 397. Journalistic Activity,
p. 401. Marriage, p. 405. A Fourth of
July Celebration, p. 407. The "Westland,"
p. 410. The Public Library in Belleville, p.
412. James Shields, p. 414.
xiv MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
CHAPTER XVII. EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS . 419 to 447
Further Accessions to the German Settlement, p.
419. Pro-German Conventions, p. 423.
Lyman Trumbull, p. 425. Legal Labors, p.
429. Family and Other Affairs, p. 433.
The Financial Situation, p. 435. Domestic
Matters, p. 438. Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,
p. 440.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE YEARS 1841-1842 . 448 to 476
Sent as an Electoral Messenger to Washington,
p. 450. In the Capital, p. 451. To Belle-
ville via Philadelphia, p. 455. Personal and
Local Incidents, p. 458. Elected to the Illi-
nois Legislature, p. 464. The Old Lutherans
and Bishop Stephan, p. 469. A Visit from
Charles Dickens, p. 473. Close of the year
1842, p. 475.
CHAPTER XIX. IN THE LEGISLATURE AND ON
THE SUPREME BENCH . "" . . ,"'.,. 477 to 505
The Illinois Legislature of 1842-43, p. 477.
A Fugitive Slave Law, p. 483. Joseph
Smith, p. 484. Political and Personal, p.
485. Presidential Election of 1844, p. 487.
Appointed to the Supreme Court, p. 490.
European Affairs, p. 492. The Mexican War,
p. 494. Buena Vista, p. 503.
CHAPTER XX. THE YEARS 1847-1848 . . 506 to 514
Judge Caton, p. 509. European Conditions in
1847, p. 511.
CHAPTER XXI. THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 515 to 526
The German Parliament of 1848, p. 517. Plans
of Keturning to Germany, p. 520. The New
Illinois Constitution, p. 523. The Presi-
dential Election of 1848, p. 525.
CHAPTER XXII. THE YEARS 1849-50 . . 527 to 562
Hecker, p. 528. The Eevolution in Baden, p.
531. American Sympathy with the European
Eevolutionists, p. 533. Shields elected United
States Senator, p. 541. The Cholera of
1849, p. 542. Shields and Hecker, p. 545.
European Political Exiles, p. 547. German
Political Eef ormers in America, p. 547.
Admission of California, p. 552. New Ar-
rivals in Belleville, p. 559. High School at
Belleville, p. 562.
TABLE OF CONTENTS xv
CHAPTER XXIII. THE YEAR 1851 . . 563 to 581
Political and Business Activity, p. 564. The
German Kef ormers Again, p. 566. The
Cuban Expedition, p. 568. Jefferson Bar-
racks, p. 572. Kinkel and Schurz, p. 573.
Kossuth's Oratory, p. 577.
CHAPTER XXIV. NAMED FOR LIEUTENANT-
GOVERNOR (1852) . . . . .582 to 589
Kossuth in St. Louis, p. 583. The Nomination,
p. 585. Don Morrison, p. 587. Death of
Clay, p. 589.
CHAPTER XXV. RUNNING FOR LIEUTENANT-
GOVERNOR (1852) . . ... 590 to 603
Campaigning with Douglas, p. 591. Politics
in Chicago in 1852, p. 593. Canvassing the
Eest of the State, p. 596. The Election, p.
598.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR-
SHIP (3853-1856) . . . . . 604 to 628
Personal, p. 604. Legislative Session of 1854,
p. 607. Visit of the Legislature to Chicago,
p. 608. Visit of the Legislature to St.
Louis, p. 611. Loss of the City of Glasgow,
p. 613. Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill, p. 614. Robert Hilgard and Henry
Villard, p. 618. The Prohibition Agitation,
p. 620. Trumbull Elected Senator, p. 623.
Emerson, p. 626. Theodore Koerner 's Death,
p. 627.
CHAPTER I
Birth, Parentage and Early Recollections
I was born at Frankfort on the Main, on the 20th of
November, 1809. My father's house stood in a small square,
called the Treves, from its being connected by a vaulted stone
portal with the Treves Court, a large avenue, at the south
end of which stood a residence, of goodly size, but without
architectural pretensions. Court and house belonged, or had
belonged, to the Elector of Treves, who resided there at
coronation times. In my childhood the court was surrounded
on either side by large warehouses, where wholesale dealers
in groceries, provisions, and leather, stored goods not imme-
diately wanted at their business houses. It was a splendid
place for me and our neighbors' children to play in, it being
no common thoroughfare. Near the Electoral residence were
large fine linden trees and a very good well. The doors of
the warehouses being frequently open, when goods were taken
out or in, it was just the place to play "hide-and-seek," and
"robbers" and "gendarmes." Occasionally we fought real
battles, particularly when boys from a distance encroached
on what we considered our premises.
Treves Court was connected by a short alley with what
was then the main street of Frankfort, the Zeil; so that,
when anything extraordinary was happening on that thor-
oughfare, we could run easily to this great artery of the city.
The neighborhood was a good one. On the square stood
several private residences, and also other dwellings with
roomy stores on the ground floor. My playmates were sons
of merchants, professional men, master tailors and bakers,
the latter at the time being generally men of means and
influence, from whose ranks the third bench of the magistracy
2 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
(councilmen) had to be formed. I can only say that I passed
some of my sunniest days in Treves Court.
My father, Bernhard Koerner, was a native of Stuttgart,
in the present kingdom of Wuertemberg, the son of a respect-
able mechanic. He left that place, however, at the age of
fifteen or sixteen, after receiving his education in a good
school, and entered as an apprentice the book-store and pub-
lishing house of Palm and Enke in Erlangen. After he had
completed his term, he was recommended by his employers
to the great and celebrated book-selling and publishing firm
of Broenner & Co., in Frankfort on the Main, and was an
employee there (commis) for several years. When about
twenty-three or four years of age, he became acquainted
with my mother, Marie Magdelena Kaempfe, whose father
conducted a book-bindery, a small retail book-store and sta-
tionery business. He was a man of means and gave my
mother a good education hi a private school, where French
a rare thing at that time was very thoroughly taught.
I have only a dim recollection of my maternal grandfather.
When I was old enough to visit him, he was seventy-five years
of age, and somewhat paralyzed. On his birthday and on
New Year's day we would be taken to congratulate him, and
would receive a silver dollar or two in return.
My father was barely of medium size, but well built and
very muscular, with dark brown curly hair and very bright
brown eyes. My mother had been a blonde, but in later years
her hair had changed to an auburn color; she had large and
very blue eyes, and a fair complexion.
For persons to analyze the character of their parents
and pass judgment, however favorable, upon it, has always
appeared to me rather indelicate. Love does not seek for
reasons of its being. It is in a measure unconscious. I con-
fine myself to saying that our parents loved us dearly, that
we in return loved them, and that they deserved it. There
was one trait, however, in my mother's nature that I cannot
forbear mentioning. She could never in the least dissemble,
and when the occasion called for it, she was one of the most
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 3
outspoken persons I ever met with. No power on earth could
have compelled her to say anything she did not think.
A CHILDHOOD RECOLLECTION
My recollections run back to a very early stage of my
existence. I could hardly have been more than two years of
age, when I was for some reason very anxious to see my
mother. I went to all the rooms on the second floor without
finding her. I then climbed up the stairs to the third story,
where were the bedrooms of my parents and older brothers
and sisters. Not seeing her there, I went out into the hall
again, where a door opened into a small room, called a cabinet,
adjoining my mother's bedroom. I entered, and what I saw
impressed itself upon my mind indelibly. On two chairs
stood a little coffin; in it was a pale, lovely child, with my
mother kneeling at its side, weeping. I was frightened, shut
the door, and ran down stairs. From what I learned after-
wards, it was the body of a little brother of mine, a year or so
younger than I was. His name was Louis. I have no other
recollection of the child.
MY NAMING
But from my fourth year on, I have some very vivid
recollections. And I may here say in passing that my having
been named Gustave was owing to that eccentric King of
Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus IV, who, shortly before I was
born, had, on account of his undying opposition to Napoleon,
been forced to abdicate by his own people, who considered
his warring against Napoleon as warring against fate to the
detriment of his country. Nevertheless, this king had shown
a chivalric spirit, and was the only continental prince who
never bowed to the world's conqueror. My father hated
Napoleon with all the fervor of his nature, and hence named
me for the king.
One of the many reasons of my father's hatred of Napo-
leon was that Palm, the bookseller, for selling a pamphlet
entitled "Germany in its Deepest Humiliation," which he
4 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
had not published, but merely had for sale, without knowing
its contents, had been arrested, tried by a court-martial (in
times of peace), and upon the express order of Napoleon had
been shot at Braunau within twenty-four hours. My father
as I have stated had served his apprenticeship with Palm,
whom he had greatly loved and respected.
My other name, Philip, I got from an intimate friend of
my father's, a merchant at Heilbronn, by the name of Roeder.
I have in my possession a fine morocco case, containing a
silver spoon, silver fork, and a knife with silver handle, which
Mr. Roeder gave me as my godfather. From Gustavus Adol-
phus IV, I received no present, but my name only, which I
owe not so much to him as to the first Napoleon.
Mentioning the latter, I may as well say, that I was
told later that I had seen him.
NAPOLEON IN FRANKFORT
When in July or August, 1813, during an armistice,
Napoleon, after a meeting with his wife at Mayence, returned
to Dresden, and before the German campaign had re-begun,
he passed through Frankfort. One of our servant-girls had
been sent on an errand in the Zeil and took me with her.
She saw a crowd on the sidewalk awaiting something, and
was told that the Emperor, who had just entered one of the
west gates leading into the city, was expected to drive through
the street. She joined the crowd, and the carriage, an open
one, drawn by six horses, soon appeared; she raised me on
her shoulder and pointed out the Emperor to me. I have
not the slightest recollection of the circumstance, but have
no doubt that I saw him. This is the more strange, as events
that followed not long afterwards became very distinctly
impressed on my mind.
The bloody battle of Hanau, a village about ten miles
east of Frankfort, had been fought on the 30th and 31st of
October, 1813. The French, headed by Napoleon, had broken
through the army of Bavarians and Austrians under General
Wrede, who was striving to cut off the retreat of the French
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 5
to the Rhine. A small corps of Bavarians and Austrians had
been posted on the heights south of the River Main, opposite
to Frankfort, to prevent the crossing of the French.
I never could understand why this position had been
taken by the Germans; for the well-built and macadamized
road from Frankfort to Mayence ran along the north side
of the river Main, while on the south side were merely country
roads, partly through low and sandy grounds, and ending
opposite Mayence. The French would have had to cross
the Main River again, at a place where there was no bridge.
Perhaps it was expected that if only one road were left there
might be crowding; and as the Bavarians, reinforced by the
Prussians and Russians, were close upon the heels of the
French after Hanau was fought, the rear guard of the French
might in this way be struck and destroyed. Although Na-
poleon had the main army carried around the city, yet some
of his guards and several batteries of artillery were sent
through the city, to attack the Bavarians and Austrians on
the other side of the river; for the batteries of the latter
played on the Hanau road, on which the French retreated.
Some German light troops had been thrown into the city ;
but when the large mass of the French, still some 80,000
strong, came near, the Germans retreated across the river,
burning some of the wooden parts of the bridge which had
been put on the main avenue of the otherwise solid stone
structure, and leaving only the sidewalks for passage. Frank-
fort, until shortly before, had been a fortress ; and these wooden
planks had been placed in the bridge for the purpose of
having them burnt, or taken off, should an attempt be made
to cross the bridge from the suburb Sachsenhausen to the city.
On the first of November, some children including myself
were in the front room of the second story of our house, and
mother was busy dressing us in our Sunday clothes, when
firing was heard close to our house. A servant who had been
fetching water from a fountain near our house burst into
the room, crying, "Lord God! they are killing one another."
6 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
We ran to the windows, and saw some Bavarians running
past our house, with some French light troops after them.
They disappeared in a moment ; but in the distance we heard
firing. The cannon began booming from the Muehlberg on
the southern shore of the river, and the French batteries on
the north answered; of this, however, I recollect nothing.
At night the sky was lit up by the glare of fires. Two large
mills near the bridge on the side of Sachsenhausen were burnt
by the shells ; also, some houses in Sachsenhausen. The French
did not get across the bridge, and retired late at night. Being
exhausted, hungry and thirsty, they commenced plundering;
and it was fortunate that it was only a small corps that had
been sent into the city to take the bridge, since, as already
stated, Napoleon had ordered the main army to march around
the city.
A FAMILY INCIDENT OP THE NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGN OF 1813
And here I must mention an incident which I heard of
only later, but so often that it remained strongly fixed in
my mind.
When it became known Sunday morning that the French
army had not been beaten at Hanau and diverted from their
direct route to Mayence, the townspeople became greatly
alarmed; for it appeared certain that the retreating army
would now pass through the city, and that having been fight-
ing for two days and being short of provisions it would most
likely commit all kinds of outrages and would plunder ad
libitum. Since some French troops, as above stated, actually
had entered the city to attack the allies on the other side of
the river, this fear semed to be well founded. It was not then
known that the bulk of the army had been ordered to march
around the city.
Most families, on the streets where the French appeared
likely to pass, locked up and barricaded their front doors and
windows; while others adopted a different plan, which they
understood had worked well in other places where troops had
given themselves up to plundering, and this was to have the
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 7
house lighted, to prepare something to eat and to drink, and,
by kind treatment and by assuaging hunger and thirst, thus
to divert the soldiers from plundering and destroying prop-
erty in their anger.
Our mother had adopted this latter mode of treatment.
Father had not been home since midnight of the day before.
He belonged to a battalion of riflemen, a volunteer corps,
which had enlisted many years before the French invasion,
and which was occasionally called upon to assist the regular
troops in the work of keeping order. There were very few
regulars then in the city; for nearly all the troops had been
in the campaign against the French army.
It must be understood that after the abdication of the
Emperor Francis II and the dissolution of the Holy Roman
Empire in August, 1806, the free city of Frankfort had been
allotted to Prince Primas Karl Theodor Von Dalberg, and had
become part of the new Confederation of the Rhine, of which
Prince Primas was the President and Napoleon the Protector,
that is to say, absolute ruler. Some years later this principal-
ity was made the Grand Dukedom of Frankfort. The Confed-
eration of the Rhine comprised nearly all the German States
except Austria and Prussia, and had to furnish troops to the
armies of the French. Until the battle of Leipsic, October
18, 1813, there could not have been less than 100,000 German
troops fighting under the French eagles against the allied
Prussians, Russians, and Austrians. After the battle of Leip-
sic, when the French in their rapid flight took the road to
Mayence, there was great excitement in the city; and so the
authorities had ordered out the rifle-corps to assist the Grand
Ducal troops in policing the city and in maintaining order.
My father was second lieutenant and was stationed with
his company at the main guard-house at the western end of
the principal street, his watch beginning at midnight on the
31st of October. We children had all been safely packed
away in a bedroom on the third floor. During the evening
our house had not been disturbed. The large table in the
main room, covered with bread, butter, slices of ham, etc.,
8 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
had remained untouched, and mother (it being near mid-
night) was just about to snuff out the candles, when there
was a loud knock at the front door. A young man by the
name of Wehrie, whose father was an intimate friend of my
father, and who resided at Forst, in what is now Rhenish
Bavaria, owning there some of the best vineyards producing
that choice wine, "Forster," was at the time boarding at our
house, and went down to open the door. He met two cav-
alry soldiers, guardes d'honneur, as they were called, who had
tied their horses to a lamp-post in front of our house, and
who asked for something to eat. He showed them up, and
mother, who spoke French fluently, waited on them ; they ap-
peared much pleased, but did not like the light wine or cider
which was on the table, and called for something stronger.
Mother was imprudent enough to let them have some rum,
which they swallowed greedily. But they left the room with-
out trouble, and young Wehrie lighted them down with a
candle.
One of the troopers had already left the house, when the
other who was quite drunk, seeing that Wehrie had on a pair
of good-looking boots, told him to pull them off, and give
them to him as his were quite worn out. The young man
hardly understood him, but from the signs the fellow made
guessed that he wanted his boots, and naturally showed some
reluctance to take them off. The Frenchman struck him in
the breast, and Wehrie fell backward on one of the steps in
a sitting position. The trooper tried to pull one of the boots
off, but not succeeding he gave a strong jerk and the young
man fell downstairs some three or four steps so forcibly that
he broke his right leg above the ankle. The acute pain made
him groan dreadfully. Greatly alarmed, mother ran to the
head of the stairs, with a lighted candle, for the light which
Wehrie had carried had gone out in the struggle. But, just
at this moment, my father, having been relieved, and enter-
ing the hall, heard the cries for help, and saw the soldier still
holding Wehrie. Father, who was very strong, and of a quick
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 9
temper, grabbed the Frenchman by the neck, tore off his
cloak, dragged him to the door and kicked him out.
But here comes the main point of the drama. The second
trooper had mounted his horse, holding the other by the bridle,
and waiting for his comrade. When father got into the door-
way, the Frenchman seeing the plight in which his comrade
was, drew his long straight blade, and ran it into my father's
breast, or at least tried to do so. Officers on duty at that
time wore, on a chain around their necks, a small metal plate
in the shape of a half -moon (Ringkragen) with the number
of their regiment or battalion on it. It only came down some
four inches on the breast where it was widest. The sword
struck this little shield, glanced off and made only an ugly
flesh wound. In later years, when I was a boy and went with
father to the river bathing, I could still perceive this large
scar. Mother in the meantime had come down, shut and
locked the door, and heard the sacres of the Frenchmen, who,
however, made off very quickly. A surgeon was called by the
porter, father's wound attended to, and young Wehrle's leg
set. The latter limped all his life. Father's cloak, a wide
one, with a cape coming down to the knees, and of a dark
green color, was kept for years as a memento of this adventure,
though it had to do occasional service as a foot-cover, when
riding out on cold days.
The French guardes d'honneur or cavalry troops referred
to were organized early in the year for the German campaign.
It was a hard matter, after the terrible losses in Russia, to
recruit a new army in France, particularly cavalry. The Im-
perial government therefore issued a call for all young men
not yet in the army, and able to furnish horses and to equip
themselves at their own expense, to come to the rescue of
their country. They were promised special privileges, were
to be called guardes d'honneur and to rank with the old
guards. Some regiments were recruited in this way, though
not nearly as many as was expected. But, as soldiers, they
did not answer at all the high expectations that people had
entertained of them. They were generally arrogant, licen-
10 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
tious, and wanting in discipline. Later in the war Napoleon
withdrew nearly all his veteran cavalry from Spain and
Italy, and they became formidable enough at the end of the
campaign, under Murat, Arrighi and Grouchy.
While, of course, I do not remember anything of that
stormy night, I have the most clear and vivid recollection of
some of the days following.
THE BAVARIANS IN FRANKFORT (1813)
The French reached Mayence next day, hotly pursued
by Cossacks and Austrian light horse, but were now across the
Rhine, safe at least for a while. On the 3d of November the
Bavarians, who had fought most desperately at Hanau (Gen.
Wrede being severely wounded while leading an attack in
person), entered Frankfort amid the most joyful demonstra-
tions of the people, who had at no time sympathized with the
French and hated them cordially.
It was soon understood that the Bavarians were in a
very bad plight. They had fought one of the bloodiest battles
of the war, were very short of rations, and were completely
worn out. Before they had been sent to quarters they had
been drawn up in long lines on Main Street (Zeil) and
when the word was given to stack arms most of them laid
down on their knapsacks, greatly exhausted. But now the
citizens came forth in crowds, with loaves of bread, cakes,
sandwiches, pitchers filled with wine, beer, and brandy. The
first ladies of the town served them food and drink. The more
enthusiastic embraced and kissed them. "Hoch Deutsch-
land ' ' was heard from a thousand lips.
Our household was not behind. Our porter and the ser-
vant-girl carried large baskets with meat and bread. My
older brothers, Charles and Frederick, then quite grown boys,
were also loaded down with victuals. My mother, leading
me by the hand, superintended the distribution. How well
I recollect the soldiers in their light blue uniforms, all be-
spattered with mud, their mouths black from biting cart-
ridges; and how gratefully they looked upon us, when we
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 11
filled the glasses with wine or beer and dealt them out nice
little white rolls (Milchbroedchen) ! I was only four years
old then; but it appears to me now as though it was only a
thing of yesterday.
THE ALLIED MONARCHS AND THEIR ARMIES IN FRANKFORT
A few days afterwards I saw another scene which made
a strong impression on me. Alexander of Russia, with his
brother Constantine, made a triumphal entry into Frankfort.
My father had taken mother and my sisters Pauline and
Augusta, a few years older than myself, to the house of a
friend, a book-seller named Boselli, who lived on the Zeil.
The house was called the Tuerkenschuss, a large wooden Turk
with a pistol in his hand being fastened to the second story,
after the manner of Turks and Indians stuck up before tobacco
shops. From the window of the second story we saw every
thing most completely.
A regiment of Don Cossacks of the Russian Guards
opened the procession. They looked splendid in their high
caps of bear skin with richly embroidered short blue tunics,
dark blue trousers of Turkish fashion, and long lances.
While the ordinary Cossacks, and particularly what were
called the irregular Cossacks, had very small and mean-look-
ing though hardy ponies, the Cossack Guard was splendidly
mounted, the horses of each regiment being of the same color.
Immediately after them rode Alexander and Constantine sur-
rounded by a most splendid staff, joined by Prince Schwartz-
enberg, the commander in chief of the allied forces, who had
reached Frankfort the day before, also accompanied by a
large staff, the chief of which was the afterwards celebrated
Radetzky. Then came a regiment of Tcherkessen (Circas-
sians) in splendid silver armor, curiously armed, with bows
and arrows strapped to their shoulders.
Many regiments of Prussian and Russian cavalry fol-
lowed, and the whole was concluded by mounted artillery of
the guards. It took an hour or so before they all passed before
us marching in closed columns and taking the entire width of
12 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the streets, leaving the sidewalks only to the spectators. The
bands of all these regiments were playing, but could not be
heard for the wild hurrahs of the crowd, which went almost
crazy with enthusiasm. It was a pageant never to be for-
gotten.
The King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria fol-
lowed a few days after and also made splendid entries at the
head of their guards, but I have no recollection of having
seen them.
The headquarters of all the monarchs were now estab-
lished at Frankfort. More than five thousand troops, mostly
of the guards, were quartered there and in the villas and coun-
try seats around it. I recollect very well that we had three
or four soldiers quartered at our house, one of whom was a
Prussian regimental quartermaster and the others privates.
Somewhat later we got Russians, who behaved very well
when sober, but acted like swine when drunk. When too
boisterous, my father would put on his uniform and com-
mand silence, when they at once became most submissive and
called him ' ' Little Papa ' ' ( Vaeterchen) . They all had caught
the common words of the language in their long march from
the Vistula to the Rhine. They were very fond of children
and one thing happened to me, which I do not recollect,
but was told later on, showing their affection for children.
In the Treves Court, near our house, a detachment of
Cossacks was quartered, the warehouses then being used as
stables. As this court was my chief trysting place when I
was a child, I was there one day looking at the Cossacks
when one of them took hold of me, put me on his shoulder,
and went off with me to a tavern a good distance from our
home and played with me there for hours. I was missed
after awhile, and my parents became alarmed. Finally they
looked for me in the Treves Court, and fortunately learned
from someone, who was a German, that he had seen a Cos-
sack with a boy on his shoulder leaving the yard at its
southern entrance. The trail was pursued and I was found
in the inn, quite at my ease, amongst a crowd of Cossacks
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 13
and other soldiers. Almost every time I went into that
Court, I got some Cossack to take me upon his horse, or give
me a ride, he leading his scraggy little pony.
For two months Frankfort was a most interesting place.
Several hundred thousands of troops marched through or
close by it on their march to the Rhine. The Emperors
of Austria, Russia, the Kings of Prussia, Bavaria, Wuertem-
berg, all the other princes of Germany and nearly all their
crown princes were in the city. With them were Metternich,
Wolkowsky, Hardenberg, Castelreagh, Nesselrode, the great
German Baron Stein, and Minister Humboldt. There were
present the most popular heroes of the war, Bluecher, the
Generals Gneisenau, York, Field Marshal Schwartzenberg,
Buelow, Arndt, the friend and secretary of Stein, the latter
being at the time the provisional head of all the countries
which had belonged to the Confederacy of the Rhine, and had
not yet made separate treaties with the allied powers. All
these names and many more I must have heard a thousand
times while the war lasted, until the battle of Waterloo. And
now I must explain how it happened that I was made so
familiar with the events and the names of the principal actors.
FAMILY CONNECTIONS WITH FAMOUS GERMAN PATRIOTS
My father, as already observed, was a most devoted Ger-
man patriot, although since 1806 Frankfort had been made
one of the States of the Rhenish Confederation, and had
therefore become one of the vassal dependencies of France.
It was closely watched by the French Minister to the Grand
Duke, Prince Primas, and had generally French troops in
garrison. Father was always outspoken in his opposition to
the French dominion. Whether he had been a member of the
much-famed Tugendbund formed in Prussia after the Peace
of Tilsit in 1807, I never learned; but subsequently to the
retreat of Napoleon from Russia my father certainly formed
connections with Prussians like Baron Stein, Arndt and
others.
14 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
At any rate after Prussia had declared war in March,
1813, and was joined by the Russians, he was furnished with
all the appeals of the Prussian King calling his people and
Germany to arms; with the proclamation of Kutosow at
Kalisch in the name of the Emperor of Russia; as well as
with the hundreds of other pamphlets which were published
in Prussia urging the Germans to rise against Napoleon, and
particularly with the stirring war songs of Arndt, Theodore
Koerner, Stegmann, Schenkendorf and others. He took pains
to distribute them in the States of the Rhine Bund in the
rear of Napoleon's armies, who were then fighting mighty
battles in Silesia and the other provinces of Prussia. There
was only one other patriotic bookseller in Frankfort, Eichen-
berg by name, who dared to act likewise. Had the battle of
Leipsic been won by Napoleon, the fate of the bookseller
Palm would undoubtedly have overtaken my father.
When, therefore, in November and December, 1813, the
patriots of Germany met in Frankfort my father was called
upon by many of them. Arndt was a frequent visitor at
our house. He presented my mother with a beautiful tea
cup decorated with an excellent portrait of the unfortunate
Louise of Prussia, from the celebrated Berlin manufactory
of porcelain. On holidays, this cup always had its place
on our tea-table. With Stein and Bluecher father also formed
a personal acquaintance. The connection with Stein was
continued until my father's death in 1829, he having visited
that great statesman many times at his castle at Nassau on
the Lahn.
It is well known that during the time spoken of, Novem-
ber and December, 1813, there was a deadly struggle going
on at Frankfort between two parties: (1) the reactionary
party under the lead of Metternich, supported by nearly all
the German princes who had belonged to the Confederation
of the Rhine and who owed their higher titles and the in-
crease of their States to Napoleon, which faction further in-
cluded all the aristocrats, who had looked with great dis-
trust upon the popular uprising that had actually defeated
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 15
Napoleon; and (2) the party composed of the Prussian states-
men and military leaders and of the German patriots general-
ly, supported at that time in a measure by the Emperor
Alexander, who was pleased to be considered as favoring lib-
eral tendencies.
We can now hardly believe it possible that the allied
powers at Frankfort offered to make peace with Napoleon,
leaving to France, as was said in the propositions submitted,
its natural boundaries, the Alps, Pyrennees and the Rhine;
in other words, leaving to France the western side of the
Rhine, or what is now Rhenish Prussia, Rhenish Bavaria,
Rhenish Hesse, as well as the whole of Belgium, the best
and choicest provinces of the ancient German Empire.
Fortunately Napoleon was so infatuated as not at once
to accept these most favorable terms. He gave an evasive
answer. In the meantime the true German party had become
aroused. Bluecher swore a thousand oaths. Stein used his
great influence over Alexander. And as Napoleon had not
shown any disposition to accept the conditions at once, the
friends of Germany succeeded in breaking off the negotiations,
which was done just a day before Napoleon offered to make
peace on the basis first proposed.
Bluecher was the hero of the day. My father called into
life the Bluecher Club (Bluecher Verein), which in a few
days was joined by hundreds of the best citizens of Frank-
fort, and soon extended to neighboring cities. He was made
its president. Its meetings were enthusiastic, and it aroused
great opposition to Metternich's policy and to all reaction-
ary measures.
Of course I was too young to have any personal knowl-
edge of all this, but in the course of years that interesting
period was so often recalled in the family and amongst
friends, that I could not help but become acquainted with it
as of things I personally knew. It is not, therefore, to be
wondered at that having grown up under such surroundings,
I became a warm lover of Germany and one of the liberal
sort.
16 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
During the year 1814 there was a constant flow of troops
through Frankfort. Early in the year and spring they
moved westward into France. After the taking of Paris and
the conclusion of peace, large parts of the allied armies flowed
backwards into Prussia and Russia.
Whenever troops were in sight there was a large white
flag hoisted on top of the Cathedral Tower (Pfarrthurm),
and we boys would always run into Main Street, the Zeil, to
see them pass. We did not care much about the infantry, but
the cavalry and artillery were great attractions. That during
those war times boys, small and large, were playing at soldiers
in preference to any other game was but natural. I have no
doubt that the great interest I took in military matters
through life was owing to these early impressions.
ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OP LEIPSIC
The celebration of the anniversary of the battle of Leipsic
in 1814 was of such an exciting character, that I have a dis-
tinct remembrance of it. After solemn church-services in
the morning there were parades of all the battalions of the
civic guards (Buergerwehr). In the afternoon the children
of all the schools, the boys with oak leaves on their caps, the
girls with wreaths of oak leaves in their hair, assembled on
the Roemerberg, where speeches were made, and all joined
in patriotic songs.
I do not know that I saw all this then. But after night
had set in, our parents took us through the principal streets.
The whole city was splendidly illuminated. Thousands of
transparencies appeared on the houses, with mottoes in prose
and verse, and pictorial representations.
The most glorious view, however, was outside of the city-
gates, on the rising ground. On the highest peaks of that
beautiful range of mountains, the Taunus, some thirty-five
miles in length and all visible from high points about the
city, eight miles distant, immense piles of cord wood had
been put up, forming hollow squares filled with tar barrels
and other inflammable materials. The largest, some fifty feet
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 17
high, was on the Feldberg (3000 feet in height). Other fires
were burning on the Altkoenig, at the castles of Koenigstein,
Cronberg, Falkenstein, and on the heights north of Hom-
burg. Looking south, the range of the Bergstrasse, extending
from near Darmstadt to Heidelberg, some twenty miles of
mountain, was also in a blaze. On the highest point, the
Melibocus (1,600 feet), there must have been an enormous
pile; for, although distant from Frankfort some thirty miles,
it was seen as bright as the one on the Feldberg.
All the hills around the city were similarly illuminated.
Fireworks let off in the gardens around the city made the
dark night light as day. Bands played their best, and on
the other side of the Main the artillery fired one hundred
and one salvos. My father carried me on his shoulders, and
I was half frightened, half delighted. The noise was terrific.
Those jubilee fires extended throughout the whole of Ger-
many that night.
THE TEAR 1815. BLUECHER
The following year was still a warlike one. Napoleon
having returned from Elba in March, 1815, the armies of
the allies, some of them still on their way from France,
rushed back towards the Rhine. Consequently Frankfort,
the great thoroughfare for all northeastern Germany and
Russia, again saw thousands of troops marching through it.
The battle of Waterloo, June 18, ended the short campaign
and sent Napoleon to St. Helena.
Bluecher on his return, being now more popular than
ever, stayed a few days in Frankfort. He took his lodgings
in the Weidenbusch (now the Union Hotel), a large hostelry
on the Steinway, opposite the White Swan, another famed
hotel. In the night he was serenaded by the drummers of
all the different battalions of the civic guards, and by the
bands of the line-regiments. Father had secured for our
family a front room in the White Swan from which we
could see the immense crowd, forming a dense mass in the
street before the hotel. The old hero stepped out on the
18 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
balcony, and made a short, but eloquent speech. There were
hurrahs and "vivats" without end. I had a good look at the
hero, and, being then six years of age, I kept his appearance
very well in my memory.
Bluecher was a very happy speaker by nature, and fond
of hearing himself. It is said he acquired much practice in
public speaking in the Freemasons' lodges. He was a zealous
member of this association. While his orthography, as is
well known, was so bad as to be almost amusing, he spoke
correctly when it suited him.
The next evening the Bluecher Verein gave him a ban-
quet, where my father, being president, toasted him; and
Blueeher, as father told us, made a most happy reply, being
quite sarcastic as to the doings of the diplomats, whose len-
iency towards the French he denounced bitterly. He was
also for having Alsace and Lorraine back again. Of this,
of course, I speak only from hearsay. This is the last of
my war reminiscences, Germany resting in peace until 1848,
long after I had left it.
CHAPTER II
School Life
And now my education began. My oldest brother
Charles had attended the lower classes of the Frankfort Col-
lege (Gymnasium), where, as became a city of merchants,
French and, in the upper classes, even English were taught;
also, arithmetic, caligraphy and drawing were not neglected.
Here he remained until he became an apprentice in father's
business, afterwards serving a year or so as clerk in a large
book-selling and publishing establishment at Halle on the
Saale, and then returning home to become the principal clerk
in father's business.
Frederick was, at this time (1815), in a private school
of much repute at Roedelheim, about two miles from Frank-
fort, and known as the Hoffmann Institute. French and Eng-
lish were taught thoroughly there. Finishing his course, he
became apprentice in a large wholesale firm, Behrens & Co.,
dealing in the so-called "colonial articles." He was very
bright, versatile and talented, a fine draftsman and musician,
golden-haired and blue-eyed, the pet of everybody, and there-
fore spoiled. More of him hereafter.
Charles was taller, had the dark hair and eyes of father,
was of a quiet temper and industrious, perhaps a little too
unselfish for a business man, and too liberal in his political
views when the Reaction set in, as it did, not very long after
the War of Liberation.
AT THE MUSTERSCHULE
My mother taught me to read and spell when I was about
five years of age ; not at regular hours but thoroughly never-
theless. She even gave me lessons in French, using Meidinger
20 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
for the rules of grammar. But I learned more from her talk-
ing to me in that language than from the book. When I
was about seven years of age, I was sent to the ' ' Model School ' '
(Musterschule). This was then a comparatively new institu-
tion, which some wealthy public spirited citizens had sub-
sidized, the city furnishing all the grounds and buildings,
and, I believe, guaranteeing deficits, but reserving to itself
the superintendence, and, with the sanction of the trustees,
the appointment of teachers.
It was far superior to the then existing public and pri-
vate schools, had seven classes for boys, and five for girls, in
separate buildings. The teaching was on the Pestalozzi plan.
There was little memorizing, and the pupils had always to
explain the "why" of things. Even in the lowest classes
there was but little corporal punishment. None was permit-
ted in the higher. You were kept in school after school hours
to learn the lessons you had neglected, or as a penalty for
bad conduct. But the usual punishment was that during
play-time you had to stay in the building. There were, with
the director, some nine teachers; and in the girls' depart-
ment, two women teachers to teach knitting, sewing, embroid-
ering, and the like. To have women teaching in other
branches than these was then considered absurd ; and to have
them instruct and watch boys, oftentimes grown up, as in this
country, would have been condemned as ridiculous and in the
highest degree indelicate. Some of our teachers were men of
great ability, such as Mr. Naenny, a pupil of Pestalozzi, and
Mr. Diesterweg, who was later on considered the greatest edu-
cator in Germany. There were also Professor Mueller, a dis-
tinguished mathematician and physicist, and Mr. Du Veil-
lard, a French Swiss, a severe and morose man, but an excel-
lent French teacher.
I did not know Mr. Diesterweg. He did not teach then
in the boys' department. But my sisters, particularly Paul-
ine, were enthusiastic in their praise of him. They loved
him as they would a father. Owing to my ability to read
and to cipher some, I went through the lowest form in a
SCHOOL LIFE 21
half year, while the regular course in every class was one
year. I did not reach the highest class, for my parents had
destined me for a liberal profession, and thought it was high
time that I should enter the gymnasium or college. During my
last year in the Model School, I had taken private lessons in
Latin, so that when I entered college, I skipped the two lower
classes and was promoted within a half year from the fifth
to the fourth grade, while the regular term in the lower
classes was one year, and in the higher even one year and a
half. But even in the second highest class I got through in
one year, instead of one and one-half. While I was in the
Model School nothing extraordinary happened in my school
life. I was not very industrious, but owing to a quick percep-
tion and a faculty of expressing what I did know with facility,
I generally kept on the front benches and often at the head
of them. Perhaps it would have been better, had I been
obliged to study more industriously. I was tolerably wild,
but somehow or other my teachers were rather easy on me,
and my schoolmates liked me the better for it.
MY READING
From an early age I was a great reader. In my father's
store I found, of course, a large collection of books, and the
hours not given to studying my lessons or to playing were
spent in all sorts of miscellaneous reading; fairy tales, but
more so, travels, and later on novels. I think, before I was
fourteen years of age, I had read all the novels of Cooper
then out, also of Walter Scott. Washington Irving delighted
me greatly. I had read all the poetry of Schiller and his
dramas, and had learned by heart nearly all his ballads, re-
citing them to mother and my sisters in the twilight hours.
But not all my early literature was of this noble character.
The then very popular romances of robbers and robber-
knights interested me also, as did other sensational stuff. I
do not think the latter did me any harm. I would only read
those parts where there were tournaments, bouts, spectres, and
the like. As to love-scenes, I felt no interest in them then, and
22 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
I skipped them invariably. Sentimentality was always hateful
to me, and the only sentimental novels I liked, or yet like, were
Rousseau's "LaNouvelle Heloise" and "Werther's Sorrows."
HOME LIFE IN FRANKFORT
When I was about seven years of age and while at the
Model School, our family left our home in Treves Square and
moved to a very large residence in Toenges Street, a street
running parallel with the Zeil and also with Treves Square.
It was but a little distance from our old home. There was
a large inner court, bounded on the east side by a high wall,
on the south side by the rear of the front house, on the north
side by a roomy two-story house, and on the west side by a
large wing of the main house. A passage in the two-story
house led to a garden, about fifty by a hundred feet. There
were some cherry trees in it, a piece of lawn on which stood
a high substantial swing, a long middle walk over which trellis
work was built, supporting grape vines. Yard, garden, and
the many unused rooms in the rear house furnished most ex-
cellent playground, and my school fellows found it convenient
to pay me frequent visits.
We lived there four years when father bought a house
on what is called the Neue Kraeme. This was an elegant
and lively street, extending from a tolerably large square with
a fountain in it, called the "Mount of our Dear Lady"
(Liebfrauenberg), and having on the north the Catholic
Church of Our Dear Lady, to the Roemerberg on which the
old Rathhaus or Council House of Frankfort stands. That
square had also a fountain in it, with a battered old statue
of Justice with scales in one hand and a sword in the other,
very much the worse for wear.
Our residence was only one house removed from the large
and splendid building called the Braunfels, which occupied
a block by itself, contained large halls and extensive galler-
ies, in which during the Frankfort fair the merchants who
dealt in the most expensive and showy goods had their stores.
Here were the silversmiths' and jewelers' goods, glass and
SCHOOL LIFE 23
porcelain, prints and engravings, perfumeries, and the choic-
est of dry goods. In coronation times it had been occupied
by the Electors and other Princes of the Empire. In the
large courtyard and the adjoining corridors the Exchange
(Boerse) was held every week-day from eleven to one o'clock.
The Braunfels fronted partly on the Liebfrauen square. The
Roemerberg, at the time of the fair, was covered with booths,
in which all kinds of goods were on sale; while the immense
halls on the ground floor of the Council House were also used
as shops.
On fine days, in fair time, the Neue Kraeme was so filled
with people that you could not throw a cherry stone into
the streets without hitting somebody. The boulevards in
Paris or Broadway in New York, as far as crowding was con-
cerned, were, in my time, not to be compared with it. Car-
riages had often to turn into other streets. All vehicles had
to proceed in a walk. All processions and military parades,
since they always had to go to the old Council House, passed
our windows. In fact, it was for people who do not love
retirement, a most desirable street to live in. It had the
further advantage, that my college was only two blocks away,
on the Barfuessler Platz (Place of the Barefooted Friars),
now the Paul's Platz. Our house was four stories high and
had a mansard roof, under which there were three or four
rooms. It had no garden, but two small inner courts, and so
great was the space that the third floor was always rented.
After I went to college our domestic life was in the main
that of the citizens of Frankfort generally. It must be under-
stood that to have been a citizen of Frankfort meant a good
deal more than is ordinarily understood by the word "citi-
zen." By the acts of the Vienna Congress, Frankfort, Ham-
burg, Luebeck and Bremen were declared to be free and in-
dependent States; while formerly, until the establishment of
the Rhenish Confederation, they had been free and Imperial
cities only: that is, they were not subject to any territorial
Prince, but yet to a certain, though very small extent, they
were subject to the central power of the Emperor and the
24 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Imperial laws. The citizens of these Imperial cities, even then
very proud, had their representatives at the Imperial Diet.
Now they felt themselves still more exalted. And this citizen-
ship, moreover, was a sort of closed corporation. No one
could become a citizen and an elector and so eligible to office,
unless he was the son of a citizen, or unless he had married
the widow or the daughter of a citizen, and in the latter
case he had to pay a large sum in addition in order to enter
the corporation. A large majority of the inhabitants were
not citizens, and had no political rights. There were amongst
the citizens proper, very few poor people. Most of them
were in very easy circumstances, and a good many of them
were not only rich but possessors of very large fortunes. I
speak now of the time when I was at school, in college, and up
to the time of my confirmation, which happened when I was
about sixteen years of age (1824).
RELIGIOUS TRAINING. FAMILY PORTRAITS
My father, although, like my mother, baptized and edu-
cated in the Lutheran creed, had, I have reason to believe,
very free and liberal religious ideas. He seldom went to
church, but approved of my mother and the children going
pretty regularly. He never said a word against religion, but
was very much opposed to dogmatism and particularly mys-
ticism and pietism. So was my mother. She was a very relig-
ious woman. Every Sunday morning, before church-hours,
my sisters and myself, when we were children, came to her
bedroom, where she would read a chapter from some work of
edification, usually from the then much admired "Hours of
Devotion" by Zschokke. She would herself go to church oc-
casionally; but my sisters and I, after I had arrived at the
age of ten or twelve years, went pretty regularly, and gener-
ally to the large Lutheran Church of St. Katherine 's on Main
Street, the pastor of which was Anton Kirchner.
Kirchner was a very distinguished man in Frankfort.
An impressive, but by no means sensational preacher, he was
a man of learning, a public-spirited citizen, and a warm Ger-
SCHOOL LIFE 25
man patriot. He was the author of a well-written history of
Frankfort, which, however, he did not live to complete. He
had written, also, some theological works, in a most rational
and liberal spirit. Whenever there was any benevolent work
to be done, he was at the head of it. He was one of the
founders of the Frankfort Museum, an association for the en-
couragement of literature and the fine arts, where regular lec-
tures were delivered. He moved in the highest official circles,
though at the same time a great friend of the poor and lowly.
No one in his time was better known in the city, then compar-
atively small, containing no more than 45,000 inhabitants.
I believe every man, woman and child knew him. He had a
great likeness to Luther, and was even more corpulent than
that great reformer. My father was a friend of his. Kirch-
ner had baptized and confirmed all the younger children.
But we did not confine ourselves to one church. In the winter
we often went to the German Reformed Church, which was
far more comfortable at this season of the year than the
larger Protestant Church. Occasionally I went to the French
Reformed Church, or rather chapel, fronting the city park
(Stadt-Allee), where there were very able ministers, preaching
in the purest French. After my confirmation, in 1824, 1 think,
and until I left for the University, I did not go to church
often.
Speaking of confirmation, I cannot but mention an in-
cident happening when my sister Pauline, who was about four
years older than myself, was confirmed. The custom is, or
was at that time, that the pupils to be confirmed or conse-
crated should approach the altar in pairs, and that generally
only those who were intimate friends should go together. My
sister had already become engaged as a partner to a school-
mate of hers, a young lady of a family of high standing.
Previously to the confirmation, for some three months, the
pastors of the respective churches to which the candidates be-
longed formed a class, where once or twice a week religious
instruction was given preparatory to the consecration. In
the class with Pauline was a beautiful girl, Miss U., the
26 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
daughter of two members of the troupe of the Frankfort City
Theatre. These people, who had been connected with that
institution for years, were, though not great actors, people
of the most respectable character. Miss U. herself had played
occasionally in juvenile parts, and became afterwards a reg-
ular actress, very much admired for her uncommon beauty
and maiden-like modesty. A few days before confirmation
day, it became known in the class that Miss U. could find no
partner. The girls all liked her, but their parents, and they
themselves, were so prejudiced that none would walk with her
to the altar. Pauline, with the full consent of father, and
with but a shade of reluctance on the part of her mother, dis-
engaged herself in becoming manner from her chosen part-
ner and went with Miss U., whose heart had almost been
broken by the disdain she had met with from the other girls.
Pauline had never known Miss U. before she met her in the
confirmation class. But it was a charming sight to see the
pair walk up to the altar. Miss U. was of surpassing beauty,
with rich dark hair, blue eyes, a perfect form, and full of
grace. Pauline was considered a very beautiful girl. Her
hair was very long and of a golden blonde; she had large
dark blue eyes, and a beautiful complexion. She was not so
tall as Miss U., but was equally well formed. A life-size
picture by a then celebrated portrait painter, Mosbrucker of
Constance, still in my possession, will show that I have not
been partial in speaking of Pauline. The same painter made
a small portrait of my mother, which is really a masterpiece.
Speaking of Mosbrucker, I have another portrait of his
in my possession, the portrait of Karl Ludwig Sand, the
student of Jena, who in 1819 assassinated the Russian Coun-
cilor of State, Von Kotzebue. He was actuated, as he
thought, by the purest motives; and indeed he was a young
man of unstained character and of the austerest morality.
After his fanatical deed he inflicted upon himself a mortal
wound but lived to be tried for murder and was executed at
Mannheim. Mosbrucker painted this portrait in prison for
Sand's mother and duplicated it for himself. Shortly after-
SCHOOL LIFE 27
wards he took up his usual abode at our house, painting por-
traits for Frankfort people; and, finding that father, though
not approving of Sand 's action, had the deepest sympathy for
the young man, (who imagined he had done a patriotic deed
in destroying a man whose whole life had been employed to
demoralize the public and who had acted a traitor to his
country in denouncing the German Universities to the Czar
of Russia as the instigators of revolution,) Mosbrucker made
my father a present of the portrait. It is more like the por-
trait of a girl than of a man. The forehead is broad, but
not very high ; the eyes are deep brown and show a brilliancy
produced probably by the sickly pallor of the cheeks. The
mouth is very beautiful and small, the face itself rather round
than oval and encircled by dark brown hair coming down in
curls to his shoulders. While it cannot be said that the face
is very handsome, yet it is certainly a very interesting one.
He bore his painful lingering illness with the submission of
a saint, never complaining; and when he was led out to the
scaffold, all the prison officials wept and the prisoners in their
cells cried like children. The executioner, the judges, the
ministers who called upon him, all broke out in tears ; he alone
was most serene, thanked them all for their sympathy, and
even, by way of anticipation, thanked the executioner; for,
said he, "After you have done the work which you hate so
much to do, I could not thank you."
A portrait of my father by a painter of local reputation,
Mr. Schlesinger, is by no means so well painted, but a re-
markable likeness. Sister Augusta, five years younger than
Pauline, was also a most beautiful child, with auburn hair
reaching to her knees, and dark blue eyes. Unfortunately,
she was quite early stricken with disease, and became an in-
valid all her life; though, for that very reason, more dearly
beloved by us. Her condition, however, which excluded her
from many youthful enjoyments, cast a constant gloom over
our family life. The later years of her life were spent at
Wiesbaden with mother, using the waters, though with little
28 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
effect. She died there some time in 1837 or 1838. She was
a woman of superior mind.
I must now mention another brother, who was seven
years younger than I, and who was born in the house on the
Treves Square. He was named Theodore, after the hero and
poet Theodore Koerner of the Luetzow Corps, who fell in the
battle of August 26, 1813. He was a most lovely child, with
blue eyes and light hair, and highly intellectual, too much
so to promise a long life. I doted on him, and when he
died in 1826, about 9 years old, from a cold he took at a May
festival, it gave the first pang to my young heart, and one
which I have not overcome to this day.
AT COLLEGE
At the gymnasium or college I got along very well, and
formed friendships there that have lasted in some instances
until now. Most of my classmates and fellow-students at the
University have, some long since, and some but lately,
gone to the land from which no traveler returns. The in-
stitution itself was at the time I attended it, not what it
ought to have been. The director was not, though he pre-
tended to be, a profound scholar. Besides, he was a bigoted
devotee, and given to mysticism. Neither teachers nor scholars
liked him. The lower classes had only teachers of mediocrity.
In the higher classes there were some stars, such as Professor
Conrad Schwenk, a deep thinker, a good philologist, and in
every way a complete man. Professor Herling was a good
mathematician and a master of German style. Professor
Weber was an elegant scholar, and almost the only one who
could make the reading of Cicero and particularly Horace,
interesting to us. He tortured us, however, a good deal by
dictating to us long essays in German on Roman history,
which we were to translate into Latin at home. He wanted us
to become elegant writers in Latin. I do not think he suc-
ceeded, at least he did not with me ; for when it came to writ-
ting two Latin dissertations in 1832, when I was a candidate
for doctor of law at the University of Heidelberg, one on a
SCHOOL LIFE 29
controverted point in the Pandects, and the other on an equal-
ly controverted point in the canon law, I had a great deal of
trouble. I had to call in my amiable friend Feddersen (from
Holstein) a student of philosophy and philology, to give them
a sort of Ciceronian finish. How I got through the oral ex-
amination in Latin so well, I did not then understand nor do
I now. As long as the dean of the faculty, the celebrated
Professor Thibaut, examined me in the Pandects, the matter
was not so difficult, because I had read and studied them in
Latin; but when Professor Mittermeier took me through the
German civil and mercantile law and Professor Rosshirt
through the German criminal law and criminal procedure,
and Professor Zachariae made me tell what I knew of the his-
tory of the law of the old German Empire, I was several times
rather nonplussed. Still I got, though not the highest, yet the
next highest honors, "Insigni cum laude," which was a suc-
cess considering that I had spent only the last semester of
my University life in Heidelberg, and that with the excep-
tion of Mittermeier, I had not attended the lectures of any
of the examining professors. The University of Heidelberg
on the fiftieth anniversary of my doctorate made a very curi-
ous mistake. In their letter of congratulation, they said that I
had obtained the highest grade, "summa cum laude," which
is hardly ever given. My diploma shows their error. The
grades at Heidelberg were: "Summa cum laude," "insigni
cum laude," "maxima cum laude," "magna cum laude," and
"cum laude," which last grade we used to call "feliciter
evasit" "he has by luck escaped non-admittance."
Our other professors in Greek and Latin were mere
pedants. If they had been teachers of a theological or philo-
logical seminary, they might have been in their right places;
but four-fifths of us were destined for the bar or for the med-
ical profession, and wanted to get to the very soul of ancient
literature simply by reading much and having our minds
directed to the beauties of the old authors. In the highest
classes it took just one-half year to go through one book of
the Aeneid, and equally long for one of Homer. We had
learned dissertations on the caesura, and on the Greek par-
ticles and accents. It took us the same time to read a single
oration of Demosthenes ; and as if it had not been a sufficiently
severe test to translate it into German, we had in addition
to translate it into Latin, while during the whole hour noth-
ing but Latin was allowed to be spoken.
The French language was not well taught at college,
owing probably to the fact that lessons had to be given to
several classes at once, so that there were by far too many
scholars. English was taught only in the highest class
(Prima) ; and since it, like French, was an optional study,
our class did not have more than a dozen in it. The teacher,
Mr. Will, was able, and we got pretty deeply into the beau-
ties of Addison, Steele and Burke. I did not read Shakes-
peare in English until I was at the University of Jena, where
fellow-students from Hamburg, Luebeck and other northern
states, formed a Shakespeare Club, of which I was a member.
HENRY HOFFMANN AND " STRUWWELPETER "
Almost all my schoolmates in the higher classes of the
Frankfort gymnasium became men of distinction and high
repute in the Frankfort commonwealth, serving as burgo-
masters, senators, and filling judges' seats or holding high
positions as lawyers or physicians. One of them, however,
and he happened to be my most intimate friend, Dr. Henry
Hoffmann, attained a national, or rather an international, rep-
utation. He was the author of " Struwwelpeter, " both text
and pictures, a little juvenile book, which has reached num-
berless editions, and has been translated into all known lan-
guages. I believe, and I have no doubt, that in the United
States alone, from first to last, more than one hundred thou-
sand copies have been sold. He told me, in 1862, that he had
prepared this little book solely for his own children's amuse-
ment and instruction, without the least idea of ever publish-
ing it. But the children showed it to their friends, and it
SCHOOL LIFE 31
came to be read by their parents, some of whom insisted that
it should be printed. He finally consented, thinking it would
be bought in Frankfort as a Christmas gift for children for
the current year, and would then be forgotten. Nobody was
more surprised at its immense circulation than he himself.
He at first disliked the noise made about it. He had gained
some reputation as a serious poet, and still more as a success-
ful and learned physician, which he did not desire to be over-
shadowed by this little humorous performance, which was
the child of a few days only.
I said that Hoffmiann was a real poet. A collection of his
poems saw several editions, a rather rare thing in Germany.
But on several occasions, such as the Mozart jubilee and the
Goethe centennial anniversary, he wrote odes and songs, which
are in my possession and are of much merit. In 1848 a ban-
quet was given to the popular poet, Anastasius Gruen (Count
Alexander von Auersberg), a liberal delegate to the German
Parliament. The song for this occasion by Henry Hoffmann
was most enthusiastically received. I will give the first
strophe :
"Horch auf, mein Volk! ob deutschen Landen
Geht brausend jetzt ein Sturm empor,
Hoch weht dein Banner, frei von Banden,
Und beugen soil's der Sturm nicht mehr!
Treu Hand in Hand,
Fest Mann an Mann,
Mein Vaterland.
Dein Tag bricht'an!"
This was the time of a golden dream of a great and
united Germany, for which he and I had fondly hoped when
at college, and which so soon turned out an illusion. He
had soon to sing his bitter disappointment. The imperial
crown offered by the Parliament to Frederick William IV of
Prussia was by him refused, because, as was said, the crown
had been rubbed with too many drops of democratic oil.
This rejection drew from Hoffmann the following lines :
32 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
' ' Du, Koenig, hast 's verschmaeht ! Du wagst es nicht !
Du willst nicht her zum freien Volke !
Wohlan! So zaudre bis das Wetter bricht
Verderblich aus der finstern Wolke.
Wann dann du ruf st ' Heran, mein Volk, zu mir ! '
Dann wird das Volk sich auch bedenken,
' Wir sind getrennt : Du dort, wir stehen hier,
Wir haben kerne Krone zu verschenken. ' :
I think I can claim some trifling credit for the develop-
ment of Hoffmann 's poetical talents. My father had a poetical
vein. After his death a package was found, in which were
a small number of songs, all printed on separate slips. Some
were written toward the end of the eighteenth century in the
then highly sentimental style; others, at a later period, were
of a patriotic character, and, it appears, were written for the
meetings or festivities of the Bluecher Union.
EARLY POETICAL EFFORTS
When I was about fourteen years of age I spent some
time at Kreuznach, among intimate friends of my parents.
With some of their sons I made excursions into the neigh-
borhood, which is full of the finest and most romantic scen-
ery. We visited the Rheingrafenstein, in the beautiful val-
ley of the Nahe, called Miinster Thai, Franz Von Sickingen's
Ebernburg, the castle of Dhaun, of Sponheim, and other old
historic ruins. It was then that I first tried my hand at poetry.
I wrote half a dozen epigrams on those grand relics of an-
cient times, some of which are still extant in a manuscript
collection of my poetical sins.
When in Prima (the highest class), towards the end of
my stay at college, I fell most desperately in love with the
sister of one of my friends. She was a year or two older
than I, and, as I soon learned, already engaged to the son of
a very prominent merchant. That made, however, no dif-
ference to me. Of course, she knew nothing of my passion.
I saw her at her home a few times, when I called upon my
friend and classmate ; but of course, never alone, for in Ger-
SCHOOL LIFE 33
many no young gentleman was allowed to call on a lady, and
no young lady permitted to receive the visit of a young man
except in the presence of her parents or older members of the
family. At any rate this was so at the time I speak of. But
I was in ecstacy when lucky enough to see her in the public
promenades or in the street. I would, at a respectful dis-
tance, follow her steps. She was of surpassing beauty, had
dark hair, and her eyes were of the most brilliant black.
When much later I read Platen's poems, I was always re-
minded of her by the lines.
"Der schwarzen Augen, die mir Sterne deuchten,
Geheimnissvolles, dunkel gluehendes Leuchten."
Her figure was rather small, but exquisitely formed. That
I do not flatter Lina, will appear from a passage in a letter
from my sister Pauline, which I received in June, 1830.
"When I was the last time at the museum with Charles,"
she writes, he being a member of that society, ' ' I saw Mrs. K.
(Lina), who greeted me most kindly and addressed me. But
oh, what a rare beauty, what loveliness! You were no fool.
I had not seen her for a long time and I was really astound-
ed. " But how did she ever know of my passion for Lina?
No one but Hoffmann knew of it and he only because he had
confided to me his love for one Jenny. He must have be-
trayed me after I had left for Jena. We corresponded; I
enclosed my letters to him in those I wrote to my family ; and
he his in those of Charles or Pauline. In the very letter in
which the above lines about Lina are found, came one from
him in which he very humorously informed me of the mar-
riage of Lina to Mr. K., leaving a blank space to be filled, as
he said, with curses damnation-deep. I am almost certain that
he then spoke to Pauline about this, my first love-matter.
Now, Hoffmann was then my nearest neighbor on the
school bench, and I believe he alone knew of my admiration
for Lina. One time during a lesson which did not interest
me, I wrote an epigram, or rather an anagram, on my love,
34
the initial letters of each line forming her given name. I
showed it to him. "Well," said he, "that is not so very bad,
but I think I can beat it. ' ' After a little he showed a scrap
of paper to me on which was written the same anagram,
much superior to mine.
We both felt interested, and pursued poetry, composing
it in our school hours. He was a splendid draftsman, and
generally enlivened his little pieces with some arabesque or
small figures. His caricatures were really very good. The
same winter he and I started a reading club. We met at my
father's house, it being the central part of the city. We com-
menced with Goethe's and Schiller's dramas, the different
parts being assigned by the president for the members to
read. We soon got into Shakespeare, so beautifully trans-
lated by A. W. Von Schlegel. Hoffmann read Falstaff to per-
fection. In speaking of my early travels, I will have to say
more of him. At the University, we did not meet. I went
to Jena, Munich and Heidelberg. But when I came to the
latter place, he had left it and gone either to Berlin or
Wuerzburg. When I passed a year in Frankfort after leav-
ing Heidelberg, he had not yet returned ; and I met him only
in 1862, on my way through Frankfort to Madrid, when we
at once renewed our former friendship.
A year or two before Hoffmann and myself idled away our
time in rhyming, I had made an effort at writing a drama.
This was really audacious in a boy of fifteen or sixteen. It
was commencing at the wrong end. Walter Scott was then
all the rage and amongst all his novels it was the "Bride of
Lammermoor" that struck me as lending itself best to
dramatization. I planned the whole piece and sketched it on
paper. It was to have three acts. The first act I nearly
finished; but becoming aware of my poetical inability, and
also having little time, I gave it up. It was written in
the trochaic measure, which was then all the fashion, in-
troduced by the translations of Calderon, and adopted by
Muellner in his "Schuld" and Grillparzer in his "Ahnfrau,"
SCHOOL LIFE 35
then a much admired tragedy which I had seen at the
Frankfort Theatre. I gave the manuscript of my first act
to my father, who kept it, but gave no opinion of it.
One thing, however, is certain. I had intuitively found
out the dramatic power of the novel. Some of Walter Scott's
novels have been dramatized, such as Kenilworth, Guy Man-
nering, and Ivanhoe (Templar and Jewess), but they have
been more or less failures; while Donizetti's "Lucia di Lam-
mermoor" has gone around the world, and is still one of the
most popular operas.
VON LEONHARDI
I must mention, however, another of my college class-
mates, Von Leonhardi, who made himself a name in Germany
as the enthusiastic follower and expounder of the philosopher
Krauss. This somewhat abstruse thinker, for some reason or
other, found more adherents in Italy, and particularly in
Spain, than in Germany itself. Emilio Castelar, who was well
versed in German philosophical literature, (he delivered free
lectures at the Madrid Athenaeum, the first winter I was there,
on Schiller and Goethe,) was a great admirer of Krauss, and
by his influence as professor of history at the University of
Madrid, had indoctrinated not only the students, but also
many literary men in Spain, with Krauss 's ideas. Krauss
was also a great authority in Italy. Perhaps his being a free-
mason and his having published several scientific works on
freemasonry, may account for this popularity in countries
where freemasonry was cultivated as a bulwark against Ultra-
montanism and despotism generally.
Leonhardi sat with me on the same bench in Secunda
(second highest class), and became the principal in a scene
which I can never forget. The director of the college, of whom
I have already spoken as a zealous orthodox pietist, gave two
lectures a week on religion. His lectures were mainly ex-
cerpts from the old fathers of the Church, Origines, Tertul-
lian, and others, and were devoid of taste and reason. At one
36 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
time he came to treat of the temptation of Christ on the
mountain, and commented on the various views of religious
writers as to what the actual appearance of the devil might
have been. He himself came to no conclusion as to what dress
his Satanic majesty had assumed on this interesting occasion,
but wound up by saying that one thing was certain, he must
have appeared as a respectable person. Leonhardi, with his
arms upon the desk and closed eyes, had for some time laid
his head down to sleep. The director, observing this, asked
him : ' ' Von Leonhardi ! are you sick ? " " No, ' ' answered Leon-
hardi, "I am trying to sleep." "And why are you trying to
sleep?" asked the director. "Because I can no longer listen
to such stupid stuff (dummes Zeug)." The whole class broke
out in loud and approving laughter. The director turned
pale, and could not utter a syllable for a while. When the
director finally said, "Von Leonhardi, you had better with-
draw," Leonhardi picked up his books and quietly left the
room. The matter was made up in some way, but at the end
of the term of that class he left college. He was a tall, very
fine-looking young man, but rather reticent and not sharing
much in our sometimes pretty wild amusements. He was re-
spected but was not popular amongst us.
CHAPTER III
School Life Continued. Early Travels
A few years after the War of Liberation, the great
political Reaction set in. The new constitution of Germany,
the German Bund, was a very loose affair. Leaving the sov-
ereigns who constituted it almost entirely independent as
long as they followed the dictates of Austria and Prussia,
the Diet (Bundestag), the moment they showed signs of
granting greater liberties to their people, repressed them.
The articles of the Act of Confederation which provided for
freedom of the press and guaranteed to the several states rep-
resentative governments, were either not executed at all,
or evaded by miserable caricatures of such governments.
Very soon Liberal writers were persecuted, the censorship
of the press (Censur) instituted, and the most despotic
principles openly avowed. A confederacy, such as the Ger-
man Bund, was fatally bad for the reason alone (amongst
many others), that the two states of Austria and Prussia,
counting amongst the great powers of Europe and pos-
sessing large territories outside of Germany proper, were
members of it and rivals to boot. They had their own
national policies, could have, and did have, wars out-
side of the Bund, and used the rest of Germany merely
as an instrument to further their own interests. The Kings
of Prussia, Frederick William the Third and the Fourth, were
very weak and vacillating, and were soon reduced to play a
secondary part to the artful Metternich, who was opposed to
all popular liberty, for fear that his own motley monarchy
might be contaminated by the liberal ideas of the other Ger-
man States.
38
THE POLITICAL SITUATION AND THE GREEK WAR OP INDEPENDENCE
The King of Prussia, who when he called the people to
arms to rescue him from French domination had sacredly
promised them a representative government, broke his word ;
and when, as could not fail, deep dissatisfaction at his con-
duct was shown by many of his people and by the very patri-
ots who had fought in his armies as volunteers and had by
speaking and writing roused the people to action, the Prus-
sian government was nearly as severe in persecuting the
men of the opposition as was Metternich, who filled with
political prisoners the dungeons of Austria and Hungary.
Such men as Stein, Arndt, Gneisenau, and Schoen, were
closely watched. Arndt was removed from his professor-
ship at the University at Bonn, and imprisoned.
In Frankfort, where the seat of the German Diet (Bund-
estag) was, and under the inspiration of that Diet, the re-
action made its appearance somewhat later. Under the new
Frankfort Constitution (1816), a legislative assembly had to
be elected by the citizens every year. My father was elected
a member several times, I think for the years 1818 and 1819.
He was, of course, of the Liberal party, and I was old enough
then to listen to and understand his views about the political
situation of the country. Most of the friends who visited us
belonged to the same political party, and none but liberal
newspapers were kept at our house. My older brothers were
as warm opponents of the reactionary policy, then almost
everywhere prevailing in Germany, as father was. The Italian
revolutions in Piedmont and Naples were greeted by all lib-
erals in Frankfort with joy, and great was their disappoint-
ment at the speedy suppression of the uprisings by the Aus-
trian army, acting under the orders of the Holy Alliance.
The Greek war of independence (1821), which excited
the interest and admiration of the best people of the entire
civilized world, was also greeted with great enthusiasm in
our family. Father became a member of the Philhellenic
EARLY TRAVELS 39
Committee of Frankfort, the object of which was to collect
contributions and money for equipping and furnishing trans-
portation to the many young men who had determined to vol-
unteer in the Grecian service. The principal committee for
France, Switzerland and Germany had its headquarters in
Geneva, where the auxiliary forces were organized; for the
governments of France and Germany, under Metternich's in-
fluence, had forbidden all recruiting. To facilitate the collec-
tions a most stirring appeal had been printed in hundreds of
thousands of copies, which were everywhere distributed. From
the directory of Frankfort names were selected, several thou-
sands of printed addresses were put in envelopes and person-
ally delivered to each individual. The porter of our store
distributed some, but the greatest number was delivered by
me in my free hours. It was a hard task, for I had to climb
very often three or four pairs of stairs to find the person to
whom the paper was addressed. But I did it most cheerfully.
The Greek cause soon came nearer home to us. My brother
Fritz at that time was employed as a lithographer in one of
Cotta's printing and publishing establishments, at Stuttgart,
which was one of the most active centers of Philhellenic senti-
ment. Norman, the general who in the last hours of the bat-
tle of Leipsic had gone over with some regiments of "Wuertem-
berg cavalry to the allies, had already placed himself at the
head of a large number of volunteers, who, by the time he
reached Marseilles, had grown to a battalion or two. He or-
ganized them in Greece, and they were almost the first troops
there that could be called regulars. In one of the first con-
siderable battles fought against the Turks, near the Bay of
Corinth, at Arta, these battalions of Norman nearly all per-
ished. The bulk of the army consisted of some five or six
thousand Greeks who ran away en masse when the first artil-
lery fire of the Turks took effect in their ranks, leaving the
Philhellenes, nearly all Germans, to fight it out. And they
did so, being nearly all killed in the field, and the wounded
40 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
all dispatched, for in that war neither party gave quarter. A
few only lived to tell the sad tale.
Before this was known new companies of volunteers were
formed at Stuttgart and other places, and all at once Fritz
wrote us that he had joined them, and was determined to fight
in the sacred cause. My parents knew that they could not
change his resolution, and with regret and sorrowful fore-
bodings furnished him with the necessary means to accomplish
his purpose. He wrote us very interesting letters from Switzer-
land, where a battalion was being organized; from Lyons,
describing his delightful trip down the Rhone; and from
Marseilles, where he embarked. Unfortunately all these let-
ters and those he wrote from Greece and Turkey, together
with my whole correspondence from the United States with
my mother, brother and sisters, while they were alive, cover-
ing in all nearly twenty-two years, and a great many other
family papers, were lost. After the death of brother Charles
(in 1858), his only child Henrietta, being a minor, was taken
into the house of one of her maternal uncles at Frankfort,
who was also her guardian. He could never tell what became
of the papers, and of a great many other things which were
mementoes in our family, though he recollected having seen
large packages and bundles of letters in the possession of the
father of Henrietta. My letters would have greatly helped
me in writing my reminiscences of the first seven years of my
life in the United States, as being the impressions of the mo-
ment they undoubtedly gave a graphic and vivid representa-
tion of the conditions of that time.
Fritz landed with his battalion at Napoli di Romania. He
found everything in confusion. Two of the principal leaders,
Kolocotronis and Maurocordatos had fallen out, each pretend-
ing to be at the head of the government. As the Philhellenes
did not know whom to obey and sought to be neutral between
the two factions, they were neglected by both, received no ra-
tions and yet had to fight the Turks whenever occasion offered.
Many of them soon became disgusted. The Greeks shunned
EARLY TRAVELS 41
open fights, except when greatly outnumbering the enemy;
carried on the war in a most cruel guerrilla style; relied on
night surprises; and killed their prisoners indiscriminately,
including both women and children. Fritz was at the siege
of Athens, at the storming of Napoli di Romania, which had
been retaken by the Turks soon after his arrival; was taken
down with malarial fever; and since hospitals either did not
exist, or were mere pest-holes, he took leave of absence (or
was discharged, I do not recollect which), and crossed to
Smyrna, where he was kindly received by the members of a
mercantile branch of a Frankfort banker, St. George, and
there found employment. As the fever did not leave him, he
decided to return, by way of Alexandria and Ancona, and
reached home, some time I believe in 1824, after a two years'
absence, emaciated to a skeleton and greatly disappointed. In
his judgment the Turks were far superior in every way to the
Greeks, an opinion that was shared also by Dr. Lieber, a cele-
brated German-American publicist, as appears from a book
in which he gives a lively description of his own experiences
as a Philhellene.
Fritz, after his return, took up lithography again, but
did not feel himself at home in Frankfort, and was glad to
obtain a position in a mercantile branch of a Frankfort house
at Buenos Ayres, in South America. It must be noted here
that after Fritz had gone through his mercantile apprentice-
ship, he, having an uncommon talent for drawing and print-
ing, gave up his commercial career and devoted himself to
drawing and lithography, which had just then come into great
vogue. As a lithographer he had found employment with
Cotta at Stuttgart, before going to Greece. He left in
1825. We received several letters from him expressing
his satisfaction with his new position, but suddenly his
correspondence ceased, and after a while we received the
news of his death. A war had broken out between Ura-
guay and Buenos Ayres on one side and Brazil on the
other. In some capacity or other he was on board the
42 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
frigate Isabella belonging to Buenos Ayres when she was
attacked by a Brazilian man-of-war and taken in the
River La Plata, after a severe fight. The frigate was after-
wards retaken, but Fritz was missing. In spite of various
efforts through the consuls, the particulars of his demise
could never be obtained. According to my present recollec-
tion, the naval fight took place some time in the year 1826.
His life was a failure. Of the most uncommon talents and
of an amiable disposition, he lacked steadiness and persever-
ance. He was too fond of company, too generous and open-
handed, and had no idea of the value of time or money. In
spite of the many sorrows and pains he caused his parents,
they, and we all, loved him dearly.
ATHLETIC SPORTS
While at college, I and some of my schoolmates joined
a Turners' Society. A garden was rented near the city, and
except in the winter season we exercised twice a week on the
gymnastic apparatus. Fencing was also largely cultivated,
confined, however, to practising with the broadsword foil.
My older brothers had a pair of such foils at the house, to-
gether with large felt hats and gauntlets. I did not become
an expert at these broadsword exercises, but became proficient
enough to make me very successful in about half a dozen en-
counters with that weapon at the Universities of Munich and
Heidelberg. Indeed, I was never touched in these duels,
though on similar occasions, with the small sword at Jena,
where no other weapons were permitted, and in the use of
which I thought myself almost a master, I was two or three
times pretty severely handled by my opponents. The River
Main afforded us a fine opportunity for rowing, sailing and
swimming in summer, and a splendid ice field for skating in
winter. Father was a great walker, and used to take me
with him, even when I was quite small, when he visited Offen-
bach, Soden, Cronberg, or Homburg, the distance of the latter
EARLY TRAVELS 43
places being from nine to ten miles from Frankfort. There
was no lack of vigorous exercise in my bringing up.
EARLY PROFESSIONAL PLANS
I had a strong inclination to study medicine, and there
was an institute at Frankfort, called the Senckenberg Institute.
It was attached to a hospital founded by Dr. Senckenberg for
aged citizens. But he had added to it his garden, which he
made a botanical one. He had also endowed a botanical pro-
fessorship. Adjoining the botanical garden he had erected an
anatomical museum, to which a professorship was also at-
tached. For a very small entrance fee, students of the college
who intended to become physicians could use all these estab-
lishments. Young practising physicians also enjoyed this
privilege. I had reached the second highest class at college.
I attended lectures on anatomy one winter, but became dis-
gusted with the dissecting room, and went there only once or
twice. But the botanical garden I frequented much and in
the summer-time made botanical excursions in the neighbor-
hood of the city twice a week. We had to be at the professor 's
room as early as five in the morning, and then tramped out
through heavy dews, little branches and ponds, so that we gen-
erally returned much fatigued by eight or nine o'clock, and
often with wet feet. Yet I think only with delight on these
botanical promenades. I collected quite an herbarium. The
gathering of the plants, their arrangement, the drying and
pressing of them, was a favorite occupation with me. Of
course, I often went botanizing of my own accord.
I became slightly acquainted at that time with George
Engelmann, who was at the college, but, he being a year or two
older and in the first class, it was only through these botanical
excursions with Professor Becker that I knew him. I had then
no idea that we should become so closely related in after life.
He had gone to the United States a year before I went, and
there became one of the most distinguished physicians and a
still more distinguished botanist. He was also an eminent
44 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
geologist. When lie died lie was a member of many academies
and learned societies in Europe and the United States. In the
course of these reminiscences we shall meet him very often.
My desire to become a physician or a doctor, as was then
the usual appellation of a medical man, was not encouraged
by my family. My mother had several reasons for having
strong objections. She said that my nurse, on account of my
loud crying and general " cussedness, " had always said I
must become a "Procurateur" a name in olden times fre-
quently given to advocates. The strongest objection, how-
ever, was, that she thought I was not handsome enough. She
may have been right; but I may say, without laying myself
open to the charge of too great vanity, that I had no trouble
in finding during my life many warm and devoted friends
among the fair sex.
SOCIAL LIFE
In our house there was much society. My sisters had
many girl friends. Once or twice every week, they would
have some of them call in the evening before supper, which
was always late, eight o'clock in winter, and nine or half
past nine in summer. These were free and easy meetings,
like the tertulias in Spain. Sometimes there was tea, coffee or
fruit served. The girls would play on the piano, sing, dance,
play at blind man's buff and other games. I was often
amongst them, as were also some of my friends. My father
had a very large number of friends in the city, and in neigh-
boring and even distant towns, owing to the fact that he
acted as a commission-merchant for small booksellers in those
places, and also that he had, particularly in earlier times,
published works of clergymen and teachers in colleges and
schools. His close connection with the Bluecher Club had
brought him in contact with many prominent men in Offen-
bach, Homburg, Hanau and Darmstadt.
Particularly at the time of the two fairs in Frankfort
we had a good many visitors from abroad, who sometimes
EARLY TRAVELS 45
stayed for weeks, and amongst them were some quite inter-
esting people. Among places in which we had warm friends
must be mentioned, in particular, Kreuznach and Bad Ems.
Business connections brought my father to the first place.
He made many friends, amongst others a merchant by the
name of Kauffmann, who was the author of a book of songs,
some of which were really of great merit. He was an orig-
inal, full of humor and wit, an inimitable story-teller and
mimic. He was the best type of the ever gay and vivacious
Rhinelander. He came regularly to the Frankfort fair and
made his purchases, and we were all delighted when he ar-
rived. Sometimes his sons and daughters came to see us, and
my sister Pauline spent in return many weeks and months
at his delightful Kreuznach home, where some two or three
times I also spent part of my college vacation. We became
acquainted with other families there, and I yet remember the
delightful picnic parties we had at the Ebernburg and other
picturesque places which surround Kreuznach.
As to Ems, though its waters were known as highly cur-
ative in certain diseases, it was not then the fashionable wat-
ering place it became in later years; and it was perhaps for
this reason a more agreeable place to visit. Our connection
with Ems was owing to the fact that sister Pauline, whose
lungs had become somewhat affected, spent a season there and
took lodgings at the Four Towers (Vier Thuermen), a kind of
chateau in renaissance style, that had belonged to a noble
family and was now owned by the widow of Dr. Thilenius,
who had been the ducal bath-physician. The structure had
been converted into a bath house, and was no hotel. The
guests were accommodated with furnished rooms, and the
baths were taken in a large basin. Most of the people stay-
ing there were of the highest class ; and had usually their own
cooks and servants. The kitchen was of a large size, with
many ranges, so that several families could have their meals
prepared at once. But most of the guests went to neighbor-
ing restaurants. The widow Thilenius was a woman of un-
46 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
common intellect, and showed, when I first knew her, traces
of rare beauty. She was a splendid business woman, for
which excellence Boerne, who had quarreled with her about
prices, gave her, in one of his letters, some sarcastic hits. She
was a fine writer and given to making verses. She became
exceedingly fond of Pauline, and promised to visit her in
Frankfort. On parting she wrote in Pauline's album:
"Sprudle emsig; sprudle helle,
Frische Emser Silberquelle.
Eine liebe kranke Rose
Ward gesund in deinem Schoose."
She afterwards came to Frankfort, and father, Pauline
and myself visited Ems repeatedly.
THE THILENIUS FAMILY
As the Thilenius family became somewhat interwoven
with our own, it may not be amiss to give their history, as
far as I became acquainted with it. In the first place, the
late Dr. Thilenius was not only known as one of the ablest
physicians in the Dukedom of Nassau, but stood very high as
a man. It was said that it was he who resurrected the baths
at Ems. They were known to the Romans and highly prized
by them; and even in the middle ages they had a great rep-
utation. But for some reason or other, perhaps because there
was no gambling permitted there, they were, towards the end
of the last century overshadowed by such places as Spaa,
Pyrmont, and Wilhelmsbad. Dr. Thilenius, by having the
springs and baths put in fine condition, and by demonstrat-
ing in a number of publications the excellence of the waters,
had attracted invalids in great numbers to the place, and so
was honored by the Duke with orders, and loved by the peo-
ple as a benefactor. For this reason the family had much
pride.
The Four Towers were, at the time I visited there, much
patronized. At one time I found nearly all the rooms, in-
cluding the large salon, occupied by the Grand Duke of
EAELY TRAVELS 47
Russia, Constantino, and his wife, with an immense suite of
adjutants, chamberlains, etc., etc. At another, the Duke of
Clarence, who afterwards became William IV of England,
was a guest, and with him were two beautiful young girls
(his daughters by some lady unknown), who went by the
name of the Misses Fitz-Clarence.
The times I spent at Ems were most delightful. It was
always vacation-time. I met there the three Thilenius sons,
one of whom was a student of medicine at Giessen, Rudolf
by name; the other, Otto, who was at the Weilburg Gym-
nasium ; and Ernest, who was at a much-noted private board-
ing-school at Offenbach, so largely patronized by English boys
that the language spoken there in conversation was English.
What splendid parties we made, mostly on donkeys or ponies,
along the beautiful valley of the Lahn and in the side val-
leys, as far even as Coblentz on the Rhine! Only one of the
girls, Matilda, lived at Ems. The eldest, Charlotte, was al-
ready married to a Herr von Haus, and resided at Wuerz-
burg. The youngest was in a ladies' seminary, also at Offen-
bach. All the children were very handsome, some of them of
most exquisite beauty. I became very intimate with all of
them. Charlotte von Haus was the most perfect beauty I
ever saw. To attempt a description of this charming lady
would be a vain task. In the words of Byron:
"Who has not proved how feebly words essay
To fix one spark of beauty 's heavenly ray !
Who does not feel, until his failing sight
Faints into dimness with its own delight,
His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess
The might, the majesty of loveliness ! ' '
I have somewhere seen a German translation of these
lines which do justice, in my opinion, more than justice, to
the original. It runs thus:
48 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
"Wer hat es nicht gefuehlt, wie schwer zu malen,
Ein Punken aus der Schoenheits Himmelsstrahlen !
"Wer fuehlt es nicht, in wessen Angesicht
Geblendet von der Reize Zauberlieht,
Wess klopfend Herz, wess Wange Glut entbrannt,
Hat je der Schoenheit Wundermacht erkannt!"
There was added to her Grecian beauty of face and form,
a most fascinating loveliness and grace. She was highly ac-
complished, a fine musician, and full of spirit. I was so
lucky as to become quite a pet of hers. A few years later,
passing through Wuerzburg, I called upon her, and was re-
ceived most kindly by herself and husband, who was a prom-
inent physician and also a man of high intellect, of exquisite
wit, and a charming conversationalist. At a little later period,
on my return home from Munich (1831), I stopped our vet-
turino for an hour at Friedberg, where the doctor then re-
sided as official physician for the district (Kreis-physicus).
They expressed great pleasure at my call. Charlotte, though
some ten years older than when I first saw her, was as fair
as ever, and as kind and loving to me as when I was a boy.
They afterwards moved to the city of Augsburg ; but when I
passed through that place some thirty years later, I had no
time to renew our old friendship.
Mathilde Thilenius was a brunette with most brilliant
eyes and handsome features, but perhaps a little too tall for
a woman. She was also very vivacious, full of wit and humor ;
she was more housewifely than Charlotte. She married, some
years after I became acquainted with her, a Mr. Reimann, a
clergyman in the electorate of Hesse. Otillie, the youngest,
was quite a child when I first met her. After my return from
the University (1832), she came to us often from her sem-
inary at Offenbach. She, too, was very beautiful, but had
not the sprightliness and vivacity of her sisters. As she was
then only a girl of twelve or thirteen years, she may have
become quite as interesting.
EARLY TRAVELS 49
If the Thilenius girls were fair, and "fairer than that
word," so were the sons. I found Rudolf, on my settling in
Frankfort in 1832, a practicing physician at some town in
the Dukedom of Nassau. He came to Frankfort often to see
us. He died quite young, after I had left Europe. Otto be-
came a very eminent lawyer, but I cannot now recollect
where he settled and when he died.
Ernest, just of my age, was the handsomest among them.
He was the male impersonation of Charlotte. When at Offen-
bach, in the Spies Institute, he used to call on us almost every
Saturday. In vacation times he stayed for days at our house.
We became very intimate. He had a lofty mind and high
aspirations, and had determined to become an artist. When I
left college he also had completed his education at Offenbach,
and went somewhere to study his profession as a painter. I
lost sight of him then, but learned later that he had spent a
number of years in Rome, pursuing his studies in painting
and architecture. He was so fortunate, or unfortunate, as to
have the wife of a very distinguished member of the English
Parliament fall deeply in love with him; and he had actu-
ally to run away from Rome to prevent a scene. I presume he
led a very Bohemian sort of life, as is very common with
idealistic artists. In 1850 he surprised me very much by his
appearance in Belleville, bringing with him a young, very
handsome, sprightly and amiable wife, his own niece, the
daughter of Mathilde. He still showed traces of his former
beauty ; but he was now stricken with consumption. His plan
was to make a living by portrait-painting and by giving les-
sons in drawing and painting. He only partially succeeded,
owing largely to his bad health. They stayed some weeks at
our house, then took lodgings near us. He died some time in
the winter of 1852. Emma, his widow, came back to us to
live. She was an excellent performer on the piano and a de-
lightful singer. She gave lessons to my daughter Mary and
to other young ladies in Belleville. In 1853 or 1854 she mar-
ried William Kribben, of St. Louis, and became thereby a
50 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
sister-in-law of Theodore Engelmann, of Steelridge, who had
married William's sister. Emma lost her husband in 1872
or 1873, and has, since his death, been engaged as a German
teacher in the public schools of St. Louis.
ATTRACTIONS OF FRANKFORT
Frankfort at the time of my college days, though not as
large and beautiful a city as now, was a place which could
not help greatly influencing the character of young people.
There was the appearance at least of a free, independent and
republican government, great wealth and very little poverty;
for the poor were taken care of by a large number of benevo-
lent institutions and also by the city fathers. There was life
and animation in business; the great fairs brought thousands
of people from far and wide, France, England, Italy, Bel-
gium, Switzerland, and the other German States. It
was the seat of the German Diet, composed of del-
egates from all the states, with their secretaries and
suites. To the Diet all the great powers had ac-
credited ambassadors, accompanied by secretaries of le-
gation and attaches. Besides, it was the seat of the
military commission, having supervision of the entire army
of the Bund; the commissioners being all generals or colo-
nels, with their adjutants. On public occasions all these diplo-
matists and military chiefs appeared in their glittering uni-
forms. In the summer, the city was thronged with travelers
resorting to the various mineral springs which surround
Frankfort, such as, Soden, Homburg, Wilhelmsbad, Cron-
berg, Wiesbaden, Schlangenbad, Weilbach, Schwalbach; and
most of them made a stay at the old imperial city. One must
have been very dull indeed, if in such environments, in the
house and out of the house, he should not more or less have
lost his provincialism and ceased to be a Philistine. Goethe
says truly: "Let no one believe he can ever overcome early
impressions. ' '
EARLY TRAVELS 51
EARLY TRAVELS
To finish what I have to say as to my early life at school
and college in Frankfort, it may not be amiss to speak of my
travels during that time. They were not very extensive, con-
sidering the present mode of locomotion by steamship and
railway, but still at that time were looked upon as by no means
insignificant. In 1816 my mother and sisters went to Kreuz-
nach, and I was taken along. I have no particular recollec-
tion of this journey, except that our carriage was the last that
crossed the pontoon bridge at Mayence, which was afterwards
carried away by the unusual rise of the waters of the Rhine.
It was that dreadful year of high water all over Germany
and other continental countries, the rainfall having destroyed
the harvest of all kinds of grain and potatoes, producing the
extensive famine of 1817. In Kreuznach itself at a picnic
party to Rheingrafenstein, we were overtaken on a very hot
day by a tremendous thunderstorm, and got thoroughly
soaked. The shower was followed by a very cold spell. In
the night I was taken with the croup, and thought to be dy-
ing; but almost instant medical assistance saved me. Of this
sickness I only remember the biting of a dozen leeches on my
throat. In a few days I was well enough for our home trip.
In 1818, my father having business in Bonn and Cologne,
took mother and me along. It was a splendid journey, of
which I have the most pleasant and distinct recollections. We
drove to Mayence, starting late in the evening, and got there
about an hour before the regular packet for Cologne, called
"Jaeht," left its landing-place in the morning. The weather
was delightful. There were many travelers of all nations.
The river with its clear, bright, green waters (being from
Mayence to Bingen, through tne celebrated Rheingau, broader
than anywhere else), was in its whole course to me an en-
chanting sight. "We glided by Bieberich with its magnificent
chateau, by Ingelheim on the left, and Erbach, Johannisberg,
LIBRARY
52 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Geisenheim, Ruedesheim on the right, past hills clad with the
noblest vineyards of Germany.
At Bingen we stopped for dinner, and then came some
very anxious moments. At Bingen the high hills which bound
the river come close together. You think there is a rocky wall
before you. Rocks run under the river from one side to the
other, leaving but a narrow and dangerous channel for boats.
This passage is called the Binger Hole or Loch. On the left
is the celebrated Mouse Tower, on the right the castle of
Ehrenfels on a very high rock, where the Germania statue
now stands. The water rushes through the hole tumultuously,
with a sinister noise. The boat descends rapidly several feet.
The captain assured the lady passengers that the river was in
good stage, and that there would be no danger of striking the
rocks underneath. But still there were many pale faces, and
that not only amongst the ladies. When the rushing of
waters was heard, the captain himself took the helm; and
when the vessel commenced sinking all at once a few feet,
there was a loud cry. Mother had hold of me, but she was
more scared than I was. Nevertheless, we got through, and
felt very proud at having defied the perils. These obstruc-
tions are now entirely removed. But at the time I speak of
the Binger Loch was a terror to all navigators, except in very
high water.
We then passed by ancient Bacharach, the Lorelei Rock,
the many beautiful ruins of old castles which stand on the
high hills, and the many villages and towns which line the
banks of the Rhine between Bingen and Coblentz. At the
latter place our yacht stopped all night and the passengers
went to the hotels on the bank of the river. Early in the
morning we started, under the shadow of the mighty fortress
of Ehrenbreitstein, for Bonn, passing Rolandswoerth, Godes-
berg and the Seven Mountains. At Bonn we left the boat, for
father had come here to attend an auction of oil paintings, in
which he was much interested. And here I may as well speak
EARLY TRAVELS 53
of a circumstance which had considerable influence over our
private affairs.
BUSINESS REVERSES, AND ART MATTERS
After the peace, my father had been led to the determina-
tion to add to his business as bookseller and publisher another
branch, which might be called an art branch. He commenced
at first by purchasing a stock of some modern, but more par-
ticularly ancient, engravings, etchings and wood cuts, and
somewhat later added oil paintings to his stock. At the time,
many private collections of paintings had come under the
hammer, and sometimes very valuable pictures could be
bought at very low prices. Fortunately, or unfortunately,
my father had in several instances met with great success;
having purchased paintings of great merit very cheaply, for
which he found purchasers at three or four times the original
price. So he accumulated quite a stock of paintings hi oil and
water colors. About the year 1823 or 1824, I should judge
that his gallery of oil paintings contained nearly a hundred
pieces. All the engravings and paintings, however, had to
be paid for in cash ; and in the end a considerable capital had
been invested. But sales were slow ; the best of the collection
were found to be too high-priced; and the indifferent ones
found no buyers. Moreover, the new business interested
father more than his regular one, and took up much of his
time. Finally, although occasionally he met with sales, he
had to dispose of his whole stock as best he could.
The failure of this enterprise necessitated economizing
in a degree unknown before, and finally a change in our en-
tire mode of life. Father transferred his bookselling and pub-
lishing business to brother Charles, who took another store
on the Steinway, next to the White Swan Hotel ; while father
occupied a small office near the Neue Kraeme, where he sold
the remnants of his engravings and paintings and what was
left of the books he had formerly published. His health also
began to fail, and he now passed almost every summer at
54 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Cronberg, drinking the waters there. This resort became
later quite celebrated ; and the old village, under the ruins of
the castle, is now a town of fine villas, and almost a suburb
of Frankfort.
Our house was leased at a very high rent, it being in an
excellent business location ; the family afterwards residing in
rented flats, in pleasant, retired places. After the death of
father in 1829, and after I had gone to the United States, our
house was finally sold; leaving, after settling incumbrances,
still a handsome capital for mother and sisters to live on.
But in the later years of mother's life it was greatly reduced
on account of the sickness of mother and my sisters, who had
to use almost constantly the waters of such places as Ems and
Wiesbaden, so that when mother died on the first of April,
1847, sister Pauline had only a small income. Charles also
had become an invalid in the later years of his life, and could
do but very little business. It afforded me great satisfac-
tion that I was then able to assist both of them to a certain
extent and thus to return them the thousand kindnesses they
had done me when I was with them.
While this undertaking of my father's dealing in sub-
jects of art turned out badly in one respect, upon me it had
a lasting influence throughout life; and I have mentioned it
a little more fully for the reason that it explains how I came
to be so fond of everything pertaining to painting and sculp-
ture. When I had published my book "From Spain" ("Aus
Spanien," 1867), some of my friends in Europe, as well as
here, expressed surprise that I should have devoted so much
time to visiting museums and galleries and should have writ-
ten so much, and, as they kindly thought, so well, of pictures
and paintings and of the different schools of art. But it was
only natural that I should do so, considering my surround-
ings when I was yet young and impressionable. My father's
engravings were kept in large portfolios in the rooms where
the pictures were stored, and we children, whenever we could
get permission, were wont to take them to our rooms and
EARLY TRAVELS 55
look at them. A great many were rare prints by old master-
engravers; and all were pleasing to us. I looked over all of
them, while a boy from twelve to fifeen years, at least fifty
times. Often I tried to copy some. Yet, though I had draw-
ing lessons while at the Model School, I never made much
of a draftsman.
The best paintings were hung in our largest room and in
the adjoining cabinets, and there were some of great merit.
The gem of the collection was a ' ' Susanna and the Elders ' ' by
Francis Floris, a Dutch painter, born in 1520, and called by
his contemporaries the Dutch Raphael. It was life-size and
in color as rich as any of Rubens 's masterpieces. It was held
by father at several thousand florins ; but I am afraid that he
never received that price for it, as it was known that he was
very anxious to sell it. There was also a real Rubens, "The
Judgment of Solomon," but it was of small size and
not fully finished. Two marine pieces by Peters, also
a Dutch painter, were very fine. A couple of beau-
tiful landscapes by Schuetze, who was much appre-
ciated by Goethe, together with other paintings of mas-
ters whose names I do not now recollect, were also
in the main rooms. In one of the cabinets there
were life-size pictures of four apostles, Peter and Paul
amongst them, frightful to behold, but attributed by some to
no less a master than Albrecht Duerer. But father had bought
them as copies merely. I saw, later in life, portraits and
other pictures by Duerer which I much admired, but those
in our collection gave me a very poor idea of him. Of course
I heard many discussions about paintings and the masters;
for many persons, and amongst them artists and connois-
seurs, visited our picture rooms.
My love for the fine arts having thus been stimulated, I
became, while at college, almost a constant visitor of the ex-
cellent gallery of paintings and plaster casts donated by Mr.
Staedel to my native city. It was open at that time only one
day in the week for a few hours, and on Sundays from ten to
56 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
one o'clock. Almost every weekday, and on Sundays,
when the weather did not permit of a walk through the
beautiful promenade after church, I could invariably be found
at the Staedel Institute. Whenever I could visit the Beth-
mann Museum, near the New Gate (Neue Thor), I went there.
It contained no paintings but had excellent plaster casts of
all the masterpieces of sculpture then known, and above all
the charming Ariadne of Dannecker in Carrara marble. In
my rather extensive travels while a student, I never failed to
visit the museums and picture galleries, as for instance at
Cassel, Leipsic, Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, and Cologne. No
church or chateau, celebrated for its beauty or architecture,
escaped my visit. This love of fine arts has been to me through
life a constant source of pleasure and deep interest, and I
should, perhaps, have remained as unmoved and indifferent
to the wonders of color and marble as many of my friends,
who were otherwise highly cultivated, had it not been for
this, my father's ill-fated venture in art.
EARLY TRAVELS CONTINUED
Bonn's surroundings are very beautiful. We visited the
old Episcopal Palace (now the University Building), and
the Muenster (Dom), one of the most interesting churches in
Germany, founded by Helene, mother of Constantine the
Great, it is said.
After two or three days we took a boat for Cologne. The
cathedral there was not nearly finished. Even part of the
inside was planked up. Yet its colossal dimensions, resplen-
dent antique painted glass windows, the rich shrine where the
skulls of the three oriental kings are kept, and the splendid
altar-piece by some old German master, even then impressed
me most forcibly. I have seen this grand piece of German
architecture repeatedly since, and in a finished, or nearly fin-
ished state, but my first visit to it is equally as vivid as my
last. In the Church of St. Peters we saw the celebrated
painting of Rubens, "The Crucifixion of the Saint," one
EARLY TRAVELS 57
of his masterpieces according to the master's own opinion.
We visited a great number of other churches, and saw
the bones of the 11,000 virgins. I think we remained
in Cologne four or five days, went back by boat, which
was drawn up stream by four horses, and slept one night
in the boat. We stopped at Neuwied, visited the Herrn-
huter establishment, saw the fine collection of birds,
butterflies and insects brought there by the Prince of
Wied from. South America; stopped at Coblentz, sent
trunks by water to Frankfort, then crossed over to Ehren-
breitsein; walked eight miles over the mountains down to
Ems in the valley of the Lahn, a guide carrying our carpet
bags. We stayed in Ems at the Four Towers, with the Thilen-
ius family. This was my first visit to Ems, of which I have,
however, but little recollection. The eight-mile walk was con-
sidered a considerable feat by my parents for a boy of eight.
At Ems, father hired a guide and two donkeys, one for mother
and one for me, on which we made the journey to Wiesbaden
by way of Schwalbach, a distance of about twenty-five miles.
Occasionally I got down and walked a few miles to let father
ride. From Wiesbaden we went home by coach.
With the exception of several excursions with father and
mother to Darmstadt, Homburg and Wiesbaden, I do not
think I made any journey again with my parents until the
year 1822. But that was a most delightful one, and I was
then of an age when I could better appreciate what I saw.
We went by water to Mayence, took a coach there, and went
up on the banks of the Rhine, passing Laubenheim and Nier-
stein, places celebrated for their excellent wine, stayed all
night at Oppenheim, visited the Dom, stayed from noon till
next morning at Worms, visited the remarkably fine Muenster
(the hall where Luther appeared before the Emperor and
Diet), and finally visited at Frankenthal an intimate friend
of my family, Mr. Henry Roeder, a man of considerable
wealth, the possessor of a very fine drug store. He was a
well educated man, and professionally trained. He lived in
58 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the main street, in an elegant house, and had an interesting
family, and amongst others a fine boy of my age. We stayed
there nearly a week, and spent a most happy time.
This visit came very near being a turning point in
my career. There was at Frankenthal an academy, pre-
paratory to the colleges, called a Pro-Gymnasium, which
was said to be a very good institution. Mr. Roeder
seemed to have taken a liking to me, and he proposed to
my parents putting me into this institute instead of send-
ing me to school at Frankfort. He said that with what
I knew already I could get through the academy in a
couple of years, and that then he would take me as
an apprentice in his pharmacy. A year or two spent
afterwards at a University would put me in the ranks
of graduate pharmacists, who were then in much demand, re-
ceived high salaries, and could in the course of time become
independent proprietors. Now the apothecaries at Frank-
fort were all well-to-do men and highly respected, and as I
could be in no better place away from home than in the ex-
cellent family of my father's friend, the proposal seemed to
them quite acceptable. But I demurred. Compared with
Frankfort, Frankenthal was rather a dull place. It was a
mile or so from the Rhine, lay in a sandy alluvial plain, and
had no fine scenery around it. Besides, I had, from reading
a great deal of poetry and romance, caught rather lofty as-
pirations, which soared above the ultimate ownership of a
pharmacy. So Mr. Roeder 's proposal came to nothing.
From Frankenthal we made excursions to the village of
Forst, visiting father's old friend Mr. Wehrle, father of the
young man whose unfortunate encounter with the French
guardes d' honneur I have already related. We stayed with
him, and he took us through his fine vineyards, where, it be-
ing vintage time, we ate to our heart's content of a delicious
kind of grape which Mr. Wehrle picked for us as the ripest
and sweetest. From Forst we went to Duerkheim, at the foot
of the Haardt Mountains, beautifully situated. We stayed with
EARLY TRAVELS 59
Mr. William Roeder, a brother of Henry, who also had a
drug store. The scenery around Duerkheim is most pictur-
esque, particularly the valley in which the ruins of the Lim-
burg Abbey, an excellent piece of Gothic architecture, are
situated.
In 1824, during Easter vacation, I visited Kreuznach
again. It was the first time that I took so long a trip by my-
self. I felt very proud of it. I went by water to Mayence,
took the "yacht" to Bingen, and dined at the celebrated
White Horse Hotel, situated on the very banks of the Rhine,
with a splendid view of Ruedesheim, Ehrenfels, Niederwald,
and Assmannshausen on the farther shore, and then and,
I believe, for many years afterwards, kept by that prince
of hotel-keepers, Mr. Soherr. After dinner I put my knap-
sack on my shoulders and walked by the river Nahe to be-
loved Kreuznach. My sister Pauline was there on a visit.
We had a delightful time ; went on a half dozen picnic parties
to the most romantic environs of the town; and visited the
old chateau. In the fall of the same year, I believe, I made
a trip to Ems, but took a circuitous route by water to May-
ence or rather to Cassel, the tete de pont of Mayence, from
there to Erbach in the Rheingau, between Rauhenthal and
Markobrunn, (names that make the mouth of any connoisseur
of wine, water,) where I met by appointment my friend
Ernest Thilenius who had stayed with a relative, Mr. Beck,
a rich owner of vineyards. Both of us, with a son of Mr.
Beck, then footed it over a pretty rough spur of the Taunus
Mountains, a distance of at least twenty-five miles, tp Ems,
which we reached pretty well worn-out, a very hard day 's
walk, considering that the first half of it was on a rough
foot-path over steep hills. I need not say what a splendid
time we had at the Four Towers. It being vacation time, all
the boys were at home. We had ponies and donkeys always
at our disposition, and visited Nassau and the chateau of the
Baron of Stein on the Lahn. I returned by myself by way
of Schwalbach and Wiesbaden, stopping at our friends', the
60 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Fliedners. The tour from Ems to Wiesbaden, about thirty
miles, I made in one day, with a pretty heavy knapsack on my
back.
On this trip I met with an adventure, which, considering
my age (about 14), was not altogether pleasant, and for a lit-
tle while gave us a good deal of anxiety.
I left Cassel about five o'clock in the evening, taking the
highway to Biberich, about six miles distant, where I intended
to stay over night. A few hundred yards from the gate I dis-
covered a very nice foot-path leading towards the Rhine, which
I preferred taking, as the highway was very much traveled
and quite dusty. After about a mile the path took the direc-
tion again of the main road, and where it struck it there was
a guard-house, with an Austrian soldier standing guard.
When he saw me he cried out "Halt," holding his musket
across the path. I asked him why he stopped me. "Don't
you see this!" he said, pointing to a low post on which was
fixed a large sign-board. "Yes, I see it," I replied. "And
don't you see that this path is forbidden!" "No!" said I,
"I don't see it." The inscription, "Forbidden Way," was
on the outside towards the highway, so that nobody that came
the way I came could see it. "Well," said I, "that may be
so, but where I came in there was no sign, and of course I did
not know that I was doing anything wrong." The soldier,
however, called for the sergeant or corporal. When he came
up, I explained matters to him ; but he said that it was all the
same to him; he must send me back to the main guard-house
at Cassel. He went in and made out a report in writing,
handed it to a soldier who shouldered his musket and marched
me back. All the conversation on the part of the soldiers had
been held in the broad Austrian dialect; and I did not know
what would be done with me: whether I was to be put in
prison or fined, in which latter case a considerable inroad
would be made on my means of travel. I took good care,
however, to make my escort, when we came to the place
where I had entered the foot-path, see whether there was
EARLY TRAVELS 61
anything to show that it was a forbidden way. Finally, we
reached the grand guard-house within the fort ; I was handed
in: and the soldier delivered the report to a young officer,
probably a lieutenant. Although I felt very bad and my
heart beat quickly, I was enough of a Frankfort boy to put
on a stiff air. He asked my name, place of residence, and
where I was going, and so on, and seemed himself surprised
when the soldier told him, as I did, that there was nothing to
warn me off. He said it was a damned piece of "Eselei,"
declared I ought to have considered that I was still in the
fortification, and wished me a happy journey, whereupon I
started off greatly relieved.
About the same time, during a short mid-summer vaca-
tion, I made a most delightful run through the Taunus Moun-
tains with my friend, Henry Hoffmann (Struwwelpeter), and
Clemens and Behr, my classmates. Leaving the city in the
afternoon, we got to Cronberg in the evening, where we
found only one miserable tavern, with the beds already occu-
pied by tourists, so that as a last resort we had to get the land-
lord to spread for us some bunches of fresh straw on the floor
of the common drinking-room. The straw was then covered
with a sheet, and some pillows were furnished. At two in
the morning our guide woke us up, and we marched by the
old castle of Falkenstein to the top of the Feldberg (about
3,000 feet) to see the sun rise. We got there just at day-
break, and, as is usual at that time, a strong breeze came up,
and, sitting on a granite ledge of rock, called the Brunhilde-
stein, we felt most uncomfortably cold. We saw the sun rise,
and obtained a fine view of Frankfort, and of the towns and
villages surrounding it; of Mayence and of the Donnersberg,
that highest peak of the Haardt Mountains ; and of the beau-
tiful range called the Bergstrasse. But a slight mist shut out
the more distant sights, so that we did not see the whole pan-
orama, which is said to be the finest in Germany, including,
as it does, the cities and towns of the upper Rhine, Oppen-
62 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
heim, Worms, Mannheim, Speyer, and in very clear weather
even the towers of the Strassburg Cathedral.
From the Feldberg, we reached, through beautiful val-
leys, the castle of Eppstein, one of the largest ruins of Ger-
many. It belonged to a distinguished race of Knights, some
of whom had been Archbishops of Mayence, and another a
Patriarch of Jerusalem. Eppstein, the village, stands at the
junction of three most picturesque valleys, with clear trout
brooks rushing through them. It is one of the most wildly
romantic spots in Germany. I went there often as a child
with my parents.
We stopped at the water-mill, the proprietor of which
keeps an inn, the table d'hote of which has a great reputation.
On Sundays, hundreds of people from Frankfort, Wiesbaden,
and neighboring towns, resort there, where they find always
the best of fish, crabs, and excellent venison. The venison
came from the roe, which is not as large as the American deer,
but the flesh of which is more tender and savory. I think we
stayed at the mill over night; then traveled across pretty
high mountains to Sonnenberg, a fine old ruin ; and went thence
to Wiesbaden. As this latter place was well known to us, we
did not stay there long, but took dinner at the Kursaal and
marched homeward through Hofheim to Frankfort, by way
of Bad Soden and Roedelheim. We were a gay set, and
amused ourselves in various ways, singing a hundred songs
while marching. We had spent all our money, and fortu-
nately came to the gates of Frankfort before they were closed.
Otherwise we should not have known what to do; since at
that time, and for many years later, the gates were closed at
eight o'clock in the summer, and earlier in the winter; and
after they were closed a toll had to be paid for entrance. It
was four kreutzers, or about one and one-half cents per head.
This levying of a toll might have been all right as long as
Frankfort was a fortress, but it was a piece of nonsense to con-
tinue it after it became an open place.
EARLY TRAVELS 63
In the Easter vacation of 1827 I went to Worms, at the
invitation of a college friend, Edward Graf, and spent some
days at his father's house, the pastor of the principal church.
I felt very much at home there. He had two lovely sisters,
also. Graf was a handsome youth, full of life and inclined
to be wild. He was very bright, and in some branches a very
good scholar. He went after college to the University of
Giessen, so that we did not meet again while I was in Ger-
many. As he came afterwards to the United States, I may
have to speak of him again.
From Worms I took my way to Heidelberg, where I
stayed with a student from Frankfort. He took me to the
fencing-rooms, and to the club-house of the Burschenschaft
every evening; so that I got quite well acquainted with stu-
dent-life and the rules they live by (Studenten-Comment).
Unluckily the weather was bad. It rained half the time, and
when it did not rain, a high wind blew from the vast Rhine
plain into the narrow valley of the Neckar, where Heidelberg
stands. I did not then see very much of the wonderful scen-
ery about the famous University.
Shortly after my return from Heidelberg, I was taken
down with a bilious typhoid fever, which I had undoubtedly
contracted during my stay at Heidelberg, and for a few days
my condition was considered very dangerous. By the most
careful nursing I recovered; but it was months before I was
able to drive out. Brother Charles, who had sat up with me
many nights, was prostrated with the same disease, but not
to such a degree as I was. In the fall it was thought that
travelling would complete the re-establishment of my health.
I got Henry Hoffmann to join me, and we went to Kreuznach,
taking the boat to Bingen. We had a most joyful time at
Kreuznach; Hoffmann delighting our friends there with his
humor and wit. We visited all the romantic places in the
neighborhood in company with college friends, and we had
frequently pretty and interesting girls with us. Hoffmann
had never been away from home much, and he overflowed
64 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
with vivacity. We also did justice to the good wines of the
Palatinate, which beyond the Prussian frontier were very
cheap. We went back to Bingen, and there took the steam-
boat Frederick William III on one of her first trips on the
Rhine ; it was the first steamer we ever saw. We went up the
Rhine valley to Coblentz, Bonn, and finally to Cologne, where
we spent several days visiting the many churches, picture gal-
leries and museums. Returning, we stopped at Coblentz, and
of course went over to Ems, where we spent some days with
the Thilenius family, which stay Hoffmann considered as the
crowning triumph of our journey. He was everywhere re-
ceived as a friend. Via Schwalbach, we reached Wiesbaden,
where he also stayed with me at the Fliedners, a family with
whom we were intimately befriended.
Theodore Fliedner, who had been a teacher at the Wies-
baden Lyceum, became afterwards the founder of the Insti-
tute for Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth. He had been often in
England, whence he derived much patronage for his establish-
ment, and became much noted as a gentleman of learning and
piety. In 1849, he went to the United States, where he found-
ed a similar institution at Pittsburg. He also visited Jerusa-
lem in the interest of the British-German Protestant Bishop-
ric; and founded in many places institutions similar to that
of Kaiserswerth, as well as hospitals and orphan asylums. He
was also the author of various theological works. The whole
Fliedner family were very pious people, mother, sons and
daughters; yet they were not puritanical, and not averse to
innocent amusements; and, although we were considered by
them as rather too free-thinking, yet our mutual visits were
always highly agreeable. Theodore was some ten years older
than myself, and I did not know him as well as I did some of
his brothers and sisters, though sufficiently to like him as a
kind, industrious, and thoroughly upright young man.
A Pastor Fliedner, a son of Theodore, followed in the
footsteps of his father. He worked as a missionary in Spain.
After great efforts he formed Protestant congregations at
EARLY TRAVELS 65
Madrid, Granada, and other places in Spain, and obtained
permission to open a chapel where he performed services in
both English and German. He also founded an Orphan
Asylum and Hospital for Protestants in Madrid. Thereto-
fore, such a thing was unheard of in Spain. Now and then
some English clergyman held religious services in the homes
of the English Legation, where the English Minister would
invite Protestants to attend, and where none were admitted
unless so invited; but this was only a diplomatic privilege.
There was also at my time a Protestant cemetery at Madrid,
which was, however, supported only by the English, American,
Prussian and other Protestant legations, and was considered
exterritorial to Spain.
Before I left for the University, I went again to Heidel-
berg in 1828 with Henry Hoffmann, Balthasar Hoffmann, and
another college friend whose name I have forgotten. We took
a circuitous route. We ascended the Melibocus, and pass-
ing the "Sea of Rocks," a mountain plain covered with im-
mense granite boulders (Giant Altar, Giant Column) and
small loose syenite rocks, we entered the Odenwald and through
wild valleys reached Erbach at night. This place is cele-
brated for the fine large chateau of the counts of Erbach, in
which is a much admired armory. It is not near as rich as
the Great Armoria in Madrid, yet interesting enough to de-
serve and to receive many a visit. There are, for instance,
full sets of armor, some arranged on horseback, others on foot,
of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, of Emperor Max-
imilian the First, of Gustavus Adolphus, and of Wallenstein.
There are pieces of the armor of Franz von Sickingen, Goetz
von Berlichingen, and other curiosities, such as ancient fire-
arms, the coffin of Eginhard (secretary and son-in-law of
Charlemagne) and his wife Emma.
Going from Erbach, mostly through beautiful timber, we
struck a wild road, by which we reached the Neckar at Hirsch-
horn above Heidelberg, and travelled down the banks of the
river to that place. We had a great many friends there who
66 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
had been college chums, and spent some glorious days among
the Burschenschaft. We wore the German colors, black, red
and gold, on our caps, and since we were all soon to leave
college to go to the University, we were treated almost as
students. We went to see a couple of duels at the celebrated
Hirschgasse, and in fact drank and sang with the crowd like
old "Burschen." Needless to say, that we parted from our
friends with great regret, and that this my last journey while
at Frankfort is still one of the most agreeable recollections
of my college days.
LAST DAYS IN FRANKFORT
I left the college (Gymnasium) in the spring of 1828,
but did not go to the University till the fall of that year.
My time was employed in studying the ancient classics under
private teachers. One Dr. Textor, a cousin of Goethe, con-
ducted my Latin lessons. We went through Horace's satires
and epistles in a different style from that at college. He was
an excellent scholar and his explanations were highly interest-
ing. It was a pleasure to read with him. He was an orig-
inal. Of gigantic stature, his appearance was very disagree-
able, almost repellent. He had run himself down by hard
drinking, and his face showed the marks of it. Being a man
of natural genius and of vast learning, besides belonging to
a patrician family, he might have filled the highest station as
a professor at a university or college; but his unfortunate
habits had made this impossible for him. His means, if he
ever had had any, he certainly had wasted, and for many
years before I knew him he eked out a precarious existence
by teaching Greek and Latin. He dressed most shabbily, and
whether he wore shirt or undershirt could never be discovered,
for he always wore his coat buttoned up to his chin. Shirt
collars and neckties he never wore. He was some sixty years
of age when he gave me lessons. Everybody knew old Dr.
Textor, for when he walked through the streets in his vaga-
bond attire, holding under his left arm a half dozen antique
EARLY TRAVELS 67
books held together by a strap, and wielding with his right
hand a tremendous oaken stick, he could not but attract the
attention of all passers-by.
With a young philologist, a friend of brother Charles, I
went through some dramas of Sophocles. At college, in the
same time, I should not have gotten through more than a
dozen pages of one tragedy. I read a great deal of history,
as well as novels in German and French, and much of my
poetical scribbling was done during that summer.
I must not omit speaking of a little love affair or rather
the beginning of one, which took place during this last sum-
mer that I lived in Frankfort.. We resided on the second
and third floors of a large house, to which belonged a garden,
not very large, but well kept, with fine flowers, groups of
trees and arbors. The ground floor was occupied by a Rus-
sian family, a mother, a daughter Sophia, about 18, and two
smaller children, a boy called Sasha (Alexander) and a girl
Masha (Maria). Their father, a native of Frankfort, was a
banker in St. Petersburg, and their mother a Russian, who
on account of frail health, had been sent to Frankfort with
the children, and had been there about a year when I became
acquainted with them. My mother and sisters had frequent-
ly rendered assistance to the old lady in her attacks of sick-
ness, and of course we all became well acquainted with the
family. Sasha was a fine boy, and I petted him. Sophia
was not wondrously beautiful, but very handsome and grace-
ful, and of course somewhat different in manner and conduct
from German girls, which trait gave her a peculiar interest,
at least in my eyes. After sundown when the coolness of the
evening made walks in the garden pleasant, we would fre-
quently meet, sometimes in company with other members of
our family, sometimes alone. She spoke German admirably,
and I gave her some of my books to read : Uhland 's, Heine 's,
and Schiller's poems, for which she appeared to be very
grateful. Of course I said many sweet things to her, to which
she made no objection. Briefly, I had just begun to fall in
68 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
love with her, when the family was called back to Peters-
burg. When the carriage came to the door to take the fam-
ily to the station (the stage was to take them to Luebeck), we
were all in the hall below to bid them adieu. She shook hands
with all of my family, but me she took by both hands ; ' ' Fare-
well Farewell!" she faltered, with her eyes clouded by
pearly tears. For the first time it dawned upon me that she
had really come to like me, and I for the first time felt that
I had actually come to love her. As it was, I fell into a deep
melancholy for some time. The song of mine beginning,
"Feme hist du hingezogen," and various sonnets, prove what
I felt. And I may say here that I never wrote a verse that
was not the expression of something that actually happened
or that I actually felt. The verses have no merit, but they
are true confessions of the momentary moods which possessed
me.
Casting a retrospective glance upon this my early youth
and summing up the phases through which my life had passed
I cannot say that it was all sunshine.
"Des Lebens ungemischte Freude
Wird keinem Sterblichen zu Theil."
The early decay of my sister Augusta's health was a
constant source of anxiety and sorrow to us all. The many
ups and downs in my brother Fritz's life, and his tragic
death, the loss of Theodore, whom I loved unspeakably, the
ill success of my father in his once so prosperous business,
which straitened our circumstances, affected his health, and
embittered his last years, could not fail to darken many hours
of my life. But take it all in all, I should be ungrateful to
fate, did I not acknowledge that my youth had been a happy
one in many respects. My parents were respected and loved
by all who knew them. In the family itself, there never was
any discord. I saw the light of day at a most interesting
time, when Europe was convulsed by war, and when at last
the fate of the world was decided on the great battle fields of
EARLY TRAVELS 69
Leipsic and Waterloo. The German people were still moved
by the inspirations which had brought about the war of libera-
tion; and the on-coming generation lived for some time after
peace was restored in an ideal world, full of hope and proud
of their fatherland. I was a native of the free city of Frank-
fort, of which it has been said that every paving stone has a
history. Its burghers had governed themselves for centuries,
boasted of their spirit of independence, and had very little
respect for kings and princes.
I had from early youth unlimited access to books and
an opportunity to make myself familiar with the treasures
of literature. The social relations of our family were such
as to make us acquainted with many cultivated and interest-
ing people. There was almost a constant exchange of visits
between us and our friends outside of Frankfort. Consid-
ering the times, I had traveled much, had seen much to excite
my imagination. The consequence was that I never when
alone felt anything like ennui, which I think is a great
blessing. My friends at school and college were most all of
them sons of educated and highly respectable people and
consequently well-mannered. I was not always the first in
my class. I was not ambitious enough for that, nor industrious
enough ; and, besides, some of my classmates were much more
gifted than I. In fact, I got more credit from teachers and
fellow collegians than I deserved, why, I really do not know.
In our games, however, and on excursions, I generally was
made leader, by a sort of silent consent. I never had any
serious quarrel with my companions, though I sometimes was
a little high-tempered, a paternal inheritance. Add to this,
that I was generally in very good health and strong, and it
would be very unjust indeed if I were not to call my youth
a happy one.
CHAPTER IV
University-Life Jena
"Freiheit, in uns erwacht,
1st deine Geistermacht,
Dein Reich, genaht?
Gliihend fiir Wissenshaft,
Bliihend in Jugendkraft,
Sei Deutschlands Bursehenschaft
Ein Bruderstaat. "
Karl Pollen
It had been decided that I should study law. Heidelberg
was the usual place for Frankfort students to go to. But
there were objections to it. In the first place, it was a com-
paratively expensive place. Giessen, Marburg, Erlangen,
Jena, were less expensive, and our means at the time were
limited. But my principal reason for not going there was
that, toward the end of the summer of 1828, Heidelberg had
been interdicted or "boycotted," as the present term is, by
the great body of German students, and particularly by the
Bursehenschaft societies. A new club, called the ' ' Museum, ' '
had been formed, to which all the professors and government
officials belonged, but from which the students were excluded
by the constitution. All negotiations to remedy this matter
failed, and so the students' societies with one accord resolved
to leave Heidelberg, and to call upon the associations all over
Germany to avoid the place for three years.
According to German usage, students who would not
obey the interdict were declared incompetent to demand satis-
faction in duels for insults offered, and could not enter any
student's rooms at any other University if they had been at
UNIVERSITY LIFE 71
Heidelberg within the three years. Some three hundred stu-
dents, indeed, nearly all who were not citizens of Baden,
(who by law were compelled to study some period at the State
University,) left in a body, and assembled some five miles off
at a town near the bank of the Rhine. From that place nego-
tiations were again tried; and, though the inhabitants of
Heidelberg, generally, did not like to see the University aban-
doned by those who spent so much money there, still the
aristocratic class would not yield, and the interdict conse-
quently remained valid for three years. I did not like to
be outlawed. Besides, all the friends I had there, and all the
members of the Burschenschaft, (which society I would nat-
urally join, as it was the party that was imbued with the idea
of the liberty and unity of Germany,) had left, and I should
have had a sorry time of it if in this dilemma I had selected
Heidelberg as my University.
Jena, just at that time, had some very eminent professors
in the law-faculty; as, Dr. Zimmern, who had made himself
a great reputation as a lecturer on Roman law in Heidelberg,
before he was called to Jena ; Professor Martin, who was con-
sidered at the head of teachers of German civil and criminal
law and the law of practical procedure; Professor Hencke,
who was a high authority on medical jurisprudence; and
Professor Von Schroeder, an eminent Pandectist. There
were, besides, Professor Fries, one of the most distinguished
followers of Kant, and Professor Henry Luden, the great
historian. So Jena was chosen.
TO JENA BY STAGE-COACH.
The day of departure came. For that time the distance
from Frankfort to Jena was considered great, being about two
hundred and twenty-five miles. Coaches ran pretty regularly
between Frankfort and Leipsic via Weimar, which is only
twelve miles from Jena. Such a coach had been advertised
from Geneva to arrive on a certain day at the White Swan,
and to have room for one or more passengers for Leipsie,
72 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Berlin, or Breslau. Father bespoke a place. When it ar-
rived, we went to take a look at it. It was a large, wide
vehicle, something after the fashion of the large English trav-
eling coaches. In front was a covered seat, a sort of a coupe
for the conductor and the driver. At the back was a large
boot, which would hold half a dozen trunks. Four passengers
had come in it, whom we did not then see, for they had taken
lodgings in a hotel. It was to be drawn by three horses. The
seats were really wide enough for three persons, so that five
could be quite comfortably seated. The fare was settled.
Next day at noon this rather extraordinary conveyance was to
start.
I parted from mother and sisters with a heavy heart,
seeing how much they were affected. Jena had the reputation
of being a pretty wild place, duels being fought there with the
small sword, a dangerous weapon. But I said I would avoid
fighting duels anyway; and, besides, it had to be considered
that just on account of this dangerous mode of dueling, duels
were much less frequent there than at any other University.
Father and brother Charles went with me to the White Swan.
We had a parting cup of wine ; the coach ready to start was
waiting in the yard. It came out, and what should I see!
It was occupied by four well-dressed ladies, one of canonical
age, chaperoning the other three, who were all young, prob-
ably between twenty and twenty-five years of age, two of
them quite handsome and one really beautiful, all looking
very ladylike. Father, brother and I started back with sur-
prise; but I had to enter at once. Three of the ladies had
taken the back seat, while the youngest and prettiest, Henri-
etta Maddens, occupied the front seat, on which I had to take
my place. If I felt embarrassed, how must the girl have felt !
They had come all the way from Geneva by themselves, and
in undisturbed comfort, and now a young stranger was forced
upon them, wearing a little student-cap on his head, and a
short black frock-coat, with one row of buttons only (the so-
called German coat much in fashion then among the Burschen-
UNIVERSITY LIFE 73
schaft), with the shirt collar turned down over the small coat
collar, and no necktie, and in one hand a large German
pipe with tassels in the national colors. And when I was in,
brother Carl handed to the conductor a fine cavalry sword,
which father had given me. The ladies were certainly very
disagreeably surprised, but so well-bred that they showed it
as little as possible.
The old lady looked very suspiciously at my pipe. I had
discovered, however, at once that they were French ladies,
and so I assured them in their own language that they need
not believe for a moment that I would smoke in their presence,
but that when I felt like it, I would take a seat with the con-
ductor and driver. It was not long before there were mutual
explanations. I was just about to become a student at Jena
near Weimar; was delighted at having such pleasant com-
pany ; and the elderly lady informed me that she was a teacher
at a ladies' boarding-school at Breslau, had been in Germany
several years and spoke German perfectly well; had been
charged by various noble families to engage governesses from
French Switzerland ; that she herself was a native of Geneva ;
two of the other ladies were from Lausanne; and one, my
neighbor, from Vevey; and that they had all been educated
as teachers. As I spoke their language pretty fluently, it was
not very long before we became good friends, and certainly
I could not have had better company unless they had been
so many German students. I was necessarily put on my
best behavior. We went about fifteen miles that evening, and
stopped at an indiiferent tavern. As the horses were not
changed, we moved very slowly, and did not reach Eisenach
before the morning of the second day. There we arranged
for a longer stay, as we were desirous of visiting the cele-
brated Wartburg. The ladies, all being Reformed Protestants,
wanted to see where the great reformer had been confined
and had worked on his translation of the Bible. It is a
legend at Eisenach that most of the English do not visit the
Wartburg to see the splendid castle with its superb view of the
74 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
verdant valleys and mountains of Thueringen, nor the great
Knight's hall and the highly interesting armory, but merely
to look at the ink-spot on the wall which the reformer made
when he missed his aim in throwing his ink-stand at the devil.
The moment they have been shown this black spot, renewed,
of course, every year, they hurry away, fully satisfied that
they have done all that could be required of a gentleman-
traveler.
Henrietta Maddens, my neighbor, the prettiest of the
girls, who was engaged as governess by a noble family in
Weimar, so near to Jena, received my particular attention.
We walked back together from the Burg, where we had
enjoyed one of the most beautiful views in Thueringen, and
I told her I should be glad to visit her from time to time at
Weimar. She wrote her name in my note-book, and gave me
the address of the baron or count with whom she was to stay.
In the course of the following winter I called at the house of
his excellency. A liveried servant came into the hall, and I
gave him my card for Henrietta. After a while he came down
and showed me up to a kind of ante-room, but instead of
Henrietta there appeared an old stiff-necked lady with a very
aristocratic look. ' ' Madamoiselle Henrietta does not receive
any visits from young gentlemen," she uttered in a very
decided tone. "I presume," I replied, "you do not allow
her to do so. Please hand her my card and tell her that I
should have been glad to see her, and that she has my best
wishes for her happiness." Without further remarks, I re-
treated, not even making a bow to the old woman. That was
the last of Henrietta.
Through G-otha, we reached Weimar on a Sunday noon
early in October. I parted from my French demoiselles, who
bade me a very warm adieu. The weather had been most
beautiful, indeed like Indian summer; and it may be said
that not often does a young student make a journey more
romantic than this one.
UNIVERSITY LIFE 75
In the afternoon, I inquired of the landlord the direc-
tion of Goethe's house. I wanted to pay my respects as a
fellow-townsman. But I was told that Goethe, soon after the
death of his friend the Grand Duke of Weimar (June, 1828),
had left for Dornburg, and would not return before winter.
Rambling through the town, I saw his house, which was archi-
tecturally pleasing, but by no means large. I also saw the
modest little house where Schiller had lived.
STUDENT LIFE IN JENA. THE BURGKELLER
Next morning, having arranged to send my trunk by
wagon, I shouldered my knapsack and walked the twelve miles
to Jena in the picturesque valley of the Saale. Through a
large gate with a big tower I entered the town. Right near
the gate is a pretty little square, with a big oak tree in the mid-
dle (Eichplatz), leading by a tolerably wide street to another
small square, on which stands the celebrated club-house of
the Burschenschaft, or " Burgkeller, ' ' a massive old building
on a large solid foundation, to reach the first floor of which
one has to go up some six or seven steps. This structure must
have been built several hundred years ago. To the left of a
rather narrow hall is a large room with a number of tables.
The landlady was enshrined on a sort of platform behind a
low desk, from which she could survey the whole room. Be-
hind the desk was a huge blackboard, with names on it and
the charges due. She was known to the students as a most
business-like woman, crediting persons on whose honor she
could rely, and even lending them money without interest.
She was highly respected, though she always kept the strict-
est order. She was considered wealthy.
I at once betook myself to this ancient hostelry. There
was no one there when I entered the room but old Mrs. Baetz,
the owner of the house. I laid aside my knapsack, and
ordered a glass of beer. The waiter, called in Jena "lad"
(Juengling), brought me a tall, narrow tumbler without a
handle and holding about half a pint, called from its peculiar
76 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENER
form a pole (Stange). The beer looked exactly like cider.
It was white beer, such as I had never seen before, but was
at that time the common, I might say the only, beverage used
there. It tasted sour, something like pale ale, and was quite
sparkling. I asked whether they did not have brown beer,
and was answered : ' ' Yes. But we do not have it on tap ; it
is sold only by the jug." I tried it afterwards. It was
brewed in Ober- Weimar, and hence called Ober Wim; but it
was a kind of double beer, of very dark color, and much too
strong for social drinking. The white beer was weak, and
we could take half a dozen glasses in the evening without
feeling much effect from it.
After a while a student entered. He was a tall, thin,
smoothfaced young man, wearing the badge (black, red, and
gold ribbon) across his breast, showing that he was a member
of the inner union ; he stooped a little, and looked schoolmas-
ter-like. When he saw me with my Burschenshaft cap, he
knew at once that I was a new-comer ("fox"), ordered a
"Stange," and took a seat at the table where I was sitting.
' ' Just arrived ? " he asked. ' ' Yes. " " Where from ? " ' ' From
Frankfort." "Frankfort! Welcome, brother from the
Schwesterstadt (sister city). I am from Luebeck." He said
that there were not many students in town as yet, as the va-
cation was not quite over. "You want to join the Burschen-
schaft?" "Yes." "The first year you know you can only
belong to the society at large. You have to pledge yourself
on your word of honor to observe the rules of student con-
duct, and pay a small fee every semester. You will have the
use of the library, the fencing-hall, the Turnplatz, and of our
weapons when fighting a duel. If found worthy, you then may
become a real member. You will then wear the ribbon, and
pledge your honor to obey the constitution." I told him I
knew all that. I had often been with students at Heidelberg,
and knew the history of the Burschenschaft from the begin-
ning. I complained of the beer. He said he also had at first
UNIVERSITY LIFE 77
found it hard to swallow, but, quoting from Faust, which
was the Bursehenschaft Bible, he said:
"Das kommt nur auf Gewohnheit an.
So nimmt ein Kind die Mutterbrust
Nicht gleich im Anfang willig an,
Doch bald ernaehrt es sich mit Lust!"
By this time the waiter had arranged some tables for
dinner. "A good many of our order," my friend remarked,
"take dinner here. For a Frankforter, or one from the Free
Cities, the eating here is quite poor, but," said he,
"Wir essen desto weniger,
Und trinken desto mehr."
After awhile, some four or five more students dropped
in, and we all sat down to dinner. My friend had not de-
ceived me. The dinner was very indifferent soup, vegeta-
bles, and some pretty fair boiled beef with mustard, horse-
radish, etc. Of course, there were changes every day, some-
times for the worse. On Sundays, however, we had in addi-
tion nice roast goose, or hare, which is very fine in Europe.
In the evening, if one felt like having a warm supper, one
could order from the bill of fare, which was very good, par-
ticularly on Saturday evenings, when we always had excel-
lent tenderloin steaks, with fried potatoes. The many stu-
dents from the north of Germany had caused this dish to be
well cooked. The dinner, when engaged for the week, cost
only three Saxon groats, or about ten cents. What was or-
dered from the bill of fare was generally more expensive.
For steak and potatoes we paid about fifteen cents. The
people in this part of Germany are very frugal in their eat-
ing. I have taken dinner at some of the houses of professors
and wealthy merchants, but the meal was always simple,
though better cooked than in the Burgkeller and similar
places. Sometimes, however, we enjoyed very good meals at
the leading hotel of Jena; and there was also one coffee-
house where one could get choice things, good coffee and
78 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
chocolate, splendid rolls and cakes, and such delicacies as fish
or venison. But the length of our purse would not often
allow us to patronize this establishment.
In the neighboring villages, which we visited very often
on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, we found excellent milk
and cheese, good ham and other cold meats. Breakfast in
the morning we got from our landlady where we lodged, tol-
erably good coffee and nice rolls, all of which was included
in the rent. In the evening we hardly took anything but sand-
wiches, or bread, butter and cheese. Sometimes, when those
living in the same house met together in one of our rooms, tea
was brewed and liberally mixed with claret or rum. I have
gone into these details, because for two years this was my
ordinary life, so far as eating was concerned. There was
then not so much luxury in Germany as now, and in Jena
and some other Universities, even less of it than at other
places.
My Luebeck friend introduced me to the other Burschen.
They were mostly fine-looking fellows, some with long curly
hair, and all, except my friend, with beards. My Luebecker
was nicknamed "Habakkuk," and I did not find out his real
name until some days afterwards; it was Wehrman. He was
a student of theology, but pretty lively, or what the students
call "fidel." The weather being very fine, it was proposed
to make up a party for a trip to a place they called Nova.
One fellow by the name of Wild, and a wild-looking fellow
he was, (a year afterwards he was run through in a duel
and came very near dying,) declined going because he had
no money. I had sense enough to offer to pay his share,
which was of course accepted, and I made a hit right there
with the other students. A conveyance was ordered from the
post-house, and a very curious structure it was, such as I
had never seen before. On a long running gear rested a huge
open wicker-work box, containing four seats, each wide enough
for three or even four people. The box was cradle-shaped,
higher behind than in front. There were four horses hitched
UNIVERSITY LIFE 79
to it, and the postillion rode on the near horse. The uniform
of these Saxon postillions was most ridiculous. A yellow
jacket with red facings, yellow leather breeches and high boots,
and a polished leather hat with yellow ribbons. The letter-
carriers' uniforms were also yellow. We used to call them
canary birds. Well, some eight of us got in, lighted our long
pipes, and, the moment we started driving over the large
market square and through the streets, we struck up a song
which commenced:
"Frischer Muth, froher Sinn
Fuehren uns durch 's Leben hin."
This did not excite the least attention, because it was ail
every day occurrence for students to sing in the streets, and
even to fence with foils before the Burgkeller or in the mar-
ket-place. When the fencing was good, other students, and
even citizens, would stop, form a ring, and admire our skill.
We took our pipes and foils into the lecture-rooms, so that we
could go immediately on dismissal to the fencing-grounds or
to similar exercises in the streets. It was the most free and
easy life imaginable. In summer, the students mostly wore
no coats, but blouses of blue or gray; some wore their dress-
ing gowns at all seasons of the year; yet there was never the
least disorder in the lecture-room, and amongst the students
themselves there was the most courteous intercourse, one rea-
son for which was that any rudeness was pretty sure to lead
to a duel.
About how careful one had to be, I can give an instance
in which I was somewhat interested. Playing a game of
whist one night, my partner, named Lichtenstein, found fault
with my play in not having returned his lead. As he kept on
talking about it, I lost my patience, and told him to keep his
mouth shut. He then used the technically offensive word
"Dummer Junge" (imbecile), which demanded an immediate
challenge. The game was broken up, and the affair came be-
fore our court of honor. Insisting that he had sought a quar-
80
rel by blaming me for what he believed was a bad play, and
showing that I had very good reasons for not returning his
lead from my hand, I refused to withdraw what I had said,
and since he would not retract his offensive word, we fought it
out. He was a very amiable man; we had been very good
friends; and I neither hurt him, nor did I want to. He had
already received, in a former duel, a stab in his right lung,
and was suffering from it. We became excellent friends
again. A few years afterwards I learned that he died of con-
sumption in consequence of the wound which he had before
received, at Wuerzburg, I believe.
We left the town, driving up the charming valley of the
Saale for about three miles, leaving the Paradise, a fine
double or treble avenue of trees, on our left at a village, and
going out of the valley reached, about three miles farther on, a
huge new tavern, which went by the name of "Nova," because
it was a new place of resort. We had a glorious time, being
now in the principality of one of the many Reuss Princes and
obtaining the celebrated Kostritz beer there at the home price,
and not as in Jena with the added high duty. (Such were
the beauties of Grerman governments before the Zoll-Verein
and the Empire.) We sang and drank, played at bowls, and
started for home pretty late. I stopped with "Habakkuk"
that night, at his invitation, and for several days after, until
I had found lodgings that suited me.
Living was cheap in Jena. We paid, for instance, for
our stage-drive only about twenty-five cents a head. The
postillion got his tip in some half dozen glasses of beer and
a huge sausage. For my rooms, a sitting room and a small
bedroom, I believe I did not pay more (coffee for breakfast
included) than fifteen dollars a semester, or half year. The
light and fuel I paid extra. Laundrying was very cheap. In
fact, with two hundred dollars a year, a student might get
along handsomely. Of course, many spent a great deal more.
I was matriculated, engaged lectures with Professors
Zimmern and Hencke, and also with Fries, who lectured on
UNIVERSITY LIFE 81
psychology, and with Luden the historian. There were no
recitations, no examinations. The professors lectured with
notes, some without notes. The students, if they chase, took
notes, and those that wrote quickly and with abbreviations
could take down the lectures verbatim. Of course, it was ex-
pected that these notes should be read and studied at home.
You could attend or not attend the lectures. If you paid for
them, you acquired the privilege of attendance. It would be
impossible for the professors, who sometimes had more than
a hundred hearers, to note the absentees. No roll-call would
be permitted by the students for a minute. The idea was that
each one would for his own sake try to learn as much as pos-
sible. If he idled his time away, it was his business and not
that of the University.
By and by the lectures began, and the town and the Burg-
keller filled up with students. And a most noble set our
Burschenschaft was. There were about sixty or seventy in
the inner order, and about two hundred who were attached
to the society. They were called ' ' Renonces. ' ' Most of them
were candidates for the inner order. And here I must say
something of the history and the nature of the Burschen-
schaft.
THE GERMAN BURSCHENSCHAFT, AND THE MOVEMENT FOR NA-
TIONAL UNITY.
It had been customary for students at the different
Universities, for centuries, to form amongst themselves so-
cieties, or orders, for social enjoyment, mutual support in
sickness, protection of their members against attacks from
outsiders, etc. They adopted their own rules and regulations,
which as a general thing were submitted to the authorities of
the Universities and approved by them, for secret orders
were not officially tolerated. The orders adopted various
names, such as Concordia, Constantia, and like general ap-
pellations. But in course of time these societies came to be
composed of students from the same region of the country,
82 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
and they were named accordingly; as for instance, Barussia,
Saxonia, Franconia, and Rhenania, thus perpetuating the
provincial distinctions which so unfortunately prevailed in
Germany. Further, these societies became in time very over-
bearing, treating with contempt all students who did not join
them, as they did also all people who did not belong to the
higher classes, such as army officers or high government of-
ficials. Between the societies there was constant rivalry, and
numberless duels were the consequence. All kinds of excesses
were indulged in, particularly drinking. In fact, they had
become very odious.
The oppression of Germany by Napoleon and his vassal
princes had roused a spirit of nationality, hitherto unknown.
Even before the wars of liberation attempts were made at
some of the Universities to do away with these sectional so-
cieties and to merge all students attending a university into
one common society under rational rules and regulations, by
which duels should be prevented if possible, and immoral con-
duct be punished even by exclusion. It was, however, only
after the wars of liberation and the establishment of peace in
1815, that these ideas were realized in good earnest. Thou-
sands of students, and even the pupils in the colleges, had
volunteered in the war. Upon their return to the Universi-
ties they could not but look upon these sectional societies with
displeasure. They were enthusiastic for German unity in
some form or another, and also for German liberty.
Carl Follen, afterwards so well known and so highly es-
teemed in the United States, a man imbued with the noblest
principles, of vast learning, extraordinary energy and will-
power, who, with his two brothers, had fought as a volunteer
against the French, was the first to make war against the
abuse of these provincial societies in the University of Giessen
and afterwards in Jena, where he became a lecturer on law.
The new society took the name of Burschenschaft (Union of
Students), to which all honorable students could be admitted
on pledging themselves to such rules and regulations as en-
UNIVERSITY LIFE 83
sured good moral behavior, and on promising to consider
themselves, not as Prussians or Bavarians or Saxons, but as
Germans. In Jena, this new movement, favored by patriotic
professors like Fries, Oken, and Luden, took the deepest root.
Very soon, and even before the Wartburgfest in 1817, nearly
all the students had joined the Burschenschaft, the constitu-
tion of which, among other articles relating to the social life
of the students, contained one provision which stated it to be
the object of the Burschenschaft "to carry the idea of unity
and freedom of the German people into active life; to intro-
duce among the students unity, equality, liberty, and the cul-
ture of all intellectual and physical faculties in cheerful
youthful intercourse, and to prepare the members of this com-
munity for the service of their country." There was an in-
tense feeling of nationality, not unmixed with a religious
tinge, prevailing everywhere, and the first constitution of the
Burschenschaft called itself the Christian German Burschen-
schaft, excluding thereby all non-Germans, among them the
Jews.
Very soon, Burschenschaften having been formed at most
of the Universities, intercommunication took place, and a com-
mon German Burschenschaft was established, the direction
of which was by turns given to the various Universities. Jena
had the first direction. The central union could call meetings
of delegates who discussed and decided all questions arising
from internal dissensions or the construction of the constitu-
tion, and thus secured harmony. They heard all complaints
and decided them. Important proposals were referred to the
local Burschenschaft for acceptance.
This great move amongst the young and intelligent element
of Germany, with its decided aspirations for national unity
and constitutional liberty, while it met with great favor
amongst all Liberals, alarmed Metternich and all the govern-
ments under his control. The motley State of Austria, em-
bracing half a dozen nationalities, required a system of abso-
lute rule, and Metternich saw clearly that the spread of Liberal
84 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ideas in the rest of Germany would endanger the existence
of Austria, the peace and quiet of which was the object near-
est his heart. When, therefore, in 1819, Sand, who had been
a member of the Burschenschaft at Jena, but had retired from
it, assassinated Von Kotzebue, Metternich at once called a
meeting of all the German governments at Carlsbad, and.
though the trial showed that Sand had no accomplices, and
that no one had the slightest knowledge of what he intended
to do, still taking the deed of Sand as a pretext, the same
statesman conjured up a large conspiracy, and caused the
Bundestag in Frankfort to pass resolutions creating a com-
mission with power to examine into the state of all Universi-
ties and to institute proceedings not only against students,
but against anyone suspected of being unloyal. The different
governments were required to dissolve the Burschenschaften,
and to prosecute professors who had sympathized with the
movement. Hundreds of persons were arrested, and kept in
prison for years, while this inquisition was going on. Some
professors were deposed, amongst them the great patriot
Arndt, professor at Bonn. Prussia, then entirely under Met-
ternich 's influence, acted more severely than any other gov-
ernment. A great many went into exile to escape arrest : the
three brothers Follen, De Wette, Lieber and numerous others.
The consequence was, that whereas the Burschenschaften
had before flourished in open daylight, now they were con-
tinued in secret ; and that, after the first fury of prosecution
spent itself, and the inquisitorial commission of the Bundestag
led to no discovery of a real conspiracy against the throne
and the altar, these societies, which were sustained by popular
opinion everywhere, again publicly held their meetings, wore
their badges, sang their patriotic songs. Their existence,
though not officially recognized, and still forbidden on pain
of dismissal from the Universities, was an open secret.
In the course of years, as could hardly be otherwise, a
considerable change took place in public opinion, which change
had its influence on the youth of the Universities. The idea
UNIVERSITY LIFE 85
and desire of seeing Germany united and enjoying free insti-
tutions, of course, still prevailed; but this romantic and ex-
clusively German feeling had been supplanted by the more
realistic wish of reforming existing institutions in all the
States in which a constitutional government existed, and of
introducing constitutions into those in which, in spite of the
Acts of Confederation (Bundesacte), the governments had
failed to establish them. Prussia, above all, was the one gov-
ernment most hated, as it had not complied with the repeated
promises of its King and the supreme law. Besides, the rev-
olutions in Italy, Spain, Greece, and the parliamentary de-
bates in France under the Bourbon restoration, had turned
the attention of the German people to other countries, and
awakened an interest generally in liberty, civil and political,
thus widening their sphere of thought and deadening
national antipathies. The word "Christian" was stricken out
of the constitution of the Burschenschaft, and Jews were ad-
mitted. The object of the society was expressed in this way:
"The Universal German Burschenschaft aims, by means of
moral, intellectual and physical culture at the University, to
prepare the way for the establishment of a free and orderly
instituted commonwealth founded in the unity of the people. ' '
Instead of merely dreaming of a German Empire or Re-
public, the youth of Germany had become readers of political
economy, of English and American constitutional law, and now
followed the parliamentary debates of the French Chambers
and of the legislatures of the southern German States, such as
Bavaria, Wuertemberg, and Baden. Sentimentality and ro-
manticism became obsolete, and outward life freer and livelier.
Of course, more attention was still paid to morality in every
form than was the case with the provincial societies (Lands-
mannschaften), and conduct such as was common amongst
French students, for instance, would have been visited with
immediate expulsion. Duelling had become more common,
although the court of honor was still kept up. In a word, the
Burschenschaften everywhere were more liberal, more gay,
86 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
more cosmopolitan, and more free-thinking, when I entered
at Jena in 1828, than during the first ten years of its exist-
ence.
It was in the nature of things that the Burschenschaften
were far ahead intellectually of the provincial student so-
cieties. The latter, as a general thing, comprised only stu-
dents from one particular state of Germany, while the former
counted among their number members from the Alps, the
Rhine, and the North and Baltic Seas. In Jena, we had also
members from Switzerland, as for instance Von Guenzberg,
I. O. Burckhardt, and J. A. Bachman, who in later years held
important positions in their country. Some very intelligent
Hungarians, studying Protestant theology, attached themselves
to our society. "We had a good library, containing, of course,
all the German classics, and also the works of modern writers,
like Boerne and Heine. The works of Alexander Everett on
America were much read. Shakespeare, Goethe, Byron and
Heine were our favorite authors; and, as before remarked,
Faust was our Bible.
During Christmas vacation, William Weber, myself,
and two others whose names I have forgotten, though they
must have been good fellows, made a trip to Halle and Leip-
sic. In Leipsic I met a Russian who was connected with the
Burschenschaft, a young man of genius, who was as true a
type of what we now call "nihilist" as could be found any-
where. His name had too many consonants for me to be able
to remember it. I here enjoyed, after a long interruption, the
opera ("Templar and Jewess," by Marschner) ; but between
Leipsic and Frankfort, so far as the orchestra and singing
were concerned, there was no comparison. During the few last
years of my residence in Frankfort, there was a combination of
opera-singers there, such as perhaps no other theatre, at that
time, could show. I need only to mention, in support of this,
the names of Dobler, Neiser, Forti, the Misses Bamberger, and
the two sisters Heinefetter.
UNIVERSITY LIFE 87
ALTENBURG
From Leipsic, Weber and myself footed it to Altenburg,
a distance of about thirty miles. The weather was cold but
clear, and some parts of the way along the Pleisse were quite
romantic. Altenburg, though at that time not containing
more than about 15,000 people, is a highly interesting city.
The old Schloss, on a high rock, dates back to the fourteenth
century. The new "residence" was very fine. The city had
seen many important gatherings of princes and scholars, par-
ticularly at the time of the reformation. It had an excellent
college and schools, important printing and publishing es-
tablishments, and its citizens were of a high grade of intelli-
gence, and had given many distinguished statesmen and auth-
ors to Germany. At Jena, the students from Altenburg were,
as a general thing, better informed and more patriotic than
those from the neighboring Thuringian states. Weber was a
native of this charming place. I stayed here at a fellow stu-
dent's home some three days. We went out into the country
to look at some of the large farms owned by the descendants
of the Wends, now thoroughly Germanized, who occupy the
rich country east of the city. These people have retained,
however, many of their old Slav customs. The lands descend
to the youngest son, and, in the absence of sons, to the oldest
daughter; so that, there being no partition of lands, the
owner is generally very well off. In fact, there are more rich
peasants here than anywhere else in Germany. They have
also preserved their old costumes. The men wear very short
black cloth jackets, black vests, black leather sheepskin breech-
es, and high boots. Their heads are covered with a low-
crowned, small-brimmed black felt hat. They are excellent
farmers, but haughty, and much given to gambling. The
women also wear black jackets, with thick petticoats of many
colors laid in innumerable small folds, and enclosing their
bodies very tightly, which, as their petticoats reach only to
the knees, seems quite necessary. White stockings, with flow-
88 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ing garters, cover their legs, and their feet are encased in very
low cut shoes. "We attended a farmers' ball at Altenburg. All
the men and women were in their native garb. None but
peasants were admitted to dance. We were spectators only.
The Wends, like all Slav people, dance remarkably well
and with great rapidity. The gallop and waltz were their only
dances. The men drank nothing but Franconian wine, and
several rooms were filled with card-players, with piles of dol-
lars on the tables, for these peasants are fond of display.
From Altenburg we went back via Eisenberg to Jena on foot.
In such mountainous and wooded countries, walking is a
pleasure ; and one learns more of the real people and the con-
dition of the soil and its products in a month's foot-travel
than in a whole year of railroad-riding.
Toward the end of the first half year, it was intimated
to Adolph Goeden and myself, that if we should make appli-
cation, we should be received into the inner society of the
Burschenschaft. We were accordingly admitted at the last
general meeting of the society for that semester, and with
great solemnity, at Zwaetzen, where such meetings were held;
and we were now entitled to wear the Burschenschaft ribbon.
STUDENT-FRIENDS
Goeden, George Semper, and myself had planned to make
a journey during the Easter vacation to Munich. Adolph
Goeden was from Friedland, Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was
tall and well formed, had a handsome face, and a lovely mouth
with deep dimples in his cheeks. He was of a rather enthus-
iastic nature, had a warm heart, and had become singularly
attached to me. When, many years afterwards, in the United
States, looking over some old letters, I gave some of them to
my wife, Sophia, to read, she remarked that if they had
not been written by a man, she would have thought they had
been written by a sweetheart of mine.
George Semper was from Altona, and a brother of God-
frey Semper, the celebrated architect, builder of the Dresden
UNIVERSITY LIFE 89
and Darmstadt theatres, of the Museum at Vienna, and of
many other noble structures. George was tall and slender,
yet well formed. His face was very regular and had a most
gentle expression. His voice was remarkably melodious.
Sweet-tempered, he was yet a bold and manly fellow, and very
patriotic like his brother, who, though a professor of archi-
tecture in the Art Academy of Dresden, built barricades in
the May revolution of 1849 in that place, had to flee the coun-
try, and returned only after a long sojourn in England and
Switzerland. I loved George more than any other of my fel-
low-students at Jena.
A few days before we started for the south of Germany,
on a Saturday afternoon, a group of us stood before the old
Burgkeller preparing to visit Zwaetzen, a favorite resort of
our society, on the left bank of the Saale. The weather was
beautiful, almost too warm for the season. Some proposed
taking a circuitous route to the village along the right bank
of the Saale via Kunitzburg. This town was about a mile out
of the way, and as every one going to Kunitzburg went up to
the ruins of the old castle, from which there was a beautiful
view up and down the valley, the trip proposed was, of course,
more tiresome than the direct one to Zwaetzen, on the great
highway leading to Dornburg and Naumburg. Semper had
decided to take the Kunitzburg route, and in his gentle way
was trying to persuade me to go along with him. But the warm
spring air had made me somewhat fatigued, and, in spite of
his entreaties, I, with the rest of the crowd, took the other
route. I almost regretted it afterwards, for Semper had in-
sisted so much as to seem somewhat displeased at my refusal.
When we had been about an hour at Zwaetzen, sitting in
the garden of our inn, singing and playing at bowls, a country-
fellow came running across the road, crying aloud: "Lord!
Lord ! ' ' ( Ach, Gott ! Ach, Gott !) We rose when he exclaimed :
' ' They have all been drowned all drowned. ' ' We did not
know at first what he meant, and, questioning him, he replied :
"The students the students." I was seized with terror; we
90
all ran towards the river-bank which was about a half a mile
off, when we met Florencourt, who had been with the party.
We soon heard the horrible tale.
The river was very high, the current very rapid. There
was a ferry at Kunitzburg, worked by a rope stretched from
one shore to the other, the same as is, or was, in frequent use
in this country on smaller rivers. A rope or chain to the stern
of the boat is connected with the big rope by means of a ring,
which rolls along when the boat moves. The ferryman stands
in the bow and handles the boat alone. The current takes the
boat to the opposite bank. Large flat boats were used, gen-
erally large enough to carry wagons and cattle. But when
the river was high, foot-passengers only were carried over,
in a long small boat, which, in this instance, was somewhat
like a canoe. In the boat were Semper, Florencourt, Snittger
from Detmold, Wessel from Lippe, and another "Wessel, who
was on a visit to Jena, and the ferryman. Considering the
rough state of the river, there were too many persons in the
small boat. About half way over, the ferryman, who held
desperately to the rope, could hold it no longer, and in an in-
stant the boat tipped, throwing all out but "Wessel of Jena,
who was in the stern and held fast to the connecting rope.
The canoe, after the load was out, righted itself. The ferry-
man and Florencourt swam ashore. Semper was an excellent
swimmer, but the ferryman said that one of the others had
got hold of him, and so both sank, as did also the other Wessel,
who probably could not swim. Instant search was made by
the people of the villages on both sides of the river all that
evening until late at night for the bodies, but no trace was
found of them then.
It is needless to say that for days a gloom was cast over
the whole town. Not only we of the Burschenschaft, but the
professors, and all who knew the three noble young men, were
deeply afflicted, and perhaps no one more than I.
UNIVERSITY LIFE 91
The verses entitled ' ' Die Saale ' ' and ' ' Verkuendigung im
Herbst" are mementos of my feelings on this terrible disaster.
Some days afterwards Godfrey Semper arrived from
Hamburg, but Goeden and myself had already started on our
tour. The bodies were found a few miles below Kunitzburg
at Golmsdorf, and buried in the village cemetery. Our so-
ciety at once resolved to erect a monument there. I believe
the design of it was made by Godfrey Semper. It was exe-
cuted by a noted sculptor in Gotha, and late in the summer of
1829 it was placed upon their grave at Golmsdorf. I had
been selected by the society to deliver the funeral oration. It
was a painful task. It is still among my papers. The Saale
Nixe reminds one of the ' ' Erl-Koenig, " si parva licet com-
ponere magnis; but of course in a youth of nineteen the want
of originality was quite excusable.
I have mentioned Von Florencourt. He came from Bruns-
wick, and was what might be called a problematical character.
He was then very liberal, radically so. In 1832, on my re-
turn from the University of Heidelberg, he lived in Hanau,
and on my political missions to that place I met him frequent-
ly. He was then full of revolutionary ideas. For years I
heard nothing of him, but he was mentioned in 1848 as being
quite reactionary. He wrote in the interest of absolute mon-
archy, and if I mistake not, even of Ultramontanism. What
became finally of him I do not know. Certainly his late
career was in great contrast with the views he held at the
University. In a strong, firm hand he wrote in my album:
"Alle die den Geist erkannten,
Sollten sender Wank
Immer, immer Protestanten
Gegen Knechtessinn sich nennen;
Frei soil Jeder das bekennen,
Der aus Roemern Rheinwein trank. "
Zum herzlichen Andenken an
Franz von Florencourt
Stud, aus Braunschweig. Jena am 1 Dec., 1829.
92 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
It cannot be translated, but only paraphrased:
"All who have caught the spirit of liberty shall, without
wavering, always be protestants against servility ; freely shall
everyone who has ever drunk Rhine wine out of goblets make
this protest."
A TRIP TO SOUTHERN GERMANY
Goeden and myself left Jena about the 6th of April, went
by Saalfeld over the mountains, the Thuringian Forest,
to Sonneberg. Some of the scenery was very fine, part rather
desolate, and the roads very rough. The fare was bad. But
starting, as we usually did, early in the morning on a frugal
breakfast of weak coffee and stale rolls, we were always in
condition to relish the most indifferent dinner after a twelve-
mile walk, and a bad supper after another twelve miles. In
all my travels on foot, twenty-four miles was my ordinary
day's march, there being exceptions of course due to the con-
venience or inconvenience of stopping places. I have walked,
on one or two occasions, as far as forty miles. Unlike most
other travelers, I always wore well-fitting boots, as keeping
out dust and moisture better than shoes. We reached Coburg,
an interesting and delightful place, and passed over the
Bavarian frontier, where, at the first village, we treated our-
selves to some very fine Bamberg beer. I might fill pages with
a description of the delightful valley of the Itz and of the
splendid old city of Bamberg, in the Regnitz valley, surround-
ed by castles and richly built monasteries ; but as I am writ-
ing no Baedeker or Murray handbook, I refrain. That I vis-
ited the celebrated old Dom and many other old churches, was
a matter of course. I also met Titus, a most noble fellow, who
was heart and soul a patriot, and much noted afterwards. If
I mistake not, he was a member of the first German Parlia-
ment, in 1848.
Along the valley of the Regnitz we came to Erlangen.
The weather was beautiful, the beer the best we had thus far
UNIVERSITY LIFE 93
ever drunk, and the students there were most jovial and ex-
cellent fellows. We spent three glorious days with them, and
drove to Nuremberg, the most unique city in all Germany.
In Frankfort there are perhaps a dozen houses and a few
churches that take you back to the Middle Ages. But Nurem-
berg at that time was the Middle Age itself. Of course we saw
everything of interest, and hardly knew what to admire most.
Next to the noblest churches in Germany and the fountains
and other monuments of the sculptors Krafft, Vischer and
Stoss, I was most delighted with the picture galleries con-
taining some very fine Duerers and also some Van Dykes and
Teniers. There was a curious Venus by Lucas Cranach, very
realistic, but so much so that no one would have taken her
for the goddess of beauty. In spite of our art-enthusiasm
we did not overlook the table d'hote at the Golden Cock, and
the dainty little lunch room, called, I believe, the Gloecklein
(Little Bell) where at lunch hours one might find the patric-
ians and the officers of the garrison, as well as the plain burgh-
er and the mechanic, discussing the most delicate Nuremberg
sausages with trimmings, and drinking the excellent mild
Erlanger beer. The old splendor of the Imperial City, once
the center of almost all the European trade, a state within
itself, sought in alliance by the most powerful princes, the
seat of learning and of the highest mediaeval art, is gone ; but
still, with its patrician and imperial palaces, its once impreg-
nable fortifications, its grand churches and other monuments,
and the recollections of its glorious past, it leaves an indelible
impression upon all who are fortunate enough to visit it.
From Nuremberg down to Munich, the country with few
exceptions is uninteresting, and presents no scenery worth
seeing. So we took the coach to Munich. One exception is the
valley of Altmuehl, in which lies Eichstaedt, a bishopric with
an Episcopal palace and large cathedral, and crowned by the
Wilibaldsburg, an old castle on a high hill. The country
around Eichstaedt is delightful. It reminded me of Heidelberg.
We stayed there all night, and Goeden fell in love with a wait-
94 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
er girl called Nanni, who was really handsome, but who, as I
discovered, was more accessible to the blandishments of our
coachman than to those of my friend.
MUNICH
At Ingolstadt we crossed the Donau on a stone bridge,
and the next day at noon reached Munich. Vacation had
begun, and not many members of our society had remained,
but there were enough for excellent company. Our quarters
were assigned with some of the resident students. Their club-
house was on a fine avenue between the Carls and Sendlinger
Gates. Its name was the Rosengarten.
The city itself lies in a plain which is quite arid and
monotonous; only on the farther bank of the Isar are there
heights. It has a singular resemblance in situation to Madrid.
The Isar is a rapid mountain-stream like the Manzanares, run-
ning close by Munich, as the Manzanares does by Madrid.
Neither of the rivers is navigable, and only princely caprice
could have selected the places as capitals, in what must have
been in the beginning a sandy desert waste. The great for-
ests near both places, furnishing most ample hunting grounds,
undoubtedly determined the selection. Both sites were out
of the highway of commerce. Both are the highest cities in
their countries: Munich 1,000 feet; Madrid 2,400. Both have
been surrounded by gardens and parks of great dimensions,
and both command a very fine view of ranges of mountains
from many points in and outside of the city. The Bavarian
Alps in an extension of some forty miles are to be seen to the
south. The celebrated Untersberg near Salzburg, and other
high peaks from 6,000 to 8,000 feet high, close the view on
the east, and the Zugspitz and the Wetterstein, of about the
same height, loom up in the west. At about an equal distance
north of Madrid are the bold mountains of Guadarama,
both ranges during most of the year being snow-capped. The
rivers, the artificial promenades and gardens, the enchanting
views of the mountains, make the two cities at present bear-
UNIVERSITY LIFE 95
able, and even pleasant. We made many excursions to the
surrounding villages, and, considering ourselves as mere tour-
ists, and not knowing that we should ever see the place again,
we very conscientiously visited all points of interest, and saw
more of the city than many of our friends had done in a year
or two of residence.
The new royal palace was just building. The Pinakothek
was also in the first stage of construction. Neither the church
of St. Louis nor of St. Boniface yet existed, nor hundreds of
the splendid buildings and monuments which now make Mun-
ich one of the most interesting cities in the world. More than
by the statuary in the Glyptothek, fine as it was, I was at-
tracted by the picture-gallery in the Hofgarten. In fullness
and beauty, and so far as the Flemish and Netherland schools
are concerned, as also old German pictures, it is superior to
any gallery I have seen, the one in Madrid not excepted. The
Italian painters are not largely represented, and I should say
in none of their masterpieces. Of Murillo's there are his
excellent pictures of Spanish Street Life, the Beggar Boys,
etc., admirably done, but giving no idea of the divine Murillo's
art. Of course, I could not devote as much time to this gallery
as I should have liked, for it was not open every day. At that
time there was still at Munich the Leuchtenberg gallery, col-
lected by Eugene Beauharnais, while Viceroy of Italy. It was
not a large collection but very select, and here I found one of
Murillo's Madonnas with the child at her breast, which at
once struck me as wonderful, and made me worship the master
long before it was my good fortune to admire some hundreds
of his best works in Madrid and Seville. It contained also a
Raphael, a Rembrandt, a Paul Veronese, a Velasquez, a Van
Dyke, and many choice modern pictures.
Here also were the celebrated Three Graces (original) by
Canova. This gallery has since been removed to St. Peters-
burg, and on my last visit to Munich in 1863, when my love
of pictures had almost become a passion, I much regretted its
absence. I met in Munich, by accident, Louis Agassiz. I
96 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
was introduced by one of my new friends to a Mr. Schemper,
who became afterwards celebrated as a naturalist, and Mr.
Agassiz happened to be with him. He was then, after attend-
ing the Universities of Zurich and Heidelberg, pursuing his
studies in botany, geology, philosophy, and the sister sciences
in Munich. He was a noble-looking man, about twenty-four
years of age, dark-eyed, and dark-haired, with a fine and
healthy complexion, and full of vivacity. Learning that I was
going into the mountains, he had Schemper get me two tol-
erably large phials, filled with alcohol, and begged me to col-
lect for him all the bugs, spiders, and insects I could find on
my way. ' ' When you walk through the timber and find a fallen
stump of a tree, or walk over rocks, just lift them," said he,
"and you will find plenty of such creatures as I want." 1
took the phials, promising to do my best, a promise, how-
ever, which I did not conscientiously fulfill. I forgot all about
it, and did not think of it until we started to return to Munich,
when, passing through the large forest called the Hirsch Gar-
ten, I made the wagon stop, got down, scratched up the black
ground underneath some trees, and filled the phials with
worms and bugs. But I am afraid that they were nearly all
of the same kind, and very common at that. I expect, how-
ever, that when I left them with Schemper, Agassiz had for-
gotten all about it, and never discovered my faithlessness.
I made another acquaintance in Munich which in a great
measure shaped the destiny of my life. It was Theodore En-
gelmann, who then studied law in Munich. He was from the
Rhenish Palatinate, had been in Heidelberg, but had left that
place in the fall of 1828, when the celebrated exodus of stu-
dents took place of which I have already spoken. He seemed
to take a great liking to Goeden and me, and from what he
heard us say about Jena, he told us that he had some notion
to leave Munich and try that place. He had come to no defin-
ite conclusion, however, when I left Munich for Salzburg.
UNIVERSITY LIFE 97
SALZBURG AND THE TYROL
Originally we had intended to go no farther south than
Munich. But the mountains had so wonderful an attraction
to me that I determined to make a tour at least to Salzburg,
only a hundred miles from Munich. But Goeden was enjoy-
ing himself at Munich, and would not join me. Another stu-
dent, however, from Erlangen, by the name of Funk, who was
on a visit to Munich, and a member of the Burschenschaft,
offered himself as a companion, and so one fine morning we
left. For some miles southeast of Munich, and until one gets
to the foothills, the country is uninteresting. At Aibling we
went to an inn to refresh ourselves. We found there at the
table, taking beer and eating bread and cheese, a party of
three: a gentleman about thirty years of age, and two hand-
some boys, one about fourteen and the other nine or ten. They
wore blouses as we did, of somewhat finer material, those of
the boys being embroidered. The man had a knapsack and
the boys cylindrical tin boxes, botanical boxes as they were
called, in which they carried their change of linen and trav-
eling utensils. We sat down at the same table, ordered the
same refreshments, and, as is the custom in Germany, saluted
the guests, and entered upon a conversation with the gentle-
man. We were told that they had come from a neighboring
village where there was a pretty waterfall, and that they were
bound for Rosenheim, which was on our route, to take a look
at the extensive salt-works there (Salinen). We started to-
gether, and while my friend from Erlangen talked to the boys,
I had quite an interesting conversation with their tutor, as he
turned out to be. He was desirous to learn something of our
northern Universities, which he had never visited, and I got
much information from him about Munich and its people. I
spoke of the boys as being apparently very well mannered and
sprightly. He then told me that he had been their tutor for
many years, and was now making excursions with them
through the neighborhood ; that they were brought up like all
98 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
other boys of the better class, and had no pride of their station.
And in the course of our talk it came out that the oldest was
Prince Otto, afterwards King of Greece, and the other Prince
Luitpold, who is now, I believe, the Prince Regent of Bavaria,
both sons of the "Poet King," Louis I. Their older
brother, Maxmilian II, who, on the abdication of Louis I,
became King of Bavaria, was then studying law at Goettingen.
He left Louis II and Otto as his children. Louis, on the early
death of Maxmilian II, became Louis II, whose aberration of
mind led to his tragic death in the lake of Starnberg. Otto,
who should have followed him on the throne, was a natural
idiot, and though he has the name of King, is confined, and
Luitpold, his uncle, is regent of Bavaria.
At Rosenheim they stopped; and, after a short visit to
the Salines, which were no new thing to me, as I had seen the
same thing at Kreuznach and Soden, we crossed the Inn, went
on our way through mountains and forests, passing by a beau-
tiful little lake called Simmsee, through Weisenheim, where we
stopped all night, to Seebruck, on the shore of the largest lake
of Bavaria, the beautiful Chiemsee. We took a boat which
brought us to Herrenwoerth, the largest of the three islands in
the lake, where there is a monastery. It is here that Louis II
built the enormous palace that cost so many millions, the pro-
duct of an inordinate imagination. The lake is encircled by
some of the finest mountains of the Bavarian and Tyrolese
Alps, five and six thousand feet high. Even the Gaisberg near
Salzburg is visible. Indeed there are few finer views to be
seen anywhere than on this lake. We took a boat from Her-
renwoerth, rowed by two stout and handsome maids in their
beautiful national costumes, and crossed, a distance of about
twelve miles, to a little village, where we took the road again
to Salzburg.
It was quite dark when we landed, and as the road was
mostly through timber, we came very near losing our way sev-
eral times. We arrived at the town of Traunstein on the
Traun river late at night and very much fatigued. My expe-
UNIVERSITY LIFE 99
rience is that traveling at night on foot is far more tiresome
and exhausting than in daytime, even in warm weather. My
explanation is that there is nothing at night to attract one's
attention and divert one 's thoughts from the mere mechanical
movement of the body. In daytime there is the surrounding
scenery that catches one's observation; one meets interesting
people, and the air is less oppressive.
As we had a hard task before us the next day to reach
Salzburg, we got up very early in the morning. The distance
was nearly thirty-five miles. In the afternoon we arrived at
the Austrian custom-house and frontier. As we had no reg-
ular passports, we had all along been somewhat uneasy. We
had been told at Munich by some that without a passport
viseed by the Austrian legation at Munich, we should be turned
back. Others were of opinion that students travelling for
pleasure would be admitted. As we were not residents of
Munich, we could get no passports from the Bavarian authori-
ties. But we had our certificates of matriculation: I from
Jena, and my companion from Erlangen, written in Latin with
a big seal. Our hearts fluttered a little as we were met by an
Austrian gens d'arme at the barrier whoasekd us for our pass-
ports. I showed him our certificates, and the Latin of it
struck him with a sort of awe, while the seal, as large as a dol-
lar, pasted to it, seemed to remove all doubts from his mind.
"The Herren may pass." Then came a custom-house officer:
"Have you anything dutiable?" "No. Except the tobacco
we have in our pouches which hang at our girdles round our
blouses." "Then you need not pay any duty." He wished
us a "Glueckliehe Reise," and so we tramped on with easy
hearts.
It would have been hard if we had been turned away at
the gates of Paradise ; for a paradise it was which had opened
up to us for the last half of our way. There was at our right
the steep, rocky Untersberg, celebrated in song and fabled in
history as containing inaccessible caves in which the old Em-
peror Barbarossa slept, waiting to awake on the restoration of
100 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNEE
the great German Empire. The same myth locates the great
Emperor in the Kyffhauser near the Hartz Mountains, and
this version is generally accepted as better authenticated.
Right before us were the beautiful heights which surround
Salzburg, on one of which is a large Capuchin monastery, on
the other the fortress of Hohen-Salzburg. In the background
rises the beautiful Gaisberg, some four thousand feet high,
from which the view into the lovely regions of the Salzkam-
ergut is of magical beauty. I may be pardoned in giving a
sentence or two as to Salzburg from the excellent handbook
for travellers in southern Germany by Murray. "It is to its
surroundings," it says, "that Salzburg owes its chief attrac-
tions. It is impossible to give in a verbal description any sat-
isfactory idea of the romantic beauties of the surrounding dis-
trict; it is hardly possible to exaggerate them. Salzburg is
allowed by common consent, to be the most beautiful spot in
Germany, and many travelers will not hesitate to prefer the
scenery of the surrounding mountains, lakes and valleys to the
finest parts of Switzerland. From many points on the heights
you can see the glaciers and highest peaks of the Noric and
Tyrolese Alps."
The sun was sinking when we entered the city. I was
very tired, and when we came upon the cobble-stone pavement,
my feet felt like fire, and I could hardly draw myself along
to the hotel recommended to us, which was pretty far from
where we entered on the other side of the River Salzach. But
a good supper, a thorough bathing of my feet in spirits of alco-
hol, and a good night's rest, made me fresh in the morning and
able to give the city and its environs a good inspection.
The city itself has an Italian aspect. The episcopal pal-
ace, the cathedral, and many other palaces are built in the
best Italian Rennaisance style. Many houses have flat roofs
and marble fronts. They are nearly all painted white. We
saw Mozart's house; and that of Theophrastus Paracelsus,
and visited the fine gardens and chateaux near the city. In
UNIVERSITY LIFE 101
the principal square is one of the finest fountains in the world.
To a northerner the place has a peculiar charm.
From Salzburg, round the foot of the Untersberg, we
went to Berchtesgaden, and visited the salt mines disguised as
miners. There is an immense basin in the interior, filled with
water which dissolves the salt rock, and the brine is carried for
miles by immense pumpworks, over high mountains to Reich-
enhall, and from there to Rosenheim, where it is boiled into
salt. The reason for this is that at the latter place there is an
abundance of timber, while there is none to spare in the valley
of the Ach where Berchtesgaden is situated. Berchtesgaden
is one of the most beautiful places in the Tyrolean Alps, and
the excursion to the King's Lake (Koenigsee) is equal to
almost any tour in Switzerland. The lake, of deepest green,
is enclosed by steep rocks, with almost no landing places. The
Watzmann, on the left side, with its glaciers throws a deep
shade over the waters of the lake. There are really two Watz-
mann Mountains, separated by a valley; the highest peak is
over 8,000 feet. Good-looking girls rowed us to an isle where
there was a hunting chateau. The mountains abound in cham-
ois. We had a splendid dinner of trout, then rowed to the
southeast of the lake where a large brook comes down a thou-
sand feet from the mountains, forming a most beautiful water-
fall. I was so enchanted by the scenery of Berchtesgaden and
the Koenigsee that I made a vow to return to it, if life was
spared me a reasonable time.
We now turned back towards Munich. A wonderfully
picturesque road took us from Berchtesgaden to Reichenhall.
Here we met Wuestenfeldt, a student from Goettingen, bound
for a tour into the Austrian Tyrol. He painted the beauties
of the Inn valley, and of Innspruck and environs, in such glow-
ing colors, that I concluded to leave my companion to return
alone to Munich, and to accompany Wuestenfeldt. Indeed it
was a most interesting journey. We traversed the deep val-
leys where the Tyrolese had met the French and Bavarians in
1809 ; almost every village and town we passed had been the
102
scene of terrible conflicts, and some places, as the town of
Schwatz, for instance, were still partly in ruins, having been
burnt by the French. The Lofer Pass, the Strub Pass, were
the scene of the most deadly strifes. The mountains, thou-
sands of feet in height, came often so close together that there
was barely room for a wagon-road. These gorges are what we
call canons.
We saw several splendid waterfalls on our way. We had
to stop mostly at small inns. In the evening young girls and
men would come into the guest-room, play on the zither, and
sing for their own amusement. We found all the people at
that time very unsophisticated. The Bavarian, Noric, and
Tyrolese Alps were, in 1829, not thronged with tourists ; there
were no hotels except in the large cities, and even there they
were on the "bourgeois" order, while no outlandish names dis-
figured the wonderful natural scenery. We saw the people, I
may say, "aw naturel." Making a detour in the celebrated
Ziller-Thal, renowned for the beauty of its inhabitants and
their musical talents, we stopped over night at Zell, the princi-
pal place of that most beautiful valley.
It was Sunday night, and a dance was in progress in
the large room of the inn on the second floor. The people
danced like mad, the boys throwing the girls from time to time
four or five feet high. And that was no small feat, for the
girls were all heavy-weights. We joined in the dance, but
did not venture on the throwing. At Rattenberg we reached
the Inn, a beautiful, clear mountain-stream, its banks studded
with chateaux and monasteries and ruins of old castles. We
mixed with the people ; they sang to us ; and we sang our best
Burschenschaft songs for them. In Zell, I bought one of those
conical, green, Tyrolese hats, which I wore through the moun-
tains, and later on in the summer at Jena, where every one
could dress as he pleased.
At Innspruck we stopped at the Eagle, the inn from
which Hofer used to address the people. Some of his homely
UNIVERSITY LIFE 103
proclamations were kept under glass in a frame, and hung up
on the walls of the guest-room.
I must forbear giving a description of Innspruck. Its
situation as to beauty beggars description. Like Salzburg, it
has much of an Italian look ; the houses having often flat roofs
and arcades in front of the lower stories. The Franciscaner
Kirche contains perhaps the finest monument in Europe, the
tomb of Maximilian I. In my brief notebook of the journey
three signs of exclamation follow the words ' ' Tomb of Max. I. ' '
I have seen the celebrated tombs of St. Ferdinand in Seville,
of Ferdinand and Isabella in Granada ; but they bear no com-
parison with that of Maximilian I. The Emperor kneeling on
the sarcophagus is surrounded by at least thirty colossal
bronze statues, representing amongst others Philip I of Spain
and his wife Joanna, Rudolph of Hapsburg, Charles the Bold,
Ferdinand the Catholic, and Godfrey of Bouillon. The bas
reliefs on the marble sarcophagus represent important events
of Maximilian's life. Nearly all of them were carved by the
eminent sculptor, Colins of Mecheln. In the same church is
the modest tomb of Andreas Hof er, with the simple inscription
on the stone under which his ashes rest : ' ' Here rests in God
Andreas Hofer. A. D. 1809." Since my visit I believe a
splendid monument has been erected over or near the tomb
of the old hero.
We left Innspruck for Zirl, at the foot of the Martins-
wand, a perpendicular rock some three thousand feet high.
Stopping all night at Zirl, we found a dance going on like
that at Zell. We had no trouble in getting partners. There
was a ludicrous scene. A Frenchman, a painter, when he
saw us getting on so well, thought he, too, would try his luck,
got a partner, whirled, or rather was whirled round by her
several times, and got so dizzy that he would have fallen down,
if the girl had not taken hold of him and carried him to a
bench near the wall. He might have been an elegant dancer
in a quadrille in the Students' Quarter at Paris, but he swore
that he would never try the waltz again. The Tyrolean
104 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
dances, however, are not carried on exactly as in our ball-
rooms. From time to time the cavalier lets his partner go,
claps his hand on his leather breeches, crouching down, gives
a yell, springs up again, grabs his partner and throws her sky
high. Every man is expected to treat his partner after each
dance with a seidel (pint) of the Veltlin wine, almost the only
beverage in use there. It is of light-red color, sweet and not
strong, and very pleasant to take.
Early next morning we took a guide to go up the Martins-
wand. Of course, one cannot attack the perpendicular wall in
front, but must assail it on the flanks. Zigzag paths lead to
the highest peak. Our goal was the spot where Emperor Maxi-
milian, in pursuing a chamois, and losing his footing, had
rolled down from above, landing on a small ledge of a pro-
truding rock, above a precipice some eight hundred feet deep.
It seemed impossible for him to move a step without imminent
danger of destruction. He could be distinctly seen from the
valley below. A priest had the funeral service performed
below, and absolution was given the Emperor "in extremis."
A bold mountaineer, however, came to his rescue, and at the
imminent risk of his own life saved him. The legend is that
it was an angel of the Lord that relieved him. There was then
only a small cross on the spot, and a most perilous narrow
rough path had been cut in the rocks leading to it. The rock
was a sheer perpendicular one, and no one given to giddiness
ought ever to venture to it. Probably there is a safe way to it
now, but in 1829 we went by paths as dangerous as I ever trav-
elled in the Swiss Alps or the Rocky Mountains. It took us
a full hour to reach the place.
The view towards Innspruck and the surrounding moun-
tains, some nine thousand feet high, was splendid ; but we soon
retired, as it took a good deal of nerve to stand on our point of
observation. The descent was also very dangerous and most
fatiguing. Our guide wanted to take us down by a short cut,
which was really no path at all, but the dried-up bed of a rivu-
let, or rather gutter, hollowed out by waters from the moun-
UNIVERSITY LIFE 105
tains. The bottom was sand and gravel, on which we some-
times slipped downward involuntarily for several rods, and
only saved ourselves from a pereipitous descent by stemming
our downward movement with our big Alpine stocks. My
friend Wuestenfeldt, who was rather high-tempered, cursed
the guide roundly, and made him so angry by his abuse
that, if I had not interfered, they would have come to blows.
We came to Zirl rather demoralized, and concluded that the
whole excursion, made so much of by the landlord of Zirl,
and by romantic tourists, was rather a humbug or "sell," as
the slang phrase is.
BACK TO JENA
I parted company here from Wuestenfeldt. He wanted
to go farther up the valley. But I wished to stay a few days
more in Munich and Erlangen, and my time was limited if I
was to reach Jena at the commencement of the lectures. I was
also short of money, having left a part of my allowance at
Munich. Indeed, after leaving Zirl I had only about a half
a dollar left, and had yet to travel about ninety miles. The
road, an old Roman highway, is kept in the most perfect order,
and rises abruptly toward Seefeld, some four thousand feet
high, where there is a divide between the Inn and the Isar. It
was about twelve miles to Seefeld, and when I had gone about
half way up the long ascent I was so tired, (we had taken the
exhausting trip to Martinswand in the morning,) that, in spite
of the leanness of my purse, I got into a little wagon that over-
took me and paid the Tyrolese boy that drove it fifteen cents,
leaving me about thirty-five cents for the remainder of my
trip. At Seefeld I took only a couple of hard eggs and some
bread for supper, in the morning a soft boiled egg, some rolls
and a glass of Kirschwasser. To my delight, I could pay
for my meals and lodging and had about five cents left for a
couple of glasses of beer on the day 's march. I had, however,
a silver watch with me and by pledging it at the next tavern,
I expected to raise money enough to get me to Munich. Still,
106 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
I moved on through the wonderful morning and the inspiring
scenery that opened before me, when descending into the Isar
valley, in a rather depressed mood, I had not walked more than
six or eight miles and passed Scharniz, an ancient fort, and
the frontier of Bavaria, when a big open farmer's wagon,
with four rough seats, drawn by four stout horses, overtook me.
Besides the driver, it held four Munich students on their
return from their vacation. They were in high glee, singing
and shouting. They did not belong to my society, but in my
situation I did not stand much on exclusiveness. I halloed
to the driver to stop, and asked the students if there was more
room left, and whether I could not ride with them to Munich.
They said, "Yes. If the driver will take you." They had
hired the concern, everyone paying so much. The driver was
more than willing ; but, in order to relieve myself at once from
all anxiety, I told the driver I was out of money, could only
pay him at Munich, and that he would have to pay my bills on
the way. He shook his head a little at this. But the students
at once said: "Never mind. We will pay the driver and
what you want on the way. You can pay us back at Munich. "
They saw my ribbon and knew at once that they were safe
enough in trusting me.
We passed through a most picturesque country through
Mittenwald, celebrated for the fabrication of violins, and Par-
tenkirchen, where we had a most splendid view of the Wetter-
stein and the Zugspitze, over nine thousand feet high. We
had several charming vistas of the Starnberger lake. Some
five or six miles before we reached Munich the country is unin-
teresting. It is all forest, and known as the Hirschgarten,
fine ground for hunting deer and wild boars.
I now stayed only two days in Munich, visited the picture
galleries again, and also the theatres. Goeden had already
left, accompanied by Theodore Engelmann, who had made up
his mind to change Munich for Jena. I went back by the
same route I had come, by Nuremberg to Erlangen, where I
spent a few days most joyously. It was the middle of May,
UNIVERSITY LIFE 107
the weather most delightful, my friends all in fine spirits. Lit-
tle did I think that on the last day I stayed there, I should be
in part a witness of a most affecting scene. Some of us, it
was a Sunday afternoon, May 15, 1829, had gone to a neigh-
boring village, where we had a very joyous time. Returning
in the evening to our club-house, we found nearly all the mem-
bers of the Burschenschaft there in the greatest excitement.
One of the most popular, high-spirited, and at the same time
most jovial fellows, Wolf of Nuremberg, with whom I had
become very intimate on my first visit, and who had taken me
to Nuremberg, had just been brought into town shot dead in a
duel. At least, he had been left for dead by the seconds, the
physicians having procured a farmer to carry the corpse into
town on a wagon. Only one pistol was found on the ground.
But, strange to say, in the hospital he revived for a short time.
I went to see him. He was shot through the neck. He recog-
nized me and other friends, standing round the bed, but he
could not speak. The attending physician pronounced the
wound mortal and that no help on the field could have done
any good. He died a short time after I left him.
It cast a deep gloom over the whole town. Everybody
had liked him. His adversary belonged to the secession party
of the Burschenschaft, called the Arminia. His name, I be-
lieve, was Wagner, from Rhenish Bavaria. He left the same
night and fled to France. Strange to say, the authorities
never found out anything definite about this duel, witnessed
by two seconds, one impartial witness and a physician. They
seemed to adopt the theory of suicide, suggested by the stu-
dents, while every member of the Germania knew all about it.
When I started next morning for Jena, one of the most
influential members of the Germania, Heinkelmann from Bam-
berg, surprised me as I left the club-house, where I had break-
fasted, by telling me that he had suddenly made up his mind
to go to Jena. Of course I had my suspicions at once that he
had been Wolf's second; and so it turned out. We traveled
very fast to reach the frontier of Saxe-Coburg where we should
108 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNEB
be safe at least for a few days. But he was never troubled.
Though we went in the most delightful weather through the
fine scenery of the Thuringian Mountains, and by Saalfeld
and Rudolstadt along the lovely valley of the Saale, we both
felt rather melancholy, and our minds constantly reverted to
the sad fate of our friend Wolf.
CHAPTER V
Last Year at Jena (1829-1830)
It had been agreed upon between Goeden and myself that
we should room together for the next term. He had already
partly engaged a residence, a very romantic one, which I really
did not like to take ; but he was so pressing, and thought it so
idyllic, that I finally reluctantly consented. It was Rhein-
hard's Garden House, on a very shady little island in the
Saale. We had two rooms, decently furnished ; but the house
was rather damp, and as the waiting-maid had to come from
town every morning from the house of the owner, our break-
fast was often late. In high water the small plank-bridge
that led to the island was sometimes submerged, and then we
had to use a boat to cross. At night, the place being outside
of the city limits, and the neighborhood not lighted, it was
very inconvenient to walk to.
I was not so romantically inclined as my friend Goeden,
and many times I did not go home, but stayed with my friends
in town, generally with Carl Fleischer, an Hanoverian occupy-
ing one of the best houses in the place, called the Maetherei,
from the proprietor's name, Maether. He was a most amiable
young man, of a quiet nature, but firm mind. He was most
unselfish and generous, but rather exclusive, consorting only
with a few friends. He was full of patriotism, and a highly
respected member of the Burschenschaft, to which he had
belonged in Goettingen. When we parted in the fall of 1830,
(I went to Munich,) it was with great respect on both sides.
When, after the emeute at Frankfort, on the third of April,
1833, the Bundestag began its furious persecution against all
who were supposed to be connected directly or indirectly with
110
the rising, and particularly against the members of the Ger-
mania Society, whether involved or not, Fleicher did not deem
it prudent to stay in Germany, but with another member of
the Burschenschaft, Gaertner of Brunswick, fled to Belgium.
At that time there was being raised in England a foreign
legion to assist in maintaining the rights of the Infanta Maria
of Portugal against the usurper, Dom Miguel, under the
auspices, I believe, of Sir DeLacey Evans, who later was the
commander of the foreign legion in Spain that supported
Isabella II against the pretender, Don Carlos, and who after-
ward became a very distinguished general in the English
army. Gaertner, of whom I shall have a good deal to say
hereafter, when I come to my residence in Madrid as United
States Minister, enlisted with Fleischer in this legion, and went
to Portugal, where Fleischer fell in battle at the siege of
Oporto. I heard of his death, however, only many years after,
when I had been in the United States some time.
Goeden became somewhat dissatisfied with me for not
sufficiently appreciating the beauties of the Garden House, and
was also perhaps a little jealous of my intimacy with Fleischer.
Anyway, in the fall we had to leave the island, and I took
rooms in the Maetherei, with a fine view of the promenade
below my windows and of the hills north of Jena. Goeden
and I remained very good friends, nevertheless. He after-
wards went to Goettingen, and we carried on a correspondence
until I left Jena. I lost sight of him afterwards, until some
time in 1861 a son of his came to St. Louis, called upon me,
told me that he had come to learn farming, and that his father
intended after awhile to buy him a farm. He volunteered in
a Missouri regiment, however, and I saw him after the war;
but what since became of him I know not. His father had left
Mecklenburg, become a distinguished physician in Stettin,
where he died in May, 1888, as Herr Medicinal Rath.
In July, not very long after my return from my southern
tour, I received the melancholy news of my father's death.
He had been sick nearly all winter with a heart or lung com-
LAST YEAR AT JENA 111
plaint. He died comparatively young, being fifty-six years
of age. But no one dies too soon or too late.
PROTESTANT TRICENTENNIAL
Nothing very remarkable happened during the summer
of 1829, except the celebration of the tri-centenary of the
action of the reformed princes and free cities at the Diet of
Speyer, in protesting against the demands of the majority of
the members of the Diet to stop the work of the Reformation.
It was from this protest, that all the different religious socie-
ties which seceded from the Roman Catholic Church, received
the name of ' ' Protestants. ' '
This anniversary was celebrated by the Bursehenschaft
after the usual manner of such student-celebrations. The
members of the board of directors (Vorstand), and of the
court of honor, were clad in black, with black-red-gold scarfs
across their breasts, black velvet barettas with ostrich feathers,
and white gauntlets and swords at their sides. The other
members, both of the inner and outer circle, wore pretty much
the same dress, without barettas and scarfs. A procession
was formed, about two hundred and fifty strong, all bearing
lighted pitch-torches, and a march was made through the prin-
cipal streets to the spacious market-place. The city-band
played on the balcony of the council-house. Frederick Meyer
of Mecklenburg, who was then president of the directory
(speaker), a giant in stature, made a short and impressive
speech, to the effect, that, though now we had full religious
liberty and need not renew the protest of our great ancestors
at Speyer, yet tonight and always we should loudly protest
against any and all encroachments on our civil liberty and
against all acts of absolutism and despotism whatsoever.
Three tremendous cheers were given to the old and new Pro-
testants. The torches were all thrown in a heap, making a
great blaze. I think we wound up the open air celebration
with the old Latin student song : ' ' Gaudeamus igitur. ' '
112
The citizens being nearly all strong Lutherans, turned
out en masse, and cheered us on our march. Most of the pro-
fessors also were delighted that we had thus spontaneously
and without asking the authorities taken up this celebration.
Officially nothing had been done towards it, except that the
music was furnished by the city.
At the end of the semester I had determined to visit my
family at Frankfort. Carl Grave and Carl Tamsen, both of
Holstein, desired to join me. Grave, whom I afterwards met
repeatedly in the United States, was a very diminutive, hand-
some youth, of a most mercurial character, but amiable and
sprightly, and so full of ideas that he could not speak fast
enough to let them out, with the result that he often got a
little confused. Yet he had excellent common sense, had had
a fine education, and possessed a delicate sense of honor: he
was a medical student. Tamsen was the very opposite of
Grave. He was from the northern part of Holstein (Flens-
burg), quiet, scant of speech, yet fond of society, and not
without some humor. A thimbleful of wine would make
Grave almost intoxicated; while half a dozen glasses of stiff
grog would have no perceptible effect on Tamsen. On the
whole, I could not have had better company.
TRIP THROUGH THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS
Our route to Frankfort was a rather circuitous one. From
"Weimar we turned off the main road to Frankfort to Koel-
leda, a sorrowful place, to which old father Jahn, the organizer
of the Turnvereins, the old Luetzower of 1813, had been ban-
ished by the Prussian government, for having severely de-
nounced the reactionary policy of Prussia after the war of
liberation. We had intended to visit him, not that we admired
the man so much, for at that time he had become quite royal
and loyal ; but he was, nevertheless, a sort of martyr, and the
Jena students made many a pilgrimage to Koelleda to visit
him. He was afterwards elected to the German Parliament
in 1848 on account of his early persecutions, but turned out a
LAST YEAR AT JENA 113
thorough Conservative and played a sorry part in that assem-
bly. He had gone to a neighboring village, so that we missed
him. As a child I had seen him in Frankfort, for he had
visited father repeatedly. From Koelleda, by Frankenhau-
sen, we traversed some of the most fertile regions of north-
ern Germany, called the Goldene Aue, bounded on the north
by hills, on one of which stands the celebrated Kyffhaeuser.
We went up to the ruins of the old castle, of which we had
heard and read so much, and it was quite dark before we
reached our night's quarters.
Next day we went by the charming water-place, Alexis-
Bad, in the valley of the Selke. It is surrounded by noble
forests of beech and oak. We spent one night at Thale in
the valley of the Bode, from which next morning we ascended
the highly interesting Ross-Trappe, looking down into the
dark abyss formed by the Bode. The guide told us of a
young girl who, not long before, on account of unrequited
love, had made the fatal leap from the rock into the stream.
I made a novelette of this not long afterwards. Finding the
manuscript amongst my papers, I had it published in the
"Illinois Beobachter" for May 16 and 23, 1844, under the title
"Aus der Harzreise im Herbst."
By Blankenburg, with its historical chateau, Elbingerode-
Schierke, we ascended in a heavy rain and wind storm late in
the evening the Brocken, visiting on the way the stalactite
Baumann's cave. The hospice on the Brocken was a massive
stone house of one story, with walls several feet thick and the
roof secured by huge stones put upon it. We found a large
company there, students from Berlin and from G-oettingen,
and many Philistines. The large guest-room was kept pretty
hot, and a good deal of grog was consumed. The dormitories,
however, were very cold. The Brocken is but three thousand,
five hundred feet high, but in that latitude the temperature
at such an elevation is very severe. The morning was cloudy,
and for some time we could see but a few yards ahead. But
after a while the sun came out for a short time, and we had
114 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
quite an extensive view. One goes there to be able to say that
he has been on the mystic Brocken. But otherwise there is
no great reward for the trouble of ascending it. For geolo-
gists and scientists generally the Hartz Mountains are of very
great interest. We visited the gold mines at Klausthal and
Noerden, and reached Goettingen. Few students were pres-
ent, though enough to make our sojourn there quite pleasant.
Through the most delightfully situated town of Miinden
(where the Werra and Fulda join, forming the Weser) we
reached Cassel, saw all its marvels, including the Wilhelms-
hoehe, went to Marburg and Giessen, where we had a high
time again with our brother students, and thence to Frankfort,
where we arrived late at night, and where I was received with
great joy by my mother, sisters, and brother Carl. Tamsen
and Grave stayed a few days at Frankfort, where, of course.
I made them quite at home. They then returned to Jena,
while I remained some weeks with my family.
JENA AGAIN. VISIT TO LEIPSIC
Towards the end of October, I left again for Jena. By
Aschaffenburg, Wuerzburg, Schweinfurt, Koenigshofen, Roem-
hild, Schleusingen, Ilmenau, Stadt Ilm, and Weimar, I ar-
rived late in the night at Jena. I went by coach as far as
Wuerzburg, but the rest of the road, leading through part of
the Thuringian Mountains, some ninety miles, I footed with
a very heavy knapsack on my shoulders.
In the winter of 1829 and 1830 I heard lectures on crim-
inal law and German civil law, by the distinguished Professor
Martin, and on medical jurisprudence by Professor Henke.
If I recollect right, I was tolerably studious that winter. We
had a Shakespeare Club and other literary gatherings, with
tea and claret, or rum, which we called Attic nights. Dur-
ing the Christmas vacation, some of us paid another visit to
Leipsic, and I, like my great townsman Goethe, who had in
Leipsic a passionate love affair with the daughter of the house
where he boarded, fell in love with a very pretty girl, the
LAST YEAR AT JENA 115
daughter of a widow who kept a small restaurant called the
Little Blumenberg, as well as I remember. The student whose
hospitality I enjoyed and several other members of the Bur-
sehenschaft took their dinners and suppers there, and I thus
became acquainted with Friederieka, a tall, well-proportioned
girl with large lustrous black eyes and luxuriant blue-black
hair, which hung from down her neck in ringlets. She did not
wait on the table but kept the books in a small room adjoining
the restaurant, and as this bookkeeping took very little time
she sewed and embroidered. I courted her assiduously, and
before I left, promised to come back as soon as possible. She
did not encourage me much, and did not seem to be distressed
when I bid her adieu.
On my return to Jena I passed a day of which I have
the most lively remembrance, and which I have recollected,
I believe, every time I have since suffered from cold weather.
That winter was one of the severest ever experienced in Ger-
many. I had taken the stage at Leipsic for Jena. It started
early in the morning, about six o'clock. The snow was at
least a foot thick on the ground, and it had frozen hard. I
was alone in the coach, and it was well closed, so that at first
I did not suffer much from the cold, save in my feet. I had
no cloak, but had my dressing gown with me, which I put on
over my coat. It happened to be the coldest day of the season,
twenty-four degrees below zero, Reamur, and the wind blew
sharp from the north, which made it worse. Arrived at
Luetzen, the first station out from Leipsic, the coach was
taken in, and a high sleigh brought out, the postmaster declar-
ing that the snow was too deep for the big coach and that
there had been already a half hour's delay from Leipsic. I
protested, but in vain. It was a large open box on runners;
the mail was thrown in, and a bunch of hay to keep my feet
warm. The driver sat in front of me on the mail-bag. There
is a vast plain between Luetzen and Weissenf els on the Saale,
and the wind almost took the breath out of me. I suffered
very much and soon felt sleepy. I told the postillion to rouse
116 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNEE
me from time to time, and not let me go to sleep. We went,
however, like lightning. At the next station, Weissenfels, the
sleigh was again exchanged for a comfortable coach, well filled
with straw. While conveyance and horses were being changed,
I entered the well-warmed guest-room ; but only for a moment,
for I was at once taken with horrible pains. I had been
entirely benumbed, and the heat of the room made me feel as
though my whole body was on fire. I ran out into the yard.
The landlady came after me with a basin of icy water. ' ' Put
your hands in this, quick," she said, "and then wash your
face." It proved at once a great relief, and after dipping
my hands repeatedly in the snow on the ground and washing
my face with the same, I felt quite comfortable again, and
could stay some time in the warm room.
Unfortunately at Naumburg the coach was taken off, and
I had to ride in a sleigh again for the last two stations to
Jena. But the sleigh was full of straw, so that I could cover
myself up with it. The postmaster gave me two blankets, but,
best of all, we made a sharp turn at Naumburg, going straight
south to Jena, so that I now had the wind on my back. Take
it all in all, it was a horrible day.
As to Priedericka, I may as well give the close of that
episode, I did go back the next spring. I called upon her,
and when I went away, she bade me adieu in a manner that
seemed to say: "Come again." But there was no passion
on either side. A kiss or two were rather taken than given.
The secret of my failure I soon found out. A fine-looking,
good-natured fellow, one of our own society, by the name of
Roland, had been captured by her. He was the son of a rich
Saxon land-owner, and he married her in less than a year
after I saw her last. Amongst my papers is a sonnet devoted
to her under the title ' ' Friedericka. "
BERLIN AND NORTHERN GERMANY
For the Easter vacation I had planned an extensive tour.
Ludwig Beetz, of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who, like myself,
LAST YEAR AT JENA 117
was a law student, and with whom I had become very well
acquainted, invited me urgently to accompany him to his
home in Ludwigslust, where his father was a distinguished
Lutheran minister. Beetz was a very intelligent young man,
with a first-rate education; a pleasant associate, though per-
haps a little too much inclined to sarcasm. If my memory
does not deceive me, he obtained a very high position in his
profession after the year 1848. I finally accepted his invita-
tion, but, once in northern Germany, I enlarged my plans
considerably.
We left the University in the middle of April, went on
foot by Zeitz and Pegau to Leipsic, where I met Friedericka.
To go to Berlin from Leipsic on foot was out of the question,
as most of the road is highly uninteresting, indeed, for
many miles sandy and marshy. We took a coach, crossed
the Elbe at Wittenberg, and stayed half a day in this historical
place, which no one can visit without feeling that he is on
memorable, nay, almost sacred, ground. It was well to have
erected a fine statue of Luther in the market place, though
monument he needed none. We visited his and Melancthon's
tombs in the Schlosskirche, on the door of which the bold monk
had nailed his theses against the papal indulgences, and were
shown the place outside the town where Luther burned the
papal bull, condemning his doctrines and excommunicating
him.
Through a poor and sandy country, we reached, towards
evening, Potsdam, a perfect oasis in the desert, between
lakes of the Havel, and most beautifully situated. We saw all
that was remarkable there in the morning, and reached Berlin
the next evening. Berlin, of course, was not in 1830 the place
it is now; it contained then about 250,000 inhabitants; yet
it was a highly interesting place in every respect. To give a
description of all I saw during th.ree or four days in Berlin,
would be useless, and I will confine myself to giving a few
notes of places I saw, which are amongst my papers :
118 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Armory, opposite Bluecher's bronze statue; New Guard
House, flanked by the two marble statues of Buelow and
Scharnhorst ; the Royal Palace ; New Bridge across the Spree ;
New Museum, opposite Schloss ; Unter den Linden ; Charlotten-
burg, with the tomb of Queen Louise; Rauch's Atelier
(Sleeping Child, Scharnhorst 's Sarcophagus) ; King's Bridge,
with Schlueter's beautiful colossal statue of the Great Elector ;
Kreuzberg, with the monument for those who fell in the wars
of liberation; House of the Invalids (Invalido et invicto
militi) ; in the Old Museum, Halls of Antiquity, Picture Gal-
lery; Wilhelm's Platz, with the statues of the heroes of the
Seven Years' War; Library; University; the new antique
Werder Church ; Engineers ' School ; the New Palace under the
Lindens; Catholic Dom.
We found in Berlin some of our friends who had been
with us at Jena; also other students, with whom we had
become acquainted before in Halle and Leipsic. They treated
us most cordially. They were all members of our society,
and while they had to be very cautious in Berlin, and could
not show their badges openly, still they had their club-house
and lived under the constitution and rules of the Universal
Burschenschaft. We spent our time most pleasantly. In the
Royal Theatre we saw Richard III. The actor representing
the King was a hunchback star from some other theatre, whose
name I have forgotten. If any of Shakespeare's creations
require to be toned down in their representation, it is Richard
III ; but instead of that the actor, imitating English perform-
ers, exaggerated the character, already overdrawn. I was
much disappointed, and the Berlin public seemed to be as little
pleased as I was. The house was only half filled. The theatre
itself presented a majestic appearance, and as far as machin-
ery, costumes, and scenery went, the performance was perfect.
In the Koenigstadt Theatre we saw "Preciosa" very finely
played. But we were very fortunate in hearing Don Juan at
the Opera House. Henrietta Sontag was starring at Berlin.
She sang Dona Anne, and was supported by Mme. Seidel as
LAST YEAR AT JENA 119
Elvira, and the lovely Miss Schaetzel as Zerlina. The cele-
brated Blume acted Don Juan. I have since heard grand
operas at Madrid, Paris, Dresden, New York, and other large
cities in Europe and the United States, but never witnessed
such an "ensemble" of excellent singers and rich scenery, or
heard such an exquisite orchestra, as in Berlin.
We could not afford to buy tickets for a box or reserved
seats, but had to be content with the parquet; and, being
advised to that effect by our friends, we went to the door of
the opera house about four o'clock to join the crowd for the
parquet and higher galleries. There we stood in the sun,
pressed like herrings, until six o'clock, when the door was
opened. We got in, or rather were carried in by the rushing
crowd, and procured tolerably good seats. But we were
amply recompensed for our two hours' torture.
I had seen Sontag before in Frankfort, in 1829, in Ros-
sini's "Barber of Seville." She was then but 18 or 19 years of
age. Her beauty was indescribable. She set all Germany in
a blaze. Her voice was equal to Adelina Patti's; her grace
and beauty, unequaled by any artist then living; and her
acting, particularly in light operas, far superior to Patti's.
Boerne, in his miscellaneous writings, has given a most
humorous and spirited account of her acting and her recep-
tion at Frankfort. With many others, he also twitted me,
for I had been guilty of showing my admiration of the godlike
Henrietta in two stanzas, in form of a four-syllable riddle,
' ' Palmen-Sontag, " which is amongst my collection of verses.
It goes without saying that I visited the Royal Picture
Gallery more than once. As I came to Berlin again in 1863,
under very favorable circumstances, 1 may speak of it again.
MECKLENBURG. LUEBECK. KIEL
Leaving Berlin on the 30th of April in a miserable Prus-
sian stage, through endless sand heaths, we reached the cele-
brated battle-field of Fehrbellin; although after passing the
Mecklenburg frontier at Grabow the country became more
120 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
interesting, fertile soil, here and there a lake, and some
timber. With the parents of Beetz, at Ludwigslust, we passed
several very pleasant days, made an excursion to Woebbelin,
near which village is the tomb of Theodore Koerner, under
an oak, where he fell on the 26th of August, 1813. A simple
stone with his name and date of his death marked the place
at that time. His sister Emma, whose heart was broken by
his death and who soon followed him, is also buried there.
A keeper took care of the spot; but it seemed to have been
rather neglected. I believe there is now a fine monument
erected to him there.
With Beetz I went to Schwerin, the capital of Mecklen-
burg-Schwerin, and visited his brother-in-law, a counselor at
law, who lived very elegantly with his pretty wife. We were
royally entertained here. The picture-gallery, in the chateau,
built on an island in a beautiful lake, has some excellent pic-
tures, principally of the Dutch school. There is a Van Dyke,
two Rembrandts, a Floris, Teniers, Holbein, and a Dow. Here
I parted from my excellent friend Beetz, and traveled on
foot through a rich and beautiful country, clean towns and
villages, the people of which looked not only well-to-do, but
the men stout and handsome, and the women on an average
really beautiful. One thing I missed very much. The beer
in all northern Germany was at that time execrable. Either it
was miserably thin or so thick and strong that no southern
German could relish it. In the smaller towns no wine could
be had. But the splendid milk of the superior cows of Meck-
lenburg and Holstein is very refreshing to the wanderer.
In two days I had reached Luebeck, where I was received
by a very good friend, Bang, who had left Jena in the fall of
1829. The name by which he was almost exclusively known
was "Hiob," or Job. He was a well-informed, highly intel-
lectual man, "un homme d 'esprit," and besides, one of the
most social of fellows. Stout and tall, a first rate swords-
man, popular without courting popularity, he had great in-
fluence in our society, and was nearly always a member of
LAST YEAR AT JENA 121
the directory or the court of honor. The only wonder was
that he took up theology as a profession. His clerical descent
may account for that. He certainly did not relish it. I af-
terwards lost track of him, but I dare say that he never was
a success as a pastor.
Bang was an excellent ' ' cicerone, ' ' and Luebeck is worthy
of the tourist's attention. It is a real old German town, dif-
ferent from Nuremberg, and yet leaving almost the same im-
pression on the mind. Its quondam prosperity and mag-
nificence, as the head of the once so powerful Hanseatic
League, are gone. Its remarkable Gothic churches, its town-
hall, built entirely of brick, as nearly all the buildings in the
north of Germany are, take days to explore. One day we went
to the great harbor of Luebeck, ten miles off, to Travemiinde,
a very pretty place, and there I had the first view of the sea.
"Thallatta, Thallatta," I exclaimed, as almost every school
boy does at the first view of the ocean. We ordered a fish
dinner to be ready within an hour, and saw the fishermen
start out to catch that excellent fish, the dorsch. In the
meantime, we went a little beyond the town, and took a swim
on the sandy beach. The fish, served with choice Holland
potatoes a la mattre d'hotel, was a kingly feast, and we made
the fish swim in some extra fine white port. All French and
Spanish wines, as port, sherry, and Bordeaux, are compar-
atively cheap in these northern sea-ports, since there is no
duty to be paid and the freight is little.
One Sunday evening I was invited by a rich merchant,
a relative of my friend, to dinner. The house was one of
those immense buildings with gable ends toward the street
with which Luebeck abounds, and of quaint architecture. On
entering you came into a large hall of great height and of
the width of the whole house. Only to the right of the en-
trance were there some small rooms used for offices. A large
stairway led to the second story. The hall there was still
very ample, but on each side there were suites of rooms, par-
lors as we would call them, and also a large dining room.
122 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
The third story contained the sitting and bedrooms. It was
a family reunion. The head of the family and his still hand-
some wife, a son or two, and two daughters, some four or five
related families, clerks of the house, Bang and myself, mak-
ing in all some forty people, sat down to a most sumptuous
dinner. The fish, lobsters, oysters, shrimps, etc., attracted my
particular attention, as being novelties to me. There were
also, of course, excellent beef and fowls, and the dessert was
particularly rich in oranges, bananas, and other exotic fruits,
which at that time were very scarce in south Germany. The
wines were of the choicest. After dinner we first had good
piano-playing and singing by some of the girls, most all of
whom were very handsome, all blondes with exquisite com-
plexions, blue eyes, and plump, healthy figures. We then
played social games, particularly charades, our hostess fur-
nishing very handsome toilettes for the ladies. Then came
dancing, and, as usual, I fell in love with one of the girls, a
maiden of about sixteen or seventeen, sweet but not insipid.
I had her as a partner more than once, and I undoubtedly
made a fool of myself, though she did not seem to perceive it.
About midnight the party broke up. She was with her
father and mother and needed no escort home, but I rather
audaciously insisted on accompanying her. The father, a
pastor, remonstrated, saying that they lived out of town some
distance from our host's home. But all in vain so much
the better, thought I. It was a beautiful moonlight night.
The parents led the way, I offered my arm to Emma. I told
her of my happiness, and said other pretty things to her,
which would appear very ludicrous if put in writing. We
reached the Holstein Gate, which was already closed, but was
opened for the pastor, of course, who told the watchman to
let me in again when I went back to town. We walked about
a quarter of a mile on the main road, which led to a suburb,
of which Emma's father was the pastor, then turned off to
take a nearer cut to the pastor's house, when to my surprise
we walked through a churchyard, on the other side of which
LAST YEAR AT JENA 123
was the St. Lawrence church and the pastor's dwelling. The
moonlight stole over the white stone monuments and the
crosses. I had never seen a churchyard in the moonlight ex-
cept in the opera of Don Juan. That was a pasteboard one,
this a real one. Emma did not seem to be at all afraid, for
she did not draw closer to me. I wished she had been. We
reached the parsonage. To my surprise the old folks unlocked
the door and went into the hall, which was quite dark. I
thought it was time for me to leave. "O, Emma," I said,
''how sorry I am I must leave in the morning; I shall never
see you again." She replied I might see her on my return
from Holstein. "Oh, no, that cannot be. Farewell, my dear;"
and with that I put my arm around her waist and gave her
a hearty kiss. "My God," she exclaimed, but she could say
no more. The old gentleman, holding a candle in his hand,
appeared in the hall. "Good-bye, my dear Herr Pastor," I
said, and tried to make my escape. "Oh, no," said he; "do
you think I would let you go out in the cold night air without
having you take a glass of wine with us? My wife is just
going down to the cellar to get some good Khine wine." Of
course, I had to join them. The lady had already set wine,
glasses, and cake on the table, and we sat down for a few min-
utes, and drank to our parting. Emma, however, did not
come in. "I am so tired," she said to her mother, "I must
retire. Good night, and a happy journey to you, Mr. Koer-
ner. ' ' She was a little embarrassed ; but for a girl of sixteen
she acted very bravely. In a sort of intoxication I ran
through the churchyard, thought of Don Juan, got to the
gate, and had to hail the watchman three or four times before
he came out. I chided him. But said he, "I thought you
would come back at once, and, as you did not, I guessed you
had stayed with the Herr Pastor."
I walked home of course, but it seemed to me that I
reached home on wings rather than on my legs. In my note-
book, after mentioning this romantic episode, I find the fol-
lowing quotation from Don Carlos: "Koenigin O, Gott
124 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Das Leben 1st doch schoen," and three exclamation marks.
Amongst my papers there is a description of this party at
Luebeck, superscribed "An Evening at Luebeck," which dif-
fers in some respects from what I have just written. But
upon the whole there is no essential difference. For some
reason or another I had left the kiss out.
Next morning I started for Eutin, an interesting city,
well known in the literary history of Germany. It was there
that John Henry Voss lived the eminent philologist, and
author of the admirable renderings of Homer and other classic
authors, the poet of ' ' Louise. ' ' Many other literary celebri-
ties at one time or another resided here. It was also the
birth-place of Carl Maria von Weber. It formed then a part
of Oldenburg, and was surrounded by the Holstein country.
Here lived the family of my friend Maximilan Heinrich Rue-
der, one of the most influential members of our Jena Burschen-
schaft. He was a real Northman in appearance, tall and ro-
bust, with light red hair and large gray eyes. He was of a
serious turn of mind, rather conservative, but a warm friend
of his fatherland and of its liberty and unity. He was a man
of high moral principles and yet not unsocial. An excellent
swordsman, he never sought a quarrel, and no one liked to
quarrel with him. He did not spend his vacations at home,
but had earnestly begged me to visit his parents, and had
informed them of my coming. I was most kindly received
by them. Another son showed me the admirable scenery
around Eutin. Such forests of oak, and particularly beech,
I had never seen before. They were of gigantic size. Beau-
tiful little lakes surrounded the place. This part of eastern
Holstein is remarkably fine. Rueder's brother accompanied
me to Ploen, a town half way to Kiel, and situated on a large
and charming lake. With my friend Rueder I continued to
correspond while at the University, and also after I had set-
tled in Frankfort. Although he was not connected with the
third of April "Attentat" at Frankfort, perhaps not even
aware of it, he was nevertheless prosecuted as a participant,
LAST YEAR AT JENA 125
arrested, and imprisoned for a considerable time. He after-
wards became a distinguished lawyer, and when he met me
in Hamburg in 1864, he was Attorney General of the Grand
Dukedom of Oldenburg. We renewed our correspondence,
and for many years he wrote me regularly to the United
States. Of late, I have heard nothing of him. We were most
intimate friends.
What shall I say of Kiel, with its harbor big enough to
shelter all the navies of the world combined, and with its
majestic forests, bordering the east side of the bay? I rev-
eled in enjoyment. I found there my friends Tamsen and
Palm from Hamburg, and G. I. Hanssen, old Jena students,
and many other fine fellows. We spent most of our time at
the romantic Duesternbrook in the bay, favored by delightful
weather.
At the invitation of Hanssen, I spent a few days with him
at Holtenau on the Eider. We visited, on a stormy day, the
little fortress of Friedrichsort at the mouth of the Eider
canal, and had beautiful views of the bay and the shipping.
Walking along the rocks and stone walls bounding the sea
at the end of the canal, we could hardly keep our legs. The
wind howled, and the surge struck the shore violently, so that
we were several times covered with foam. Hanssen was a su-
perior man. He had been very studious, and although he had
studied law, his favorite pursuits were political and national
economy and statistics. A few years after I left him, he be-
came a lecturer on economy, political and agricultural, at
Kiel; in 1837 he was appointed professor at the same place,
and was successively called to Goettingen, Leipsic, and Berlin,
where he was appointed chief of the statistical bureau. But
he finally returned to Goettingen, as professor of his favorite
sciences. He was the author of many highly prized works.
Since 1875 I have not heard of him.
I saw Kiel later in all its splendor and loveliness ; but the
happy days I passed there and in Holstein in my youth, with
126 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
their fresh impression of ocean life, have always remained
vividly in my memory through life.
SCHLESWIG AND HAMBURG
On the llth of May, Tamsen took me in a light carriage
with two beautiful fast Holstein horses, to Neumiinster, half
way to Hamburg. From there I started on foot towards Ham-
burg, lost my way in the vast Segeberg heath, and reached,
late at night, a small village somewhat off the main road. The
inn was like all farmhouses in Holstein, large barns, in the
front end of which, on each side of a wide entrance, are a few
dwelling-rooms for the family. Close to these are the stables,
for horses on one side, and for cattle on the other. Farther
back stand the wagons, tools, etc. The loft is filled with hay,
straw, and at the proper seasons grain. There are large cel-
lars underneath. I was shown by the landlord into one of the
rooms where the whole family, man, wife, grandmother, two
buxom girls, a boy or two, and some farm-hands were just at
supper. They had milk, black bread, boiled potatoes and raw
ham. I found these all very acceptable. After awhile the
whole company left, except the landlord and the old woman.
I smoked my pipe and tried to talk; but, although I was un-
derstood, I only half understood my hosts, who spoke only
Low Dutch, and quite a different dialect from that of my
friends in Mecklenburg, with whose language I had become
tolerably well acquainted at Jena. After some time I asked
to retire. I had noticed before a row of what I supposed to
be clothes presses, all along one side of the room. But what
was my astonishment when the landlord pushed one of the
doors aside, and I discovered that it was a sort of cabin with
two bunks, in each of which was a bed. "You may undress
here," the landlord said, "and turn in. I shall close up the
concern when you are in, and then the other people will come
and get into the other beds. ' ' I did not like the arrangement
at all ; but what could I do ? The landlord said this was the
only sleeping-room in the house. So, paying no attention to
LAST YEAR AT JENA 127
the old woman, I turned in, leaving a portion of the movable
door open, for fear of suffocation. I soon fell asleep, but in
the morning discovered that one of the sons had taken the
upper berth. When I awoke, all the folks were up, the women
were milking the cows, and the boys feeding the horses. Milk,
honey, black bread, good butter, and fat bacon made quite a
good breakfast, and after a march of some fifteen or twenty
miles I reached Hamburg.
None of my intimate friends were then in Hamburg, so
I stopped at a rather indifferent hotel, the one that had
been recommended to me being full to overflowing. One of
my acquaintances, however, introduced me to a young man
who took charge of me and who turned out to be a most de-
lightful and sociable companion. It was no less a person than
Ludolf Wienbarg. He was some years older than I, and had
already a local literary reputation. His conversation was
most interesting, and it was a great pleasure to listen to him.
He had the latest literature of Germany and France at his
fingers' ends. He took me to the London Tavern, where a
real John Bull kept real porter, and where English beefsteak
was a specialty. The evenings we spent at the new Alster
Pavilions. Wherever we went, we found friends of like lit-
erary tastes. A few years later he published his "Aesthetic
Campaigns," which at once made him favorably known to all
Germany. He dedicated them to "Young Germany," and
from this expression the new school of German Literati took
its title. He was considered the head of that school, and fell
under the ban of the German Federal Diet. All his publica-
tions, as well as those of Wolfgang Menzel, Heinrich Heine,
Henry Laube, Carl Gutzkow, and several others, were prohib-
ited. He was the author of "Contributions to Recent Liter-
ature," and in later years of a history of Schleswig. He was
certainly a man of genius, but had also some of the faults
which often obscure exuberant brightness.
I saw everything that was to be seen in Hamburg at that
time, including a splendid excursion to the Harvestehude,
128 MEMOIRS OP GUSTAVE KOERNER
situated among majestic woods. I also enjoyed hearing the
then very celebrated prima donna, Madame Kraus Wranitzky,
in Gluck's "Iphigenia in Tauris."
The evening of the 15th I left Hamburg by stage, passed
the fertile Vierlanden, and crossed the Elbe. On the west
side of the Elbe the Lueneburg Heath begins, which seemed to
be interminable. Arriving at Lueneburg at night, we were de-
tained there, and did not get to Brunswick until twelve o 'clock
that night. I stayed at the Hotel d 'Angleterre, took a cup
of tea and some rolls for supper, had coffee and rolls for break-
fast, and two Prussian dollars for my bill. (True, I had a
very large fine room and a solid silver candlestick with three
wax-lights.) Viewing this very interesting old city, I then,
by way of "Wblfenbuettel, made a very pleasant journey, walk-
ing leisurely through a fine fertile country, with the Hartz
Mountains always on my right, to Quedlinburg, where I stop-
ped for a day's rest, finally reaching Halle. The way I went
I must have traveled more than a hundred miles.
I was detained in Halle by an affair of my Jena friend
Bierstaedt, who, though there only on a visit, had been chal-
lenged by a Halle student ; and, as Bierstaedt was unfamiliar
with the broadsword, and the Halle student with the short
sword, the duel was fought with curved cavalry sabres. He
insisted on my being his second. The duel took place without
serious wounds being inflicted; but it was hardly over when
we were informed that the University police had got wind
of it. As these extraordinary duels were prohibited by pen-
alties almost as severe as pistol duels, we immediately left
Halle in a light carriage, and, promising a big tip to the driver,
flew to the Saxon frontier, about half way between Halle and
Leipzic; sent the carriage back, and footed it to the latter
place, from where we returned to Jena, just in time for the
beginning of the lectures.
Take it all in all, it was a wonderful journey; and as I
took the stage only through some very barren regions, and
walked about half of the way, stopping with few exceptions
LAST YEAR AT JENA 129
with friends, it cost me but very little. I do not think my
expenses were more than thirty dollars, and I was gone nearly
six weeks.
This being the last term I intended to stay at Jena, I
began it with the determined purpose to study hard; and I
did so for about two months. But the outbreak of the July
Revolution in France, with its "three glorious days," worked
a great change in my quiet every-day life.
POLITICAL DISTURBANCES OP 1830
I observed before that the spirit of liberty and unity
which had actuated the German people since the wars of lib-
erty, had never been entirely suppressed by the terrible perse-
cutions of some of the best patriots and particularly of the
youth of the Universities. It manifested itself again when the
people of Naples in 1820 rose against their worthless and
tyrannical King, compelling him to grant a constitutional
government, as well as when the revolutions took place in
Piedmont and Spain, where the nefarious tyrant, Ferdinand
VII, was also made to restore the Liberal Constitution of the
Cortes of 1812. These revolutions were put down by the bay-
onets of the "Unholy" Alliance, and the new systems abol-
ished. The universal sympathy shown for these nations by
the intelligent classes of the German people and even by the
masses, was a sure indication of the dissatisfaction prevailing
at home. The war of liberation of the Greeks, and their heroic
and at last partly successful struggle, kept up the political
excitement. In some of the South German States which had
some sort of constitutional and parliamentary government, the
press was comparatively free, and the journals printed there
were circulated largely in the other States of the Bund, even
when prohibited. Imperfect as the election-laws were in those
constitutional States (Bavaria, Wuertemberg, Baden, Hesse-
Darmstadt), yet the few citizens who were privileged to vote
never failed to send some fearless and distinguished men to
the legislative chambers who criticised the measures of the
130 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
government, proposed reforms and frequently succeeded in
warding off illiberal and tyrannical measures.
Great attention was paid to the news from France. Since
the death of Louis XVIII, who was sensible enough not to
carry reaction too far, and after his brother, the bigoted and
arbitrary Charles X, had become King, the liberal opposition
in France, led by able men, grew very powerful. The opposi-
tion-forces, under men like Thiers, Guizot, Armand Carrel,
and Louis Courier, were unceasing in their attacks on the
absolutism of the crown and the supremacy of the clergy. In
songs (Beranger) and in trenchant pamphlets, the government
was denounced, and, what was still worse in France, ridiculed.
Republican and Orleanist conspiracies were formed. St.
Simon and Fourier astonished the world with their com-
munistic and socialistic ideas, Utopian to be sure, but still
containing some grains of truth. There is no question, (if
one will be just,) but that France at that time was in politics,
in literature, in the arts and sciences, at the head of Europe ;
and the German Liberals, who at that time looked up to France
as being probably able to exercise an immense influence in
favor of liberty even in Germany, cannot be blamed if they
took a deep interest in whatever happened in Paris, and if
they followed the fiery and spirited debates in the French
Chambers with more interset than the debates in the German
legislatures, which were at best not very important.
No one at the present day, unless he is very familiar with
the history of those times, can form an idea of what excite-
ment was created by the French Revolution of July all over
Germany, and, I may even say, all over Europe and in
England in particular, and how it affected above all the
liberal young men of the Burschenschaften. We nailed on
the blackboard of the University all the bulletins favorable
to the Revolution. We threw up our black-red-and-gold caps,
and sang the Marseillaise; and I am not ashamed of it now;
for we took this revolution to be the dawn of liberty in our
own country. And not only were the majority of intelligent
LAST YEAR AT JENA 131
Germans fully aroused, but even the masses of the people in
the South and West, who, through the workings of repre-
sentative governments, had become enlightened as to the op-
pression under which they suffered. One of their chief com-
plaints was the hindrance to trade, commerce, and industry
by the customs lines round most of the German States, both
large and small. If heavy duties were exacted upon articles
of consumption in one State, the neighboring States retaliated
by imposing still higher ones. Some States even taxed goods
in transit. The small farmers and the peasantry rose in
great numbers in some of the smaller States, as in Hesse-Darm-
stadt, Hesse-Cassel, and Nassau, petitioning for redress. As
the government furnished none, they took up whatever weap-
ons they could lay hold of, burnt down the custom-house sta-
tions, drove away unpopular officials, and, finally, had to be
suppressed in bloody fight by the military. These news came
to us exaggerated. Such scenes had foreshadowed the first
great French Revolution, and we not only we young men,
but thousands of others now expected a general revolution
in Germany.
Early in September, the Duke of Brunswick, a miniature
despot, was driven out of his capital, and the ducal palace
burnt down. A little later there were tumults at Leipzic.
Some houses of ill-fame were set on fire, and the residences of
government officers stoned. Petitions from all classes were
drawn up, demanding municipal reform. In Dresden more
serious disturbances took place. The police-building and the
council-house were burnt down; communal guards, after the
fashion of the French National Guards, were formed; the
King compelled in a manner to abdicate ; his nephew made co-
regent; and a constitution was promised. The Elector of
Hesse was also forced to accept his son as co-regent, and to
pledge himself to grant a constitution with the consent of
delegates elected by the people. There was hardly a State
except Prussia in which reforms were not promised to pre-
vent revolutions.
132
All these things, taking place in the latter part of the
summer session of the University, were calculated to draw
our attention to a great extent from our studies. Every day
almost brought new excitement ; revolutionary risings in Swit-
zerland, in Italy, and, last but not least, in the Netherlands,
where the southern provinces rose against the Union that had
been formed by the Congress of Vienna between Belgium and
Holland. The troops of the King were beaten, and though
Brussels was bombarded, soon nothing was left to the House
of Orange in Belgium but the citadel of Antwerp.
The first news we got in Jena of the disturbances in Leip-
zic was calculated to raise the impression that a serious move-
ment, aiming at the subversion of the government, (which
had been deaf to all, even the most reasonable, propositions
for reform,) had sprung up. Leipsic was the intellectual and
industrial capital of Saxony, and a successful revolt there,
would extend throughout the Kingdom and to the surround-
ing small Saxon Duchies. Weber, I, and some others, whose
names I have forgotten, started, the same night we received
the news, for Leipsic. We collected on the Saale Bridge
about midnight, and on the evening of the next day reached
Leipsic. But we found things very different from what we
had expected. Some gambling dens and other public nuisances
had been burnt down by the populace. The citizens had ap-
plied to the city-council by petition for the redress of certain
grievances. The house of a very unpopular official, the Royal
Oouncilor Von Ende, had been attacked, and a petition sent
to Dresden for his removal. The students had also petitioned
the authorities of the University to reform some trifling mat-
ters that seemed to encroach on the academical liberty. But
the whole uprising appeared to be a merely local affair.
Since, however, a good many excesses had been committed
by the crowds, consisting of thousands of artisans, factory-
laborers, and vagabonds, (of which latter class many are al-
ways found in industrial places like Leipsic, particularly at
the time of its great fairs,) companies of students and citi-
LAST YEAR AT JENA 133
zens had been enrolled to patrol the city at night, and to keep
the council-house, city-gates, prisons and other public build-
ings guarded. We of Jena enrolled at once, the Burschen-
schaft forming one company, just for the fun of it. We
had badges on our left arms, and small rapiers and cavalry
swords at our sides. We were one day on guard at the prin-
cipal gate, the Petersthor. The citizens not enrolled made it
their business to send the guards all kinds of provisions, the
best they could afford, and plenty of wine and beer. No one
slept that night; we brewed a splendid punch, and of course
the students not on guard made it a point to call and see how
we were getting along. Indeed, we had a glorious time. There
are beautiful promenades around the city, and in the evening
they are always full of people. Whenever the one who stood
sentinel saw a pretty girl pass either out of or into the city
through the gate, he would call out the entire guard and we
would hasten out, draw up in line, and present arms. Young
as we were, we forgot all about revolution, reforms, constitu-
tions and politics generally, and enjoyed ourselves for three
days most gloriously in Leipsic. By way of Altenburg, where
there had also been a little outbreak, but where peace had
been restored, we returned to Jena, where the professors and
students had also formed a sort of national guard, a pre-
caution utterly ridiculous and in a few days defunct.
A PISTOL DUEL IN JENA
There was another thing which disturbed me in my stud-
ies. A spirit of discontent arose in our society. There were
some members who thought themselves slighted in not being
elected officers of the society, and who had much to say about
an aristocratic party, the members of which considered them-
selves superior to their associates. There may have been some
truth in this. But the main opposition came from those who
were conservative in their political views and who had become
more or less infected with the principles of the Arminians, a
society that in Erlangen and Wuerzburg had seceded from
134 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the Universal Burschenschaft. These malcontents used their
influence particularly with the members who did not belong
to the inner circle, making them believe that the conditions
of their full admission were too severe. Quarrels arose ; there
was much irritation; and more duels were fought in that
session than in the three previous ones I had attended. I had
my share of it,, either as principal or second, for I was very
much in demand in the latter capacity. One duel of extra-
ordinary gravity, which, however, affected me only as sec-
ond, I may mention.
One of our members, Frederick Schenk, from Meiningen,
on an excursion to that charming place the Rudelsburg, near
Bath Koesen on the Saale River, had quaraled with a lieuten-
ant of the Saxon army, and, having been insulted, I believe,
struck him. He was challenged by the officer, and, as was
usual between students and officers or civilians, the weapons
selected were pistols. The woods near the Kunitzburg, some
four miles below Jena, were chosen as the place of meeting.
I was not intimate with Schenk, but he was a good-natured,
honest young fellow, and, having had difficulty in obtaining
a second, he finally applied to me ; and I could not refuse, al-
though I had had no experience in duels of that sort.
_ai On a cloudy, disagreeable morning, we drove out to the
place; I, in the meantime having got information as to what
the practice was in such cases, from the surgeon we had taken
along, who had witnessed several pistol duels. Our adversary
had a good distance to come, and we had to wait for him sev-
eral hours. His party consisted of the lieutenant and two
high officers, all being either barons or counts, accompanied
by a physician. We found no opening hi the woods, and had
to take a rather narrow forest-road for the fields. We drew
chips for choice of distance. Schenk won. The terms were
thirty paces, each having the privilege of advancing ten
steps, leaving a space of ten steps as a bar between them. I
took a position, which was marked by driving in a stick, and
then stepped off the thirty paces. As Schenk was no marks-
LAST YEAR AT JENA 135
man, though he had practiced a few days before the duel took
place, and as I supposed the officer, being a lieutenant of a
rifle battalion in garrison atLeipsic, to be pretty well versed
in pistol-shooting, I took ridiculously big steps in measuring
off the distance. On each side of the ten feet which they
were forbidden to overstep, we marked a line with twigs of
trees. Each party had a case of common straight-bore duel-
ling pistols. By consent we took those of the officer. Schenk 's
pistols were handed to the seconds, for the seconds had the
right to shoot down the principals if they violated the rules.
I do not think, however, that there is any well authenticated
precedent of a second 's having made use of this authority. The
rule was undoubtedly made for the purposes of what lawyers
call in terrorem ; that is, to frighten the principals from acting
dishonorably.
The pistols were now loaded by the third officer, who
was not the second, in the presence of all. We again drew
for the word of command, and our side gained it. The princi-
pals then took their places pistols drawn. At the word
"Three!" they were to raise their pistols, start and fire, ad-
vancing to the bar; but the moment they reached this line,
they were not permitted to fire again. We seconds stood half
way between them opposite to one another, a little distance
off the line of fire. Schenk was a large, powerful man, a real
Teuton, with beautiful light brown hair coming down in curls
to his shoulders. He had a clear and rosy complexion and
large blue eyes. He had been smoking a long pipe and still
kept it in his left hand when he took his stand. I had in-
structed him not to expose himself too much by marching
full front towards the bar, but to march side wise, so as to
show only his right side. He did not heed my advice, how-
ever, but marched straight forward, giving his adversary a
large surface to hit. The officer understood it better ; he was
a slender young fellow anyway, and he came up not only
sideways but even in a slight zigzag line, which, perhaps, was
against the rules, though I was not certain of this. Both
136 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENEE
fired at the same time after having advanced about five steps,
leaving a distance of about twenty paces between them. The
road being very narrow both of the seconds heard the whist-
ling of the balls. Both then advanced to the bars, but when
I went to the combatants to ask them whether satisfaction
would be taken, Schenk staggered and slipped to the ground.
He had been shot through the ankle of the left foot. The
boot was cut off; and it was found he had received an ugly
and very painful wound. The duel was declared off; the
parties shook hands all around; and we carried our friend
to the carriage. The officers behaved like gentlemen, and I
may say that we were no discredit to our Burschenschaft.
They said that they had never seen any one behave with more
coolness and bravery than Schenk. Indeed, he smiled good-
naturedly all the time he marched toward the mouth of the
pistol. The officer had aimed well enough; but, as is often
the case, balls will strike much lower than one expects. Poor
Schenk suffered a great deal. It was several weeks before
he could use his foot, and I believe he had to limp all his life.
The secret of the duel was remarkably well kept, which,
of course, was very necessary, as duels with pistols were not
subject to the jurisdiction of the University authorities, but
to that of the Criminal Courts. Confinement in a fortress
for at least two years is the smallest punishment; though, as
a matter of fact, after a short confinement pardon was sure
to be granted. Such is the force of public opinion, which will
not excuse a gentleman if he declines to fight when challenged.
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS ON JENA
The time to leave Jena for another University had ar-
rived. The days I had passed in that place were sunny days
indeed. I was strong, healthy, and always in good spirits. I
was an honored member of a society composed of young men
from all parts of the fatherland, from the Alps to the Baltic
and North Seas, from the Danube to the Elbe and Weser,
from the Rhone to the Oder and Weichsel. Some of them
LAST YEAR AT JENA 137
were men of genius. The majority of them were men of high
intellectual culture, one and all of them filled with an intense
love of German unity and liberty, not a few of them ready
to lay down their lives any moment for the realization of their
ideas. Birth or fortune counted among us for nothing. In-
telligence, courage, truthfulness, sense of personal honor, and
nothing else, gave power and influence. While by the con-
stitution, and much more so by the traditions of the Burschen-
schaft, meanness and licentiousness were not tolerated, but
visited by the expulsion of the guilty, most of us led a very
liberal, free-and-easy student-life. We indulged in all kinds
of jovialty and even in frolics, sometimes extravagant, but
never subversive of the good opinion for moral conduct in
which the Burschenschaft, from its beginning, was held by
the professors and citizens of the Universities where the so-
cieties existed. A certain asceticism and inclination to mysti-
cism, which had manifested itself in the first four or five years
of the Burschenschaft, had vanished. We had become, as al-
ready observed, more realistic. Our society was open to both
Jew and Gentile, and I really should not have been able to
tell the religion of most of my friends. "Do right and fear
no one, ' ' seems to have been the only religion adopted amongst
us.
As the Burschenschaft had taken its start in Jena, had,
in the time of the tyrannical reaction, been severely perse-
cuted and had furnished many eminent victims for imprison-
ment and exile, it took the lead of all the affiliated societies
in the other Universities; and to be a Jena Burschenschafter
was the best passport, not only among all students as such,
but even among a great many intelligent citizens all over the
country. But I had to leave.
CHAPTER VI
Munich
"Die schoenen Tagen von Aranjuez sind jetzt vomeber."
I had determined to attend the University of Munich for
the last year of my studies. Mother, sisters, and brother Carl
were much opposed to my going there. They thought that
Munich was no place for a Protestant to go to; that the Uni-
versity was under the influence of the Jesuits, and that it
did not have a good reputation for scholarship. It was also
intimated that Munich was rather a dissolute place. Now,
as for the Jesuits, I did not care; that could affect only the
theological faculty ; and as for the objection to the other pro-
fessors, it was not well founded. For Professor Von Maurer
stood very high as a lecturer on the history of German public
law, and Professor Beyer was an excellent teacher of the
German civil and ecclesiastical law. What inclined me to
the place was that it was a large city with many opportunities
for instruction in other branches than the law. I also thought
that in such a city student-life would not be as absorbing as
in one of the minor Universities. Besides, and that was a
weighty consideration, it was no more expensive than Jena,
and afforded in every respect a much better and finer living.
I also had become strongly attached to Theodore Engelmann,
who, being a citizen of Bavaria, was by law compelled to pass
at least a year at Munich, and so had to go there again. We
had already arranged to room together. I finally succeeded
in obtaining the consent of my family. Mother was right
when, at a later period, she said: "O, had you only followed
my advice. I had some premonition that evil would befall
you there."
MUNICH 139
PROM JENA TO ERLANGEN
On the fifteenth of October I left Jena, accompanied by
Willie Weber and some other friends, who brought us in a
carriage to Kahla, at the foot of the large chateau and old
fortress of Weimar, the Leuchtenburg. Here we parted,
deeply moved. Tears filled the eyes of William, who, in spite
of his occasional wildness and fearlessness, amounting almost
to temerity, was very tender-hearted, and whose strong at-
tachment to me ended only with life. One, whose name
I regret not being able to recollect, but who was also of our
society, and bound for Wuerzburg, had been persuaded by
me to make a detour through the Fichtelgebirge (Pine Moun-
tains), which I had proposed to visit on my journey to Mu-
nich. By Poessneck and Schleiz, quite handsome and lively
cities, through fine valleys and forests, we went to Hof in
Bavaria. There we found some of our Jena friends at home,
and spent a day or two quite pleasantly. One of them, well
acquainted with the country, accompanied us to Wunsiedel,
sacred to our young hearts as the birthplace of Jean Paul and
of the unfortunate Carl Sand, and beautifully situated. From
there we went to the charming Alexander Bath, to the chateau
and park of Louisenburg, from where we had a splendid
retrospect of the Thuringian Mountains; west to the Schnee-
berg and Ochsenkopf , the highest peaks of the Fichtelgebirge,
and east and south towards the Bohemian Mountains. We
then walked to (the foot of the Ochsenkopf, which is some
three thousand feet high, and the next morning ascended to
the source of the Main. We rested there under the shade of
some majestic trees for about an hour. A little spring, clear
as crystal, is compressed within a little stone wall, and from
there trickles down and forms a small brook, which, however,
is soon swelled by various other rivulets. We had a guide,
and by filling several large tumblers, we stopped, for a second,
the whole river. My thoughts carried me back to my dear
Frankfort.
140 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENER
We then ascended the Ochsenkopf, and after enjoying
a broader, though similar, view to that at Louisenburg, went
down into the valley of the Oelsnitz to Berneck, a most pic-
turesque place surrounded by the ruins of several castles.
My friend was intimately acquainted with Von Sensburg,
whose father resided at Berneck, holding the position of judge
of the district. Sensburg had been a student at Wuerzburg,
but was now at home and also intended to go to Munich,
though not yet ready. I remained two days in the hospitable
house of the judge ; and my new friend Sensburg, in his light
carriage with two noble horses, brought me to Bayreuth, once
seat of a magnificent residence-palace, of which some traces
are left. It has a fine situation on the Red Main, an affluent
to the Main.
At Bayreuth I found a coach bound for Erlangen, in
which some gentlemen had already engaged seats. Early in
the morning we left Bayreuth, the coach being a very hand-
some landau, the top of which could be let down, giving us a
fair view of the beautiful valley of the Wiesent and the Fran-
conian Switzerland, as it is called. Of course, the comparison
with Switzerland is inappropriate; but the country around
Muggendorf and Streitberg is of a most wonderful conforma-
tion. The valley is bounded by rocks of considerable height,
showing the most singular and grotesque figures. We visited
the Muggendorfer cave, a large stalactite grotto, very similar
to Baumann's Cave in the Hartz Mountains. On the top of
some of the rocks hang the ruins of old castles. Take it all
in all, I thought that I had never seen within so short a time
such romantic and grand scenery. We finally entered the val-
ley of the Rednitz and reached beloved Erlangen just at sun-
set.
In Erlangen I spent a few days very pleasantly; went
to Nuremberg, where Von Godin and another student, both
of whom were on their way to Munich, joined me, and, taking
the return coach to Munich, reached that place by the old
MUNICH 141
beaten route (Eichstaedt, Ingolstadt) about the 26th of Octo-
ber, 1830.
A more detailed narrative of my journey from Jena to
Erlangen is amongst my papers, headed "Through the Fich-
telgebirge," describing the various scenery and the interest-
ing people we met on our route.
LIFE AND STUDIES IN MUNICH
On my arrival at Munich I found Theodore Engelmann
already there. He had engaged rooms from a Miss Von
Schmitt in the Neuhaeuser Strasse, not far from the Karls-
thor, and opposite the Jesuit Church and the University build-
ing. It was a good wide street and a principal thoroughfare.
The rooms, it is true, were in the fourth story (what would
here be the fifth) ; but this had the advantage that we were
not disturbed by the street noises. At our age, to climb that
high, several times a day, was a matter of no consequence.
We had one very large room, with four windows toward the
street, a part of which at the back was made into an alcove
for our beds. The furniture was good and everything was
kept very clean. Miss Von Schmitt was an old maid, the or-
phan daughter of some royal official, and had a little money
of her own and a pension from the government. She had
taken this four story flat, renting her two front rooms. She
had garnered up all her natural kindness and bestowed it upon
her friends and the world generally. She treated us with a
motherly kindness. Perhaps I am not quite accurate. Theo-
dore was the main object of her care. I was rather the step-
son. She was rather suspicious of me. She thought I was too
wild, and when our room was turned into a duelling ground,
on account of its being safe from police interference, (for
the clang of arms could not possibly be heard in the street
below and hardly in the lower stories,) she was in despair
and deplored me to desist. I am so particular as to Miss Von
Schmitt, for somewhat later she rendered me a great service
142 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
and remained in correspondence for many years with our re-
lations in Germany.
We found the Burschenschaft in Munich in a prosperous
state. It was recognized by the government by the name of
Germania. It was far ahead of all the other student societies,
which, with the exception of the Helvetia and the Caesaria,
were hardly respectable, and with which we had no connec-
tion whatever. By far the greatest number of students at
Munich did not belong to any society. On the other hand we
had many friends amongst the artists, painters, sculptors, and
architects that swarm in Munich, who would come to our club-
house, and take part in our excursions. Some of our mem-
bers had brothers in the army, and they also sought our com-
pany. This intercourse with non-students made our life still
more interesting. We were, or rather imagined ourselves to
be, a rather superior set of fellows. There was Stumpf, a
noble fellow, who was speaker, I believe, when I arrived;
Hoeninghaus, from the lower Rhine, a very talented and well
educated young man; Benno Von Raisch, whom we lost the
next summer by death, and to whom we gave a most pompous
funeral; Anthony Guitzmann, a most amiable man, who ob-
tained a high position afterwards as surgeon-general of the
Bavarian Army; Von Crailsheim, one of the most jovial and
sociable of fellows; Joseph Kircher, from Fulda, who, not
long after me, came to the United States, and was long an
honored citizen of Belleville; Von Waldenfels, from Fran-
conia, a high-minded, sterling young man; the most amiable
Von Sensburg, of whom I have spoken before; Von Godin,
from Bamberg; Schauberg, from Rhenish Bavaria; Prosper,
from the lower Rhine ; Gutienne, from Saarlouis ; Soherr, from
Bingen, all hail-fellows-well-met and full of the love of
liberty. Some others who were popular amongst us I cannot
name, recollecting only their nicknames, which most students
have.
Living was very cheap, and the beer, of course, was ex-
cellent. There were some wine-houses, where the best wines
MUNICH 143
were kept, but except those from Rhenish Bavaria, they were
very dear. Students and officers could visit the Royal The-
atre cheaply.
I engaged lectures with Professor Von Maurer on the
history of the German law. Maurer was then a memjber of
the upper house of the Bavarian legislature, and became af-
terwards, during the minority of King Otto of Greece, one
of the regents of that kingdom. Ecclesiastical and German
civil law, I studied under Professor Beyer. I also attended
the lectures of Professor Stahl on the philosophy of law.
Stahl, of Jewish descent, was a man of eminent talents, of
deep learning, and a most fascinating lecturer. He was of
splendid stature, and had sparkling eyes. At that time he
was not a reactionary in his views, though even then he taught
that states were not the products of human reason, but found-
ed on the authority and the revelations of God. Later he
went to the extremes of absolutism, was called to Berlin, be-
came a member of the House of Lords (Herrenhaus) and
leader of the Junker and Feudal party. While his doctrines
were despised by the Liberals, his uncommonly high talents
were admitted by all.
While, as a result of the French Revolution of July, there
had been uprisings and commotions in many parts of Ger-
many, Bavaria had remained comparatively quiet. King
Louis, poet and Macaenas of the arts, had been considered a
Liberal. He had heretofore met with little opposition in the
chambers. The press was comparatively free. The first few
months after my arrival, everything was very quiet in the
Bavarian capital. We students lived in dulci jubilo. But
in the first days of December the news came of the revolution
in Poland. The Viceroy Constantine, and all his officers and
guards, had been driven out of Warsaw. Not more than
thirty students of the military school originated the bold step.
But the Polish army soon joined, and then all the people. The
news created the greatest excitement in Munich, and we stu-
dents at once hailed the event with open hearts. Speeches
144 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
were made. Cheers to Poland resounded in all places of re-
sort. A number of our society concluded to volunteer; but
very soon learned that neither Prussia nor Austria would per-
mit anyone to cross their frontiers to aid Poland. Some Polish
patriot songs, translated into German, soon found their way
to us, and were shouted wherever a crowd met.
MUNICH CELEBRITIES
Through Senator Thomas, of Frankfort, an ever true
friend of our family, I had received letters of introduction to
Professor Oken, to Philosopher Schelling, to Professor Von
Maurer, and to Professors Ringseis and Goerres. The letters
to the two latter I did not deliver. They belonged to the re-
actionary and Ultramontane party. Goerres, at one time quite
a red Republican, editor of the "Rhenish Mercury," (consid-
ered at the time of the War of Liberation as the fourth of the
Allied Powers,) had been afterwards prosecuted by the Prus-
sian government, and had in the course of time turned out a
mystic and finally a Romanist of the deepest dye. He was then
one of the professors of history at Munich. I, from curiosity,
attended one of his lectures. He was a man of powerful frame,
of towering height, and stood as straight on the platform as
a Prussian grenadier, though then nearly seventy years of
age. He used no notes. He spoke as by inspiration ; rapidly,
and with the fire of an ancient Hebrew prophet. He had a
large audience, mostly of Catholic students of theology. He
had been lecturing on universal history for some two months
when I heard him. He had just reached Noah, who, he said,
had the child Jesus in his lap already. I got bewildered, did
not know whether the man was in earnest or mocking his
hearers. They, however, seemed to be delighted with these
elegant pyrotechnics of words.
Oken was a small, nervous man, very plain and cordial.
I was invited several times to evening parties at his house.
The company was small, mostly professors and artists, but
there were often ladies present, most of them very beautiful,
MUNICH 145
as might be expected in a city known for the beauty of its
women of all classes. There was neither tea nor coffee served,
but light wines, and chiefly beer, which was preferred even
by the ladies. There was not much etiquette, but very cordial
intercourse. There was some good singing and good music.
Every Sunday morning I spent some two hours in the
picture gallery. I also visited the theatre occasionally. For
a city like Munich, the theatre was not what it ought to have
been. Eslair, once considered the greatest dramatic actor in
all Germany, was still performing ; but he was then quite old.
He had a gigantic frame ; but his voice had failed. I saw him
in King Lear, one of his greatest parts; but he overdid the
character. A charming actress, particularly in comedy, was
Charlotte von Hagen. She was held to be the most beautiful
of all the beautiful women of Munich. In King Louis's col-
lection of beauties, portraits painted by the best painters, and
filling a room in the royal residence, she shone prominently.
By a friend of mine I had been introduced into a family
where I met Charlotte, and also her beautiful sister Amalia,
several times, and was, of course, quite smitten with their
charms of person and conversation. Amalia sang excellently
to the guitar. Charlotte was the favorite of the students, par-
ticularly of the Germania, who never failed to applaud her
under all circumstances. In fact we were called Charlotte's
guard. She afterwards was engaged by the Royal Theatre of
Berlin, where she was also much admired. I attended one
very singular performance. Victor Hugo's "Hernani" had
just created a revolution in the Paris literary world. The
classicists and the romanticists almost came to blows in the
theatre. I do not think that this drama, (of course, I do not
speak of Verdi's opera,) was represented in any other Ger-
man theatre but Munich. In spite of the noise it had created
in Paris, and the enthusiastic recommendation of the piece in
the Munich journals by some literati, the house was only half
filled. Its brilliant, but stilted and sometimes nonsensical,
language almost dazed the public. Had it not been for the
146 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
presence of the royal family, the play would have been
laughed at and hooted down; and even as it was, there was
now and then some hissing. I found many beauties in the
play, though I regretted its being disfigured by so much ex-
travagance. It was never put on the boards again.
THE MUNICH EMEUTE OP CHRISTMAS EVE, 1830
So everything seemed to go on quite smoothly with me
until Christmas eve, or, as it is there called, Holy Night. As
in all Catholic countries, high-mass is celebrated at midnight,
and the churches are thronged with people of all classes ; while
soon after dark the streets become filled with people walking
in the principal avenues, just as in Protestant countries on
New Year's eve. Young men and boys beat small toy-drums
and play on fifes, or amuse themselves by whirling big rattles,
making an infernal noise. These instruments are on sale in
all the streets. The nearer midnight, the greater the tumult ;
for by that time the men and boys have swallowed a good deal
of Muenchener beer.
Now some of our society, myself among them, after sup-
per at our club-house, had gone to a small students' resort,
not far off. where there was an extra fine sort of beer on tap.
We had a good time, and were quite exhilarated, though by
no means drunk, when we left the house about ten o'clock,
to see what was going on in the streets, and to attend mass at
midnight. There were not more than five or six of us. On
reaching the Kaufunger and Neuhaeuser Strasse, we bought
some of the big rattles, and marched along with the crowd
towards the Karlsthor, when one of the company proposed
that we should serenade a prominent member of our society
who had just recovered from a dangerous disease but had not
been out yet. We went in front of his house, called lustily
for him, and shook our rattles. He lived only a hundred
yards or so outside of the Karlsthor. He made his appear-
ance before the window. We cheered him, made use of our
rattles, and a crowd who had followed us played on their fifes,
MUNICH 147
rattles and drums. There was no more noise or tumult made
than there was inside of the city, but suddenly an over-zealous
gen d'arme interfered, and in the rudest manner tried to dis-
perse the crowd. We protested when he attempted to take
hold of me. For the students at Munich, after matriculation,
are furnished with a card on which their name and residence
are written, and no police officer is authorized to arrest a stu-
dent, except in cases of high crimes, all he can do being to
ask for the student's card, and on complaint, have the of-
fender cited before the proper tribunal. I offered my card,
but he refused it and grabbed me. I pushed him back pretty
roughly, and at the same time someone in the crowd, (it was
never ascertained who it was,) knocked him down. By that
time, two or more gens d'armes had issued from the guard-
house at the Karlsthor to help their comrade. They were re-
ceived, however, by a volley of hard snow-balls, thrown, not
by us, but by a crowd of working men, laborers, and boys who
had by that time gathered in large numbers.
The gens d'armes called out the guards, and about half
a dozen soldiers came running towards us with fixed bay-
onets. The crowd ran away, and some of my friends did the
same; but I, and another member of our society, whose real
name I have forgotten, but who went by the name of Bummel,
and a young painter, were surrounded. Resistance would
have been foolish, as we had no weapons but our pipes and
rattles. We were arrested, taken to the Karlsthor, and locked
up in a room which the non-commissioned officers occupied.
For a while everything appeared to be quiet, and we expected
to be released by the officer on duty, simply by giving up our
cards. But that was not to be.
Our friends had, as I learned afterwards, run back
through the gate into the Neuhaeuser Strasse, calling "Stu-
dents to the rescue" (Burschen heraus). This was a sort of
a rallying-cry customary at the universities and generally
obeyed by all the students belonging to societies. A good
many students were in the streets, and they soon gathered, the
148 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
word being passed, "To the rescue of our friends." The
dense crowd in the street, gathered some from curiosity and
some from mischief, (many being quite intoxicated,) marched
towards the gate; false reports having been circulated that
some students had been killed and others illegally arrested.
We heard the terrible noise, and could hardly account for it.
Soon the whole guard, some twenty-five in number, com-
manded by a lieutenant, was called out, ordered to load, and
then drawn up inside the vaulted gate. It was said, but
with what truth I know not, that rocks had been thrown
from the Carl's Place, and also from the Neuhaeuser Street,
at the soldiers. "While the noise and tumult was increasing,
we were seated on a bench, had lighted our pipes, and were
taking things quite coolly. Some time elapsed, when we heard
the cry, "The cuirassiers are coming!" We heard the tramp
of their horses and the clang of their swords, and soon they
cleared a large space near the entrance to the gate toward
the city. It was also said that when they rode up, they were
received with showers of stones, but probably it was only
snow balls and pieces of ice that were thrown.
The door of our apartment was opened. A very tall,
martial-looking officer of the cuirassiers, in garrison at Mu-
nich entered, accompanied by the lieutenant of the guard.
"Good evening, gentlemen," he said; "Who of you is
hurt?" "No one," I replied. "How did you get here?" he
asked. I briefly told him what had happened. I did not ex-
actly say that I had pushed the gen d'arme back, but said that
I had tried to get away from him when some stranger caught
him from behind and threw him over; that I had offered my
card in the first instance, but that he had refused to take it,
and cursed and behaved as if he were drunk. Bummel cor-
roborated my statement, though I am pretty sure that Bum-
mel, who was of herculean strength, had knocked the gen
d'arme over. "Gentlemen," said the officer, "give me your
cards." This we did. The young artist told him that he had
had no quarrel with anybody, but was taken along for being
MUNICH 149
found near us. ' ' Now go home, ' ' the officer said, ' ' and quiet
your friends outside."
This officer, as we afterwards learned, was no less a per-
son than Prince Charles, brother of the King, and colonel of
the first regiment of cuirassiers. We had to walk through a
row of troops before we reached the crowd, who cheered us
tumultuously. I felt so little excited, that as soon as I had
found some of my friends, we went forthwith to the Church
of Maria to attend the midnight-mass, or rather to be a spec-
tator at this midnight proceeding. There was nearly as much
noise in the church as outside. Next day was Sunday, and
I went as usual to the picture gallery, and in the evening to
our club-house, where we discussed the events of the previous
evening as a huge joke.
What was our astonishment when, next morning, there
was published a royal decree, and a copy of it affixed to the
doors of the University, that the lectures were suspended, and
that all students should leave Munich within twenty-four
hours, except such as were permanent residents of the city.
A great crowd of students had gathered, and it was soon
agreed that a meeting should be held for the purpose of tak-
ing some action on the matter. But the trouble was, where
to meet. The great hall, and all the lecture-rooms were closed,
and if we met in some hall in the city, the assembly was likely
to be dispersed. But there being students present belonging
to the different corps, it was decided that each society should
send a deputation to one of our club-houses to act in the name
of all the students. We had a meeting in the afternoon. A
committee of three was appointed to draw up a petition ad-
dressed to the King himself, asking for a repeal of the decree,
or at least for a suspension of it, until the affair of Christmas
eve could be investigated. I was one of the committee, and
the draft in my handwriting is still amongst my papers.
Whether it ever reached the King I know not; for on the
same day the Burgomaster of Munich and the municipal coun-
cil obtained an audience with the King and by the strongest
150 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
kind of remonstrances, almost amounting to threats, induced
him to modify the order so that only all non-Bavarians (for-
eign students as the order read) had to leave Munich.
Nobody obeyed the order (although afterwards I wished
that I had), and it was almost impossible for the police to en-
force it, as they could not readily ascertain who were foreign-
ers and who not, as there were a thousand hiding-places in
the capital, which the citizens, if only in their own interest,
(being all in our favor,) placed at the students' disposal.
ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT
The next day, on returning from dinner, Miss Schmitt
handed me a citation, which some police officer had left with
her, requesting me to appear at the central police station at
five o 'clock in the evening. As the students in Munich do not
enjoy any privileges of jurisdiction, and were subject, like
the rest of the people, to the ordinary tribunals, I had ex-
pected something of the kind, and did not feel alarmed ; only
the unusual hour appeared to me somewhat strange. I went
as directed, and, on entering, a gen d'arme asked my name,
and reported it to an official, who was sitting behind a table,
a clerk at his side. I was requested to take a seat before the
table, my card was handed to me, and I was asked my name,
etc. "Tell me," the police-judge said, "where you were on
Christmas eve and what happened to you." I told him my
story briefly. He wanted to know who was with me. As Bum-
mel had been arrested and had given his card, I gave his name,
he being, of course, already known. Concerning the others,
I said I did not know who they were, that I had drunk a great
deal (drunkenness being, if not an entire justification, yet a
pretty good excuse under the prevailing law), and had paid
no notice to who had followed us. The deposition was read
to me, and I had to sign it. The judge rang a bell, and very
much to my surprise a gen d'arme appeared and asked me to
go along with him.
MUNICH 151
I was first taken to the guard-room where I found an
unusual number of soldiers, some stretched on large bunks,
others walking about, and, as I thought, nearly all drunk.
They made an infernal noise. I discovered no officer. I was
left there, however, only a few minutes, when I was taken up
to one of the very top rooms of the large building, and locked
into an apartment which was perfectly bare of any furniture.
I was left in utter darkness. I could not explain this; it was
not a cell but merely a large garret. Half an hour later I
was taken down again, placed in charge of two gens d'armes
with guns and fixed bayonets, and told to follow them. The
streets were lighted only with lanterns; the night was quite
dark. They marched me to the great Central Prison in the
Sendlinger Street, a large monumental building called the
"Frohnfeste," erected not very long ago by the well-known
royal architect, Von Klenze. I had, of course, often seen it
from the outside, as it is considered one of the sights of Mu-
nich, and now I was to have the benefit of an inside view.
Indeed, as a prison it was a very creditable building.
Fine large stairs led to the different stories, and the cor-
ridors were very wide. The middle of the second story was
occupied by a handsome chapel. All the front rooms, used
for offices of various kinds, were high. The cells themselves,
which are in the rear, are very high, but probably of differ-
ent size.
On entering I was shown into the room of the superin-
tendent. There my watch, my purse, and my pocket knife
were taken from me. I was measured and a description of
my person put down in the big register. I was then led into
a cell in the third story. It was fortunately a corner room,
some twelve feet high and twelve by fourteen feet in extent.
There was a window to the south and another to the west.
They were high up near the ceiling, were about two feet long,
and only about a foot wide. The wall was at least two feet
thick, and there were bars on the outer side. The windows
could be opened only by using a ladder; but by putting my
152 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
table on one of the bunks there were two on the walls of
the cell I could open the windows myself, which was a great
relief to me. On one of the bunks there was a thin mattress,
two sheets and a blanket. This was my bed. Besides the
table, the only furniture was a hard wooden chair. A massive
iron stove, fastened with iron bands to the floor, and heated
from the outside, made the cell warm enough. There were two
doors, one on the outside, and an iron trellis; the inner door,
of heavy wood with iron knobs, having a small opening in the
middle with a cover which could be opened on the outside by
the jailer. When the man who had conducted me left with his
lantern, I was in total darkness.
Considering that there was really nothing the matter,
and that at most I could only be lightly fined for trying to
get away from the gen d'arme ; thinking thus that my impris-
onment could last only a few days, I took the matter quite
coolly, and rather as a romantic incident. I lay down and
slept fairly well.
LIFE IN A MUNICH PRISON
In the morning one of the jail servants, (there were two
in my section of the prison, waiting on me in turn,) brought
me a jug of beer holding about two pints, and a loaf of good
bread. I was not in the habit, except in travelling or on ex-
cursions, of taking beer or wine before dinner. I told him to
take the beer away. He opened his eyes and seemed to be
amazed at this order ; for he was one of those good and true
low-class Bavarians who never take coffee or tea, or water for
that matter, but look upon a man who will not drink beer at
any time of day or night, as a madman. ''Well," said he,
"that beer will be put to your credit on the books." "O,
no," I replied, "you drink it yourself and nobody will be the
wiser about it." To convince him, however, that I was not
quite crazy, I told him that if beer was furnished at dinner or
supper I would drink it.
MUNICH 153
I had not to regret this arrangement. Hough and un-
couth as both of my attendants looked, (I had strong sus-
picions that they were reformed convicts,) they treated me
very kindly, after their manner.
I may as well give an account here of my prison diet.
Breakfast, beer and a loaf of bread. On fast days no meat,
but a thick pea-soup and mashed potatoes for dinner. On
other days the dinner consisted of soup, rice, barley, peas and
about half a pound of fair boiled beef. Supper, beer and a
loaf of bread. With your own money you could get, how-
ever, excellent dinners from the warden of the prison, bet-
ter cooked, too, than in any hotel, and cheap, the price of the
prison-meal being deducted. But from hygienic as well as
financial reasons, I did not often order extra meals.
The first few days I passed in this way, without books,
without light, almost; for in these last December days it was
near nine o'clock before daylight came into my room, and it
disappeared at four in the evening. What annoyed me most
at first was the interruption of my habit of smoking. I can-
not say I felt very comfortable, yet I was very far from being
low-spirited. But I vowed that if ever hereafter I should be
imprisoned, I would not be shut up innocently.
On the second day of my incarceration, Miss Von Schmitt,
having somehow ascertained where I was, called at the Frohn-
feste, and though not admitted to see me, was allowed to de-
liver for me clothing and other necessaries. So I received a
large package with my dressing gown, change of linen, toilet
articles, etc.
After the lapse of some three days, I was ordered to ap-
pear before the court, which was held in one of the front rooms
of the prison. It was not exactly a court, there being only
one judge and a secretary, or actuary, as such officers are
called. The mode of procedure was then in Bavaria, and hi
nearly all other German States, as follows: If a crime or a
misdemeanor above a minor offense, triable summarily before
the police or inferior courts, had been committed, and the
154 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
criminal or supposed criminal had been arrested, a member
of some court of superior jurisdiction was deputized to con-
duct the preliminary investigation (inquisition). He per-
formed the same office as the judge of instruction in France.
During this investigation the accused was closely confined,
could not see anybody, except with special permission, nor
could he receive letters or send them without their being sub-
mitted to the examination of the inquisitor; neither could he
consult with a lawyer. After the accused has been examined,
confronted with witnesses if necessary, and after all the wit-
nesses had been heard and expert testimony been taken, when
needed, the depositions were submitted to the court of ap-
peal which had to decide whether a case had been made out
or not. If proper cause appeared for regular prosecution,
the record was sent back and then a more thorough investi-
gation was made and the case decieded by the first court in
full session.
The judge who had charge of my case, was a member of
the city court of Munich. His name was Stecher ; and he was
by no means an agreeable man, inclined to be impertinent at
first, but soon brought back to decency by one who knew near-
ly as much law as he did. I had to go over the story the same
as before the police court. What sort of a man Councilor
Stecher was, may be seen by the following incident. The
cafe from which we started that night had as a sign a large
gilded cock stuck over the door. I stated that we had left the
Golden Cock (Goldene Hahn). "There is no such beer-house
in Munich," he said, "you need not tell me such a fable."
"Yes there is," I said, "and it is in the Sendlinger Strasse
right close by here." "O," said he, "that is not the Golden
Cock, that is the ' Gockel, ' now I understand you. " " Gockel ' '
is the name for ' ' Hahn ' ' in the Bavarian and Suabian patois.
After I had finished my statement he continued his ex-
amination, asking me whether I was not a member of the
Germania, whether we had not sung revolutionary songs,
Polish songs; whether we had not cheered the Polish revolu-
MUNICH 155
tion. "Yes, we did," I answered," "but while these Polish
songs might be considered revolutionary in Russia, I do not
see what interest the Bavarian government has in our sym-
pathy for Poland." At the end of the examination, I asked
him to have books sent me and to be allowed the use of pen
and ink. He said that must be decided by the court. From
these questions it dawned upon me at once that the govern-
ment was trying to give this trifling affair a political view;
and I was at once satisfied that I might have to wait some con-
siderable time for a decision.
But my friends had been at work. Before I got books,
Professor Schelling, who stood very high with the King,
got permission to call upon me. I had never seen him
before ; when I called upon him he was not in and I had left
my letter of introduction with his servant. He was by no
means an imposing looking man. His hair was very light
and thin, his features not striking, his eyes light gray in
short, he looked just as most learned German professors
usually look. When he spoke, however, one could at once
see that this ordinary appearance covered a very high intel-
lect. He spoke encouragingly but without committing him-
self, as he probably did not know anything of the facts. He
wrote, however, a very noble letter to my brother, assuring
him that he would take all possible interest in my case; that
he thought that I could not be severely punished if at all,
for the riot had commenced only after I was arrested.
Schelling 's letter is among my collection of 1831.
After awhile, Theodore sent me a lot of books: Say's
"National Economy," with copious notes by Morestadt; the
"Penal Code," Stahl's "Philosophy of Law" and others;
and Miss Von Schmitt, from the library of the Odeon, or
some other social club, a large collection of reviews and mag-
azines. In the course of time, I ordered all of Goethe's
works, which had appeared then for the first time in a com-
plete edition, some thirty volumes; all of Schiller's works,
the Nibelungen, the Bible and the Koran; but the two lat-
156 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ter books were kept back by the judge. I should have liked
to know the reason for this exclusion. He admitted the whole
series of the "Nemesis," a most liberal and unorthodox mag-
azine and Spinoza's "Treatise on Ethics." Ignorance of
general literature is the only explanation. It was also
strange, that, though I sent for them, I was not allowed to
receive from my books Virgil, Horace, and Sallust.
By and by I got paper, ink and pens, and the use of a
pen-knife, which served to cut my meat, for I got neither
knife nor fork, the meat being cut in pieces and put in the
soup. Whenever I ordered a dinner or supper from the
warden I got a knife and fork, and wine, coffee, or chocolate,
when I ordered it. This was done probably on the theory
that a man who calls for a good dinner had no idea of com-
mitting suicide. After two weeks more I got candles, but
when the jailers made the rounds at nine o'clock every night,
examining the bars at the windows by striking them with a
big hammer, and also the stove, they took the light away.
Some four letters I received from Theodore and Miss Von
Schmitt, which had reference only to the sending or return-
ing of books, linen, etc., and I was permitted to write to them
and also to my mother and brother.
The correspondence was strictly examined, and, as I
found afterwards, most of it was retained by the judge.
Upon the whole I passed my time very well, studying
my law books and making extracts from them all morning,
and reading lighter literature in the evening. I now and
then indulged in poetical nights, wrote maxims and little
prose essays. With the exception of the first few weeks,
when I had no books, no writing material, and scarcely any
light, I do not think I felt a moment of ennui. I really
learned more law during my confinement than I had in Jena
for two years. My other reading, which really was immense,
was also very profitable to me, so what may have been con-
sidered at the time a great affliction was really a blessing in
disguise. On Sundays and other feast-days, the inner wooden
MUNICH 157
door was opened in the morning so that we might hear the
intonations of the priest, and the jingling of the bells when
mass was said in the chapel, the doors of which were likewise
opened. That was all the religious service dealt out to the
prisoners, but probably enough for those who wanted it. We
had no exercise. I never went further than from my cell to
the judge's room, and that only twice. I had in all but two
examinations, the latter one lasting only a few minutes and the
questions being of no importance. Owing to lack of exer-
cise, I also dispensed with the beer at supper, greatly to the
delight of my jailers. With the exception of a very slight
attack of quinsy, I felt remarkably well and my health had
become much better than it was during the first month of
my stay in Munich. The damp and foggy atmosphere of
Munich and the sudden changes had made me feel quite
unwell.
I had one rather unexpected experience. The second
or third night of my confinement I heard a distinct but not
loud knock on the wall separating my cell from the adjoin-
ing one. After a while it was repeated, then there were
three knocks. I listened attentively, then I heard very
plainly the words: "Who art thou, comrade?" in a coarse
upper-Bavarian patois. I did not answer. Another knock.
"Can you not talk, fellow?" another voice said in the same
dialect. I made no answer. Another knock. "Wilt thou
not tell us what thou hast done to get locked up?" Not
answering again, they quit knocking and talking. They
commenced again next night, when I grew impatient and
speaking close to the wall, slowly but not very loudly, "Let
me alone, you ruffians, or I will tell the jailer. ' ' That stopped
this sort of communication. The walls separating the differ-
ent cells were not so thick as the exterior ones, but still so
thick that one should think it impossible that a conversation
could be carried on through them. I learnt afterwards that
trained criminals have a kind of alphabet by which they can
communicate merely by knocks.
158
All the time that I was confined I did not know what was
going on outside. I did not know that anybody but myself
had been incarcerated, except perhaps Bummel, who had
been arrested at the Karlsthor. What I learned after my
liberation astonished me greatly. The night I was taken
to the Frohnfeste, and the next night, about thirty other
young men had also been arrested, most of them members
of the Germania, but some artists and some belonging to
other student societies, amongst them, Von Lerchenfeld, whose
father was then or had been Bavarian Ambassador to the Ger-
man Diet, and with whom I had fought a duel only a week or
two before. We had since made up, but how he became impli-
cated in the Christmas Eve affair, I do not know. Many were
sent to the Frohnfeste, others to the Red Tower (Rother
Thurm), another prison. The same night a large number of
troops patrolled the city, the soldiers acting very rudely, and
some collisions happened. Rumor had increased the number
of the arrested ten-fold. The royal order closing the Uni-
versity and banishing all students from the city created
immense excitement. The city fathers, as I have already
observed, in an audience before the king, expressed their dis-
satisfaction very plainly. The order was modified, but it
seems the King was greatly alarmed. Though there were
then in Munich two regiments of infantry, a battalion of rifle-
men, a regiment of cuirassiers and artillery, the citizens'
militia was called out. One whole battalion of them were
camped for three days in the inner courts of the Frohnfeste,
other detachments assisting in patrolling the streets. The
people became alarmed. Sluggish as the Bavarians are, still
the French and Belgian revolutions, the partial risings in
some of the German states, as in Saxony, Brunswick, Hesse-
Cassel, Goettingen, and at last the Polish revolution, had had
its effects. There were thousands of students, artists and
employees of great industrial establisments in Munich ; besides,
amongst the lower classes there are always plenty of men ready
for mischief. Curiosity mainly, however, drew people into
MUNICH 159
the streets. There was stone-throwing against the patrolling
troops, sentry boxes were upturned, lanterns smashed. Ar-
rested persons were rescued. In fact, for three nights in suc-
cession there were many collisions and the city was in a state
of great tumult. But there was no plan, no understanding
to upset the government, no cause to change the ministry, and
in fact no one dreamt of it.
Bavaria was considered in a measure a liberal state. It
had a constitution, imperfect, but still, better than none. The
King had some queer notions in his head ; he had written much
bad poetry and had become the laughing stock of the nation.
But he had always been a good German, had as Crown Prince
been openly opposed to the Napoleonic rule, and had, there-
fore, fallen under Napoleon 's ban. In the War of Liberation,
as soon as his father Max had joined the allies, he had fought
against the French at Brienne, Arcis-sur-Aube, Bar-sur-Aube.
He was a great admirer of German liberty, and had made a
pilgrimage to Weimar to show his devotion to Goethe. In
Munich he was very popular. He had moved the University
from Landshut to Munich. He had spent millions of his
civil list to beautify the city. He was the patron of all the
fine arts, and had called eminent men from all parts of Ger-
many to Munich as professors in the University. Painting,
sculpture, architecture, found in him an enthusiastic sup-
porter. Even the press was freer at that time in Bavaria than
in any other German State. Incredible as it is, it is well authen-
ticated that he lost his head on this occasion so completely
that preparations were made the day after the arrests had
taken place for a flight of the royal family. Traveling car-
riages had been drawn out and horses made ready. Some
squadrons of cuirassiers were in a yard to accompany the fugi-
tives. When the legislature met some time later, the min-
isters were called to account by the opposition and many of
the facts stated were drawn out. In the heated debate it
appeared clearly that all the commotion had been produced
by the absurd measures of the government. It was proved
160 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
that the soldiers had received double pay, had been made
drunk, that nearly all the bloody conflicts during these three
nights had been provoked by the soldateska. That a camarilla
of Jesuits (Catholic and Protestant) had impressed the King
with the idea that a great conspiracy was at the bottom of
these tumults. They sought this opportunity of driving the
King from his hitherto more liberal course of government.
The noise of half a dozen rattles and the beating of toy drums
by a few students on Christmas evening had grown up into a
certain symptom of revolution. The result of the proceedings
against us plainly showed that it was the government that
caused the December Commotion (the December Unruhen),
as they are called in the history of the times.
RELEASE
Precisely four months after my imprisonment, one of my
attendants opened the door at an unusual hour, three o'clock in
the afternoon, and told me to come to the audience-room. His
ugly, uncouth face was smiling all over, and he seemed much
excited, as if something joyful had happened to him. ' ' What
is the matter?" I asked him. "Be quiet, be quiet," he said,
"you will hear good news." As I said, both my jailers,
though in a rough way, had shown me some attention, but now
I saw that I had touched somehow or other the heart of this
old, hardened fellow. He smiled and laughed all the way to
the room, where I found Councilor Stecher sitting behind his
table with a rather sour look. He informed me that the
court of appeal at Landshut had passed upon the case, and
he read me the interlocutory order sent down by that court,
the substance of which was that upon due investigation the
court had decided that there was no cause for a criminal pros-
ecution against Gustave Koerner and consorts accused of hav-
ing forcibly resisted the armed forces of the king; that if
there was any offense committed it was for the police court to
try it.
MUNICH 161
This proceeding is similar to the action of the grand jury
when they find no bill. I was, of course, somewhat affected,
but I showed not the slightest emotion. I did not want to
appear to exult under the decision, which was but strict jus-
tice, and did not after all give me any compensation for what
I had unrighteously suffered. I merely remarked that there
had been much ado about nothing. He informed me, however,
that probably I would receive an order from the police court
not to leave Munich without express permission. The final
order and opinion of the Supreme Court would be sent down
hereafter.
When I was about to return to my cell to get ready to
leave, he remarked: "There are some letters on the shelf
from you and to you which have been retained as improper.
You may take them now. ' ' The shelf was so high that I could
not reach the package without a little step-ladder which stood
in the corner of the room. I thought it below my dignity to
take them down that way. I said the one who put them up
there can hand them down to me otherwise they may stay
where they are. He looked daggers at me. But his secretary
did what I requested. So I got a bundle of letters from home,
from Miss Schmitt, and from Theodore Engelmann. When
I left my cell my two attendants were there, expressing their
great joy at my delivery, which was the more sincere as they
got from me every day the two mugs of beer which I refused
to take, and which they now would miss.
The first thing I did was to write home, while I was yet
in my cell. Next I went to the club-house, where I was
received with tremendous cheers. Some of my fellow-members
had, on giving bail, been liberated on the first of March
through the influence of members of the Chambers from their
districts.
A few others had been discharged a few days before I was.
The charter of the Germania had been repealed by the Uni-
versity authorities soon after my arrest. But the organiza-
tion was kept up, nevertheless. The society had even sent
162 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
delegates, Theodore Engelmann and Hoeninghaus, to the
Burschenschaft Tag (General Council) at Dresden, which was
held in March or early in April. We all had become far more
revolutionary than we ever were before. Most of my friends
had become ill in prison, and all of them seemed to have taken
it harder than I did. I came out in perfect health and much
improved financially, having had no personal expenses worth
mentioning for months. I had greatly improved my knowl-
edge of the law, so that I concluded to hear no more lectures
on law in Munich, but to study privately. That also saved
money.
SALZBURG AND THE BAVARIAN TYROL
There were short vacations in June, when some of my
particular friends set out on a journey to Salzburg and the
Bavarian Tyrol. I concluded to be one of the party. I got
permission to leave Munich for that purpose without trouble,
and so we traveled the same route I had taken two years
before. There being four or five of us, all gay fellows, we had
a great time. We traveled leisurely and visited the Salzburg
Rhigi, the Gaisberg. We went up in the afternoon and got
there before dark. Near the top there was the hut of a " Sen-
nerin. ' ' She was no ideal milkmaid, but a stout, robust, mid-
dle-aged woman. We got nothing to eat but some new cheese,
very insipid, and only some buttermilk to drink. We had
taken some rolls along, and everyone had his flask of cognac.
A sort of small log-house filled with hay was our sleeping
apartment. It was a bad enough dormitory. The hay was
pretty dry and the hay dust got into our noses. We did not
sleep much, for we told stories, and had to get up before sun-
rise. But we were amply rewarded for our toil. The pan-
orama is delightful. Seven lakes are visible, among them the
large Chiemsee. The whole range of the Tyrolese and Salz-
burg Alps extended before your eyes. We were intoxicated
with the beauty of the view. From Salzburg, visiting the
Gollinger waterfall, we went to romantic Berchtesgaden, the
Koenigsee with its manifold charms, and then returned to
MUNICH 163
Munich again by Rosenheim. This entire tour we made on
foot.
How little we were cowed by the persecution we had
undergone was proved by the fact that on the eighteenth of
June, the anniversary of Waterloo, we gave a banquet at our
club-house to Baron von Closen and to Messrs. Schueler and
Cullman and to other members of the Bavarian legislature,
which was then in session. They had severely denounced the
measures of the government regarding the Karlsthor affair
and the edict of the King restricting the liberty of the press,
which he had issued under fear of what he called a rebellion.
By a large vote, this edict was declared unconstitutional by the
Chamber, and the King had naturally to dismiss his prime
minister, Von Schenk, to save him from impeachment. At
this banquet we toasted the Liberal members; they replied in
patriotic speeches. Some of us spoke pretty freely and the
struggle of the Poles was by nearly all of us mentioned with
enthusiastic sympathy. But the government did not choose to
call us to account, though we existed now as a society in defi-
ance of the authorities.
DUELS IN MUNICH
Nothing further of particular interest happened during
the summer. Some incidents, however, I will mention. My
friend Prosper had got into difficulties with one of the officers
of the infantry regiment stationed at Munich. A challenge
passed, and, as was usual with" officers, pistols were selected.
This was a serious business, and I was sorry that Prosper per-
sisted in having me as his second, probably because he had
learned that I had acted in that capacity in such a duel before.
On the morning of the day that we were to go out to the forest
of Schleissheim, we got into a coach which was, according to
arrangement, to pass by the officer's residence in one of the
most fashionable quarters of the city, where we would find
him in a carriage with a second and a physician, and whence
we were to drive out together. We had an open carriage and
164 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
we came near the house designated. We saw no carriage but
a gen d'arme pacing up and down the sidewalk just before a
house which was evidently the one in which the officer resided.
We immediately told the driver to stop. I got out to recon-
noitre. I went quietly to the house. Seeing no impediment,
I went through the gate that led to the lawn before the house,
went up to the door and rang the bell. Out came a servant.
I asked for the officer. "He cannot be seen," said the serv-
ant, ' ' he has just received orders from his colonel not to leave
the house." In fact he had been arrested with privilege to
stay in until he was wanted. Of course I knew what that
meant ; we hastened back and beat a very quick retreat. We
had no doubt that the gen d'arme had orders to arrest our
carriage and its occupants ; but as I came alone he must have
thought that I had nothing to do with the matter and so let
me pass. There is no doubt that someone had notified the
colonel of what was going on. It must have come from the
officer or his friends, for, except Prosper, myself and one
other, nobody knew of the intended duel. How the matter
was finally settled I do not know, for it happened shortly
before I left Munich for good. Another matter turned out
somewhat serious for me.
Quite unexpectedly I had to fight a duel with small swords
with a gentleman who was a practicing lawyer and who had
been a member of the Isaria. My adversary was very tall,
extraordinarily so, and took full advantage of his size. I was
more skilful and remained on the defensive, but towards the
end I grew impatient, attacked him, touched him slightly, but
at the same time received a thrust in the right breast. Fortu-
nately it was a triangular blade, and glanced off on one rib,
creating only a flesh wound, which ended the matter. I lost
considerable blood, but otherwise the wound had no effect except
that my right arm was lame for some time, and I had to carry
it for a week or so in a sling. I have mentioned this duel
particularly, because it came very near being fatal to me, and
also because some ten or twelve years afterwards I got a letter
MUNICH 165
from my tall friend in which he reminded me of our short
acquaintance and asked me to do him a favor. He had, he
wrote, abandoned the profession of law, had attended an agri-
cultural college, and was a superintendent of a large landed
estate in Bavaria. He had an idea of emigrating to the United
States and of buying a large quantity of government land.
He wished me to give him some advice. His letter was very
friendly and respectful. I complied with his request.
In August, I was to leave Munich for good. Applying
for permission, I was informed that I could not leave unless
I furnished bail for fifty florins (twenty dollars) , and would
submit to any judgment that the police court might render
against me. Miss Von Schmitt got one of her friends (being
a woman, she could not do so herself) to go my bail.
Anticipating, I will state how this police court trial ended.
It must be recollected that in April, 1831, the matter was
referred to the police court. In the winter of 1832 that court
found me guilty of having disturbed the peace and sentenced
me to four weeks' light confinement. The senate of Frank-
fort, being the executive of that free city, was requested by
the police court either to extradite me or to carry out the
judgment by imprisoning me in Frankfort. But I had by that
time passed my state-examination, had been admitted to the
bar, and had been sworn in as a citizen. The senate declined
the request, as I learned from the chancellor of the senate,
very properly representing to the Munich tribunal that there
could be no question of extradition in a bagatelle case like
this ; that, while to imprison a student for a few weeks was a
small affair, which did by no means injure him, it was quite a
different thing to imprison a citizen of Frankfort, a doctor
of law and practicing attorney. The senate indirectly warned
me not to touch Bavarian soil, as I surely would be arrested.
What became of the bail, I never learned ; at any rate, I was
never called upon to pay anything.
166 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
FAREWELL TO MUNICH
The Germania concluded to give a formal valedictory
"comitat," as it is called in student language. This is not
an uncommon proceeding in the smaller Universities; but it
had never been known in Munich. On the day of leaving,
after having bid adieu to Miss Von Schmitt, who had acted as
a mother towards me, and to some other friends who were not
students, including also some very pretty female waiters at
the club-house and other places of resort, our society assem-
bled at the Rosengarten. A dozen students or so, acting as
marshals, with scarfs, leather breeches and high boots, were on
horseback. Some rode in front of the carriage, which should
have been drawn by four horses. But there were only two
horses before our carriage, and there was no driver on the
box. The driver, dressed like a jockey, rode the saddle horse
and guided the off horse. The Russian Ambassador had just
introduced this fashion, and in mockery of what was con-
sidered by the people in Munich as eccentric, this mode was
adopted by us and excited much merriment. I was seated in
this carriage, and also Bummel, whom I had invited to ride
with me. Others of the marshals rode on either side of us.
Some five or six carriages containing members of the Germania
followed. Other carriages were filled by artists and friends
of our society. Two or three of the cadets of the Cuirassier
Guards, who had brothers in our society, in full uniform,
closed the procession. We went through some of the fashion-
able streets leading to the town of Dachau, twelve miles from
Munich, where the procession was to stop. The unusual sight
attracted great crowds. It was considered as a defiance of
the authorities who had so unjustly persecuted us. By a prev-
ious arrangement, the cavalcade passed the house where Char-
lotta von Hagen lived. It was halted, and she appeared at
the window waving us an adieu with her handkerchief. I
reciprocated by kissing my fingers and waving my hand to-
ward her. I thought she looked very beautiful then. The stu-
dents all lifted their caps to her, and some even cheered her.
MUNICH 167
Arrived at Dachau, we had a lively time. It so happened
that there was a ball that evening in the place and we were
invited to attend it. So most of my friends stayed there over
night, and it was not until morning that I went to bed after
a rather exciting and fatiguing day. It was a very warm
night. I left the window open at my bed but shut the door.
But after I had fallen asleep, another student came in, who
occupied the other bed in the room and left the door open. In
the morning I awakened with excruciating pains in my left
side. I could not move, had to call in a doctor, and so was
detained in Dachau some five days. But I had plenty of vis-
itors from Munich who kept up my spirits.
HOMEWARD BOUND. THE SUABIAN ALP
As soon as I could be lifted into the carriage that went
from Munich to Augsburg, I left, accompanied by my jovial
and spirited friend Gutienne, who was going home to Saarlouis
by way of Frankfort. We had a very handsome woman as a
fellow-passenger, a woman who had seen much of the world.
"We took her to be an actress, though she was very reticent as
to her status. She afforded us great entertainment. I made
the coach stop a short time at Friedberg, paying a flying visit
to my charming friend, Charlotte von Haus, whose husband
was the district physician residing at that place. At Augs-
burg we found some of our old Jena friends : Edwin Poeshell,
Reichenbach, Conradi, from Munich, who made our stay there
very pleasant. We saw all there was to be seen in that old,
once so magnificent city, and made some very interesting
excursions into the neighborhood.
On the twenty-ninth we took the stage at Ulm on the
Danube, which is also a place worth seeing. I think the dome
at Ulm is one of the very finest cathedrals in the world. It is
416 feet long, 166 feet wide and 144 feet high. The tower,
not then finished, is 340 feet high. It has five portals. But
it is not so much the size, although that is equal to almost any
cathedral in Europe, but the exquisite workmanship, which
168 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
makes it so preeminent a monument of Gothic architecture.
From there we made a detour to Langenau, a small town north
of the Danube, to visit Dietrich, an old friend from Jena, who
was then at home, and who had invited me, when he left
Jena, to his house. His father, a venerable man, was the
pastor, and we spent a day with that family, which reminded
me very much of the Vicar of Wakefield 's family circle.
From there we went in a light carriage through the
Suabian Alp, having on our right the ruins of Staufeneck
and of the ancient castle of Hohenstaufen, the original seat
of the noble, imperial race of the Hohenstaufens. In Goep-
pingen we were most royally received by that noble fellow-
student of ours, Pistorius, who had three beautiful sisters.
From Goeppingen we made an excursion to Boll, a famous
watering place, where I took a bath. We had a splendid din-
ner with our Goeppingen friends there, and on our return
to that place we left the same night for Tuebingen. We
reached the Neckar and Nuertingen, where we took another
bath in the river. In Tuebingen we remained five days. We
had a glorious time there. Gutienne could not be induced to
leave with me. From Tuebingen we visited the ancient impe-
rial city of Reutlingen and the most romantic castle of Lich-
tenstein, perched on a perpendicular rock, at the foot of which
rushes a small but clear river. The Lichtenstein is 2,800 feet
above the level of the sea. Wilhelm Hauff, one of the best
German novelists, has made the place famous everywhere by
his beautiful romance, ' ' Der Lichtenstein. ' ' We saw Uhland 's
house and garden at Tuebingen, but did not see the noble and
charming poet whose songs had so delighted me when I was
a mere boy and most of which I knew almost by heart.
In Tuebingen, I met Brunk on his way home to Rhenish
Bavaria. Brunk had been a member of the Germania in
Munich and had also been imprisoned for some time on account
of the December tumult. He was a jovial companion and he
agreed to accompany me to Heidelberg, provided I would go
by way of Stuttgart. I was very willing to see that noble
MUNICH 169
old place and we started on foot to Stuttgart, my lameness
having left me. When I saw the old Gothic Stiftskirche, tears
came into my eyes. A large, well executed aquarell repre-
sentation of it had always hung in our sitting-room. The
sight of the original called back my earliest childhood. "We,
of course, saw the new and old Schloss, the fine Schloss-park
and Dannecker's atelier. Leaving Stuttgart, we turned next
toward the Black Forest, reached Freudenstadt at the foot of
the celebrated Kniebis Pass, but for some reason which I do
not now recollect we changed our minds and turned north-
wards into the beautiful and romantic valley of the Murg.
We stayed one night and one day at lovely Gernsbach, and
then turned off to Baden-Baden. It was a splendid trip. We
took some baths, visiting the old Schloss; left Baden August
12, and by Carlsruhe and Heidelberg, finally reached Frank-
fort.
I was received with open arms by my mother, brother
and sisters after an absence of two years and my adventure
at Munich. Their love for me was unbounded and unceasing.
I thought many times I hardly deserved it in the degree they
bestowed it.
CHAPTER VII
Heidelberg
There had been a great change in Frankfort since my
last visit in the fall of 1829. The July Revolution in France,
the revolutions in Poland, Belgium, and in some of the Ger-
man States, had worked on the minds of the people of that city
very strongly. The sympathy with the Poles in their heroic
struggle against the Russian power had been great. Warsaw
had now fallen; but that only increased the hatred toward
the Czar and toward the King of Prussia, who was looked
upon as the accomplice and tool of the Czar. In France a
strong opposition had arisen against Louis Philippe on account
of his pusillanimity and his failure to take up the cause of
Poland. The debates in the French legislature became very
heated, and Republicanism became the order of the day
amongst the young. Some states in Italy had risen against
their princes, who were supported by Austria. The debates in
the English Parliament on the Reform Bill attracted great
interest. Democratic clubs had been formed even in Frank-
fort. Liberal papers were started, speaking a language hith-
erto unknown in Germany. Under the influence of the Bundes-
tag, the editors of these papers were repeatedly prosecuted
and heavily fined. But the fines were readily paid. The Lib-
eral party in Frankfort counted hundreds of men in easy
circumstances. In fact, some of the party were men of large
fortunes. The persons condemned were all talented young
men of high character. They were looked upon as martyrs.
Large crowds collected about the prison, which, for political
offenses, was in the main guard-house, at the west end of the
Zeil. The guards were insulted. One night the house of one
HEIDELBERG 171
of the older senators, Mr. Von Guita, who was suspected of
being the mouthpiece of the Austrian President of the Diet,
was stoned by the populace and all the windows broken. The
citizen guard was called out to suppress the mob. The whole
town was alarmed. There were, of course, many collisions,
and it took hours before the tumult was quelled.
Not long after this, at the time of the vintage, when in
the evening thousands of people leave town and resort to the
many pleasure-gardens around the city, at a time when,
heretofore, the gates had been left open until a late hour at
night, the police imprudently ordered the gates to be closed
at nine o'clock. Many had not even heard of the order, and
when, about ten o'clock, several hundred people, mostly young
clerks, mechanics and tradesmen of all sorts, on their return
from these resorts, found the gates closed, there was a great
outcry. It was demanded that the gate should be opened. It
was the gate of All Saints, leading eastward. The demand
was not heeded. Then stones were thrown from the outside.
In the meantime, an equally clamorous crowd had collected
on the inside on All Saints Street. Finally shots were fired,
one soldier killed outright, several wounded and the gate was
forced. In the meantime, a general alarm had been sounded.
Detachments of soldiers went to the relief of the guard. The
citizen soldiers, some very reluctantly, also turned out. Rumor
had exaggerated the affair. It was reported in the city that
a bloody fight was going on in All Saints Street. A great
many people armed themselves to oppose the soldiers. Crowds
gathered in every part of the city. A rush was made on the
prisons to liberate the political prisoners.
It was truly a tumultuous night. There was nothing po-
litical in the commotion. The stupid order of the police had
brought it about. The men that did the shooting were young
mechanics. On vintage day, people generally carry pistols
and guns and fireworks to make a noise outside of the city,
an immemorial custom in Frankfort during the three vintage
evenings. Still the disturbance would not have occurred had
172 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
it not been for the universal excitement all over the western
and southern parts of Germany and the strong desire to op-
pose the existing illiberal governments, and, if possible, to
bring about a change even by a revolution.
While I was thus staying in Frankfort, I received in-
structions from the Munich Burschenschaft to represent them
at a universal council of the society to be held at Frankfort
at the invitation of Jena, the leading Burschenschaft of that
year. It was one of the largest councils ever held. Deputies
appeared from Leipsic, Jena, Marburg, Giessen, Munich, Er-
langen, Wuerzburg, Tuebingen, Kiel, and Breslau. The Ar-
minia had a secessionist organization and was not recognized
as a Burschenschaft. The word "preparation" was stricken
out of the principal article of the old constitution which de-
fined the objects, so that it now read as follows: "The Uni-
versal German Burschenschaft strives to bring about a free
and justly organized government, subsisting in the unity of
the people, by means of moral, intellectual and physical cul-
ture at the universities." Other resolutions requested all mem-
bers to join the revolutions which had for their object the lib-
erty and unity of the Fatherland.
Although I had gone through the usual academic trien-
nium generally considered sufficient for entrance to any learn-
ed profession, I did not feel sure that I would be prepared to
take the degree of doctor of law, which was necessary for
practicing law in Frankfort. Like other strange survivals of
ancient customs in the old city, no one could practice one of
the liberal professions, without being either a doctor of law,
of medicine, or of philosophy. That was right enough hun-
dreds of years ago, when the respective State governments
had not established examining boards or commissions before
which every applicant to a profession had to appear to prove
his qualification. But, as a rule, these boards had now been
instituted everywhere, even in Frankfort ; so that being a doc-
tor counted for nothing, if the candidate could not satisfy
the board, which in Frankfort consisted of two judges of the
HEIDELBERG 173
city courts and two of the Appellate Court. This same anom-
alous rule prevailed also in the other free cities, Hamburg,
Luebeck and Bremen. It was a hardship, inasmuch as the
expense connected with graduation was considerable, and in
Heidelberg, for instance, amounted to about $120.
It was therefore agreed that I should go to Heidelberg.
A diploma from that University was considered in Frankfort,
and in other places also, as of more value than one from any
other University, except perhaps Goettingen and Berlin; the
law faculty there having the highest reputation.
THE HEIDELBERG BURSCHENSCHAFT
To my beloved Heidelberg, accordingly, I went, in Oc-
tober, 1831. The three years' interdict having come to an
end, a great many members of the Burschenschaft who had
been at other Universities, now found themselves together.
From Bonn there came at least a dozen, nearly as many from
Goettingen, and some from Munich, Wuerzburg, Giessen, and
Tuebingen. They had all been full members, and most of
them were in one way or another well acquainted, at least by
reputation. In a few days we had constituted ourselves a
branch of the Universal Burschenschaft, and were some fifty
strong.
There was, however, a society in Heidelberg calling itself
Burschenschaft made up of students from Baden who could
not help studying at Heidelberg since the law required it, as
well as of others who had paid no attention to the interdict.
Now we were perfectly willing to allow the Baden students
to join our society, but would not receive those who had de-
fied the bans. It took a week or two to settle the matter and
finally a compromise was made. "We took in the Baden stu-
dents and allowed the others to become applicants for admis-
sion, which admission depended upon the vote of those who
were members already, so that ultimately we had the pick,
and I do not think that at the time there was a better or more
174 MEMOIRS OF OUSTAVE KOERNER
respected Burschenschaft in Germany than that of Heidel-
berg.
All the other provincial societies were publicly recog-
nized; the Burschenschaft was not; consequently we could
not wear our colors nor could we have any relation with the
above societies (corps). They considered us as Philistines,
and were not bound to give us satisfaction when they offended
us unless they chose to do so. We concluded to adopt a corps
constitution, submitted it to the authorities, and it was ap-
proved. We called ourselves the Franconia, adopted blue,
red and gold as our colors, elected our senior, consenior and
sub-senior, attended the general assembly of the corps, and
appointed a delegate to the convention of all the seniors. But
this was mere outward show. We lived under the Burschen-
schaft constitution, had our directory and court of honor.
The senior of our Franconia was Von Hude, from Luebeck.
I was consenior. I was the speaker of the Burschenschaft,
and Hude one of the directory (Vorstand).
HEIDELBERG ACQUAINTANCES
I went to Heidelberg with the intention of studying very
hard, and so indeed I did the first half of the semester; the
latter part being disturbed by various incidents.
I made some very interesting acquaintances. One of the
most talented young men I ever met at the University was
Henry Brueggemann, from Muenster in Westphalia. Small
of stature, he was full of life and fire. He was an enthusiast,
a master of speech, highly educated in every way, a model
Burschenschafter. In my opinion, he made by far the most
effective speech at the great Hambach festival in May, 1832.
He stayed some days with me in Frankfort, and in a speech
at Wilhelmsbad, before thousands of people from Frankfort,
Hanau and the neighboring villages, electrified the audience
to such a degree that when he left the balcony of the chateau
from which he had spoken, he was carried around on the
shoulders of some of the people under the deafening applause
HEIDELBERG 175
of the crowd. Brueggemann, after the Frankfort Attentat,
was, of course, prosecuted, imprisoned, and I believe, con-
demned to thirty years' imprisonment in the fortress. The
amnesty of Frederick William IV, when he ascended the Prus-
sian throne in 1840, set him free. He became for years the
chief editor of the "Cologne Gazette." I have not been able
to get any accurate information about him. In 1862 I called
at the office of the "Gazette" at Cologne, but he had not re-
turned from his summer retreat, so that I, very much to my
regret, had not the satisfaction of seeing my old friend and
fellow-revolutionist.
With me in the same house, on the same floor, roomed
Max von Bigeleben, of a distinguished Hessian family. He
was of a most amiable disposition, a young man of very fair
promise, and very handsome. Being law students, we fre-
quently discussed legal questions, and I found his company
most agreeable and useful. In 1848, and after, he played a
considerable public role. I believe he belonged to the great
German party that was opposed to the exclusion of Austria,
and, if I recollect aright, he held afterwards a prominent
office in the Austrian government. Hude had been with me in
Jena. In 1848 he was a delegate to the Bundestag from Lue-
beck, and sought to liberalize that institution as long as it
existed. I have lost track of him.
Hoeninghaus, from Krefeld, talented and highly cul-
tured, had been in Munich with me. After 1833 he fell un-
der the ban of the government, was a long time in prison, but
was finally pardoned through the influence of Alexander von
Hmnboldt. Eigenbrodt, from Darmstadt, was another noble
fellow. Adolph Berchelmann, from Frankfort, was another
true and noble youth belonging to our society, who after the
third of April, 1833, succeeded in escaping from Frankfort
and came to America, where he lived in St. Clair County and
Belleville as a practicing physician, and died there beloved
and respected by all who ever knew him.
176
Koehler, from Holstein, a man of vast acquirements, an
enthusiastic liberal, and editor of a journal in Mannheim,
was prosecuted and sentenced to imprisonment at Bruchsal
for two years, but was rescued in 1832 by Hermann More and
some other students in the boldest manner from that terrible
prison. The plan to liberate him was laid in Frankfort and
the means furnished by the Press-Union. I met Koehler af-
terwards at Strassburg as an exile. I could fill a page were
I to name all the generous and patriotic young Burschen-
schafter then at Heidelberg. Most all of them were criminally
prosecuted in 1833, some of them condemned to death, a pun-
ishment which was changed to imprisonment for life by an
amnesty, on the accession of Frederick William IV, in 1840.
REFUGEE POLES IN GERMANY
Warsaw had fallen. Thousands of officers of the Polish
army and many civilians who had taken an active part in
the revolution had passed into Prussia, where, however, they
were not permitted to remain. France offered them an asy-
lum. These exiles now passed in various groups through
Germany. They were most cordially received by the liberals.
Everywhere committees had been appointed to raise means to
pay their expenses in the hotels, provide for transportation,
and take care of the wounded. These Poles bore themselves
with great propriety, received the many ovations given them
modestly, and while, of course, deploring the fate of their
unfortunate country, did not indulge in idle denunciations
of their oppressors. A Polish committee was also formed in
Baden, consisting of some very high officers of the Liberal
party, of some members of the Baden legislature, and of
some professors of Heidelberg and Freiburg. Professor Mit-
termaier, from Heidelberg, was one of the most active mem-
bers.
We also of the Burschenschaft raised money and had a
representation in the committee. Some Poles had already ar-
rived at Heidelberg. We at once took them to our club-house
HEIDELBERG 177
and to our houses as guests. The priest Pulaski, who had been
one of the leaders of the radical party of the revolution, and
who had not been permitted to stay anywhere in Germany
any length of time (having been signalized by the Prussian
police as a most dangerous agitator,) was kept by me as long
as he chose to stay. Very soon we got news that a large party
of Poles had arrived at Frankenthal on their way to France.
A large number of the Franconia went out to that place in
carriages and on horseback. We met there about fifty officers.
The citizens of Frankenthal, including the most intelligent
and respectable classes, and we students treated them cor-
dially, gave them a banquet, and made speeches, condemning
in the most bitter terms Russia, and more particularly Prus-
sia, as an accomplice in the oppression of Poland. We fol-
lowed the exiles to Speyer, the capital of the province of
Rhenish Bavaria, where they met with a still more enthus-
iastic reception. A splendid ball was given, where the beauty
of the city was gathered and did homage to the gallant Poles.
It must be said that most of the Poles were refined in manner,
spoke French fluently, and even German; and their almost
unparalleled bravery in fighting for their independence cer-
tainly deserved the enthusiasm with which they were wel-
comed.
The passage of these heroic Poles who had sacrificed their
fortunes and everything else dear to man, marked an epoch
in Germany. It fired the hearts of all liberals, still under the
excitement of the revolution in France, and those who were
partially so in Brunswick, Hesse-Cassel, and Saxony, to still
more decided opposition, and gained for them a large number
of men, heretofore indifferent. Liberal papers sprang up in
western and southern Germany. Freedom of the press and
of speech was loudly demanded by the different legislative
assemblies. Public meetings were held, and the measures of
the governments openly criticised. It is not to be wondered
at that the ruling powers began to be alarmed and resorted
178
to repression. Our poor Franconia was thought to be im-
portant enough to fall under the ban of the authorities.
It is true our society had in a very short time made itself
very important. Composed, as it was, mostly of older stu-
dents, nearly all of them good swordsmen, it took at once high
rank among the corps. It constantly increased in numbers.
A funeral of one of the members, Giessen, from Rhenish Ba-
varia, was, including deputations from other corps, attended
by some two hundred participants, who, with the exception
of marshals and adjutants, bore torchlights, which on the re-
turn to the city were thrown in a heap on the public square,
making quite a large fire. Orations were delivered and dirges
played by a band. Our reception of the Poles at Heidelberg,
our excursions to places elsewhere had, of course, been duly
observed; nor had it escaped the eye of the authorities that
the Franconia was only a mask behind which stood a very
vigorous section of the Universal Burschenschaft. So it hap-
pened that late in February Von Hude and myself, the os-
tensible leaders of the Franconia, were cited to appear before
the University judge, who communicated to us a decree of the
academical senate, ordering the dissolution of our corps. We
remonstrated, but to no effect. We appealed to the Minister
of the Interior of Baden. A draft of this appeal is still
among my papers ; but the decree was affirmed. We claimed
a trial; but we were given to understand that we had com-
mitted no criminal act, that the dissolution was not a pun-
ishment but only a police measure, and that no reason need
be assigned for the adoption of it. We had to submit. Our
relations with the other corps at once ceased. If duels were
to be fought we had to appear as civilians, and to apply for
arms and seconds to one of the other corps by way of courtesy.
Of course, the Burschenschaft continued to exist as heretofore,
but in secret.
It may be here remarked that during the winter another
council of the Universal Burschenschaft was held in Stuttgart,
where the Franconia was duly represented. I, however, was
HEIDELBERG 179
not a member of it. It was there resolved that the Bursehen-
schaft had for its object the liberty and union of Germany,
which from now on could be obtained only by revolution, and
that every Burschenschaft hereafter should join the existing
union for the liberty of the press called the ' ' Vaterlands-
Verein." This resolution was afterwards used against all
the members of the Burschenschaft, and decided the unfor-
tunate fate of many of that community.
HECKER. A HEIDELBERG DUEL
Before I finish my narrative of this semester at Heidel-
berg, I must mention a rather interesting incident. One night
returning from my club-house, I heard a great noise ahead
of me, and, coming nearer, I found two young members of
of our society engaged in a quarrel with three or four other
students. I addressed my friends, telling them that if they
had any difficulty, to settle it in the right way next morning,
and not to quarrel in the street like schoolboys. The most
boisterous of the other students, quite correctly taking this
reprimand as intended for him also, turned to me, saying:
"What the devil do you mean? This is none of your busi-
ness. ' ' I replied : " I did not speak to you, but to my friends ;
and I will say what I please." Whereupon he called me an
"imbecile," the customary word of insult, provocative of a
challenge. I asked his name, as I had never seen him before.
"Hecker is my name." "Mine is Koerner," said I, "you will
hear from me. ' ' Upon inquiry I was told that Hecker was a
very fine fellow, very popular in his society, the corps of the
Palatinate (Pfaelzer), but very high-tempered and quarrel-
some, and a person who had had many duels on account of
his hotheadedness. A few days afterwards, we met at the or-
dinary fighting grounds, the Hirschgasse, a public house on
the Neckar, opposite Heidelberg. Hecker was very much ex-
cited, and, as I was cool, looking on an encounter with broad-
swords as a very small matter, he was no match for me. After
cutting him across the breast several times, he finally very
180 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
imprudently brought his left hand, which is always kept be-
hind the back in such a duel, forward as if to parry a strike,
and in this wise I struck him in the hand between the thumb
and forefinger. The wound was an ugly one, had to be sewed
up and dressed, and so this unpleasantness ended, leaving me
entirely untouched.
Now the fact is that I had forgotten everything about
this affair, as I have forgotten several similar ones, not even
recollecting the names of my adversaries. After I had been
some ten years or more in this country, I saw notices of Heck-
er in the German papers as being one of the most eloquent and
radical members of the opposition in the Baden Chambers;
but even that did not bring the little duel to my recollection.
Besides the name is not an uncommon one in Germany. Some
years afterwards, however, in 1845 or 1846, I was informed
that the distinguished tribune of the people was no other than
the one I had fought with in the Hirschgasse. Baron Von
Itzstein, the leader of the constitutional opposition in Baden,
and Fred Hecker had undertaken a journey to the north of
Germany just for pleasure. They, without the least idea of
danger, had extended their journey to Berlin, where they were
ordered by the police to leave Berlin instantly. This step on
the part of the government, as arbitrary as it was stupid, cre-
ated the greatest excitement, not only in Germany, but was
severely commented upon by the English and the German
press. Here was a German nobleman of large possessions, who
had held high office, a member of the legislature of one of the
sister states, and here was Hecker, a prominent lawyer, prac-
tising in the highest courts, also a member of the legislature,
both men of unimpeachable character and of great reputation,
treated like vagabonds and ordered out of a state which be-
longed to the common country. The indignation of the lib-
erals knew no bounds at this outrageous and wholly unjusti-
fiable act. It was condemned even in Prussia by a large ma-
jority of the people. On their homeward journey, as soon as
they were outside of Prussia, where the police would have in-
HEIDELBERG 181
terfered, they were everywhere received with the greatest en-
thusiasm, were banqueted, and in every way honored. They
received a great ovation at Frankfort. My brother being one
of a committee of reception at a dinner given in their honor,
was introduced to Hecker, or Hecker to him, when the latter
at once asked my brother whether he was a brother of that
Koerner who had gone to America. Being answered in the
affirmative, he in his dashing way said: "O, I am so glad to
see you. When you write to him give him my most cordial
greetings. I knew him in Heidelberg, and look here he
left me this memento," showing him the scar which he had
really inflicted upon himself by his imprudence. My brother's
letter first recalled the long forgotten matter to my mind.
IMSBACH AND THE ENGELMANN FAMILY
Toward the end of my term at Heidelberg, I received a
letter from my friend Theodore Engelmann. He had left
Munich late in the fall of 1831 and had gone home to Imsbach,
where his family lived. His father, Theodore Frederick En-
gelmann, was master of forests (Forstmeister), and his of-
ficial residence was, or ought to have been, in Winnweiler, the
seat of the canton. But Mr. Engelmann, owning a house and
some land in Imsbach, a village only a mile or two from Winn-
weiler, resided there. It was situated at the entrance of the
romantic Falkenstein valley, in a beautiful region near Don-
nersberg, Mt. Tonnere, the highest peak of the Haardt, a con-
tinuation of the Vosges Mountains. Mr. Engelmann had then
already formed a plan, with some of his relations, to emigrate
to the United States with all his family, except one married
daughter. Theodore had concluded to go also. Thinking that
law would be of no use to him in the far west, he was learning
a trade and had already made arrangements to learn the trade
of tanner in Kaiserslautern. He invited me to come and
spend some weeks in Imsbach, where I could also find a quiet
place to prepare myself for my examination previous to grad-
uation. He had so often talked to me of his family and in
182 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
such terms that I had already formed a very high opinion of
his parents and his brothers and sisters. I accepted his in-
vitation.
Towards the end of March, 1832, I went with my friend
and fellow-student, Hermann More, to Gruenstadt, where his
parents resided, stayed there over night and became acquaint-
ed with his father, who held the office of notary, a quasi- ju-
dicial office under the French law, which still, with modifica-
tions, prevailed in the German provinces west of the Rhine,
and one of much profit and importance. The old gentleman
was widely known in Rhenish Bavaria as being a man of su-
perior mind, of great business capacity, and also of exuberant
wit and humor. He was an extreme liberal. He had a very
fine family, his daughters counted as the most beautiful girls in
the province. One of them afterwards became the first wife
of Edgar Quinet, a well-known French philosopher, historian
and scientist. The Mores were also related to the Engelmann
family.
The next evening I arrived at Imsbach. My reception
there was most cordial. Theodore must have given a most
favorable description of me to his family. I was treated at
once like a member of it. Mr. Engelmann, the father, then
fifty-two years old, of noble stature and bearing, of very reg-
ular, handsome features, very clear complexion, large, beauti-
ful blue eyes, and honesty and benignity beaming from his
face, made at once a striking impression on me. He was the
finest elderly gentleman I thought I had ever seen. His very
light hair showed some streaks of gray, and his moustache
was quite gray. In his full dress uniform he looked very mil-
itary. Mrs. Engelmann showed her French descent. Her hair
was black ; brilliant dark eyes gave her a very interesting look ;
she was a bright woman and of as kind a disposition as her
husband. Two daughters were absent: Margaret, who had
married Mr. Fred Hilgard, her cousin, who lived in Speyer
and was engaged in the wholesale wine business, being the
owner of two estates, one called St. Johann, near Landau, and
HEIDELBERG 183
the other Klosterhof, near Kirchheim. He had been mayor
(burgomaster) of Speyer, but owing to his liberal views, his
last election had not been sanctioned by the royal government.
Josephine had been for years with her uncle, Joseph Engel-
mann, the well-known bookseller and publisher at Heidelberg,
and was still there when I came to Imsbach. There were at
home, Caroline, Charlotte, Sophie, Betty, and Theodore, and
two small boys, Jacob and Adolph. Ludwig, a year or so
younger than Theodore, was a student of pharmacy at Heidel-
berg. Sophie was sixteen years of age and Betty about twelve.
I had a room to myself, with a large table on which I
could spread out all the law books I needed for my study.
After breakfast, which was quite early, I went up and with
hardly any interruption read and wrote until midday. Din-
ner always lasted some time, there being much conversation.
Mr. Engelmann, Theodore and myself, and the chief clerk in
the office, quite a pleasant and intellectual young man, always
had wine.
A great contrast existed between the two sisters Caroline
and Charlotte. Caroline was self-conscious, and positive. Her
conduct was regulated by what she considered to be right.
Having formed an opinion she stood by it with great firmness.
Though she had small feet and hands, she was very stout and
strongly built. Charlotte, who was quite small, of a very
fair complexion, large brown eyes, and more delicately
framed, was very emotional. Her heart frequently ran away
with her head ; all was impulse with her ; and she could easily
be swayed by momentary impressions.
Both sisters, however, were of very kindly dispositions;
both were devoted to their parents ; and both very enthusiastic
liberals. They had been frequently away from home, had seen
many very excellent people at the hospitable house of their
father, and had read a great deal. I found them, therefore,
quite interesting. Margaret, Mrs. Fred Hilgard, from Speyer,
came to visit her parents. She was a very handsome lady,
and left a very favorable impression on me. It was quite
184 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
natural that I should take more interest in Sophie than in
the older sisters. Being so much younger, she was kept, or
rather kept herself, more in the background. She was then
sixteen. I thought that she was even more attentive and de-
voted to her parents than her sisters. She was tender also
to the other members of the family. She was not long re-
turned from Speyer, where she had been for some two years
with Margaret ; that city affording better advantages for edu-
cation than the Imsbach village or even the town of Winn-
weiler. I do not know why it was, but it did me good to look
at her. Even when we did not converse much, her very pres-
ence delighted me. A few times we walked in the garden
quite alone, or went out into the valley a short distance. Of
course, I said many kind words to her, but was careful not
to betray any particular feeling. Under the most favorable
circumstances, I could not obtain a position to enable me to
found a family for the next ten years in my native city; be-
sides, her family had nearly made up their mind to emigrate
in the near future to America. Whether she had any tender
feeling for me at that time I dad not then know. Her ex-
treme modesty would have prevented her from showing it. I
thought, however, that I had discovered in this young maiden
a fund of tenderness, a purity, and an utter absence of self-
ishness which was bound to make any man happy who was
fortunate enough to win her.
I must give myself credit for having studied pretty hard
during the six or seven weeks that I stayed at Imsbach. Others
may have thought that I was idling away a good deal of my
time; but I had always made it a point not to appear too
busy, even when I was. I allowed myself plenty of leisure
hours in order to do much work in a short time. I made many
fine excursions into the neighborhood. Mr. Engelmann often
put his fine saddle-horse at my disposal, and I visited some
very pretty places. At one time the whole family went out
some ten miles to a fish pond of which Mr. Engelmann, to-
gether with some other gentlemen, held a lease. They also,
HEIDELBERG 185
on appointment, came out there with their families and
friends. Every spring just such a meeting took place for the
purpose of diminishing the number of fish, and particularly
the pikes, so destructive to the young brood of fish. We found
a large party present. A part of the water was let off and a
large number of fish taken in nets. The ladies and their ser-
vants got up a splendid dinner, cooking and broiling the fish
on the ground. There were plenty of good things and in this
wine-land there was no absence of excellent wine. Cakes and
other dainties were in abundance. In fact, it was a most
brilliant fete champetre.
At another time, Theodore, Caroline, Sophie, and myself
paid a visit to Wachenheim, at the invitation of Mr. Joseph
Engelmann, of Heidelberg, who had a country-house at that
beautiful place, celebrated for its superior vineyards. We
walked all the way, some twenty miles. Starting early in the
morning, we took dinner at Ramsen with an under-forester
(Revierfoerster), in Mr. Engelmann 's district, where we had
some of the splendid trout for which Ramsen is so well known
in that district of the country. Taking a good rest, we reached
Wachenheim late in the evening, and were most cordially re-
ceived by Uncle Joseph. We stayed there all next day, Theo-
dore and myself making a short excursion to Duerkheim,
where we accidentally met our friend and fellow-student from
Munich, Gutienne. He was a most lively and sociable fel-
low, a native of Saarlouis, tall and very handsome. He was
an enthusiastic Liberal, and became afterwards, in 1848, a
member of the Prussian Constituent Assembly, which was
forcibly dissolved in November, 1848. We took him along
with us to Wachenheim, and from there to Imsbach. At both
places, he charmed everybody by his vivacity and his good
humor.
In Wachenheim I met for the first time sister Josephine.
She was some two or three years older than Sophie. Her
sweet and highly intellectual face, her agreeably interesting
conversation, gave me at once a very high opinion of her char-
186 MEMOIRS OF G-USTAVE KOERNER
acter, which a more intimate acquaintance at a later time did
not fail to confirm. We had a very pleasant home trip. This
excursion by the side of Sophie was one of the sweetest spots
in my life.
At last my time had come to go back to Heidelberg. My
Latin dissertation had been written. I had already applied
to the faculty for graduation as a doctor of law, and the mid-
dle of May had been fixed for my examination. About the
sixth of May I left Imsbach where I had lived an idyl. I had
been treated as a son and brother. With many kisses I parted
from the girls. My heart was a little heavy. Before me, a
somewhat rigid examination by some of the greatest legal
lights, behind me, Sophie, whom I had named the ' ' little flower
of the Alsenz," the clear little stream which runs by Winn-
weiler and empties into the Nahe at the Ebernburg near
Kreuznach, and bears that name.
CHAPTER VIII
The Hambach Festival
I have already spoken of my promotion as doctor of law
June 14, but when I took my leave from lovely and fa-
mous Heidelberg, I did not go directly home to Frankfort.
On the 26th of May the great festival at the ruins of the large
castle of Hambach near Neustadt was to take place.
WIRTH AND THE PRESS UNIONS
Dr. John G. A. Wirth had received a classical education,
had studied law at Erlangen, and was pursuing his profession.
He, however, quite early engaged in literary labor and pub-
lished several journals of political and national-economic char-
acter. He was not what we call here a newspaper man, but a
real journalist, such as Germany had not seen since Goerres
in his rational days had published the "Rhenish Mercury."
Wirth was a man of genius, an idealist ; his language, written
or spoken, was most impressive and fiery, but always chaste and
noble. When he first published the "German Tribune" in
Munich in 1831, at the time the Bavarian legislature was in
session, his opposition to the government was moderate, and
was kept strictly within legal bounds. But in criticising the
reactionary measures of the government he was bold and out-
spoken. The singular clearness and force of his arguments
at once gained for the paper a very large circulation in the
heart of Bavaria and Jesuitism. The government became
alarmed. His articles were sadly mutilated by the censor, and
in many other ways he was much annoyed. The post-office
was directed to interfere with the circulation of the paper.
Wirth 's remonstrances were rejected. The government papers
188 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
made war on him in the coarsest and most scandalous way.
No wonder that such a fiery soul as Wirth's could not brook
such a course. His language became more decided, and finally
he decided to remove his press to a more congenial region. In
the winter of 1832, he published the "Tribune" in Homburg
in Rhenish Bavaria, where the laws being substantially those
introduced by the French after they had annexed the country
to the left of the Rhine, gave far more liberty to the citizens
than the laws of the rest of Bavaria. The "Tribune" soon
became the organ of the Liberal party in Germany and made
the governments tremble. Some of the neighboring States
prohibited its circulation, and at the instance of the Bundes-
tag, the Bavarian government from time to time confiscated
the journal and prosecuted its editor and printer for what
they called the abuse of the press. Wirth then, by a public
address to the German people, called upon them to form patri-
otic unions for the purpose of supporting all Liberal papers,
assisting in their circulation, raising a fund for indemnifying
editors when they were fined by the courts, and printing pam-
phlets. A central committee for these patriotic or Press-Un-
ions, as they were generally called, was established at Deux
Fonts (Zweibruecken), consisting of the eminent lawyers
and statesmen, Schueler, Savoye and Geib. Sub-committees
were formed in almost every city and town in the Rhenish and
Franconian provinces of Bavaria, in Wuertemberg, in Baden,
in Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Darmstadt, and in Nassau. And
in a very short time, similar unions were formed in Saxony
and in the dukedoms of Coburg, Altenburg and Weimar, in
the Prussian Rhenish provinces, in Westphalia, in Hanover,
and even in the Hansa towns and Holstein. Everybody be-
came a member who subscribed some money every week or
month, the amount of which was left to each one to fix. Even
in a great many villages such societies were formed. The
papers principally supported by these unions were the "West-
bote," edited by a most able lawyer, Dr. Siebenpfeiffer, the
"Tribune," the "Watchman on the Rhine," the ' ' Zeitschwin-
HAMBACH FESTIVAL 189
gen," the "Donau-Zeitung," and several papers published in
Frankfort. The Bundestag prohibited these unions, but did
not prevent their spreading all over the country. The sub-
scribers did not need to give their names if they did not
choose, but might adopt some chiffre or fictitious name.
THE HAMBACHEB SCHLOSS FESTIVAL
While political excitement, so much increased by the
Polish exodus and the bold language of the press, thus ran very
high, some thirty prominent citizens of Neustadt by the Haardt
issued, at the instance of Dr. Siebenpfeiffer, an invitation for
a general German festival to be held on the 27th of May, 1832,
at the Hambacher Schloss, situated on a high hill, near Neu-
stadt, now in ruins, once a beautiful castle, destroyed in the
Peasants' Wars by the infuriated and downtrodden serfs. The
meeting such was the language of the invitation was not
to celebrate great and glorious events, for the Germans had
no reason to commemorate such, but to express the desire and
the hope to obtain legal liberty and national dignity. From
every part of Germany the people were to meet for brotherly
reunion and for a peaceable discussion of the common inter-
ests of their great country.
The idea of such a national confederation took like wild-
fire. The Liberal press at once warmly supported it. The Ba-
varian government took the alarm. The President of the
province, Von Andrian, at once issued an order forbidding the
meeting. But this was like pouring oil on the fire. The in-
augurators, having obtained the opinions of distinguished
lawyers, who pronounced the meeting legal according to the
established constitution and laws, published a strong protest
against the ordinance; the city council of Neustadt protested
still stronger. All the city councils of the province followed
suit, and, last but not least, the provincial delegates, a body
of the most distinguished men of Rhenish Bavaria, elected by
the legal voters and charged with the power of administering
the local affairs of the province, being then in session, also
190 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
insisted in the most determined manner on a repeal of the
ordinance. The government, frightened, repealed the order,
and refrained from sending even police or troops to the place.
Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and perhaps some neighboring
governments forbade their people to attend; but very few
obeyed the mandate. The people did meet, and, according to
the report of the government officials, the number, including
a great many ladies, amounted to some thirty thousand per-
sons. By others it was estimated as high as fifty or sixty
thousand. That the Heidelberger Burschenschaft, as well as a
good many other Burschenschaften, was fully represented, was
a matter of course.
In company with an intimate friend, C. Heintzmann, I
left Heidelberg on the 23rd of May, 1832, but stopped on the
way at Speyer at the house of Mr. Fred Hilgard. Sophie En-
gelmann was there on a visit. We were hospitably received
by Mr. Hilgard and his wife, Sophie's sister. Two days I
passed there most joyously. There I met also Dora, a sister
of Theodore Kraft, who had been with me at Heidelberg, and
who was a cousin of Sophie. She was a lovely girl. In com-
pany with Miss Emma Heimberger and other friends we took
pleasant walks, and spent one afternoon in a beautiful sum-
mer garden. Emma was a fascinating girl, of rather irregular
features, brilliantly dark eyes and hair ; of great vivacity and
very beautiful. She became afterwards Mrs. Theodore Hil-
gard, Jr., and was for years a bright star in our German- Amer-
ican settlement. I made also the acquaintance, at that time,
of her brother Gustav, who was a few years my elder, had
studied law in Heidelberg, and came out to the United States
a year before I did, with Theodore and Edward Hilgard, sons
of Frederick Hilgard. He was good-natured, jovial and social,
perhaps too much so ; but as a companion and true friend no
one could surpass him.
Mr. Fred Hilgard took us through a lovely and pictur-
esque country in his own carriage to Neustadt, which, like the
surrounding villages, already overflowed with people. We met
HAMBACH FESTIVAL 191
at Neustadt, Theodore Engelmann and his sisters Caroline
and Charlotte, who, having many friends and relations in that
place, secured us comfortable lodgings. A great many dis-
tinguished leaders of the Liberals had already arrived. The
streets at night were crowded. Bands paraded, serenading
some of the guests. Next morning all the roads leading to
Neustadt were crowded with carriages and vehicles of all
kinds, thousands on horseback, and many thousands who had
stopped in the near neighborhood, on foot. In the public
square and adjoining streets the festival committee, supported
by many marshals, arranged the procession, and its march up
to the old castle was really a magnificent sight. Numerous
bands of music were distributed through it. The delegations
marched under their own banners, all displaying their na-
tional colors. There were sections of Poles, of French Repub-
licans, most of these in the uniform of the National Guards,
and thousands of students with banners. Even the ladies
wore scarfs of the national colors, and several thousands of
them graced the procession by marching along the road. On
the highest tower of the castle an immense flag, black, red
and gold, bearing the inscription "Resurrection of Germany"
was floating. From the mountain one of the most beautiful
panoramas of Germany presents itself. The green Rhine is
seen in its course from Mannheim to Mayence, and also Frank-
fort, Speyer, Worms, Oppenheim, and numerous other towns
and villages of the Rhine, Neckar and Main valleys. The
background is formed by the Haardt Mountains on the west,
on the north by the beautifully curved heights of the Taunus
Mountains with their ruined castles, while the Bergstrasse
ending at Heidelberg closes the view of this enchanting scen-
ery.
THE SPEECHES
From various platforms eloquent speeches were made by
Doctor Siebenpfeiffer, Wirth, Scharpff, Henry Brueggemann.
and others, representing the sad condition of Germany, its in-
significance in the council of European nations, its depression
192 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
in trade and commerce, all owing to the want of national un-
ion, the division into thirty-eight States, large and small, with
their different laws, different weights and measures, different
currencies, and most of all to the custom-house lines surround-
ing every State. The orators complained of the pressure which
Austria and Prussia exercised over the German Diet at Frank-
fort, compelling even liberal-minded princes to the adoption
of unconstitutional and illegal measures. Brueggemann,
whose speech was one of the most eloquent, addressed the meet-
ing as the representative of the German youth, which, in spite
of criminal persecutions, he asserted had kept the idea of the
liberty and unity of the Vaterland alive. Persecuted by the
government, ridiculed by the indifferent and by the organs
of the government, the Burschenschaft had ever represented
the union of all the German races, had obliterated State lines,
and had persistently propagated the necessity of a national
union throughout the land by its members. It was an excit-
ing moment, when, at the close of his speech, he called upon
the assembly to hold their hands up and to swear the oath
which the delegates of the three Swiss cantons, on the height
of the Ruetli, swore, as given in the glorious language of Schil-
ler in his "Tell."
"We swear to be a nation of true brothers,
Never to part in danger and hi death."
' ' "Wir wollen sein ein einzig Volk von Bruedern,
In keiner Noth uns trennen und Gef ahr. ' '
"We swear we will be free as were our sires
And sooner die than live in slavery. ' '
"Wir wollen frei sein wie die Vater waren,
Eher den Tod, als in der Knechtschaf t leben. ' '
Thousands held up their hands, and in the most solemn
manner repeated the sentences as given by Brueggemann.
After a deep silence tremendous cheers arose, and Brugge-
mann was taken down in triumph by an electrified multitude.
HAMBACH FESTIVAL 193
Many other speeches were made from the various stands.
They differed in form and substance. But upon the whole
the prevailing sentiment was that reforms in the different con-
stitutions and in the constitution of the Bund should be
brought about by force of public opinion and the support of
a free press enlightening and informing the masses about their
rights and duties. Some excited speakers, despairing of a
peaceable solution, advised forcible resistance to illegal meas-
ures. Mr. Lucien Rey, a distinguished French journalist,
from Strassburg, made a most admirable speech in French,
congratulating the Germans on their endeavor to obtain con-
stitutional freedom, and assuring the assembly that the French
Republicans had no idea, even if they might fly to the assist-
ance of their German brethren, of asking compensation by the
cessions of the Rhenish provinces which at the time of the rev-
olution had been conquered by the Republican army. This
was in reply to some passages in Wirth's speech in which he
insisted that Germans must rely on themselves, and not count
on assistance from France, as such assistance would not be
given without claims for compensation. In form and sub-
stance his speech was a masterpiece.
Speeches were made by some Polish officers, and on the
second day of the meeting by Fred Schueler, the greatest of all
Liberal leaders as regards personal presence, a man of eminent
legal knowledge, power of oratory and purity of character.
Joseph Savoye, a distinguished lawyer and statesman, also
made a speech. In fact, there were large gatherings during
the three days of the 27th, 28th and 29th of May at the Ham-
bacher Schloss. Besides the gentlemen mentioned, there were
present a great many Liberal leaders of the legislatures of
Bavaria, Baden, Nassau, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Darmstadt and
Wuertemberg, and the leading journalists of the liberal papers
of Frankfort, Mannheim, Carlsruhe, and Stuttgart. Numer-
ous addresses came from the Rhenish provinces of Prussia,
from the central Polish committee at Paris, and from several
other cities and towns. Ludwig Boerne, whose letters from
194 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENER
Paris, had just then electrified all Liberals, was also present
It was the first time I saw him. He was of small, delicate
stature, broken in health, and deathly pale. He showed his
Jewish descent plainly, but his features were highly interest-
ing. His brilliant black eyes gave light to his pallid face.
His mouth was firmly cut ; round his lips played a melancholy
smile. He was very reticent, and when we Heidelbergers
serenaded him and addressed him in very flattering words, he
thanked us very briefly and seemed to be overcome by emotion.
CONCLUDING MEETINGS, AND RESULTS
Several meetings of the principal leaders were held in
Neustadt, and many discussions took place as to what was to
be done. Some were undoubtedly under the impression that
a provincial government should at once be organized, and that
the people should be called to arms. Of course, this chimerical
view found no favor with the large majority of those present.
The principal object, agitation, had been obtained. The press-
unions were to be extended and supported in every nook and
corner of Germany. Everyone was to strive to bring about
the election of Liberal members to the various legislative
assemblies. Similar meetings were to be organized, and in
case the present members of the central committee of the Press-
Union should be arrested, other members were designated who
should take their places, and the central committee was then
to be moved to Frankfort.
The meeting made a great impression on me. A greater
popular demonstration I have never seen even on this side of
the water. The enthusiasm was unbounded, and the feeling
that the wrath of kings and princes would be visited upon a
great many of us made the event still more exciting. All of
this took place in one of the most lovely and interesting spots
in our country, favored by splendid spring weather, amidst
the shouting of patriotic songs and the smiles of thousands of
fair women. It was enough even to fire the hearts of old and
considerate men. How must it have worked upon us young
HAMBACH FESTIVAL 195
men ! I venture to say that no one who witnessed this popular
rising, no matter how indifferent he might have been, has ever
been able to obliterate from his memory the May festival at
the Hambacher Schloss.
CHAPTER IX
Before the Storm
Returned to Frankfort, I now had to begin the real strug-
gle of life. I at once prepared for the state's examination a
written essay on some important point of law, which had to
be submitted to the examiners, consisting of four members
of the highest courts, who, after passing judgment upon it,
appointed two of their commission for an oral examination.
That examination was to be of a more practical nature; that
is, it extended to the body of laws prevailing in the free city,
and to the rules of practice in the different courts. I went to
work in earnest, but things went so slowly that I was invited
to an oral examination only at the end of the year, and the
decree of admission was not rendered till in February, 1833.
This was, however, the usual time which elapsed between
application and reception. Nevertheless, I had been employed
in some cases, though my briefs and pleas had to be signed by
some practicing lawyer-friend.
FIRST GERMAN LAW SUIT
In one case I was much interested. My brother Charles
had been accused of having distributed a printed address to
the people of the Dukedom of Nassau advising them not to
pay certain taxes, on the ground that the legislature had
refused to vote them, and that the government was demanding
direct taxes at a time when the income from the domain belong-
ing to the state was sufficient to pay the expenses. Charles
had given one of these addresses to a young friend to read,
under promise of having it returned. But the latter had sent
it to his brother in Nassau, who handed it over to the mayor of
BEFORE THE STORM 197
his town. Charles was tried by the police court of Frankfort,
and condemned to pay a fine and to be imprisoned for four
weeks in the citizens' prison. He appealed, and I carried his
case to the Appellate Court, prepared the argument, but
objected to the court as being prejudiced, whereupon under
the then existing law the case was sent to the law faculty of
Berlin to decide it in lieu of the Frankfort court. Doctor
Reinganum, the leader of the Frankfort bar, signed the papers
for me. No decision had been made before I left Frankfort
for the United States, but I had the satisfaction to learn soon
after my arrival here that the Berlin faculty, though it had
not quite acquitted my brother, had reduced the judgment
to a nominal fee and reversed the imprisonment, averring, as
I had contended, that even if the address were revolutionary,
(which I had absolutely denied,) the defendant had not wil-
fully distributed it, but had been guilty of negligence merely.
POLITICAL EVENTS
But much as I was desirous of attending to my business
only, it was impossible to remain indifferent to the political
events which now crowded upon one another with rapidity,
particularly in Frankfort and its neighborhood.
Early in June the German Diet in Frankfort had issued
an ordinance requiring the governments of the different States
to suppress certain Liberal journals, amongst others the ' ' Ger-
man Tribune" and the " Liberal," edited by Professors Welek-
er and Von Rotteck, distinguished members of the Baden legis-
lature. The Senate of Frankfort had, in pursuance of this
edict, forbidden the circulation of these papers. Of course,
their place was at once supplied by others, and a universal
cry of indignation ran throughout Germany on account of the
act of the Diet which was wholly unconstitutional and void in
substance and form. About the same time the Bavarian Field
Marshal Wrede, at the head of a large body of troops, had
entered Rhenish Bavaria, and, with the assistance of the mili-
tary, Wirth, Siebenpfeiffer and many others were arrested.
198 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Schueler, Savoye and Geib escaped arrest by withdrawing to
France, as did a great many other Liberals. The central com-
mittee of the press-union established itself at Frankfort. The
presses upon which the "Tribune," the "Westbote" and other
Liberal papers had been printed were taken possession of by
the police.
In the meantime, however, public meetings were still held,
one at Wilhelmsbad, near Hanau, where some ten thousand
people met, the most important feature of which was that
thousands of small farmers and peasants participated, showing
as much interest and enthusiasm as those belonging to the
higher classes. Another meeting took place near Wuerzburg
where Doctor Behr, mayor of Wuerzburg, made the principal
speech, which many members of the Bavarian legislature
attended. An address was sent to the King himself, in which
a series of unconstitutional measures, adopted by his ministers,
were denounced in clear, logical and most pointed language,
and the King urged to dismiss his faithless ministers. Behr
and many provincial Liberals were thereupon arrested and
subjected to criminal prosecution.
In Baden, and Hesse-Darmstadt, similar popular meet-
ings were held. But the excitement and indignation reached
the highest point when, on the twenty-eighth of June and the
fifth of July, 1832, the Diet issued a string of ordinances at the
instance of Austria and Prussia, (Prussia being, as usual, the
mere tool of Metternich,) which at once destroyed the guar-
anteed sovereignty of all the other German States. These pro-
vided that the legislatures could not refuse to make appropria-
tions demanded by the governments, that in case of resistance,
or in case of threatening insurrections, the Diet could inter-
fere and send military assistance, even if the State in ques-
tion did not call for such aid ; that the debates in the legislative
assemblies and the publication thereof should be properly con-
trolled; that no State should be allowed to grant unlimited
liberty to the press ; that all journals which had a revolutionary
tendency should be suppressed; that the former ordinances
BEFORE THE STORM 199
of 1819 against the liberty of teaching and against associations
of students should be strictly enforced; that no associations,
nor any meetings of a political character should be tolerated ;
and that a commission should be appointed by the Diet to
watch over the proceedings of the various state legislatures
and the due execution of these ordinances, and to report to the
Diet, so that additional measures, when necessary, could be
taken to secure the peace and quiet of the confederated states.
This was driving things to the very verge of absolutism.
The Liberal papers denounced the ordinances, even the mod-
erate ones. Some of the most learned writers on public law
published elaborate opinions of these ordinances, showing their
nullity in both substance and form. The most prominent
members of the bar in Baden gave an opinion to the same
effect. By a large majority of the legislature of the Electorate
of Hesse, under the lead of the distinguished professor, Syl-
vester Jordan, a resolution was passed that the ordinances
were not binding in that State. In some of the other legisla-
tures similar resolutions were introduced, but not carried.
In spite of the ordinances, meetings were held, condemn-
ing the acts of the Diet as usurpations. When one Liberal
paper was suppressed, others started immediately. The cen-
tral committee of the Press-Union in Frankfort remained in
full activity. Liberal editors in Frankfort were repeatedly
arrested, fined and imprisoned. Not a day passed but we
heard of repressive measures in the different state govern-
ments, some of which would have readily disobeyed the usurp-
ing ordinances of the Diet if they had dared, but could evi-
dently not resist such powers as Austria and Prussia com-
bined. Other governments would have supported even more
extreme measures.
ASSOCIATES IN FRANKFORT
Having been away from Frankfort for more than three
years, I had now become a comparative stranger. Through
brother Charles, however, I soon found myself in congenial
200 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
society. Grown up in the Liberal traditions of our father's
house, he was intimately acquainted with some of the leading
Liberals, and, in fact, was one of the most active amongst the
very numerous class of men who saw the only chance for the
material and intellectual welfare of Germany in an entire
change in the present system of government.
A large majority of the bar, including some of its most
prominent members, many noted physicians, many teachers in
the colleges and schools, as well as highly respectable and well-
to-do merchants and mechanics, were counted among the Lib-
erals. Dr. Gustav Bunsen and Dr. Adolph Berehelmann, fel-
low-students in Heidelberg, had also returned to Frankfort to
settle. Bunsen had two brothers, George, who was at the head
of a boys' seminary, and Charles, a physician of many years'
standing. Both were determined Republicans. I soon was
introduced into their families. It was natural in these excit-
ing times that politics should form almost the sole topic of
conversation and discussion at all our social meetings. Nearly
all the persons I associated with were members of the Press-
Union. There were no secret societies, no conspiracies; but
still there was a determination on the part of many to share
in any movement to bring about reform, even by force.
I was soon made aware by Gustav Bunsen that there was
a sort of inner circle, consisting of men who were not willing
to wait for an occasion on which they might show their Lib-
eralism, but who were for making an occasion. They might be
called radicals, and they had formed connections with similar
spirits in other places, principally in Hanau, in Giessen, and
other towns of Hesse-Darmstadt; also, in Stuttgart, Cassel,
and Marburg in the Electorate of Hesse; in Homburg in the
Landgravate of Hesse. Yet even these more exalted Liberals
had no secrets, no pass-words, no badges, though they knew
one another very well. With some of the Hanau people 1
was already well acquainted, for Florencourt was there, Span-
genberg, a fellow-student, and George Fein, whom I had
known at Munich, who had been an assistant editor of Wirth's
BEFORE THE STORM 201
"Tribune," and who had been banished from Rhenish
Bavaria. These were active revolutionists, and found in
Hanau a fertile field for agitation.
Among them was Dr. Franz Guerth. Guerth was a born
conspirator, and sought to form sub-societies after the man-
ner of the Italian and French revolutionists, groups bound
by oaths, operating in secret and unknown to one another,
each led by a member connected with a central directing com-
mittee. But he failed in this attempt, as Germany is no soil
for such organizations. I never doubted, as some did, his pure
patriotism; but it was combined with a very strong personal
ambition. His mind was very fertile; he loved to lay great
plans. He had connections with the Polish central committee
at Paris, whose head at that time was the celebrated Lelewel ;
he put himself in relations of some kind or another with most
of the Liberal leaders of the opposition in the different States,
and set on foot a military conspiracy in Wuertemberg. He
was indefatigable ; constantly on the wing ; and causing meet-
ings of the most prominent Liberals to be held at various
places. He could make impossible things appear very prob-
able, and easily persuaded himself that success was certain;
and, being convinced himself, he convinced others. With all
his enthusiasm, he was shrewd; having carried on, under the
eyes of suspicious and watchful governments, his agitation for
many months without discovery.
Guerth soon showed me particular attention. He had
learned that I had, at the various Universities I attended, en-
joyed the utmost confidence of the Burschenschaft societies;
that I must be known to all the members of the Burschen-
schaft, at least by reputation, and that in case of need I could
exercise considerable influence upon former and present mem-
bers of our society.
I confess that I was not very favorably impressed with
Guerth 's personality. There was a certain fanaticism in his
eyes. Nor was he of a social disposition. In a word, he was
not sympathetic to me. But as the Bunsens and other
202 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
gentlemen of a very high character believed in him, so did I.
After April, 1833, he fled to England, became engaged in the
legal business, returned after the amnesty of 1848 to Frank-
fort, and wrote works on English jurisprudence, one of which
he sent me to Belleville. I believe he followed his profession
peaceably in his native city.
I do not know but that, owing to my strong feeling for the
regeneration of Germany and my bitter hatred of all oppres-
sions, I would at a moment's warning have joined in any rev-
olutionary outbreak. But Gustav Bunsen and Guerth had
the greatest influence in making me a participant in the move-
ment which culminated in the Frankfort Attentat of the
third of April. It must be understood that the plan of that
attempt was not matured until the end of the year 1832, and
that I had no actual knowledge of it until some time in Feb-
ruary of the next year. Owing to the fact that I had to un-
dergo an examination by highly conservative members of the
courts, I did not make myself conspicuous at the meetings,
nor did I sign protests or addresses. As observed, I studied
pretty hard during the day ; but in the evenings I took a swim
in the Main in almost all kinds of weather, after which I
joined our friends in our social circle. It was an exciting
and highly interesting time, made still more pleasant by the
great tenderness and love with which my family treated me.
Some time in December, I was notified that the board
of examination would proceed to my examination on a cer-
tain day. I passed the examination, as I thought, very suc-
cessfully, and in February the senate rendered a decree ad-
mitting me as a member of the bar. I had also to enroll my-
self in the National Guards and I selected the first battalion
of the volunteer infantry in which a great many of my friends,
members of the bar, and others already served. I had then,
according to the law, to take the oath of citizen in full
uniform, before the junior burgomaster, which was done on
the 22d of February, 1833.
BEFORE THE STORM 203
REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA
During the winter nothing remarkable happened, though
the government continued to prosecute under some pre-
text or other Liberal members of the different legislatures, and
to suppress and muzzle opposition journals. But even before
I had been admitted to the bar, Dr. Guerth had given me to
understand that a revolution was to be started early in the
spring, and that he wanted me to help bring it about; that I
should visit Cassel where great political excitement then ex-
isted, and also some of the Universities and some of the Bur-
schenschaften, to warn them to be on the lookout, and to head,
or at least take a hand in, the risings at these places, as well
as to call upon them to send some of their trustiest members
to Frankfort at a time to be appointed, for Frankfort, be-
ing the seat of the Diet, was to give the signal for the rising
which was to take place in all the States with the exception of
Austria and the greatest part of Prussia.
To satisfy myself of the truth there was in the many rep-
resentations I had had from Bunsen, Guerth and others, re-
garding the aspect of political affairs, rather than to act as
an emissary, I undertook the task which was so urgently
pressed upon me, and on the 25th of February set out for
Cassel with letters to several Liberal leaders there, amongst
whom Professor Sylvester Jordan was by far the first and
most important. This missionary journey, which lasted from
the 25th of February to the 17th of March, I have described
at great length in a manuscript now amongst my papers, which
was published many years afterwards by Casper Butz, then
of Chicago, in the "Westen," the Sunday edition of the "Il-
linois Staats Zeitung," a copy of which is, I believe, among
the packages containing my writings, ' ' Schrif tliche Arbeiten,"
of each year. From this manuscript, written not long after
the events related in it, I will here extract only the more im-
portant points.
204
THE SITUATION IN CASSEL
The next day I arrived at Cassel, the capital of the Elect-
orate of Hesse. I first called upon some of the leaders of the
revolution of 1830 and soon ascertained that the whole coun-
try was just then in a fever of excitement. The legislature
had been dissolved by the government the previous fall, be-
cause it had not sanctioned the ordinances of the German Diet,
and had, in other respects, disagreed with the government.
It had met again a short time before, but the government had
asked to exclude Professor Jordan, who had been elected by
the University of Marburg and to whom the ministry had re-
fused to grant leave of absence. The legislature insisted that
under the constitution Jordan was entitled to his seat ; another
dissolution was threatened. The persons I communicated with
were men of great influence with the middle and laboring
classes. They were members of the National Guards, and they
assured me that if another dissolution should take place, and
Jordan should give the signal, the legislature would stay as
a convention and defy the Elector and Prince Regent, who
actually carried on the government. During the few days I
stayed at Cassel, I went with friends to several public places
where I met people of all classes, public employees, officers of
the army, citizens of every profession and trade, and I heard
no other talk but politics and a general expression of dissatis-
faction with the government and threats of open revolution.
DR. SYLVESTER JORDAN
My main business, however, was with Professor Jordan
himself. Dr. Sylvester Jordan was a native of Tyrol. Having
studied law at Bavarian universities, he was as early as 1821,
a lecturer on public law in Heidelberg, but was soon called to
the University of Marburg. He at once made himself known
as a very eloquent and learned jurist, wrote several treatises,
particularly on criminal law, and was elected by the Univers-
ity as a member of the constitutional assembly that made the
constitution of 1831, one of the most liberal in Germany at
BEFOKE THE STORM 205
that time. Jordan had been the main author of the instru-
ment and when elected a member of the legislature in 1832
he took the lead in the Liberal party ; in fact, was looked upon
as the head and front of the Liberals in the Electorate, and had
become known all over Germany as one of the great lights of
that movement.
I had a letter from Dr. Franz Guerth for him, but I was
to ascertain from him independently the state of public feel-
ing in his country and to form a judgment as to how far the
people could be relied on in case of an emergency. I took the
precaution not to tell even the most pronounced Liberals that
I would visit Jordan, nor did I enter my name on the register
of the ' ' King of Prussia, ' ' the hotel where I stopped, although
it had been presented to me by a hotel waiter. And this was
rather fortunate for Jordan. Several years later he was ar-
rested and imprisoned on the charge of having been an acces-
sory to the Frankfort emeute of the third of April. The trial
lasted through five years. He was found guilty of high treason,
as having known of the conspiracy and having encouraged it,
by the court of first instance, and condemned to five years'
imprisonment in a fortress. But the court of appeals reversed
the judgment and acquitted him. In the course of the trial, the
proceedings of which excited great interest all over Germany
and were printed and published, the greatest effort had been
made to connect Jordan with persons who actually had par-
ticipated in the emeute, but in this the prosecution failed.
Now the published report of the commission appointed by the
German Diet who tried the persons accused of having been in
the emeute traced me in my travels prior to the third of April
to almost every place I had been, except Cassel. Had the
trial court found out that I was there a few weeks previous,
and had had an interview with Professor Jordan, it would
have been a very aggravating circumstance and might have
changed the judgment of the higher court.
Jordan was a man of powerful frame. His features were
somewhat rough and did not at first show the intellectual force
206 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
which he undoubtedly possessed. Wanning up, however, in
conversation, his eyes became very expressive. He spoke with
an openness and want of restraint which at once reminded me
of his southern nativity. His young wife, whom he had just
married, was present, but he told me not to mind her as she
was fully cognizant of all his sentiments and all his plans.
He had a general idea of our plans in Frankfort. He was
certain, he said, that the government would again dissolve
the legislature, that in that case he had no doubt the people
would sustain the legislature, and would be prepared to join
any general uprising in Germany. Many members of the
assembly were as determined as he was, and even in the army
many officers, and some of the highest rank, would stand by
the constitution. Jordan was not mistaken about the spirit
of the army; for later (1851) nearly all the officers declared
themselves bound by their oaths to support the constitution
and disobeyed the orders of the commander-in-chief.
IN GOETTINGEN.
I left Cassel on February 27th for Goettingen, being
pretty well convinced that Electoral Hesse could be counted
on, if at any place in Germany a popular rising, promising
success even for a short time, took place, and that Jordan
would not hesitate, if called upon, to join other distinguished
leaders in forming a provisional government. Arrived at
Goettingen, I at once gathered my old friends around me,
Von Rochau, Alban, and Gaiser, my fellow-students from
Jena, all determined to sacrifice everything for the freedom of
Germany. They were ready the moment they would be called
upon, which would be soon. To Rochau I communicated all
I knew myself, and left it to his judgment how to act.
August Ludwig Von Rochau was an enthusiastic youth,
actuated by the highest principles, of a fiery temper and brave
as a lion, tall and graceful, with reddish hair, large blue eyes
and regular features. On the fourth of April in the after-
noon, an hour of two after I passed through Darmstadt, he
BEFORE THE STORM 207
was arrested there, resisted with all his might, and finally
stabbed himself. But he recovered from his wound, and was
kept in prison at Frankfort during his trial, for several years.
He was condemned to imprisonment for life, but broke out
the day after the sentence was passed upon him. He lived in
France and Switzerland as an exile until the revolution of
1848 enabled him to return to Germany. He settled in Heidel-
berg, and became distinguished as a historian and publicist.
His work on ' ' Practical Politics ' ' has taken high rank in Ger-
man literature.
Thankmar Alban was another very noble student. Tall
and finely molded, yet very muscular, his dark eyes con-
trasted with his clear complexion. He was a fine swordsman
and gymnast, and knew not fear. Arrested at Frankfort on
the night of the third of April, he was confined, during his
trial, in a cell at the guard-house of the constables. On the
second of May, 1834, he succeeded in sawing through the bars
of his window, and, letting himself down with a rope made
out of his bed clothes, escaped. He went to Switzerland, con-
tinued his studies at the University of Zuerich, and settled as
a practicing physician in the canton of Bern, where he died.
I was also introduced to several civilians in Goettingen,
all members of the Press-Union. There was much dissatisfac-
tion in Hanover. Dr. Koenig and Dr. Freytag were still in
close confinement, accused of having been implicated in the
revolution of 1831. They were highly respected and highly
intelligent, and the severe prosecution against them was gen-
erally condemned. There were several Press-Unions in Han-
over and they were extending through the country. But the
opposition was confined principally to the higher and middle
classes. The nobility and the officers had still an immense in-
fluence in Hanover, and owing to their English government,
there existed there a strong feeling of state sovereignty and
an old Guelph spirit.
I spent a few days in Goettingen very pleasantly. Mr.
Bethmann, the owner of the first hotel there, "The Crown,"
208 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
was a great Liberal. He gave me and my friends a splendid
champagne breakfast.
LIBERALISM IN SAXONT
On the third of March my friends brought me in a car-
riage to Heiligenstadt, where I had to take the stage to Halle
and Leipsic. We had a hearty shaking of hands, and with the
words, "We will meet in Phillippi," I bade them adieu. My
stay in Halle was short, as I had to take the next stage for
Leipsic. Some friends I should like to have seen, I did not
find at home. In the evening I reached Leipsic. Here I found
some of my old university friends and was also introduced to
the leading Liberals. They were nearly all literary men, most-
ly journalists. Press-Unions and similar societies, I was in-
formed, existed throughout the kingdom, particularly in Dres-
den, the capital. I also learned that a good many Polish offi-
cers, in accordance with orders from the Polish committee in
Paris, had already either clandestinely returned to Poland, or
were near the frontier, to stir up a rising there as soon as
-there would be an outbreak in Germany. At the table d'hote
of the Hotel de Cologne, one of the first hotels in Leipsic, the
conversation upon politics was exceedingly free. The most
decided liberalism was openly preached. But the distance
from talking to action is greater than is generally believed,
particularly amongst the Germans. It was somewhat different
with the unreflecting races of Gallic and Celtic origin.
Dr. Burckhardt, who had written historical works and who
was lecturing to the general public on modern German his-
tory, was an old friend of mine, and while he was satisfied
that the opposition to the government in Saxony was very
strong, he did not think that any independent action could
be expected. It seemed to me that the Liberals had at that
time no leader of eminence in Saxony. One of the most in-
teresting persons I became acquainted with was the publicist,
Dr. Spazier, very favorably known by his "History of Po-
BEFORE THE STORM 209
land." He was a great talker, and his conversation was so
lively as to be almost oppressive.
In my narrative of these propaganda trips, I find the fol-
lowing lines when at Leipsic: "I was looking over a Leipsie
journal. One may imagine the alarm I felt when reading the
following taken from the 'Frankfort Journal:' 'Yesterday
Dr. Breidenstein and a Pole, who had been enjoying his hos-
pitality for some time, were suddenly arrested at Homburg.
The cause is said to be a treasonable conspiracy. ' Dr. Breiden-
stein was a young physician who had served as such in the
Polish army. I did not know him nor the Pole personally,
but only by reputation. I was aware, however, that both
knew of our plans and were personally assisting in carrying
them out. Dr. Breidenstein had very great influence in that
region of country, and the Polish officer was a man of ability
and bravery. The ground upon which we stood became grad-
ually more treacherous. Every hour, every minute, we must
expect to be swallowed up, and perhaps even, what was most
to be regretted, before resolution had ripened into action."
Both Dr. Breidenstein and Seylling, the Polish officer,
broke jail in Homburg before the third of April, and fled, I
believe, to France. A brother of Dr. Breidenstein was with
the crowd that came from Bonames and Homburg the night
of the third of April, but found the gates closed and the con-
flict over. Both the Breidensteins were excellent and very
patriotic young men, sons of the ecclesiastical superintendent
and court-preacher, Von Breidenstein, who held the highest
clerical dignity in the landgravate. The small garrison of
Homburg had been won over and several of them were with
Breidenstein and George Neuhoff on the third of April. Neu-
hoff joined us in Illinois, as did Frederick Kempff; both were
surgeons in the Homburg contingent.
On the fifth of March I left Leipsic for Altenburg. There
I was at once amongst a large circle of Jena friends. Wil-
helm Weber was at home, but expected to resume his duties
at Leipsic at the commencement of the summer session. The
210 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Liberal party of Altenburg was very strong. There was in the
city a large Press-Union and similar unions existed in the
country. One of the principal leaders was Dr. Rittler, highly
esteemed as a citizen and as a physician. He also became an
exile and came over to New York, where he soon acquired a
high standing. I found him very determined, as much so as
William Weber. He had connections with Liberals in Leipsic,
Dresden and other points in the Kingdom of Saxony and
seemed to be satisfied that on a general rising the people in
Saxony and the Saxon dukedoms would not be wanting. We
talked much of our dear friend Koehler, who had gone as a
physician to Poland, had been taken prisoner, but having
been released, died at Kalisch of typhoid fever, in the arms
of Gustav Bunsen, who had also gone to Poland. I spent
several days at Altenburg in a highly interesting manner. I
left my warm friends with much regret. My next stopping
place was dear old Jena. I arrived at midnight in a heavy
snowstorm, and took lodgings at the "Sun," on the south
side of the market place.
AFFAIRS IN JENA. FRITZ REUTER
Thousands of remembrances crowded upon my niind. I
found only a few of my old friends there. Although vacation
was yet some weeks off, Jena was almost deserted by the stu-
dents. I have already spoken of the dissensions of the Ger-
mania and the Arminia. For some reason or other, in Jan-
uary or February, the enmity between the two societies had
increased. Collisions and fights had occurred in the public
streets, and on one occasion a real battle had taken place.
Many had teen wounded and one killed. Other student so-
cieties also had had trouble with the authorities. The Weimar
government had sent some companies of soldiers into the
town, which was considered an infringement upon academ-
ical liberty, and when the troops entered a great many stu-
dents left Jena, temporarily at least.
BEFORE THE STORM 211
Amongst these was Fritz Renter, to whom only a short
time ago, July, 1888, a splendid monument was erected in
the wall promenade at Jena, and whose name is written in
the hearts of all Germans. It is hard to tell in what his great-
ness as a poet consists. But whoever reads him will at once
say "This is a poet." A deep insight into human nature, a
warm sympathy with all mankind and even with all nature
living or dead, a most genial and humorous spirit, combined
with an incomparable power of plastic representation, have
made Fritz Reuter the poet of the German people. Victor
Von Scheffel has been compared to Reuter and has even been
placed above him by some. Some lines in their lives run par-
allel, and some lyrics of Scheffel are charming. But he is a
mere comet, who has created a momentary sensation. Reuter
is a fixed luminary, which warms, delights and fructifies our
earth.
Reuter had, while I was in Jena, taken up his residence
at Camburg. He had been a member of the Germania, but
was not implicated in the late disturbances. He had by no
means been a leader in that society, and was too much of a
gay and jovial student to trouble himself much about politics.
He did not return to Jena, but went home to Mecklenburg,
and stayed there until the fall, when, on his journey to Leip-
sic, where he intended to pursue his studies, he was arrested
in Berlin, kept in close confinement during his trial for three
years, accused, on the sole ground of having been a harmless
member of the Germania, of an attempt at high treason, and
sentenced to death. By the grace of the King of Prussia the
sentence was commuted to imprisonment in a fortress for
thirty years. In the year 1840, at the instance of the Duke
of Mecklenburg, he was sent to Mecklenburg and there con-
fined, but very gently treated, until by the amnesty of 1848,
granted by Frederick William IV on his taking the throne,
he was liberated. His volume, "Ut mine Festungstid, " tells of
his sufferings.
212 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
In his instance there were the most barefaced violations
of all laws on the part of the Prussian court. To construe
mere membership in such a society as the Germania, (when
no act had been done by him, and when there was not the
slightest proof that he even knew of the outbreak at Frank-
fort, and while not a single Jena student was then present,
though some, who had been years before at that University,
were,) into an attempt to commit treason, was in itself an
outrage. There existed at that time no law of the Bund
against high treason, but the offense was defined in the laws
of every single State. If then he had joined the Germania at
Jena the courts of Saxe-Weimar were the only ones that had
jurisdiction over him ; if he had intended to subvert the Wei-
mar government and had been a citizen of Weimar, his being
a member of the Germania might have been considered as an
attempt to revolutionize Mecklenburg, to which, as a native,
he owed obedience, and then the courts of that State would
have had to judge him. Indeed, that government claimed him
from Prussia. But that Prussia, a State to which he was a
stranger and owed no fealty, on his traveling through Berlin,
should have arrested, tried, and sentenced him, was such a
palpable violation of the law as to cast an indelible stain on
the Prussian court and government. No one can read his nar-
ration, disclosing the unspeakable mental and physical tor-
ture hundreds of highly educated young men had to undergo,
whose moral conduct had been above reproach, without justi-
fying the attempts made to overthrow such guilty govern-
ments at the risk of life and liberty. "Ut mine Festungstid"
has branded forever the Prussian government of that time as
one of the most infamous that ever existed.
I found, however, in Jena, a few old fellow-students with
whom I soon arranged things to my satisfaction.
THE CAUSE IN BAVARIA
It was still snowing when I left that town on the 13th
of March, for Coburg. The snow in the Thuringian Moun-
BEFORE THE STORM 213
tains was so high that for some stages we were obliged to
travel in sleighs. Friends I intended to meet in Coburg were
absent; so I immediately hired a carriage and went to Bam-
berg. Dr. Heinkelmann, my friend from Erlangen and Jena,
himself a radical Liberal, had always been a very cool-headed
man and looked at things as they were. He represented our
cause as very weak in Bamberg itself. The strong measures
against, the press, the heavy sentences passed upon editors and
printers, had frightened the people of old Bamberg, whose
Liberalism had never been very warm. The Press-Union, hav-
ing been forbidden by heavy penalties, had been abandoned.
The Liberal spirit was stronger in the neighborhood. A plan
had been laid to bring the small but strong fortress of Kro-
nach, which was well supplied with arms and ammunitions,
into our power at the first signal. A part of the garrison was
in the movement. It was destined to be a rallying place for
the people ready to join us from the Thuringian and Pine
Mountains. Nuremberg, Anspach, Bayreuth, were in the
neighborhood, and in all of these places we had many friends
of our cause.
After a short stay I took the stage to "Wuerzburg. At
the drawbridge of the fortress my passport was demanded,
for it was here I first entered Bavaria. It was taken up
against my protest, with the promise, however, that it would
be sent back to me from the police court to my hotel in half
an hour. Considering that I was still under a sentence of
four weeks' imprisonment by the Munich police court, I
felt some little anxiety at being arrested, should my passport
be critically examined at the police bureau; but I find the
following note in my manuscript narrative of this journey:
"The German police visees passes between eight and nine
o'clock at night. Such unusual activity made me a little sick.
If our government begins to govern even in the night-time
poor Germany, what is to become of you?"
I soon found many old friends at Wuerzburg. Wislizenus
was a fellow-student from Jena. Pfretzchner, from Kronach,
214 MEMOIRS OF GTJSTAVE KOERNER
and Von Weltz, from Kelheim, I had known in Erlangen and
Munich. Wislizenus came to the United States, and we will
meet him again. Karl Pfretzchner, who had influential re-
lations in Bavaria, and in some way or another was not im-
prisoned very long, abandoned his profession as a lawyer,
became a very wealthy banker and manufacturer, having
branches of his business (hardware) in Chicago, and we re-
mained in friendly correspondence for a long while, he act-
ing for men in Germany in some financial matters. He died
only a short time ago. Rubener was taken prisoner on the
night of the third of April, bleeding from nine wounds, as
he desperately defended himself. In trying to escape from
the Constables' Guard-House in May, 1834, the rope on which
he let himself down broke and he unfortunately fell so as to
break his skull. This was the official version. Another was
that he was killed by soldiers, while he lay helpless on the
ground. He was a very handsome, noble young fellow, in-
tellectual and amiable, but of a fiery spirit. Another of my
Wuerzburg friends, Bernhardt Licius, taken prisoner on the
third of April, broke jail as early as October, 1833.
In a very few words everything was understood. Every
member of the Burschenschaft would act as desired, and a
large delegation would go to Frankfort at the time appointed.
The spirit of the citizens of Wuerzburg, which at one time
had been at fever heat, had cooled down considerably. The
formerly so popular Burgomaster Behr was in close confine-
ment in the Frohnfeste at Munich. Eisenmann and Widmann,
the editors of the opposition papers, were also incarcerated.
The King had removed the court of appeal for the Franconian
Provinces to Aschaffenburg, which had caused the withdrawal
of many employees and the principal members of the bar
from Wuerzburg. The distinguished professor of medicine,
Dr. Schoenlein, had been compelled to flee to escape arrest.
He became professor of medicine at the new University of
Ziirich.
BEFORE THE STORM 215
Still the opposition amongst the people was only sub-
dued by force, and it was sure to revive if an opportunity
offered. On my return journey to Frankfort in the fast stage,
I met a young gentleman who had been studying pharmacy,
and who in conversation told me that he intended to go to
the United States shortly. His name was Pingret and he was
from Rhenish Bavaria. I had then no idea that I would cross
the ocean with him in a few months on the good bark Logan.
CHAPTER X
The Third of April, 1833
"Wer die Folgen angstlich zuvor erwagt,
Der beugt sich wo sich die Uebermacht regt. ' '
Arrived on the 17th of March at Frankfort, I found that
our friends had been very active. Dr. Gustav Bunsen had
provided arms and ammunition, Dr. Guerth had held meet-
ings with some of the Liberal leaders in different places in
Hesse and Wuertemberg, where measures were taken for a
simultaneous rising. To the most prominent agitators, Guerth,
Bunsen and Dr. Juris Neuhoff, a brother of George Neuhoff,
I reported the results of my journey. While many promises
had been made, I did not fail to observe that they could not
all be relied upon. Yet we had to act, and even if we failed
(as I always believed we should) , and even if we should perish,
it would not be in vain. It was to be manifested that there
were at least a few thousand men in Germany that were will-
ing to do more than to protest and then to submit, and who
were ready to sacrifice their all to bring about unity and lib-
erty. No act done from pure motives and for a good object
fails to have important consequences. I am sure that amongst
the many hundreds who acted directly or indirectly in this
rising at Frankfort there were not more than could be counted
on one's fingers who had any selfish motive, except the ambi-
tious one to become martyrs.
At Dr. Guerth 's I met a young gentleman who had come
from Leipsic to get more accurate information about our
project. He was then a student at that place. It was Edward
Tittmann, of Dresden, of a distinguished family, tall, but
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 217
strongly formed. His features were regular and his large
blue eyes suited admirably his light blond hair. In fact, he
was the very picture of the ideal German youth. I took a
great deal of interest in him, though we were together only
a few hours. I could not foresee how soon we should meet
again on the other side of the ocean, and how close our friend-
ship would become. After the events at Frankfort there was
no safety for him any more in Germany. His older brother
Charles was as much implicated as he was, and both having
sacrificed the finest prospects in life, left their native land,
went first to Switzerland, then to New York, and about 1836
or 1837 joined us in Belleville and soon became closely con-
nected with our family by friendship and marriage.
PLANS OF THE REVOLUTIONISTS
I did not remain at Frankfort long. I was urgently re-
quested to go to Metz, where Frederick Sehueler lived in ex-
ile. His high character, his great popularity in Rhenish
Bavaria, his eminent talents had pointed him out as one of
the men who should, in case of success, become at least tem-
porarily a member of the provisional government. He, Jor-
dan, Von Itzstein, Von Rotteck, Von Klosen, Count Bentzel-
Sternau, were to be proclaimed a provisional government.
They were to call all the Liberal members of the different leg-
islatures of Germany together as a preliminary Parliament,
which, when assembled, should order elections for a constituent
assembly, which should establish either a republic of the
whole nation, or a confederate one, or, if the sense of the
people demanded it, a constitutional monarchy. It will be
seen that our plan was in outline what happened in Germany
in 1848. A few Liberal leaders got together, summoned all
the distinguished Liberals to Frankfort, who formed a Vor-
Parlment, which in turn called elections for the real Par-
liament.
I may anticipate here in what the weakness of our plan
consisted. In 1848 the French Revolution and the establish-
218
merit of a republic in France had spread such terror among
the continental governments that they were at first dumfound-
ed and did not dare to oppose the first steps taken by the Lib-
eral leaders. But in 1833 the governments had gotten over
the fear which had first seized them after the July Revolu-
tion. In order to gain time for even the first step, it was in-
dispensably necessary to hold Frankfort for at least a week
or so. But we had no regular troops to rely on. A few
hundred bold young men, (even if, as could reasonably be
expected, some few hundreds from the neighboring cities and
towns would join them,) could not cope with the strong bat-
talion of the Frankfort line troops and the three or four bat-
talions of the National Guard. True, some of the latter were
ready to join us; many would not have turned out against
us ; and the two artillery companies would have fought mainly
on our side, as their major and other officers were already
engaged with us. But the great majority of the National
Guard would have been against us. To be sure, there was a
great mass of working men, laborers and people from other
places in the city, who were generally disposed to take
part in any outbreak ; but to organize, arm and control them,
within a day or two, was out of the question. Besides, there
were, within twenty-five miles, at the great fortress of May-
ence, several regiments of Austrians (Bohemians) and Prus-
sians and also some battalions of Hessians, in addition to
artillery and cavalry, who could reach Frankfort in half a
day. Nor had we any well known military leader. True, we
had two or three Polish colonels, or majors, brave and ex-
perienced soldiers, but strangers to all but a few of us.
Some of us believed that we should at once have several
thousand Frankfort people with us, and three or four thou-
sand from the neighboring cities and towns. But even if
this had been so, unless some organization were formed among
them, they would have been no match for a few battalions of
regulars with their batteries.
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 219
I, therefore, was to see Schueler, give him the details of
our plans, and, if possible, ascertain whether he would place
himself at once at the head of our movement. I consented
the more willingly to take this journey, as it gave me an op-
portunity to see again and bid a final adieu to the Engel-
manns at Imsbach, which was only a short distance from the
great road to Metz, the ' ' Kaiserstrasse, " built by the first
Napoleon, and connecting by a most excellent chaussee Paris
with Mayence. I had carried on, while in Frankfort, with
some of the family, a lively correspondence, and when they
finally determined to emigrate to the United States, early
in 1833, I had promised to see them before their departure.
Edward Kohloff, an old university friend of mine, then a
teacher in George Bunsen 's seminary, and also a warm friend
of Theodore Engelmann, having often visited the family be-
fore, went with me as far as the station near Imsbach, while
I continued on my way to Metz, postponing my visit until
my return trip.
I arrived at Saarbruecken late in the evening of the 24th
of March, having left Frankfort on the evening before. I
had to wait some hours there for the stage for Metz. At For-
baeh, the first French town, our baggage was rigorously ex-
amined by the custom-house officers and our passports by the
gens d' armes. I found the place full of soldiers. Another
similar visitation took place at St. Avoid, and I again saw
many soldiers. Although rather early in the spring, I found
the country looking quite beautiful ; and not having slept for
two nights, I was just putting myself into a comfortable po-
sition for a nap, when I was startled by a most surprising
incident. Though traveling very fast, I had just espied
walking along the footpath by the road, Theodore Engel-
mann, knapsack on shoulder. I immediately made the con-
ductor stop, jumped out and took him by the arm and made
him mount the stage. I exchanged my inside seat with a
passenger on the outside, and seated Theodore beside me, so
that we could converse at full liberty. All this was against
220 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the rule of the road; but I spoke so commandingly, told the
conductor that I would make it all right at the next station,
that he had to yield to my persistence.
Theodore was as much astonished to find me here as I
was to overtake him in this place. I soon explained myself
to him, and he did the same to me. His Liberal notions and
their free expression had for a long while aroused the sus-
picions of the government, and he had besides signed the
protest against the ordinance of the Diet at Frankfort, in
common with many of the best and most intelligent citizens
of Rhenish Bavaria. A short time before the government had
instituted proceedings against the Protestants, and Theodore
had received a summons to appear on a certain day at the
police court of Kaiserslautern to stand a preliminary trial.
As his family was to leave in a few days, he, in order to es-
cape arrest, had thought it best to take time by the forelock,
and, by means of his summons, he represented himself at the
French frontier as a political fugitive and was permitted to
pass into France, where I found him by the sheerest accident.
CONFERENCE WITH SCHUELEB IN METZ
Shortly after my arrival at Metz, I went to the house
where Mr. Schueler used to stop when in the city; but not
finding him there, I left a note begging him to meet me at
my hotel if he should come to Metz that day. In the mean-
time, I hunted up Mr. Domes, counselor-at-law, and head of
the Liberal party at Metz. Domes was a man of most engag-
ing presence, of high intellect and of the most determined
character. What was called the Liberal party at that time in
France was the Republican party. The Citizen-King's mon-
archy, in their opinion, had been a delusion; a republic was
the only alternative. That party was well organized, and
had its local and its central committees. They knew their
exact number at every place, and were prepared to obey im-
plicitly the command of their leaders in Paris. Such an
organization was impossible in Germany at that time. The
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 221
Germans had too much individualism for such party dis-
cipline as existed and still exists in France. Domes was
satisfied that Louis Philippe's regime would not last long.
But they would bide their time. They would sympathize
with any Liberal movement in Germany ; and if a revolution
there succeeded, it might at once have an influence on France.
But nothing should be undertaken in Germany with the ex-
pectation of assistance from France. I told him that was
exactly my own view and that I had come to Metz not to so-
licit aid, but to have an interview with Schueler. He spoke
very highly of Schueler and offered to accompany me to his
country seat.
I returned to my hotel and found Mr. Schueler, who had
received my note, waiting for me. He invited me to come
out to St. Ruffin, his residence near Metz, which I did, in
company with Domes the next morning, going out in a car-
riage to Moulins, which is only a short distance from St.
Ruffin, situated on a considerable hill. The view from there
was charming. Metz, with its mighty towers, high buildings,
and extensive fortifications, was right before our eyes. We
could follow the course of the Moselle upwards to the ruins
of a colossal Roman aqueduct. Vineyards and orchards crown
the bank of that lovely river. I spent a most delightful day
with Schueler and his wife, a native of France, very highly
educated and spirituelle, and Mr. Domes. Schueler gave me
a very interesting description of the parties in France. He
was very eloquent, and what surprised me most, was full of
wit and humor.
Regarding the main object of my mission, it was per-
fectly satisfactory. He had not thought the time for our
rising so near, but was prepared at any time to follow our
call and to devote himself to our cause in any station the
people might think fit. He accompanied me to Metz late in
the evening, and I parted from him and Domes with an emo-
tion to which I was not often subject. At any other time I
should have stayed a few days more in the agreeable city of
222 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Metz. It was at that time more German than at a later period,
but still quite different from a real German city. It was
filled with soldiers, the garrison having of late been much in-
creased. It has a large military school, and we met as many
military men and cadets in the public square and the fine
cafes, as civilians. And they are a lively set, constantly
laughing and talking. I saw files of soldiers marching to
mount guard. They went like so many school boys, not keep-
ing pace. One had his gun on the left, the other on the right
shoulder. Their gay uniforms, wide red trousers, and jaunty
little caps made them look like a troop of soldiers in a bur-
lesque opera. What a difference between these little, lively
chattering fellows and the stout, earnest, somewhat stolid-
looking German soldiers.
We witnessed here, too, quite an exciting scene. The
siege of Antwerp had come to a close, and one of the French
regiments had just returned to Metz, where it belonged. It
was drawn up on the fine large public square before the
cathedral. They were surrounded by thousands of their fel-
low-soldiers and their city friends and acquaintances, partic-
ularly young women. No sooner was the word given : "Ground
arms stack arms," than they all broke loose, ran into the
crowd, and there was an embracing, hugging, kissing and
shouting, such as I had never before seen. What pleased me
most was that there seemed to be no distinction of rank. The
officers shook hands and kissed the sergeants, corporals, the
privates, just as they did their equals.
Whatever change may have come over me regarding my
opinion of the French people, I then did love the French ; nor
do I really dislike them now. And while they themselves
thought that the July Revolution had turned out a fraud, and
that they were still oppressed by the government, there was
so much more liberty of speech, of the press, and of action
there than in Germany, that I breathed lighter and freer in
France, and felt sad when I saw again on my return the
white and black frontier posts of Prussia.
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 223
I parted from Theodore in sadness, as I expected to see
him no more in this life. I could not, considering the intimacy
between us, conceal from him what was my object in visiting
Metz and Schueler. I gave him, however, no details, but in-
timated that in a few days we should be ready for the move-
ment. He seemed to feel much regret that he was leaving his
country just when such an important crisis was impending;
but he was so circumstanced that there could be no thought
of his returning and joining the fray.
I left Metz early in the morning of the 28th of March,
and arrived the next day at Imsbach, where I bade adieu to
the Engelmann family, then just on the point of leaving with
many friends for Havre, where they were to depart for the
United States.
THE BEGINNING
Arrived at Frankfort in the night of the thirtieth of
March, I made my report. I had mailed a letter in Mayence
to some French gentlemen in Besangon and one in Metz to
a gentleman in Paris, including, I believe, one to Lelewel, the
president of the Polish committee. I was now informed that
several dozen Polish officers had already arrived in Rohr-
schach, in Switzerland, for the purpose of assisting our friends
in Constance, Freiburg and Strassburg, to organize and lead
the Liberal volunteers who were supposed to be ready to rise
in mass in upper Baden and the Black Forest ; and that four
or five Polish officers and non-commissioned officers would
leave the quarters assigned to them by the government to
perform similar services in Wuertemberg, Rhenish Bavaria
and Hesse-Darmstadt. What was my astonishment when the
day after my arrival Theodore Engelmann made his appear-
ance at our house. As my family knew the circumstances
which had taken him to Metz and that his family certainly
expected to find him there, it was hard to explain his visit,
but somehow or other we invented a plausible story to account
for it. He had overcome all his well-grounded scruples, and
had, without passports, by avoiding cities and towns and us-
224 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ing the country roads, succeeded in getting himself through
to risk his all for a cause he held sacred. Surely it was a
great sacrifice.
A very disagreeable piece of news reached us about this
time. The French government had granted small pensions
to political refugees, principally to the thousands of Poles
exiled after the failure of the revolution of 1831, which were
to hold until they should be able to support themselves. It
so happened that just then a bill with this appropriation was
before the French chambers. Some one proposed to reduce
the sum heretofore fixed. Lafayette very properly opposed
this motion, but in doing so committed one of those indiscre-
tions which were not uncommon with him. ' ' So far, ' ' he said,
' ' from diminishing this appropriation it ought to be increased,
as it will not be long before we may expect a large number
of exiles just as worthy of support as those we have already
amongst us." This passage created a great deal of sensa-
tion. It was generally taken in Germany as a hint of an im-
pending popular commotion.
In the manuscript already mentioned, I said almost
nothing about the events of the night of the third of April,
so that it may not be amiss to speak of them now more in
detail ; and I will for this purpose use the report of the presi-
dent of the commission appointed by the Diet for the purpose
of watching all revolutionary movements, which was pub-
lished by order of the German Diet. I could not now after
fifty years trust my own recollections. But this report was
sent me in 1837. I read it, of course, carefully, and found
it in the main correct. It ran as follows :
OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE FRANKFURTER ATTENTAT
' ' In the last days of March and in the first days of April
there had arrived in Frankfort a part of the conspirators
from abroad. With great foresight the members of the Bur-
schenschaft, as the younger participants in the plot, had been
called in, so that in case of failure the blame could be thrown
on the unreflecting, over-enthusiastic youth of Germany. The
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 225
students who arrived were from Heidelberg: Henry Eimer
(Baden) ; Peter Feddersen (Holstein) ; Edward Fries and
Hermann More (Rhenish Bavaria) ; Mathiae (Rhenish Ba-
varia) ; [this was a mistake. Mathiae was a native of Frank-
fort, a classmate of mine, the son of a former very distin-
guished rector of the Frankfort gymnasium] ; Karl Von
Reitzenstein, Frederick Gambert, Bernhardt Licius, Karl Sig-
ismund Pfretzchner, Julius Rubener, Ignaz Sartori, Ed-
ward Von Weltz, all from different provinces of Bavaria;
Rudolph Wislizenus [a mistake his first name was Adolph] ;
Schwartzburg-Rudolfstadt, from Erlangen ; Frederick August
Kraemer and Hermann Frederick Handschuh (Bavaria) ;
Bernhardt Julius Daehnert (Prussia), from Goettingen; Jul-
ius Thankmar Alban (Saxe-Gotha) ; Frederick Holzinger
(Bavaria) ; August Ludwig Von Rochau (Brunswick), from
Giessen; Ernest Schueler and Edward Scriba, from Hesse-
Darmstadt; and Alexander Lubansky (Poland) ; besides these
there had come from abroad Dr. Von Rauschenplatt (Han-
over) ; August Kunradi (Augsburg), a former member of the
Munich Burschenschaf t ; William Obermueller, a former stu-
dent from Freiburg; William Zehler (a former student from
Wuerzburg), from Nuremberg; Ludwig Silberad, a former
student from Freiburg; Theodore Engelmann, from Munich,
who was on the way to America with his family and had left
Metz soon after Dr. Koerner had arrived there ; also one The-
odore Obermueller from Baden. These w r ere the ones from
abroad whose names had become known with certainty. But
there were also a number of Poles : Major Miehalowski [prob-
ably the same who afterwards came to the United States and
was lieutenant-colonel in the First Hecker regiment, and
afterwards its colonel] ; and three or four other Polish of-
ficers, who left Frankfort immediately after the third of April.
"The plan of the conspirators was first to take the two
guard-houses. These massive guard-houses are situated at
either end of the great wide Main Street, the Zeil. The main
guard-house stands isolated in front of the parade ground into
which Main Street issues. The cannon were to be taken from
the arsenal, adjoining the Constables' Guard-House. The
great bell (Sturmglocke) of the Dom-Church was to be rung
to call in the people from the country, who were waiting out-
side for the signal. Those who were to storm the main guard-
house, at the request of Dr. Koerner and Dr. Gustav Bunsen,
met in the afternoon of the second of April at Bockenheim, a
226 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
town close to Frankfort, where was also Dr. Berchelmann.
Dr. Bunsen informed them that the guard-house had to be
taken between nine and ten o'clock on the night of the third
of April. The Frankfort people would take the Constables'
Guard-House. A great many people in Frankfort were sure
to join in, and those present should at first only act together;
but when the rising became general they were to disperse
amongst the crowds and incite them to fall in. Those present
at that meeting were divided into three sections to be com-
manded by Drs. Bunsen, Koerner and Berchelmann. The com-
mander-in-chief was Dr. Von Rauschenplatt.
"On the third of April the two burgomasters were in-
formed of the intended insurrection by an anonymous letter,
stating that the two guard-houses were to be stormed at half-
past nine at night ; that the political prisoners there confined
were to be liberated; that the delegates to the German Diet
were to be arrested, and a provisional government instituted.
In consequence of this information the force at the main
guard-house, consisting of forty-one men, was increased to
fifty-one. The troops of the line were held ready in their
barracks, and some policemen were stationed in the steeple of
the Dom-Church to prevent the ringing of the tocsin. Those
who were to take the main guard-house met about nine o 'clock
at the house of Dr. Bunsen in the Mint Building. In addi-
tion to those who had been at Bockenheim, appeared Edward
Kohloff, from Mecklenburg, and George Nahm, from Rhenish
Bavaria, both teachers in the boys' seminary of George Bun-
sen. Both had been members of the Burschenschaf t. ' '
The report then proceeded to say that the order was given
to use the bayonet and to shoot only in case of necessity, that
the conspirators received muskets, pistols, cartridges, swords,
daggers, hatchets, rockets and tri-colored scarfs (black, red
and gold). ,
Now this was not quite true. We received muskets with
bayonets, forty cartridges, and the tri-colored scarfs ; but that
was all. I think there were a few rockets in the crowd to give
signals to outsiders, and it is barely possible that some may
have had pistols or daggers, but none were dealt out. I think
Von Weltz, who had been an ensign in the artillery service,
carried some grape cartridges to load the two six-pounder
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 227
guns which stood on each side of the balustrade that encircled
the main guard-house.
I will here remark that Bunsen and myself had been in-
formed that the force at the main guard-house had been in-
creased late in the afternoon, and that in all probabilty the
authorities had been put upon their guard. We communi-
cated this to the assembled crowd, and told them that those
who wished might yet retrace their steps, as the task now
would be far more perilous and a failure might be expected.
But all declared that they had considered the case and were
willing to risk all for their principles.
''The conspirators," continues the report, "thirty-three
in number, marched from the Mint Building headed by
Rauschenplatt, by the Great and Small Hirschgraben, through
the narrow and short street called the Katharinen-Pforte,
which issues into the Zeil and the parade-ground, and reach-
ing the Zeil, threw themselves on the main guard-house at
the command of 'Charge bayonets double quick, march!'
In a moment they had entered the veranda which runs along
the entire front of the massive building and rests upon pillars.
The sentinel who had called out the guard defended himself
with his bayonet, but was shot through the arm. The muskets
of the soldiers hung on the front walls on pegs, but only the
sergeant and a few others succeeded in getting at their guns
and in crossing bayonets. The sergeant was shot dead and
four of the soldiers were wounded, one fatally, by bayonets.
A part of the insurgents rushed into the large guard-room on
the west side of the corridor; the small officers' guard-room
on the east side was empty, the officer in command having
saved himself through the back window at the first alarm.
They told the soldiers to surrender, which they did; but the
request to join them, that all Germany was rising today, that
ten thousand peasants were on the march, that liberty and
equality was all that was desired, that they should be made
non-commissioned officers, made no impression. Money was
offered them, but only one soldier accepted fifty florins. The
prisoners in the upper story of the guard-house, who were
confined for violation of the press-laws, amongst whom were
the journalists Freieisen and Sauerwein, were set at liberty."
The statements of the report thus far were in the main
correct. When the word "attack" was given, I ran consider-
228 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ably ahead of my section ; so did Bunsen. The sentinel spoken
of in the report ran his bayonet into the upper part of my left
arm, but at the same moment he was shot by some one close
behind me, and Rauschenplatt, Bunsen, and myself were the
first in the large guard-room. While in there some shots were
fired through the window, though the command had been given
not to fire. The forty or fifty soldiers stood all around the
walls but offered no resistance, though they all had infantry
sabres. We harangued them, though not quite in the manner
the official report states. I had felt a shock when I was struck,
but did not feel that I was wounded. But I had not been
more than a minute or two in the guard-room when a chill
ran down my back, and I felt very ill. Ascribing it to the bad
air in the guard-room and to the smoke of the powder, I step-
ped out on the veranda for fresh air. But I came very near
fainting, had to lean against one of the stone pillars and be-
came very sick at the stomach, while the blood ran down my
sleeve. In this condition my friend Kohloff found me. I told
him I was wounded. I had already dropped the musket. I
had no other weapon. He proposed to take me to my home,
which was not very far off. I was really not fit to fight any
more that night, and hated to be made a prisoner. I took his
advice and was led home, he returning, however, immediately
to the street. What happened after I left, in the street-fight,
I learnt only in a fragmentary way much later from some of
the participants, and, in briefly giving an account of it, I
again rely on this report, as also on a similar document pub-
lished by the government of Hesse-Darmstadt.
"Bunsen and other speakers," the report says, "ha-
rangued the people outside. But the crowd of people be-
haved with uncertainty. Some took the arms offered, some
refused. Some cries were heard, "Vivat the Republic."
Rauschenplatt seemed to have lost his head. He started with
a party of his men down to the Constables' Guard-House.
Gustav Bunsen, with another party, ran down to the Dom,
overpowered the policemen there stationed, and had the toc-
sin rung.
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 229
"In the meantime, the Constables' Guard-House had
been taken. The conspirators had assembled in a narrow
street, leading to the Main Street. The party attacking the
Constables' Guard-House consisted of about eighteen persons,
amongst which were five or six Polish officers. A Polish ma-
jor (Miehalowski) commanded. Drs. Guerth and Neuhoff
were amongst them, and the students Schueler, Scriba and
Lubansky; also Henry Zwick, formerly a non-commissioned
officer in the rifle company of the line, now clerk of Guerth.
and several working men.
"With the cry 'Vivat liberty, liberty and equality, rer-
olution,' they threw themselves on the Guard-House. The
sentinel was struck down with bayonets. They then fired into
the guard-room. Two soldiers were killed and three wounded.
Political prisoners were set free. One of these prisoners was
killed by mistake. With the shout, 'Bring out the cannon,'
every effort was made to break open the doors of the adjoin-
ing arsenal; but before they could procure sledge-hammers,
the rioters had to defend themselves. The battalions of the
line troops had left their barracks and marched to the main
guard-house. There were only four conspirators there guard-
ing the soldiers who had been made prisoners. When the sol-
diers marched up they retreated, with the exception of Ruben-
er, who, after a most desperate defense, was made prisoner.
Then the rifle-company was sent down Main Street towards
the Constables' Guard-House. The captain commanding sent
a scouting party ahead, consisting of a corporal and five pri-
vates; but they were fired upon, dispersed, and the corporal
made prisoner. The captain then ordered a bayonet charge
of his troops, but the conspirators rushed forward to meet
them, gave a regular platoon-fire, which was returned by the
rifles, and then they came to a hand-to-hand conflict, and on
both sides several were killed and wounded. After an obsti-
nate fight the conspirators fled, the last being Bunsen, who
had in vain called upon them to stand firm.
' ' Rioters were also seen in other parts of the city sev-
eral groups in the Fahrgasse and on the bridge over the Main
River loading their guns and shouting, 'To arms,' 'Vivat lib-
erty,' 'Vivat the Republic.' These belonged to the lower
classes. At the same time from forty to sixty people from
Bonames and other villages attacked the custom-house at
Preungesheim, near Frankfort, demolished the interior, ran
off the custom-house officers, and marched towards Frankfort
230
to join another troop, which had already reached the gates.
But finding the gates closed and receiving some message they
retired. This crowd was under the lead of George Neuhoff,
Frederick Breidenstein and Frederick Kempff. The number
of the killed and wounded cannot be accurately ascertained,
since the insurgents were exceedingly active in getting their
wounded to a safe place and in removing their dead. It is
proved that nine were killed outright, six being soldiers.
Twenty-four were seriously wounded, fourteen being soldiers. ' '
In summing up its account of the Frankfort ' ' Attentat, ' '
the report states:
"This was the end of the 'emeute.' That its rapid sup-
pression was a matter of course, cannot be disputed. It was
essentially the result of the quick arrival of the troops of the
line. But this was owing to the accidental circumstance of
the authorities having received a warning shortly before, and
to the fact that the troops had been held ready in their bar-
racks. A delay might have enabled the insurgents to hold out
a few hours ; there is no doubt that, as always in large cities,
numbers of the lower classes would have joined them. They
would have possessed themselves of the cannon, and, what
was also intended as a most effective means of revolution, of
a large sum of money. They could then have maintained
themselves until, the signal having thus been given and a
tempting example set, those regions which had been prepared
for the revolutionizing complot, and in which the outbreak at
Frankfort was expected with great anxiety, could also rise,
particularly the two Hesses, Rhenish Bavaria, Wuertemberg
and Baden. In that case the opposing forces would at first
have been split up, though it cannot be doubted that the in-
surrection would have been soon overwhelmed. It was also
certain that by then murder, fire, and rapine, the terrible con-
sequences of all revolutions, would have had sufficient time
to lay waste prosperous regions of Germany."
Of course, the version of these last lines is to be
credited to those views which the reactionary authors of it
would naturally entertain, or pretend to entertain, of any
revolution, however justified it might have been, and however
moderate and generous the actors might have shown them-
selves.
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 231
KOSERITZ AND THE WUEBTEMBERG RISING
The rising of the military in Wuertemberg failed, Koser-
itz not having been able to get ready on the third of April.
Originally, the day was fixed for the sixth; but the time set
had been forestalled on account of the imminent danger of
betrayal with further delay. The report says, however, that
by a special messenger Lieutenant Koseritz at half past nine
in the evening of the third of April, received the following
note: "Dear Koseritz Keep your word strike at all
hazards." '< l - .f '
The news of the ill success of the Frankfort Attentat hav-
ing reached Koseritz on the fifth, just as he was addressing
some of the insurrectionary non-commissioned officers and
had announced to them that the rising would take place within
a very short time, he made, it appears, a clean breast of it,
and his confessions must have been very minute. Some sixty
officers and non-commissioned officers were arrested, tried by
court-martial and barbarously punished. Koseritz and one
sergeant were condemned to death, but just as the guns of a
file of soldiers were levelled at them on the place of execu-
tion, the King of Wuertemberg pardoned them, and they were
allowed to leave the country.
This very strange proceeding on the part of the King gave
rise to several rumors. One was that Koseritz was a natural
son of the King ; another, that it appeared from his confession
that in a certain contingency the King was to have been made
the constitutional Emperor of Germany. That this idea pre-
vailed to some extent, I know to have been true. William of
Wuertemberg was generally considered the most liberal of all
the German princes. It is quite a remarkable fact, that even
in 1849, when the King of Prussia had refused the emperor-
ship and when the people rose in Saxony, Rhenish Bavaria and
other places to defend the constitution framed by the Frank-
fort Parliament, the same King William was generally desig-
nated as the one who should be placed at the head of the
Empire.
232 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Koseritz, I never knew. He came to the United States,
flourished for a while in some of the eastern cities, became cap-
tain of a volunteer company, which enlisted in the Florida
War in 1836, and was there either killed or died of a fever.
FURTHER RAMIFICATIONS OF THE PLOT
There is another part of the official report to which I may
briefly refer, relative to certain ramifications of the Frankfort
Attentat. The revolution was to embrace, according to the
report, the adjoining country. In Rohrschach and Rheineck
were twenty Polish officers waiting to revolutionize Baden
and Wuertemberg. Eight days after the Attentat four hun-
dred Poles left the depots at Besanc,on, Dijon, and Salines for
Switzerland, intending to cross over into Baden. At the same
time, several armed bands from Posen and Galicia, under the
command of Colonel Zaliwsky invaded Poland. This insurrec-
tion was suppressed, but not without the shedding of blood.
The news of the Frankfort Attentat was known at Genoa, the
report asserts, "on the fourth of April," clearly showing there
also a connection. The same month a conspiracy was discov-
ered in the Kingdom of Sardinia, of republican tendency.
Many of its members were army officers in Genoa, Turin,
Chambery and Allessandria. "Whatever may be the view,"
says the report, ' ' concerning the final results of these attempts,
so much is certain, that a contemporaneous rising in Germany,
Poland, France and Upper Italy would have been of a most
serious character."
PRO DOMO SUA
I have now done with the third of April in general. I do
not wish to go into an elaborate explanation of my conduct
during this crisis. In some respects I know I was not without
blame. I had a right to dispose of myself ; but I ought to have
shown more regard to those who, from their constant love and
affection for me and the sacrifices they had made on my
account, had the right to look for a return of their devotion by
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 233
every means in my power to insure their happiness and peace
of mind. Of course I thought of all that; and it may be
imagined that I had moments of severe struggle with myself
before taking the final step. It afterwards appeared to me
that for the last few days before the eventful hour, I had been
in a dream. Thoughts and feelings, as they ran through my
mind and heart, cannot be clothed in words. My judgment
upon this phase of my life is nearly the same as that which
Doctor Minnigerode passed upon a similar one in his own life.
Minnigerode was the son of the president of the highest
court of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1832 he was a student of law
at Giessen. He was not at Frankfort on the third of April.
He was, however, a member of the Burschenschaft, and was
particularly active in distributing liberal documents called
"revolutionary" by the government, both before and after
the third of April. He was arrested and under trial for
nearly a year, then dismissed, but later again arrested and
closely confined for about two years, when, on account of his
health, he was permitted to be removed to his home and placed
under the surveillance of the police. By the efforts of his
distinguished family he was finally allowed to exile himself,
a perfect wreck in body and also in mind. In the United
States he soon, however, recovered his health. In a few years
he was elected professor of classical literature in William and
Mary College in Virginia. He became a member of the Epis-
copal Church, studied theology, and was soon appointed min-
ister and afterward rector of the Episcopal Church at Rich-
mond. He was an eminently religious and highly moral man,
and a most eloquent preacher. In a correspondence with me
in 1880, he expressed himself concerning his action in 1832 in
this wise:
" I do not blame the government for preventing the upset-
ting of the existing institutions. Yet I and my associates,
according to our insight, had desired nothing but what was
good and noble. We felt ourselves to be heroes and were
ready to attest our convictions by our blood. I cannot con-
demn such self-sacrifice in youth, but only revere it."
234
On the second of April, 1848, there appeared in the
"Frankfort Journal" the following article:
"At the time when the unity of Germany was denounced
as the dream of exalted enthusiasts and even as a criminal
attempt of ruthless malefactors, sixty noble German youths
undertook to raise the banner of German unity and to bury
the disgrace of the Fatherland for a short hour. On the third
of April, 1833, these heroes fought at Frankfort the uneven
combat in which they boldly risked their present and their
future, their lives, their families and their positions, for the
then desperate cause of their country. Some died on the spot ;
others died a slower death in the cells of prisons. Some few
received a late pardon by amnesty.
"To-day the unity of Germany is victorious in the hearts
of the people and even in the cabinets of the ruling powers.
But Germany has not yet paid back its sacred debt, not yet
rendered its tribute of gratitude to those who have made its
banner glorious by the shedding of their blood. Even now
the old judgment is formally in force against that heroic band,
and the saviours in the time of need of German honor are
looked upon merely as hardened criminals, instead of being
the objects of our sympathy and our reverence.
"Since that bloody third of April of 1833, is come the
third of April of tomorrow, which finds Germany free and
united. We have had days of joy and jubilee; let us devote
this third of April to the memory of the heroes who have shed
their blood for the now victorious cause of our Fatherland,
who, brave unto death, devoted themselves to certain destruc-
tion for our three dear colors. The third of April shall be
devoted to the memory of the sixty Germans who have made
this day immortal by their deeds. ' '
This article is to be considered as having been written
under the great excitement then prevailing all over Germany
in consequence of the March Revolution and of the prospect of
a United Germany under the Parliament which was shortly to
meet. To the sober-minded it will appear bombastic, for the
hope for unity turned out to be a dream even then. The Par-
liament, however, and also the several States, pronounced a
general amnesty to all political offenders. The third of April
was celebrated in Frankfort and many other places.
THE THIRD OF APEIL, 1833 235
THE OUTCOME AND THE FLIGHT
My appearance at home, excited and wounded, struck my
family with dismay. While I was briefly stating what had
happened, my mother bandaged my arm to stop the bleeding.
Pauline was quite overcome. Not knowing the outcome, I
tried to quiet them. If we succeeded, nothing bad could hap-
pen to me ; if we failed outright, I might have to fear the con-
sequences; but I expected that the greater part of Germany
would rise, and that then all would be set right again. "While
I held out these hopes, the bugles were sounding and the drums
beating in the barracks, which were only a few blocks from
our house at the end of the Buchstrasse near the St. Leonhard
Church. About half an hour after my arrival Charles also
came in under great excitement. He had been with friends
at the Hotel de Paris, situated at the end of the parade-ground.
Everybody had rushed out when the firing was heard, and
Charles was on the ground shortly after we had taken the main
guard-house. He followed, down the Zeil, the detachment of
our friends who went to the Constables' Guard-House; but
having a presentiment that I was possibly mixed up in the
undertaking, he turned back to our house to find out where I
was. In so doing, he saw the troops retake the main guard-
house. He at once took in the situation. ' ' You must not stay
here," he said, "I will take you to one of my friends who is
not suspected." Mother and sister at once urged me to do
this. Giving them as much hope as possible that I would soon
see them again, I tore myself away and went with Charles.
Only the idea that I had done what I could not have left un-
done, given the whole course of my former life, and also the
faint hope that our parting was not forever, supported me at
this most serious crisis of my life.
Charles took me to an intimate friend of his, Mr. R., a
bookkeeper of a large banking-house, residing in a large square
called the Horse Market (Rossmarkt). Doctor Mappes, an
eminent physician and a pronounced Liberal, who resided in
the same or an adjoining house, was called in to dress my
236 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
wound, which was painful but not dangerous. I had lost con-
siderable blood, and had a fever. He prescribed a soothing
powder, and I quickly fell asleep. I was soon waked up,
however. My family had agreed upon a plan for my escape,
which was necessary, as the movement had entirely failed and
the police had already made many arrests. I was to be
dressed in women's clothes. Sister Augusta would be around
in a carriage about eight o'clock to take me to Darmstadt on
the way to Strassburg. I did not like the arrangement and
protested; but as mother and sisters asked me for their sakes
to consent, I could not refuse. I left my coat, but retained
all the rest of my dress. My trousers were tucked up and tied
above the knee. Mrs. R. was a very handsome lady, tall and
stout in proportion. With some trouble I got into her stock-
ings, shoes and gloves. A dark green silk dress was put upon
me, a shawl and a very fashionable hat with a veil. It was the
fashion at the time for ladies to wear false curls of silk, which
were tied around the head on each side of the face. Mrs. R.
had dark hair, and when I had been fixed up in this fashion
and looked for curiosity's sake into the glass, I did not know
myself.
The carriage came round. Augusta was perfectly cool
and showed great firmness of mind. Over the bridge we
passed to the suburb of Sachsenhausen, where we had to stop
at the gate to pay the highroad toll. Looking through the
carriage-window I saw a large detachment of the National
Guards on duty watching the gate. They belonged to the very
battalion (""White Plume," as it was nicknamed) that I was
a member of, but not to the same company. Still I was
acquainted with some of them, and one in particular (Melber)
I knew very well. As the carriage stopped a policeman
opened the door and asked us where we were going. Augusta
very unconcernedly replied that we were going to visit some
friends in Darmstadt and would be back in the evening. The
policeman still holding the carriage door, called out to some
superior officers who stood on the veranda of the guard-house :
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 237
"Two ladies." "Let them pass" (koenen passieren), was the
reply, and so we got out of the old free city, as it was styled,
by courtesy.
Augusta now told me about Theodore Engelmann. He
had come to our house not long after I had left, when Charles
had come back from Mr. R. 's house, and the plan of escape
was then agreed upon. Theodore was to leave some time
before the carriage left to be taken up on the road. Charles
gave him a high silk hat instead of the one he wore, and also
an umbrella. Theodore wore glasses anyway. He was to
wait until the time when the country people entered town and
the people of the suburbs, who are mostly gardeners and
workers in the field, left the city, and was to mingle with them
and quietly pass out. Charles also furnished him with a sum
of money. Augusta and myself had driven about three miles
on the road towards Darmstadt when we beheld Theodore
sitting on the wayside waiting for us. How glad we were to
meet him. He did indeed look very harmless with his big
spectacles, and stiff high hat, and umbrella under his arm.
When he had reached the gate, he found it closed ; but on each
side of the colossal main gate there were two small gates for
foot passengers. As was expected, the people passed through
these small gates without molestation, and so did he. It was
really a marvelous escape. He got into our carriage. It must
have made our driver quite doubtful about the respectability
of his lady passengers when he was told to stop and take in
this wayside passenger.
Before we reached Darmstadt we considered how we could
avoid the arrest of Theodore if the news of the events of last
evening should have got there before we did. True, there was
no telegraph then in existence, except in France, where clumsy
signals were given by wooden planks from one high elevation
to another, on a windmill-like structure. That sort of tele-
graph did not work at night, nor in the daytime, if the weather
was not very clear. But still a courier could have been sent to
Darmstadt early in the morning. Fortunately I had been
238 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
so often in Darmstadt (eighteen miles from Frankfort) that
I knew the ground very well. The grand ducal chateau stands
at the north side of the town separated from the streets by a
huge iron railing; but the entrance gates were open all day
long. A large park immediately adjoins the chateau and in
daytime is open to the public through the gates leading into
the yard in which the chateau stands. The park extends
almost half a mile northward and runs parallel with the
Frankfort road. It is surrounded by a high stone wall. The
northern end of the park is used as a flower and vegetable
garden. When we came near this park and garden, I dis-
covered a large wooden door to it standing open, out of which
a wagon had just been driven loaded with rubbish. I told
Theodore to get out, enter the door, and go through the park
to the chateau where he would have no trouble entering the
city. He was to go to the principal hotel, "Die Traube," and
we would call for him in the carriage for Heidelberg. He did
so and got safely through.
We were not molested at the gates after the carriage was
inspected. We drove at once to a family with whom we were
on very intimate terms. The head of it was Mr. Becker, a
member of the highest court in Darmstadt (Hofgerichtsrath) ;
his son, some years older than I, was a practicing lawyer. Two
daughters were great friends of my sisters, though younger.
I had often spent pleasant days at Mr. Becker's house, and
the girls had visited us very often at Frankfort. When we
rang the bell and my sister had given her name to the servant,
we were shown upstairs, where we found the old gentlemen
and his wife and daughters. When we entered the room,
the girls, supposing that we were Pauline and Augusta, ran
towards us to embrace and kiss us, when I drew my veil aside
and, seeing a strange lady, they drew back somewhat surprised.
I at once explained the situation, merely stating that being
suspected of being engaged in a political plot I had preferred
to leave Frankfort in disguise. They were very lively girls,
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 239
and could not help laughing at my disguise, paying me very
high compliments on my ladylike appearance.
The son soon came in and to him I communicated a little
more of the affair. I retired and threw off my feminine
apparel. My boots we had brought along in the seat of the
carriage. Young Mr. Becker gave me a fine black dress coat
and a high hat. He also ordered a carriage. It was about
dinner time, and we stayed for dinner. The old gentleman
was somewhat embarrassed. He held a high official position,
but then I had thrown myself upon his hospitality, and he
would have been the last man to betray me.
I then parted from dear Augusta. She had behaved with
the greatest fortitude. I learned afterwards from letters that
she was examined several times by the criminal court, but that
she could not be made to say anything either about my stay in
Frankfort at Mr. R.'s or at Mr. Becker's in Darmstadt. Nor
did the court ever discover that Theodore had been at our
house. From Charles, the court likewise got no information,
except of my having come to the house and having left it ; he
did not know whither I had gone. As I was out of danger,
they of course told all they could about me, without comprom-
ising others.
We went for Theodore to the hotel with the carriage. I
promised the driver a dollar if he would hurry on, as we
wanted to be at Heidelberg early in the evening. He did his
best, watered his horses but twice, and drank but two schop-
pens of wine. He made the thirty-five miles in about five
hours. At the bridge over the Neckar we got out and walked,
talking loud and singing as students might, after telling the
driver where to stop. Thus we passed the gate on the Heidel-
berg side without any trouble, and went to the house of Mrs.
Ottendorf, an intimate friend of the Engelmann family. I
sent Mr. Becker's coat and hat back by the carriage. Jona-
than Winter, a friend and former fellow-student of ours, was
sent for. He furnished me at once with a very comfortable
double-breasted coat, and a citizen's cap, ordered the best team
240 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
from the livery stable we used to patronize ; and in less than
an hour we were on our way to Carlsruhe, about fifty miles
from Heidelberg. We arrived there early in the morning, at
once took another carriage, and about six o'clock in the morn-
ing we reached the banks of the Rhine opposite Lauterburg in
lower Alsace. We had to wait about an hour for the ferry-
boat from the other side of the river to take us over to France,
where we considered ourselves safe.
Often in history and romance I had read of flights and
narrow escapes, and always I had felt a deep interest in such
narrations. If I sympathized with the fugitive, I followed
the different incidents of his flight, putting myself in his place
and becoming very nervous about the result : I might almost
say I trembled for him. But I can truthfully say, that when
I myself was in the same predicament as these heroes of
romance, I felt perfectly cool and almost indifferent. Very
likely this was the consequence of a reaction to my high ten-
sion of mind during the two or three days previous. I think
it really worth while to mention this curious phenomenon.
REFUGE IN FRANCE
But even in France we had to be distrustful. Lauterburg.
formerly a fortress, is still a walled town. It is about half
a mile from the river on the heights bordering the Rhine.
Theodore had no passport at all; Charles had got me an old
passport to Metz, which, however, had been viseed to Metz and
back again to Frankfort, and had expired by nearly a week.
About half way to the town we noticed a narrow but well
beaten road to our right, which seemed to lead through the
old fortifications to the city. It was, however, a prohibited
way, there being a notice on a post with the words "Chemin
defendu. ' ' Still, we thought it safest to take it, and came by
a roundabout way to a large stone building, the doors of which
stood wide open. We found it to be the barracks of a hussar
regiment, some squadrons of which were just riding out for
exercise or drill, with a big crowd, composed mostly of boys,
THE THIRD OF APRIL, 1833 241
following them. We walked directly into the yard, and out
again at the opposite side right into the town. In this way
we avoided being stopped at the fortress town-gate, where our
passports certainly would have been demanded, and where,
having none worth anything, we might have been arrested.
After resting a while at the tavern, the landlord of which
was a good Republican and gave us the address of another
Republican landlord at Weissenburg, we left Lauterburg on
foot, and walked out of the gate with the many people who
were going into the country, it being a holiday, Good Friday.
At the next village we hired a conveyance which brought us
to Weissenburg, also formerly a fortress and still a walled
town. We left our little wagon before reaching the town and
walked in unmolested, as here also there were a great many
people promenading and passing in and out through the gates.
What happened to us at Weissenburg is fully described in
the oft-mentioned manuscript with some essential omissions.
I will translate the passage. The landlord to whom we ad-
dressed ourselves advised us to get passports to Strassburg
from the commissary of police, who he said was pretty liberal.
We did so and presented him our papers, telling him that we
were political refugees from Frankfort. He appeared quite
friendly, and told us to call again next morning. In the even-
ing we found in the hotel a number of Liberals, who told us
that we had been ill-advised to call upon the commissary, but
that our personal safety would be taken care of by the towns-
people, who were largely Republicans. The commissary
informed us next morning that he had sent our papers to the
mayor. Calling at the mayor's office, the latter said that the
commissary had viseed our papers (my old Metz passport) on
condition of leaving France immediately (vu pour sortir de
suite hors de frontiers de France) . The commissary had told
the mayor that he was obliged to do this by telegraphic
instructions from the Minister of the Interior at Paris.
But the mayor said to us that he was not minded to dis-
honor the French people. The ministerial order was contrary
242 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
to the laws concerning political refugees. He had compelled
the commissary to add to the order "unless they will submit
themselves to the laws concerning political refugees." And
indeed we found the last words inserted in different ink (a
moins qu'il veuille se conformer a la loi sur les refugies). The
passport is now before me. There were several other em-
ployees of the mayor's office present, and they all assured us
that they would have rather suffered removal than have exe-
cuted an unconstitutional order. ' ' If , " said the mayor, ' ' the
commissary had ordered you to be brought back to the Bavar-
ian frontier only a mile from here, I should have called out the
National Guards to protect you. ' ' We most cordially thanked
the mayor, and were surprised to find such a true constitu-
tional spirit among the brave Alsatians. The mayor procured
us what were called interim passports to Strassburg, upon
which was indorsed that we should immediately on our arrival
present ourselves at the office of the Prefect of Lower Alsace.
Our landlord, who was a captain in the National Guard, also
assured us that they would not have allowed to us to be deliv-
ered over to the Bavarian authorities, and that the troops of
the line, in garrison at Weissenburg, would never have acted
against the National Guard in such an emergency.
In Weissenburg, as well as Lauterburg, everybody, even
the government employees, spoke German. Indeed, there was
no difference at all in language and manners between the
Alsatians of that time and the people of Landau or Neustadt.
CHAPTER XI
"We left Weissenburg late in the evening by stage, arrived
at Strassburg early in the morning, delivered our passports
at the gate, and, after having designated the place we were
to stop at, received receipts for the same. We went to the
hotel recommended to us as kept by a patriot ; and although
very tired we immediately began to hunt up our many friends
who lived here in exile. In the street we met one of them
who took us at once to a coffee-house, where we met Mr. Lich-
tenberger, a eounselor-at-law of Strassburg, and who was one
of the most prominent leaders of the Republicans, and also a
Mr. Venedey, with whom I had become acquainted at Ham-
bach. Venedey had been long known as a Liberal publicist in
Germany, had been the editor of the "Watchman on the
Rhine," at Mannheim, when that paper was confiscated and
he himself arrested, but had, in a very bold manner, escaped
from the escort which was taking him to Prussia. Venedey
was a native of Cologne, had been a leading member of the
Burschenschaft at Heidelberg some years before, and was a
strong and clear writer, but by no means an ultra-radical.
He was considered by the Strassburg people, and also by the
authorities, as the head of the exiled German colony. He
was tall, with a high and open forehead, was of a very pale
complexion, and had light hair and blue eyes. He looked more
like a German professor than a revolutionary agitator. The
revolution of 1848 brought him back to Germany. He became
a member of the Preliminary Parliament, and on the adjourn-
ment of that body was appointed one of the committee of fifty
that carried on the government until the meeting of the great
244 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Parliament. He was elected a member of the latter gather-
ing, and acted rather more conservatively than his party ex-
pected.
"We spent the day with our friends, not being willing to
deliver ourselves over at once to the authorities. We wished
to stay near the frontier to watch events. Besides, I expected
to hear from home and to receive my trunk. Our exiled
friends, like exiles generally, had not given up all hopes of a
general rising. That evening we were taken to an estaminet,
a place where beer can be had and where everybody can
smoke. It was a place of rendezvous for exiles of all sorts,
and we were introduced there to some Italian refugees. Most
of the French we found there were students, and all were the
most fiery Republicans. We were treated with great kindness,
almost with enthusiasm by the Frenchmen we met; and of
course the many Germans whom we had known at home as
fellow-students received us with open arms.
But in making our calculations to stay in Strassburg we
had reckoned without the French police. Theodore Engel-
mann, who, feeling very tired, had left our company for our
hotel before I did, very soon returned. Near the entrance of
the hotel he was met by a waiter who had been on the look-
out for us, and who told him we should have to leave, as very
soon after we had left two policemen had diligently inquired
for us, had gone into the room we occupied, had examined the
little bundle belonging to Theodore, and had taken away a
dirk knife which Theodore had left on the table. The police
had repeated their visit four times. The waiter had been for-
bidden to mention their appearance; but he nevertheless
wished to give us fair warning.
When this disagreeable news was communicated to us,
some of the students immediately offered us their hospitality.
A very handsome young man, a student of medicine, invited
me at once to share his lodgings, which were rather elegant,
consisting of a large bedroom and a sitting-room or library.
I took the bedroom, and he made himself a bed on the sofa in
IN FRANCE 245
the other room. The walls were hung with colored prints of
popular statesmen, actresses and ballet-girls. In the bedroom,
in one corner, stood a skeleton, covered with a red liberty cap.
My friend was a very vivacious fellow and a first-rate talker.
He at once informed me that he had "une tres jolie petite
femme," and was very much surprised when I told him that
in Germany such things would not be tolerated by the authori-
ties or even by the student-societies. Relegation from the uni-
versity and expulsion under disgrace from the societies would
at once follow the keeping of a " petite femme. ' ' He thought
we were a queer set of people. Here almost every student had
his "grisette," of which, of course, I was well aware. I did
not get to see the young lady while I stayed with my young
friend.
In the morning he gave me a sort of fancy coat to wear
and a loud vest ; and after I had purchased in a nearby store
a French student's cap, I was pretty certain not to be recog-
nized as a German doctor of law. We learned from our Ger-
man friends that some of the houses of refugees had already
been searched for us by the police, as well as some of the cof-
fee-houses and taverns. We were not willing, however, to sur-
render ourselves unconditionally. The day after our arrival,
the second Easter day, which here, as in Germany, was kept
as a holiday, we spent very pleasantly with our friends in a
village not far from the gates. The gardens of this village
were crowded with people from Strassburg and the neighbor-
ing towns. The villagers particularly looked far more like
Germans than the German villagers at home. They wore the
real national colors, which were still in fashion in the valleys
of Suabia, but in the German provinces on the right bank of
the Rhine had been pretty much discarded. The language
of the people was German. At that time, it was only amongst
the government employees of the highest class that French
was spoken.
We now read in the papers a great many articles con-
cerning the emeute of the third of April. They were col-
246 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ored, of course, by the political views of the journals. We
could gather from them, however, that there was little use
in our staying much longer near the frontier. No popular
rising elsewhere had taken place. The second evening after
our arrival in Strassburg we passed again in a large assembly
of exiles, and we were surprised by the arrival of some Polish
officers who had been with us at Frankfort. They were so
disguised, however, that we hardly recognized them. They
intended to go to Switzerland.
I did not miss the opportunity of seeing the most re-
markable places in Strassburg, including the St. Thomas
Church, which contains the celebrated monument of the
Marechal de Saxe, by Pigalle, and the Minster, that wonder-
ful masterpiece of Gothic art. On a fine, clear day we as-
cended the Minster steeple. From the platform, even, one
has a most enchanting view; but, like Goethe, whose name is
inscribed on the parapet, I went to the highest accessible
point. To reach this, one has to go by a narrow outside stair-
way, and no one in the least inclined to giddiness should
risk the ascent. But I was perfectly free from this failing,
and, in fact, have been nearly all my life. The people below
in the square on which the Minster stands appeared, from
this point, not bigger than babies. To describe the view one
has from here, of the city and its numerous neighboring vil-
lages, of the Vosges to the west, of the Black Forest to the
east, of the Swiss mountain ranges to the south, and of the
grand Rhine flowing to the north, I will not undertake.
We had hardly come down from this charming spot
when Venedey met us and told us that a commissary of po-
lice had been to see him, and had most urgently requested
him to induce us to present ourselves at the prefecture, add-
ing that a further refusal to subject ourselves to the instruc-
tions of our "interim" passports would have very serious
consequences for us. Still we could not conclude to place our-
selves at the discretion of the prefect, Mr. Chopin d' Arnou-
ville, who was an ill-tempered Louis Philippist of the deepest
IN FRANCE 247
dye, and who persuaded Venedey to obtain the police commis-
sioner's word of honor that we should not be sent back to the
German frontier. But even the word of honor of the com-
missary did not appear to be a sure guarantee. We accepted,
therefore, with pleasure, the offer of Mr. Hornus, a citizen of
Strassburg of high standing, to accompany us to the office
of the prefect. Hornus was a Liberal leader, in whose family
we had passed some pleasant hours. Arrived at the prefect's,
Mr. Hornus told him, according to a previous understanding,
that neither of us could speak or write French, which he
thought might excuse, to some extent, our non-compliance
with the directions in our passports. It was thought advis-
able to make this statement, in order to avoid an altercation.
Mr. Chopin d' Arnouville, a spare, bilious, spiderlike, for-
bidding-looking man, at once addressed us with bitter re-
proaches. But Hornus very coolly remarked that the govern-
ment had lately acted very strangely towards political refu-
gees, and that there was a rumor current in the city that it
was intended to give over all recent refugees to their re-
spective governments. This was, he said, a sufficient reason
for persons wishing to avoid coming into contact with the
authorities. D ' Arnouville replied that he would not send us
back to Germany; his feelings of humanity would prevent
him from sending young men like us to the gallows; he left
it undecided whether he had authority to do so or not. But
we must, he said, leave France for Switzerland instantly,
with what he called ' ' un passport force. ' ' Mr. Hornus begged
him to give Theodore Engelmann a passport for Havre, where
he could join his family and leave France instantly for Amer-
ica; but the prefect would not listen to this, nor to our re-
quest to stay a day or two longer in Strassburg, where we ex-
pected to receive our trunks from Frankfort. We were at
once taken into another room, measured, and provided with
passports for Zuerich. They were made "bon pour aller a
1' etranger, avec defense expresse de rentrer en France."
But the sergeant of police who was charged to see us out of
248 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the city allowed us to stay until evening. In the meantime, I
called at the store of the bookseller to whom Charles had said
he would send my trunk, and fortunately it had just arrived.
The same afternoon Ludwig Boerne, from Paris, on a
journey to Switzerland, arrived at Strassburg, heard of our
being there, and, as he had been a friend of my father, and
was still more intimate with my brother, he called at the place
where we were stopping. In his posthumous works, Boerne
writes of this meeting, in a letter of the 12th of April, 1833 :
"Those were remarkable events at Frankfort. The conspiracy
had been divulged not by malice, but by inconsiderate talk.
The conspirators knew that they were betrayed and had to go
abroad prematurely. Guerth, Bunsen, Koerner are in France;
Koerner is wounded in the arm. I have conversed with him.
I have spoken also with a young man from Rhenish Bavaria,
Engelmann by name. He was with his parents, brothers and
sisters, on his way to North America. At Metz he learned of
the Frankfort plan, left his parents secretly, and fought at
Frankfort."
Boerne is not quite accurate. Guerth and Bunsen, the
latter of whom had been wounded, were not in France then,
but still in Frankfort. Engelmann did not leave his family
secretly.
I had seen Boerne before at Hambach ; he was really very
much affected. He showed great emotion. We spoke of Engel-
mann 's intention to go to America, and I myself intimated
that if there was no near prospect of a change in Germany
I should prefer to seek a home there instead of leading an
idle exile's life in Switzerland. Boerne very warmly pro-
tested against our leaving Europe. He thought we might be
needed at some time. I remarked that there were thousands
left in Germany who would do the same that we had done,
and more too; but he replied that while this might be very
true, yet these had not yet had opportunity to show their de-
votion and were therefore without influence, while our names
were now known and the people would have confidence in
IN FRANCE 249
our lead. He said much more to the same effect and with much
warmth.
Our financial affairs now claimed our attention. Of the
money we had taken with us from Frankfort we had enough
left to carry us to any point in Switzerland, where Charles
had promised to send me money the moment he knew where
I was. But I was anxious for Theodore to go to Havre ; and
as this journey would involve an expense of some hundred
francs, more money was needed. I told this to Boerne and
he at once offered to give us what was wanted, two hundred
francs, for which I gave him a draft on Charles, which was
very satisfactory to him, though I believe he did not at the
time think of claiming repayment. And I must add that
when I parted from my student host he and his fellow-stu-
dents offered us some hundred francs as a contribution to our
traveling expenses. I really do not recollect whether we took
the money or not. I believe we did not; but, be that as it
may, it was a noble thing in those young men, heretofore
perfect strangers to us, not only to entertain us while with
them, but voluntarily to provide for our future comfort. No
wonder that I did not dislike the French. Mostly all of the
students at Strassburg were Republicans. They had, as I
learned, no secret student societies, but nearly all of them be-
longed to the great secret society "Les amis du peuple," or
to that known as ' ' Le droit de 1 ' homme. ' ' They did not, like
the German students, live exclusively amongst themselves, but
resorted, in the evening, to the public cafes and billiard halls,
mixing with people of all professions and occupations.
Another citizen of Strassburg offered to take us in his
horse and buggy to Colmar, about half way to Basle. About
five in the evening the sergeant of the police made his appear-
ance, and in company with a dozen or more of our German
and French friends, we were taken to the gate, and, producing
our passports, we were left to proceed on our way. We and
our friends went to a tavern about a mile from the outer gate,
and passed a very pleasant time until the buggy arrived. Be-
250
fore leaving Strassburg, however, I had my wound attended
to. For want of care, it had become very painful. The sur-
geon ordered me to have it dressed at every convenient place,
else it might give me much trouble. I did so afterwards at
Colmar and at Muehlhausen, whereupon it healed very rap-
idly.
The gentleman who had undertaken to act as our driver
was a very interesting person. His name was Anstett. He
had been an officer in the French army under the old Napol-
eon, was more than fifty years of age, had seen much of the
world, and better days, but was still full of fun and anecdote,
fond of good wine, and replete with amusement and instruc-
tion. He knew most everything that was going on and almost
everybody of distinction. He was a brother of the well-known
Russian diplomatist, Baron Anstett, who, also a native of
Strassburg, had been in the Russian diplomatic service as
early as 1801, was one of the Russian plenipotentiaries at the
Vienna Congress, and Ambassador of Russia at the German
Diet at Frankfort for nearly twenty years. At this time he
was still in that position, but died a year or two afterwards
at Frankfort. I had seen him often in Frankfort, and at one
time had occasion to call upon him for one of my friends.
Our man Anstett, though perhaps ten years younger, re-
sembled him. He did not speak respectfully of his diplo-
matic brother, who had been doing his best against Napoleon
while he had been fighting for him. Our friend was not a
Republican but an out-and-out Bonapartist. At that time,
however, Republicans and Bonapartists worked together
against the July Kingdom, and I heard in Strassburg, as well
as in Muehlhausen, at our evening meetings with Republicans,
both the "Marseillaise" and the Napoleonic chanson, "La
redingote grise," and "Adieu Rose, adieu Pierre, et le sac
sur le dos, il quitte sa chaumiere, et se croit un heros."
We drove that evening and part of the night only twelve
miles, the Republican horse furnished by our Strassburg
friend being rather a conservative traveller. Early in the
IN FRANCE 251
morning we passed the once free imperial German city of
Schlettstadt, which now makes a rather poor showing. Through
a most charming country, the beautiful Vosges Mountains to
our right, the Black Forest on the other side of the Rhine to
our left, we reached, about noon, Colmar, the seat of govern-
ment for the department of the Upper Rhine (Haut-Rhin).
We called upon the gentlemen whose addresses we had gotten
at Strassburg. One was the judge of the highest court there ;
but he, as well as the other gentlemen, mostly lawyers, were
all stout Republicans. They showed us every kindness and
attention. They advised us to address ourselves to the pre-
fect, who, they said, was a very honest and open-hearted man,
and might be induced to give Mr. Engelmann a passport to
Havre. We went the next day to the prefect, a rather young,
handsome and noble-looking man, who, with much regret that
he could not comply with our wishes, said he had no power to
change the disposition which his colleague in Strassburg had
made concerning us. If we had come into his department in
the first place, he would perhaps, considering the peculiar
circumstances of the case, have issued a passport for Havre.
But, he added, "You need be in no hurry, and I will not
trouble you if you stay here for some time. ' '
Colmar is a beautiful place. In the evening we went to
the theatre and saw an excellent comic actor from Paris in a
very amusing comedy.
The seats in the stage to Muehlhausen were all taken,
and I could only send my trunk along. So we concluded to
foot it to that place. The hitherto fine weather had now
changed ; it rained frequently, and on account of a very heavy
shower we had to pass the night in a solitary roadside inn.
But fortunately in the stage which passed by in the morning
we found empty places, and we got to Muehlhausen before
noon. With great cordiality we were received by M. Fay,
an employee of the stage-office, who at once introduced us to
a number of his friends and to the leader of the Republicans,
Counselor-at-law Schwarz. These immediately promised to
252
procure a passport for Theodore, and also one for me if I
should choose to accompany him. My passport was originally
given to a M. Huetschler, commis chez Dolfus, Mieg & Cie.
Its personal description and age suited me pretty well, but
the last visee was for Dijon, and not for Paris or Havre. But
our friends said it had about a dozen visees and stamps on it,
and that gens d' armes, as a rule, were bad readers; and that
further, when they saw seals and stamps, they were easily
satisfied, particularly if the travelers were in the royal stages.
Theodore received the passport of a young attorney.
The next day our Republican friends had arranged a
banquet in our honor, and while we were at dinner, Rauschen-
platt, who had commanded the attack on the main guard-
house in Frankfort, made his appearance. With him came
Professor Knoebel, from Rhenish Bavaria, against whom a
warrant of arrest had been issued for his activity in the Lib-
eral cause. He was the son of old Mr. Knoebel, who, with his
whole family, was also on his way to Havre, where he met the
Engelmann family and crossed the ocean with them. He
settled in Belleville. So did his sons Jacob and Charles. One
of his daughters married Mr. Merck; the other, Mr. George
Neuhoff. Their descendants all live near or in Belleville.
Rauschenplatt and Knoebel were on their way to Liestal in
Switzerland, the frontier of which is only a few miles from
Muehlhausen, and were to leave in an hour. I could not find
better company. Rauschenplatt had passed some years in
Switzerland, and knew a great many persons there, and could
give me a good introduction. I resolved to go with them. I
at once went to our hotel to gather my things and to arrange
to send my trunk to Zuerich by the baggage-stage. But it
was not to be.
When Theodore saw that I was to depart in earnest, he
firmly declared that he would go along, and that his family
must leave without him. This I was bound to prevent, what-
ever might be the cost. I told Rauschenplatt that I had
changed my mind, put the passport in my pocket, and my fate
IN FRANCE 253
was decided forever. For a better understanding, I may here
remark, that ever since we left Strassburg, Theodore and 1
had repeatedly discussed the subject of our near future. Of
course, if he did not go to Havre, his family would have to
leave without him, and Switzerland was the only place to go
to. But if there was a chance of joining them, he was bound
to attempt it. We had learned enough to know that his stay-
ing in Switzerland with a view to a political change in Ger-
many would be without object. He was, however, very anx-
ious that I should go with him to America. But my case
was very different. The thought of going so far away from
toy family, whom I loved so much, without almost any hope
of ever seeing them again, weighed heavily on my mind. Be-
sides, while I respected the American people, and admired
their institutions, I was convinced that the social life there
was not to be compared with that in Europe ; that while they
had superior political insight and wisdom, there was there a
lack of taste and culture which would make the country in-
dividually very distasteful to me. The idea of living amongst
men to whom I could not speak in my native language, who
could not understand, or if they did, could not appreciate
what I wanted to say, who had lived in an entirely different
sphere of thought, was anything but pleasant to me. While
I had self-confidence enough to think that I could make my
way in Switzerland by pursuing my profession, I doubted
exceedingly that I could do so in the United States, and to
change my occupation was a hazardous undertaking. The
primeval forest had no attraction for me. Mountains and
lakes and woods and brooks, I admired as much as anyone,
but it was men that it was my delight to mingle with and to
study.
In my detailed narrative of this period, where I stated
fully my reasons against immigration, the following lines are
found: "For America spoke my personal safety (for many
of our friends in Strassburg had expressed fears that the
German Bund, that is to say, Austria and Prussia, would
254
force the Swiss authorities, if not to deliver up the Frank-
fort refugees, at least to drive them out of Switzerland, and
then there would have been no place for us to go) ; and there
spoke further my disgust with the whole political situation in
Europe, and my love."
In resolving to go with Theodore I told him that under
all circumstances I considered it to be my duty to bring him
to his family, as I had been, though involuntarily, the cause
of his separation. As for going to America, I could not now
definitely make up my mind, since I would be somewhat in-
fluenced by letters from home, which would reach me in
Havre. I had written to my family through friends from
Strassburg. From Belfort, after determining to accompany
Theodore to Havre, I had written to Charles again, directing
him to send letters for me through the house of Langer and
Wanger, with whom, as Theodore told me, his father had been
in correspondence, and on whom he would call at Havre to
arrange his financial affairs.
After Rauschenplatt and Knoebel had left us on their
way to Switzerland, we passed the evening in interesting con-
versation, with a large company of fiery Republicans, inter-
rupted from time to time by the singing of songs and patriotic
toasts.
The next morning, on the 15th of April, we left Muehl-
hausen in the stage bound for Paris. One of our Muehlhausen
friends who went with us as far as Belfort gave us the pass-
word of the "Amis du peuple," and introduced us to a fel-
low-passenger, an artist, quite an interesting young man of
the school of St. Simon, the socialist, who indeed was the
only passenger with whom we had any conversation during
the whole trip. Belfort is hidden in rocks, and the fortifica-
tions and the citadel on high cliffs appear to be of the most
formidable character. There were no end of passport vex-
ations at that time in France. Wherever we stopped to
change horses gens d' armes asked for our passports. As ours
were none of the best, we of course felt very uneasy at first.
IN FBANCE 255
But, as we had been told, it was after all a mere formal mat-
ter. To look over twelve passports in a few minutes was not
an easy matter, and as ours were covered with a multitude
of stamps and visees, they seemed to be very satisfactory.
At ten o 'clock at night we stopped a short time for supper
at Lure in the Cote d' Or, and, as I ran my eyes over a copy
of the ' ' Constitutional, ' ' I read to my surprise the news of the
starting of some five hundred Poles from Besancon and Avig-
non to Switzerland with the intention of crossing over into
Germany. Of course they were too late.
By Vesoul and Langres we reached Chaumont at night
and followed the course of the Aube River. On the morning
of the 17th we got to Bar-sur-Aube. "While the stage waited
here for breakfast I went over the field where in 1814 the
great battle was fought between the allied powers and Napo-
leon. The situation of Bar-sur-Aube in a more advanced
season of the year must be a beautiful one. In the afternoon
we reached the old and interesting city of Troyes on the
Seine. It has a magnificent cathedral, but we had only time
to view it from the outside. Next morning, the 18th of April,
Provins was passed, and the road now became very lively with
innumerable wagons, carriages and stages, and travelers on
foot. At Charenton, where the Marne and Seine rivers unite,
we had a beautiful view of Paris and its charming environs.
And in an hour more we reached the barriere. "We drove
along the west side of the river to the Pont Neuf, where we
crossed it, passed the Tuilleries, and landed at last, late in the
afternoon, at the bureau of the Messageries Roy ales in the
Rue Notre Dame des Victoires. The Hotel de la Normandie
had been recommended to us, but it was full. The porter who
carried our baggage in a handcar, brought us to the Hotel
Sully, in the Rue du Mail.
PARIS
We had at once to deposit our passports at the office.
Tired by the four days and three nights of uninterrupted
256 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
riding, we took a good nap for some hours, but afterwards
roamed about, visiting the splendid galleries of Vero Deodet
and D 'Orleans, the latter in the Palais Royal, in which the
thousand "articles de Paris," jewelry, millinery, prints and
pictures were tastefully displayed under a brilliant illumina-
tion. At midnight the garden of the Palais Royal and the
adjoining streets were still crowded with people. Hoping to
find some of our exiled friends in the Estaminet Hollandais,
which is a place of resort for the Germans, we entered the
establishment, but found no one we knew. We then went
back to the hotel.
Next morning we hunted up Mr. Savoye, who, since the
Hambach meeting, had made Paris his residence, and with
whom I had remained in correspondence. He had sacrificed
his high and lucrative position at home, and was now living
away from his family in a mansard room in the Rue Richelieu
engaged in writing for French and German reviews for a liv-
ing. We learned from him that Theodore '& family had passed
through Paris on the 16th; that Mr. Engelmann had called
to see him, but had not found him at home ; and that they in-
tended to leave Havre on the 20th of April. So we had not
much time to spare at Paris, though Savoye supposed that the
Engelmanns would be delayed longer. Savoye and other
friends tried to persuade me to remain in Paris; but though
I should have liked to live there better than any other place
in the world, I was determined to go to Havre, even if I did
not sail for the United States. Indeed, being so near, I could
not resist seeing those friends again whom I loved so well.
The first thing we did was to visit the Louvre, Savoye
being our cicerone. Unfortunately it was the time of what is
called the "Salon;" that is, of the exhibition of the paintings
and statuary of the living masters of all schools. But strange
to say, Paris had, at that time, no place for this exposition,
and the picture-gallery of the Louvre had to be used. All
the Louvre treasures were covered up by light temporary
wooden walls, on which the new pictures were hung. To be
IN FRANCE 257
sure, there were some excellent pictures amongst the fifteen
hundred exhibited; but they were after all poor substitutes
for the Raphaels, the Titians, the Paul Veroneses, the Reubens-
es, the Rembrandts, and the other old masters.
The new school appeared to me to be of a rather melo-
dramatic order, too fond of representing the extravagant and
the horrible. The rooms of the antique statues were not open
every day, and the day we were there was one on which they
were closed. The garden of the Tuileries was then visited,
and there I met Pulaski, who had been my guest at Heidel-
berg. He also remonstrated against my going to America.
How I regretted that circumstances did not allow me to stay
in Paris. At night we went to the grand opera where Auber 's
"Gustave, or Le Bal Masque" was presented. The music of
this opera is only mediocre. I had heard before as good and
better singers, with the exception perhaps of La Blache, who
represented Gustave. But as regards scenery, grouping (in
the ballet of the masqued ball there were at least three hun-
dred persons on the floor), and costumes, I had never seen
anything like it in my life. And yet it was hard to tell
whether the audience, the hundreds of ladies in the boxes, all
in evening dress covered with diamonds, in this large, splen-
didly illuminated house, was not even a fairer sight than the
scenic wonders on the stage.
Early the next morning we met Savoye again, and some
other old friends, exiles too, and made another run through
the beautiful city, visiting the morgue, (where we saw three
corpses, one a woman taken the day before from the river,)
the Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame, which disappointed me some,
the Pont d' Arcole, immortalized by Boerne, the Jardin des
Plantes, with the cedars from Lebanon, the Pantheon, and
the Palace of the Luxemburg and its gardens. We took din-
ner at a fine restaurant in the Palais Royal, and visited the
Bourse for a few minutes only, for the hour for our departure
for Havre was near. At six o 'clock we took the stage, bidding
a cordial adieu to our friends, and after a very long drive
258 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
through the city and the suburb of St. Denis, we reached the
open country.
Favored by the most delightful weather, we arrived early
in the morning, at the old and charmingly situated city of
Rouen on the Seine, which is there a mighty river bearing
ocean-vessels. We stopped long enough to have a view of one
of the finest cathedrals in the world. Leaving the city, the
stage had to climb up a very high hill. We got out and walked,
and turning our faces back from time to time, we enjoyed a
most glorious view. Further on we frequently met with
beautiful scenery in the valley of the Seine. We passed
through Caudebec, Bolbec, and came soon to a point where
the Seine expands so that one can hardly see the opposite
bank on which Harfleur is situated. Passing Harfleur we
came near the coast, and at six o'clock in the evening of the
21st of April we entered Havre.
Right at the gate stood some friends of the Engelmann
family, one of whom was Mr. Henry Abend, who knew Theo-
dore; and with a loud exclamation of "Here they are" (Da
sind sie ja), they shook hands with us and took us at once
to the house where the Engelmanns lodged. How shall I
find words to describe our meeting? Old and young em-
braced and kissed us, tears of joy running from their eyes.
I felt somewhat embarrassed, and, I believe, Sophie was in the
same situation. The first hour, we had to recount our ad-
ventures, and they seemed to consider our happy escape and
our timely arrival at Havre almost as a miracle.
THE HAVRE EMIGRANTS
Havre at that time was the most prominent port of em-
igration for the south and west of Germany, as well as for
Switzerland and Alsace and Lorraine. The French themselves
did not emigrate much; but Alsace and Lorraine were old
German provinces, and their inhabitants had still the old Teu-
tonic disposition and energy to wander (Wandertrieb). From
the north of Germany, emigration at that period was not fre-
IN FRANCE 259
quent, and to sail either from Bremen or Hamburg made the
voyage much longer and more dangerous, as the North Sea
and the narrowest part of the English channel had to be
passed.
The place was crowded with emigrants, particularly from
Rhenish Bavaria, Several families heretofore acquainted had
agreed to take the same vessel. The Engelmann family, to-
gether with their friends, whom they had taken along with
them from Imsbach, numbered some fifteen persons. The
family of Mr. Abend counted some ten persons, and the
Knoebel family as many more. Charles Schreiber, an old fel-
low-student of mine from Jena, to avoid prosecution, had also
come to Havre; he at once joined us, as did Mr. Humbert,
quite a young man, who had fought at Frankfort and after
a hair-breadth escape had found his way to Havre. He waa
then quite sick from exposure, and on board was taken with
typhoid fever. Mr. Engelmann and Mr. Abend had picked
out several other respectable families from their neighbor-
hood, amongst others that of Mr. Hoefer, who was an apoth-
ecary and had a large chest of medicines with him. Jean, a
young Pole, Mr. Engelmann had brought with him from Ims-
bach; and there was also a cousin of his, Mr. Peter Engel-
mann, who had, when quite young, gone to the United States,
and had been engaged in various pursuits in New Orleans.
He had made a return visit to Germany, and had now joined
Mr. Engelmann to go back to the United States. Mr. Pin-
gret, the pharmacist, whom I had met in the stage, a few
weeks before, on my return from Wuerzburg, was also a fel-
low-passenger. By my notes I see that there was also a Polish
officer on board, but I have no recollection of such a person.
With the exception of two old persons from Switzerland, and
three or four young Frenchmen, the whole company, who
had agreed to take the same ship, was made up, it might be
said, of friends and acquaintances. About a hundred, thus,
took passage on the Logan (named after a celebrated Indian
chief) of Boston, Captain Joshua Atkins.
260 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
It was a deck passage. French packet-boats ran between
Havre and New York about once every month. They were
fine vessels, but the fare was very high, some five hundred
francs per passenger. The great bulk of the emigrants, par-
ticularly where the families were large, could not afford such
luxury. But as the passenger business was very brisk, many
merchant vessels were so fitted out as to make the trip in them
quite agreeable for persons used to comfort. American ves-
sels would bring cotton to Havre. There they discharged
their freight, and arranged commodious berths on their decks.
These wooden ships had no cabins to speak of. A few rooms
for the officers, and perhaps one or two for casual passengers,
were all the accommodations. The Engelmanns and Abends,
having first engaged passage, and having been active in get-
ting a great many other families to take the same vessel, had
the pick of the places. They took the berths nearest to the
cabin. A space between the cabin and the berths, about eight
feet wide, was put at their disposal. Tables and other furni-
ture were placed there, and privacy was obtained by means
of curtains which marked off a dressing-room for our ladies
and a dining-room. There was also here an opening to the
upper deck, large enough to let in light and air when the
weather permitted it. The berths were commodious, and were
screened by curtains. The vessel was very clean, quite dif-
ferent from the French ones, and, taken altogether, the small
number and character of the passengers, and the cleanliness
with which everything was kept, made the voyage hardly less
comfortable than one in our present steamers in the second
cabin.
We might have stayed longer in Paris, for neither the
passengers nor the Logan were ready for sailing when we
arrived. The passengers had to provide themselves with the
needful provisions for the long voyage. And although the
better-situated among them had brought along pickles, pre-
serves, dried fruit and other delicacies, their main stock had
to be purchased at Havre. According to the regulations, a
IN FRANCE 261
certain amount of articles had to be laid in so much per
head, calculating the trip at sixty days, though it was usually
made in forty. The regulation provisions were potatoes, rice,
ship-biscuits, salt, etc. Those who had brought no bedding
had to get it in Havre. But besides provisions most families
laid in wine (which at that time was very good and cheap),
tea, coffee, chocolate, vinegar, hams, anchovies, herrings, flour,
cognac, eggs and many other articles. These purchases re-
quired time and great care and prudence ; for the Havre peo-
ple engaged in provisioning emigrant vessels were arrant
cheats, and took advantage of all who did not understand
French.
At the house of Wanger and Langer, I was received with
unexpected cordiality, owing, perhaps, to the fact that one of
their chief clerks was an intimate friend of my early youth,
Mr. Krauss, who had been with me at the Model School in
Frankfort and besides had been a near neighbor of ours. He
belonged to one of the richest and most respected families.
They offered to act as my agents in forwarding letters to
Frankfort and in sending letters and packages from my family
to the United States. They gave me a letter of introduction
to their correspondent in New York, and for six months
before I took up a permanent residence, very promptly
attended to my business. A few days after my first call upon
them they sent me letters they had received from my mother,
Charles, Augusta and Pauline, in answer to letters that I had
written from Belfort on my journey to Havre. My family
was still in very great anxiety, fearing that we might be
arrested hi France. These letters were of the most affection-
ate and loving character; only mother could never suppress
what she really felt ; though she gave me her blessing, she did
not conceal the pain I had given her by blasting her most
cherished hopes. She had a right to feel aggrieved, but even
her complaints showed how deeply she loved me. I may here
say that my great desire to assuage her grief for my actions,
and for disapopinting the great expectations she had formed
262
of my future career at Frankfort, made me struggle more
energetically for success in the country I had adopted.
All the letters urged me in the most moving way to leave
Europe with the Engelmann family, whom they held in high-
est regard. They feared that I was not safe anywhere but
in the United States, and, though they only alluded to it, I
felt that they also feared that if I was near Germany I might
engage in another rash attempt at revolution that might turn
out even more fatally. Their health, even Pauline's life,
would depend upon my resolution. Charles pretty strongly
intimated that he himself with many friends would soon
follow me, and that, once settled in the United States, he
would have the whole family join us. Even mother and sis-
ter held out hopes of our meeting in the New World. These
letters and many more which I received from the family after
my arrival in the United States are very precious to me. I
wish I could embody some of them in these reminiscences.
Though they would lose by translation, they would show such
a high culture of head and heart, such elevated feelings, and
such noble and generous sentiments, as to convince any one
how much I lost by my separation from my home. Among
the very best of them were those from my dear sister Augusta.
It needed only this to put an end to all doubt and hesita-
tion. Even if I had not had a strong motive already to remain
with my dear friends, the wishes of my family would have
determined my leaving Europe with them. There was some-
thing very strained in the situation. While the Engelmanns
considered me as the one whom they had to thank for return-
ing to them their son and brother, my family were overflow-
ing with gratitude to Theodore that he was the cause of taking
me to Havre. That a little sixteen year old girl had some-
thing to do with it, neither party suspected.
Some five or six days after our arrival, word came from
the Logan that she was ready to sail. So we all went on board
and installed ourselves as comfortably as possible. But a
contrary high wind had set in, and we had to remain in the
IN FRANCE 263
harbor two days more. I occupied most of my time in writ-
ing letters home. I had so much to say, so much to explain.
I also wrote to some of my friends in various parts of Ger-
many, and to Mr. Savoye at Paris, enclosing a note to the
"National," edited by the celebrated Armand Carrel, and
one to the "Tribune," in which I expressed our thanks to
all the many French Liberals who had so warmly assisted us
during our stay and journey in France, and bidding all our
friends a cordial farewell. Augusta wrote me later that this
note had been republished in some of the papers in Germany
and had given much satisfaction to our friends and a good
deal of umbrage to the "Black Coats" at Frankfort, mean-
ing the senators and judges. Our main object in this note
was to anger Mr. Chopin d'Arnouville, the Strassburg prefect,
and to encourage other exiles to defy the French police.
Visiting one of the "Cabinets de Lecture," my attention
was attracted by a piece of news I found in the "Constitu-
tional" which quite interested me. On the night of the 19th
or 20th of April, while we were still in Paris, the Hotel de
Normandie, where we had first intended to stop, but were
turned away from because the house was full, was raided
by the police, who made every guest get up, even the ladies,
and show their passports. Two Polish officers were found,
who were taken instantly to the Belgian frontier. It is pos-
sible that this visit was intended for us. There were plenty
of spies in Paris, who were probably informed of our presence,
and who supposed that we had stopped at this hotel, kept by
a Liberal. And even if this were not so, if our passports had
been closely scanned, we might still have been found out and
have been carried off to Belgium, or been arrested and pun-
ished for violation of the directions of the prefect of Strass-
burg. It was one of the many happy accidents that helped
us in our flight.
At last on the first of May, 1833, the anchors were lifted.
It was the King's fete day (St. Philippe). All public build-
ings and many private houses were flagged, as were the ships
264 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
in the harbor. Bells, were ringing, guns firing from the forts,
troops parading, and bands playing, when we were towed by
a steamer out of the port. The steamer left us. The sails
were unfurled, and under the shadow of the stars and stripes
we struck out into the open sea, Europe fading out of sight
for the last time for many of us.
CHAPTER XII
From Havre to St. Louis
11 Auf, Matrosen, die Anker geliehtet,
Segel gespannt, den Compass gerichtet!
Heimat, adieu!
Morgen da gent's in die wogende See."
W. Gerhard.
I was one of the first victims of seasickness. John Scheel
and myself, an hour or so after we had left the port, went
down into the hold to fill a large glass bottle covered with
wickerwork, a demijohn holding a gallon, with wine, of
which we had brought a cask for the daily use of the family.
It took us some time before we found the place, and a good
while to let off the wine, as the ship had already commenced
pitching quite severely. The air in the hold was very bad,
and I felt a little unwell when I came up again, yet ate a
hearty dinner. But immediately after I hastened on deck
and paid my tribute to old Neptune. I stayed on deck until
it became dark and a rough wind drove me down into our
quarters. Almost everybody had been taken ill. It was a
most realistic sight, worthy of the pencil of a Teniers, or the
pen of a Zola. The two mates administered relief to the
ladies, and so kindly and considerately that they at once
became very popular with them. Quite early in the morning
I went on deck again, and by noon I was as well as ever and
remained so all through the voyage. John Scheel also quickly
recovered, and he and I did the cooking for the family the
second day we were out. Sophie and Marianna Scheel were
soon in very good condition, and they had the principal man-
agement of the household. Theodore Engelmann unfortu-
nately was more or less seasick all the time, and so were sev-
eral others, both ladies and gentlemen. Amongst my papers is
found a pretty detailed description of our voyage on the
Logan, as also a narrative of our arrival in New York and our
journey from thence to St. Louis, Missouri. This last is con-
tained in several numbers of the "Ausland," a weekly journal
then published by Cotta, the celebrated publisher and book-
seller in Stuttgart. I use those papers now for reference
merely, as their insertion would swell these memoirs to an
inordinate size.
A TRANSATLANTIC VOYAGE IN 1833
On recovering from my first short illness I looked around.
The sum of my observations was that the ocean was vast and
our vessel, which in the harbor I had thought of almost gigan-
tic dimensions, small. Passing through the channel we met
hundreds of sails, but once in the Atlantic we found ourselves
very much alone. "What interested me most was seeing our little
bark struggling in the immensity of the sea, against the wind
and the waves, the quiet, cool and determined action of the
sailors climbing up to the highest masts and taking in the sails
as they were wildly whipped by the storm, with the tops of the
masts almost touching the rising waves. The quick and silent
obedience to the words of command given by the captain with
the utmost "sang froid" in the midst of a tumultuous storm,
astonished me and raised man in my estimation. After all the
most interesting phenomenon to man is man.
But in the long run the sea became monotonous. Sun-
rise and sun-set are far less beautiful than they are on land,
viewed from an eminence. On land the sunlight illuminat-
ing the mountain tops, leaving the lower regions in the dark,
then in succession casting its rays into the valleys, coloring
the rocks and forests, rivers and lakes, with a thousand hues,
offers an enchanting view to our eyes. In all my voyages I
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 267
admired the sea most when it was relieved by the sight of
some shore, however distant.
Sophie, while in the harbor, and during the first few
days on board of the vessel, when most of the family were
helpless, had been so attentive to all who needed assistance,
had performed what she considered her duty so kindly, had
shown such abnegation of self, that the love I already felt for
her became still warmer. A young and generous girl, brought
up in a family enthusiastic for liberty, I appeared to her, I
believe, as a sort of a hero, or at least as a very interesting
young man. A few evening walks on the deck and we had
plighted our troth to one another. When we told her parents
and the rest of the family of our engagement, they most
cordially sanctioned it. Indeed, they had already treated me
as a son and brother, and I found it most natural that I
should become one in fact.
If I looked upon this voyage, long as it was, with far
more pleasure than most of my companions, the reason is not
far to be sought. The evenings, so long and dreary to others,
were but too short for us. Yet there was no sign of senti-
mentality in our love. We were very fond of one another, but
did not show it in society, and mixed freely with the crowd.
Save our own family, and some near friends, I do not think
that anybody knew of our engagement. When about fourteen
days out a ship was signaled, which evidently sought to com-
municate with us. She soon came near enough to hail us
through the speaking trumpet. It was the Eagle of London,
coming from South America. The captain entered a boat
and came on board the Logan. He told our captain that he
had picked up part of the crew of an English vessel, which
had taken fire and was lost with all on board except some
twenty persons, who had saved themselves in the long boat and
who had been for some ten days almost without water or any-
thing to eat. He, the captain of the Eagle, was now himself
short of provisions. Our captain at once supplied him with
flour, biscuits and other articles. The wife of the captain of
268 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the burnt vessel was amongst the saved. Our girls at once
collected a lot of preserves, chocolate, fruit, etc., and asked
the captain of the Eagle to give them to the poor widow. The
English captain was very much moved by the sympathy shown
by the captain and the passengers of our vessel, and offered
to take letters from us to London to be forwarded to our
friends. I embraced the opportunity and wrote a few hasty
lines to my mother. They were dated "Atlantic Ocean, Lati-
tude 44, Longitude 24, west of Greenwich." It contained the
news of my engagement with Sophie. The letter reached its
destination very quickly. It delighted the heart of my
mother. She knew now that I would settle down in the New
World and not think of new adventures.
Not long after this interesting meeting we had what we
landsmen considered quite a storm. The captain called it only
a stiff breeze. It made most of us seasick again. It was
hard to walk ; our meals had to be taken with great trouble ;
often all the eatables and all the plates were thrown on the
floor. The deck openings had to be closed, for the waves
swept over the deck and we were left almost in darkness. A
calm followed, which was even worse than a moderate storm.
The waves were still somewhat rough, and, there being no
wind, the ship rolled from side to side like a drunken man.
Owing to the danger of icebergs, which came very far south
at this season of the year, our captain had taken quite a
southerly course, and towards the end of May we found our-
selves in the Gulf Stream. We had a thunder-shower almost
every evening, the brilliant phosphorescent lightening of the
sea at night in the wake of the vessel becoming still more
luminous.
"Our life on the ocean wave" was a very pleasant one
to most of us. We had one cabin passenger, Doctor Toland of
Charleston, South Carolina. He had graduated in America,
but had been attending lectures in the hospitals at Paris for
a couple of years. As he had picked up some French, he
could converse with a good many of our passengers and with
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 269
some of our family particularly. Our girls when on deck
were always invited by the captain to sit near the cabin.
There were camp-stools, and, if the weather was raw, blankets
were furnished. Doctor Toland was every inch a gentleman.
His medical services were rendered to everybody gratuitously.
Our Charlotte was quite charmed with him. I made it a
point to speak to him as often as possible, in order to brush
up my English.
The best of order was kept by the passengers themselves
after the first tumultous days, when the mates exercised what
police functions were necessary. A committee was appointed
to make rules and regulations as to the distribution of wood
and water, which were furnished by the ship, and as to the
turns the different passengers had to take at the kitchens
(frame shanties on the upper deck), etc. Disputes were also
to be settled by it. This committee held its sessions in the
long-boat in the presence of all who had an interest in the
proceedings. At one time there arose a difficulty of some
importance, which the committee had to settle. The captain
had stated that it was one of the ship 's rules not to allow the
playing of cards for money. To this rule there was a general
assent. On one Sunday, however, two of the passengers, I
believe Schreiber was one of them, were playing a game of
chess. Suddenly the first mate came down, (which he did
very often, as he was fond of our company,) and, seeing the
game they were playing, kicked the board from the box on
which it was placed by the players, telling them very excitedly
that no one should break the Sabbath on his ship. There
was a row at once, and there would have been a fight if some
of the older gentlemen had not interfered. The committee,
however, was charged to complain of his rudeness and to
demand satisfaction. A note was sent to the captain, stating
the facts and asking that Follansbee, which was the name of
the first mate, should be reprimanded. The captain after a
considerable time made answer that he regretted very much
the occurrence, and was sorry that Follansbee had suffered
270 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
himself to be carried away by the strict religious views he had
in regard to the holiness of the Sabbath. There was nothing
in this, however, of a reprimand. But the matter was not
carried any farther, principally because Follansbee was other-
wise a very excellent man and very popular with the pas-
sengers.
We had much singing, even some dancing, when the
weather was fair. The singing took place also in the long-
boat, and at one time a very ludicrous scene happened. Old
Mr. Knoebel, who had been a school-teacher and an organist,
acted as a sort of musical director. One afternoon the full
chorus had just commenced a song when one of the mates ran
out of the cabin gesticulating, and, coming near the singers,
exclaimed, "lower, lower." Mr. Knoebel, not knowing what
the matter was, stopped the singing, when one of the pas-
sengers, translating what the mate had said, told Knoebel
that they should sing lower (tiefer). Mr. Knoebel seemed
surprised, but told the chorus to go on, but to take a lower
key, and he intoned the first words accordingly. ' ' Shut up, ' '
the mate cried, "shut up, if you cannot sing lower" (meaning
less loud). "The captain has been up all night, and is
just taking a nap." I can yet see Mr. Knoebel stand-
ing before me, puzzled, but at once yielding to the musical
dictation of the mate, and with a loud voice beginning again
the first notes in a deeper key ; and I almost hear the laughter
of the crowd after the explanation.
Mr. Frederick Hilgard had charged us with a small box
of books for his son Theodore, who had left for the United
States in 1832, which box we had with our hand-baggage. It
contained, amongst other very readable books, all the dramas
of Shakespeare, translated by Schlegel and Tieck. I made
much use of these books, and I read Shakespeare with the
greatest pleasure again. Very few people, even if well, can
read on ship-board.
All at once we were informed that a little girl had seen
the light of day on board the Logan. It was to be baptized,
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 271
and the captain was to stand as godfather in the name of the
ship. The captain took the matter quite seriously. He him-
self, mates and sailors dressed themselves up. Michael Rup-
pelius, a young minister of the Engelmann party, betrothed
to Friedericka, a sweet and beautiful girl, who had been
raised by Mr. and Mrs. Engelmann, performed the ceremony
according to the Lutheran ritual. A large circle was formed
around the minister and the candidate for baptism. The
captain solemnly stood as godfather to little Logana. The
name of the family to which she belonged I have forgotten.
But in spite of the pleasant company and of many inter-
esting incidents, we all became more or less weary. It is an
old saying that night is no man's friend. And so with the
sea. The ancient Greeks, though from their geographical
position one should think they would love the ocean, were by
no means fond of it. Old Homer in speaking of the sea fre-
quently calls it the "dread desert," "the dark irresistible
ideep," "the wild and refractory sea," "the terrible waste,"
"the dark and rolling water." One of the Hebrew prophets
says: "There is sorrow on the sea."
Our delicacies were running short; we were put on half
rations of wine; the brandy for grog and punch gave out.
In a word, after nearly six weeks' sailing we all longed for
land. At last it was sighted ; but the wind was not favorable.
We tacked about until the evening of the seventeenth of June.
We had been out forty-nine days when we sailed into the bay
of New York. Innumerable fishing boats and other coasting
vessels were shooting around us, and at last a very swift little
sailing craft made fast to the Logan, and a very genteel-look-
ing young gentleman got on board, inquiring for news. We
did not have much to tell him, as we had been anticipated by
some fast sailing vessels. Shortly afterwards the pilot came
on board. Our captain abdicated and put him in complete
command. He looked to us like a deposed king. The lead
was thrown out constantly, the men singing the fathoms in a
kind of melancholy tone. We passed late in the evening
272
between Long Island and Staten Island. The aromatic smell
that came from well-timbered Staten Island was a real enjoy-
ment. How delightful it was to have at last a quiet rest.
Early in the morning all were on deck in the best of spirits ;
all suffering was forgotten. Staten Island in all its splendor
was before us. It was then covered with splendid forests,
from which, however, shone out in small openings very hand-
some villas. Long Island opposite was also well-timbered, and
here and there appeared clusters of houses. It was a charm-
ing sight. At a distance we could already see the forests
of masts lying before the city and some of the higher church
steeples of New York. Behind us we saw the Narrows, which
we had passed in the dark, and particularly the two newly
erected forts, Lafayette and Washington. At the quarantine
Mr. Humbert, who had not quite recovered from the typhoid
fever, and one sailor, who was sick when we left Havre, were
retained. All of us could have gone on the steam ferry-boat
to New York, but most of us stayed on the ship a day or two
longer, not being willing to separate ourselves from our bag-
gage, and the ship not being allowed to enter New York
before it was thoroughly cleaned.
NEW YORK IN 1833
After visiting Staten Island, where on the heights we
found pleasure-gardens, with wonderful prospects, we took a
little schooner, put all our luggage into it, went to the cus-
tom-house, where there was a very slight examination, and
arrived in New York too late in the night to obtain a fair view
of the great city from the sea ; we had to console ourselves with
the idea that we would enjoy that beautiful prospect upon
leaving New York for the North River.
It was late when, on the recommendation of our captain,
we entered the Commercial Hotel on Broad Street. It was a
very fair house, but managed very differently from the con-
tinental hotels. The gentlemen had a reading-room and the
ladies a parlor. The dining-room was different from the sup-
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 273
per and breakfast-room. If you wanted to drink or smoke,
you had to go to a room in one of the wings of the hotel, where
you sipped your wine, brandy or lemonade standing. You
had to pay for all meals, whether you took them or not. There
were a variety of eatables on the table, but, excepting the
roasts, everything was poorly cooked. All things were placed
on the table at once, and there was no change of plates except
for dessert. Very broad knives were used in place of forks
and spoons. In the best hotels at that time, forks had only
three prongs, while in the common run of hotels and taverns,
and in all families in the country, two-prong forks were the
rule. It was clear that with such forks nothing could be
eaten but meat.
Our bed-rooms were good, and there were also baths in
the basement. What astonished us most was the rapidity
with which the meals were dispatched. All these things are
somewhat changed now, and the usual charge now is that the
foreigners use the knife in lieu of the fork. When we left
Europe knives could never have been used for forks and
spoons, as their blades were quite short and their points sharp
and rounded.
Next day I roamed through the city, called upon the
Frankfort consul, Mr. Wisman, who was well acquainted with
my family, and offered to act as a sort of commissioner for me
in receiving letters and packages and in sending them accord-
ing to directions. I assisted Mr. Engelmann to arrange some
exchange and money business. New York contained about
two hundred and fifty thousand people at that time, and the
principal street, Broadway, was very crowded. But still there
was not that vivacious and tumultuous life pulsating through
the masses that you see in the large continental cities, and
most of all in Paris. Regarding Broadway, I say in my man-
uscript: "It is a fine wide street and more than a league
(three miles) long. In the stores, which occupy the lower
stories in almost every house, are goods of comfort and lux-
ury piled up in the largest quantities. In Paris three Broad-
274 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ways could be decorated with that mass of goods and would
show to far greater advantage. They do not show any taste
here in exposing their goods. When the weather is fine,
Broadway for some time in the afternoon is the favorite prom-
enade for the fair sex and the elegant world generally. We
saw a great many beautiful ladies. Their slender and grace-
ful figures and small feet excited our admiration. The fash-
ions were partly English and partly French, the English
predominating." For a more special description of all the
important buildings, of the public squares, of the harbor with
its innumerable shipping, and of the beautiful steamers and
packet-boats, I must refer to my manuscript.
We visited the navy-yard at Brooklyn, and saw there in
the docks two frigates nearly completed, the Sabine and the
Savannah, of sixty-two guns each. They were giants com-
pared with our bark Logan. We could see everything in
these yards without being vexed by permissions or other
formalities.
The evenings we passed very pleasantly amongst our-
selves. Sometimes we had the company of our captain, Doctor
Toland, and the first mate, both of whom had become very
much attached to us. Before we left New York we published
in the name of all the passengers a note of thanks to the cap-
tain and officers for their excellent conduct and management,
recommending them to the public favor. On the second day
Mr. Abend, his brother Joseph Abend, Mr. Engelmann, Theo-
dore, Louis and I appeared in the Marine Court and made
our first applications for becoming citizens of the United
States. The proceedings in court were ludicrously informal.
A case was being pleaded before the court, but only the judge
seemed to pay any attention to it. There was running to and
fro through the house. Lawyers were talking amongst them-
selves ; some had their feet on the desks before them. In one
corner of the room a clerk took our oaths, reading them aloud
to us. We had to kiss the Bible. The whole thing was done
in two minutes.
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 275
Mr. Fred Wisman had introduced me to some of his
friends, and I found also an old schoolmate by the name of
Engel, who showed me the greatest attention. On one or two
evenings we Frankfort people passed some very agreeable
hours together talking of old times over some excellent wine.
UP THE HUDSON
On the twenty-seventh, the families Abend and Engel-
mann, who from now on traveled all of the way to St. Louis
together, went on board one of the fine North River steamers.
Both families, long before leaving home, had resolved to set-
tle in Missouri. Godfrey Duden, a highly respected and intel-
lectual gentleman, who some years before had visited the Uni-
ted States and spent some time in Missouri, even buying there
a small farm in Montgomery County, not very far from the
old town of St. Charles on the Missouri River, where he
resided for two summers and one winter, on his return home
published a book of considerable size, in which he set forth
the advantages of settling in the State of Missouri in a very
persuasive manner. It was so well written that it at once
attracted the attention of the higher class of the German peo-
ple who had formed plans of emigration. Mr. Duden, whose
high character was well known, could have had no selfish
motives in his representations, and his "report," as he had
called the book, became the highest kind of authority. Mr.
Theo. Hilgard, Sr., at that time judge of the Court of Appeals
in Rhenish Bavaria, who had for some years revolved the idea
of emigrating to the United States in his mind, had corre-
sponded with Mr. Duden, who resided, I believe, at Duessel-
dorf, had thoroughly informed himself of his views and had
become convinced that Missouri was an ''Eldorado" for Ger-
man emigrants. The best land was to be obtained there at the
government price of $1.25 per acre. The climate was almost
tropical; cattle could be raised without feeding them even in
winter; game was so abundant that there was hardly any use
276 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
for other meat. Sickness, if people were prudent, could be
easily avoided.
So we started for the far West, and now had an oppor-
tunity of seeing New York in all its splendor. Before us the
large, well-built city, with its many towering steeples, en-
circled by innumerable masts, and Castle Garden, a promon-
tory, changed at that time into a popular pleasure-garden.
Steamboats were shooting about us in every direction, and
hundreds of fishing boats were dancing on the waves; and,
turning our eyes from the city, we beheld Long Island and
Staten Island with their beautiful forests. Steaming into the
North River we had the New Jersey shore and the heights of
Hoboken on our left. The Hudson has not the clear trans-
parent color of the Rhine, but for a hundred miles it is a
far mightier river than the Rhine, bearing upon its bosom
the largest steamers and ocean vessels. Majestic timber lines
its banks, from time to time interrupted by openings, on
which handsome villas and flourishing towns appear. We
had left New York early in the afternoon, but it was quite
late in the night when we reached the most romantic scenery
on the river at West Point, where the celebrated military
academy is. There was some moonlight, however, so that we
could form some idea of the enchanting spot, which, in later
years, we never could visit or pass without heart-rending
pangs. We could not foresee when we went by at this time,
dancing on the deck of our steamer to the tunes of a large
band, kept for the amusement of the passengers on many of
these river steamers, that it was to become the last resting-
place of our dear eldest son, Theodore.
In the morning we had a fine view of the Catskill Moun-
tains known to us from the legends of Washington Irving.
The Rhine has its beauties, which the Hudson has not ; but on
the other hand the Hudson surpasses the Rhine by far in the
majestic grandeur of its scenery. Owing to some delay, we
reached Albany late in the evening. In the morning we took
a stroll through the city, which rises from the river to a con-
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 277
siderable height. It had at that time a sort of Holland look.
All the houses were of red brick. The streets were wide and
very clean.
FROM ALBANY TO BUFFALO IN A CANAL-BOAT
At Albany we took a canal-boat. Of course, it looked
very diminutive compared with our "swift and sure" river-
steamer. We chartered one boat for ourselves, the Engel-
manns and Abends. Peter Engelmann had remained in New
York, and, I believe, also Jean, the young Pole. All of these
canal-boats are about the same in length, from sixty to seventy
feet, and are about fifteen feet wide. The deck is quite flat,
with no handrails at the sides, for the boats have to pass un-
der numerous low bridges which span the canal. On account
of our large quantity of baggage we could not take a packet-
boat, which is fitted for passengers only, travels somewhat
faster, and charges a little more. In the middle of the canal-
boat there was a large place for goods, where our baggage
was stored. In front was the ladies' cabin and in the stern
was the gentlemen's. We went on board. The boat was
weighed to fix the toll she had to pay.
Traveling in canal-boats in some respects is pleasant.
There is hardly any motion perceptible. The boat glides along
like a swan. Then again, where a series of locks occur, there
is often sufficient delay to allow passengers to leave the boat
and to walk ahead, meeting the boat on some bridge, from
which it is easy to get on again. For a few miles we followed
the Hudson River northward, but at Troy our direction was
westward along the Mohawk valley. At Junction there were
many locks; we got off and went to see some of the nearby
scenery. All at once we were struck by a wonderful view.
The Mohawk River in nearly its full breadth here rushed over
rocks sixty feet high. The color of the river was very dark.
I had seen some fine waterfalls in Tyrol, but none appeared
to me so majestic. No human dwelling was near the steep
rocks. The dark waves, when they struck the rocks, formed
278 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
a white foam. The tall forest trees which bordered the river
banks, and perhaps also the idea that we stood here on a spot
visited not very long ago by wild and warlike red men, made
a deep impression on me. It gave me the first impression of
being in a new and strange land.
The canal follows the course of the Mohawk, and at Little
Falls the river breaks over high rocks again and forms a beau-
tiful fall. We passed the then very flourishing towns of
Utica, Rome, Manlius, Syracuse, Canton, Montezuma, Pal-
myra, and I could not but smile at the pretentious names.
We reached Rochester early in the morning. It was even
then a beautiful city. An impenetrable forest only twenty
years before covered the spot where there are now rows of fine
stores, elegant public buildings, an observatory, and numerous
churches. It had already a population of 20,000 people. The
Genesee River runs through the city. Above, it has a fall of
considerable height, which sets in motion large flouring mills,
and immediately below the city there is a fall of 100 feet, the
view of which, as the rays of the rising sun illuminated it, was
really sublime.
One of the most interesting points on the Erie Canal was
Lockport, with a long string of finely built double locks. Of
course we proceeded very slowly. It was the fourth of July ;
and there was much firing of guns throughout the whole city.
We all took our double-barrelled guns and gave salutes. Our
firing between the high walls of the locks reverberated like
thunder, and the people of the place were much pleased and
cheered us loudly. At Tonawanda, the canal comes close to
the Niagara River. It was of a most beautiful color, and is as
wide as the Rhine at Bingen. Here we were only about ten
miles from the falls and were told that if the wind had been
favorable we could have heard the roar of these immense
waters. We all regretted that we could not stay at Buffalo,
but our party was too large and an excursion to the falls would
have been too expensive.
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 279
At last we reached Buffalo on the lake. It was then a
rising city with many fine buildings, but of course it was a
mere village as compared with the present large and beautiful
city. Our goods were at once transported on board the lake-
steamer plying between Buffalo and Cleveland. The steamer
was to leave the same evening. Mr. Engelmann, I believe, also
Theodore and myself, took a view of the city. There was a
great crowd at the public square near the Mansion House,
watching a parade of military companies and firemen. Some
two hundred Indians, men, women and children, also happened
to be around the square, having come to negotiate land-sales
with the Indian agency located at Buffalo. They were what
were called civilized Indians. They had donned something
like a European dress. Men and women wore high felt hats
and light blue trousers. But all had blankets slung around
them, and moccasins for shoes. The babies (papooses) were
tied on little boards, which the squaws had strapped to their
backs. Some of the women were slender and good-looking.
The men had high Roman noses. Upon the whole they looked
very much like gypsies.
We went into the Mansion House, where a banquet in
honor of the day was in progress, and upon paying a dollar
each we had a very good dinner, and after dessert some thun-
dering speeches. There was, of course, a good deal of gun-
firing and letting off of Chinese fire-crackers. This was our
first experience of a Fourth of July in America, and after a
lapse of fifty years the day is celebrated generally in the same
way as we saw it at Lockport and Buffalo. Sophie and I had
no idea then how many happy days we should pass at various
times in Buffalo and at the Falls, which she was always so
delighted to see and which it was always so hard for her to
part from.
Our boat did not leave until the next morning. We had
fine meals and good cabins, though the lake-boats at that time,
were not as elegant and comfortable as the Hudson River
boats and as the lake-boats became in years after. There
280 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
were about three hundred deck passengers, mostly Irish, and
some Swiss. The view on the lakes, interesting at first, soon
becomes monotonous. The shores on the American as well as
on the Canadian side are black. We met large numbers of
sailing vessels and a few steamers, some under the English
flag. Some of the passengers got seasick, but as we had but
lately crossed the Atlantic we felt no inconvenience. We had
left Buffalo at ten o'clock in the morning and reached Cleve-
land in the afternoon of the next day.
FROM CLEVELAND TO THE OHIO VIA THE CANAL
Cleveland, now one of the most beautiful cities in the
United States, in which in later years we were to pass many
pleasant days, was then a small place. The canal from thence
to the Ohio River in the South had then been finished only a
short time, and led in great part through a wilderness. The
northern and middle part of Ohio is low and flat, but eminently
fertile where it is cultivated. Dense and majestic forests lined
the canal on either side, and were interspersed only by occa-
sional clearings for farms and towns. Instead of felling the im-
mense trees the farmers in many places deadened them by
cutting rings around the trunks. After a while they fell
down and were burned up. But the stumps still remained,
which gave the cornfields a very dreary appearance. It began
to dawn on some of our party that making a farm in the woods
was no easy matter, and that it would be far beyond their
strength to cut down the trunks and grub up the roots of such
trees as we saw here.
As the canal followed the rivers and streams, it naturally
led through low places, and we were terribly annoyed by
swarms of big mosquitoes, which seemed to revel in our fresh
European blood. We passed by Massillon, followed the course
of the Muskingum, which empties into the Ohio at Marietta
and reached Circleville on the Scioto. Here are some very
large hills called mounds, generally supposed to have been the
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 281
burying places of races long passed away. On one of these
mounds, of a somewhat circular form, the town is situated.
Our journey was here interrupted by an accident. The
canal at this point was- carried over the river by a wooden
aqueduct, which had fallen down the day before our arrival.
The canal had literally fallen into the river and was im-
passable for some twenty miles. An incident of the kind was
not provided for in our contract, and here we had an oppor-
tunity of learning something of the sharpness of the Yankees.
We and our goods had to be transported by wagon to the next
boat-station, twenty miles distant. The captain wanted to
charge us with the expense of the carriage, which was con-
siderable. We protested. After a long and lively dispute
with the agent of the company, and only after we threatened
to remain on the boat until the canal was repaired, and so to
compel them to board us for that length of time, did we suc-
ceed in throwing the biggest part of the expense on the com-
pany. It was my first attempt at pleading law in the United
States.
The trip by land was rather pleasant. The weather was
delightful, the forests noble. We had to stop over night at a
farmhouse. This was a new experience. The farmer was a
Pennsylvania Dutchman, and the farm was a large and well
kept one. A big two-story log-house furnished ample room.
The breakfast was good. For the first time we found corn-
bread on the table. It looked very tempting. The crust was
well done and of an attractive brown color. We took it for
cake or pudding ; but when we tried to eat it, we all found it
abominable. And so' we men found the corn-whiskey detest-
able, though now well-made cornbread is to us delicious and
good mountain-dew corn-whiskey delightful.
I met on this land-trip with an accident. I was sitting
on a wagon filled with chests, trunks and barrels, containing
part of our goods. One wooden trunk, belonging to John
Scheel, was on top of the load, and I had taken my seat on it.
The road was very good and level, but from time to time it
282 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENER
ran across small rivulets forming ditches. When crossing such
a run there was always a considerable jerk. I had warned the
driver to drive slowly over such places. But it seemed that he
neglected the warning, or could not hold the horses, so that
at one of these places, while driving quite fast, we received
such a shock that the big trunk toppled over and I with it.
The trunk broke in pieces and part of it fell upon me, and
yet I was not hurt in the least. It was a most lucky escape.
Chillicothe, formerly the capital of Ohio, was the largest
place on the canal and really a very handsome town. We were
delayed a while there, and we young men took a very refresh-
ing swim in the Scioto River. The soil appeared exceedingly
fertile. The corn was often from ten to twelve feet high.
There were also woods near the town. At length we reached
the place where the canal was navigable again, and in about
twelve hours we reached Portsmouth on the Ohio, the south-
ern terminus of the canal, which has a length of 306 miles.
On the Erie and Ohio Canals together we had traveled 660
miles.
Portsmouth was then a small place, but pleasantly situ-
ated. On the opposite Kentucky shore fine tall forests crowned
the bluffs of the river, which is nearly as wide here as the
Rhine at Mayence. The water, however, is not nearly so clear
or transparent as that of our German river. It is only in
comparison with the other western streams, the waters of
which are more or less yellow or brown, that the earlier
French settlers could have called it "La Belle Riviere." Here
we were delayed two days. Some forty boats from Cincinnati
and Louisville passed us, but, though signaled, did not land.
The inn was very poor, the heat excessive, about ninety
degrees Fahrenheit. Our effects were all deposited on the
wharf, and most of us young men, finding it too hot to sleep
in the house, slept on the river-bank near our goods, wrapped
up in blankets. We had the pleasure also of bathing in the
river. At last the steamboat William Parson took us in late
in the evening. The next morning we landed in Cincinnati.
FROM HAVEE TO ST. LOUIS 283
In my description of this journey I called Cincinnati the
"Queen of the "West." "It is built on the hills rising from
the river to a considerable height. In the regularity, clean-
liness and beauty of its buildings it surpasses most cities of
the Union. A large court house, four market-houses, the Unit-
ed States Bank, the Athengeum, and the theatre are some of
the most remarkable buildings. Twenty-five churches testify to
the piety of its thirty thousand inhabitants. ' ' This was writ-
ten in 1833, and now this city certainly deserves the name of
"Queen," which was then perhaps somewhat premature. Ma-
terially, intellectually and artistically she stands second to
very few much larger cities. What pleasant and delightful
days have Sophie and I and some of my children repeatedly
spent there ! To the German element, so well and largely
represented, Cincinnati owes a great deal of her high repu-
tation for culture and prosperity.
The steamboats on the Western rivers are very differently
built from those in the East. They are high-pressure boats.
The cabins are not below, but on the deck. Very little is seen
of the machinery. The cabins are, however, comfortable
enough, even elegant, and there was more life and free and
easy conversation amongst the passengers than on the Hudson
River boats, owing to the fact that the passengers were mostly
Southern or Western people. Shortly below Cincinnati we left
the State of Ohio, and Indiana bordered the northern bank.
Some very handsome towns, such as Lawrenceburg, Aurora,
Rising Sun, and Vevay, were now passed. Vevay is the
county seat of Switzerland County, and here and at some
other places we met vineyards reminding us of our old home.
We heard different opinions about the wine made there. Some
years later, however, these regions and the country around
Cincinnati became celebrated for their vineyards, the Catawba
having proved the proper grape for the western parts of the
United States.
We soon landed at Louisville, the commercial capital of
Kentucky. It was also a very flourishing city, well built with
284
many very fine public buildings, regularly laid out with wide
streets. Our boat did not go any farther, and we had to take
another one for St. Louis. The Ohio River has here a con-
siderable fall, and the passage was when the river was low
very dangerous. A lately cut canal (Portland Canal)
around these rapids avoids this obstruction. We were delayed
nearly a whole day. We saw in Louisville many Germans;
most of them, however, belonged to the lower class. They
were people living on the river bank levees as they are
called in the West engaged in loading and unloading boats,
or keeping low boarding houses for laborers and deck hands.
That class of population in all river cities is of a bad character.
If we had got further into the interior of Louisville, we should
undoubtedly have found countrymen of whom we would not
have been ashamed. Our new boat was the "Metamora," a
very fine and elegant craft, which took our party on board at
the most reasonable price.
At Louisville we put our feet for the first time on slave
soil. What we heard here and what we saw, (for instance,
negroes chained together hauling water from the river,) con-
tributed to our detestation of the institution of slavery and
confirmed our determination not to settle in Missouri. In my
narrative I find here a rather prophetic passage: "As long
as the Southern States uphold the institution of slavery, so
long shall I believe that this beautiful structure of the United
States will break down, and so long will the liberty of the
whites, in which they now rejoice, be only a half-deserved
boon." This was written in July, 1833. In his ever memor-
able speech before the Republican State Convention in 1858
at Springfield, of which convention, I may remark in passing,
I was the president, Mr. Lincoln said: "I believe the Union
cannot endure half slave and half free. ' '
On the Indiana side the Wabash empties into the Ohio;
on the Kentucky side at Smithfield, the Cumberland River ; and
farther below at Paducah, the Tennessee. Both are rising
places. On the Illinois side is the small town of Shawneetown ;
FROM HAVRE TO ST. LOUIS 285
and where the Ohio strikes the Mississippi, there were a few
block houses called Trinity, a little above where the city of
Cairo now stands on the point surrounded on the west by the
Mississippi and on the south by the Ohio.
The mighty Mississippi surprised me much. It was at
the junction more than a mile wide. Its current was strong,
the color of it nearly like loam. Large trunks of trees, torn
off almost daily with the soil on which they stood from the
low banks (bottoms) of the river, floated on the surface; often,
however, they had stuck fast in the bottom of the river, form-
ing what are called snags, very dangerous to navigation. There
are a great many islands in the river, and so it is not always
seen in its full width. The character of the banks is peculiar.
When the hills (bluffs), often very rocky, are the boundary
of the stream on one side for many miles, on the other side
these hills lie back four or five miles, forming what are called
the bottoms, alluvial soil, immensely rich, and at that time
mostly covered by very tall and thick forests. Some hundred
miles above the junction of the two rivers are splendid hilly
ranges, with perpendicular rocks enclosing the river. One of
these rocks is called Grand Tower, another the Devil's Bake
Oven.
We passed Cape Girardeau, an old French settlement
located on a sort of peninsula. St. Genevieve is another
French town on the Missouri side. It has a very French look,
and is pleasantly situated on a limestone hill surrounded by
orchards. On the Missouri side there is an almost uninter-
rupted range of limestone rocks, crowned by cedar trees, al-
most as far up as Jefferson Barracks, a large military station.
A few miles further on we saw the steeples of Carondelet, a
suburb of St. Louis, and soon landed in that city itself, the
long wished-for goal of our long, long journey.
CHAPTER XIII
Early German Settlements in Illinois
St. Louis at that time had about 8,000 inhabitants. It
was at the saison morte (dead season), hi a double sense. July
is the hottest month of the year almost everywhere, and it was
particularly hot this year. The river was very low, few small
boats were running, and there was little trading going on.
The year before, the cholera had been very severe almost over
the whole of the United States, and it was even still lingering
in the river towns, several fatal cases happening every day.
But the local disease, violent bilious fever, was more fatal
still.
THE OUTLOOK
A party of emigrants that had left Havre just ten days
before we did, and in which there were many friends and ac-
quaintances of the Engelmann family, had arrived in St.
Louis by way of New Orleans about a week before. They had
lost several of their party at New Orleans, and a greater num-
ber on the boat coming up. Most of them had died of cholera.
This was distressing news. Soon our own circle was to be
visited.
As soon as the boat landed, Mr. Engelmann, Mr. Abend,
myself and a few others went out into the city to look for a
place of temporary residence. Afterwards inquiries were to
be made, and the country visited in search of a permanent
farm-home. The idea of purchasing wild government land
had already been given up. Our family must buy land at
least partly improved with houses on it. The house Mr. En-
gelmann rented was on what is now Third Street, between
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 287
Olive and Pine, on the west side. It had just been built, was
two stories high, contained four large rooms and one small
one, a kitchen and a pantry in the wing, and some garret-
rooms. If I recollect aright, it belonged to a Dr. Lane. In
the afternoon some bedsteads and tables and chairs were
purchased. Bedding the family had brought along; and in
the evening we moved in. Mr. Abend also moved his family
into a house.
We had notified our relatives of our arrival. Theodore
Hilgard and Edward Hilgard, sons of Fred Hilgard of Speyer,
had some years previously concluded to emigrate to the United
States. They had attended the agricultural institute at
Hohenheim in Wuertemberg, their intention being to carry
on farming. A nephew of Mr. Hilgard of Speyer, Theodore
J. Kraft, who had been a friend and fellow-student of mine
at Heidelberg and a member of the Burschenschaft, fearing
prosecution by the government, had also emigrated. Theo-
dore Hilgard and Kraft had both been students of law. They
left Germany in 1832, but stayed for a time in Pennsylvania
with a wealthy German whom they had known at home and
who was conducting a large farm, their object being to make
themselves familiar with the American mode of farming. I
believe Mr. Gustave Heimberger, of whom I have spoken be-
fore, accompanied them. In the spring they had gone West;
had looked around in Missouri and several counties in Illi-
nois; and after a thorough examination of the conditions,
Theodore and Edward had purchased, for four thousand dol-
lars, in St. Clair County, about twenty miles east of St. Louis,
a farm of some four hundred acres, of rich prairie and timber
land. It was a most beautiful place, originally owned by a
well-to-do Virginian, and by far the greatest part of the land
was under cultivation, and well fenced. A large and excellent
orchard was near the house, which was some hundred yards
from a post-road leading from St. Louis to Shawneetown on
the Ohio, on which three times a week a stage ran. The house
itself, though one or two rooms were not quite finished, was,
288
according to the modest requirements of the time, large and
commodious. It was of frame, weather-boarded, and painted
white, with green window-shutters. What made its situation
particularly beautiful, was the large lawn in front of the
house, with a double row of acacias, and nearby were some
tall Lombardy poplars. A moderately high range of well-
timbered hills, extending from near Belleville towards Silver
Creek, was in view on the south and not more than a mile or
two off, lending to the surrounding country, which was in
itself attractive, a great charm. Hilgard, Kraft and Heim-
berger lived there, keeping bachelor's hall.
Theodore Hilgard was the first to visit us in St. Louis,
and remained several days. A day or two afterwards Dr.
George Engelmann, who had left Germany a year before, but
had gone West at once, and who had been living at various
places in the neighborhood of St. Louis, exploring the country,
geologizing and botanizing, also came to St. Louis to see his
uncle's family. Edward Hilgard and Theodore Kraft like-
wise called ; and so we found ourselves at once surrounded by
relatives, Theodore, Edward and Kraft being the grand-
nephews of Mr. Engelmann. For new-comers in a strange
land it was of course quite a relief to find ourselves made wel-
come by dear friends, who had already some knowledge of the
country, and who could give valuable information and advice.
Mr. Henry Abend had been somewhat unwell while we
were on the river. His illness was ascribed to the excessive
heat and the drinking of the river water. But it took a ser-
ious turn shortly after our landing in St. Louis, and within
a week or so he died of bilious fever. Mr. Henry Abend was
a somewhat tall and spare man, but muscular and wiry. His
features showed vivacity and kindness. He was an active,
energetic business man, and having brought with him con-
siderable means, he would certainly have succeeded in any
line of business he might have chosen to pursue. To add to
the terrible affliction of his family, the oldest son and the
oldest daughter, aged respectively about twelve and fourteen
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 289
years, also died within a week or two. Mr. Abend left a
widow and five young children to deplore his loss. Fortunately,
Mr. Joseph Abend, a younger brother of Henry, a quiet and
very sensible man, had come along with the family. He was
a saddler and harness-maker by trade, and had seen a great
deal of the world (he afterwards wrote a narrative of his
travels) in the pursuit of his trade in Europe and Asia. He
acted as the adviser of the family, which moved over to St.
Glair County, where Mrs. Abend bought a small farm, not far
from the Shiloh meeting-house. Widow Abend was still young
and handsome, showing that she must have been remarkably
beautiful. She was still a good-looking woman, when she
died many years afterwards. She was of a sweet disposition,
and she and her children, who, from the beginning, lived near
the Engelmann family, retained the most friendly relations
with us, which became closer still when the eldest son, Ed-
ward, married the fair Anna, the daughter of Theodore Hil-
gard, Jr.
Our own circle did not escape the terrible angel of death.
The beautiful and lovely Friedericka, the adopted daughter
of the family, was taken down with bilious fever. She was at
once attended by Dr. Geiger, who had come via New Orleans,
a physician of considerable note in the old country and a
friend of the family. Dr. Engelmann, though a young phy-
sician, was considered very learned in his profession, and as-
sisted Dr. Geiger. But as the disease had in the other cases
turned out so fatal and showed different symptoms from sim-
ilar diseases in Germany, both at once advised calling in an
American doctor. So a physician of the highest repute in the
city was sent for. But in spite of all the efforts of the doc-
tors and the most careful nursing by the girls, lovely Fried-
ericka died within ten days. Mr. Ruppelius, who was en-
gaged to be married to her, was, of course, deeply affected, but
not more so than the rest of us. Hardly had we consigned
Friedericka to the grave when Betty, the youngest daughter,
was taken down with a sort of a typhoid fever, giving rise to
290 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the greatest anxiety. In fact, she did not fully recover for
a month or so, and her mother and some of her sisters did not
leave St. Louis until some weeks after Mr. Engelmann and
the rest of the family had settled in Illinois.
It required some fortitude to go through these trials.
The funeral bells were ringing nearly all the time in St. Louis.
Death and severe sickness had visited us. Everybody expected
to be taken down any day ; we were uncertain where we were
to settle, and the future, in general, looked dark. But I must
say that the fortitude of Mr. Engelmann and most of the
family was equal to the occasion.
SEEKING A HOME IN ILLINOIS
I had gone over with Theodore Hilgard to Illinois, and
had stayed a day or two on his farm. I liked the country
much. To be sure, there was, right opposite St. Louis, a wide
plain, heavily timbered in part and partly covered with lakes.
This was a portion of what was called the American bottom-
land, extending from Alton, above St. Louis on the Mississippi,
where the hills come close to the river, to Chester where the
river is once more bounded by steep hills. This bottom is
nearly one hundred miles long and from four to six miles wide,
of immense fertility, and had been a favorite place with the
Indians. Very few Americans at the time I speak of had
settled in this valley, but it had been for more than a century
and a half a point of attraction for the French and Canadian
French, who found no difficulty in living among the Indians, a
thing that the Anglo-Saxon never was able to do. These
French lived in villages. Being a sociable people, they had
their arable lands, though owned in severalty, all inclosed by
one fence, and they had, besides, large tracts of unenclosed
land, belonging to them in common, for pasture and for tim-
ber and fire-wood. Their fields were called common fields,
their pastures and woodlands ''commons/' Their titles they
derived from French grants. Their principal villages in these
bottoms were Cantine, French Village, Prairie du Pont,
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 291
Cahokia (founded in 1682), Fort Chartres, Prairie du Rocher
and Kaskaskia.
Beyond this bottom, which in winter and the rainy season
was a terrible place to get through, (the soil being altogether
alluvial, having at one time undoubtedly been a part of the
bed of the Mississippi River,) the hills rose from 300 to 500
feet in height, and the country became rolling, partly prairie,
partly beautiful timberland. Reaching the hills, we found
many well-kept farms along the road ; afterwards we passed on
to Belleville, which, lying partly in the valley of Richland
Creek, partly on the hills bordering the creek, made a pleas-
ant impression, though it was then a small place, containing
not more than seven or eight hundred people. But it was
the county-seat, had a court-house and a jail, a post-office,
four or five stores, two inns and a flour mill (ox-mill), saw-
mill, four lawyers, as many doctors, and, of course, a news-
paper. The Governor (Edwards) had resided there, but had
died shortly before. It appeared to be a lively place and
on the rise.
I visited some of the neighboring farms and was very
well satisfied. The soil was very rich; there were fine woods
and good water. I made on my return a very favorable
report. Mr. Engelmann also went over and stayed several
days. He finally concluded to buy a farm some two miles
north of the Hilgard place. It contained about 120 acres,
forty of which were under cultivation. It was an old place.
The owner was Ben Watts, and both he and his wife were over
seventy years of age. Their children had all married, and so
the old folks were hardly able to carry on the farm. Save
for a large and most excellent orchard, which had a great rep-
utation in the neighborhood for its delicious peaches, the rest
of the farm showed neglectful tilling. The fences were not
in the best condition; wells had been attempted but had
failed, having been dug either not deep enough or not at the
right place. The stables were log-stables, and the out-houses
were in a state of decay. The house, however, was a good
292 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
substantial double log-house of sound whiteoak timber, con-
taining two tolerably large rooms, and a small frame one, par-
titioned off from a little porch or veranda on the south side.
There was a garret, but it was not then habitable, having
neither ceiling nor a good floor, and being covered only with
flat boards. A miserable excuse for a cellar was near one of
the large chimneys.
The place had, however, a very handsome location. I
have already stated that from Belleville, in a somewhat south-
easterly direction, a range of hills, called Turkey Hill,
stretched south of the Hilgard farm to Silver Creek, some ten
miles distant. Another range of hills extended from Belle-
ville in a northeasterly direction towards the town of Lebanon,
twelve miles distant. In a clearing about half way between
the latter place and Belleville stood an ancient Methodist
meeting-house in which camp-meetings were held, the name
of it being Shiloh. A post-road to Vincennes, Indiana, passed
by the meeting-house, on which a stage ran twice a week at
first, and six times a week not long afterwards. The old Watts
farm stood but a little more than half a mile south of Shiloh,
from which the hill slopes down gently into a valley, now
called the Shiloh valley. Shiloh being the highest point, the
situation of the Watts farm was also high, commanding to the
south a view of Turkey Hill. The house, garden and orchard
stood near the northern line and was protected by fine timber.
Immediately west of the house, inside of the fence, was a row
of fine catalpas; the tillable land lying south on the down
slope. About a hundred yards to the west ran a brook of
pretty clear water, with rather steep banks. Near this brook
was an excellent spring, which gave us plenty of good cold
drinking water, so that a well was not a very pressing need.
The cattle could find water at almost any place on the stream.
Old Mr. Watts was anxious to sell. The land was poorer than
prairie land, and he offered to sell it, together with some per-
sonal property, at five dollars per acre.
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 293
The only trouble was this. How was our party, consist-
ing at that time of about sixteen persons, to be housed in two
and one-fourth rooms. This was to be considered before mak-
ing a final purchase.
Immediately adjoining the old place on the south, a son
of Mr. Watts, lately married, had a farm of one hundred
acres. There were only about twenty acres under cultivation,
the rest being fine tall timber. Young Watts was a carpenter
by trade, and he had built himself what was then considered a
very good house. It was one story and a half high, with two
tolerably large rooms on each floor and good solid chimneys.
It was weather-boarded, shingled and well painted. The best
room in the house, however, was not finished on the inside, and
was not plastered. Near the house was a well, with most
excellent drinking water, and not far off was a little pond fed
by springs, which furnished all the needful water for cattle
and washing purposes. Mr. Engelmann could not well afford
to buy this place in addition. It so happened, however, that
Doctor George had been entrusted by his uncle Joseph in
Heidelberg with funds to invest in land, and so he offered to
buy the lower farm for his uncle, to be occupied and used at
present by the Engelmann family, and to be purchased by
them or some of them when convenient. This was a most
favorable arrangement. The bargain was soon concluded.
The old Watts folks were to move down to the farm of their
son, who would be ready to leave it and surrender it to the
Engelmanns in about a month. Owing to this agreement,
and also to the sickness of our lovely and amiable little Betty,
a few only of our party could move out immediately to take
possession of the old place. I was to be one of them.
ST. LOUIS IN 1833
Perhaps I may say something at this point about how St.
Louis appeared to me at that time. The hills at St. Louis,
and in fact for many miles above and below it, came right
down to the river-bank. The city rose terrace-like from the
294
river up to where Third Street is now. Thence for a con-
siderable distance there was quite a plateau. On the wharf
was a tier of stone warehouses and taverns and grog-shops ; on
Main or Second Street were retail stores and many dwelling-
houses, hotels, banks, etc. Third Street was mostly residences.
So was Fourth; though here they were few and far between.
From the higher part of the city, one had a good view of the
American Bottom opposite and of the bluffs in Illinois at a
distance. On the Illinois bank, right oposite St. Louis, were
a few houses forming the town of Illinoistown, now the
populous city of East St. Louis. One solitary, but large,
ferry-boat made the connection between the opposite shores.
St. Louis was even then a most important shipping-point. The
river furnished the only mode of transportation, railroads not
coming into existence until some twenty years later. The
tobacco, hemp and corn raised on and near the banks of the
mighty Missouri River, had to come to St. Louis to be shipped
by the commission-houses down the Mississippi to Memphis,
Vicksburg and finally to New Orleans. So had all the prod-
ucts of the upper Mississippi and the Illinois River, particu-
larly the lead from the rich mines of Illinois and Wisconsin ;
while the towns and cities on those rivers were supplied in turn
by St. Louis with the dry-goods and groceries they wanted.
From St. Louis started the expeditions of hunters and trap-
pers sent off every spring into the Rocky Mountains by the
American Fur Company (John Jacob Astor), as did also the
caravans destined by St. Louis merchants for the town of Inde-
pendence on the Missouri and thence to Santa Fe, New Mex-
ico, a most profitable trade, New Mexico paying for the
groceries, calico, tinware and green cheese thus sent in hard
Mexican silver dollars. One of the principal commission-
houses was that of Edward Tracy & Co., to whom I had letters
of recommendation from New York, and through whom I
afterwards received and sent my European packages.
In spite of the uneasiness and anxiety under which we
all labored during the first weeks in St. Louis, some of us
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 295
young men, Theodore Hilgard, Gustave Heimberger, Schrei-
ber and myself, explored the city pretty well. We went bath-
ing in what was called Choteau's Pond, a lake, a mile or more
distant from the city limits and surrounded by trees and
bushes. We discovered far to the south in the city a brewery,
conducted by an Englishman or a Scotchman, with rather
indifferent beer. We found a better place in Main Street.
It was a kind of confectionery and restaurant, kept by a
Frenchman by the name of Papin, a very fine and respectable
old person. He also kept light wines and soda water. The
claret, (there being no duty on wines,) was excellent and
cheap. We patronized this place, and I may here mention
an incident, which in many respects is not uninteresting, as it
shows how easy it was at that time to make a living, even for
a green immigrant. Amongst ourselves we talked German,
with the old gentleman French, and with his clerk or bar-
keeper, English. Not long before I left St. Louis for Illinois,
I had been there with some friends, and in going out Mr.
Papin very politely begged me to stay a few moments. ' ' Mon-
sieur," said he, ''my barkeeper is going to leave me. He
cannot talk anything but Yankee. Now, Monsieur, you speak
the French very well, so you do the German, and you under-
stand English, and speak it also tolerably well. Will you
not stay with me? You will have a nice room to yourself,
good board and twenty dollars a month." At first I felt
offended, but on a moment's reflection I appreciated the good
old man 's offer, thanked him very cordially and pleaded prior
engagements. It must be remembered that twenty dollars at
that time was as much as fifty dollars now. Upon the whole,
this was encouraging. If everything should fail, I could at
least fall back on Mr. Papin, who, by the way, belonged to
a very respectable French family, some of whom still live in
St. Louis and move in the very best circles. The Creole
French element was then, if not preponderating, at least as far
as numbers and particularly wealth were concerned, equal to
the American. The large family of the Choteaus, the Sar-
296 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
pies, the Benoists, the Longueniarres, the Bogys, the Beauvais
and many others were then living there, as many of their
descendants do yet. They had become wealthy, partly through
the fur and Indian trade, and partly through the rise of real
estate. Nearly one-half of the people we met on the streets
were black or mulattoes. The balance of the population were
Americans, mixed with a good many Irish and Germans.
The Americans were almost to a man from the Southern
States. Passing the court-house, we saw colored men, women
and children sold at auction. We were also shown a sort of
prison, where refractory slaves were confined at the request
of their masters or were whipped at their masters' cost, by
men regularly appointed for that purpose. This was, as we
were told, a purely private institution. From the second
story of our residence we could see into the yard of a neigh-
boring house, where we once saw what appeared to be an
American lady, lashing a young slave girl with a cow hide.
Had there still been a lingering disposition in the Engelmann
or Abend family to settle in Missouri, these scenes would have
quenched it forever.
ON A FARM IN ILLINOIS
On the third of August, (John Scheel, his sister Mari-
anna, and Theodore Engelmann, I believe, having preceded
us,) Mr. Engelmann, Sophie, Ruppelius, myself, and Doctor
Engelmann, started for the upper farm. A farm-wagon
drawn by two yoke of oxen had been hired to move our goods
from St. Louis. Early in the morning it came to our door.
It was a large wagon, with a long and high box, and held
nearly all our things. Doctor Engelmann was on horseback.
We others walked to the ferry-boat, but once over the river,
we seated ourselves comfortably on some of the mattresses.
It was terribly hot and the dust at many places was six inches
deep. Shortly after we reached the bluffs, we stopped at a
farm-house. The air on the hills was much better. On the
side of the house was a large trellis on which hung large and
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 297
beautiful grapes. They were not yet ripe, and were of a kind
called Isabella, which makes a good eating grape but a very
indifferent wine. Mr. Engelmann was delighted to see such
fine grapes, and still more so when the owner of the farm
asked us whether we would not like to drink some of his wild
grape wine. Of course we were all curious to taste it. It
was really very good, though it had been doctored a little by
an addition of sugar, the American having no liking for wine
unless it is sweet. Indeed, I have heard Americans who were
excellent judges of brandy, Madeira or sherry, pronounce the
finest and most aromatic Rhine wines as unfit to drink, and as
sour as vinegar. Of course, the taste has now been much
trained in this respect in this country, and good Rhine wine is
appreciated very generally.
About two o'clock in the afternoon we reached Belleville.
On Main Street, our caravan, which had excited the curiosity
of the few people there, halted at a tavern, the Virginia
House. No wonder that we excited astonishment. The doctor
was on a very fine horse. Mr. Engelmann, of imposing stature
and wearing a mustache and chin beard a la Henri Quatre,
looked like a military officer of high rank; Sophie appeared
as a young lady, while Ruppelius and I carried double-bar-
relled shot-guns. Beards at that time were not worn by
Americans, save English side-whiskers, by the select few.
The fashion of wearing beards did not arise till after the Mex-
ican War in 1848, when our citizen soldiers mostly returned
bearded. And this decidedly reputable, but very foreign-
looking party, came in an ox wagon! A year or two after-
wards, when emigration was pouring into this region of the
country, our appearance would not have been particularly
noticed.
"When we alighted, a tall, lean, white-haired man, as
straight as a pole, in a shabby blue swallow-tailed dress-coat
with brass buttons and a nankeen, rather shortlegged trousers,
a brownish, worn-out high hat on his head, very self-possessed,
and with a very red nose and closed lips, showed us into a
298 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
small room, serving as a general hall and parlor at the same
time. It was Major Doyle, a Virginian, who had evidently
seen better days, but who had now condescended to keep an
inn at Belleville. We went in, and as I expressed a desire
to wash, we were shown through the kitchen into a small
yard, where there was a shaky sort of a long pine bench, on
which stood two tin wash pans. A little black boy drew a
bucket of water from the well, and with the help of a pint
tin cup poured the water into the wash pans, one of which
had several holes in it stopped up with strings of tow.
After we had washed, we bethought ourselves of having
something to eat. I asked the Major very innocently for
some lunch. He seemed very much surprised. "Sir," said
he to me, "supper will be ready at six o'clock. We have
nothing in the house to eat between meals. ' ' Mr. Engelmann
grew somewhat angry. ' ' What is this a tavern and we can
get no kind of refreshment? You ought to take down the
sign from your house." While we were discussing the mat-
ter, Mrs. Doyle, a small, round, but very kindly looking lady,
entered the room. Finding out what was going on, she
remarked, looking up at the Major in a sort of beseeching way,
that she could make us a cup of coffee. She had no bread:
they made their bread for each meal ; but she would send down
to the baker's shop and get us some. Butter she had.
Of course, we accepted her offer. In the meantime, how-
ever, Mr. Engelmann thought it right to order a bottle of wine.
The Major looked still more astonished. "We keep no liq-
uors in this house. ' ' Mr. Engelmann now grew quite excited ;
for that in a tavern a man could get nothing to drink appeared
to him the height of absurdity, the more so as the landlord
bore the evident marks of being a hard drinker. However,
things were arranged. There was, right across the way, the
Major said, a liquor store kept by a man by the name of Carr,
nicknamed Brandy Carr, where we could get wine ; so I went
over and for seventy-five cents I bought a bottle of very good
St. Julien. We refreshed ourselves, and after awhile the
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 299
coffee came in, which was, as Southern people know how to
make it, pretty good.
About four o'clock we resumed our journey. It was a
beautiful road ; nearly all the way fine, tall, beautiful timber,
whiteoak, walnut, hickory, wild cherry, maple and sycamore;
now and then there were openings, where wild roses, black-
berry and hawthorne bushes grew. We passed also some fine
farms. At last, about six miles from Belleville, at the Shiloh
meeting-house, we turned from the main road to the south,
and through a fine woodland we saw before us the old farm-
house. John, Marianna, Theodore and Schreiber came out
to greet us.
Our wagon was unloaded. The bedding was placed on
the one plain wooden bedstead, part of the furniture bought
with the place. Besides this old bedstead, there were included
in the purchase, half a dozen old hickory chairs, a table, a
bench, an iron kettle, a skillet or two, a few buckets, a plough
and other farming utensils, a good cow and calf, some fifteen
or twenty head of sheep and many chickens.
When night came, Mr. Engelmann and one of his sons
took the bed. The girls turned down the chairs against the
wall, put pillows and mattresses on the floors, and we young
folks, the Doctor, Theodore, John Scheel, Schreiber, Ruppelius
and I, lay down on them in a row. Sophie and Marianna
made their bed on the floor in the veranda room. This
arrangement was continued until the rest of the family
arrived. Then the young gentlemen, the two young boys,
and Sophie and Marianna moved down to the lower farm
where the rest of the family were, and we young men occupied
the old place.
The first days we passed looking around and killing some
squirrels. The orchards first claimed our attendance. The
crop of apples and peaches of the choicest kind was really
immense. We partly lived on them. The apples were cooked
or roasted. We had flour for bread, but no meat except game.
John and Schreiber were good shots. Theodore was also a
300 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
hunter. I was a tolerably good marksman at the time, and
so was Doctor Engelmann, who was the possessor of a fine
long American rifle, shooting very small balls. We often
amused ourselves in this way, and with pistols. I killed a
good many squirrels, but Schreiber, who had more patience
than I, always carried home twice as many as I did. But I
will not anticipate. A good yoke of oxen was purchased, and
a very valuable mare, well broken to harness and a good
trotter. There was no wagon, but Watts had left an old heavy
sledge. The wheat had all been reaped and sold before we
came. The corn was about ripe. There were a few vegetables
in the garden; a potato patch; and a large crop of tomatoes,
though the value of this delicious fruit was then unknown
to us and therefore not appreciated; in fact, tomatoes were
considered by the new-comers as unwholesome and even pois-
onous ; while now we should not like to live in a country where
we could not get this glorious fruit in all its forms. The
wheat stubble field had to be plowed, the corn had soon to be
gathered, and the fences repaired.
Mr. Engelmann was really the only practical farmer.
Raised at Bacharach, where his father was pastor and super-
intendent, and had in his parsonage some land and a very
large garden, he had occasion to learn something of farming.
Having been appointed district-surveyor under the Napoleonic
government, he had an opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the soils and the crops, and had lived a great deal with
the farmers and peasants. After his appointment as district-
forester, and later as master of forests, as already stated, he
had bought a small farm at Imsbach with a large well-built
house upon it. Though he had not himself done the digging
and plowing, he had had to oversee the farm-hands and had
thus become familiar with the cultivation of all the ordinary
farm-products, as grains, grasses, potatoes, etc. Theodore
showed no liking for farming, nor did Louis much, he having
been educated as an apothecary. Though I must say that I
could at least tell wheat from rye and oats, owing to my wide
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 301
youthful travels, a thing that many people from the old
country did not know when they first tried their hands at
farming, I was utterly averse to farm-work.
Our life on the upper farm was really a romantic one.
American and German neighbors called frequently. As Doc-
tor George and I spoke English "pretty plain," as the Amer-
icans said, we soon got well acquainted with our American
neighbors. They were all very kind and accommodating.
Some were great hunters and good for nothing else, but clever
fellows after all. For our meals we had to go down to the
lower farm three times a day. That I spent much time where
Sophie was may be imagined. We hardly ever went back at
night before ten o'clock.
LOOKING FORWAED
What, now, was I to do? My first idea was to turn to
journalism. The last year I was at Frankfort I had written
many articles for the Liberal papers, had corresponded occa-
sionally for the "Mannheimer Zeitung" and Wirth's "Trib-
une." When in Paris, Mr. Savoye, who was supporting
himself by writing for German and French papers and was
about to publish a monthly review devoted to familiarizing
the French with the latest German literature, had asked me
to become a correspondent, saying that sketches from the
United States would be quite interesting. There was already
a German newspaper published in New York, and Mr. Wessel-
hoeft had just issued a prospectus for publishing "Die Alte
und Neue Welt" at Philadelphia. I expected that correspon-
dence from the then "Far West" would be quite readily
received by this paper. Besides, through brother Charles, I
might get into relations with German journals and reviews.
Living as a member of the Engelmann family, my needs were
few, and I was determined to make myself self-supporting
and independent. To pursue the legal profession was only a
faint wish. I thought it too difficult, on account of my speak-
ing but imperfectly the language of the country, where all the
302 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
pleadings in court were oral. But whether I chose the one
career or the other, the first thing to do was to make myself
acquainted with the history of the country, its geography, its
institutions and laws.
I went to work resolutely. A brief but good history of
Illinois and Missouri by Peck, a Baptist minister, who kept
a boys' academy at Rock Spring, only a few miles from our
farm, was first read. A very brief and bad history of the
United States, and a life of Washington also came into my
hands. Through Doctor George I had the use of that excel-
lent work of T. Flint, "History and Geography of the Mis-
sissippi Valley" (1832). For the sake of information and
also of exercising my English, I translated the Declaration of
Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution
of the United States, and the Constitution of Illinois. One
American neighbor kept the ' ' Missouri Republican, ' ' the larg-
est and best paper published in St. Louis (tri-weekly at the
time), which I read attentively so as to get acquainted at
once with the prevailing politics of the country. Besides, I
consider the reading of the journals of a country by a for-
eigner as the best mode of learning the character of the peo-
ple. Even if such a newspaper gave only advertisements, it
would be of great value towards attaining a good idea of the
people. I may even say, (and I speak from experience,)
that advertisements are the very best teachers of a people's
character.
To make myself not quite unuseful to my friends, I pro-
posed to give the boys, Jacob and Adolph, regular lessons in
German and English, writing and ciphering. This was cheer-
fully accepted. They would come after breakfast and stay a
couple of hours. After Mrs. Abend had moved on her farm
near us, her two young sons, Edward and Adolph, joined the
class. Of course there were interruptions, and, when winter
set in, it was often too cold for the boys to come. According
to my recollection, Josephine also took a hand in the teach-
ing of her younger brothers and of Betty, a task for which
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 303
she was well qualified. Upon the whole, I worked tolerably
hard, yet still found leisure to read some light literature:
Washington Irving, Bulwer's novels, and books on the United
States written by Germans, Englishmen, and even French-
men.
Some time in September I was greatly surprised by the
arrival of an old university friend, Charles Friedrich. In
my various visits to Leipsic I had become well acquainted
with him. His father was a land-owner of considerable means,
and he was to be his successor on his large farm. He had
attended lectures on agriculture, but had paid more attention
to the club-house, the riding-school and the fencing-hall. Hav-
ing been a member of the Burschenschaft, and a great many
of its members having been arrested in Germany, he thought it
best to leave. He had been some time in the East, at Balti-
more or Philadelphia, had accidentally learned my address
and had at once made a bee-line to the upper farm. He had
many peculiarities. Taciturn and not disposed to make
acquaintances, he was prone to suspect people, and was very
sensitive ; but when once a friend, he was a reliable one, and
ready to make any sacrifices. Of medium size, he was broad-
shouldered, long-armed and of great muscular strength. He
was hard-featured, and several deep scars across the face
showed that he had not avoided quarrels. We got him board
at a neighbor's, Robert Hughes, who had a fine farm and a
good house, but Friedrich spent most of his time in our quar-
ters. He knew something of theoretical farming, but did not
like its hard labor. He bought himself at once a splendid
saddle-horse, Lizzie, of which we made frequent use. Ruppe-
lius also purchased a horse ; so that with Doctor George 's and
Mr. Engelmann's horses we were well provided. We had
much use for them. The horse which Mr. Engelmann had
bought, though very valuable, had a very bad fault. She
could jump most any kind of a fence, however high, and she
accordingly frequently broke out of the pasture in the night
and ran off to her own pasturing grounds, some three miles
304 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
off, on Ridge Prairie. Joining gangs of horses there, we had
to hunt her for miles in the prairie, jumping ditches to cut
her off from her companions and driving her into some corner.
This running of horses was our delight, and it made us, if not
very elegant, at least very bold riders. I was a sort of foreign
minister to the family. Not pretending to work on the farm,
I was supposed to be always at leisure, and so I did most of the
errands, brought letters to the post-office at Belleville and
called for our letters and papers. If any necessaries were
wanting, I was sent to town to get them. Also, oftentimes I
rode down to Mitchell's Mill, about three miles south, to buy
flour, which was bagged and thrown across the horse 's crupper.
DEER-HUNTING
In September, Theodore killed the first deer, a young one.
It was quite an event. The proper season for hunting deer
had now opened. The Americans shot them by stealth. It
was called still-hunting. Early in the morning they went out
for them, seeking them in their lairs, or as they stood still or
drank at a branch or pond. Indeed, they could not hunt
otherwise. They had no shot-guns, but only long, heavy
rifles of very small calibre, which could hardly be used with-
out a rest. The rifle was a very heavy weapon, and the Amer-
icans at that time were very excellent shots. At one hundred
and fifty yards they seldom missed. Wild turkeys they could
kill only while roosting, and squirrels and coons while they
were sitting in the branches of the trees. Prairie chickens
and quail and wild geese and ducks they could not bring down.
Our foresters taught them a new mode, driving. When
we saw traces of deer in certain quarters of the woods, one of
us, usually John Scheel, who was the best hunter amongst
us, and was particularly skilful in shooting birds on the wing,
whether on foot or on horseback, accompanied by an old
Scotch shepherd dog, Collie, would start from a certain point
in the timber and walk quietly and leisurely forward. The
dog, the moment he scented deer, would give a deep plaintive
EAELY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 305
bark and would very slowly pursue the scent. A half a mile
off in the opposite directions from where the drivers started,
a chain of hunters would be formed, distant from one another
about 100 yards. The deer would run away from the barking,
usually in a straight line, and would pass through the chain.
We all had good double-barrelled shot-guns, one barrel rifled,
with a bullet in it, the other a smooth-bore, loaded with buck-
shot. It was very seldom that in such a drive one or more
deer were not shot. The first winter, 1833-34, there were
thirty-four deer killed around our farm by our party, which
gave us excellent meat; and Theodore tanned the hides very
well for an amateur tanner. The flesh is far better than that
of the German hart, but perhaps not so good as that of our
roe. I can claim no credit in this slaughter. I went along
several times but never had a chance to shoot, and if I had I
should very probably have missed.
I noted in a diary, which I kept for some time, that in
September we had for three days in succession violent thunder-
storms. During the nights there was constant sheet-lightning,
a thing very unusual to us. On the first of October, after
some very hot days, we had a regular cyclone, which threat-
ened to take off the roof of our log-house. A large oak tree
between the two farms had been wrenched in two by lightning
a few days before.
Most of our American neighbors belonged to the Meth-
odist Church. They were a very dry set of people, ortho-
dox in a measure, and great church-goers, but still not of that
sentimental mystical piety which we find in Germany in some
sects. Of course, there was no intolerance, and it happened
frequently that the husband belonged to no church, or, as
it was called, to the "big church," while the mother was a
Methodist and some of the children Baptists. The tracts
which these different sects distributed were horrible, tedious
and sour as vinegar, but not near so childish and tasteless as
those of the Pietists in Germany and Switzerland.
306 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNEE
GERMAN EMIGRATION SOCIETIES
During the fall I received a good many letters from home
and from my friends. Those from my family were full of
love and tenderness. All of them more or less expressed a
hope of reunion in America. Charles had serious thoughts of
coming over, if he could dispose of his business, and of bring-
ing our mother and sisters. They were all much distressed by
the political reaction which had set in, and were not without
fears for Charles, whose Liberal views were well known, and
who certainly was suspected of having had more or less knowl-
edge of our rising at Frankfort. I did not encourage their
ideas of emigration. For Charles there was no chance of
setting up in the bookseller's business, either in the East or
in the "West. I had carefully informed myself on this sub-
ject, having corresponded with friends in Philadelphia. Many
years ago attempts were made in St. Louis by Germans to
open book-stores, but they all failed. There was not even an
English book-store in St. Louis at this time, and it was not
until twenty years after our arrival that there was one that
could be called respectable. Mother's health was good for
her age, but Augusta, who had been sickly from youth, had
in late years become very susceptible to bilious cholic, and
was afflicted with a general weakness of the stomach, so that
the climate might have been very pernicious to her. Pauline,
who had been in perfect health and beauty since she was about
eighteen years old, had, by imprudent exposure in returning
from a heated ball-room, been taken down with pleurisy and
her lungs had been weak ever since. Indeed, for years she
had to go either to Kreuznach for the grape-cure, or to Ems
to restore her health.
There was a perfect furor in Germany at that time for
emigration. So many families in Frankfort and its neigh-
borhood and in Rhenish Bavaria, whom my family knew, were
preparing to leave for America, or speaking seriously about
it, that it was no wonder my family formed a plan of emigra-
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 307
tion, apart from their very natural desire to be with me. Not
only individuals and families resolved to come over, but large
emigration-societies were formed with a view of making large
German settlements in some Western State or Territory. The
prospect was held out that it might even be possible to form
a German State.
One of these societies was destined to become rather cele-
brated. It was the Giessen Society, at the head of which were
some very prominent men, amongst them Frederick Muench, a
Protestant minister, known in later times as ' ' Far West. ' ' He
was a man of sterling character, very well informed, of an iron
will and an iron constitution. A warm German patriot, he
had despaired of his country and had longed to become a citi-
zen of the great Transatlantic Republic. Raised in the coun-
try, he had a fair knowledge of farming and became a fine
farmer, publishing many articles on agriculture, particularly
on vine-culture. He was also a very able writer on educa-
tion, on ethics, and on politics, and even his poetical efforts
were not without merit. Though violently opposed to slavery,
yet, misguided by Duden's book, he, with others, made the
great mistake of settling in Missouri, and had, when the
slavery question became a burning one, a most trying time
amidst the secessionists. The German Union men were in
constant danger of their lives. "Far West" acted most ably
and stood his ground manfully. A very promising young son
of his died on the battlefield for the Union. Until an hour
before his sudden death he was in full possession of his mental
and physical forces. He died in the harness, working in his
vineyard, at a very advanced age. In my book entitled ' ' The
German Element in the United States, ' ' I believe I have done
full justice to ' ' Far West, ' ' though not more than he deserved.
Paul Follenius, brother of Charles Follenius, of Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, was another promoter of this society.
He, also, was a very noble character. Like Muench, he had
given up all hopes of a political regeneration of Germany. He
was an eminent lawyer, and in coming to this country aban-
308
doned a large and lucrative practice. The idea of forming
a new State towards which German immigation should be
directed, and not a mere colony, had found in him a warm
advocate.
George Bunsen, head of the boys' academy, and brother
of Dr. Gustave Bunsen, also became a member of the Giessen
Society. As he and his whole family settled in St. Clair
County, and our family came into many relations with his, j.
shall have occasion to speak of Mr. Bunsen more fully here-
after. Professor Goebel of Coburg, a very learned and excel-
lent man, Joseph Kircher, my old university friend from
Munich, and many other gentlemen of education and of means,
with several families of my acquaintance from Altenburg, like-
wise joined the ranks. No one was accepted who was not of
good repute, or who did not possess sufficient means to sup-
port himself for some time in the new country. Of course,
there were a good many farmers and mechanics with the
party.
This was certainly the best organized colonization-party
that ever left Germany; its constitution and by-laws were
admirable; its leaders men of eminence and integrity, and
yet, like all similar societies, it was eventually wrecked, to the
great pecuniary injury and mortification of most of its mem-
bers.
I have never favored such schemes for many reasons.
A bigoted sect may follow a religious leader who is looked
upon as a sort of a prophet and be kept together by religious
bonds ; but the more intelligent the members of an immigration
society are, the less authority can be exercised even by the
best; and without implicit submission to some one head, set-
tlements in new countries or in countries already fully organ-
ized, cannot be successfully established. Upon my advice, if
my family had come over at all, it would have come entirely
by itself or with a few families or traveling companions, just
as the Engelmanns, the Hilgards, the Knoebels, and the Abends
had come.
EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENTS 309
EARLY NEIGHBORS
Perhaps I should say something now of our neighbors.
The nearest were Americans, who soon became very well
acquainted with us, the Adamses, great hunters, the Kinneys,
and some of the Scotts. William Kinney, a large land-owner,
was then Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, and his residence
was on a beautiful hill, called Mount Pleasant, overlooking
the rich and rolling Ridge Prairie on the northeast. He was
a Kentuckian by birth, of portly stature, and had handsome
and impressive features. He was very shrewd, but of infinite
wit and humor. He had been several times in the Legislature
in both houses, and was one of the best known men in the
State. Hospitable to a fault, almost, he was fond of good liv-
ing, of fine horses and of good company. He soon associated
with the Germans, and became remarkably fond of Rhine wine,
perhaps too much so. In religion he was a Baptist, and I be-
lieve even preached sometimes ; but he was no bigot, and when
it came to friendship, religion or no religion made no differ-
ence to him. He was an uncompromising Democrat. His eldest
son, a captain in the United States army, had died not long
before we arrived; his only other son, William C. Kinney,
then about eighteen years of age, was a well educated young
man, tall and handsome, and visited us quite often. In later
years, when he had moved to Belleville, I came into close rela-
tions with him, and as my son married one of his lovely
daughters, I shall, of course, have to mention him in the
future.
About a mile and a half east of us, Mr. Fred Wolf, son
of a rich land-owner of Wachenheim, had bought a farm, and
with him resided August Dilg, whom I had slightly known
when he was a student of theology at Giessen. Fred Wolf
was soon joined by his brother Hermann. Only a short dis-
tance from Wolf's farm was one owned by Joseph Leder-
gerber. It was one of the best in the county, and Ledergerber
improved it much. Becoming my brother-in-law, I shall have
frequent opportunity to speak of him and his descendants.
310 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Of the Hilgard settlement I have already given a descrip-
tion. South of the lower farm, about a mile away, Edward
Haven, from Rhenish Bavaria, and Henry Sandherr from
Rhenish Hesse, both of whom had held office in the German
revenue-service, lived on nearly adjoining farms. Both were
educated and intelligent, and their wives very amiable. About
two miles northeast of these last-mentioned farms, George
Neuhoff, of Frankfort, a friend of my school-days, and impli-
cated in the Frankfort Attentat, had bought a farm. Soon it
became the temporary residence of Dr. Gustave Bunsen and
Dr. Adolph Berchelmann, my associates in the Frankfort
affair.
Mr. Engelmann's home soon became the place of general
resort. With few exceptions, all our German neighbors kept
bachelor's hall. Being all relatives or friends, they were made
very welcome. Every Sunday we had some of them to dine
with us. At the upper farm we young men, having nearly
all been students, often enjoyed ourselves with songs and
story-telling, and sometimes with Rhine wine. The Wolfs
had received several excellent casks from their own splendid
vineyards at Wachenheim. We also found good whisky-toddy
acceptable after awhile.
Among other things, I occupied myself with writing a
narrative of our journey from New York to St. Louis, which
I sent to Charles. It was published in the "Ausland," Mr.
Cotta asking for more contributions, and also for political
articles for the "Allgemeine Zeitung." I did, in the course
of the winter, send him a description of my excursion into
Missouri, which also appeared in the "Ausland," but the
copies sent to me have been lost or mislaid. During that
journey I had, however, a brief diary in which I entered my
notes in pencil every evening, and which is still amongst my
papers, as well as a sketch of the article which was published
in the "Ausland."
CHAPTER XIV
First Year in America
I will now give an account of my trip through Missouri,
which, to ine at least, was very interesting. Friedrich was my
companion. Our outfit was very scant. In our large German
hunting pouches (Jagdtaschen) we had shirts and socks, shot
of various sizes, and flasks of cognac. A German powder-horn
was slung across our breasts, and each had a good double-bar-
relled gun. We left the farm rather late, October 13, 1833,
and had to walk the twenty miles to St. Louis rather quickly,
so as not to miss the ferry-boat, which at that time made no
trips after dark. "We found some friends at the place where
we stopped, and at their suggestion remained there the next
day to witness the horse races at the fair-ground. This was
quite a new sight to me. Booths and tents had been erected
around the track, where all kinds of drinks, pies and apples
were sold. There were shanties where bets were made on the
racing, and also other booths where, contrary to the law, faro-
banks were openly conducted and well patronized. There was
much excitement and many fist-fights. Nobody interfered, no
police officer was to be seen. Some of the horses were cele-
brated racers, mostly from Kentucky. The whole thing was
much like a German kirmess, only much wilder, with no
lack of quack doctors making speeches and recommending
their nostrums. It was said that on that day the betting
amounted to more than a hundred thousand dollars.
St. Louis had a very different aspect from what it did
when we arrived in July. The river was at a fair stage of
water, and a great many steamboats, some of large size, lined
the wharf, which was covered with all kinds of merchandise.
312 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
The streets were full of people, particularly emigrants. Sev-
eral thousand, mostly Germans and Swiss, had landed since
we came. The houses of entertainment bar-rooms were
crowded. Evidently St. Louis was on the rise. Our goal was
Jefferson City, about one hundred and fifty miles up the
Missouri River; but in going up the south side of it and
returning on the north side, we intended to visit the German
settlements, so that we traveled off our road for ten or twelve
miles sometimes in order to reach them. It would take me
too far were I to give a description of all the people we stayed
with, and of their farms and modes of living ; so I will confine
myself to a few incidents which appeared to me of interest.
FOOT-TOUR THROUGH MISSOURI IN 1833
Through thick woods, over many hills, we reached in the
evening Lewis's Ferry. Here Mr. Ernest Charles Angelrodt
had made a large purchase of 8,000 acres of land for $5,000.
It was mostly rich bottom-land, and the farm, which con-
tained several hundred acres of cultivated land, stood right
on the bank of the river. Mr. Angelrodt had also acquired
the ferry-franchise across the river. He himself was now in
Germany, where he had gone to bring back his family, and
the place was occupied by some young gentlemen, one a Mr.
Von Dachroeden, from Thuringia, probably a relative of Will-
iam Von Humboldt's wife, who was a Dachroeden, the other
a Holsatian by the name of Jansen. Angelrodt had been a
member of what was called the Thuringian or Muehlhausen
Emigration Society, which had emigrated early in 1832. They
had sent ahead pioneers to select the land, two of whom were
the brothers Roebling, of whom one made his name immortal in
America by his bold engineering. The Niagara suspension-
bridge, the first of its kind here, some of the splendid bridges
in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and finally the wonderful suspen-
sion-bridge across the East River at New York, planned by
him and executed by his son, are monuments of his genius and
skill. The pioneers had selected land in Pennsylvania. But
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 313
when the rest of the society came on, some did not like the
lands chosen, and the company split up. Angelrodt, Dach-
roeden, and others went West. We found two guests here
already, and some neighbors had called. We were hospitably
received and passed a most pleasant evening. A dozen or
more partridges which we had killed, the black cook broiled
for our supper. We obtained a good deal of information
from our hosts on a number of important points. The health
in the neighborhood was not good. It was the season for the
autumnal intermittent fevers not very dangerous, but still
having a weakening and depressing effect. Newcomers, how-
ever, did not seem to suffer more than the old settlers.
Towards night a most violent storm, with very little rain,
shook the very foundations of the large block-house. The
wind continued very high all through the day, and our kind
hosts would not let us travel on, as they said it was very dan-
gerous to walk through the timber in such a high wind, dead
trees or big branches of trees being very often blown down.
Their apprehensions were very well founded, for the next day
we saw the road covered with large branches and even with
smaller green trees, which obstructed our passage. We passed
the windy day quite pleasantly, hunting on the banks of the
river, which were clear of timber. A big wild goose was shot
and roasted for supper, but it was so tough that we could
not eat it.
On the sixteenth of October we marched onward, nearly
all the way through timber. At this season of the year the
forests are in their glory. Bryant and other American writers
have not exaggerated their beauty. While the leaves of the
white, the black and the laurel oak still retain their dark green,
the walnuts have assumed a brownish hue, the hickories and
sycamores a dark yellow, and the hard and soft maples a bril-
liant yellow. The undergrowth, bushes like the sumach,
shines in resplendent red. In the bottoms the trees are often
of a tremendous size, above all the sycamore (plantane). We
found some that measured thirty feet in circumference. Some
314 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
of them had decayed and fallen down, and in the hollow of
them we could stand upright.
Near the river the hills are pretty high and even steep,
and now and then we had from the top of them an extensive
view of the river and the hills on the north. After a march of
two days, having been hospitably received by the farmers
wherever we stopped, and having been charged for lodgings
only in one or two places, namely, at houses of entertainment
for man or beast, we reached a little apology for a town
called Newport on the Missouri River, at the mouth of the
River Au Boeuf. We found some Germans here, old residents,
and obtained much information. The best land in the bottoms
was already taken up, as was the land on the hills in favorable
locations, and was selling for $5.00 or more an acre if partly
cultivated. Away from the river the want of communication
made farming unprofitable, and clearing the timber and plow-
ing the hills was most laborious work. As in every new country,
there was a great deal of sickness. At a considerable distance
from the river there were fine prairie lands, easy to cultivate ;
but as they were far from the markets they were considered by
many then and for years to come, as almost valueless. This was
the sum and substance of what we learned at Newport from in-
telligent Germans, one of whom was a land surveyor. And it
may be here remarked that on both sides of the river these
statements were affirmed by both Americans and Germans,
many of the latter denouncing Mr. Duden bitterly for his
all too rosy and often very inaccurate descriptions of this part
of Missouri, and for having caused so many to lose their
money, their spirits, and their health by injudicious settle-
ments.
The weather thus far had been beautiful, though too hot
in the middle of the day, so hot that even the rattlesnakes
came out into the road. We shot several of them within a few
days. But a sudden change occurred when we left Newport.
It turned quite cold, and on the 22nd of October we had a
slight snow-fall.
315
The farther west we went the fewer settlements we found,
and one evening when we reached, rather late, a very clean
and comfortable house, where we hoped to stay all night, a
very pretty young woman turned us off, excusing herself be-
cause of the absence of her husband, though at the same time
showing us the way to another farm off the road, where we
could stay. We found this to be a general rule. Even where
their husbands were near by in the field or hunting in the
woods, the women never gave us an assurance that we could
stay over night. But as soon as the men came near, they at
once told us to come in and make ourselves at home, without
asking their husbands, for it was a self -understood matter that
no decent looking person should be denied a night's lodging.
The industry, neatness and handiness of these women were ex-
traordinary. In a very short time they cooked us good cof-
fee, broiled some slices of ham, and made us either fine corn-
bread or biscuits. At this season of the year there was often
venison in the house. "We usually had partridges or wild
turkeys along, which we got for breakfast.
Going out of our way to visit an intelligent farmer from
Hanover in the Missouri Bottom, at the mouth of Deer Creek,
we saw some beautiful scenery. The bluffs come near to the
river here, forming steep stone walls. They are covered with
the American cedar Juniperus Virginiana first seen by
me in the botanical garden at Frankfort. In the night we had
a splendid sight. Across the river some bottom prairies were
on fire. Beaching the road to Jefferson City again, after
climbing steep bluffs, we passed in canoes several large creeks,
and on ferry-boats the Gasconade and Osage Rivers. The
Osage is as wide as the Main at Frankfort, and at certain sea-
sons of the year navigable with small steamboats.
We passed the evening near its mouth and spent the next
morning very pleasantly on a large plantation, of which sev-
eral hundred acres were planted with tobacco, hemp and corn
The owner, quite an old man, a captain of the revolutionary
army, had given over the management of his farm to his son
316
and the wife of the latter. The old gentleman was wealthy
and had a great many negroes. I may say here, once for all,
that wherever I found large plantations, the colored people,
that is to say the house-servants, such as the coachmen, garden-
ers, nurses and cooks, were very kindly treated. The negro
children at this place, (and they were pretty and comical
looking little folks,) played with the white children of their
masters and made as much noise and took as many liberties
as the others. Our old host at the Osage, for instance, took
them on his lap, wiped their mouths and noses and performed
other unmentionable services for them, the same as he did to
his white grandchildren. How the mere working-hands were
treated, I had no opportunity to learn; but as in Missouri,
even on the largest farms, the number of slaves was very lim-
ited and overseers dispensed with, I do not think as a rule
they were harshly treated. Nearly all the blacks we met
looked well fed and contented. Regarding negro slavery, I
find in my diary the following remarks:
' ' The negroes hereabouts are generally treated very kindly.
Their practical condition is not a hard one. As a rule, they
live in families, have their own separate little houses, and
oftentimes some cattle which belong to them. They are looked
upon as a lower race, destined by nature to serve a higher.
But their comparatively satisfactory status does by no means
excuse the principle of slavery, and it must be combatted with
all our might. The Germans in Missouri, as far as my informa-
tion reaches, own no slaves as yet, and hate the system. But
time will dull their opposition and their descendants will
grow up in the idea that slavery is an unalterable fact. Ger-
mans ought not to go into a Slave State. THE RUPTURE BE-
TWEEN THE FREE AND SLAVE STATES IS INEVITABLE, and who
would then like to fight on the WRONG SIDE ? ' '
Thirty years later, Mr. Seward called the conflict be-
tween free and slave states irrepressible. Prom my short ob-
servation of the drift of public opinion, I called it the same
then.
On the 26th of October, we at last reached Jefferson City,
having travelled by a somewhat circuitous road about two
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 317
hundred miles on foot. Jefferson City was then, as it is now,
the capital of the great State of Missouri, and contained about
500 people. It was situated rather picturesquely on the hilla
bordering the Missouri River. From the heights you have a
fair view of the rich bottom-lands opposite. The state-house
is rather a pretty building and some of the residences are
well built. The other buildings are insignificant. We stayed
there a day or two at a poor inn, where we had laundry ing
done, and where the eating was far inferior to what we had
had at the farm-houses without charge. Here we crossed the
mighty river in a little Indian canoe, a hollowed-out tree.
We felt a little uneasy, but the river was calm. We now
went down the river, part of the way through most fertile
bottom and prairie districts, long since settled and cultivated.
It was Indian summer, the evenings cool and charmingly
beautiful. The sun set in deep purple; the sky was all the
hues of the rainbow. The sun by day and the moon at night
were surrounded by a rosy haze; while the atmosphere was
filled with a magical vapor arising from the burning of dis-
tant prairies.
Not far from a French settlement called Cote Sans Des-
sein, we met on a rich plantation with the most extraordinary
hospitality. We arrived there in the afternoon, with the in-
tention of merely taking a rest; but the owner, who had two
very handsome and ladylike daughters, insisted on our stay-
ing all night. We had a most sumptuous supper of coffee,
buttermilk, broiled venison steak, fried potatoes, and biscuits,
as only Southern women know how to make them, preserves,
etc. After supper we had a good smoke, the gentleman letting
us have a roll of his best tobacco raised on his own plantation.
We talked about Washington and General Lafayette, and the
old man was very happy when I told him that when I left
Paris he was in excellent health. Next morning some friends
called, a Mr. Langle and a Mr. Armstrong, the latter a some-
what educated man. He knew that Napoleon was dead, about
whom I had been frequently asked by people who believed
318 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
him still living. Armstrong was also aware that Prussia was
a part of Germany, and that old Fritz had made it a great
country.
The girls begged hard for us to stay at least another
day ; but we pleaded want of time. They brought me a copy-
book of one of their brothers, and made me write in it a sen-
tence to copy, which should be, they said, a memorial of our
visit to their house. Armstrong and Langle, after an excellent
breakfast, went along with us for several miles for company
and gave us directions for our day's traveling. We got lost,
nevertheless, in the afternoon, and wandered several miles
out of our way. On one large creek, or rather small river,
the River Aux Vasse, we found no ferry-man, but the boat
fortunately was on our side, and we unchained it and crossed.
Several times we met with serious difficulties in getting over
creeks. People on horseback and in wagons could cross them
at almost any time of the year. For hunters and travelers
on foot, a large tree on the banks would be cut down so as to
lie across the water. The trunk being round, it was not a very
easy matter to walk across it, particularly where the banks
were high. We sometimes hesitated whether we should not
rather strip and wade through the water; but using our guns
as a sort of balancing poles, we usually managed to get across.
Over hill and dale we marched on, being very kindly treated
everywhere and noticing with pleasure the cleanliness and
noiseless industry of the women, until we reached Loutre Is-
land on the Missouri River, connected with the mainland by
a causeway. It lies near the northern bank and is many miles
long. It is considered exceedingly fertile. Some large planta-
tions are on it, and, in addition to tobacco, cotton is raised.
German settlements we had not found thus far on the
northern bank. We reached now the neighborhood of what
might be called the veritable Duden settlement, in what was,
in Duden 's time, Montgomery County. We had again lost
our way, late in the evening, in the woods, and came to a
creek without a bridge. Calling for the ferry-man we received
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 319
no answer, but heard at some distance down the creek the
barking of dogs. We took off our shoes and stockings, waded
through the water, which was very cold, went in the direction
where we heard the dogs still barking, and walking about half
a mile, came to a log-house standing in the midst of a little
prairie. A tall, fine-looking man came out. We told him our
story, and he at once bade us come in. It was an entirely new
settlement of the previous spring. The small log-house of one
room only was hardly finished. Some ten acres were in corn.
There was a little garden and a potato-patch near the house,
and a log stable. There was no fence yet around the premises.
A good fire lighted the room, which was doubly welcome to
us after our tramp through the creek on a very cold evening.
The host 's handsome wife lighted up the room with her pres-
ence beside the fire in the chimney. They had had their sup-
per. But in a very short time she made us corn cakes, corn-
slaps, broiled us some ham, baked us some potatoes all
before the large fireplace, and cooked us a cup of coffee; so
we fared exceedingly well. We gave her a dozen or so part-
ridges for breakfast. They were Kentuckians, but treated us
as old friends. We had a good smoke and I presented our
host with part of the tobacco given to me by my friend at
Cote Sans Dessein. The Kentuckian was very well informed
about American affairs. He had fought under Jackson in
the Florida war, thought him a masterly general, but, being
a friend of Henry Clay, was opposed to him now in politics.
He spoke quite intelligently on the bank and tariff questions.
As bed-time drew near we became somewhat uneasy as
to where we were going to rest. But the young woman
spread a buffalo robe on the floor near the fireplace and in
front of the only bed. She put some pillows against a couple
of chairs for us to rest our heads on, took one of the big
blankets from their bed and disappeared. We retired. There
was no other light in the room but the fire in the chimney.
After a while the couple retired also.
320 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
We slept soundly. When we woke up, she was up al-
ready preparing the breakfast and he was feeding the horses
and cows. After a good breakfast we left these really charm-
ing people. They were not refined, but behaved as well as
any lord or lady could have done; of course, payment was
refused.
EARLY FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS IN MISSOURI
It had frozen hard during the night the 29th of Oc-
tober. Our night-quarters we took at a German farm. It
was a new clearing on hilly and broken land. We were kindly
received, but everything was as yet in disorder, and we had
not near as good accommodations as we had in the American
houses. The Germans dislike the bottoms on account of their
insalubrity and also the prairies; they prefer springs and
woods. The Americans in Missouri always wondered why the
Germans generally selected the poorest land to settle on. Next
day, we came to a little place called Marthasville, containing
half a dozen houses, near which lived several German farmers
the Rasmus brothers and finally reached the largest
of all the German settlements, called the Berlin settlement.
One farm joined the other. Most of these Germans were
highly educated men who had been here for some years and
had settled near the place where Mr. Duden had dwelt for
some time. They wanted to be near his Eldorado. Their
houses were comfortable, some even having brick houses. Mr.
Von Bock, a perfect gentleman, seemed to be the soul of the
colony. His farm was well cultivated and comprised some
rich bottom-land. In some of their log-houses we even found
some good pictures, libraries and pianos. But alas there
was hardly a family where there was not sickness, and that
was the general complaint, not only among the Germans, but
among the Americans also. Our stay there was a very pleas-
ant one. Of course, we went to the old Duden place. It was
in a decaying condition ; the log-house, one of the poorest, was
occupied at the time by a shoemaker. The few acres which
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 321
had been in cultivation were overgrown with weeds, and the
fences were down. The house stood on a hill; a good spring
was on the land, and Lake Creek near by. It was a romantic
spot, but the soil was not rich and certainly not well adapted
to farming. We spent the night in the neighborhood at Mr.
Houns's, a Pennsylvanian, and were well entertained. Almost
without exception, the Germans expressed themselves greatly
disappointed, and blamed Duden for having exaggerated the
advantages and minimized the drawbacks of this part of the
State of Missouri. All agreed, however, in this, that their
American neighbors were uniformly kind and good people.
We had intended to go as far down as St. Charles and
there cross the river for St. Louis; but about fifteen miles
west of that place we mistook the road again, and we found
ourselves on the river opposite Lewis's Ferry at Angelrodt's
place, where we had stayed two days on our trip up the river
to Jefferson City. We were pretty well tired out, having on
an average walked twenty miles a day. To be sure, some days
we made thirty miles and more. Besides, we were anxious
for news from home. We had a pleasant dinner at the Ferry,
but went some miles farther on to St. Louis, which we reached
on the third of November, and on the fourth I was again
among my dear, dear friends at Imsbach, which name had
been given to the lower farm.
I must say that this excursion into Missouri was of very
great benefit to me. Traveling as we did on foot, we learned
more of the topography, of the nature of the soil, and of the
fauna and flora of the country, than we could have by any other
mode of traveling. But the main advantage to me was the
knowledge I gained of the character of the people. We stopped
in old French settlements made before Missouri was a State
1821 and when it formed a part of Louisiana. Indifferent
farmers they were, fond of hunting and particularly fishing.
Their social temperaments made them live in villages, where
they could have music and dancing and could play at cards.
They were a gay and harmless people, and indolent, though
322 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
their young men would frequently hire themselves out to the
fur companies for a year or two as hunters or trappers. But
they would always return to their old homes. Of politics
they knew little and cared less. Some of the Americans were
natives of Missouri ; for the rich bottom-lands had at an early
day brought many Southerners to the Missouri Territory ; but
the great majority of them were from the South, mostly from
Kentucky and Virginia, and a goodly number from Tennessee,
North and South Carolina and Georgia. Now and then some
Pennsylvania Dutch were found. As everywhere else in the
United States, these were good farmers, a little slow, but very
shrewd and superior to all their neighbors in making money.
My long experience and life in this country has satisfied me
that the real Pennsylvania Dutchmen, a race, however, now
becoming extinct, is in ordinary business matters more than
a match for the keenest Yankee. I do not think we found a
solitary New Englander or Eastern man during our whole
journey.
It will not do to generalize. But I must say, I found these
Southern people very frank, open-hearted, hospitable and
kind. There was very little refinement about them, but also
no rudeness. Their mental horizon was limited, but they had
natural good sense, and, by experience, under very difficult
circumstances, they had acquired a sound judgment in all
matters of interest to them. The free institutions, the perils
they had to encounter as pioneers in the wilderness had given
them a self-possession and a spirit of independence, which
placed them far above even the well-to-do country population
in Europe. The poorer and smaller farmers could not be
compared with what is called in the old country the peasants.
Of course, there were exceptions enough. The very freedom
from all restraint, the absence of police and of the military
led to some excesses ; and where they were addicted to drink-
ing they were capable of almost any outrage. There were
lazy men of course, who, after having broken up a few acres
for corn and potatoes, lived by hunting, and when game got
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 323
scarce or the settlements thicker, sold out at any price and
moved farther west. Upon the whole, I formed a very favor-
able opinion of these Western men and have never changed it.
HOME IN ILLINOIS AGAIN
In contrast to the great sickliness in Missouri, I found our
family and all our friends in the neighborhood in excellent
health, busily engaged in home and farm work, stripping the
ears from the high corn stalks, gathering the rich crop of
peaches and apples, and drying the fruit and making apple
butter. Mr. Engelmann, who had a remarkable aptitude for
mechanical work, was repairing enclosures, making gates and
doing many other useful things at the work-bench, always in
good spirits and meeting the many difficulties of the situation
manfully.
Mr. Theodore Hilgard, Sr., of Zweibruecken, who emi
grated to America with his family, settled in Belleville in 1836.
He has published for private family circles, very interesting
memoirs of his eventful life. Speaking of his uncle, Fred-
erick Engelmann says:
"It certainly was not an easy matter to find a more
pleasant and a more amiable gentleman than this uncle of
mine. Under all circumstances serene, or at least self-com-
posed, he gave the kindest reception to everyone at his hos-
pitable home, in which with his equally kind-hearted and hos-
pitable wife, Betty, one was often reminded of Philemon and
Baucis. In conversation always lively, he was often witty
and spirituel. His attention and politeness to ladies were
always the same. He belonged to the old school which ladies
commend as far superior in gallantry and refinement to the
present generation. Views of life clear, temperate and inild,
fruits of wide experience and a clear understanding, added to
the warmest feeling for everything good and beautiful, were
his characteristics. He was of constant activity and even in
his old age he worked in his vineyard, attended to the orchard
and did very many other things necessary in a household. He
had even a quite poetical vein, and the verses he made oc-
casionally, while unpretentious, were flowing and genial."
324 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
And of Mother Betty, Mr. Hilgard also speaks in the most
appreciative terms. There is a great deal of foolish talk and
writing about mothers-in-law. I lived with mine in the closest
and most intimate relations for nearly thirty years until her
much regretted death in a very old age, and during that time
there never was one solitary moment that our mutual esteem
and love suffered the slightest interruption. A clearer mind
and a better heart united in one person, it would have been
hard to find. Our worthy grandparents were worthy of one
another. To the most warm and enthusiastic praise Cousin
Hilgard gives to the character of Aunt Josephine, I can add
nothing but my most heartfelt affirmation. All the other
children were worthy of their parents and in the course of my
narrative I shall have to speak of all of them more than once.
Of course, these pictures were drawn by friendly hands, and
more impartial witnesses may have found here and there
weaknesses, peculiarities and prejudices; but, take it all in
all, the family, and the affiliated members, John and Marianna
Scheel, were a model family, to which I felt proud to belong.
A few words more from Mr. Hilgard 's "Reminiscences" in
regard to which I can give testimony as being true in every
respect :
"This family led a real patriarchal life on their farm
about six miles from Belleville ; and although it had for many
years to struggle against greater difficulties than many others
it prospered in course of time in all its numerous branches, and
takes through several of its members a very high rank in the
county they live in (1860). Whence comes this success which
has been wanting to so many other well educated families who
immigrated with vastly greater pecuniary means? I am con-
vinced that one of the main reasons was that this family em-
braced at once their new home most cordially, accommodated
themselves cheerfully to the new surrounding circumstances,
acknowledged their advantages and praised them, and did not
let their disadvantages engender feelings of bitterness or un-
measured condemnation. Thus they became, more than the
other German families, befriended with American society, and
so it became possible for its members to obtain public recog-
nition and important public offices. Another reason for their
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 325
getting on so well, was the fact that their means were quite
small when they first arrived in the county. ' '
STUDIES AND JOURNALISTIC LABORS
Another benefit I derived from my Missouri journey was
that I acquired more confidence in speaking English. In
fact, I found no difficulty at all in being understood. Fried-
rich not being able to speak it, all the conversation devolved
upon me during these three weeks. The idea of continuing
in the legal profession heretofore floating somewhat vaguely
in my mind, now found a sort of lodgment. For the present,
however, I formed no settled determination. By mail and
through friends who had left Frankfort in the course of the
summer, I had in the meantime received a large, highly in-
teresting correspondence from home, to which, of course. I at
once replied. My description of our travels from New York
to St. Louis had been received, and was about to be published.
My journey through part of Missouri at once suggested itself
as a fit subject for the "Ausland," and so, with the help of
my diary, I wrote a rather extended description of it, and
dwelt at some length upon the character of the Western peo-
ple. It also was published, as I have already remarked, and
more was asked by Mr. Cotta. Besides the agreeable occupa-
tion these writings gave me, the handsome remunerations I
received were not to be despised in my present condition, as
I did not want to ask more sacrifices from my family than
were absolutely necessary.
In the course of my visit to the very region of the country
to which Mr. Duden's book had so strongly invited German
immigrants, I had become so well satisfied that he was an
unsafe guide and had been the cause of so many serious dis-
appointments that I determined to counteract in some measure
the effects of his publication by writing an extended review
of it. As Duden was a highly respectable man, whose errors
were owing to insufficient experience and to the fact that he
was a man without a family, with ample means and of a rather
326 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
sanguine and optimistic character, my critique was not in-
tended to be a captious and hostile one. I am sorry to say,
however, that in a later publication of his concerning his
views on the United States he took occasion in the preface
to complain of my review, and returned my kindness with silly
and reprehensive remarks, which were the best proof of my
having hit the mark.
This publication of mine, written in a winter of the ex-
tremest cold, where, though near a rousing fire in the big
chimney of the old log-house, my left hand was icy cold while
my right moved over the paper close to the fire, and where
the ink froze until I placed it almost in the fireplace, was com-
posed in 1834 and published by Brother Charles under the
title of "Review (Beleuchtung) of Duden's Report Concern-
ing the Western States of North America." It was very
favorably reviewed in many German journals and reviews,
and added also considerable to my earnings. My good sister
Josephine very amiably assisted me, copying in her fair hand
my poorly written manuscript, and now and then correcting
my punctuation and other slips.
To show the spirit in which my critique was conceived
I will give here a few lines of the introduction. I said : "I
agree with Duden that emigration may become a necessity,
and, if properly conducted, is of advantage to the emigrant.
I do not essentially differ in my views on the subject from
him; nevertheless, I cannot subscribe to many of them, and
I deem his 'Report' of the region of the country of which he
speaks and of the conditions the emigrants are expected to
find there, as too flattering and too vividly colored." Does
this require any proof when we find passages like the follow-
ing ip Duden's work: "It will not and cannot be believed in
Europe how easily and agreeably one lives in these western
countries. It sounds too strange, too fabulous, to be believed,
that such regions of the world exist, which have so long been
banished to the world of fairies."
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 327
I also differed from Mr. Duden as regards the salubrity
of the climate to new-comers and the almost constant mildness
of the winters in the West. I felt it to be my duty to destroy
the illusions which his much too favorable opinion on the sub-
ject might create. But what perhaps more than anything else
aroused Mr. Duden 's ire, was my unqualified condemnation
of his elaborate attempt, filling many pages of his book, to
justify African slavery. Knowing that this drawback existed
in Missouri, of which State he had become the enthusiastic
champion, he was driven to this apology, which, particularly
as coming from a German, I denounced in the strongest terms.
He denied that the slavery question was one likely to divide
the Union; I, on the contrary, prophesied in my "Review"
that it would lead to secession and necessarily to a bloody civil
war.
Some time after my return Dr. George Engelmann and
myself went to the new Swiss settlement in Madison County
called Highland, northeast of Lebanon, then as large as and
really handsomer than Belleville. An immense prairie ex-
panded itself before us. Prairie chickens started up to the
right and the left where we rode, and we met herds of deer,
from fifteen to twenty in number; the clatter of our horses'
hoofs, however, the ground being frozen, set them running, so
that the doctor, who had a rifle along with him, did not get
a shot at them. Highland, at that time, was only a group of
some three or four farms, which had been purchased by the
Messrs. Koepfli, father and two sons, and the Suppiger family.
In the midst of a prairie two parallel ridges rose, on and be-
tween which these farms were situated. Trees had been plant-
ed and there was also some timber near a creek not far off, and
several large orchards belonging to the farms. It was really
a very excellent spot though the appellation of "Rigi," which
had been given to one of these ridges, was rather far-fetched.
Both of these families had considerable means and, what
was more, real, practical, Swiss common-sense. The old gentle-
man was a physician, the sons, young and stout, active busi-
328 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ness men; and so were the Suppigers. The had preempted
large tracts of prairie for future use. The Koepflis had a thou-
sand acres. They afterwards laid out on part of their farm
the present lovely and flourishing town of Highland. For
awhile vine-raising was gone into to a considerable extent.
But raising cattle on these large prairies was one of the princi-
pal and profitable pursuits of these families. In one respect
they were at a disadvantage with the German settlers in St.
Glair County. While the latter had the near market of the
fast growing city of St. Louis, the Highlanders had to come
forty miles to that place and partly over very bad roads. A
railroad did not strike Highland until about thirty years after
our visit.
We were most hospitably received, and passed two very
pleasant days with the Koepfli family. I remained more or
less connected with the two brothers, particularly with Sol-
omon Koepfli, who was the leading genius of the place and
full of public spirit. I became their legal counsel and attorney
in some very important cases, but outside of that we were
friends and visited one another occasionally. They both died,
however, at their best age, some fifteen years ago. Their
father had died long before.
My correspondence, literary labors and the study of his-
tory and geography, and the many visitors we constantly re-
ceived, neighbors as well as new-comers, took up most of my
time. The Engelmanns and Scheel hunted much and before
Christmas they had shot a dozen deer. Hunting was not to
my taste, and I participated only seldom in it, and then more
for the sake of exercise than sport. Riding on horseback was
my favorite recreation. The weather was mostly very beau-
tiful, summer-like, but now and then came a severe spell of
storm and cold.
About this time I had finally made up my mind to follow
the law, and I wrote home that I would remain on the farm
until spring, and then either visit some law school, or read
law in some office in St. Louis. On account of my having pre-
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 329
pared several powers of attorney and other legal papers, I
had to go to Belleville twice to consult with Adam W. Snyder,
then the most popular attorney-at-law in that place. I had
been introduced to him before by Theo. Hilgard, Jr. I had
asked his advice merely as to the proper officers to authenticate
my papers. He found, however, that I knew as much as he
did about the business, and seemed somewhat surprised at it.
He had learned in some way that I intended to qualify myself
for the bar and encouraged me to do so. He seemed to take
a lively interest in me. When I mentioned the great diffi-
culties, particularly the mastering of the language, he said:
"Never mind You speak English now more grammatically
than most people here. If you go into a law-office for a year
or so, and keep away from your German friends, you will ac-
quire the sufficient fluency. Besides you speak French and
we have a large French population in the river-counties in the
American Bottom. There were also some German settlements
in St. Clair County on Dutch Hill and Turkey Hill. The Ger-
mans are now coming in shoals to St. Louis, and many of them
if they have any sense will settle right here in Illinois in the
neighborhood of St. Louis. You will get a good practice
amongst these of course."
Mr. Snyder was a Pennsylvanian of German parentage.
He could speak some Pennsylvania Dutch, and could under-
stand some German in ordinary affairs. He had been ap-
prenticed to the milling business at home, and had come quite
young to Illinois and had found employment as a miller near
Cahokia, then the county-seat of St. Clair, where the judges
and officers of the court, attorneys and other county officers
all resided. He attracted their notice by his sprightliness and
his ready good humor, and he was advised to read law, which
he did, and commenced practicing there. He had the gift of
speaking and soon acquired the reputation of being a good
advocate. He had married in 1824 or 1825, Adelaide Perry,
daughter of John F. Perry, a French gentleman from Picardy,
who must have been a shrewd business man ; for at his death
330 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
not long after Mr. Snyder's marriage, he left a large estate
to his heirs. Mr. Snyder had picked up the Creole French,
and could speak it to some extent, and he understood us per-
fectly well when we addressed him in the French language.
He was tall of stature and strongly built, his temperament
gay and sanguine. A close observer of human nature, he
could handle nten with ease, and, being full of wit and a fine
teller of anecdotes, his great popularity was readily accounted
for.
A day or two before Christmas I went, on terribly bad
roads and in a disagreeable drizzle of half snow and half rain,
to St. Louis to buy a present for Sophie, and for myself, Black-
stone 's Commentaries on the English Law, a classic book, for
which I paid five dollars.
On Christmas day, 1833, we had a Christmas tree, of
course. In our immediate neighborhood we had no evergreen
trees or bushes. But Mr. Engelmann had taken the top of a
young sassafras tree, which still had some leaves on it, had
fixed it into a kind of pedestal, and the girls had dressed the
tree with ribbons and bits of colored paper and the like, had
put wax candles on the branches, and had hung it with little
red apples and nuts and all sorts of confectionery, in the
making of which Aunt Caroline was most proficient. Perhaps
this was the first Christmas tree that was ever lighted on the
banks of the Mississippi. Yet this very recollection of our
still dear old home, put many of us in mind of the dear rela-
tives and friends we had left behind and gave rise to some
rather melancholy reflections. What a contrast between our
present life and the one we had enjoyed in the Fatherland !
On my return from St. Louis on the evening of the twen-
ty-fourth, I passed through Belleville after dark. In spite of
the mud in the streets they were very lively. The Americans
celebrate Christmas in their own way. Young and old fired
muskets, pistols and Chinese fire-crackers, which, with a very
liberal consumption of egg-nog and tom-and-jerry, was the
usual, and in fact, the only mode of hailing the arrival of the
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 331
Christ-Child (Christ-Kindchen, corrupted into Christ-kinkle).
In the first part of January, 1834, it turned terribly cold ;
the thermometer for a week almost showing every morning
from 20 to 24 degrees below zero, Reamur. The snow was
for weeks a foot or more deep. Light sleighs were constructed,
and we had very fine sleighing. Having no cellars to speak
of, the bread froze over night, and had to be thawed out by
roasting at the fireplace. Crowding around the chimney was
the only way to keep warm. The walks three times a day from
the upper to the lower farm for meals were a severe task. I
kept a good fire in the grate chimney, which I filled with a tre-
mendous back-log. All the rails which were not wholly sound,
I would take off the fences for firewood. I was charged with
taking good rails now and then ; but necessity knows no law.
During Christmas time and the very cold weather in
January, the lessons to the boys were interrupted. But in
February I took them up again. The rest of my time I de-
voted to the study of Blackstone, and to the constitutional his-
tory and the judicial system of the United States. From my
diary, I find that I followed very closely the highly interesting
debates of the Congress which commenced its sessions in 1833.
It was the time of the great contest against Jackson on ac-
count of his financial policy, particularly against his opposi-
tion to the National Bank. In the House, Jackson had a de-
cided majority ; in the Senate was the opposition, led by such
men as Clay, Webster and Calhoun, a triumvirate consisting of
really very incongruous elements. It was during this session
that the opposition of Jackson arrogated to itself the name of
Whigs, dubbing the Jackson men with the name of Tories.
This last appellation, however, did not stick, and the old name
of Democrats was retained. Benton and Silas Wright, of New
York, were in the Senate the able defenders of the Democrats.
I was at first inclined to think that Jackson had acted rather
arbitrarily in regard to the bank. I had read only the "St.
Louis Republican," then a strong Whig paper, but when I
read the different speeches in Congress my opinion changed
332 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
decidedly. I read the speeches on both sides very carefully
and formed my opinion from them. Respecting other ques-
tions I found that the Democrats had far more liberal views
than the Whigs; for instance, as to the tariff and the rights
of naturalized citizens. The Whigs in the main represented
the money-power, what they called the "Respectability;" the
Democrats, the interests of the masses. Under these impres-
sions I became a Democrat and have remained one ever since.
POLISH VISITORS
The number of visitors that came to us from St. Louis was
very great, and our house was, particularly on Sundays, filled
with our neighbors. At the upper farm, we young men had
many an Attic night. The Rhine wine had given out, but a
moderately strong grog took its place. The company being
nearly all students, our favorite songs often resounded in the
old house. I must mention a rather comical visitor, Major
Clopike, a Pole. There had arrived in 1833 several hundred
Poles, who, entering Austrian territory, after the fall of War-
saw, and being disarmed and kept there under surveillance,
had finally been shipped by the Austrian government, (I be-
lieve in a vessel of the American navy,) to the United States.
Congress had donated to them several thousand acres of public
lands, not yet sold, in some of the Western States. The
Poles had appointed a committee to select these lands, and they
had chosen a fine district in northern Illinois on the Rock
River. The land had not been sold, but a great deal of it was
occupied by squatters, who resisted with might and main the
taking up of this land by the Poles. I do not know what finally
became of the donation. At any rate, the Poles made no settle-
ments there, nor anywhere else. Besides, the mere land was
of no use to them. Most of them were without means to buy
anything, and then they were not farmers, but young men
who had been in the regular army of Poland, or students, or
clerks.
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 333
Clopike was one of these commissioners, and had now
become a resident of St. Louis, where he had established a
coffee-house. He was a very tall, imposing-looking man of
more than fifty years of age, of rather handsome and martial
features, spoke French fluently and German passably. Being
a Pole, he was very warmly received by the Engelmanns and
by sister Charlotte, whose enthusiasm for Poland and the
Poles knew no bounds, and who was particularly attentive
to him. He stayed a day or two, and shortly afterwards
made his appearance again. To the astonishment of the fam-
ily, he took Mr. Engelmann aside and asked for the hand
of Charlotte. Mr. Ledergerber had, however, already shown
much attention to Charlotte, and she had appeared to recip-
rocate his suit. I believe this was the reason she refused the
offer of Clopike ; yet, although his proposal seemed to us pre-
posterous, it is impossible to say what she might have done;
for her admiration for the Poles was very strong, and, as she
was getting to be, though still very handsome and amiable,
what was then considered an old maid, we feared she might
have consented to the Major's proposal. Clopike took his
rejection quite heroically, and did not lose his appetite, or
his love of a strong glass of punch. I occasionally patronized
his establishment in later years in St. Louis, always finding
him jovial and in high spirits, and having a very reputable
custom.
The spring of this year was beautiful, but with very
sudden changes. In the absence of Doctor George, who, from
the first day on the farm had been keeping a record of the
temperature, I performed that business three times a day.
The most remarkable meteorological phenomena I noticed in
my diary. On the fourth of May there was a frost so heavy
that it killed all the fruit-blossoms and nearly all the leaves
of the forest trees. Within twelve hours the thermometer
fell frequently from ten to fifteen degrees Reamur. At one
time I even noticed eighteen degrees ' fall. But upon the whole,
the weather was delightful. Late in the fall and early in
334 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the spring, the heavens were lighted up almost every even-
ing by prairie fires. The prairie grass at that time fre-
quently grew to be three or four feet high and was burnt
up for a new growth. The largest prairies were a good ways
from our place; nevertheless, the glare of the fire was very
distinctly seen by us. Richly colored flowers filled the woods :
dogwood, redbud, May apples, lady 's-slippers, sweet-williams,
flox, some kind of asclepias, red lilies, helianthuses, and Vir-
ginia creeper, which I had much admired in the botanical
gardens at Frankfort. The large white and orange blossoms
of the catalpas at the upper farm were beautiful to look at,
and exhaled a very sweet smell.
AN ILLINOIS COURT, AND POLITICS
Towards the latter part of May, Theodore and I rode to
Edwardsville, the county-seat of Madison County, where the
Circuit Court was in session. We found fine farms and rich
prairies on the way. Edwardsville had but one street, about
a mile and a half long. Part of the street was still covered
with timber, and a deer passed us right in the town.
I went there principally to become acquainted with the
practical workings of administrative justice. My diary shows
a very detailed description of judge and jurors, of lawyers
and officers, which, though highly interesting to me at the
time, must be here much curtailed. The judge, Theophilus
W. Smith, was an excellent lawyer of a rather stern char-
acter, and of very imposing appearance. Some very dis-
tinguished lawyers, whom I did not know as such then, were
practicing at the bar, amongst them being David J. Baker,
Judge Sidney Breese, A. W. Snyder, and James Semple.
The weather was very hot ; lawyers, jurors and witnesses were
mostly in their shirt-sleeves. But Judge Smith kept the house
in most perfect order. The first day the court adjourned at
noon, giving way to political speech-making. The elections
for Governor, for Congress, and for the State Legislature were
near; State elections being then held on the first Monday in
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 335
August. The court, as well as the political meetings, had
attracted an immense crowd to Edwardsville. Everybody
came on horseback. The horses were all tied up to racks
around the public square or to trees, the street being full of
them. It looked like a Cossack camp.
A. "W. Snyder was one of the candidates for Congress
from the southern district of Illinois, which comprised at
that time one-third of the State, and was entitled to three rep-
resentatives in the lower house of Congress. John Reynolds,
then Governor, but whose term expired that year, was the
other candidate. Both were Democrats, but Snyder took a
more decided stand against the national bank and the high
tariff, sustaining Jackson through thick and thin. Reynolds,
who was a very shrewd and cunning politician, not over-
burdened with principles, was more moderate, and in the
Whig counties affected a rather milk-and-water attitude in
his speeches in order to get the Whig support, the Whigs
having no candidate out.
Snyder opened the dance in a very fluent and plausible
speech. He was followed by Alexander P. Field, a Whig
lately converted, who was really a most eloquent speaker.
Field was more than six feet high, of a dark complexion, and
with a strong and very melodious voice, ugly features, and a
sardonic smile playing around his lips. Though differing in
politics, we became at a later day in traveling on the circuit
rather warm friends. Reynolds made a speech in the evening.
John Reynolds was an original. He had received a pretty
good classical education, but took great pains to disguise it.
Though he was quite familiar with English literature, he
pretended to abhor books. He wished to be considered one of
the people, and used intentionally on proper occasions the
common talk of the backwoods settlers. Although, judicial
timber being very scarce in the earlier days of our State, he
had for some years been one of the supreme judges, he was no
lawyer when I knew him, nor did he pretend to be; yet in
certain cases, as in minor criminal offenses, slander and assault
336
and battery cases, he was a very successful advocate. He
hardly ever charged fees, thereby making many friends, and
he had an eminent faculty of making himself popular. He
doted on the ' ' American Eagle, ' ' advocated the annexation of
Canada and the whole of British Columbia, and was preach-
ing in and out of season the annexation of Cuba, which was
formed, he contended, from the deposits of our great western
rivers carried into the Gulf of Mexico by the waters of the
Mississippi. His speeches were in part grotesquely pathetic,
in part ludicrously comical, always attracting great crowds.
When he afterwards served for two or three sessions in Con-
gress, he astonished that body to the utmost by his home-spun
pathos and his amusing sallies of humor. "When judge, he
had once to pronounce the sentence of death on a man by the
name of Green. "Mr. Green," he remarked, "the jury have
found you guilty of murder, and the law compels me to pro-
"nounce upon you the sentence of death. I want it distinctly
understood, Mr. Green, that it was the jury that condemned
you and not I; I wish you would have your friends under-
stand this also. If you have any choice in the matter, you
may tell the Court when it will best suit you to be hung
within the time allowed by law." Mr. Green very coolly
remarked that the day was indifferent to him, and the Court
then fixed a Friday for the execution. There are hundreds
of similar ludicrous anecdotes still in the mouths of old set-
tlers. Reynolds was in later years the author of a very inter-
esting book, sketching his life and times, and containing some
very beautiful passages of literary worth. At one time very
well off, he lost much by going security for his friends, but
still left a handsome property to his second wife, a cultivated
lady from Washington City. Gov. William Kinney, our close
neighbor, who was then Lieutenant-Governor, was a candidate
for Governor, but I do not think that he was then at Edwards-
ville.
For four days I closely attended the sittings of the court
and found them very instructive. Indeed, I learned more
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 337
about the practice of law in that short time than I could have
learned by four months' study of a book. I cannot, however,
withhold here a thought which struck me almost as an inspira-
tion as I looked at the learned and dignified judge sitting on
his elevated seat. "I will be at your place, if I live, old fel-
low, ' ' said I to myself nearly half aloud. And I was, in little
more than ten years from that time.
In the middle of June, summer began in earnest. We
had for days 24 to 28 degrees Reamur in the shade, and in
July the thermometer rose to 30 and 32, and one day to 34.
We had also many thunder-storms. Our room, however, was
very large, and we could be made cool ; so that I pursued my
studies pretty closely, reading, with great delight, Goethe,
Washington Irving, Walter Scott and files of German papers,
which latter almost daily arriving immigrants brought along
with them.
LOCAL AND FAMILY REMINISCENCES
Quite early in the year, Theodore Hilgard, Jr., had
returned to Speyer to bring over Emma Heimberger, to whom
he was engaged before he left. He married her in Germany
and arrived here in the latter part of June, accompanied by a
younger brother, Frederick Hilgard, a young man of very
amiable character and a model of manly beauty. This was a
great accession to our German settlement. Emma was an
intimate friend of Sophie, an accomplished and most fascin-
ating lady, and a good musician. From the time of her
arrival, the Hilgard place became another center for our
society and remained so for a long series of years. Theodore
was an open-hearted, frank, honest, good-natured and very
hospitable man, whose melancholy end no one had the least
thought of. They had paid a visit to my family in Frankfort
and brought me the latest news and kind letters from them,
quite satisfactory to me. A chest with papers, books and
other useful things, they had brought for me to New York,
from which place they were to be sent to St. Louis, by way of
New Orleans.
338 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
About the same time we received news that the family of
George Bunsen, forming part of the Giessen Emigrant Society,
had arrived in New Orleans. Dr. Gustav Bunsen had gone
down to receive them. After they had arrived at St. Louis,
I went on an appointed day to Belleville, to which place they
were to come in a stage. But I found only part of the family ;
the father and mother had remained in St. Louis watching a
dying child. They looked very bad. The plan to settle in
Arkansas Territory had been given up even before they landed
in New Orleans. A considerable part of the Society, amongst
whom were the Bunsens and Berchelmann 's sister, who was
married to Doctor Bunsen upon her arrival, had seceded and
come up of their own accord to us, becoming thus involved
in a host of troubles in settling up with the other members.
It may here be remarked that the other fraction of the Society
which had come by way of New York, not long after also
arrived in St. Louis and also broke up. So this well organized
company, led by men of the highest character, had become a
wreck, as all of us here had predicted. The letters Bunsen
brought were old, but nevertheless very welcome. The latest
letters I had were from Kohloff and Savoye at Paris, highly
interesting. Savoye suggested to me to write a critique of
Duden's book and correct its errors. He did not know then
that I had anticipated his wish.
Savoye established himself firmly in Paris as a literary
writer and a journalist, became a member of the Legislative
Chamber after the revolution of 1848, and was banished from
France by Louis Napoleon after the coup d'etat. Kohloff also
lived in Paris as a correspondent to German papers, devoting
himself to the discussion of literature and the fine arts gen-
erally.
Shortly afterwards, the older Bunsens arrived in St. Clair,
having buried their youngest child at St. Louis. They took
up a temporary abode, but not long afterwards bought a fine
farm about two miles and a half east of the Engelmann place.
This numerous and intelligent family was quite an addition to
339
our settlement. George Bunsen, as instructor and superinten-
dent of the public schools of St. Clair County, in later years
acquired a high reputation all over the state, becoming in
1848 a member of the Constitutional Convention. George
Bunsen 's family many years later moved to Belleville, joining
Doctor Berchelmann, who had married Louisa, one of the
daughters. During the summer, Mr. Engelmann prepared the
ground right south of the house, on a gentle southward slope,
for a vineyard. It was hard labor in the hot season, as the
plowing had to be very deep and the subsoil was very hard
clay.
I may anticipate here and say that the raising of grapes
from the roots brought from the Rhine was a failure. Ca-
tawba was the best grape to plant, and was raised together
with the Virginia Seedling. The area of the vineyard was con-
stantly enlarged, and the Engelmann products soon obtained
a great reputation in the county. The raising of grapes for
sale and for making wine, and the most excellent fruit, the
product of the orchard, to all of which Mr. Engelmann devoted
himself by intelligent and indefatigable labor, became the
main source of profit of the farm.
Hunting horses, making trips to Lebanon, Belleville,
and Nashville in Washington County to transact business for
Mr. Engelmann, kept me a good deal of my time in the saddle.
Sophie was also very fond of riding on horseback, and we vis-
ited much in the neighborhood. Sometimes, when there was
lack of horses or of ladies' saddles, we went a I'Americaine,
she sitting behind me on a cushion and holding fast by my
waist.
In memory of General Lafayette's death, we heard the
thundering of cannon from Jefferson Barracks on the first
of July. President Jackson issued a message to Congress
announcing the event. Congress passed resolutions of sym-
pathy. John Quincy Adams delivered a most excellent
funeral oration; the members wore crape for thirty days,
and all citizens were requested to do likewise. Army and
340 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
navy officers were directed to do the same, and on all public
vessels and in all forts the flags were at half mast ; on the first
of July in the morning and evening guns were fired at all
forts. This demonstration was worthy of the man and of
the American people.
We performed in July a new and curious occupation,
namely, the threshing of wheat and oats by horses' hoofs. The
sheafs were laid in a large circle in layers, and we young
folks on horseback rode slowly over the layers on the heads of
the sheafs, tramping out the kernels. New layers were laid
and so we went on for hours. It was like circus-riding. The
most disagreeable part of it was the dust, which almost choked
us. This was one of the few farm-labors I performed in
America.
On the twenty-third of August, 1834, the marriage of
Charlotte and Joseph Ledergerber took place. There was a
large company, and a splendid dinner was served under a sort
of a tent on the lawn at the lower farm. The ceremony, per-
formed by a neighboring justice-of-the-peace, lasted about two
minutes. Bunsen and Hilgard had brought along a large
quantity of Rhine wine, and we had some of it at the marriage
feast.
Mr. Ledergerber had been brought up by his father, a man
of considerable means, for the mercantile business ; but he did
not seem to like it, and obtained by purchase a lieutenancy in
the Swiss guards stationed at Versailles. The revolution of
July made an end of Charles the Tenth's reign, and of the
Swiss guards, too. So he returned home, resolved to emigrate,
prepared himself for farm-work, arrived here early in 1833,
and, having carefully explored portions of Missouri and Illi-
nois, bought the large farm of which I have already spoken.
He was of medium size, had blond hair, blue eyes, a clear com-
plexion, and was very good-looking. He was a most active and
energetic man, increased his farm by additional purchases,
built a good barn and outhouses, imported choice fruit trees,
kept good horses, and was the first in that part of Illinois who
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 341
imported Norman horses. Fond of hunting, he kept later on
a fine set of hounds. He was reported to be somewhat close
and also high-tempered and as treating his farm hands rather
harshly. I myself found him liberal in money matters and
very agreeable in company. He and Charlotte kept a most
hospitable house. It was almost constantly full of visitors,
particularly Swiss, who stayed for weeks and months. The
children of all the branches of the Engelmann family loved to
be out at Uncle Ledergerber 's. He was very fond of children,
and his own two boys and one girl were sprightly and
intelligent. He hated idleness, and himself set the example of
hard working, so that it is very likely that he should have been
sometimes too exacting.
Charlotte was the kindest of women, but too delicately
built for a farmer's wife. Naturally of the greatest sensi-
bility, she fell into a kind of a half liberal, half mystic Cath-
olicism, principally by the reading of "Paroles d'un Croyant"
by Father Lacordaire, a book which was then creating a great
sensation. Her ideas became somewhat confused, her reason-
ing powers had never been strong, her heart was in her head.
Her conversations were illogical and incoherent. In the
course of time, her relations to her husband, who was a matter-
of-fact man, became somewhat strained; neither of them felt
happy, though there was no sign of disagreement outside of
the family. Charlotte remained, until her death in 1857, the
same gentle and effusive woman.
About this time the news came that a Pro-Slavery crowd
in the East had mobbed a building in which the Anti-Slavery
party had held or were about to hold meetings, and burnt it
down. This outrage in the land of free speech pained and
irritated us much. I made the following entry in my diary :
"Negro slavery is the only rope by which the devil holds the
American people. The descendants must now suffer for the
greediness of their ancestors. This national debt is more
oppressive and dangerous than the English one. ' '
342 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
New emigrants, mostly from Altenburg, who belonged to
the second group of the Giessen Society, but who had left it,
arrived every day in our settlement. They were a very good-
natured and jovial set of people, and were very frugal and
industrious. Some of them knew some of my Altenburg
friends. William Weber, they told me, was in prison in
Leipsic.
On the ninth of September we held the first German
picnic on a hill under large shade trees near the upper farm.
Some forty persons enjoyed themselves greatly, eating, drink-
ing, singing and playing games. It was the precursor of
many others in the same neighborhood. Of course, the num-
ber of attendants always increased, and there were often
several hundred people present from Belleville and even from
St. Louis. Germanized Americans also came to look on and to
participate, though the picnics were always held on a Sun-
day. Singing clubs and amateur bands of music were often
present, and the picnics assumed by and by the shape of real
popular festivals Volksfeste. After the lapse of about ten
years they came to be attended by some undesirable elements,
and afterwards these public picnics gave place to private ones.
On the first Monday in August we went to the election
at Belleville. Under the Constitution of Illinois, as it then
stood, any one who had resided six months in the State, if a
white male person over the age of twenty-one, was entitled to
vote in all elections, State and National. Nearly all the Ger-
mans were for Snyder for Congress and for Kinney for Gov-
ernor. Our American neighbors, being mostly Methodists,
opposed them. Mr. Engelmann, Theodore, Ludwig, John
Scheel, Ruppelius, and I rode first to Hilgard's in the morning,
where we were reinforced by Theodore and Edward Hilgard,
Theodore Kraft and Gustave Heimberger and some German
neighbors. We formed quite a cavalcade riding into Belle-
ville. Snyder and Kinney obtained majorities in St. Clair
and the adjoining counties, but were beaten in the more south-
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 343
era and eastern counties by the less uncompromising Demo-
crats. Reynolds went to Congress.
A METHODIST CAMP-MEETING
In September we had quite an excitement in our imme-
diate neighborhood, a Methodist camp-meeting at Shiloh,
lasting several days. One night we went there with the girls.
The camp-ground round the meeting house was covered with
tents, booths and covered wagons, in which some fifty families
were lodged with all kinds of house and kitchen furniture.
Several hundred persons were there as mere spectators. Fires
were burning before the tents and shanties. A thick forest
surrounded the camp-ground. In the meeting house one
preacher held forth in a frantic way. In my diary I have
given an analysis of his sermon, if his harangue can be so
called. After painting hell and its tortures in the most vivid
colors, he invited the sinners to come forward to the anxious
seat. Some women did come, mostly negroes, and they howled
like mad ; but the preacher 's voice was still heard calling upon
the Lord, and so forth. The most ridiculous thing was his
calling for a vote. "Is anyone here opposed to the Lord?
Let us take a vote ; Those who are for the Lord, will hold up
their hands ! " Of course, most hands went up. ' ' Those who
are against Him will hold up their hands!" Of course,
nobody did. There was howling in every corner of the build-
ing; women cried; one negro woman repeatedly jumped up
several feet high, and finally fell down. Some of the con-
verted also commenced preaching from the anxious bench.
Some tried to sing hymns at the same time. It was what the
Germans would call a " HoellenspektakeF ' a hellish noise.
But there was also some praying and preaching in some of the
larger tents. A good many spectators were laughing and
cracking jokes, others courted the girls in the tents and booths.
We were of course interested and disgusted by this
strange and weird scene; it reminded us of similar night-
meetings so graphically described among Walter Scott's Cov-
344 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
enanters. But the strangest thing was that, barring some
exceptional cases of insanity, springing from these exercises,
we would see the same people who were raving mad the night
before, engaged in the most sober, calculating, matter-of-fact
business the next morning.
DEPARTURE FOR KENTUCKY
It was now time to think of preparations for my depart-
ure to Lexington, Kentucky, which for several reasons I had
selected as the place to pursue my legal studies. The Uni-
versity there, called Transylvania University, had a great
reputation as a medical school. The law school was not much
attended, nor were any law schools at that time, even the one
at Cambridge. A few years of law-study in the office of a
respectable attorney and counselor-at-law were all that was
required to entitle one to take a more or less rigid State's
examination, which, when passed, gave one a license to prac-
tice law. Attending law school was rather a more expensive
mode and did not dispense with the State 's examination ; law-
students in the German sense were rather an exception.
I had at last received, by way of New Orleans, two large
boxes, containing a selection of books, files of newspapers,
pamphlets, clothing and linen, lamps and many other useful
and valuable things, presents to Sophie and to other members
of the family and to me, worked by my dear mother and sis-
ters. Receiving these tender tokens of their undying affec-
tion, I felt deeply moved. I was conscious that I did not half
deserve this attachment. My intentions had often been very
good, but I had often failed in carrying them out. I had, on
trying occasions, acted against their wishes, and had at last
inflicted upon them excruciating pains. I was by no means
the ideal man they seemed to have always considered me.
From gentlemen lately arrived, who came to visit us, I re-
ceived the welcome news that my dear friend William Weber
from Altenburg had escaped from prison in Leipsic and would
undoubtedly soon come over. The first weeks in October, I
FIRST YEAR IN AMERICA 345
was busy in paying farewell visits and preparing myself to
go to Lexington. The evening before my departure a great
many of my friends came to bid me farewell, the Hilgards,
Bunsens, Neuhoff and Berchelmann. We remained together
until about midnight. Next morning, my diary says, "About
nine o'clock I left the place where I had for a year past ex-
perienced so many sad but far more happy hours. I could
hardly overcome my feelings. It was easier to leave friends
and Fatherland than to leave Sophie." My parting gift was
a collection of my desultory poetry bearing a poetical dedica-
tion entitled "To Sophie at Parting."
CHAPTER XV
Studying Law in Lexington
The same evening I went on board a Louisville boat. The
river being low, we ran several times on sand-bars, and it
sometimes took hours before we got off. We had a slow trip
and did not reach Louisville until the sixth day after we had
left St. Louis. I stopped at the Louisville Hotel, at that time
one of the best and finest in the United States. It contained
splendidly decorated parlors, an immense hall for general
conversation, reading rooms and elegant bedrooms. There
were two hundred persons at dinner, which was extravagantly
good. More than twenty negroes served us. What astonished
me most was that the majority of the guests got through this
rich feast in about a quarter of an hour, and that only a few
persons ordered wine, mostly Madeira and champagne.
At two o'clock in the morning I was awakened, and I
mounted the stage for Lexington. We passed through Shelby-
ville, a pretty place, a little distance from which I might have
ended my journey and my life too. Our stage was going
down a pretty steep hill, when it encountered a cow and ran
over it. The horses took fright, jumped off the road, and be-
gan running. But a stout young man who occupied a seat
on the top of the stage had jumped off before the horses had
broken into a full gallop, and grasped the bridle of one of the
leaders. The driver succeeded in bringing the horses into the
road again, and they made the bridge spanning a high-banked
creek at full gallop. By the time we reached the top of the
hill on the other side he had gained control of the horses
again. Had they pursued their first course, we should un-
doubtedly have been wrecked in the creek. The stage was
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 347
stopped until our brave fellow-passenger came up, to whom
we all expressed our hearty thanks.
We dined at Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky. It has
a very romantic situation on the hills bordering the Kentucky
Eiver. It contains some very fine buildings; the capitol be-
ing built of fine marble. Some miles south of Frankfort we
reached the railroad, which was to connect Frankfort and
Lexington, but was not then finished. A lightly built car was
drawn on it by horses which were changed every eight miles.
They were fine animals, fast-blooded trotters, and easily
made ten miles an hour. The country between Lexington and
Frankfort, according to American notions, is a very beautiful
one. The country is undulating and fertile, and excellent
farms line the highways. The houses, often very large and
villa-like, stand back in fine lawns and are surrounded by
majestic shade-trees. Fields and large blue grass pastures
vary with large forests, mostly of beech trees, which reminded
me much of the woods in Germany. I saw no ox-teams. The
farmers used horses exclusively, and a noble breed they were,
too. In the evening we reached Lexington. In a letter writ-
fen to Sophie a few days after my arrival I speak of this
"Athens of Kentucky" in the following strain:
"Lexington is a lively, handsome city, built on wave-
like hills surmounted by beautiful villas. The streets are
nearly all lined with shade-trees. No wonder that the inhab-
itants are very proud of it! My American guide-book calls
it perhaps the finest spot on the globe. Of course, I cannot
subscribe to this panegyric. But I am quite pleased with the
place. It is the richest city in Kentucky, and hence there is
much show and luxury here. I have been in several houses
and must confess that with us in Frankfort-on-the-Main
the wealthiest people do not live as elegantly and comfortably.
' ' The house in which I board is a very fine one. It must
be charming in summer-time. A large and fine lawn, with the
most splendid trees, encircles it. The house is very well or-
dered and has large rooms; my room being as large as the
entire old farm-house. The 'donna' of the house is an elderly
widow, Mrs. Boggs, who has several children, among whom is
a quite agreeable daughter. We live in a very refined style
348 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENER
here. You may imagine, my dear child, what a contrast this
is from the life of last year. I was then at my ease, free as
a bird in the air. Now I have my best clothes on, yet am not
nearly as well dressed as my fellow-boarders and visitors.
Everything is conventional, and one has always to be on one's
guard. I am as yet a stranger to all, and they look upon me
in this after-all provincial town with much curiosity, and I
cannot very readily make myself understood. It is not a
very agreeable situation, but it must be borne. I must enter
thoroughly into this American life; for otherwise I have no
hopes for the future with this people, so much prejudiced for
their country and their manners. Thus far, I have made the
acquaintance of but one German, Lutz, a professor of math-
ematics at the University, who is very highly respected by
the Americans. He is a perfect American, or at least wants
to be such, though his German character pops out very often.
He was in former times a member of the Burschenschaft at
Goettingen, is a first-rate fencer, and I have practiced with
him several times. Thus far he pleases me much. I made
his acquaintance in a singular manner. I visited by accident
merely the celebrated orator and statesman Henry Clay, and
he called my attention to him. The details of this interview
I will give you after awhile. I will say this much, however,
that he, Clay, asked me to visit him while he was yet here
at the end of the month he was to go to Washington and
that he offered me his advice and assistance if I needed any."
I may add here that Lexington at that time contained
very many beautiful public and private buildings. The Uni-
versity was a very lofty and splendid edifice of white stone
in the Grecian style, standing on an eminence from which
you had a splendid view of the city and surrounding country,
quite a contrast to our University buildings in Germany at
the time I left, as these were generally old cloisters converted
into seminaries of learning. Mrs. Boggs was a perfect lady,
the widow of a politician who had, as most of them do, died
poor, so that his widow had to adopt keeping a first-class
boarding-house, the common lot of ladies of that class in the
United States. Her son at the time was the Governor of Mis-
souri.
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 349
A VISIT TO HENRY CLAY
Regarding my visit to Mr. Clay, it happened in this wise :
One of my fellow-travellers in the boat and on the stage, a
drummer in jewelry from New York, invited me one morning,
while I was yet at the Hotel Phoenix, to take a walk. "Let
us go and take a look at Mr. Clay's place, Ashland." I did
not object. We went about a mile on a fine turnpike road,
I believe, in a southeasterly direction, and came upon a
fine park in the midst of which stood a tolerably large, white
mansion-house. My companion was an enthusiastic admirer
of Mr. Clay, and said : ' ' Being so near, let us have a look at
the great man. ' ' I remonstrated somewhat, as, according to my
European notions, I thought it rather unbecoming to call
upon any gentleman, without having some special business
with him or an introduction. "O, never mind," replied my
friend, "he is a public man, and anyone has a right to call
upon him." So we went in, rang the bell, and a negro servant
showed us into a large semi-oval room, richly furnished, the
walls being decorated with some fine portraits in oil. What
attracted me most was a large set of silver plate, amongst
which was a very large, finely chiseled pitcher with an in-
scription on it, which stood on a beautifully carved side-
board.
After a few minutes Mr. Clay came in. A very long
frock-coat made him look even taller than he was. His face
was very long, and his mouth uncommonly large. He had
very light blue eyes, which he kept half closed when he spoke.
His hair was thin and of a reddish color. There was a playful
humor about his lips. His appearance upon the whole was not
at first prepossessing ; but when you heard him converse, you
felt you were under the influence of a great and good man.
We shook hands with him, and seated ourselves. After in-
quiring from where we came, he spoke of Illinois, of which
he seemed to have very little knowledge. My New York
friend, I thought, improperly entered into politics and the
350 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
prospects of the New York State election, which was then very-
near at hand and was very anxiously watched by both parties,
asking whether it would sustain Jackson in his financial pol-
icy or not. I did not think it prudent to engage in these
speculations. He paid me a very unmerited compliment on
my English, and launched into a eulogy of the Germans, so
usual to politicians before election. ' ' The Germans, ' ' he said,
"are very honest people, fine farmers, and very industrious.
I consider them a blessing to the country in which they settle.
The only thing I do not like " he added quite in good humor
"is their politics."
Now being his guest, (I must not forget that soon after
we had sat down a black servant had come in and presented
us on a silver waiter three glasses of Madeira of an excellem
quality, which we emptied, bowing to one another,) I did not
think it in good taste to defend the Democrats against the
principal champion of the Whigs, whose whole soul, too, at
this time was in the question. Without giving my own views,
I merely stated that the Germans were not then used to paper
money (1834) in their own country, distrusted all banks, and,
besides, having been oppressed by their governments and their
nobility, were attracted by the very name of Democracy. As
Mr. Clay was a great diplomatist, I thought I would try a
little diplomacy myself. At any rate we parted in a very
friendly manner. He asked me, apparently with warmth, to
repeat my call, offering to serve me in any way he could. He
complimented me on my undertaking to pursue my profession
in this country, and thought he could prophesy success for me.
Of course, Mr. Clay showed that he had been living in
the best society here and in Europe. He knew how to draw
people into conversation and to say something pleasant to
everyone without appearing to flatter. He took snuff, which
is quite uncommon here, and handled his snuff-box quite diplo-
matically. Seeing that our eyes had been repeatedly fixed
on the exquisite silver plate, he showed us the pitcher. The
inscription on it proved that it was a present from some of
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 351
the South American countries, whose right to recognition as in-
dependent States, when they revolted from Spain, he had so
eloquently advocated in the halls of the Senate.
I must say that this interview with Mr. Clay was of great
interest to me and I could not but laughingly assent to the
commercial remark my drummer friend made when we left
Ashland, ' ' I would not take ten dollars for that visit. ' '
PROFESSIONAL AND SOCIAL LIFE IN LEXINGTON
On leaving Belleville, Mr. Snyder, who had been captain
of a volunteer company of cavalry in the Black Hawk War
of 1832, had very kindly given me a general letter of intro-
duction, "To whom it may concern," signed by him, by Al-
fred Cowles, a respectable elderly lawyer, by Mitchell, the
postmaster, and others. Dr. Sheppard, a young, but by far
the most successful, physician in Belleville, who had been a
student at Lexington and had become well acquainted with
Judge Mays, the professor of common law, had given me
also a letter of introduction to the latter.
I may here say something of Dr. Sheppard, for I became
very well acquainted with him after my return. He was a
Southerner by birth, somewhat haughty and high-tempered,
but a gentleman in every respect. He did not care about
money, and when he had something very interesting to read
or felt like resting, he locked himself up in his office so that
he could not be disturbed. "Nobody will suffer," he said,
"for there are other fellows enough here who are anxious to
get practice." When Texas revolted against Mexico, he at
once went there and volunteered in the army. Some time
after Texas had become the Lone Star State, we learned that
he had become Secretary of the Navy of the new government.
As Texas had not a single ship afloat, the office must have
suited my indolent friend admirably well.
Professor Mays received me very cordially. He lived in
a very fine house. He was an elderly man, pretty much broken
down in health, and quite talkative. He told me his history
352 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
and how lie had become a lawyer; that he had received no
classical education, and did not pretend to be a scholar. But
Clay had also commenced life as a clerk in a country store.
He went on to tell that the law school here was not what it
should be, that but few gentlemen had money enough to at-
tend a law school, that they studied law in lawyers' offices,
that, of course, thirty or forty students could not sustain by
their fees a first-class law school, and that the State paid but
very little towards it.
Now this was very plain talk, and if my object had not
been to better my English and to improve myself in American
manners and ways of living, I should most likely have packed
my trunk at once and gone back home. As it was, I did not
care. Mays had a great reputation as a common-law lawyer.
He may have been in former times a good lecturer, but at
present he was in such poor health that talking was evidently
painful to him, and his voice was thin and husky at the same
time. There was another professor of law there, Judge Rob-
ertson, a fine and imposing-looking man, somewhat pompous
and rhetorical. He delivered a course of lectures, only a
few hours, however, every week, on Equity Jurisprudence.
As he was, at the same time, judge of the Court of Equity
in Kentucky, I believe, he got no salary from the State. Only
a few of the oldest law-students attended his lectures. The
equity system, being in form and substance, largely derived
from the Roman law, I found no difficulty in becoming fa-
miliar with it, and so I dispensed with hearing Judge Rob-
ertson's lectures. One quite celebrated Dr. Caldwell gave
lectures on Medical Jurisprudence.
The mode of imparting instruction was an old-fashioned
one, long since discarded, if it ever existed, on the continent
of Europe. The professor read from a text-book a chapter
or part of a chapter. If the statutes had repealed or mater-
ially changed the common law as laid down in Blackstone,
he would call our attention to it ; otherwise he had very little
to say. We were expected to go over the chapter carefully
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 353
at home. At the next session he would ask questions, which,
of course, could be very readily answered by those who had
any memory at all. This questioning took up half the time,
and then the procedure of the previous session was repeated.
The first week was idled away in this wise.
Professor Mays delivered an inaugural oration on the
first day. On the second, Caldwell, the principal professor
of medicine, followed suit. As it was supposed that every
student would hear all of the addresses, no lectures were given
that week. And I believe most all the students did go and
hear them, not that they took a very great interest in them,
but because inaugural week was a succession of field-days.
Not only all the young men and fashionable ladies of Lexing-
ton, but many from Frankfort and even from Louisville,
made it a point to attend, so as to show their new winter bon-
nets and dresses. The fine and lofty aula of the University
was crowded. I cannot deny that I had never seen before
such an assembly of beautiful, elegantly dressed young ladies.
Indeed, it was a most charming sight. Professor Mays opened
the inaugural week, and the platform was occupied by the
Governor of Kentucky, several State officers, the judges and
several other prominent citizens of Lexington, all the profes-
sors of the University and of the Academy connected with it ;
and, of course, all the students of both institutions were pres-
ent, the medical students, about 200, being in the majority.
About this time I had written to Sophie, giving an ac-
count of my journey to Lexington and my first impressions
of the place. This was the beginning of our correspondence.
Her reply was the first letter I ever received from her. It
was a treasure to me. This, like all her other letters, was so
clear a transcript of herself, that I almost thought that she
was present. No idle word, no affectation. Aware that I
knew how she loved me, she saw no need of giving me ad-
ditional assurance ; and yet there were passages in her letters
unpremeditated, which showed the finest feelings and were
really poetic. I noticed in my diary, Dec. 9, 1834: "It is
354
one of my greatest pleasures to read and reread Sophie's let-
ters, which seem to me to contain much poetry, though I am
just now deeply in Byron." I had written that I should
have to enter thoroughly into American life, if I wished
to succeed in the course which I had laid out for myself.
Concerning this remark, Sophie replied: "These words have
weighed heavily on my heart. Thou hast often said the
same; but it never struck me as it does now when I read it.
Would it not be sad, if thou wouldst have always to keep in
mind to be an American? And if everything must have its
dark side also ! You will smile at my fears ; but be not angry ;
it has made me sad, and so I have had to come out with it.
My candle has nearly burnt down, the girls are going to bed,
and I must do the same. Goodnight, my Gustav, dream a
little of me. Alas ! I have not even once dreamt of thee since
thou left."
While her pure and tender heart shone through all her
letters, she at the same time, in a few words, gave me a sensi-
ble account of all that she thought of interest to me. It may
appear strange that our correspondence was not as frequent
as it might have been. The reason was the high postage. Both
of us had to use economy. At that time postage was calculated
according to distance. A single letter to Lexington was
charged 18% cents. It did not go by weight. If there were
two sheets, or even an envelope, it cost double, so that most
letters cost ST 1 /^ cents. A single letter from Belleville to
New York cost 25 cents; to St. Louis, G 1 ^.
My life was very regular. Breakfast was announced
precisely at eight o'clock. I then took a smoke, and went to
the lectures from nine to twelve. Took a walk. Dinner was at
two. I then smoked a cigar and studied my law books until
dark. Took a walk. Supper at half past six in the evening.
Smoked and studied until about nine o'clock. Then took to
light literature.
Of course, there were many exceptions. Mrs. Boswell,
a rich widow, a daughter of Mrs. Boggs, usually had a large
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 355
company of young ladies in the drawing-room. Whenever
I felt like it, I went down. There were frequently young
ladies from Frankfort and Louisville staying for weeks with
Mrs. Bos well, who boarded with her mother. Most all the
ladies were highly accomplished according to the fashion of
this country. Some of them played very well on the piano,
and some sang remarkably well. They played for me German
melodies and songs translated from the German. When Mr.
Lutz came in, who was an Apollo-like man, a fine performer
on the piano, and a splendid dancer, he was idolized by the
girls. Ellen Douglas from Louisville, just graduated from a
young ladies' seminary, a girl as beautiful as graceful, had
learned to waltz. Some of the young ladies, who were not,
like Mrs. Boggs, and her daughter and daughter-in-law, Pres-
byterians, wanted to learn this dance also. Mr. Lutz and
myself had to become their teachers, and some of our young
fellow-boarders and students grew to be very envious of us
on this account. I may say here that towards the end of the
session, when parties followed upon parties, and I had to
attend a good many, the waltz-mania had spread, and while,
of course, quadrilles were the rule, we generally had two or
three round dances every time, a great many ladies for
want of gentlemen waltzing with one another. Yet with the
exception of one grand ball given on the occasion of the Leg-
islature's visiting Lexington in a body, to which the law stu-
dents were invited, and one concert, there were no other pub-
lic amusements during the winter. The churches supplied
the place of these amusements; for not only did all the fash-
ionable and respectable world go to church twice every Sun-
day en grande toilette, but there were frequent sermons
preached and lectures delivered on week-day nights. The fire-
side conversation turned frequently on the preachers, their
eloquence, or lack of it ; sometimes even on what they preach-
ed ; and the same interest was shown in their discussions which
fashionable people in Europe take in operas, dramas, actors
and actresses.
356 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
CHURCH-GOING EXPERIENCES
In order to become acquainted with this phase of Amer-
ican society, and finding also the listening to sermons and
lectures very useful for improving myself in the language,
I attended several of these religious entertainments. One
night I heard the discourse of a Presbyterian clergyman on
"Scepticism." He had been billed as the most eloquent
defender of the Christian faith. Eloquent he was in a certain
sense, but he was as stupid as eloquent. All prophecies, he
exclaimed, were fulfilled to the letter. Jericho was blown
down by the trumpets of the believing Jews, sun and moon
having deviated from their courses. When Emperor Julian,
the Apostate, undertook to rebuild Jerusalem, the workmen
were driven away by celestial fires because Christ had de-
creed the downfall of that city, never to rise again. God, he
repeatedly declared, would visit the severest penalty on all
disbelievers. Gibbon and all sceptical writers were now suf-
fering, as he believed, the torments of hell. When afterwards,
in the drawing-room, I pretty sharply criticised the minister's
lecture, the ladies and gentlemen, at least some of them,
thought about as I did. But free America, generally speak-
ing, is a slave to what is considered prevailing public opinion.
Another evening, I heard a very eloquent and sensible
sermon in the Presbyterian church by the celebrated Robert
Breckenridge of Baltimore. His contention was that the
human mind must be always engaged with something, and
that when it is not occupied with high and elevated subjects,
it would, with equal intensity, stoop to low, or at least to in-
different ones. He cited Charles the Fifth, who, after having
been supreme ruler over many lands, passed his time after
his resignation in the regulation of clocks, and Francis of
Austria, who left the government to Metternich and amused
himself by manufacturing sealing-wax. It was more like an
interesting lecture than a sermon.
The following completes my church-going experiences.
Posters stuck up in various places had informed the public
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 357
that a very distinguished New England minister would give
a lecture in one of the churches, I forget which, on the results
of a late tour he had made in the West. The church was
crowded, as the man had a great reputation as an eloquent
lecturer. After giving a rather commonplace account of his
trip down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and part of the
Missouri River, he enlarged considerably on the city of St.
Louis, pronounced it a rising city, destined to become a great
commercial center, but being at the present time a most wicked
place, the resort of all sorts of gamblers, horse-racers, ad-
venturers and cut-throats. They did not, he said, keep the
Lord's day holy. This, however, he continued, is not to be
wondered at; for a majority of the population were stupid,
ignorant Catholic French, whose religion was more pagan
than Christian. Now one of the audience, sitting right by
my side, and a member of the law-class, was Louis V. Bogy,
of St. Louis, a Frenchman, with whom I kept up most friendly
relations until he died a few years ago, and who was one of the
most prominent citizens of St. Louis. When the preacher
came to the passage above cited, his fiery French temper
could stand it no longer. He rose up and in a thundering
voice exclaimed: "You are a d liar!" The lecturer
stopped and grew pale. One of the ministers who was with
him on the platform remarked that the incident was very
much to be regretted; that such a thing had never been wit-
nessed before; that the young gentleman was certainly to be
severely blamed, and he hoped he would apologize or retire.
Bogy picked up his hat and left, and so did I. I had come
with Bogy, and I was almost as angry as he was at the im-
pertinence of the long-faced hypocrite.
FRIENDS IN LEXINGTON
This flurry was the talk for a week, but nothing came of
it. Bogy was considered in our class with more regard than
before. Speaking of our law-class, it had some thirty-five
students. Most all of them had a good collegiate education,
358 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
were the sons of Congressmen, of officers or ex-officers of the
State, or of eminent lawyers or judges. There was one, Mr.
Wickliffe, who had a most remarkable likeness to George Wash-
ington, as he appeared on his youthful pictures, and who be-
came, I believe, a cabinet-officer in the cabinet of Tyler.
Menifee, who had already graduated, but still attended our
lectures, became one of the most eloquent members of Con-
gress; and there was a son of Senator Crittenden, who, I be-
lieve, was killed at the battle of Buena Vista in Mexico. An-
other was a Mr. McKee, and J. W. Lapsly, of Alabama, with
whom, as he boarded at Mrs. Boggs's, I became more intimate.
This gentleman, on parting, gave me a very elegant copy of
Shakespeare's dramas, and, having become in his State a
prominent lawyer, remained a staunch Union man, by which
course he became well known all over the country. For some
years after we left Lexington we corresponded. There was
also a young Powell, who became Governor of Kentucky and
United States Senator, and who, while we were political an-
tipodes during the rebellion, never lost an opportunity of
sending me words of friendship. There was, too, a McPherson,
who afterwards moved to St. Louis, and died not very long
ago, one of the most prominent and wealthy men of St. Louis.
The fact is, the law-students were rather an aristocratic set,
and it was probably on this account that most of us were in-
vited to all the balls and parties, while the medical students
did not enjoy that privilege.
Now there is no people in the world, perhaps, that is easier
of access and acquaintance than the American people.
Strangers, if they are well-behaved, are received most cordially
in the circles to which they appear to belong, and the confi-
dence that is placed in persons after even the slightest ac-
quaintance is remarkable. It probably proceeds from the fact
that there is so great an identity of views on general subjects
among them. Very few Americans are troubled with spleen
or idiosyncrasies. They are cast pretty much all in the same
mold; hence there is a great deal less friction here than in
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 359
countries where individuality is far more pronounced. Dur-
ing all my stay at the University, I never heard of any quar-
rels or collisions among the members of my class. In any as-
sociation of German students of the same number, disputes
and conflicts would have been unavoidable.
While on a friendly footing with all my fellow-students,
there was only one with whom I formed a real friendship,
James S. Allen, of Winchester, Kentucky. In a letter to
Sophie I speak of him thus: " James S. Allen, if I am not
greatly mistaken, is bound to play hereafter an important part
in the United States. He is thoroughly cultured, speaks French
fluently, knows the best German authors, at least by transla-
tions, and knows Faust nearly by heart. He is the foremost
of our law-students, and an orator, the like of whom I have
never heard before. His father is a member of Congress,
which will, of course, be a great help to him. He may interest
you and the family also from the fact that, while attending
here the Academy connected with the University, he lived a
year with Dr. Toland, and besides he is very handsome. ' '
In reply, Sophie wrote me that Dr. Toland, who was with
us on the Logan, had told them of his residence at Lexington,
and also of Allen, of whom he had spoken as I had done in
my letter. After I returned to Illinois, he corresponded with
me for some time, and sent me a beautiful oration which he
delivered in September, 1835, at the commencement of South
Hanover College, Indiana. "The audience," he said in his
letter enclosing the oration, "was large, though composed, in
part, of rude material good Hoosiers. My discourse was
in several places somewhat droll and burlesque, which pleased
the natives amazingly; but some pious soul, I am informed,
expressed the opinion that I would have done better to talk
of Moses, Jonah, St. Paul and their various Biblical brethren,
than to be talking of Socrates, Jupiter and so forth, who had
been dead and buried hundreds of years. ' ' At the conclusion
of his oration there were some passages that few Americans
would have been willing, even if able, to utter. The number
360 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEBNER
of imprisoned German students was exaggerated, but an item
of that kind had just gone the round of many American news-
papers. ' ' There are at this time, ' ' Allen said, ' ' two thousand
students confined in the prisons of Germany for an attempt
to erect a Republican government on the rums of their old
tyrannical system. Gentlemen of the literary societies of
South Hanover, permit me to express our common sympathy
for these enlightened sufferers for freedom's sake. Let us be
the first to make such a public demonstration on this side of
the Atlantic. They have a double claim on our sympathy,
they are students, they are devoted to freedom. Yes! They
are trained in the same walks where the fiery genius of Koer-
ner and the herculean intellect of Kant were matured and
they are buried in the gloom of a dungeon. ' ' There are other
similar enthusiastic and eloquent passages in this conclusion.
He very soon, however, informed me that his health was
failing, that he had intended to take another term at the Uni-
versity as a fellow he had already graduated but had
been advised to stay at his father 's place in the country. Some
years after, I learned that he was a distinguished professor in
a college, in Ohio, I believe, and not very long after hearing
this, I learned that he had died. Had health been vouchsafed
him, I believe my prophecy would have proved true. He was
one of the noblest fellows I ever called my friend.
Through Allen, whom, of course, I visited often, I was
introduced to the family with which he was boarding. They
were French, and lived in a country-house right opposite Mr.
Clay 's mansion, a mile from the city. The father, M. Montelle,
was quite an old man of the ancient regime, very conservative,
and, if I am not mistaken in my recollection, wore a small
queue, a fashion which had not gone quite out of date when
I first came here. He was cashier of the United States Branch
Bank of Kentucky and very highly respected. His wife was
perhaps ten years younger; she must have been very hand-
some, and was yet a very lively French woman. One of the
daughters was married to one of Henry Clay's sons, who had
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 361
a farm in the neighborhood. Two other daughters, one rather
a little old, the other quite young, both full of grace and
vivacity, made up the rest of the family. They received me
with great cordiality, were so glad to have French spoken all
round, and, as long as they had been in the country and the
girls natives of it, they complained much of the rather cold
and stiff manner in which the Americans pretended to amuse
themselves. Of course, we had a quadrille, the old lady play-
ing for us on the violin and calling out the figures, and being
as much pleased as we were. They told me to make their
house my home, not in the Spanish figurative sense; and I
went out very often and spent many pleasant hours at their
house with them and other visitors. The old lady, although
she said she detested waltzing, was yet good-natured enough
to play us a waltz tune, and the only one she knew was "Ei,
du lieber Augustin, alles ist hin."
Speaking of my social life, I may at once remark that
towards the close of the session, parties crowded upon parties.
I did not attend all, not even many, though I believe I was
invited to all. It is only the first step that costs. If you at-
tend one and do not displease people, you are sure to be in-
vited to all that take place within the same circle. Most of
them were very elegant. Splendid suppers at midnight and
seldom a general break-up before morning. At one party, at
the Todd's, I met Mary Todd, who became Lincoln's wife.
A DEBATING CLUB
Early in December, I joined our University debating-
club. It had existed a long time, and Clay had been a member
of it when he first commenced practicing in Lexington. Mem-
bers had to be balloted for, and there was a big entrance fee.
Its meetings were always well attended and the beauty of
Lexington was strongly represented. It was a serious under-
taking for me, but I thought it must be done. Of course, I
knew my imperfections, particularly in the matter of accent.
The more I had read good English writers, such as Addison,
362 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Lady Montague, and Washington Irving, and the more I had
studied Blair's " Rhetoric," the more diffident I felt of ever
obtaining a fluent and graceful style. Of course, I could not
undertake to speak off-hand. The three speeches I made I
carefully prepared and wrote them down. My memory was
so good that by reading them over two or three times, I could
recite them word for word. Besides, I had at the University
and on several public occasions in Germany, spoken ex tern-
pore and knew that even if my memory would play me false,
I could fill the gap by other words until I could find the thread
again. The two first debates in which I had received appoint-
ments to speak by the committee, were on rather commonplace
subjects, but I got along pretty well. My speaking was bad,
but I presented some new points which rather attracted at-
tention. Of course, I was complimented on my efforts more
from the good nature of the Americans than from the real
merits of my pronunciation. When, near the close of the
session, I was assigned to debate the question "Whether party-
spirit was beneficial or not " on the affirmative side I
had, I can say in truth, greatly improved. As our members
were nearly all very fluent and eloquent speakers, indulging,
however, more in rhetorical flights and often extravagant
declamation than in sound argument, I took it into my head to
beat them at their own game. I took care to have my oration
grammatically and constructively correct. I interlarded it
with Latin and with even one Greek citation, was as flowery
as I could possibly be, according to my nature. Greek, Roman
and modern history was called in aid of my argument. It
being the last meeting of the society, the large hall was crowd-
ed and there was even a larger and more brilliant array of the
fair Lexingtonians present than on any former occasions. I
felt a sort of inspiration and I was convinced while speaking
that I had made a hit, which, of course, made me still more
confident. I was very much applauded at the conclusion.
The committee decided against me and my associates on the
question itself, but unanimously voted that we had made the
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 363
best presentation of the argument. Indeed, the speech cre-
ated a sensation. That I really intended it as a kind of mild
burlesque on the national mode of eloquence in serious as well
as sham debates, nobody seemed to have discovered, except my
friend Allen.
My letters to Sophie and to Theodore Engelmann, writ-
ten from Lexington, together with the fragments of my diary
from the summer of 1833 to 1836, which were partly lost when
my house burnt down in Belleville, January 21, 1854, gave
a very true and vivid picture of my life in Lexington.
From what I have written here, it might be supposed that
my stay at the place was altogether a pleasant one. But that
was not so. Absence made me feel how deeply I loved Sophie,
and created a homesick longing, such as I had never felt be-
fore. Many letters from my family, though full of affection
and so far, of course, quite consolatory, brought much sad
news as to many of my friends. Dr. Charles Bunsen, brother
of Gustav and George Bunsen, and Fred. Jucho, also a friend
of mine, had been arrested under serious charges of conspir-
acy. Many of my former fellow-students, particularly of
Heidelberg, had also been confined, and, what most alarmed
me, the business place of my brother Charles had been raided
by the police in search of political books and pamphlets for-
bidden by the government, and proceedings had been com-
menced against him for publishing and selling political con-
traband. Though I was sure he knew nothing of the third of
April emeute, he might be imprisoned a long time during
trial. But that was not all. During the first few months, I
became doubtful whether after all I could succeed in the plan
of life I had marked out for myself, and for the first time in
my life, I had hours of despondency. But I determined to
fight my way out on the lines taken. "Perseverance" I
wrote in my diary "is now my motto. ' ' And then I was
a stranger amongst strangers. I and my associates stood not
upon the same plane. Europe was to all of them a sealed
book. We had no recollections in common. They mostly
364 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
studied their profession only to make money, and their stand-
ard of merit was success only. My room-mate, a clever
enough fellow, once asked me seriously, how much it would
cost him in dollars and cents to get such an education as I had.
I was frequently questioned how many months it would take
to learn German or French, and how much it would cost. It
was clear that there was no sympathetic chord that bound me
to the people I had to associate with.
Yet, after all, my going away from my German friends,
and my becoming acquainted with the academical and home-
life of the higher American circles was worth the sacrifice I
had made. To have influence upon men, you must know
them; for a lawyer whose business is to handle men, this
knowledge is indispensable. My travels in Missouri and my
intercourse with my American neighbors in Illinois, farmers
or traders in small towns, had given me a pretty good idea
of country life. Lexington, though not a large place, was a
rich and comparatively cultured place. Political and pro-
fessional eminence at that time was much more esteemed than
riches. I believe John Jacob Astor was then almost the only
millionaire in the United States. "If I were only as rich as
John Jacob Astor," could be heard very often. As regards
legal knowledge, that I might have acquired at the old farm
just as well; but in knowledge of the world I was to live in,
and in the improvement of my English speaking, my stay at
Lexington was to me of incalculable profit.
At last the lectures came to a close, a little earlier than
usual, owing to the illness of Professor Mays. The weather in
February had been unusually cold, the thermometer falling
for several days to 24 degrees below zero, Reamur, and the
snow being ten inches thick in the streets of Lexington. I
made my parting visits, and early in March bade adieu to Al-
len and Lutz, who went with me to the depot. Both had be-
come very much attached to me. Lutz, some ten years after
I left him, married a rich heiress, whose maiden name was
Mansfield, and she made it a condition that he should adopt
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 365
her name. Under that name he moved, in 1850, into Indiana,
and resided on a beautiful country seat near Madison. Being
in affluent circumstances his home was the resort of the best
society at Madison and the country round. I believe he was
a member of the Republican convention which nominated
Lincoln for President in 1860. He was some sixty years of
age when the war broke out, which prevented him from enter-
ing active service. But when Morgan with a Confederate
corps was about entering Indiana, Governor Morton appointed
him commander of the whole militia of the state with the rank
of major-general. After the war he held some military posi-
tion in the State, removing to Indianapolis. In 1870 he bought
land in Illinois, on the new Bloomington and Danville Rail-
road, laid out the town of Mansfield, built himself a residence,
and died September 20, 1876. He was, when I knew him, the
handsomest man I ever saw, combining the strength of Her-
cules with the beauty of Antinous.
AN INCIDENT OF THE RIVER-TRIP HOME
Arriving in the evening at Louisville, I found there was
but one boat advertised to leave for St. Louis the next day.
When I went on board in the morning, the captain told me I
would have to wait a day longer, as the canal was yet frozen
and he would not dare to go over the falls, since a great deal
of ice was still running in the river, although the river was
otherwise high enough. Anxious as I was to reach home, I
had to go back to the hotel. But I put my time to the best
use I could by making a call on the beautiful Ellen Douglas,
who had set all the young men of Lexington crazy. I had
quite a pleasant interview with her in the parlor, no one in-
terrupting us at all American fashion. Next morning I
again went on board the Dove; the canal was still frozen,
but the captain concluded to run the falls about noon. There
was a company of United States soldiers on board, three of-
ficers and a paymaster of the army, Major Brandt, of St. Louis.
366 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
The captain said he had an extra first-rate pilot from the city,
who knew every inch of ground in the falls ; but if the gentle-
men preferred, they could take carriages and drive down to
the end of the falls, where he would land and take us in. The
officers preferred that route, and some of the few passengers.
I thought that at least one of the officers should have stayed
with their men. But that was perhaps a romantic European
notion. I confess that I would also have preferred going that
way, but my purse had run very low. The boat-passage was
several dollars higher than what I had paid in the fall when
many boats were running, and my involuntary stay in Louis-
ville had also cost a couple of dollars, so that I had only a few
dollars left. This consideration, not a desire to brave an
unknown danger, kept me on board. We started ; heavy cakes
of ice thundered at once against the ribs of our boat, which
was quite a small one. "We got into the falls, or rather rapids,
but in the midst of them I heard a loud crack, the boat turned
round, and some men with blanched cheeks ran from the pilot-
house back to the rudder. The tiller-rope, by which the rud-
der is worked from the pilot-house, had snapped. We were all
on deck and expected to strike the rocks on either side every
minute. Fortunately, the men succeeded in tying the rope
again, and the pilot again gained command of the boat. We
got through, but the captain himself said he thought that both
we and the boat were gone.
I must add that I was pretty well scared, though I had
not let my cigar go out. We reached the mouth of the Ohio,
but here again we had to stop. The ice came running down
the Mississippi furiously and in cakes from one to ten inches
thick. It was impossible to move against it. We had to lay
here for two days at a point where there were only one or two
shanties. We were out of meat, eggs and other things, and
were obliged to live on half rations. Some of our party went
to the Kentucky shore and killed a couple of deer and got some
provisions. One can imagine my impatience. I was terribly
homesick. Finally the ice grew more manageable. Huge
STUDYING LAW IN LEXINGTON 367
trees were felled and chained and tied to the bow of the boat,
forming a sort of breastwork. But although we proceeded
quite slowly and avoided the biggest clumps of ice, these
breastworks were more than once every day broken to pieces
and had to be replaced. It was anything but a pleasant trip,
and I almost died with impatience. Finally, St. Louis was
reached, the stage taken, and in a few hours I was amongst
my dear friends and in the arms of my loving girl.
CHAPTER XVI
Beginning the Practice of the Law (1835-1836)
Some considerable changes had taken place during my
absence. Just before I left, Mr. Ernst Decker and a friend
by the name of Mirus had arrived at the Engelmann farm.
What brought them there I have forgotten. Decker had been
studying theology and philosophy at Breslau in Silesia, For
political reasons he left to seek his fortune in the United
States. Mirus was also a political refugee from some uni-
versity, I believe Leipsic. Decker was tall and very handsome.
Like most Silesians, he was a very warm-hearted and sanguine
man ' ' gemuethlich. ' ' Of strict integrity, of the most even
temper, and of very pleasant manners, he was a most lovable
character. Misfortune and disappointment, which unfortu-
nately met him but too often in his career, did not embitter
his feelings. He bore adversity with serene patience. He
had what I thought a most remarkable and eminent talent for
mechanical work. When a year or so after his arrival he
bought himself a piece of timber-land near the Engelmanns'
and built a neat frame house, he did most of the carpenter
work himself. As Decker married our brave sister Caroline,
I may have to say more about them both.
Shortly after my going to Kentucky, my old and intimate
friend, William Weber, having escaped from prison, found
his way to the United States and naturally came to the Engel-
mann farm, where he found Friedrich, whom he had also
known well at Leipsic. Another gentleman, Lindheimer, from
Frankfort, a scientist, particularly versed in botany, a friend
of Doctor Engelmann, had also paid a visit to the farm.
Friedrich had concluded that farming in Illinois, where help
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 369
was scarce and dear, and where the farmer himself must work
hard, was not to his liking. He turned his eyes to Mexico and
persuaded Weber, Decker and Minis to make up a party for
Mexico and to start or to buy there a coffee plantation. Lind-
heimer also joined the company, and in spite of the advice of
their friends in the settlement, they left for New Orleans.
Friedrich was a man of means, and the others would princi-
pally have to rely on him. For some reason that I never
learned, Weber, Decker and Minis gave up the enterprise at
New Orleans, and towards Christmas, 1834, surprised the
Engelmanns by their return. Friedrich and Lindheimer
went on. Friedrich bought a coffee plantation in Mirrador,
and wrote me several letters in 1835 and 1836 inviting me
strongly to visit him. He returned in 1840 to the United
States, remaining, however, in the East, and, I believe, after
1848 went back to Germany. Schreiber had gone to St. Louis
and taken a clerkship in a French liquor-house. Sometime
afterwards, he engaged in an expedition of the American Fur
Company to the Rocky Mountains, but did not return for
many years, living as a hunter and trapper amongst the In-
dians. He wrote a very interesting and humorous account
of his explorations and adventures, and while formerly he had
been of rather delicate health, he was now stout and robust.
St. Clair County attracted him. He bought a farm near
Mascoutah, and married; but the change of life and climate
was too much for him. He died some three or four years after
his return of pneumonia. In him, I lost a friend of whom I
had always been very fond.
ACCESSIONS TO THE GERMAN SETTLEMENT
Our German settlement had received some very excellent
accessions. Dr. Adolph Reuss, of a highly respectable family
of Frankfort, and married to a lovely woman, (a sister of my
friend, Doctor Jucho, who in 1848 was first secretary of the
German Reichstag, and had before been imprisoned for years
in the fortress of Mayence after the third of April,) and
370 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Dr. Anton Schott, who had been professor of history at the
Frankfort College, with his wife, had in the meantime come
to the United States. After examining places in Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, Shiloh valley took them
captive, and they bought a beautiful large farm with good
buildings adjoining Ledergerber 's. Most probably it was the
German society which they found settled in the valley that
determined their choice. As Doctor Engelmann had been
away much during the summer of 1835 in Arkansas and Louis-
iana, and in the fall had moved to St. Louis, the neighborhood
of an eminent physician was of course very acceptable to the
Engelmanns ; while, in every respect, the society of well-edu-
cated, right-minded and warm-hearted people could not but
be highly agreeable to the whole settlement.
A very old, buoyant and sociable friend, August Conradi,
from Augsburg, who had been with me at Munich studying
medicine, had also made his escape from prison and had
come to our settlement, living at Hilgard's, but coming, of
course, very often to the old farm. Theodore Kraft had gone
to Belleville with a view of studying law, had bought himself
a collection of law-books, but very soon gave up the idea,
became a clerk in a store, and in a short time went into part-
nership with an American from Virginia, establishing a large
business, which flourished for several years, but succumbed
like so many other business-houses on the setting in of the
financial crisis of 1840.
Staying at the farm with Sophie, surrounded by the fam-
ily which, next to my own, I loved best, and by old and tried
friends of my youth, would certainly have been delightful. I
might have pursued there my law-studies up to the time I was
admitted a member of the bar. The session of the Supreme
Court, at which the judges had to examine the candidates, was
over when I returned, and the next session was to be in June.
But I thought it my duty to avoid all distractions and to con-
fine myself exclusively to study. I remembered a sentence in
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 371
one of Bulwer 's novels, where it is said : "To aspire is to be
alone. ' '
After a few days on the farm I went to Belleville, rented
an office on the public square, the place now covered by the
stately Penn Building, procured some additional law-books
and worked hard. When the spring courts commenced, I went
again to Madison County, paid the closest attention to the
proceedings, and did the same in St. Glair County. In Madi-
son I bought me a fine young horse, four years old, not quite
fully broken, from Julius Barnsbach, Jr., a German pioneer,
who with his uncle and some other relatives had settled some
ten years previously near Edwardsville. Barnsbaeh was then
a justice of the peace, and soon became quite an important
man, doing a large business as a merchant in Edwardsville,
after having rented his very fine farm. As I rode my horse
several hours every evening after the day's work was done,
he soon became an excellent saddle-horse and the favorite of
the family.
AN EXAMINATION AT THE ILLINOIS BAR, IN 1835
At last the day arrived for the meeting of the Supreme
Court at Vandalia, then the capital of Illinois. On a beauti-
ful June morning I left Belleville, rode the first day as far
as Greenville in Bond County, a distance of forty-four miles,
and taking an early start next day reached Vandalia, twenty
miles distant, about ten o'clock in the morning. Vandalia
had been made the capital in the year 1820. It had been orig-
inally laid out by a Mr. Ernst, the leader of a small colony of
Hanoverians, the members of which had settled in 1819 on
farms around the place now made the capital. They were most-
ly men of means, and Mr. Ernst was a well educated man. The
locality was at the time not badly chosen. There were some
fine prairies, not too large, and plenty of first-rate timber
lining the Kaskaskia River. After the State House was built,
Vandalia rapidly improved. All the State officers had to
reside there. The United States Court with its officers was
372 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
also located there, as well as the United States Land Office,
through which the unsold government lands were to be pur-
chased. Vandalia was besides the county seat of Fayette
County, which required the officers of the Circuit Court and
the County Court and many other employees of the county
to reside there. Vandalia, being far from any market, became
a market-place in itself for many counties around it. Its
merchants would buy corn and tobacco, a great deal of
which was at that time raised in southern Illinois, oats,
potatoes, deer and other skins, honey and butter, and ship
them in the spring down the Kaskaskia River, which
was navigable for flat-boats. This produce was sold as well
as the flat-boats in New Orleans at great profit, the farmers
being paid by the merchants mostly in goods at a very high
figure. Comparatively small as Vandalia was, yet there was,
owing to these circumstances, considerable wealth there, and
much good, intelligent society.
I put up at the principal tavern of the place in Ameri-
can slang a "one-horse concern" and at once inquired for
A. P. Field, who was then Secretary of State, and to whom
Captain Snyder had given me a letter of introduction. The
tavern was right opposite the State House in the middle of a
large square, which was enclosed by a plank fence, on top
of which was a small slanting board. The State House was a
tolerably large two-story brick building, without any orna-
ments, except a sort of steeple in which a bell hung. The style
of the building was the Pennsylvania big-barn style. The
landlord pointed towards the square, saying: "There sits
your man." Sure enough, on the top board of the fence sat
Colonel Field, of whom I have already spoken as having met
him at Edwardsville. He was in his shirt-sleeves, had no col-
lar, necktie or vest on, and wore brownish linen trousers and
a pair of leather slippers. He was talking to another person,
who was lazily leaning against the enclosure. I crossed over.
"Colonel Field, I believe?" "Yes, Sir." I then handed him
my letter while he slipped down from his perch. He shook
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 373
hands very cordially, was very glad to see me, had heard of
me before which probably was not true and would take
very great pleasure in introducing me to the judges. They
were still in session and would come over for dinner, when he
would make me acquainted with them. Going back to the
tavern, I found a gentleman, a few years younger than I, who
had just arrived from the eastern part of the State. He was
a stout, good-looking man, gave me his name as Isaac M.
Walker, and said he had also come to be examined for a
license.
Not long afterwards, the dinner bell, hanging on a large
post before the house, was rung. This was then in all smaller
towns and villages the manner of notifying people that dinner
would soon be ready. The judges with Colonel Field came
over. An introduction having taken place, we were told to
come up to the judges' room after dinner, when they would
give us the examination.
We went up. The Supreme Court then consisted of four
judges, of whom, however, only two were present, the Chief
Justice, William Wilson, and Judge Smith. The room was
whitewashed, perfectly bare with the exception of two bed-
steads, a deal table and a couple of chairs. Wilson, complain-
ing of being sick, was stretched on one of the beds, held a
small phial of medicine in his hand and swallowed once or
twice in the course of the conversation a few drops. It was
opium, which he was in the habit of taking for a chronic dis-
ease of the stomach. Judge Smith was sitting near the bed.
It was a warm day and both were in their shirt-sleeves.
Wilson was from Virginia. He must have been a very
noble-looking person when young, but his health was evidently
much broken. His voice had an unnatural, cracked sound.
He was a man of fine education and a good lawyer, and, as his
opinions will show, a fine writer. It was said, however, that
he merely jotted his ideas down on small slips of paper and
then handed them to an amanuensis, who put them in shape,
Wilson revising the composition.
374 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENER
Judge Theophilus W. Smith, an excellent lawyer, a man
of fine talents and appearance, but of a rather ambitious and
intriguing character, whom I have mentioned before, was the
other judge. Justices Lockwood and Brown were absent.
Brown was said to have been at one time a good lawyer, but
if so, he must have forgotten what he knew. He was a large,
portly man of great levity of character, and in his widower-
days a great ladies ' man, fond of gossip, an epicure, and never
refusing to drink with anyone. He was a plausible man, with
engaging Southern manners, and popular with the crowd.
Judge Loekwood, from the State of New York, was very tall
and very thin, held himself very erect, and, though at the time
hardly more than forty-five years of age, had thick, stiff snow-
white hair. His complexion was dark, his eyes black and of
brilliant lustre. He made the impression of an intellectual,
benignant person. An excellent lawyer, he was clear-headed,
conscientious and eminently just. His health appeared to
be very poor.
I have been somewhat particular in delineating the per-
sons of these judges, inasmuch as ten years afterwards, the
judicial system having been changed, I myself became a mem-
ber of the Supreme Court, when Wilson, Brown and Lockwood
were still on the bench, and having had then to associate
intimately with them, I thus had the best opportunity of form-
ing an opinion of their character.
The examination lasted hardly more than half an hour.
Mr. Walker seemed to have given but little time to the study
of law; nevertheless, Judge Wilson, in his sepulchral voice,
said that they would give us certificates upon which the clerk
of the court would issue us licenses. Judge Smith wrote them
out, and as it was time for going into court again, we all went
downstairs, and, in passing the bar which was at one end of
the hall on the lower floor, my friend Walker invited the com-
pany to take a drink. The bar-keeper mixed us four brandy
toddies, we touched glasses, bowed and drank, Walker paying
the bill. We went over to the State House and the clerk
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 375
filled out the licenses, charging a dollar for each. We shook
hands with the judges and went back to the tavern. I had
already ordered my horse and started for home at a good trot.
Walker afterwards became a competitor of mine for office,
but was not chosen. Some years after 1840 he left Illinois,
went to Wisconsin, settled in Milwaukee, practised law, specu-
lated in land, then on a great rise, became rich, was a leading
Democrat, got elected to the Senate of the United States, and
played quite a conspicuous part there.
Leaving Vandalia about three o'clock, and getting to
Greenville too early to stop, I proceeded about ten miles
farther south to Sugar Creek, resting there over night at a fine
farm ; and, leaving early in the morning, I reached the Engel-
mann farm only half a mile out of my way to Belleville soon
after dinner, making the sixty-five miles to Vandalia and sixty
miles back from there to the farm in two days and a half,
including the time spent in Vandalia.
On the farm they were much astonished at my early
arrival. They first thought I had met with an accident and
had not reached Vandalia. The first day I had made forty-
five miles, the second, fifty, and the third half day, thirty
miles. I felt very proud of my splendid little horse.
While riding back I was musing in my mind over the
contrast of this examination with my former ones. In Heidel-
berg four of the greatest lights of jurisprudence in Germany
were sitting around a large round table with a place for me as
the candidate. We were all in evening dress. The examina-
tion, carried on in Latin, lasted four hours. After a short
retirement I was called in again by a uniformed university
official, and was congratulated by the dean, Professor Thibaut,
as Doctor Utriusque Juris, whereupon we walked into the din-
ing-room and ate a sumptuous dinner, costing with the wines
Rhine wine and champagne about twenty dollars. Walk-
er 's treat in Vandalia totalled twenty-five cents. In Frank-
fort there was no dinner; but the examination by the supreme
judges, two in number, all in black, lasted two hours, and was
376 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
held in one of the lofty chambers of the old Roemer, where
anciently the German emperors, after coronation, were ban-
queted. The old imperial building, and the one-horse tavern
in Vandalia kept by an Irishman, whose normal state was
drunkenness, what a change of historical stage-setting !
FIRST LAW-CASE
I now commenced my practice in good earnest. The
spring sessions of the court in the circuit were over, and the
fall sessions commenced the latter part of August. But peo-
ple came for advice ; I had to write deeds and contracts. My
first case of any importance was before a justice of the peace.
Squire John Murray, and created some sensation. As it was
my debut, I may be pardoned for giving it hi detail.
About a mile from Mr. George Bunsen 's farm lived two
trifling young men on a small rented place, with their
mother. They were lazy and raised nothing but a little corn,
and had a truck patch around their little cabin. Their main
business was to hunt, and they kept a brace of hounds of a
very vicious character. These dogs used to run out into the
prairie, where the horses and the cattle of the neighbors had
their pasturing range, would chase and worry them, so that
very often the cattle came running home in an exhausted state,
and even showing marks of dog bites. Bunsen 's horses had been
repeatedly so chased and worried, and when he had remon-
strated with the boys, or old woman, he was met with insol-
ence or curses. One time the horses had been run home by the
dogs, and Bunsen and Berchelmann concluded to make an
end of it. So they went over to the boys' farm, found the
dogs inside of the fence, and shot them. One of the boys,
who claimed to be the owner of the hounds, sued Mr. Bunsen
for the value of the hounds to the amount of fifty dollars.
Mr. Bunsen employed me to defend him. The question was
whether the shooting was justifiable? Had they shot the
dogs in the act of running and worrying their horses, they
would have been merely protecting their property. But the
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 377
dogs had gone back and were at their home, and the shooting
took place some hours, perhaps a day, afterwards. Here was
the weakness of our case.
A jury was called, and Captain Adam W. Snyder was
for the boys. A good many witnesses were present. In a
place so small as Belleville, the whole town had learned what
was going on. Snyder was the foremost lawyer, and this was
my first case. In a word, for the Belleville people this dog
case was a cause celebre. The office of the squire was full of
spectators, and so was the large porch before the office, the
windows of which were open. Of course the killing was
proved, and the boys had a set of equally trifling young accom-
plices who swore that the hounds were worth at least $25.00
apiece. We proved the vicious character of the dogs by
respectable farmers, and also their having chased Mr. Bun-
sen's horses not long before the killing. I did not try to dis-
prove their value, although I could easily have done so, for in
such cases, if one goes into the measure of damages, the
jurors often infer that you are guilty and wish only to reduce
the amount.
Captain Snyder made quite an impressive rhetorical
speech. "This," he said, "is a country of law. No man is
allowed to take the law into his own hands. If the defendant
had been injured by the dogs, which he was not willing to
admit," he cautiously added, "the doors of the temple of
justice stood wide open for his redress. He could have sued
the complainant, and if he could have proved his case, which,
however, he believed he had not proved, he would have re-
ceived ample compensation for all his injuries. The defendant
had invaded the premises of the old lady and the boys. Every
man's house was his castle in this country. True, the defen-
dants were rich and wore broadcloth, and his clients were poor
and wore homespun. But in this country the law made no
difference between rich and poor, as it did in the country
where these gentlemen came from. It was time that they
should be taught a lesson; that in this great and glorious
378 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
republic all were alike before the law; and he hoped that the
jury in this case would teach them that lesson, by giving his
clients the full value of the dogs as claimed by them."
In reply, I spoke about as follows: "I thought I knew
the country where these gentlemen came from better than
the counsel for the complainant. As far as civil rights were
concerned they were there as well protected as here, and no
man was allowed to take the law in his own hands, nor was
there a distinction before the law between the rich and poor.
Judge Lynch was an unknown person there. My clients had
acted in protection of their property. Their complaints had
been trifled with. All the neighbors had been equally annoyed
by these dogs. The counsel had been somewhat inconsistent
in his argument. He had spoken of the ample remedy which
the defendant would have had if he had gone to law against
his clients, while at the same time he had appealed to the
sympathy of the jury by telling them that his clients were
very poor, wore homespun, and lived on a small tract of land
not their own. Suppose they had sued and got a judgment.
They would have found no other property than these very
hounds. I would ask the gentleman, if he had ever heard of
a sheriff or constable levying an execution on a dog." This
raised considerable laughter in the crowd. I laid great stress
on the bad behavior of the boys and the old woman when they
had been repeatedly requested to restrain their dogs.
Captain Snyder, very prudently, in his concluding speech
apologized for the language which he had applied to my
clients, spoke of the Germans as an excellent people, but added
that unfortunately they had not made themselves sufficiently
acquainted with the American laws.
The jury was out a good while. As I had expected and
had told Mr. Bunsen, they found him guilty, but awarded only
ten dollars' damages for the two dogs. Of course, both parties
were displeased. After paying their attorneys' fees, I pre-
sume there was nothing left for the boys and the old woman.
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 379
They had lost their hounds and in the end had got nothing
for them. The case was the town talk for a great while.
I could now have got many small cases before justice
courts, but under one pretext or another I usually declined
them. After practicing for a few years I was never more
applied to for justice court trials, and I do not believe that
even before that time I had half a dozen such cases.
At the August term of the St. Clair Court, I had several,
though mostly light, criminal cases. In a larceny case of
some importance I was appointed by the court together with
Governor Reynolds to defend the criminal. I think we suc-
ceeded in having him acquitted. My diary does not disclose
the result.
In September I returned very late from St. Louis to
Belleville through the damp American Bottom. Next morn-
ing I felt pains in all my limbs. It being Saturday, I rode
out to the farm in the evening, but unfortunately was over-
taken by a violent thunder-storm which wetted me to the
skin, and the next morning I was seized with the regular
long-dreaded fever and ague, then prevailing to an alarm-
ing extent. I was kept from work a week or so, and then did
not feel well enough to visit the courts in the other counties
of the circuit. Still I had a good deal of office-business.
After a very pleasant and large party at Mr. Hilgard's,
returning late in the night, I had a relapse of the fever and
ague, but it passed off quickly, and I spent the fall and winter
of the year 1835 quite pleasantly.
EUROPEAN POLITICS IN 1835
This was, however, in many respects an eventful year in
the history of both continents. In Germany, political prosecu-
tions continued with great vigor. Ministerial conferences
were held and laws were passed by the Diet destroying the
liberty of the press and restricting the power of the legisla-
tures of the different states to such an extent that they left
everything to the wills of the kings and princes under the
380 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
supervision of the Diet. Prussia had become a mere tool
in the hands of Metternich and of the Czar of Russia, the
latter also exercising through family relations an almost
supreme power over some of the minor States of the German
Confederation. The revolution in Spain, upsetting the arbi-
trary government, alarmed the despotic powers. The Czar,
the King of Prussia and Emperor of Austria met. War was
considered imminent, but without France, which had acted
as the executioner of the Holy Alliance in Spain some ten
years before, the northern powers could do nothing, and Louis
Philippe, whatever his own views might have been, could not
risk his own throne by interfering in Spain. France itself
was in a state of great disturbance, Republicans as well as
Bonapartists having formed powerful secret societies. At the
anniversary of the taking of the Bastile, in July, 1835, the
Corsican Fieschi made an attempt on the king's life, by firing
from the second story of a house on the Boulevard a roughly
constructed infernal machine, built on the plan of the sub-
sequently invented mitrailleuse. The King at the head of a
military suite was passing by and Marshal Mortier, the Due de
Previso, with some twenty other persons were instantly killed,
and several others wounded; the King himself escaped, being
only lightly wounded on the forehead. Under the terror of
this Attentat most stringent laws were passed regarding the
press, public meetings, etc. As Fieschi, a notorious criminal,
had no communication with any of the parties, but acted out
of spite and despair, it was plain that his deed had been
merely made a pretext for these reactionary measures, and the
opposition to the Orleans government became alarmingly
strong.
But the most extraordinary changes took place in Spain.
Since the death of Ferdinand the Seventh and the succession
of the child Isabella the Second, under the regency of her
mother, Christina, civil war had raged there. Don Carlos,
brother of the deceased Ferdinand, claimed the throne under
the Salic law. Many battles were fought, with varying sue-
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 381
cess. Christina had thrown herself into the hands of the
Conservative party. But in 1835 some of the principal cities,
Barcelona, Seville, and others had declared against her min-
istry and demanded a Liberal constitution. In fact, Arra-
gon, Catalonia, and Andalusia had appointed juntas who
took the government into their own hands. The greatest
excitement existed against the clerical party. In many
cities, also in Madrid, all the convents of monks were sacked
and burnt down and a great many monks massacred. Since
that time there have been no more monasteries in Spain, and
but very few nunneries, and those merely of an educational
character. The Queen Regent had to yield. A new consti-
tution was granted, and many of the old Liberals of the war
against Napoleon, such as Mina, Tallifax, Arguilles and others
received high appointments. As stated before, Louis Philippe
would not join the northern powers, but in connection with
England by furnishing money and by allowing foreign legions
to be formed, supported the Christines.
It appears from my diary that I paid close attention
to these events in Spain, noting the changes of the Ministry
and the action of the Cortes with great particularity, and
adding many reflections. Had I a presentment that Spain
would in a future time become the subject of my peculiar
study and the scene of my own activity at least for some
time?
POLITICAL SITUATION IN THE UNITED STATES
For the United States this same year was one of the most
remarkable. Coming events cast their shadows before. By
a treaty made with France in 1832, she was to pay to the
United States five million dollars' indemnity arising from
claims for damages suffered during the war between England
and France. The first installment was to be paid in 1834, but
the French Chamber refused to make an appropriation for
the money, for the reason that their government ought first to
have consulted the Chamber before making the treaty. In his
382
message at the opening of Congress, President Jackson had
laid the matter before Congress, leaving it to them to adopt
proper measures for obtaining justice, proposing, however,
to make reprisals on all French property found in the United
States, should our just demands be disregarded.
By many, even of Jackson's friends, it was believed that
the President had gone too far. Whig papers attacked him
and charged him with wanting to provoke a war. The com-
mittee of the Senate on foreign relations, Henry Clay being
chairman, reported strongly against Jackson's suggestion.
The House did nothing. But the message created a terrible
hubbub in France. The press came out strongly for war,
and in the Chamber fiery speeches were made, and the appro-
priation was again refused. Our press retaliated, and those
who did not understand French policy, and particularly the
peaceful character of Louis Philippe, were convinced that
war was to follow. When the French minister was recalled
from, Washington and our minister from France, things wore
a somewhat warlike look, and great excitement manifested it-
self all over the country. Jackson, however, in another message
to Congress spoke in more conciliatory terms about the mat-
ter, and the French Chambers passed the appropriation bill
with a provision that the United States should first declare
that it had not intended to offend the French nation. Jackson
peremptorily refused to make an apology, but at the end of
the year, through the intervention of England, the matter
was settled without an apology.
A far more serious affair loomed up on our southwestern
frontier. Texas, one of the States of the Republic of Mexico,
had for some years attracted to it a great number of Ameri-
can settlers. Mexico had been very liberal in granting gra-
tuitously large pieces of land to emigrants, and the country,
being in part very fertile and fit for raising cotton, had offered
great inducements, particularly to the people of our South-
ern States. Now there had been a revolution in Mexico. Gen-
eral Santa Anna had overturned the existing constitution of
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 383
Mexico and converted the Federal government into a more
centralized one, by which the States would have lost their
limited sovereignty and would have been converted into mere
provinces or departments. Some Mexican citizens of Texas
were opposed to this coup d'etat, but it was the new settlers,
the Americans, who were most active in their opposition. A
convention was held. Santa Anna was denounced as a
usurper, a provisional government was formed, and inde-
pendence declared not long afterwards. From all parts of the
United States, but principally from the South, volunteers
flocked to Texas, funds were raised, ammunition and provis-
ions furnished. The proclamation of the President, calling
upon the people to remain neutral, the instructions to the
judicial and the executive officers to prosecute any violation
of the neutrality laws, proved wholly ineffectual. Public
opinion was too strong to be overcome by paper proclama-
tions. It was at once manifest that if Texas sustained her
independence, her annexation to the United States was only
a question of time. It was also certain that she would intro-
duce slavery before her admission. Of course, that would
strengthen the weight of the Slave States in Congress and
afford a splendid market for slaves.
While these proceedings in Texas were immensely popu-
lar in the Southern and even in many of the Western States,
the North looked upon them with great distrust. While a
large majority of the Northern people did not seek to inter-
fere with slavery at all where it constitutionally existed, they
did not like to have additional Southern States added to the
Union, not so much on account of slavery as on account of
these States being all agricultural and consequently in favor
of a low tariff or absolute free trade. They knew that inde-
pendent Texas was bound to come into the Union, increasing
thereby the Southern weight in Congress.
Events in the Northern and Middle States during the
year, of far deeper import, added to the excitement produced
by the revolt of Texas. These States had got rid of slavery
384 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
by selling their slaves south and also by constitutional and
legislative enactments. In the course of years it was but
natural that slavery, as it was protected by the Constitution,
should become a theme of agitation. The efforts for coloniz-
ing free negroes in Africa, made under the auspices of some
of the leading statesmen, North and South, and having been a
pet scheme of Henry Clay, had failed. It was denounced by
northern philanthropists as a cunning device to unload the
free negroes, the element considered in the South as the most
dangerous, into Africa, leaving slavery really untouched, and
also as a means to stifle slavery agitation in the North. A
most bitter contest had sprung up between the abolitionists
and the adherents of the colonization plan.
In England, societies for the abolition of slavery in the
colonies had been formed. They had brought about, not long
before, the gradual abolition of slavery in their West India
colonies. Some members of the societies had come over to this
country to propagate their views. Abolition societies were
soon established here and also journals advocating immediate
and absolute emancipation. At first these societies kept within
the constitutional limits. Congress having full power and jur-
isdiction over the territories of the United States, the efforts
of the Abolitionists were directed principally to induce that
body to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and other
territories. Petitions to that effect were widely signed and sent
to Congress. They were received and referred to committees,
but no action was taken upon them. Very soon, however, the
Abolitionists became divided among themselves. Some did not
want to go any farther than to have slavery abolished where
the Constitution formed no obstacles. But the more radical
part made light of the Constitution. They denounced it as an
agreement with death and a covenant with hell, and preached
unconditional abolition. Their papers took the same view.
Numerous tracts were published painting the iniquities of
the system in the most glowing colors, appealing to the con-
science of the slave-holders, and denouncing the Southern
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 385
clergy who had undertaken to justify slavery by the Bible as
recreants to true Christianity. These tracts were sent by thou-
sands into the Southern States. Of course the Southern peo-
ple became highly excited, meetings were held ; the Abolitionists
denounced as fiends of the white race, preaching doctrines
which would naturally excite slave-insurrections and expose
the South to the murderous outrages the whites had suffered
in Hayti. Packages supposed to contain incendiary tracts
were taken out of the post-offices by mobs, and the people went
to other extremes in retaliating on the fanaticism of the North.
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
But it was not the South alone that was alarmed. The
fear of the North losing the trade of the South, and the appre-
hension that this agitation might break up the Union, set a
vast majority of the Northern people without distinction of
party against the Abolitionists. A building in which an Abo-
lition meeting was announced to be held was demolished by a
mob in Philadelphia. In some places, in New York and other
states, Abolition meetings were broken up, and the partici-
pators roughly handled. In the staid Puritan city of Boston
a ladies ' Abolition meeting was broken up by what the papers
called the most respectable and gentlemanly mob ever seen.
William Lloyd Garrison, the most prominent leader of the
radical wing of the Abolition party, who had addressed the
meeting, was dragged out of the house, with a rope around his
neck, and, while the mayor and some other officers were taking
hold of him, to save his life, his clothing was torn off him, and
being put in a carriage he was taken for safety to the jail
amidst the howling of a furious mob who wanted to take him
out of the carriage and lynch him. He was of course set free
next morning, under a promise to leave town. The Northern
press, with but few exceptions, justified, excused, or extenu-
ated the mob. Such was public feeling even in the North at
that time.
386 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
William Lloyd Garrison was a visionary, a fanatic, it
might be said, on the slavery question. He certainly did
more harm than good at that period. He was, however, an
honest enthusiast, fully in earnest and ready to sacrifice his
all for the cause he had espoused, and a model husband and
father, generous to the poor, and of an unimpeachable char-
acter. It was not till later that I learned his true character;
for, when he became through his highly intellectual and
very charming daughter Fanny, who married Henry Hil-
gard-Villard, a cousin of Sophie, somewhat nearly related
to our family, I took more interest in making myself ac-
quainted with his life and his almost superhuman, though ill-
directed, efforts to abolish slavery.
NEW ARRIVALS
The last night of the year, we had a highly enjoyable
time. All our friends and relatives had been invited to Theo-
dore Hilgard's place to celebrate New Year's. The Hilgards
had invited some friends from St. Louis, and I went over to
get them. Only two of the party, however, were ready to go,
the weather and roads being abominable: these were Miss
Anna Ulrici and her brother Rudolph. Anna was one of the
most perfect beauties that I had ever met, about eighteen
years old, lustrous large black eyes, splendid black hair, ele-
gant figure, and finely chiseled features. She and her sister
Clara, afterwards Mrs. Wolf, were then considered the reign-
ing belles of St. Louis. I had a hard time driving through the
American Bottom. The road was impassable in most places,
being an actual ditch of deep mud. Every team had to seek
its own road through the bushes and timber. We started in
a two-horse, light spring wagon as early as eight o'clock in the
morning and did not reach the Hilgard place twenty miles
until late in the evening. Yet we were in time for the sup-
per and ball. It was three o'clock in the morning on the first
of January, 1836, when Sophie and I and some of the Engel-
manns walked home. Beautiful Anna came over to the Engel-
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 387
manns' and stayed there for a week or so and repeated her
visits for some years. In 1888, not having seen her for forty
years, I met her in St. Louis. The brilliant dark eyes were
the only traces of her once ravishing beauty. Perhaps some
one had pointed her out to me so that she could address me,
otherwise I doubt very much whether she would have recog-
nized me. Sic transit gloria mundi!
The year 1836 was in many respects one full of interest-
ing incidents, and to me the most eventful, as in the course of
it I became united to my dear Sophie. The family of Mr.
Theodore Hilgard, Sr., so long expected, had at last arrived in
St. Louis after a voyage of about three months from Havre
to New Orleans. I and Theodore Kraft, a nephew of Mr. Hil-
gard, who had been partly educated in his family, went over
to bid them welcome. We found them at Mr. Karsten's fam-
ily-hotel and, as it happened, they were all in one room when
we entered: Mr. Hilgard, his wife, five daughters and four
sons. I have traced Mr. Theodore Hilgard 's life very fully
in my ' ' German Element, ' ' as also that of his sons, who became
distinguished in their various professions to a very high
degree. When I wrote about them, however, Julius was only
assistant superintendent of the Coast Survey, but soon after-
wards became the chief of that great bureau. Unfortunately,
his health failed him some years ago, affecting also his mental
vigor to some extent, and compelling him to resign. Mr.
Theodore Hilgard, Sr., was of medium height, of slender build,
and some forty-six years of age. His complexion was very
pale, and his hair gray. His unusually high forehead was
slightly furrowed and his finely chiseled features showed a
man who thought much and whose intellectual force was far
greater than his physical. In fact, he looked at that time in
very delicate and precarious health. A profound and elegant
jurist, an excellent mathematician, a classical scholar, familiar
with the modern languages, well versed in ancient and modern
literature, with a really surprising knowledge of horticulture
and vine culture, serious generally, but when amongst friends
388 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
quite sociable and entertaining, he was certainly a character
challenging admiration. Yet as Goethe says: "Where there
is so much light, there is also much shade." Strictly honest
and punctual in his dealings with others, he was very exacting.
He was what the Americans call "very close" in all money
matters, so much so that he was called by many very par-
simonious. "While no doubt he expended money freely to give
his sons a superior education, he was, particularly in small
matters, often amusingly ungenerous. He loved his family
no doubt, but he loved himself more. His comfort, his well-
being, was his principal care. "Tranchons le mot' 7 he was
an egotist. His nerves were very finely strung, and he was
liable to lose his self-control and to become very passionate on
very trivial occasions. I never heard any complaint from any
member of his family, but that they must have frequently
suffered under his sudden outbreaks of passion, I am well
aware.
Mrs. Hilgard likewise showed marks of delicate health,
but also traces of uncommon beauty. She was a most amiable
and sweet woman. All the children showed intellect and
vivacity. The oldest of the girls, Emma, then engaged to
marry Edward Hilgard, who had gone to Europe the year
before and had now returned with the family, was of a very
delicate, almost spiritual beauty, which did not indicate strong
health. The other girls were also very charming. They were
all so cordial that I at once felt myself at home amongst them.
The accession of such a highly interesting family to our
colony was beyond price. They settled on a piece of land on
the hills of Richland Creek, separated only by that streamlet
from the town limits, and covered mostly by very fine and tall
timber, but also containing some good farm lands. The dwell-
ing-houses were, according to the times, considered very com-
modious, and were well and substantially built. A beautiful
large lawn, on which were some shade trees, a spacious, well
laid out garden, and a large and excellent orchard surrounded
the residence. It soon became the center of attraction for
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 389
the widespread families of Engelmann and Hilgard and their
friends, and "the Hilgards of the Mountain" soon formed a
most important link in the social life of Belleville.
PRACTICE OF LAW
In the latter part of 1835 Mr. Snyder proposed to take
me into partnership with him in the practice of law. I cheer-
fully agreed to this and moved into his new and handsome
office, at the corner of Public Square and Illinois Street. Of
course the partnership was not quite on equal terms, but I
thought it an advantage. Besides, I had really become very
much attached to him.
Our judiciary system having been changed by the last
Legislature, the supreme court judges were relieved from
holding circuit, and nine circuit judges were appointed. In
Belleville, Judge Sidney Breese was appointed to hold the
circuit. The terms for holding it were also changed. Madison
County court commenced in February. Captain Snyder and
I went on a very raw day to Edwardsville on horseback, on
the Saturday preceding the opening of court. On Sunday
morning he was taken very sick with an attack of pneumonia.
This left me in a very embarrassing position. We had many
cases on the docket, but I knew nothing about them. Mr.
Snyder had no memorandum and was too sick to give me any
information. Some important ones I got continued on account
of his sickness ; others I had to try alone, or had to call some
one in to assist me. The next week at Belleville, I had to en-
counter almost the same difficulty. Most of the cases were
continued. Although Mr. Snyder had been brought back to
Belleville, he could not leave his bed, and I had to go down
to Monroe, finding myself in the same embarrassment.
From Waterloo in Monroe County, early in March, Judge
Breese, Walter B. Scates, then States-Attorney, and myself
started in a snow-storm down to Kaskaskia, some thirty-five
miles distant. When we reached the Mississippi Bottoms, five
miles from Kaskaskia, the roads were in a terrible condition.
390 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
We came several times very near miring in the sloughs and
mud-holes. Late in the night we arrived in Kaskaskia, stop-
ped at the only, very poor tavern in the place, and all three
had to sleep the first night in the same bed, spoon-like, all
other beds in the same house having been already occupied.
Next morning it turned quite cold, and the court-house was a
mere barn, without fireplaces and with some of the window
panes broken. Judge Breese sat on the bench in his great
coat with a silk handkerchief tied round his head. It was a
dreadful time we spent there.
KASKASKIA
This was my first visit to that historic place, founded by
French missionaries from Canada as early as 1673, and hav-
ing been the capital of the Territory and of the State for some
years. The land-office for Southern Illinois was still there.
A large and handsome Catholic seminary for ladies was being
erected, which became very popular, and many young ladies
from St. Louis and other places in Missouri, besides many
from Illinois, attended it. The old citizens had made a great
deal of money by trading in the Territorial times, and still
more by speculation in land.
Court was hurried through, and I did not become ac-
quainted with many people there. But at the fall session I did,
and I may as well say something more about this interesting
place, as it then appeared to me, while Kaskaskia still remained
the county seat. I think during that time, until the high water
of 1844, and the removal of the county seat to Chester, Kas-
kaskia, in proportion to the number of its inhabitants, con-
tained the best society in the State. Judge John Pope, United
States District Judge, with his family resided there. He had
filled important offices, had represented Illinois Territory in
Congress, and was considered one of the ablest judges in the
State. On the bench he was stern and unbending, sometimes
a little too blunt; perhaps on some subjects he was considered
somewhat prejudiced, particularly in politics. His convictions
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 391
were so firm as to make him obstinate and rather dogmatical.
His likes and dislikes were very strong. But yet his integrity
on the bench was undoubted. He hated all shams; his em-
inently clear and discerning mind saw through a case at once.
Many lawyers I knew disliked him. Having become in course
of time very well acquainted with him and having practiced
before him, I formed a high opinion of him. Maybe I was a
little biased. For some reason or other, he took, from the
first evening I spent at his hospitable house, when he had me
for a partner in a game of whist, of which he was passionately
fond, a warm interest in me, and always treated me with
marked kindness. Being a Kentuckian, he was a staunch
Henry Clay "Whig and hated all Democrats. I was a strong
Democrat, but remember distinctly what he once told me when
I defended Van Buren's policy in 1838 or 1840. "Sir," said
he, in his Johnsonian manner, ' ' I despise a young man who is
not a Democrat ; but a man of forty who is not a Whig I also
despise. ' '
He was the father of Gen. John Pope. When John, who
graduated in 1842 at West Point, was only the ninth on the
list, I was told that the Judge burst out in a perfect rage that
he was not the first. Yet the number was a very good one,
and young Pope was at once made lieutenant of the corps of
topographical engineers, in which capacity he served with
great credit in the Mexican War. In the War of the Rebel-
lion he had some success in the West, but was very unfortu-
nate when he was made commander of the Army of Virginia.
Pierre Menard, a Canadian Frenchman, was one of the
oldest residents of Kaskaskia. By trade he had accumulated
a considerable fortune, which he might have doubled or treb-
led if he had engaged more in land speculations and if he had
been less honest. He was a small, dark-complexioned gentle-
man of great vivacity and of the most benevolent and public-
spirited character. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor un-
der the first State Constitution of 1818. He resided in a fine
392 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNEB
mansion in the midst of a large and beautiful pecan-grove
right across the river.
William Morrison, at the time of my first visit to Kas-
kaskia, was about the richest man in Illinois. He owned large
tracts of the most valuable land in Randolph, Jackson, Mon-
roe, Washington, St. Clair and other counties. He occupied
a large stone house, which had, however, suffered somewhat by
the great earthquake of 1812, which endangered for months,
and, in some instances, ruined many places in the Mississippi
valley as far up as Kaskaskia. He had a very large family
of sons and daughters, with several of whom I and my family
formed, somewhat later, very amicable relations. As Mr.
Morrison died a few years later, I have not been able to form
any well-considered opinion of his character. He certainly
must have been a very shrewd business man. His brother,
Col. Robert Morrison, also resided in Kaskaskia and had a
very interesting family. His wife was a highly intellectual
and talented lady, and their house was much frequented by
the most intellectual and best society. He was the father of
three sons, who also reached high distinction, Murray and
Robert being eminent lawyers and judges, Robert for a long
time chief- justice of the Supreme Court of California. James
Donaldson Lowry Morrison, the oldest, who was an inhabitant
of Belleville for many years, was preeminent as a land lawyer
and speculator, was several times a member of the Legislature,
was a lieutenant-colonel in the Mexican War, a member of
Congress, and a leading politician. As I became very inti-
mate with him in many ways, partly as an opponent, and
partly as a coadjutor in politics, I will have to speak of him
again in the course of these reminiscences.
Another very interesting family also formed a part of the
Kaskaskia circle, the family of Mr. David J. Baker. He
was an excellent lawyer of the old school, a most conscientious
man, had at one time filled a vacancy in the United States
Senate, and had been United States District Attorney. His
wife was an accomplished lady, and she entertained very hos-
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 393
pitably. He moved later to Alton. His son, Henry Baker,
was for many years judge of the court of that city, and his
son, John Baker, was circuit judge, and is now judge of the
Supreme Court.
Last but not least, Kaskaskia was the residence of the
Kane family. Elias Kent Kane, a descendant of a very well
known family in New York, a relative of Chancellor Kent
and of Judge Kane of Philadelphia and of the north-pole ex-
plorer, Elijah Kane, had settled early in Kaskaskia. He was
a distinguished lawyer and statesman. Governor Ford, in
his ' ' History of Illinois, ' ' speaks of him in these terms : ' ' The
principal member of the Convention which formed in 1818
our first constitution, to whose talents we are mostly indebted
for the peculiar features of the constitution, was E. K. Kane.
His talents were both solid and brilliant. After being appoint-
ed Secretary of State under the new government, he was
elected to the Legislature and twice elected to the United
States Senate ; he died in the autumn of 1835 and in memory
of him the County of Kane, on the Fox River, was named,
and the County of Pope in honor of the faithful and able
delegate to Congress, Judge Pope." He died a few months
before my first arrival in Kaskaskia, but his family was still
residing in the spacious old-fashioned mansion opposite Kas-
kaskia, and in later years I passed many glorious days at the
Kane place. His widow, Mrs. Kane, was a most amiable and
vivacious lady of French descent, dispensing a liberal hos-
pitality at this pleasant place, which had a large and taste-
fully laid-out garden and from which there was a very fine
view of Kaskaskia and also the Mississippi River and the
opposite heights of Missouri. She had several sons, one of
whom was a captain of dragoons in the United States Army,
but died in Belleville not long after the Mexican War, in
which he had taken part. Two very beautiful daughters were
for the visiting lawyers a great attraction. The oldest, Marie
Louise, married William C. Kinney, son of Governor Kinney,
and became the grandmother of my grandchildren, her daugh-
394 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ter Felicite having married my son Gustave. Elizabeth, the
younger daughter, an almost ethereal beauty, married Gov-
ernor William H. Bissell, the distinguished statesman and
soldier who died early in 1860, and whose widow did not long
survive him. Elias K. Kane, whom I did not personally
know, has been represented to me not only by his family but
by all who knew him as a most amiable and noble man, whose
early death was deplored by all, even his political opponents.
There were other highly respected families then living in
Kaskaskia, such as the Humphreys, the Maxwells, and the
Hotchkisses, making really a social circle of extraordinary
quality. Judges and lawyers loved to attend Kaskaskia court,
where wealth, talent and beauty, united with the greatest hos-
pitality, made their stay delightful. Now since the great
flood, which swept almost all the houses away, it is like Gold-
smith's "Deserted Village," upon which, nevertheless, recol-
lection dwells with unfeigned pleasure.
As an interesting trait of the place, I may remark that
at the time of my first visit, there were still a few families of
Kaskaskia Indians living close to the place in their rough
tents. They were even more lazy, more dirty and more good-
for-nothing than most of the Indians I have seen since, and
I have seen a good many; but to most of us they were then
still a curiosity.
When court adjourned, I left my companions. In the
other counties of the circuit, Mr. Snyder had not much busi-
ness, and I, as a perfect stranger, was not apt to get any. My
partner's sickness was of course also, from a business point
of view, unfortunate. I received but very few fees. My
homeward journey was one of the hardest trips I ever ex-
perienced. After a deep snow it turned very cold, a stiff
northwest wind blowing into my face. Some of the creeks
were frozen hard and I could get over them easily enough;
but on one Black Creek the ice was not sufficiently thick
to carry my horse. It was not deep; and I went into the
water only up to my knees ; but on coming out into the prairie
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 395
again, my leggings froze stiff. At the next farm I thawed
them out again, but my feet had got wet through my boots.
A ride of forty-five miles under such untoward circumstances
was a distressful effort, and, arriving at Belleville late at night,
I felt very tired. The next day I went out to the farm, but
soon afterwards I was taken down with what is called the
mumps, a most painful swelling of the glands near the ears
and cheeks. The disease is mostly a children's disease and
passes off with them in a few days, but it is rather a serious
affection with grown persons. My head was much affected
and my whole system greatly debilitated. In fact, I never
felt more miserable. The most tender and unremitting care
of Sophie and Mrs. Engelmann brought me through. But
misfortune did not end there. Before I was entirely well,
exposing myself improvidently to the raw air, though only
for a short time, I was immediately seized with the worst kind
of quinsy, which for a week or so made me feel very ill. I
was so weak that I almost wanted to die. But loving nursing
and Doctor Reuss's skill set me on my feet again.
THE FAMILY IN GERMANY
Through Mr. Hilgard and other immigrants, I had re-
ceived from home several large chests containing many useful
things, presents for some of the Engelmanns, files of political
and literary journals, interesting books, also money remit-
tances from my family. The political news I received from
home and from my friends, as well as from the accounts of
newcomers, were as bad as ever. Nearly all my University
and Frankfort friends were either in exile or in prisons. Dr.
Charles Bunsen and several other citizens of Frankfort had
been condemned to several years of hard imprisonment, not
for any participation in the April emeute, but for forming
secret societies afterwards, with a view of liberating the pris-
oners and of distributing revolutionary pamphlets. Even
Max Von Biegeleben, with whom I had boarded in Heidelberg,
and whom I liked so much, though the son of a very high
396 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
official in the Grand Dukedom of Hesse, had been imprisoned ;
so also had Rueder in Eutin, another of my most intimate
friends from Jena and Heidelberg. Brother Charles, who had
most influential friends in the Frankfort government, had
never been imprisoned, and the prosecution against him ended
in a judgment of a moderate fine and a couple of weeks' im-
prisonment in the city-prison, which he might suffer when-
ever convenient for him. He appealed, and I believe, never
found it convenient to undergo this incarceration, which
would have been hardly a punishment, as persons confined in
the city jail have all the accommodations they wish, may re-
ceive visitors, and even on urgent business leave for awhile.
Only citizens, however, are allowed this privilege.
An important change had taken place in our family. The
free city of Frankfort had from time immemorial flourished
upon the principle of free trade, but at last having been almost
isolated by being surrounded on every side by the custom-
house lines of the neighboring States, had with great reluc-
tance entered in 1835 the Prussian Zollverein, which even at
that time embraced a large majority of the German States,
and the tariff of which was moderately reasonable. This gave
a new impulse to business, real estate rose at once, and mother
sold our house at a rather high price, leaving herself and our
sisters, after all incumbrances were paid off, (Charles and I
had renounced all our rights, my education having cost several
thousand dollars,) a capital on the interest of which they
could have lived quite comfortably in the West, where the
legal interest at that time was as high as 12^ per cent. At
Frankfort it would not have brought more than 4 per cent.
There would then have been nothing in the way of prevent-
ing their coming over, except the precarious health of both
my sisters and the reluctance of Charles to leave Frankfort,
there being no chance of his disposing of his business profit-
ably. I, of course, would have been delighted to have them
with us ; but still I deemed it my duty not to encourage them
too much, being afraid that the climate would not suit their
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 397
very delicate health. The idea of their immigration was, how-
ever, not entirely discarded but held in abeyance.
All the letters I received from home were as usual very
interesting and expressive of the great love my family bore
me. A passage from Augusta's letter may show how sound
her heart and head were: "0, dear Gustav! Do not, I pray
you, become a thorough American, but retain in your house at
least our dear and beautiful language. In the Huguenot col-
onies near Homburg, [where my mother and sisters had passed
the previous summer for their health,] Dornholzhausen and
Friedrichsdorf, one can see plainly what a firm will and love
for one's native country can do. The people up to this day
all speak French there and speak it very well and purely, hav-
ing been now more than one hundred years surrounded by
Germans. Remain true to what is good in the German lan-
guage and do not let national feelings die ! "
A TRIP TO CHICAGO IN 1836
Soon after my recovery I was charged with procuring
the correction of some deeds for valuable farm-property, the
title of which without this correction might become doubtful.
As the parties who were to make the title perfect resided near
Chicago, it was decided best that I should go there myself.
As this was in the line of my business, and the compensation
for my services was, for the time, very large, I of course ac-
cepted the task. Now-a-days a trip to Chicago is a pleasant
journey of twenty-four hours, both coming and returning. It
was quite a different undertaking in 1836, and so it may not
be out of place to give a brief account of my trip.
Going to St. Louis early in May, I took a boat bound for
Peru, a place some forty miles north of Peoria on the Illinois
river. At Alton, we had a long delay, delivering and receiv-
ing goods. When we left late in the evening another boat
bound for Galena, near the Mississippi River, left the wharf
at the same time. A race immediately sprung up. Though
many fatal accidents had happened from such races, the boilers
398 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
exploding by reason of too great a pressure of steam, yet no
passenger remonstrated and all were on deck shouting and
cheering. The boats kept close together, and such was the
excitement on our boat that we missed the mouth of the Il-
linois River, about twenty miles above Alton, and actually ran
about twelve miles up the Mississippi before the mistake was
discovered. This ended the race, and we on board had to
turn back to get into the Illinois.
The Illinois was then at high water, quite a fine stream at
the mouth, and for about a hundred miles broader than the
Main, while its water, as compared with that of the Missouri
or even of the Mississippi, was beautiful. At many places it
had overflowed its bank. It was then navigable, even with
pretty large boats, some two hundred and fifty miles. Ma-
jestic forests lined both of its shores. Only in a few places
did the prairies extend to the river. Peoria, about two hun-
dred miles from St. Louis, has a most beautiful situation. It
rises terrace-like on gravel and rocky ground, and is encircled
by finely timbered heights. It had even then a number of
fine warehouses and residences, and promised the greatness
it has since reached. I learned that a good many Germans
had already settled there. At Hennepin, about twenty miles
above Peoria, I left the boat to catch a stage running from
Bloomington to Chicago, at some place east of Hennepin, to
which a hack took me and some other passengers. In the
night we reached Ottawa, then also a fine and rising place.
We had to stop there a few hours, in order to cross the Fox
River by ford. The river was high at the time, and the driver
would not risk crossing at night, but waited for daylight. The
ford was narrow and rather rocky, so that, if the stage had
missed the track, it would have been very dangerous. As it
was, the water came near running into the stage, which shook
terribly, when going over the rough rocks at the bottom of the
river. We felt very much relieved when we reached the fur-
ther bank. From Hennepin on the country had been charm-
ing. All rolling prairie, only from time to time dotted with
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 399
groves of fine timber. Prairies in May and June, covered with
a hundred varieties of flowers and studded with numerous
patches of strawberries, present a spectacle at which travelers
who have seen the most beautiful scenery in the world will
feel a great delight.
Not very far from the Fox River we met with a gang of
prairie wolves. When first observed they had been standing
right in the road ; but hearing the rattling of our coach they
made off on one side into the prairie. They trotted quite
leisurely, turning their heads from time to time in a sort of
stealthy way. Their color was that of a fox; in size they
were twice as large.
Some ten miles west of Chicago we came into a very wet
prairie, with a number of rather deep places filled with water,
a sort of Pontine swamps. We were put into a large covered
wagon, the wheels of which were very high and stout and the
fellies and tires one and a half feet wide to prevent cutting
into the mud and getting the wagon stalled. There was no
house or field anywhere to be seen until we reached the then
little town of Chicago. A few years before only a few shan-
ties and a small wooden fort stood between the lake and the
arms of the Chicago River, one of which came from the north
and the other from the south. At the time of my visit Chi-
cago had about 5,000 inhabitants. There were only one or
two brick houses ; all others, even the hotel in which I stopped,
were frame buildings. I arrived at noon, having been on my
way from Belleville for five days and as many nights, stop-
ping nowhere more than a couple of hours. I immediately
went to the recorder's and the circuit clerk's offices, ex-
amining the records. In the evening I passed my time at
the various places where lands and lots were selling at auction.
All over the country, owing to the multitude of banks that
had sprung up on the downfall of the great national bank,
and to the fact that the national debt had been paid and the
surplus of the treasury was about to be divided amongst the
States, a spirit of speculation had arisen quite unparalleled
400 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
at any time or in any country, except when the South Sea
Bubble and the Law Mania prevailed in Great Britain and
France. Chicago in the West was at the head of this rage.
Every boat brought hundreds of immigrants, all anxious to
make their fortunes by buying up the northern prairies. At
places it was supposed the contemplated canal uniting the great
lakes and the Mississippi by way of the Illinois River would
be located, many towns had been laid out on paper, and here,
as well as in towns already existing, as Ottawa, LaSalle, and
Peru, lots were sold every night at really fabulous prices, con-
sidering the times, as were also all tracts of land within five
or ten miles of the canal. Fabulous were the prices, indeed;
for, when the crisis came a few years later, all those lots and
lands came down to almost nothing, and remained valueless
for some ten or twenty years, when a new and more healthy
rise took place. These sales were nearly all on long credits;
only a very small percentage of the money was paid down.
I venture to say that there was not enough cash money in the
whole State of Illinois at that time to have paid for the lands
and lots that were sold within a month in the city of Chicago
alone.
Next morning I started out westward to see the persons
I had to deal with. I had to cross the same swamps; but a
stout Canadian Indian pony brought me safely through. I
had to ford the Des Plaines River, which was pretty deep, be-
fore I reached my destination about twelve miles from Chi-
cago. It was in the afternoon when I reached it, and my
business took up all the rest of the day. I stayed over night
in the place, and the next morning I went with my clients
back to Chicago, where our business was completed and the
proper deeds made out.
There was an immense deal of life in this new Eldorado.
The stores on Water Street were crowded. The river was full
of boats. People ran as fast along the muddy unpaved streets
as they do now. It had one advantage over the metropolis of
today. The river formed by the two arms was nearly as clear
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 401
as the beautiful lake, the sight of which was then as it is now,
a great delight to me. Did I then foresee what Chicago would
be in later life? St. Louis, in comparison to Chicago, was
in 1836, a stately, magnificent city. Next day I left on the
stage, went on it as far as Peoria, took a boat, and after an
absence of two weeks, reached St. Louis.
JOURNALISTIC ACTIVITY
Previous to my going to Chicago, St. Louis had been the
scene of a horrible tragedy. The black cook of a steamboat,
a very vicious and dangerous man, had been charged with
committing some offense. The sheriff, Hammond, and his
deputy had arrested him on the boat, and were marching him
up to the jail right behind the old court-house square, between
Market and Chestnut Streets. The negro was not handcuffed,
but walked between the two officers, when all at once, not far
from the square, drawing a large kitchen-knife from his side-
pocket he stabbed Hammond to death and dangerously wound-
ed the constable. It being in the afternoon and many people
being on the streets, the negro was soon caught and taken to
the jail, a solid stone building. Hammond was a very re-
spectable and popular man with a large family. Intense ex-
citement at once sprung up. A crowd, mostly of Hammond's
friends, gathered at the court-house. Speeches of a most in-
flammatory character were made, calling for immediate ven-
geance. The crowd having been largely increased, the effect
of these harangues was that there was a rush for the jail to
take the negro out and lynch him. The jailor would not de-
liver him up. There was much parleying. Finally the strong
gate was forced, and also the prisoner's cell. The mob, made
up in considerable part of well-known and prominent citizens,
led the victim towards the western town limits, chained him
to a tree or post, and in their madness, instead of hanging or
shooting him, gathered up sticks of wood, tore dry and green
branches from trees, piled them round him and proceeded to
roast him alive. It was said that a gentleman on horseback
402 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
rode up with a rifle and asked to put an end to the misery of
the man, who was singing hymns, by shooting him. But the
crowd took hold of the gentleman, and would not let him kill
the poor fellow.
The "Anzeiger des Westens, " then edited by William
Weber, appearing the next morning after this most monstrous
and cruel outrage, gave an account of it and denounced it in
strong terms, calling it a blot on the reputation of the city
which could never be washed out. The editor conceded that
but few took an active part, but blamed the authorities be-
cause they had not interfered. One of the English papers,
"The Bulletin," in reply, published a severe and somewhat
perfidious communication, charging the editor of the "An-
zeiger" with having calumniated the whole city and with
having unjustly denounced the authorities and the militia.
While the occurrence was to be condemned the paper said
yet this was not a country where citizens would fight against
citizens ; that an interef erence with the mad crowd would have
caused bloodshed. Here were no police forces and military
armed cap-a-pie to murder citizens, as in the country which
the editor came from. Besides, the authorities had had no
time to prevent the deed, if they had even wished to do so.
The editor was told that he ought to learn something about
Republican institutions before he set himself up to lecture
people, and he ought to beware of offending a community
where he was an alien and which had generously favored him.
This "Bulletin" article created a great deal of stir, and
Weber was informed by credible American and German
friends that the printing office of the "Anzeiger" would be
mobbed. Weber was advised to lock the office and also to
leave the house for fear of being personally injured. But
Weber was not a man to be scared. He told his friends that
he would defend his property at any risk. He and his employ-
ees armed themselves, and some five or six of his friends, stout
young Germans, all armed with double-barrelled guns loaded
with buckshot, marched into the office determined to give the
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 403
assailants a warm reception; but the attempted raid which
had, after all, been planned by a few rowdies only, came to
nothing.
On my journey to Chicago, I stopped at Weber's, where
I learned all the particulars. He was very anxious to reply
to the "Bulletin's" article, and begged me to write a com-
munication, expressing his views, to that journal, as he was
not then, as he believed, sufficiently able to write good Eng-
lish. I went to work, and, after stating that before the time
of the meeting near the court-house, the breaking open of the
jail and the taking of the murderer to the place of execution,
more than an hour had elapsed, giving the authorities ample
time to interfere, and after reciting the paragraphs of the
Missouri Statutes, making it the duty of every judge, justice
of the peace, and constable to break up all unlawful assemblies
and authorizing such peace-officers to call upon law-abiding
citizens and even the militia, (there were some very fine
companies of militia then in existence,) to assist them in ar-
resting law-breakers, I further asserted that the "Anzeiger"
was still of the opinion that if the authorities had called for
assistance, it would have been the duty of every good citizen
to uphold the law, even if a bloody conflict had ensued. Al-
though not born here, the editor believed he knew Republican
principles as well as the author of the article, and because he
did know them, he insisted on the principle that the authority
of the law should be sustained at all hazards, that he had
not intended to blame the entire community, but only those
who had omitted to do their duty. In regard to the conclud-
ing expression of the "Bulletin's" communication, the editor
would say that much as he appreciated the kindness and gen-
erosity of the American people, he did not feel dependent on
them, but was dependent on himself and the results of his
own abilities and exertions; that he asked nothing but what
the laws of the country granted him, and if he had come for
liberty's sake an exile to these hospitable shores to live under
the liberal laws and rational and happy constitution of the
404 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNEE
country, he had not come as a beggar to ask for kindness and
generosity, but as a man who knew how to value liberty and
was always ready to defend it. The letter was published in
the ' ' Bulletin ' ' and put an end to all further controversy.
The "Anzeiger des Westens" had been started by Messrs.
Bimpage and Fessenden, two gentlemen from Mecklenburg,
who had in 1834 established a land and general intelligence
office. They were educated men, and the paper appearing
weekly had a respectable appearance and was well printed.
But as their knowledge of the country and its institutions was
scant, they filled their columns with translations of the Eng-
lish press, and took their foreign news from the "Old and
New World" published by Wesselhoeft at Philadelphia, and
occasionally from private letters. Bimpage had applied to
me for occasional editorials on home politics, and I had from
time to time furnished him articles. The paper, however, did
not give general satisfaction. "Weber had left the farm in
1835, and had found employment in a small library founded
by some merchants and clerks, forming the nucleus of the
present Mercantile Library, now containing some 70,000 vol-
umes. I recommended him to Bimpage as editor, and Weber
took charge of the paper early in 1836. During the year
Bimpage was bought out by a stock company formed by Ger-
man citizens of St. Louis and St. Clair County, and Weber
was appointed permanent editor. Finally, the company, I
being one of the members, transferred the property to Weber,
who most ably carried it on at a later period with a Mr. Ols-
hausen, and made it for many years the leading organ of the
Germans of the Mississippi Valley.
For the first four or five years I contributed, at Weber's
request, as many articles as I could find time to write, and
remained an occasional contributor until it changed hands in
1849 or 1850. When Mr. Charles Daenzer became the editor
I renewed my connection with the paper by writing for it
from time to time. In this way I was introduced to journal-
ism, contributing more or less to English and German news-
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 405
papers in Belleville, and sometimes also to Chicago papers,
English and German. I never was, however, the ostensible
editor of any paper. Many articles I wrote also for English
and German reviews, and even now I employ some of my
leisure in journalistic writing. It became a habit. Whenever
some important subject occupied my mind I felt it a kind of
burden resting on me, and I had to put it on paper or in print
to get relief.
MARRIAGE
While I was in Chicago, Caroline was married to Decker,
and they moved to their forty-acre tract called Waldeck, less
than half a mile west of the lower farm. Sophie and I had
fixed on the 17th day of June, it being the second anniversary
of our landing at New York, for our union. I had rented a
neat house immediately south of the present Hinckley bank
lot on Illinois Street. It had a large veranda shaded by sweet
briar, a rather large garden and yard; but the lease of the
tenant did not expire before August, and so I had to take
provisionally the only house that was for rent. It was a
slight frame building on the southwest corner of Main and
Church Streets, containing but one room on the first floor,
above which was a garret serving as a dormitory. A small
kitchen was attached, with no room for a servant. When
Sophie and I first viewed it, we could not but laugh at the
tiny structure. But we consoled ourselves with the lines, of
Schiller, I believe,
' ' Raum hat auch die kleinste Huette
Fuer ein zaertlich liebend Paar."
Mother, Sophie and I went to St. Louis, where we bought
most of our household and kitchen things. There being at
that time no furniture stores in existence in Belleville, we
had our furniture made to order in Belleville. I am pretty
sure that we did not spend more than one hundred and fifty
dollars for our whole outfit, and yet we thought ourselves
comfortably established. What a change of times since ! But
406
we were resolved to get along, and we did. About the same
time I became a landowner. I bought two acres of the finest
timber land adjoining the survey on which Belleville was laid
out, with a view that if fortune favored me I would build a
residence there. It was on the east side of Belleville on the
road to New Nashville and Shawneetown, situated on a rise
from which the whole town could be overlooked. I paid fifty
dollars per acre. People thought me mad. But a few days
afterwards Mrs. Abend, who had moved into Belleville with
her family, bought one acre adjoining my land on the south
and paid one hundred dollars for it. Within one year I had
sold a dozen or so large trees from it for lumber, which repaid
me at once, leaving a great many splendid trees on the ground
white oak, walnut, hickory and sycamore.
At last the sun rose on our wedding-day. It was one of
the most beautiful summer days. The ceremony did not take
more than about five minutes, and was performed by good
old "Squire" Kutherford of Ridge Prairie, who had married
Charlotte and Caroline. A large company was present all
the Engelmann family, all the Hilgards, Bunsens, Reusses,
Schotts, and many other friends, some from St. Louis. A
large table was set near the house under shade-trees, and was
filled at least three times before all got through dinner. Two
of my St. Louis friends had sent us excellent boxes of wine,
and we had really a merry time. From relatives and friends
we received useful and costly presents, and some weeks later
many valuable presents came from our family in Frankfort.
Late in the evening I took Sophie away to our new home.
A few days before our wedding I ceased writing a diary.
I regret it now ; but how could I think at that happy time of
writing down my sentiments and my feelings and reflections.
It would have seemed to me a kind of profanation. Besides,
there was my law-business to be attended to, and a good many
things that a single man had no notions of. Politics also
took up a good deal of my time. Mr. Snyder, my partner,
though in feeble health still, had made up his mind to run
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 407
again for Congress. The chances appeared good. In 1834 he
had been beaten by Governor Reynolds, but had received a
large majority of the Democratic vote. But Reynolds, being
supposed to be a less radical Jackson man than Snyder, had
received the support of nearly the entire Whig party. This
time, however, J. Gatewood, a very eminent lawyer in the
lower part of the district, came out as an outspoken Whig or
anti- Jackson man, and was pretty sure of getting the Whig
vote. Mr. Snyder was not allowed by his physician to make
public speeches, but he went into every county of the district,
which was a very large one, being nearly one-fourth of the
whole State, running down the Mississippi from Green County
to Cairo and from there up the Ohio and Wabash to White
County. As the election was to take place in August, he was
away from home nearly all the time from May to August,
leaving me in St. Clair to help him in his election. I had
authority to open all his letters and answer them the best I
could, and of course had to correspond with him frequently.
The law-business fell entirely on my shoulders. Mr. Snyder
had calculated right. Gatewood won a pretty large vote from
Reynolds, and as Mr. Snyder got a plurality over the old
ranger, he was elected. It being a Presidential year, when the
previously held State elections had of course a great import-
ance, the election in August was a lively one. St. Clair elected
the entire Democratic ticket for Congress, for the State Leg-
islature and for the county offices.
A FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION
The Fourth of July was duly celebrated. It was in part
a most comical affair, which I cannot refrain from noticing
somewhat in detail. As there was no town of the least import-
ance in the county, except Belleville and Lebanon, a great
many country people desiring to celebrate had come in on
horseback and wagons, and Belleville was crowded. A sort
of impromptu procession was formed. It was headed by Dr.
William G. Goforth, as chief-marshal. He was a curiosity.
408 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Those who believed him reported that he had been a surgeon
in the militia army who fought under Jackson at New Orleans.
He was very thin, about six feet high, but badly put up, keep-
ing himself as straight as a shingle when sober. His face was
very long and his nose quite hooked. His eyes protruded like
a pair of saucers and his face was as red as the woolen scarf
he had slung around his breast as chief-marshal. A high
white hat covered his abundant black hair. He was a very
bold practitioner, in fact a very energetic man and full of fire.
He had many broils, and had his hand very quickly on his
trigger. He was the best horseman in town and usually kept
a blooded horse. Many years afterwards he came to his death
by being thrown from a fiery young horse, in one of the streets
of North Belleville. As chief -marshal, assuming the mien of
a commander of a brigade of horsemen, he looked ridiculous
enough. He was followed by a band of miusic, in which was a
drummer, one Ellis, a cooper. This gentleman was under-
sized, but very sturdy, an Englishman, I believe, with a very
red face, and carrying an old-fashioned drum nearly as big
as himself. He also wore a very important look. There was,
too, a fifer, whom I do not now recollect. But what made this
orchestra most amusing was a fiddler, Robert Fleming, a
printer and editor of a Belleville paper. He was one of the
best-natured men I ever knew, and one of the most careless.
I believe he never had an enemy except himself. Eminently
social, he was very fond of the ' ' creature. ' ' He had very good
sense and was perfectly honest, but very improvident. When
I first saw, some twenty years ago, Joseph Jefferson play Rip
Van Winkle, he reminded mp most forcibly of my friend
Robert Fleming. The latter was very slightly built and
stooped. Taken all together, marshal and band showed un-
mistakable devotion to Bacchus in their faces, and presented
a most laughable picture. The merits of the music may be
imagined, the fiddle particularly giving discordant strains
when played by this marching amateur artist. Without much
order several hundreds of people marched behind through all
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 409
the few streets of Belleville, and finally brought up at the
court-house, where some one delivered a short address. This
was in the morning. But there had also been a dinner gotten
up by subscription which was consumed in a grove in the
northern part of the city, and of which perhaps a hundred
people partook, surrounded by a big crowd of spectators. The
German element was already strong in Belleville, and so we had
claret, which was then very good and very cheap, there being
no duty on wine, one bottle for two guests.
There were the usual thirteen toasts. The day we cele-
brate, the Union, Washington, etc., etc. I will give only the
last, which was by no means an original one, but met with
nine cheers : ' ' The American fair ones, never so fair as when
they are our companions in arms." Then followed innumer-
able volunteer toasts, some very curious ones. There was one
by a lawyer, G. W. Ealph, to the Polish exiles, and several
to the new State of Texas. Alfred Cowles, the oldest and
most prominent lawyer, gave as a toast: "To our brethren
from Europe, exiles for the sake of liberty! We welcome
them in the land of their choice. ' ' He then said that he hoped
I would respond to the toast. I was taken by surprise. I had
to make my first speech to a big audience in the open air.
However, I got through with it pretty well, though the speech
as it was afterwards published in the newspapers was a good
deal retouched. Among other things, I said: "May, gentle-
men, the day be far distant, nay ! may it never come, when the
American people shall refuse to receive on their shores those
who seek either shelter or protection here against the oppres-
sion of European tyranny or who come to this country to see
realized under its wise and happy constitution that beau ideal
of liberty which they have formed previously. May America
ever kindly receive those who intend to become good and pub-
lic-spirited citizens." Another passage: "Allow me, gentle-
men, to add a few more words in connection with the sentiment
just uttered by the gentleman who sits opposite to me. It
strikes me that since various nations have participated in the
410 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
discovery and settlement of America, she has been destined by
providence to exhibit the innate nobility, not of individuals,
not of individual nations, but the nobility of human nature
upon the largest scale. America in my opinion is destined to
show that rational men are able to live together and to form a
free and powerful community, no matter whether they trace
their blood to the same source, no matter whether their pre-
vious habits have been the same, no matter whether they first
expressed themselves in the same language." I said more
along the same line, and purposely, because just at that time
nativism had already raised its head in some of the large cities
of the East, as well as in New Orleans, Cincinnati and Louis-
ville, and even in Washington City. As a matter of course, I
also put in my little speech a little dose of the ' ' Spread Eagle ' *
style to please the groundlings.
Later in the afternoon I had a very pleasant party in our
little hut. Mr. Engelmann, Theodore Hilgard, Jr., and other
friends found room enough to enjoy themselves with a four
o'clock coffee, my young wife having prepared everything
nicely and tastefully. A few bottles of excellent Rhine wine,
imported by Theodore Kraft, were also much relished. It was
the first party at our new little home, and in its way was, what
the fashion now would call, "a great success."
THE "WESTLAND"
Both Theodore and Doctor Engelmann had now settled in
St. Louis. The Doctor soon got into practice. Theodore
opened an intelligence and real estate office. When Weber
became the editor of the "Anzeiger," Theodore took his place
in the Mercantile Library and assisted Weber very much in
the publishing of his paper. As Germans arrived in great
numbers, most of them desirous of buying land, he might in
course of time have made his business lucrative. But he was
too straightforward, disliked to use persuasion, would not rec-
ommend a thing which he thought was not worth recommend-
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 411
ing, in a word, he was too honest to flourish in this line of
business. He was not what the Americans call "smart."
Doctor Engelmann and I had very frequently conversed
about the many books written by Germans concerning the
United States, and how very unsatisfactory and misleading
most of them were. Some were the products of disappointed
immigrants, whose misfortunes were all laid to the country and
its people. Others were evidently written by interested
persons, who sought by exaggerated laudations to draw
immigration to some particular spot; others again treated of
everything, the law, the church, the school, the agriculture,
the geology, the climatology of the whole country, without
being accurately acquainted with any of these subjects. We
felt the evil influence of this literature from the many false
notions which we found in the newcomers. Doctor Engel-
mann conceived the idea of starting an organ in Germany, in
which, through various authors, correct information could be
conveyed to the German public concerning the United States
and more particularly the western part thereof, adapted to
immigration. He had interested in the matter his uncle in
Heidelberg, Joseph Engelmann, the well-known publisher, who
had expressed a willingness to publish it. It was to be a
periodical, appearing about every three months. The doctor
found in Captain Charles Neyfeld a very able gentleman who
entered fully into his ideas. Neyfeld was a native of Poland,
of German parentage, educated in the cadet school at War-
saw, and was an officer in the corps of engineers in the Polish
army before the revolution of 1830. An exile after the failure
of the revolution, he had settled in Frankfort, where I had
become acquainted with him; brother Charles was quite inti-
mate with him. He was a fine-looking man, about thirty-five
years of age, spoke and wrote German like his native tongue.
In Frankfort he published in German a very excellent history
of Poland and of the last revolution; but after the third of
April he was not permitted to stay there, and after a short
sojourn in France he came to this country in 1834, and found,
412
owing to his great knowledge of engineering, a very good place
in the general surveyor's office in St. Louis. He had visited
me and the Engelmanns repeatedly. He was really a German
in character and feeling, and had married a German lady;
he died a few years afterwards very suddenly, to the great
regret of his many friends.
Doctor Engelmann enlisted me also in the enterprise.
But as my name in Germany at that time would not recom-
mend the magazine much to the authorities who had to exer-
cise the "censur" over all such publications, we thought it
best that Engelmann and Neyfeld should appear as the sole
editors. In 1837 the first number of the magazine, called the
"Westland," appeared. Only three numbers were published
in all, making a volume of 380 pages. The difficulties and
delays of communication which existed at this early period,
the circumstance that the contributors very soon became busily
engaged here, and the small support it received from the Ger-
man public, caused its discontinuance, in spite of the highly
favorable " Recensionen " which it received from the most
prominent German journals and literary reviews. Only
romantic and fanciful pictures of this country, or what was
curiously called ' ' practical advice, ' ' which gave price-lists and
statistics that were out of date the very next year, were at that
time relished in the old countries. Doctor Engelmann was the
main contributor, furnishing a series of most able and inter-
esting articles. Captain Neyfeld wrote a condensed, but very
accurate and scientific, topographical and statistical descrip-
tion of the Mississippi Valley, running through several num-
bers. Mr. Hilgard, Sr., William Weber, Friedrich Muench
and I, also lent aid by a number of articles.
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN BELLEVILLE
As Doctor Engelmann was the soul of this enterprise, so
was Dr. Anton Schott the soul of another, the foundation of
a library in the main German settlement in St. Clair County.
Schott, Reuss, Engelmann, all the Hilgards, the Wolfs, Bun-
413
sen, Berchelmann, Ledergerber and the Hildebrandts,
founded the German library society in 1836. Liberal dona-
tions were made, mostly of German books. But very soon, as
the society increased in members, and the yearly contributions
of $3.00 became more numerous, the most important American
historical works, memoirs and biographies of American states-
men were purchased, as well as the newest and best German
and English novels. I prepared the constitution and by-laws,
and also drafted a charter, which a few years afterwards was
granted by the legislature. The best English and German
periodicals were soon added, and I got our member of Congress
to send us all public documents, some of which were of the
greatest value. Doctor Schott kept the library in his house,
was until his death its librarian and secretary, and devoted a
great deal of his time and energy to the success of the insti-
tution. Some time in 1852 or 1853 it was moved to Belleville,
and later on consolidated under a new charter with the library
of the Belleville Saengerbund. In 1879, it consisted, exclusive
of several thousand volumes of public documents, of some six
thousand volumes. In 1883, the city council of Belleville
established a public library, appointed a directory which nego-
tiated with the German library a transfer of all its books and
furniture to the public library, which took place in 1884. The
public library of Belleville is now in a most flourishing condi-
tion, containing outside of some six thousand well-bound pub-
lic documents, nearly seven thousand volumes. So our library
founded in 1836 became the nucleus of our present highly use-
ful and popular public library. Save when I was absent in
Europe, I was always an active member and usually a director
of the institution ; and I may say I take as much pride in the
exertions I made during all this time in securing success for
our library as in anything else to which I have devoted myself
during my long life. I cannot refrain from mentioning, also,
the name of Joseph Kircher, and, at a later period, that of our
model school-man, Henry Raab, as most able and untiring
workers in the same field.
414 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
JAMES SHIELDS
The November Presidential election was less exciting than
the State election in August. Van Buren was elected over
Gen. William Henry Harrison and Judge White of Tennessee.
I attended the fall sessions of court diligently. In one or
two counties Mr. Snyder was able to be with me. We were
defending a very interesting case of murder in Clinton County,
and here it was that I made my first acquaintance with James
Shields, who was also employed by the defense. I did not
dream then how often the lines of our lives would touch one
another. It will not be out of place, therefore, if I attempt
to give here an outline of his eventful life and a portraiture of
his character. In stature Shields was of medium height, very
broad-shouldered, and with rather long arms. His complexion
was fair and healthy, his eyes gray and very sparkling. In
a passion they seemed to shoot fire. His hair was dark
brown and his features quite regular. In conversation
he spoke rapidly and vivaciously, showing very little trace
of the Irish brogue. He was not an orator, but a ready
debater. His mind was discriminating. He succeeded better
with the court than with the jury and on the stump. Indeed,
he very seldom addressed large crowds in election times. He
was exceedingly vain and very ambitious, and, like most ambi-
tious men, on occasions, quite egotistical. But he was not
given to intrigues, was careless about money, and, in spite of
his many opportunities to enrich himself, never accumulated
property; in fact, if a few years before he died he had not
been put upon the retired officers' list by way of exception,
which granted him a handsome annual pension, he would have
lived, as he actually did for many years, in comparative pov-
erty. Upon the whole his ideas were lofty. In his manner he
was peculiar, not to say eccentric. Although he had not had a
thorough classical education, he understood Latin pretty well,
and had picked up enough French to read it and understand
it. His knowledge of English literature was quite extensive,
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 415
and so was his knowledge of history, particularly modern his-
tory.
He was a native of the county of Tyrone, Ireland, and
came to this country probably when under age, first to South
Carolina, where he had an uncle living, but leaving afterwards
when he became of age to teach school in the North. Intimate
as I was with him, I never learned anything about his age.
"Appleton's Encyclopaedia" has it that he was born in 1810.
But he was certainly several years older than I was when I
first met him at Carlyle in the Gennet murder case in 1836.
In 1831 or 1832 he made his appearance in Kaskaskia, and
took up a school there, reading law at the same time, I believe,
in Senator Kane's office. When I was at Kaskaskia in the
March term of 1836 I did not see him. He was not then
attending court. Mr. Snyder, when he canvassed the district
for Congress that year, came across him, and at once formed
a high idea of his ability, so that in the fall when he defended
Gennet, being unable to exert himself much, he invited Shields
to assist us. I opened the case. Shields examined the wit-
nesses with skill. Snyder made a brief but very impressive
speech. It was a tolerably bad case, but we succeeded in clear-
ing our client, a farmer living where Aviston now stands. As
Mr. Snyder had soon to leave for Washington to attend the
special session of Congress in 1837, and as his health was such
as to forbid an active practice at the bar for at least some
years, he proposed in the spring of the year to retire from
practice. Shields in the meantime had been elected a member
of the Legislature from Randolph County to fill a vacancy
at the special session of the Legislature, and had just returned
from the seat of government. Mr. Snyder was desirous of
having Shields at Belleville, and suggested to both of us to go
into partnership. In June we formed a business-connection,
and we succeeded very well, but had to dissolve it in 1841,
Shields having been elected State Auditor by the Legislature.
This made it necessary for him to reside at Springfield. While
in partnership with me he held several offices. For one year
416 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
he was secretary to Governor Kinney, who had been made one
of the Internal Improvement Commissioners for this part of
the state, under the gigantic Internal Improvement System
adopted by Illinois, and which in a few years bankrupted the
state. At another time he was appointed by the Secretary of
the Treasury of the United States a special commissioner to
investigate and report upon charges made against the chief
officer of a land-office in the southern part of the State. In
1842 he was reflected to the Auditorship, but very soon after-
wards he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court by Gov-
ernor Ford, to fill a vacancy. In 1845 he was appointed Com-
missioner of the General Land-Office in Washington by Presi-
dent Polk.
"When the war broke out in Mexico in 1846 he was
appointed brigadier-general of the Illinois Volunteers. First
under Taylor, he was called with the 3rd and 4th Illinois regi-
ments to Scott, then on his march to the City of Mexico. At
Cerro Gordo, while leading his brigade against a battery, he
received a grape-shot through the breast. He was at once
reported dead, and all the papers contained obituary notices of
him. But he recovered. I have seen the mouth of the wound
and where it came out at the back. The left lobe of his lung
may have been slightly touched, but it is clear that the ball
went around the ribs. At any rate he recovered in a few
months, so that he was able to command a brigade consisting
of a New York and South Carolina regiment at Contreras and
again at the storming of the castle of Chapultepec where he
received another very painful and ugly wound in his right
wrist. On his return to Washington he was made a major-
general by brevet, and appointed military governor of Tam-
pico until the peace of Guadaloupe Hidalgo was made in
1848 ; and before he returned from there he was appointed gov-
ernor of the new Territory of Oregon, which then also com-
prised Washington Territory. But he resigned the place,
came back to Belleville and concluded to run for the Senate of
the United States in the place of Breese, whose term expired
BEGINNING TO PRACTICE 417
in 1849. The State of South Carolina, in open session of the
Legislature, presented him with a costly jewelled sword, and
so did the State of Illinois afterwards. He was elected Senator
for six years. He lost his reelection, having joined Douglas
in passing the unfortunate Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which
repealed the Missouri Compromise. Some Democrats opposed
the measure, and being joined by all the "Whigs, elected Trum-
bull in his place, who, with many Democrats, was about identi-
fying himself with the Republican party. Shields felt very
much mortified, particularly as I, being then Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor, could not actively support him, because I had from the
start been violently opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and
because even the two members from St. Clair, being Demo-
crats, did not for the same reason vote for him. "When Shields
was not in Washington, he spent all of his time in Belleville,
and we had daily intercourse. He was my most intimate
American friend. Even after his defeat there was no serious
estrangement. He soon after, however, left the State, some-
what disgusted.
But his ill success was his own fault. Both I and Gov-
ernor Bissell, who was then a member of Congress, tried our
best to prevent him from voting for the ill-omened bill, and I
prophesied that it would defeat his election; I also told him
from the start that I could not support him unless he severed
his political connections with Douglas. He moved to Minne-
sota, and was there again elected to fill a vacancy in the Sen-
ate. At the expiration of the term, he went to California,
married an Irish girl there, but when the War of the Rebellion
broke out he was appointed by Lincoln, brigadier, then major-
general, and was wounded again in the arm near Winchester
in a fight against Stonewall Jackson. He resigned in 1863,
and after staying in Washington for some time, returned West
and bought a small farm near Carrollton, Missouri. He was
elected again to fill a short vacancy in the United States Sen-
ate, and also at a later time to the lower house of Congress, but
was counted out by the Republicans, though he had been
418 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
elected by a very large majority. When he was in Missouri
we resumed correspondence, and he visited me in Belleville.
In 1876 we met at Chicago, making speeches for Tilden, and
were as friendly as ever. In 1877 or 1878 he visited St. Louis,
and I went over and stayed with him, where he had a brilliant
reception at Judge John Krum's house. This was our last
meeting. He died in 1879, while on a lecturing tour, at
Ottumwa, Iowa.
I believe he held more offices than any man in the United
States. His most extraordinary career was a mystery to
many. He really did not seek popularity, but yet had a sort
of winning way about him that made him friends quite readily.
Fond himself of being flattered, he paid back what he received
in the same coin. Yet when he could not persuade, he did not
fail to show his displeasure and to become an open enemy.
When attacked, he struck back. I knew all his weaknesses,
and his vanity amused me. When asked why I liked him and
fought for him so much, I really had no particular answer to
make. It was his enthusiasm, I believe; even his impulsive-
ness. He took the warmest interest in all revolutions, particu-
larly in the German rising of 1848 and in the Hungarian revo-
lution. He idolized Kossuth, and became a warm personal
friend of Hecker, to whom I had introduced him. He never
went to church that I know of, and as he was an ardent Free-
mason, I do not believe he could have been a Catholic, though
coming from a Catholic neighborhood in Ireland. Messrs.
Hay and Nicolay, in their monumental history of Abraham
Lincoln, which ran for years in the Century Magazine, did
Shields great injustice. And it was with great pleasure that I
vindicated his memory in the same review in a manner that
gave great satisfaction all over the country.
CHAPTER XVII
Early Illinois Politics
On the sixth of April, 1837, our eldest boy was born. We
named him Charles Bernard Theodore, for my brother Charles,
for my father Bernard, and for Mr. Engelmann whose name
was Frederick Theodore. Charles Theodore Koerner, the war-
rior-poet of Germany, was also in our minds when giving the
little boy his name. It added much to my happiness when I
learned from my mother and Charles and sisters, with what
extreme gladness this event filled their hearts.
I have spoken already of the great Internal Improvement
System upon which our State had entered. It required the
appointment of numerous surveyors and civil engineers, and
I had the pleasure of having it in my power to obtain employ-
ment on it for John Scheel, who was made assistant engineer
for our part of the State, which appointment at once made it
possible for him to marry our youngest sister, the kind-hearted
and amiable Betty, to whom he had been engaged for some
time. Although this vast scheme of improvement broke down
in about three years, it gave John a position such that he was
soon after elected county-surveyor, and from that employment
he got into other lucrative offices, accumulating a fortune,
which at the time he died was considered large. At the time
of his death he was revenue-assessor of the United States for
this district, having been appointed by President Lincoln. He
also served one term in the Legislature of Illinois in 1858.
FURTHER ACCESSIONS TO THE GERMAN SETTLEMENT
Our German population in the county still kept on
increasing. The family of Hildebrandt, also the Raith fam-
420
ily, both from Wuertemberg, settled not far from Belleville,
and Mr. Adolph Hildebrandt, jeweler and watch-maker,
moved to Belleville. About the same time the Michel family
from the Haardt in the Palatinate and several other new-com-
ers made Belleville their residence. Edward Hilgard, who had
married Emma Hilgard, and Fred Wolf, first bought a brew-
ery in the town, but not long afterwards built a steam-distil-
lery on Mr. Hilgard 's land in West Belleville. Unfortunately,
Emma, so beautiful and so sweet, died a year afterwards, and
Edward sold his farm and his share in the distillery and went
back to Germany. My friend Oonradi and Frederick Hilgard
bought a mill in Mechanicsburg, now Mascoutah, and flour-
ished there for some time, but both gave it up after a few
years. Frederick returned to Germany and Conradi took a
place as clerk in St. Louis.
One of the most pleasant arrivals to me was that of my
old Jena friend, Dr. Adolph Wislizenus, who had luckily made
his escape from Frankfort in the night of the third of April,
1833. He had found his way to New York in 1834, and late
in 1837 came to Belleville; but he went to Mechanicsburg to
practice, and soon after settled in St. Louis. In my ' ' German
Element, ' ' page 333, I have given much space to the life of this
very amiable and also very scientific friend of mine, in which
I referred to his very romantic marriage at Constantinople
with Miss Lucy Crane, sister-in-law of that eminent linguist
and most distinguished diplomatist, George P. Marsh, then our
Minister to Turkey. In the "Life and Letters" of the late
Mr. Marsh, in one of his letters of August 4, 1850, to Lady
Estcourt, he speaks of this marriage as follows :
"You will, I doubt not, be surprised at the news I have to
give, for I am surprised to have it to tell. Doctor Wislizenus,
our family physician at Washington, arrived here a few weeks
ago and has had the eloquence to persuade sister Lucy to
return with him to America as his wife. The attachment has
been of long standing ; but some two years ago, when the thing
was first proposed, our parents expressed a feeling of regret
that Lucy should marry a foreigner for this was the only
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 421
objection made and she yielded to their wishes. But the
presence of the Doctor here revived her old fancy and we none
of us thought it worth while to press such an objection farther.
The Doctor has an excellent reputation, and his strong passion
for botany and geology has enabled him to make valuable con-
tributions to these sciences, as Humboldt acknowledges in his
"Ansichten der Natur." After all I thought his uncommon
musical accomplishments went farther than anything else to
win my sister's heart."
In the course of this correspondence, Mr. Marsh fre-
quently refers to the doctor and his wife. Letters from Mrs.
Marsh occurring in the book show her not only to have been
very intellectual, but also witty and humorous. Her sister,
Mrs. Wislizenus, must have had similar qualities, for Mr.
Marsh remarks in one of his letters that Lucy is as good if not
a better letter-writer than his wife.
About the same time Charles and Edward Tittmann, hav-
ing left New York, also took up their residence at Belleville.
Edward, it will be remembered, I had met before at Frank-
fort, a day or two before the third of April. Both were young
men of exceptionally fine manners, and highly educated.
Charles was of a rather reserved and serious disposition, an
excellent mathematician, pursuing his studies in that line
even after he and Edward had gone into the mercantile busi-
ness. Edward was of a more cheerful and sociable character,
and soon became a favorite in Belleville society.
But I cannot name all the cultivated Germans who settled
during this and the following year in Belleville and St. Clair
County, and I will mention only one or two more. Dr. Albert
Trapp, an exile, of whom I have spoken in detail in my ' ' Ger-
man Element," who settled twelve miles south of Belleville,
but somewhat later moved to Belleville and became for some
years our family physician, when he left Belleville and Doctor
Berchelmann took his place.
Another university friend from Heidelberg, Henry
Schleth, who had escaped from prison in Kiel, had gone to
Switzerland, had participated in Mazzini's attempt at a rev-
422 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNEE
olution in Piedmont, and had been driven out of Switzerland
and France, had, after a short stay in England, arrived at
New Orleans, from where he addressed me and asked me for
advice. Upon my invitation he came to St. Clair and went
upon the Engelmann farm; but in 1838 I found some tem-
porary employment for him in Belleville. He then went upon
Ledergerber's farm, where he worked for some years, when he
finally returned to Belleville and held several offices, finally
going into the mercantile business. In 1880, he acted as my
amanuensis and copied all the manuscript of my work, the
" German Element." He was of a very quiet temperament,
had an excellent mind, social habits, and enjoyed for many
years the confidence and respect of the Belleville people, dying
after a long protracted illness some years ago.
August Hassel, who was a law student at Munich while I
was there, settled in Belleville, and married some time after-
wards a Miss Raith. He was a very talented man, rather
excitable, very fond of politics, and full of life and animation.
He also went into the mercantile business, but moved to St.
Louis, where he died of the cholera in 1850. I believe Henry
and Hermann Von Haxthausen, of Westphalia, bought a farm
a mile or so south of the Engelmanns. Hermann, I believe,
returned to Europe, and Henry left St. Clair and bought him-
self a farm in Monroe County. Ewald Von Massow, having
made his escape from the fortress of Colberg, where he was
confined for having been a member of the Burschenschaft,
crossed the ocean with his mother, and after awhile, I might
almost say naturally, made St. Clair his home, bought a farm
in the neighborhood of the Engelmanns, but moved in later
years to Belleville, where he bought a four-acre tract of land
on which he built a residence. His health, however, was very
much broken, he having been confined in prison before his trial
for some two years and in the casemates of the fortress for
nearly the same time.
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 423
PRO-GERMAN CONVENTIONS
To the very notable German convention at Pittsburg, Oct.
18, 1837, the library association of St. Clair sent "William
Weber as a delegate, he having been appointed also the dele-
gate of prominent Germans in St. Louis. The object of the
convention was to devise means to maintain the German lan-
guage, to sustain the German press, to establish a central Nor-
mal School for the education of German teachers, and to protest
and counteract the efforts of the nativistic American societies.
The object was in part obtained. A very able and strong
address to the Germans was issued, a central committee ap-
pointed, and a teachers' seminary established at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. It was not intended, however, to create a sep-
arate German party. Far from it, the Germans were admon-
ished to become naturalized, to familiarize themselves with the
language, the constitution, and the laws of the country, to
retain what was good in the German character and to adopt
cheerfully what was good in the American. "While one of the
"Instructions," which I was charged to prepare, condemned
and denounced in the strongest terms the principles of the
nativistic American party, another read as follows : ' ' We are
of opinion that no number of persons emigrated from foreign
soil should form a separate commonwealth amongst a people
already settled and not inferior in culture; that such an
attempt on the part of the German immigrants would, just on
account of their number, be injurious to the welfare and the
permanence of this free country, which alone, among all other
States, offers by its liberal institutions a consolation to every
right-thinking man."
This meeting and several subsequent ones, held at Pitts-
burg and Phillipsburg, in their resolutions and addresses,
conformed to the spirit of our instructions. It would take me
too far, were I to give a history of this movement and its Nor-
mal School, which was carried on for some years. Suffice it
to say, that the latter, owing to many circumstances, particu-
larly of a financial character, had to be given up. Yet this
424 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
early movement of the Germans gave a tremendous impulse to
the German press, to the formation of literary and musical
and school societies, and, what was perhaps the most important
result, made the American people and particularly the Ameri-
can politicians aware that there was a large population among
them who knew their rights and were willing to maintain them
and that they had to be taken into account. Native Ameri-
cans found a determined opponent in the ' ' Anzeiger des Wes-
tens, ' ' and indeed in all German papers, and I took good care
to have the strongest and most exhaustive articles translated,
and these made the rounds of a great many Democratic jour-
nals. It must be said that the Democratic party from that
time on, in victory or defeat, never abandoned the cause of the
aliens who came here to become citizens, which accounts for
the fact that the Germans almost unanimously voted with that
party until the slavery question in 1856 carried most of them
into the Republican party, and down to the reconstruction of
the Union in 1868.
I was elected a delegate, together with three other gentle-
men from St. Glair County, to a Democratic State Convention
held in December, 1837, to nominate candidates for Governor
and other State officers. Colonel Stephenson was nominated
for Governor. He resided in Galena, was one of the land-
officers of the northern district, and had distinguished himself
in the Black Hawk War. The weather was bitterly cold, and
the accommodations in Vandalia miserable. The biggest tav-
ern there was but a large, high frame shed. In every room
were two or three double beds, and at least one hundred dele-
gates stopped there. The only place to wash was at a pump
before the house, where a couple of tin basins stood on a bench.
We had to go down from our rooms and walk to the pump,
which was almost a break-neck job, as the spilt water around it
had frozen into ice. We had to pull off our coats and wash
and comb our hair in a stiff northwestern wind. The journey
home was a most trying one. The cold had increased to about
zero Fahrenheit, the wind being in our faces. Every five or
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 425
six miles I had to dismount and walk to get warm. It took
me two days to get to Belleville. The cold and the bad tavern
had one advantage, however; it made the meeting very short
and gave little chance for political trading. We got through
in one day. Colonel Stephenson died in the spring, and
another convention nominated Thomas Carlin, of Quincy, who
was elected in August, 1838.
LYMAN TRUMBULL
In the fall of 1837 Lyman Trumbull came to Belleville
and formed a brief partnership with Governor Reynolds for
the practice of the law. He was a native of Connecticut, some
four years younger than I, and had been teaching school for
some years in Georgia, studying law at the same time. As he
became a leading man hi Illinois, and even in the United
States, and came into close relations with me, it seems right
that I should here give a sketch of his character and of his
political life. He was tall, well-proportioned, with a slight
stoop, probably owing to his great short-sightedness, and had
rather light hair and blue eyes. His complexion was very
pale. His features were regular and handsome. For so
young a lawyer he was a very good one, and his addresses to
the court and jury were logical and impressive, and, when
roused, rather incisive. On occasions his smile was sneeringly
sardonic. While for lack of a strong imagination he could not
be called an orator, he was a powerful and successful debater.
He was a man of indomitable industry, which in itself is a
great element of success. In my opinion, however, his princi-
pal power lay in his ability to concentrate his mind upon a
few subjects. His aim was to become a great lawyer, and to
play a conspicuous part in politics. To everything else he
seemed indifferent. Ancient or modern literature, the sciences,
music, and the fine arts in general, had no charms for him.
Nor did he find any pleasure in social intercourse. While
his manners were decorous, he was reserved, not to say cold.
In politics a radical Democrat, he obtained, on account of his
426 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERXER
undoubted ability, in the course of time a large following
amongst the politicians of his party, though amongst the peo-
ple at large he never could be said to have been popular.
During the first period of his political life, on account of his
extreme views, he often fell under the suspicion of being a
demagogue, and he met in consequence very bitter opposition
even in his own party. This was my view of Mr. Trumbull
during the first years of our acquaintance. After we had
both become members of the Republican party our relations
became far more friendly than ever before, in fact intimate.
And in the course of time I found that in some respects he
had changed greatly to his advantage. His views had become
broader and more statesmanlike, and he acquired a leading
position in the United States Senate. He lost a great deal
of his coldness, and I found that for friends he could feel very
warmly and act most efficiently. After his retirement from
public life he resided at Chicago. Our intercourse was then
not so frequent, but when we met it was very friendly and
cordiaL
Trumbull being as ambitious as Shields, a strong rivalry
between the two soon arose, in law as well as in polities, and
led to bitter feuds. Recognizing as I did the great merits of
Trumbull 's character, in spite of some unpleasant features of
it, I could not enter into Shields 's feeling of hostility, and my
position often became embarrassing. Insulting language was
used by both in court, explanations were asked, and sometimes
refused ; challenges were extended, not only by Shields, but by
some of his friends. I acted as peace-maker, and succeeded
in preventing threats from becoming acts.
At this time I became somewhat acquainted with both the
sweets and the sorrows of political life. The Germans were
coming into St. Clair, Monroe, Madison. "Washington, Clinton
and Randolph Counties in great numbers. Being entitled at
that time to vote after six months' residence in all elections,
the American politicians had to take them into anxious con-
sideration. In all the different counties people had come to
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 427
believe that I could control the German vote. They judged
the Germans by themselves ; for it is true that the American
people are very much given to be led by active, able and ener-
getic men, now called ''bosses." Now while amongst the
Germans a countryman of theirs may be respected, may,
through the press and by public speaking, gradually mold
their minds into agreeing with him in public matters, the com-
mon notion that the Germans can be "bossed" as readily as
the Americans or Irish, or other nationalities in this country,
is altogether a grave mistake. At any rate I was constantly
called on for help by aspiring candidates an(J consequently
very often placed in a difficult position.
When, for instance, I was a delegate to the State Con-
vention at Vandalia in 1837, Mr. Snyder, whose Congressional
term was soon to expire, feeling just then considerably better,
wished to be a candidate at the approaching election for Gov-
ernor. Judge Breese, who was then on the bench, and was
very friendly to me, also desired my support, as did Gov-
ernor Reynolds. Of course I could not hesitate. Mr. Snyder
was as competent as any of his rivals, his character was open
and sincere, and his friendship to me really knew no bounds.
But neither of these gentlemen had any chance in the conven-
tion. All the governors of the State thus far naturally
enough had been taken from the south of the State, since the
great bulk of the population then lived south. But for the
last four or five years a large population had been pouring
into the northern part of our State from New England,
New York and even Ohio. They were mostly intelligent, ener-
getic and calculating people, and in politics better schooled,
as far as organization was concerned, than we in the south.
Their delegates combining with the delegates from the middle
part, insisted upon nominating a northern man. Perhaps we
could have still nominated Snyder, he being popular every-
where, but his rivals reported his health as so hopelessly bad
that it seemed to many, even of his friends, imprudent to
nominate him. And yet was it not a most singular coinci-
428 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
denee that the man then nominated, Colonel Stephenson of
Galena, died within four or five months after his nomination
of consumption, while Mr. Snyder did not succumb to that
terrible disease until five years later!
Mr. Snyder after this convention feeling tolerably well
for some time, his friends desired him to run for Congress
again, and he in a measure consented, but placed the matter
into my hands. Judge Breese also insisted upon being a can-
didate and wrote to me pressingly on the subject. So did
Reynolds. Here was another dilemna, from which I was soon
released by a most dangerous attack of hemorrhage overtak-
ing Mr. Snyder in Washington. For nearly a month his life
was despaired of. Yet he managed to write me almost every
week, if only a few lines, and he declined being a candidate.
"While Mr. Snyder was aspiring and ambitious, yet in all his
conversations and letters he never urged his claims as abso-
lute. He was always willing to subordinate them to what he
supposed was the good of his party. He was one of the least
selfish politicians I have ever known. In one respect his Ger-
man descent showed itself most plainly he was "gemueth-
lich." His letters to me are full of warmth and in conver-
sation he was full of good-natured humor.
It is my opinion that politicians are greatly misjudged by
the mass of the people. They are charged with inconsistency,
insincerity, ingratitude, tergiversation, and what not. No
doubt a good many are guilty of one or another of these vices,
but a very large experience in politics has convinced me that
as a rule this bad opinion is not deserved. If people would
only reflect what temptations political life offers, they would
take a more charitable view of the case. One aspires to an
office or other high position. Some friends support him
because they are really friendly to him without any after-
thought; others advocate his claims expecting favors. When
the candidate has succeeded, he may overlook his true friends
entirely ; and then comes the charge of ingratitude ; he cannot
return favors to all, and so he often converts friends into bit-
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 429
ter foes. Promises are often made in good faith which
through unexpected circumstances cannot be fulfilled. Then
the candidate is blamed for insincerity. Again: Two or
more candidates solicit the aid of a politician. Perhaps all
are his friends. One has to be finally disappointed, and then
comes the charge of duplicity. One may on principle advo-
cate a measure strongly at one time which at another time
under a change of affairs may appear to him fraught with
disaster. He will be denounced as a renegade. I have myself
very often in my long political career thus been placed be-
tween Scylla and Charybdis. In general, I believe I have
sustained a character for frankness, which I ascribe princi-
pally to the fact that I had early learned to say ' ' No. ' ' Who-
ever has not taught himself that important monosyllable will
make many bad slips and deserve the condemnation which is
usually meted out to politicians.
LEGAL LABORS
At the Congressional election Governor Reynolds was
successful again. Mr. Snyder, as stated, had declined. There
was not much political excitement. But our law business had
increased. Hard times had already begun ; that is to say, the
spirit of speculation was subsiding. The State-banks all over
the country had temporarily suspended redemption of their
notes in specie. They of course stopped their liberal discount-
ing of notes, and commenced suits to collect their debts.
Their debtors, principally merchants and business men, turned
around to sue their customers, farmers and mechanics. Near-
ly all business for the last two or three years had been done
on credit. A branch of the State Bank at Springfield had
been established in Belleville and our firm had been made its
attorneys. We were kept quite busy, and two young gentle-
men, studying law in our office, had their hands full in copy-
ing or drafting pleadings after forms made out by us, the
use of printed blanks for legal papers, deeds, mortgages, etc.,
being at that time unknown, or rather unused, in the West.
430 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Besides that, I had in the summer of 1838 undertaken
a task involving great labor. The German population was
already large in our State, and was daily becoming more so.
Our statutes had just been very ably revised and collected
in what is called "The Revised Laws of Illinois," 1833. To
most of the new-comers this compilation was a sealed book. I
thought it would be a great benefit to this class of citizens
to translate the State Constitution and the most general and
important laws, such as those which related to the mode of
conveying real estate and to mortgages, to notes and bills of
exchange, legal interest, the administration of the estates of
deceased persons, to wills and testaments, to the enclosure of
fields and so forth. The criminal code, adopted principally
from the Virginia Criminal Code, drafted by Jefferson, was
an excellent and quite well arranged collection of laws on
crimes and offenses, and I translated it entirely, adding to it
a translation of the Declaration of Independence and of the
Constitution of the United States, which, strange to say, had
never been translated into German by anyone who was a
jurist and who truly understood these documents. Some
footnotes of an explanatory character were added. The book
contained two hundred and forty-five pages, was printed in
St. Louis by William Weber, and was the first German book
printed in what was then the Far West. Though the price
was two dollars, it was out of print in a few years.
I must say I worked hard during that hot summer. I
employed my friend Henry Schleth to do the copying and in
a few weeks he had so far improved his English that I could
entrust him with translating some portions of the work, leav-
ing to me only the revision. A remarkable feature of the
book is that there is not one misprint in it, showing how care-
ful the proof-reading by Theodore Engelmann and William
Weber must have been.
In this year falls a criminal case which at the time at-
tracted much attention, and, as it reached the Supreme Court,
established a legal precedent of importance. Both Shields
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 431
and I were engaged in this case, and it is in many respects
so interesting that I feel inclined to speak of it.
Antoine Gykowski, an exiled Pole, who had been an of-
ficer in the Polish army, like many of his companions, had
to take here whatever position he could get in order to live.
He had been employed by the keeper of a grog-shop as bar-
keeper in a small town in Fayette County. He could hardly
understand English. One morning a young fellow, who often
took his drinks at the place, came in somewhat tipsy, and, be-
coming pretty noisy, got it into his head to make fun of
Gykowski, who did not seem to relish it. The young man,
who really was not offensive when sober, rather playfully, as
the witnesses stated, hit Gykowski over the head and shoulders
with a small twig, which he had used for a riding whip.
Gykowski 's face became flushed, he looked wild, opened a
drawer beneath the bar, took out a pistol, and shot and in-
stantly killed the young fellow. This act created immense
excitement. Gykowski immediately surrendered himself to
the officers. Alexander P. Field, of whom I have spoken be-
fore, undertook or rather volunteered to defend him. Field
was a most able advocate, but as a good many nice legal points
appeared likely to present themselves, he asked us to assist
him. Of course, neither of us had any expectation of re-
ceiving compensation. But here was a stranger, without a
friend or a countryman to stand by him. So we enlisted in
his cause. By a change of venue, the case was tried before
Judge Breese at Carlyle in Clinton County. The charge, of
course, was murder, a conviction for which at that time in-
curred the death penalty. Now of course we had no idea of
clearing him entirely. The provocation was not strong enough
to justify his having acted in self-defense. We expected to
make out a case of manslaughter, which then was only an of-
fense imprisonable in the penitentiary for not exceeding two
years. The great and almost insurmountable difficulty was this,
however: How could we make it clear to a jury, made up
mostly of backwoods people, that a gentleman, an ex-officer,
432 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
would necessarily feel the hitting of him with a switch as an
insult gross enough to arouse an uncontrollable passion. To
a common man, particularly an ordinary keeper of a low
grog-shop, belonging to a class generally considered disrep-
utable, the act of the young man would not have been an in-
sult at all, and therefore could not have caused such an ebul-
lition of passion. Gykowski must have premeditated the
killing! Such was the reasoning in the community in which
this homicide had happened. On the other hand, the fact
that the pistol was so handy, did not make against our client,
since it was then and is even now a common custom in such
establishments to keep a pistol near at hand; for such places
are often visited by drunken desperadoes against whom the
owners have to defend themselves.
The trial lasted two days, and in spite of all our efforts
the jury found Gykowski guilty of murder. We made a mo-
tion for a new trial, alleging as the principal reason, that
against the direct provision of the statute one of the jurors
had been an alien, which we did not know at the time of our
defense. The fact was true. The man, an Irishman, had been
living in the county some twenty years, but had never been
naturalized. Breese overruled our motion, and the sentence
of death was pronounced on Gykowski, who took it quite
manfully. We appealed, reversed the judgment, and at the
second trial got a verdict of manslaughter, with only two
years' penitentiary. I took a great deal of interest in the case,
and so did the people in Garlyle after awhile. Gykowski was
treated very kindly in jail, received visitors, nay, even when
he was under sentence of death, was allowed to go about
town, having given his word of honor that he would not at-
tempt to escape. I furnished him from time to time with
French books. And in the penitentiary he was at once put
into the clerk's office, where he had no hard labor to perform.
This, among some twenty cases in which I had the de-
fense for murder before the war, was the only one in which
my client was found guilty of that crime. Some of these
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 433
were most dramatic cases of strong circumstantial evidence:
one in Randolph, where one Best was charged with the mur-
der of his own daughter, a beautiful woman, and another in
Monroe, where two young men were indicted for having mur-
dered their uncle. One can have no idea how such cases,
where the life of a fellow-man is trembling in the balance,
and where the slightest oversight on your part may be fatal,
try a man's nerves and disturb his mind. I have sometimes
thought, "when waiting for the verdict," that my client
could hardly have felt a deeper anxiety than I felt myself.
While judge for five years, though I presided over half a
dozen murder cases, I was so fortunate as never to have to
pronounce a sentence of death.
This year I also attended the United States Court at
Vandalia for the first time, and made the acquaintance of
Judge John McLean of the Supreme Court of the United
States, an eminent jurist, whose dissenting opinion in the
Dred Scott case in 1858 made his name celebrated all over
the United States and Great Britain. He consulted me on
some claims he had in St. Clair County, and we entered into
a correspondence, so that I have the pleasure of having his
autographs.
FAMILY AND OTHER AFFAIRS
The death of Emma Hilgard, Edward Hilgard's young
wife, was a great loss to all of us. She was as beautiful as
she was intelligent and kind-hearted. Speaking a few words
at her grave, I was almost overcome with emotion.
The news I received during the year from Germany was
somewhat brighter. My friend Von Rochau, on the day of his
sentence to fifteen years in the penitentiary, together with one
of his jailors, escaped from the prison in Frankfort, as did
six other of my friends a short time afterwards, in company
with another jailor, John Geiger. None were recaptured,
having been concealed by citizens of Frankfort for weeks.
Geiger was a cigar-maker by trade and had taken the position
of jailor for the purpose of liberating the prisoners. He came
434 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
to the United States, and in the fall of the year to Belleville.
He was an industrious, well-informed and energetic man;
opened a cigar-manufactory, made money, and finally moved
to Cassville on the Mississippi in Wisconsin, where he went
into the commercial business and became quite well off, He
died, I believe, some twenty years ago. Some of my friends
had been pardoned by their governments; the imprisonment
of others, like Rueder and Detmar, had expired. Only Prus-
sia still kept some twenty-five or thirty students in durance
within her fortresses. These were set free only by the general
amnesty granted by Frederick William IV on his accession to
the throne in 1840.
The most happy event in this year was the birth of my
dear Mary, November 17, 1838, who received her name of
Mary Elizabeth from her two grandmothers.
Mr. Snyder's health at his second session in Congress
had, during the first part of the winter, somewhat improved
He was able to attend the House and to make some speeches.
His term expired in March, and his physicians advised him
to go South. But he was anxious to return to his family, and
came home via Charleston, S. C., and New Orleans. He was
delighted with the voyage from Baltimore to Charleston, and
in a letter he wrote me from that place, March 10, 1839, he
says:
''This is a beautiful city; the port filled with vessels,
wharves lined with cotton bales and sailors, the streets filled
with fine carriages, well-dressed males and females, and lots
of ragged negroes. The climate is delightful, the peach trees
are in bloom, the fields are green, everything is wearing
the aspect of May in Illinois. Will you be pleased to give my
respects to Mr. Shields? I wish he was here to enjoy the
fine wine and the irresistible smiles of the fine ladies. I have
met here with unbounded hospitality and attention. I trav-
eled here with John C. Calhoun. He has been very kind to
me, and has introduced me to many of the wealthy and dis-
tinguished families of the Southern metropolis."
EAKLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 435
Snyder arrived in Belleville, his health somewhat im-
proved. Not long afterwards, I received the melancholy news
of the death of my sister Augusta after a long and painful suf-
fering. Indeed, she had been the greater part of her life a
sufferer, but bore this unmerited affliction with extraordinary
fortitude. Until she was about ten years of age she was the
picture of health and beauty. Her golden hair came down to
her knees. A clearer mind was never united to a better heart.
Her death was a terrible blow to my mother and sister, and
their anxiety to join me received a new impulse. And yet
their own frail health, still more shattered by this mournful
event, seemed to make their coming almost impossible.
THE FINANCIAL SITUATION
The year 1839, being, as it is generally called, an off year,
with no general elections, was a very quiet one, though in
Illinois the Legislature had at last put a stop to the extrava-
gant Internal Improvement System. But 1840 was a stormy,
and, for me, a particularly eventful year. The financial crash
had set in in good earnest. The United States Bank had not
been rechartered. It turned out to be, on its winding up,
what it had long been suspected to be, a political machine.
It had, by generous loans to leading politicians, attempted,
often with success, to corrupt members of Congress and of the
State Legislatures; and it had, indirectly at least, entered
into extravagant speculations, particularly in cotton, doing
its banking to a great extent on the public revenue deposited
by the government. Of course, it was now compelled to try to
collect its outstanding debts. The government money in the
meantime having been deposited with a great many State
Banks, the latter for a while flourished and extended their
loans, in many cases very imprudently. There being plenty
of money, nearly all the banks issuing notes as money,
speculation, as I have several times had occasion to remark,
rose to a fever heat. A reaction naturally took place, and a
great many of the banks stopped redeeming their notes in
436 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
gold and silver, commenced suing their debtors, and produced
thus a general state of insolvency. But this was not enough.
Many states North and South had gone into the most visionary
schemes of internal improvement. Illinois, for one, had al-
ready issued bonds or legal obligations amounting, up to
1840, to fifteen millions of dollars. In order to get votes from
members from every part of the State, the system adopted
in 1836, instead of providing for one or two most necessary
railroads and the building of the canal, provided for seven
railroads and the improvement not only of the main river,
the Illinois, but also of the Rock, Kaskaskia, Great and Little
Wabash Rivers, while two hundred thousand dollars were do-
nated to counties where no one of the contemplated roads
ran through. But soon, the State credit being exhausted, the
whole system was abandoned, and thousands of men who had
been employed on railroad labor were discharged. None of
the roads were completed. On some, embankments had been
made for part of the track; on others culverts and bridges
had been built. Except on a road leading from Jacksonville
to the Illinois River no ties or rails had been laid. An immense
amount of iron rails had been purchased, and lay idle on
boats in the rivers waiting for shipment. Illinois, of course,
could not begin to pay the interest on these bonds by taxa-
tion. She quit paying any.
Pennsylvania and other States not only did not pay
their interest, but for some reason or other, principally be-
cause in selling the bonds the State officers had exceeded their
authority, proclaimed their bonds void, and repudiated the
payment of both interest and principal, though they had
used the money. To the honor of Illinois, she did not re-
pudiate, though great efforts were made by demagogues in
and out of the Legislature to repudiate a great part of the
bonds; and she finally succeeded in paying every dollar of
both principal and interest.
The times unquestionably were very hard, and, as is usu-
ally the case, the hardness of the times was charged upon the
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 437
party in power. Van Buren had proposed, and the bulk of
the Democratic party had adopted, the plan of entirely sev-
ering the government from the banks, and of having the gov-
ernment take care of its money through its own treasury
officers. It was at best always dangerous to place the revenue
on deposit with banks. Should a war ensue, or should the
government, on account of some other calamity, want its
funds, the withdrawal would at once produce a panic and a
crash. Besides, it was thought that banks could do a safe
business only on their own capital, and not on their deposits,
which were always liable to be called for even on the threat-
ened approach of some formidable difficulty. To make the
public money a fund whereon to issue bank-notes as currency,
would unduly increase the currency, and an abundant cur-
rency was as dangerous as a too restricted one.
This Sub-Treasury plan, as it was called, was now before
Congress, and was most violently opposed by the money-power
as represented in the legislative halls by the Whig party,
who prophesied the ruin of the country if it would pass. The
Democrats had also pronounced in favor of a low tariff and
against protection for protection's sake, and had denounced
in their platform Native Americanism and declared themselves
in favor of the liberal naturalization laws now existing and
of equal rights to all citizens, native as well as naturalized.
Protection and high tariff at that time were not popular in
the South and West, as their population was principally an
agricultural one. It was thought, therefore, that the Democ-
racy, with these sound principles upon its banner, would be
certain to succeed in the approaching State and Presidential
elections. I received a number of letters in the early part
of the campaign, amongst others some from Governor Rey-
nolds in Washington, all expressing confidence in the elec-
tion of Mr. Van Buren. Governor Reynolds was then con-
sidered one of the shrewdest politicians in Congress. Judge
Breese was also confident of Democratic success.
438 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENER
DOMESTIC MATTERS
Early in the year, I received news that made it almost
certain that my mother and Pauline would join me. Dr. En-
gelmann had gone to Germany for the purpose of marrying
his cousin Dora Horstmann. He did so and was to return
with his bride in June or July. He was very willing to take
charge of my mother and sister in case they should determine
to come over. They most cheerfully accepted the offer. No
better opportunity could have offered itself. A skilful phy-
sician, an experienced traveler, an intimate friend and rela-
tion of mine, and a lady-companion, could a voyage be
made under more favorable auspices? As Charles, though
forty years old, had married the year before and established
his own household, their desire to join me had become very
great. Mother had already made an arrangement to sell her
personal property, when unfortunately Pauline was taken
dangerously ill and all idea of leaving with the Engelmanns
had to be given up, to my deepest regret.
About the middle of May, 1840, Sophie, I, and little Theo-
dore took a pleasure trip, accompanied by Rosa Hilgard. In
a light carriage with two fine horses we went, by what is now
the town of Centreville, to Waterloo hi Monroe County,
stopped there all night in a miost rural tavern, and next morn-
ing went down the steep bluffs of the Mississippi to Prairie
du Rocher, where we dined with a Mr. Henry, a very intelli-
gent and urbane Frenchman. This little village stands at the
foot of an almost perpendicular limestone rock. Indeed, some
of the cellars and stables of the town were cut into the rocks.
Driving down the road through the American Bottom, tim-
bered with gigantic trees, we reached Kaskaskia in the even-
ing, putting up at a tavern. This strange old town excited
the curiosity of my fellow-travelers. The Morrisons called
upon our party and showed us round, particularly through
the then so flourishing new ladies' seminary. We met with
much civility. From Kaskaskia, through the rocky, wild, well-
timbered bottom of the Kaskaskia River, we soon reached its
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 439
mouth, a little above Chester, then quite a small place, perched
upon the high hills which here bind in the Mississippi and
close the long flat valley on the Illinois side, commencing at
Alton, and called the American Bottom. Chester was even
then a lively place, having a good landing and a good shipping
port to St. Louis as well as to New Orleans. Some very good
residences were on the sides and the tops of the hills, and Mr.
Nettleton, whose acquaintance we had made in Belleville and
who had married a very amiable French girl, at once took us
up to his dwelling on the heights, and we had a very pleas-
ant time. Indeed, the scenery from there up and down the
Mississippi was charming. Leaving Chester, we took the hill-
route to a place called Preston, and from there over beautiful
prairies and fine stretches of forest we reached at night Mr.
Mitchell's farm. Mr. Mitchell had given up business in Belle-
ville and had bought a very fine farm on the east side of the
Kaskaskia River near the then recently laid out town of New
Athens, where we were, of course, most hospitably entertained.
The next day brought us home, through prairies in all their
spring beauty and through some fine timber, to Belleville,
which was then on all sides surrounded by a forest of splendid
trees.
I do not know whether it was the genial air of spring,
the exhilarating motion of our carriage, the beautiful scenery
at some places, (it being the first excursion of Sophie and
Rosa from home since their arrival in Illinois,) or the true
friendliness of our reception everywhere, or the lively prattle
and vivacity of our little boy, but it is literally true that this
brief journey fixed itself indelibly in our minds, and that for
many years afterwards we spoke of it as a sunny spot in our
lives. Rosa, whose eighteenth birthday we celebrated at Kas-
kaskia, has again and again called back those few days as
among the most cheerful in her life.
Molly Hilgard had a year before married Sharon Tyn-
dale, who had been a clerk in James Mitchell's store in Belle-
ville; Mitchell's son Edward having married Sharon's sister,
440 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOEENER
and living in Philadelphia. Emma having died, Rosa was the
oldest of the sisters now at home. I have already remarked
what Belleville gained by the accession of the Hilgard family.
Rosa and Clara, but Rosa particularly, had become very much
attached to Sophie. They called very frequently at our house,
and Rosa soon seemed to feel at home with us. The difference
of age was not great enough for Sophie to act the part of a
mother. Their relation was more that of an elder and a
younger sister, and remained so through all time until death
parted them. Rosa was indeed "Eine Rose hold und rein."
Her intellect, perhaps I may say her genius, dwelt in a most
lovely form. Her unvaried friendship and her warm interest
in myself and family were a source of happiness to me
throughout life.
TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO
On my return from this excursion stern reality at once
took hold of me. The campaign commenced at once in earn-
est. At the session of the court, the Whigs not relying on
home talent, had sent for some of the best speakers in the
United States to address the people. Alexander P. Field,
then Secretary of State, one of the best and most sarcastic of
stump-speakers, had come from Springfield. James L. D.
Morrison, who had been for some time a midshipman in the
navy, but who had resigned and studied law in Kaskaskia, a
most flowery and fluent orator, and Joseph Gillespie, a good
lawyer and practiced stump-speaker from Madison County,
made their appearance. Field opened the ball in the even-
ing after the court was over in a most inflammatory speech,
talking for more than two hours to a big crowd. Trumbull
answered him next day in a speech of equal length with un-
sparing irony and bitterness, and far more logical and argu-
mentative. The next night Don Morrison let loose in his
maledictory eloquence upon Democracy. His speech was a
fine one, as far as words and phrases were concerned, the-
atrically delivered, but void of argument. I had to answer
him. Gillespie wound up the speaking on the fifth night. Of
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 441
course both parties claimed a great victory in this oratorical
tournament.
From that time on the political excitement, not only in
Illinois, but all over the United States, reached a fever-heat
heretofore unknown. The Whigs had nominated at Harris-
burg, William Henry Harrison of Ohio and John Tyler of
Virginia, but had adopted, very shrewdly as they thought,
no platform. Neither of the Whig candidates responded to
their nomination and so were entirely uncommitted. Never-
theless, they received the support of the whole Whig party
North and South and also of the Democrats of Pennsylvania
and of other manufacturing states, as the candidates were
supposed to favor a protective tariff. For the first time, large
sums of money were furnished by the banks and manufactur-
ers, and demonstrations were gotten up on the most gigantic
scale.
Harrison was an old man, some sixty-seven years of age ;
had once been Governor of the Northwest Territory, and a
delegate to Congress; had settled on a farm at North Bend,
Ohio; had been a member of Congress and a Senator from
Ohio; but had for the last twelve years retired from politics
and now occupied the office of county clerk at Cincinnati.
He had been a candidate against Van Buren in 1836, but was
badly beaten. At that time his military exploits as a general
in a fight with the Indians at Tippecanoe were not much dwelt
on, since he had, on that occasion, though holding his fort
against a night-surprise, shown rather bad generalship. But
this time the skirmish was exhumed and represented as a
splendid battle, and the motto of the Whigs was blazoned
abroad as "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." That as a pioneer
settler he had at first lived in a log house, as had almost every-
body else who went to farming in the early part of this cen-
tury, was also made much of. Log cabins figured in all the
innumerable processions got up by the Whigs. It was also
reported that the poor man in his log cabin had nothing to
drink but hard cider, and accordingly cider-barrels were con-
MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
spicuous in the parades. It is from this last incident that
the whole campaign received the now historic name of the
"Hard Cider Campaign." No letters addressed to the candi-
dates, asking for their opinion on political questions, were
answered; and when finally the National Whig Committee
found that their silence was bound to hurt them, they per-
suaded General Harrison to make a few speeches, which only
made darkness more visible. On one point only was he pos-
itive, namely, that Congress had no right to abolish slavery
in the District of Columbia and that the Abolitionists must
be put down. To show how excited the people got towards
the latter part of the campaign, it was officially stated that at
Dayton, Ohio, where Harrison made a brief speech, more than
eighty thousand people were present, the ground upon which
the crowd stood having been measured by three engineers.
At a mass meeting in Springfield it was estimated that
twenty thousand people were present, a great number in-
deed, when it is considered that there were then no railroads,
and no half fares, and that everybody had to come, hundreds
of miles, on horseback or in wagons, and that Springfield had
then hardly more than three or four thousand people in it.
From Chicago came, on a large platform wagon, an imita-
tion of a good-sized, full-rigged schooner, drawn by several
spans of extra fine horses, and a band of music. One proces-
sion from southern Illinois passed through Belleville, and
was perhaps five hundred strong. Some delegates came from
Cairo, others from Union, Jackson, Randolph and Monroe
Counties. Many of them were dressed in suits of coarse jeans,
a stuff called "hard times." Most of them rode in farm-
wagons, the rest on horseback. On one platform-truck, they
had a large log cabin, with the latchstring out, to show Har-
rison's hospitality; on another truck they had a large canoe,
the occupants of which, when they reached a town, paddled
lustily in the open air. It was hot, and they rode in a cloud
of dust. On their way they camped out like soldiers on the
march. An immense number of cider-barrels were displayed ;
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 443
they were of course empty, but the pockets of most of the pro-
cessionists were full of whiskey flasks, not empty. It was a
most amusing scene. As Belleville was largely Democratic,
the caravan was very coolly received, and all the hurrahing
and cheering came from the passing crowd itself. And who
formed it? Not many farmers, but bank-presidents and di-
rectors, broken-down merchants, disappointed politicians, mer-
chant-clerks, county judges and county officers, high and low,
howling "hard times," and spending money lavishly in get-
ting up shows of all sorts and traveling hundreds of miles.
The men from the most southern counties had to travel more
than two hundred miles to Springfield, and from the most
northern counties an equal distance.
Belleville being considered a Democratic stronghold, a
great effort was made by the Whig party to revolutionize it.
A mass meeting had been announced, and the St. Louis and
Illinois Whig papers gave it in anticipation great puffs. They
had engaged, indeed, a great many speakers of reputation,
such as Mr. Lincoln from Springfield, Wilson Primm, Colonel
Bogy, Thornton Grimsly, of St. Louis, John Hogan, the de-
feated candidate for Congress from Alton, and Don Morrison
from Kaskaskia. The meeting, however, was rather small;
no doubt this disappointment had its effect upon Mr. Lincoln,
who seemed rather depressed and was less happy in his re-
marks than usual. He sought to make much of the point that
he had seen in Belleville that morning a fine horse sold by
a constable for the price of twenty-seven dollars, all due to
the hard times produced by the Democrats. He was some-
what nonplussed by the constable, who was in the crowd, cry-
ing out that the horse had but one eye. I do not recollect
how Lincoln got out of this scrape. But even the Whigs were
somewhat disappointed. In point of melody of voice and
graceful delivery, though not in argument, most all the other
speakers surpassed him. It was the first time I saw Mr. Lin-
coln. It must be said that his appearance was not very pre-
possessing. His exceedingly tall and very angular form made
444 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
his movements rather awkward. Nor were his features, when
he was not animated, pleasant, owing principally to his high
cheek-bones. His complexion had no roseate hue of health,
but was then rather bilious, and, when not speaking, his face
seemed to be overshadowed by melancholy thoughts. I ob-
served him closely, thought I saw a good deal of intellect in
him, while his looks were genial and kind. I did not believe,
however, that he had much reserve will-power. No one in the
crowd would have dreamed that he was one day to be their
President, and finally lead his people through the greatest
crisis it had seen since the Revolutionary War.
On our side no efforts were spared. We had a very strong
county ticket. Mr. Snyder for State Senator, Lyman Trumbull
for one of the Representatives, and S. B. Chandler, for sheriff.
Shields, Trumbull and I took the stump. Trumbull and I
made speeches in every precinct, and organized clubs in every
little town. I started a German political debating club in
Belleville, where every week the political questions of the day
were discussed. It lasted, however, only a month or so, as
there were few intelligent Whigs in town and in debate they
were no match for the German speakers, such as the brothers
Tittmann, August Hassel and others. As the Whigs refused
to attend any more, the society died for want of opposition.
Besides writing numerous articles for the Belleville Demo-
cratic papers, I began publishing a German weekly campaign
paper for the Presidential election from May to November.
It was called the "Messenger of Liberty (Freiheitsbote) for
Illinois," printed in St. Louis by Weber, in large folio and
in large new type. In two weeks it had more than two hun-
dred subscribers, and as the Democrats of Missouri got hold
of it too, its title was changed to the "Messenger of Liberty for
Illinois and Missouri, ' ' and its circulation became quite large.
With the exception of some two or three articles written by
Hassel, and an equally small number of excellent contribu-
tions by William Palm of St. Louis, I wrote all the editorials.
Where there were large settlements of Germans in the neigh-
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 445
boring counties I was requested to speak, but I only found
time my law business requiring also very much attention
to meet Judge Breese at Aviston in Clinton County, where
we both addressed a large crowd of Germans from the Han-
over settlement, and W. H. Bissell, who was a candidate for
the Legislature in Monroe County, when we addressed a
large assemblage in Prairie du Long.
With William H. Bissell, who was then a practicing phy-
sician, I had before that time become slightly acquainted, as at
court time he used to come up to Waterloo and associate with
the lawyers, who all found him a most intelligent, and, at the
same time, a modest and amiable man. At the meeting, I
discovered in him a speaker of great force of argument and
of an extraordinary elegance of language. He was of medium
size and rather delicately built, his complexion very clear and
rather pale. His high massive forehead showed great intel-
lect, and his features, kindness, though he commanded,
when occasion required it, great wit and sarcasm. However, at
times a deep cloud of melancholy overclouded his face. After
some practice, he became, as all acknowledged, one of the most
eloquent and effective speakers in the State. As he and I
were soon thrown closely together, I will have to recur to him
frequently.
As at all these various meetings the audience was a mixed
one, it fell to my lot to make almost everywhere two speeches
in different languages. I may here remark that the issues
of the day in the press, as well as in Congress and in public
meetings, were very ably handled. Taking the tariff question,
for instance, about which in the last years innumerable
speeches have been made and essays written, I must say that
as a general rule they are a mere re-hash of what was said
during Jackson's and Van Buren's administrations. The
protective tariff then had such champions as Clay and Web-
ster, Edward Everett of Massachusetts and Ingersoll of Penn-
sylvania, and many other most distinguished statesmen; the
tariff for revenue only was advocated by such men as Cal-
446 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
houn and Benton, Silas Wright and Cambreleng, of New York,
and last, but not least, by one of the most able financiers since
Hamilton and Robert Morris, by Robert J. Walker of Missis-
sippi. The "Whig-National Intelligencer" on one side, and
Francis P. Blair's "Globe" on the other, in Washington, dis-
cussed the question with the greatest ability. I have heard
in 1840 in St. Clair County as good, if not better, speeches on
the bank and tariff questions as in 1884 and 1886.
At the August State election the Democrats in Illinois
gained a great victory. The Legislature was carried by a large
majority. In St. Clair County the whole ticket was elected
by 800 majority, double the majority of former years. Sny-
der went to the Senate, Trumbull to the Lower House. All
the adjoining counties where there were large German settle-
ments, went Democratic, some for the first time. At the No-
vember election, Illinois remained true to the Democracy in
voting for Van Buren, but nearly all the other States went for
Harrison. Hard times and hard money had done the busi-
ness. Van Buren obtained only six States, Illinois, New Hamp-
shire, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Harrison, having been run down by office-seekers, died
a month after his inauguration, the 4th of March, 1841, and
Vice-President Tyler became his successor. The party now
reaped the fruits of their finely spun scheme in not having
adopted a platform of principles and in not having committed
their candidates to a policy. This had helped in the election,
because in New England they were represented as being in
favor of a national bank and protection, while in the South
and West they were made to appear as friends of only a mod-
erate tariff and as opposed to a national bank. When the
Whig majority in Congress led by Henry Clay, introduced
a new national bank bill and passed it, Tyler vetoed it. The
party was split up. Webster, having been made Secretary of
State by Harrison, clung to Tyler. The latter soon began to
groom himself for the Presidential candidacy at the next elec-
tion in 1844, hoping to be supported by the Democrats and
a wing of the Whig party; called some Democrats into his
EARLY ILLINOIS POLITICS 447
cabinet, and removed the Clay Whigs from office; with the
upshot that no national bank bill was passed, that in 1844
Polk of Tennessee beat Henry Clay, and that the Democracy
established a sub-treasury, enacted a reasonable tariff law,
and remained in power, save for a short interval of years,
until 1861.
I have spoken of this campaign somewhat in detail, be-
cause it inaugurated the noisy and demonstrative methods
which have since more or less characterized Presidential elec-
tions, and also because it was the first time that large and ex-
travagant sums of money were raised and applied to carry
elections. Initiated by the Whig party, the Democratic party,
in self-defense, as it claimed, adopted a similar policy, though,
as far as the use of money was concerned, it fell far behind
its antagonist, since it never had the moneyed and privileged
classes at its back. If it had had the means which its op-
ponents had, it probably would have been as lavish in its elec-
tion methods as they, and would have used the same unjusti-
fiable methods.
In the fall of the year we had a severe trial in our family.
On the 17th of August, a fine little boy was born to us, whom
we named Thomas Jefferson. Sophie felt so well after a week
or so, that while I was absent at the Kaskaskia court, she
ventured out, and made a call at a house some distance from
ours. She was soon after taken down with a most painful
and serious disease, lasting some three weeks, during which
time our little Jefferson, in spite of every effort, could not
have the attention and nursing he ought to have had. Yet he
apparently grew to be a very beautiful child. Theodore and
Mary had had the whooping cough, while Sophie was sick.
Jefferson, then about six weeks old, caught it, and rather un-
expectedly died with it on the sixth of October. A few days
afterwards Theodore was taken down with typhoid pneu-
monia, and for some days was almost given up. But our
friend Trapp, who had finally settled in Belleville as a phy-
sician, brought him through. His skill and careful attention
during these cases of sickness were deserving of all praise.
CHAPTER XVIII
The Years 1841-1842
About the first of December, 1840, I was surprised by a
letter from Senator Snyder from Springfield, to which place
he had gone to attend the Legislature and also the electoral
college, (he having been elected one of the five electors at the
Presidential election in November,) asking me to come up at
once, and saying that he thought there was a chance of my
being appointed to carry the vote of Illinois to Washington,
as provided by the Presidential election law. Now I had
never heard of such an office, but on examining the law I
found out that it was rather a remunerative business, and
also considered an honorable one, as in fact the electoral col-
leges usually appointed one of their own members to carry the
vote. I mounted my horse, and Shields went along. At Ed-
wardsville my horse, having hurt its foot in breaking through
a frozen creek, had to be abandoned, and I got myself a very
fine traveler, a Canadian pony. Shields had a blooded mare.
We reached Springfield one hundred and fifteen miles
in two days and a quarter, just a few hours before the board
of electors met the first Wednesday in December. J. A.
McClernand, one of the electors, a friend of mine, and Mr.
Snyder were for me. Isaac P. Walker, the gentleman who
was examined with me for a license at Vandalia, in 1835, was
for himself. Judge Ralston of Quincy was uncommitted. A
number of ballots took place, I getting two votes, Walker two,
his own and Ralston 's, and Eldridge, also an elector, one
his own, it was supposed, the voting being by ballot. Finally
a recess was taken till the afternoon.
THE YEARS 1841-1842 449
In the meantime, Shields introduced me to Stephen A.
Douglas, then Secretary of State, and already considered as
one of the main pillars of the Illinois Democracy. I saw him
for the first time then. He was of very small size, but broad-
shouldered and muscular. When sitting, like Louis Napoleon,
he appeared of medium height, but his legs were very short.
He had a most massive and intellectual head, crowned with
thick black hair, and his eyes were light blue or gray and
quite bright. His mouth and chin showed great firmness. He
was pleasant in conversation, and toward those he liked and
wanted to persuade he was full of blandishment. He would
sit on their laps, and clap them on their backs. The word
was not much used then, but he had a "magnetism" about
him almost irresistible. He received me very cordially, and
at once promised me his support. Probably he did get Judge
Ralston in my favor, for after a ballot or two I got three
votes and was appointed. I invited the electoral college,
Douglas, Shields, General Ewing and some other friends to
an oyster supper and champagne, and we had a jolly time.
The preparation of the necessary papers took up the fore-
noon of the next day, and I did not get started until four
o'clock in the afternoon. I had not much time to lose. The
vote had to be delivered on the first Wednesday of January
in Washington. It had turned quite cold and the rivers were
expected to close soon. A trip of a thousand miles in winter
by stage was a dreadful prospect. Besides, I had to have a
few days at home to get ready. So I made haste.
My fine pony in a swift canter took me the same evening
to Virden, twenty-five miles from Springfield. Starting early
next morning, I reached, the next night at about ten o'clock,
Locust Grove, seven miles north of Edwardsville, having
traveled that day about fifty-eight miles, and arrived in Belle-
ville the day following at about two o'clock in the afternoon,
having made thirty-two miles. It is true I took my horse
again at Edwardsville, but my pony would have taken me
to Belleville just as quickly; I never rode a better traveling
450 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
horse in all my life, and did not feel at all tired when I got
home.
SENT AS AN ELECTORAL MESSENGER TO WASHINGTON
In a couple of days I had made all my arrangements.
The rivers being still open, I took a boat to Wheeling on the
Ohio, from where a number of stage-lines ran over the moun-
tains to Baltimore on the fine macadamized National Road.
The Mississippi was clear of ice; but when we came into the
Ohio, the ice was running pretty thick, and we proceeded but
slowly; and above Portsmouth the captain seemed doubtful
whether he could run any further ; but the passengers insisted,
and after a trip of about nine days from St. Louis we reached
Wheeling. It was a tedious time. With the exception of
another messenger from Missouri, Falkland Martin, I found
no agreeable company.
On board was Lieutenant Philip Kearney, who became
the distinguished General Kearney of the Civil War, and
fell at Chantilly, the day after the second battle of Bull
Run, September 2, 1862. He was then a tall, slender
youth, of dark complexion and of quite aristocratic appear-
ance. He remained nearly all the time in his state-room,
spoke to no one, and had his own black servant wait on him
at meals. In 1845 I met him again at Shelbyville, Illinois,
where he was on recruiting service. He stopped at the same
hotel I did, and as I was there as judge, he was less reticent.
Soon afterwards, at the head of his company of dragoons, he
made himself quite a reputation in leading a charge at the
gates of Mexico, where he lost his bridle-arm. When I saw
him on board of the boat, he had just returned from France,
where he had been to study the French cavalry service, and
during the time he spent there, he volunteered in the Chas-
seurs d'Afrique and made a campaign in Algiers. In 1851,
having returned to the United States, he resigned, went to
Europe again, was on the French staff in the war against
Austria, and was at the battles of Magenta and Solferino.
THE YEARS 1841-1842 451
At the outbreak of the civil war he returned to the United
States, served as a brigadier-general in the Peninsular cam-
paign, in Virginia, and was made major-general for dis-
tinguished service, a few weeks before he was killed.
All the stages were full. There were nine of us in one.
It had turned very cold, and we were wrapped in blankets and
buffalo skins. At night when we could not open the windows
on account of the cold, the air in the stage was stifling. In
the day-time, when we were slowly climbing up the steep
mountain-sides of the Alleghenies, we often got out to exer-
cise and stretch our limbs. We were out two days and two
nights before we reached Frederick, Maryland. Arriving
there I left the stage, had a good sleep, took the railroad by
way of the Relay House to Washington, and stopped at
Brown's Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, the headquarters of
the Southern Democrats at that period.
IN THE CAPITAL
At that time no member of Congress owned a house at
Washington or had one leased. All stayed either at the hotels
or at private boarding-houses. Washington was at that time
not a large place, having a population of little more than
thirty thousand people. The Capitol was not a third as large
as it is now, with its large and beautiful wings. The Post-
office was a fine marble building; the splendid new Patent
Office was just commenced. Outside of these public build-
ings, the White House, some large hotels, and some fine
stores on Pennsylvania Avenue, the houses were generally
only two-story buildings, and many even were frame struc-
tures. Still, as it was, it was highly interesting to me.
The sealed-up vote I had to deliver to the Vice-President,
Richard M. Johnson, to whom Governor Reynolds introduced
me the day after my arrival. General Johnson was an old,
but still very good-looking, Kentuckian, with a kindly jovial
face. His fresh round head was still covered with curly sil-
very hair. He was a real Western man, received me quite
452 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
affably, and we talked like old acquaintances about the cam-
paign, especially the laughable parts of it. He very truly
predicted that the victorious party was bound to break up in a
short time.
I had arrived some two days before Christmas. There
were no holidays then, except Christmas and New Year's day.
Congress was in session. Governor Reynolds took me to the
House, where, under a liberal construction of the rules, I had
the privilege of the floor as a deputy from a sovereign State.
I was introduced to a great many notable men ; among others,
to John Quincy Adams, General Polk, and Colonel Benton. I
listened to a highly interesting debate in the Senate on a
private pension bill by Webster, who made a short but very
fine and effective speech. It was proposed to give a pension
to a Massachusetts widow of a minute-man of the Revolution-
ary War, who, if he had lived, Webster himself admitted
would not have been entitled to a pension. He spoke, con-
trary to his custom, somewhat on the spread-eagle order.
Calhoun, in an earnest, logical speech, opposed the bill as
making a bad precedent. Clay took fire, and, in a most
impressive speech, supported Webster. Clay's harangue
brought Benton to his feet, who replied with great spirit,
showing a very profound knowledge of the pension laws and
of the history of similar bills that had all been deservedly
defeated. All this happened within a short hour, and I had
really reason to congratulate myself; for it did not often
happen that one was privileged to hear these four great men
all in one day and within so short a time.
I may remark here that I saw at the theatre Richard the
Third by Junius Booth, father of Edwin Booth and John
Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin. The elder Booth was then
the most popular tragic actor in the United States. This was
the first time that I had seen a drama acted in this country.
According to my German ideas, Booth, as well as the other
actors, who, by the way, were generally very poor performers,
overdrew the characters; and the overacting of such plays as
THE YEARS 1841-1842 453
Richard the Third, King Lear, and some others of Shakespeare
I could not bear. I did not at all enjoy the performance.
In a letter to Sophie from Washington, December 23,
1840, after giving her a brief description of my journey, I
wrote about my arrival at Washington and my reception there
on the first days:
' ' In order to flatter thy ambition, I must tell thee that as
a Deputy of the State of Illinois I had not to sit in the gal-
leries of the two Houses, but took a seat on the floor, a priv-
ilege which is reserved only to members, Governors of States,
and the chiefs of the executive departments. It is a trifle,
and it is only to thee I tell it, and thou must not tell other
people about it. As soon as my dress-coat is done, I will visit
Van Buren, although there is no necessity of appearing in a
dress-coat. My visit to Vice-President Johnson and to others
I made in morning-dress. I got along very well, and in the
presence of such distinguished men, I felt quite unconcerned,
so much so, that I am a surprise to myself. I feel almost at
home amongst them. Have I not a high opinion of myself?
My best greetings to all our folks, to the reading club and to
my favorite thou knowest whom I mean. God preserve my
dear trifolium Sophie, Theodore and Marie."
I had paid two visits to Mr. Van Buren, and had quite
interesting conversations with him. He had taken his defeat
very coolly, and was certain that all the important measures
of his adminstration would be finally adopted.
The President had invited me to dinner, two days before
New Year's day. The party was not numerous: the Presi-
dent; Major A. Van Buren, his son; Robert J. Walker of
Mississippi, the great financier, and his wife, the belle of
Washington, to whom, it was bruited about in Washington,
the President paid unusual attention; Baron Roenne, the
Prussian Minister; the Brazilian Minister, his wife and two
most beautiful young daughters, one of whom was my neigh-
bor; one or two Cabinet Ministers, and Senators, and their
wives ; and some other gentlemen of the House of Representa-
tives and their ladies. About this dinner I wrote to my wife :
"We sat down at six and rose at nine o'clock. Every-
thing was served in European style, only the champagne was
454 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
served at the end of the dinner instead of at the commence-
ment, and was drunk out of tall instead of flat glasses. This
mode of serving champagne was the latest fashion when I left.
The wine and the menu were excellent ; hut more of that when
we meet. There were only about eighteen guests, but amongst
them some of the most beautiful and intellectual women of
Washington. The toilets were not extravagant, the dresses
were all of white silk, with white silk embroidery, very decol-
lette. Only the married ladies wore diamond ornaments.
"Some of the large stores in Washington are full of all
sorts of Christmas things, and are splendidly illuminated at
night. In Baltimore, where I spent a few days, the stores are
still more brilliant, and I have seen Christmas trees shining
through many windows. I am) told that Christmas is cele-
brated there by many people the same as in Germany. In ten
years, perhaps, there will be no difference between outward
life here and in Europe. Refinement of sentiment and due
appreciation of higher art will develop much later."
Two days after my arrival in Washington I made a trip
to Baltimore to negotiate the purchase of a fire-engine, which
I had been requested to do by the Belleville people. It took
me two days to accomplish this business. The engine was
tested at a public square in my presence, the thermometer
being some ten degrees below zero and a stiff wind blowing;
I almost froze my nose and ears. I also called upon a client
of ours, whose attorneys and lawyers our firm had been for
years, in the matter of a very large landed estate in St. Clair
and Madison. He introduced me to his family, and I was
very handsomely received. One of his sisters, Miss Norris,
was a beauty of the first water. Baltimore girls are noted for
their comeliness all over the United States.
On the first of January there was the usual reception at
the White House, where I had of course to go. This levee has
been so often described by me that I will only say that I had
the pleasure of seeing General Scott and a great many other
army and navy officers in full uniform, together with the
whole diplomatic corps and a bevy of very finely dressed ladies.
A large indiscriminate crowd was admitted after the diplo-
mats, the congressmen, the heads of departments and their
THE YEARS 1841-1842 455
ladies had gone through their hand-shaking. After leaving
the White House, Governor Reynolds took me to call upon
the then so celebrated editor of the "Globe," old Francis P.
Blair, the bosom friend of General Jackson and the father of
Montgomery and Francis P. Blair, Jr.
A very amusing anecdote, and one illustrating the free
and easy way which at that time at least prevailed amongst
the people and the authorities generally, I must not omit to
tell. In order to obtain the compensation due the messengers,
I had to present my account to one of the auditors of the treas-
ury, who calculated the number of miles we had to travel, the
salary being on the basis of mileage. I charged the same as
the other members from Illinois, so that there was no difficulty
in getting my account audited. While chatting with the audi-
tor, Jesse Miller, a large, very handsome, blue-eyed, blonde-
haired Pennsylvanian, a rough-looking old fellow, a militia-
general from Michigan, one of the electors of that State, and
also a messenger, dropped in and had his accounts allowed.
When he received his order on the treasurer, he took out a pair
of horn spectacles, looked at it carefully, and then said:
"Lookie here, Mister! I am told the Van Buren messengers
get double the pay we get who carry only the Harrison vote."
Mr. Miller, in very good humor, asked him: "Do you believe
that we are all of us here a set of rascals?" "Of course I
do," responded the old Michigander. Miller, his assistant,
and I broke out into a loud laughter, and the general seemed
very much astonished at the good-natured way in which his
reply, intended as an offense, was taken.
TO BELLEVILLE VIA PHILADELPHIA
The rivers being by this time all closed, I had concluded,
in order to avoid about eight days' stage-travel in the dead of
winter, to go to New York and then by sail to New Orleans,
and from there by boat up the Mississippi. So when I left
Washington I went via Baltimore to Philadelphia. About
Baltimore I wrote home:
456 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
"Baltimore is quite an interesting city. It is beautifully
situated. I visited the Catholic Cathedral, a noble building,
and in it saw a painting made by P. Guerin, which I admired
greatly. From the top of Washington Monument, one hun-
dred and eighty feet high, I had a splendid view. It did me
so much good to be once again in a large city. The hotel I
was in the Eutaw House, then just opened has two hun-
dred and sixty-eight rooms; several ladies' and gentlemen's
parlors; exquisite table service, better than anywhere in Ger-
many, the bill in proportion. From Baltimore to Phila-
delphia, we had a very cold ride. In the latter city, I found
old and new friends. I called of course on the Tyndales and
Molly. They seemed very much pleased to see me. Sharon
was my cicerone. He took me to Independence Hall, the art
gallery of the Franklin Institute, to Peal's celebrated Chinese
Museum, to Girard College, and to the theatres. Tyndale's
queensware and china store was then one of the sights of Phil-
adelphia, and visited by many strangers. It was said that at
that time it was the largest establishment of the kind in the
United States. It was an importing house, and there were to
be found there Chinese and Japanese porcelains, English, Ber-
lin and Dresden chinaware, vases from Sevres, of great beauty.
Old Mr. Tyndale, himself, was incurably sick, and had been
confined for many months to his room. Mrs. Tyndale, a
woman of superior mind and energy, however, superintended
the business, and his son-in-law, Edward Mitchell of Belleville,
the chief clerk, became afterwards partner, and in later years
owner of the concern. Sharon and some of his very beautiful
sisters also acted as clerks."
I spent much time with this interesting family. While at
Philadelphia it rained nearly all the time. The day before I
was to leave for New York, news arrived that the Ohio was
opening at Pittsburg, and that in a day or two boats would
leave for the West. So I changed my plan of going to New
York and New Orleans, and took the road to Pittsburg.
In a letter to Sophie from Pittsburg, speaking of my stay
in Philadelphia, I wrote:
"I was exceedingly well pleased with Philadelphia. In
spite of the bad weather, snow and rain setting in soon after
my arrival, I remained there ten days. All the Tyndales,
even the old gentleman, upon whom they say I almost worked
THE YEARS 1841-1842 457
a miracle, received me most cordially. Molly's little Emma is
a very handsome, quiet, blue-eyed child, resembling her
mother. I passed half of my time with Molly, who treated me
with an almost unexpected friendship, and with tears in her
eyes bade me farewell when I left. Everything was done to
make my stay agreeable. ' '
Mr. Wesselhoef t, who had visited us some few years before
in Illinois, the editor of the ' ' Old and New World, ' ' and who
had also established a very judiciously supplied book store,
likewise showed me much attention, introduced me to the most
prominent Germans, and took me to a concert and ball of the
German Liedertafel, where I heard really delightful vocal and
instrumental music. The ball was well managed, and I was
made acquainted with many German ladies. I was somewhat
surprised to find at so early a day, such intelligent and re-
fined German society in Philadelphia. I met my steadfast
old friend Friedrich. He had been to Germany to settle his
personal affairs, but was now here waiting for remittances,
before returning to Mexico. He was the same warm old
friend, but would not follow my advice to let Mexico alone
and come with me.
I had a hard time reaching Pittsburg from Philadelphia.
Our train got stalled several times in the deep cuts which
were still blocked by snow. I missed the train for Chambers-
burg at Harrisburg, being several hours behind time, and had
to stay over night at the latter place. Then from Chambers-
burg, the mountains had to be crossed on a road, much nar-
rower, and not near as well kept as the National Road, on
which I had crossed the Alleghenies on my coming East. Up
in the mountains it was very cold, the thermometer being sev-
eral degrees below zero, the road icy, and in some parts still
covered with deep snow. There was but one gentleman and
his wife and a little child along; at one place, near the top
of Laurel Hill, I believe, the driver refused to take the stage
further. The snow, he said, was too deep. It was in the mid-
dle of the night. We had to get into an open wagon on run-
ners. My companions had but one blanket between them. I,
458 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
however, had a very large Buffalo robe, and, dividing it with
the lady and child, we got through better than we expected
and at a more rapid rate. We were out two nights and two
days. The coaches and stages very often slid on the road,
and we came dangerously near the precipices. In Pittsburg
I stayed only one day, taking the boat on the 18th of Janu-
ary. We came down the Ohio without accident, but found
much ice running in the Mississippi, so that we had a slow
and somewhat perilous passage up the river to St. Louis.
This visit to the East, bringing me in contact with so
many eminent men, giving me an idea of parliamentary pro-
ceedings and of life in large cities, as well as the opportunity
of meeting both old and new friends, while performing a
mission considered honorable, and at the same time attend-
ing to professional and private business, afforded me as much
instruction as pleasure. It undoubtedly had some influence
on the course of my life, in giving me confidence and self-
reliance, without which all other qualities count but little in
this sub-lunary world.
PERSONAL AND LOCAL INCIDENTS
In November of the preceding year, some of our Belle-
ville people had formed a dramatic reading association, which
met once a week in the evening. The dramas of Lessing,
Schiller, Goethe, and Koerner were read, and occasionally the
ballads and lyrics of Schiller and Goethe were recited by
those who chose to do so. The two Misses Hilgard, Rosa and
Clara, the two brothers Tittmann, Mr. and Mrs. Hassel, Mr.
and Mrs. Hildebrandt, Dr. Trapp, and Sophie and I made
up the society. These readings were continued until spring,
and gave us much real enjoyment. They had the not uncom-
mon effect of bringing young people together in pleasant re-
lations, and so it happened that Rosa, in the April following,
was married to Edward Tittmann, and in the fall, Clara to
Charles Tittmann. I may here mention as a rather extraor-
dinary occurrence that some years afterwards, a younger
THE YEARS 1841-1842 459
brother of the Tittmanns, Theodore, paid a visit to his brother
in Belleville, fell in love with the youngest daughter of Mr.
Hilgard, Sr., the lovely and sprightly Theresa, and a few years
afterwards married her in Heidelberg and returned to his
parental residence, Dresden.
Not long after I had returned from the East, I received
a letter from Governor Carlin, together with an appointment.
Our Internal Improvement System having been abandoned,
with its embankments, bridging, trestles, culverts, etc., the ties
and a large amount of railroad iron was by law ordered to
be sold at public sale, but was to be first appraised and not
to be sold under appraisement prices. The Governor was to
appoint commissioners to make this appraisement, and he ap-
pointed me one of them. I immediately replied, thanking
him for his good intentions, but declining the office for the
reason that I had neither theoretical nor practical knowledge
of such matters. Some of my American friends thought that
I was a very queer fellow for not taking an appointment that
was well paid. They shared the idea with most Americans,
that any one is fit for any office when he can get it. Upon
this and similar occasions I felt the misfortune of being an
exile and of living among a people whose sentiments and
thoughts by race and education ran in quite a different chan-
nel from those of the people of my native land. Having cer-
tainly no reason to complain of the position I have attained
here and having met with almost nothing but friendship and
good will from my new fellow-citizens, I have yet often felt how
different their views were from mine, owing to the fact that
we looked upon matters from a different standpoint. I had
been nurtured in German thought and culture, and I could
hardly be expected to be understood by those who had been
brought up on different lines. A thousand topics, which,
among Germans, would be talked about intelligently, were
wholly foreign to most of my American friends. I felt this
lack of sympathy more during the first few decades of my
residence than I did at a later period, partly for the reason
460 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
that general culture here has, in recent times, made great
progress, and from the fact that I have lived a common his-
tory with the present generation, a history of such deep
interest and such grand events as to establish a strong bond
of fellow-feeling between me and my fellow-citizens.
In the spring I had an adventure which might have had
very serious consequences. The Circuit Court was in session
at Nashville, Washington County, where I had some cases
to attend to. Mr. Snyder had also some private business
there. The rivers were very high, and the Okaw, in the Kas-
kaskia Bottom, which we had to cross, was out of its banks;
having overflowed a great part of the bottom and making cer-
tain sloughs, dead arms of the river, unfordable. In conse-
quence of this we took a roundabout road by Fayetteville to
Nashville. After the court was over we started for home
and Mr. Snyder proposed taking the direct route, it being some
ten miles nearer, having ascertained, as he said, that the river
had fallen and that the slough was fordable. In fact, the
stage to Shawneetown had come through the night before we
started.
We were in a top-barouche drawn by four stout horses.
A young lawyer, by the name of Case, having business in
Belleville, was taken in by us. I drove. It was a bright but
cold and frosty morning, the first week in March, and
we went on very well. When we reached the slough, which
was there about one hundred and fifty yards wide, I stopped,
discovering that it was what is called ' ' swimming. ' ' But Mr.
Snyder insisted, that inasmuch as the stage had come through,
we could risk it. I remonstrated, remarking that while I had
seen the fresh tracks of the stage all along, there had been
none for the last mile or two. Nevertheless, I drove in. When
about half way across, the horses lost their footing, and with
the water up to their necks began struggling, one horse throw-
ing his head and neck over the head of the other. Our first
idea was to relieve the horses. I got out on the pole, trying
to cut the collar-straps and the traces, but I broke the blades
THE YEARS 1841-1842 461
of the three pocket knives we had and did not succeed. I was
in the water up to my armpits. Mr. Snyder and Case stood
on the seats of the carriage. The weather was very cold, in
fact there was some thin ice running in the slough. Mr. Sny-
der remarked :" If we do not get out soon, we will be stiffened
up so that we cannot swim." We were wrapped up in great
coats and had heavy boots on. Case jumped out first and got
on shore without any trouble. In fact, the distance which he
had to swim was not more than fifty yards. Mr. Snyder got
out next, and being very tall, had to swim but a short dis-
tance. I was the last. I always had been a very indifferent
swimmer, and never had swum with clothes on. Yet I not
only got through, but, having lost my hat in jumping out, I
swam back and got it. When I made the plunge I was half
inclined to think that I could not make the trip; but, Case
being a very fine swimmer, I presumed he would come to my
rescue. The moment we got out, the horses, though having
to swim a little, pulled the carriage over. The road was very
rough, and the horses could hardly walk. There was no
house within a mile. Feeling very cold, I left the carriage,
and, running as fast as I could, came to a log cabin. The
husband being out hunting, I asked the woman for a pair of
trousers and a shirt, which she very willingly furnished. At
a rousing fire I put on a butternut suit, and when my friends
arrived I already felt quite comfortable. Mr. Snyder pulled
off his coat and vest, and lay down in the bed well covered up.
I could not persuade him to pull off his shirt and undercloth-
ing. My clothes having dried very quickly, I gave the shirt
and trousers of our backwoods host, who had come home, to
Case. The good woman made us some strong coffee, baked
corn-bread and broiled us slices of bacon ; so we fared pretty
well. In a couple of hours we left, but could not reach home
that night.
Our host explained the matter to us. The stage had
passed on the direct route the night before, but had forded
the slough about half a mile below, where the road ordinarily
462 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
passed through it, driving through the woods, the water
below being several feet lower than above. The only damage
I suffered was the spoiling of two law books which were in
my saddle bags and the loss of a deck of cards, with which
we had played a game of whist the night before. I did not
even catch cold; but Snyder took a severe cold, and, in fact,
his disease ever since that accident took a downward course.
He died about a year afterwards.
My companions started a story about me, which ran the
course of the circuit for several years, and which was partly
true. It was said that before I jumped into the water, I ex-
claimed: "If this was the Mississippi River, I should not
mind being drowned, but to be drowned in a miserable Okaw
slough is more than I can stand. ' ' I think, after all was over,
I did say something of the sort.
Shortly after our marriage, Adolph, the youngest brother
of Sophie, became a member of our family. Being taken care
of by his affectionate sister, he enjoyed the benefit of the
Belleville schools, which were much better than the common
schools in the country. Being a very robust, kind-hearted
and dutiful boy, he made himself very useful in our house-
hold. He never gave us the least cause for complaint.
Theodore Engelmann, in the year 1840, had returned to
Belleville, where he pursued, in our office, the same business
in which he had been engaged in St. Louis, studied law, and
in my absence attended to my business. He became an in-
mate in our family, was appointed deputy circuit-clerk in
1842, was admitted to the bar in 1843, appointed chief-clerk
in 1845, and when that office was made elective was elected
to it for four years. In 1852, he became and remained my
partner until he moved out on his farm in 1859. On his
marriage with Johanna Kribben in 1845, he established his
own household in Belleville. He also held during most of
this time the office of a notary public and of public admin-
istrator.
THE YEARS 1841-1842 463
There being no election of any importance in the State
this year, the time passed very quietly. The death of Gen-
eral Harrison, of course, created much excitement, as it was
evident that it would produce a break in the Whig party.
Being then without a partner, I was kept pretty busy in my
practice, which for reasons already indicated, was greatly in-
creasing. In the course of the year, however, a State Con-
vention took place at Springfield for the nomination of Gov-
ernor and other State officers, to be elected in 1842. A. W.
Snyder was nominated for Governor, which, of course, was
very acceptable to me, and I advocated his claims the best I
could in the local and in the St. Louis papers. At the ses-
sion 1840-1841, Shields had been elected Auditor of Public
Accounts, and Trumbull at the end of the session had been
appointed by Governor Carlin, Secretary of State. Breese,
Ford, Douglas, Scates and Treat had been elected Judges of
the Supreme Court by the Legislature in addition to the four
old judges. The Supreme Judges were to perform also the
duties of Circuit Judges.
If the year 1841 was comparatively a quiet one for me,
the next was a very busy and boisterous one. In May, A. W.
Snyder died from the disease under which he had been suffer-
ing for six years. His death was universally deplored, even
by his political enemies. He was so loyal to his friends, and
yet so open and courteous to his opponents, that he had no
personal enemies. To me I may say he was almost devoted.
When absent he wrote to me constantly, and his letters
breathed the warmest friendship for me. He took a deep in-
terest in all that concerned me.
The party was much disturbed by the death of their
nominee for Governor, whose election was considered pretty
certain ; for it was not too much to say that at the time of his
death Snyder was, north and south, the most popular man
in Illinois. In his will, he appointed General Semple, who
had been removed from his post as Minister Resident to New
Granada by Harrison, Lyman Trumbull, and myself, his ex-
464 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
ecutors. The two first named, however, on account of their
non-residence, declined, and the settlement of the estate, very
difficult in times when all landed property had declined in
value and was in fact hardly salable at all, fell upon me
alone.
ELECTED TO THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE
Before Mr. Snyder died I had been nominated for a seat
in the Legislature by a county convention, rather against my
will, as I believed it would injure my practice. It was always
my opinion that no one should engage in political life, unless
he had made himself financially independent, at least to the
extent of being able to get along without office and of not be-
ing compelled to seek office all the time for a living. But my
friends, Mr. Snyder and particularly Shields, who wrote me
the most pressing letters from Springfield, trying to infuse his
own ambition into me, whom he considered a German idealist,
insisted, and I finally yielded to their urgent appeal.
Seth Catlin, a well-to-do farmer and well instructed, who
had also been a county-surveyor, was nominated for the Sen-
ate, and Phillip Penn and Amos Thompson, both very intel-
ligent and well-to-do farmers, were nominated as my colleagues
for the House of Representatives. Dr. Roman and Col. John
Thomas, who had been Democrats, and as such had been mem-
bers of the former Legislature, but had by their vacillating
course on the bank and other questions, not given satisfaction
to their party, had joined the Whig party. They now were
the candidates of that party. Both were very strong men.
Roman was a man of superior mind and an excellent phy-
sician. Thomas was very shrewd, with ample means and much
experience. Both had been amongst my earliest acquaintances.
I forget who the opponent of Catlin was, I believe, a ren-
egade Democrat. The main object of the Whigs was to beat
me. If they had brought out a Whig he would have stood no
chance ; so they persuaded a good citizen, A. Badgley, belong-
ing to one of the best known and largest pioneer families in
the county, to present himself as an independent Democrat.
THE YEARS 1841-1842 465
Badgley had held many important offices, was a man of good
mind, and had always been a Democrat, though somewhat
tinctured with nativism. The Native American party had or-
ganized itself in Illinoistown, now East St. Louis, count-
ing there about fifty members, and being supposed to control
one hundred or one hundred and fifty votes. So my position
was somewhat more difficult than that of my colleagues on
the ticket. The Whigs would vote in a mass for Badgley,
so would the Native Americans, and also a good many Dem-
ocrats, being friends and old neighbors of his, and besides,
there was his vast relationship. If Mr. Snyder had lived
there would have been no trouble. One word from him would
have caused Mr. Badgley to withdraw.
In place of Mr. Snyder, Thomas Ford, one of the Su-
preme Judges, was nominated for Governor. He had not de-
sired to be a candidate, but finally yielded. Though he had
been brought up in southern Illinois, he had so long resided
in the northern part of the State that he was almost entirely
unknown in our region of the country. I had become ac-
quainted with him while attending the Supreme Court, and
had formed a very high opinion of him. There was nothing
showy about him; quite the reverse. He was no public
speaker, and hated everything that looked like demagogism.
Small and slender of stature, his features were rather sharp
and irregular, but he had brilliant eyes. He impressed one
with the idea that he was a man of thought and also one of
firmness. On the ordinary mass of people he made no im-
pression. By his opinions as one of the Judges of the Su-
preme Court, by his messages, and above all by his "History
of Illinois," published after his death, it became manifest to
all men whose judgment is worth anything, that in the frail
form of Governor Ford there existed a very acute, sagacious
and impartial mind. His history, though only a fragment,
is a model of pure, nervous, Anglo-Saxon English, and his
views on all public matters, on the character of the people,
on the methods of politicians, on the working of our Repub-
466 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
lican institutions, show a mental grasp of great vigor and a
philosophical insight really astonishing in a man who had
nothing like a classical education.
Referring in his history to his election, and after remark-
ing that he had never before been much concerned in political
conflicts of the day and had held no political offices at all, not
having even been a candidate for one, he speaks of the embar-
rassing situation of one who is raised to the highest position
in the State, without having been previously the leader or the
principal embodiment of his party. He writes most justly:
"Mr. Snyder had been nominated because he had been the
leader of his party. Mr. Snyder died, and I was nominated
not because I was a leader, for I was not, but because it was
believed I had no more than an ordinary share of ambition;
because it was doubtful whether any one of the leaders could
be elected, and because it was thought I would stand more in
need of support from leaders than an actual leader would.
To this cause, and perhaps there were others, I trace the fact
which will hereafter appear, that I was never able to com-
mand the support of the entire party which elected me. I
venture to assert that the moral power belonging to the
leadership of the dominant party is greater than the legal
power of the office conferred by the Constitution and the laws.
In fact it has appeared to me at times that there is very little
power of government in this country, except that which per-
tains to the leadership of the party of the majority. General
Jackson not only governed while he was President, but eight
years afterwards, and has since continued to govern even
after his death. When men who are not leaders are put in
high office, it is generally done through the influence of lead-
ers who expect to govern through them. Soon after my elec-
tion I ascertained that quite a number of such leaders imag-
ined that they, instead of myself, had been elected, and could
only be convinced to the contrary on being referred to the re-
turns of the election."
I can say here truthfully that Governor Ford, under
many difficulties, did show that he was the Governor, and his
policy as to the main question of the banks, and the still more
important one of our financial condition and the sustaining
of the fair credit of our State, in spite of much opposition,
THE YEARS 1841-1842 467
even in his own party, carried the day and laid the founda-
tion for the ultimate prosperity of this State.
The election coming in August, my colleagues and I
started out on horseback in July on our canvassing tour.
We commenced at Lebanon, Catlin opening with a few re-
marks proclaiming himself an out-and-out Jackson man, op-
posed to banks, tariff, etc., and in favor of retrenchment and
reform. He spoke sensibly. I had to make the principal
speech, and our friends seemed to be well pleased with it.
We took in Mascoutah, the new name for Mechanicsburg,
on our way, but the place being too small, we stayed there
only over night, and had friendly chats with the people that
called at our inn. Next day we addressed the people in and.
about Fayetteville, and then went to near New Athens, where
we had a large crowd, mostly Germans. The following week we
went down to Cahokia, where I explained to the Creole French,
the bank and tariff questions in Parisian French, my speech
having been corrected by Mr. Hilgard, Junior, of the Moun-
tain. I doubt whether they understood much of what I said,
but they seemed to be greatly pleased to be addressed in a
language that sounded like their own patois.
Of course I made a great many more speeches independ-
ently in Belleville and other places. Shortly before the elec-
tion I concluded that I would beard the lion in his den. I an-
nounced a meeting at Illinoistown, where the Native Ameri-
cans, as already stated, had formed a club, and where a paper
advocating their principles was published. I found a large
crowd and a number of the St. Louis Native American Club
present. No one was with me, except Colonel Taylor, whom
I had brought over from St. Louis with me. He was a very
prominent Illinois Democrat, then residing in Ottawa, but
now in Mendota, Illinois. I made my speech on the general
topics of the day and then pitched into the Native American
platform. All at once a very intelligent young gentleman,
the editor of the Native paper, or the President of the Club,
stepped forward, and asked permission to interrupt me. * ' We
468 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
are not," he said, "opposed to all foreigners; but we do not
want the ignorant and poverty ridden among us to make our
laws. Now we know you, and we know that you would do
nothing but what in your opinion would benefit the country.
Of such naturalized citizens we feel proud. Those of our
party who share your political opinions, will certainly vote
for you." I now burst out: "These may be your private
opinions, but they are not the principles of your party. Your
addresses and your press seek to disfranchise indiscriminately
all not to the manor born, you denounce all Catholics, you
burn up their churches. I here tell you that I do not want
your votes, and I would feel ashamed if any one of that un-
American party would vote for me." Taylor hurrahed, clap-
ped his hands, and the Democrats present joined in and
cheered me. My generous Native American friend looked
rather crest-fallen. I got a very fair vote in that precinct,
and a large majority at Cahokia, where heretofore the Whigs,
under the leadership of the very popular, intelligent and
wealthy leader, Col. Vital Jarrot, had always carried the day.
Our whole ticket down to the coroner was elected by very
large majorities at the August election. As the vote at that
time was taken viva voce, and was immediately known at the
close of the polls, indeed often an hour or two before, I learned
that I was elected when half way between Cahokia and Belle-
ville, I had stayed at Cahokia until the voting was nearly
over. As I was the first German ever elected to the Legislature
in Illinois or Missouri, the German presses in both States, and
in fact in many other States, took notice of it and gave me a
rather unmerited prominence. I may state, however, that at
that early time the Legislatures stood much higher in the
opinion of the people than they do now. They had short
sessions. There were but few corporations or manufacturers
to lobby measures, and there were hardly any election ex-
penses. "We always stayed with friends when traveling
through the county. We had our horses anyway. My entire
electioneering expenses amounted to four dollars, and that for
THE YEARS 1841-1842 469
the printing of tickets. One Democratic Frenchman from the
Bottom afterwards sent me a bill of $6.65, for which he said
he had gratuitously treated for me. As he was a good fellow,
I paid him, although I had not given him the slightest author-
ity to do so.
THE OLD LUTHERANS AND BISHOP STEPHAN
In the spring of this year I brought to a close a law-suit,
or rather a series of suits, which had become a matter of much
notoriety and excitement, even in a part of Germany. Some
time about 1835 in Prussia and Saxony, religious societies had
been formed, calling themselves "Old Lutherans," claiming
that the Lutheran Church had degenerated and had made con-
cessions to the Reformed Church as well as to the Rationalists.
The Old Lutherans took their stand on the dogmas and doc-
trines of Martin Luther, as they were understood three hun-
dred years ago. These Old Lutherans soon came into collision
with their respective governments, felt aggrieved, and many
emigrated. At the head of one of these societies stood Martin
Stephan, of Dresden, called Bishop Stephan, and he organized
an emigration-society of the members of his church on a grand
scale. Under his guidance, some eight hundred people and
some eight ministers, or pastors, as they were called, arrived
at St. Louis in 1839. It seems that already on the voyage
difficulties had arisen, and shortly after their arrival in St.
Louis some of the ministers made charges against the Bishop,
and the papers were soon full of very unpleasant controversies.
The great mass of the sect, however, remained true to Ste-
phan, whom they looked upon as a second Moses. By the help
of a land-agency a large tract of land, of some six thousand
acres was purchased, partly from the government and partly
from private owners. It was situated in Perry County, Mis-
souri, about one hundred miles south of St. Louis, and con-
tained several farms. What principally determined this pur-
chase was the fact that part of it was a strip of land on the
mouth of a large creek on the Mississippi River, about half
470 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, on which there was
a good landing, with steep enclosing hills both above and be-
low. West of this piece of prairie bottom-land hills again
arose, on the top of which the great bulk of the purchase was
located. When I visited the place there were some little vil-
lages laid out, one called Dresden, another Altenburg, and the
few houses on the landing were called Wittenberg. The land
on the hills was not very rich and not easily cultivated on ac-
count of its unevenness. Yet those hardworking, industrious
and most economical Saxons had, with the hardest labor, culti-
vated a considerable part of it, and wheat seemed to thrive
there remarkably well.
The colony had not been there more than a year or so be-
fore a great contention arose. A majority of the colonists
became dissatisfied with Bishop Stephan. All kinds of
charges were brought against him. Finally a revolt took place,
and he was driven out of his house and home forcibly, and
with his housekeeper his wife had been left at home sent
in a boat over the river into Illinois, destitute of everything.
On my return from the East, January, 1841, I found a letter
from Mr. Stephan, dated Kaskaskia, in which he, in general
and rather indefinite terms, gave me an account of his calam-
itous condition, saying that he had been robbed of all his
property and was near starving. He begged me to take his
case in hand and see him righted. He took me, very strangely,
for a brother of the poet Theodore Koerner, who^had fallen
in battle in 1813. I had, of course, heard and read something
about the squabbles amongst the Old Lutheran colonists, but
had paid no attention to them, as strife and troubles were very
common occurrences in such emigration-societies after their
arrival. Yet I could not very well decline to look into the
matter at least. So at the next spring term of the court at
Kaskaskia I called upon Mr. Stephan. I found him and a
woman, his housekeeper, who was much above the canonical
age, and rather ugly, in a bare room, which some kind inhab-
itant had let them have in an otherwise empty house. An old
THE YEARS 1841-1842 471
straw mattress, a couple of chairs and an old wooden chest,
containing the woman's wardrobe, was all the furniture in
the room. Stephan was about six feet high, of almost her-
culean frame, with a long face and a very energetic look. He
did not look to me at all like a man of thought. He was much
dispirited. Coming to Randolph County without means, the
county authorities, although he was not legally entitled to it,
had admitted him to the poor-house, but the treatment there
was so horrible, he told me, that he had left it and was now
living in town, where some good people had from time to time
given him means to support himself. He was confused, and
it was hard to obtain accurate statements from him, such as
lawyers need for instituting suit. By vigorous cross-exam-
ination, I got, however, a sufficient idea of what to do. I
promised to go to Perryville, the county seat of Perry County,
as soon as my courts were over, and look up the records, ex-
amine witnesses, etc.
In June, I believe, accompanied by Theodore Engelmann,
I went to the place, found that there was a proceeding pend-
ing against him, charging him with fraud and deceit in hav-
ing had all the titles to the land of the society made out to
himself, while he had purchased it with the money of the com-
mon treasury, and asking the court to compel him to make
over the land to the communal members. There was nothing
in this allegation, for everything, as I learned, was done
openly and with the consent of all the members of the society.
The idea of the association was, as expressed in its constitution,
that the land should be held for the benefit of all by the Bish-
op ; the members to occupy the same for themselves and heirs
in such quantity as was proportionate to the money each head
of a family or each single man had paid. The intention was
that the members should not have the legal title, for they
might then sell the land to outsiders, not members of their
church, and thereby introduce heresy and the seeds of dis-
cord. It was a sort of hierarchical scheme. Of course, I in-
tended to make no defense to this, but only to save the land
472 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
and house of the Bishop, to which he was entitled by having
himself put in a sufficient amount of his own money. So one
of the most momentous charges in the eyes of the people who
were not lawyers was at once dispelled.
We went down to Wittenberg. It was really a well-
chosen spot ; the only drawback being its liability to be over-
flowed whenever the river was unusually high. The town had
already been some feet under the water several times in the
spring seasons. A little below, right in the middle of the
river, stood the great rock called the Grand Tower, and also
another one called the Devil's Bake-Oven. The scenery was
really very romantic. All the German people we met were
very good-natured and kind, but somewhat suspicious, having
already learned that Stephan had employed lawyers to re-
cover his property. I found sufficient foundation for com-
mencing several actions, one against half a dozen of the ring-
leaders who had mobbed the Bishop 's house, had dragged him
and his housekeeper out of it, made him sign all kinds of re-
nunciations and releases, and then put him in a boat and
sent him over to Illinois; I also began several other suits
against persons who had locked up in a warehouse all his
furniture, with his bedding, his library, containing 1,500 vol-
umes, his pictures and other things ; and I also charged others
with having taken possession of his money, claiming it as be-
longing to the common treasury.
In the fall I went down again. The community had en-
gaged some of the best lawyers in that section of the country,
which was the best thing for me. They at once saw that
Stephan would succeed in many cases, and, while they tried
to delay the trials by all sorts of pleadings, in which they
did not succeed, they finally advised their clients to com-
promise. With that end in view, I had the cases continued to
the spring term of 1842. What made against Stephan was
this, that the persons who had committed violence on Stephan
and his housekeeper were, as is usually the case, not personally
responsible for the heavy damages which would undoubtedly
THE YEARS 1841-1842 473
have been recovered, and it was hard to prove that responsible
persons had instigated the riot, although that was certainly
the case. It was also not an easy matter to prove, as at that
time parties could not testify in their own behalf, how much
of the money in the common treasury belonged to Stephan;
further, many counter-claims were made against him. All
his goods were finally delivered to him, but in bad condition,
as the warehouse in which they had been kept had been flood-
ed by the water of the river. His land was decreed to him,
a certain amount of money was paid him, and all the costs
fell on the defendants. As these proceedings were much com-
mented on both in the German and the American-German
press, and seemed to create much interest, I have briefly men-
tioned them.
What ultimately became of Bishop Stephan I do not
know. I have a dim recollection, however, that after awhile
he gathered together, somewhere in Illinois, a congregation of
Stephanites. He still retained some adherents who considered
him a martyr and a saint, while others painted him in the
deepest colors as a tyrant, a hypocrite and a licentious sinner.
Well, Mahomet did not fare better. The American consul in
Leipsic wrote me, after the case was settled, that I had been
violently abused in the Dresden and Leipsic papers for having
taken up Stephen's case.
If legal proceedings in the smaller and remoter counties
of Illinois were not carried on in the most dignified manner,
the court in Perry County was the most free and easy I have
ever been in. The judge, a very good one by the way, smoked
on the bench, and so did the lawyers and every one else who
felt like it. What amused me most was, when at one time,
the jury having brought in a verdict, they were addressed by
the successful party on leaving the box with, "Thank ye,
gentlemen; and now come on and I will give you a treat."
A VISIT FROM CHARLES DICKENS
In the same year, 1842, Belleville was favored by a visit
from Charles Dickens. Dickens had expressed a great desire
474 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
in St. Louis to see a prairie, and his friends there rathe*
foolishly procured him the sight of one in St. Clair County
and made up a considerable party to drive him out east ol
Lebanon into Looking Glass Prairie. I say foolishly, for
while a prairie is a most beautiful sight in spring and sum-
mer, in March, and it was early in March when they went
out, it presents a bleak and rather desolate aspect. The
grass is all burnt down in the late fall and winter, and one
looks over a brown and often black surface without any re-
lief. In his "American Notes," he gives a ludicrous and
rather exaggerated account of the trip, particularly through
the American Bottom, which at that season of the year, par-
ticularly before it was cleared and turnpiked, was miry and
full of holes. According to him, the bottom extended clear
to Belleville, which place he locates in a swamp. The hotel,
the Primm House, then called the Mansion House, gave him
occasion for some funny remarks, not altogether fictitious. He
speaks of the trial of a horse-thief going on at the court-house.
Of this he was misinformed, for he never saw the inside of
the court. We had not been informed of the visit. Court
was in session, and some lawyer and I were just arguing a
law point before Judge Breese, when Judge Krum of St.
Louis came in, and, calling Shields aside, told him that Dick-
ens was at the Mansion House. Shields then spoke to me and
some other lawyers, and after we had finished with the suit,
they and I constituted ourselves a committee to call upon the
celebrated author and to welcome him on behalf of the Belle-
ville people. We went to the hotel and found a rather slender
but well-knit, bright-looking gentleman, very plain and un-
affected, whom it did one good to look upon. Though early
in the season, it was a warm, almost sultry day, and he had on
a large, wide-brimmed straw hat, with a broad, light blue
band, a rather strange costume here for March.
Some of the St. Louis gentlemen took me aside and re-
marked that Mr. Dickens would like to look at our court very
much, but unless it was certain that the judge would invite
THE YEARS 1841-1842 475
him to take a seat on the bench, they did not think it was
judicious to take him there. So I went to the court-room and
informed Judge Breese of what the St. Louis lawyer had told
me. Breese bristled up and said sternly: "Don't talk to me
of this ! He is one of those puffed up Englishmen, who, when
they get home, use their pens only to ridicule and traduce us.
He can come in like any other mortal." So the intended visit
to the court-house did not come off.
After Dickens 's "American Notes" were published, Gov-
ernor Kinney grew very angry about them, and he undertook
to castigate Mr. Dickens for his audacity. The idea in itself
was ridiculous of issuing a miserable little printed pamphlet
from the village of Belleville against Dickens 's "Notes,"
which had been translated into all civilized languages. It
was like firing a pop-gun against a first-class iron-clad. Gov-
ernor Kinney was a bright man, a very fine and witty con-
versationalist, but a very poor writer. His ire was not so
much directed against Dickens himself, (though he covered
him with the most unparliamentary epithets,) as against
Great Britain in general. The pamphlet was a terrible fail-
ure. It is very rare now, but I was quite lately in a very com-
ical manner reminded of it. At a visit to Princeton, in our
State, when sitting after dinner in the hall of the hotel, a
gentleman who had himself introduced to me, said he was
very glad to make at last the acquaintance of the gentleman
who had put down Mr. Dickens so ably for writing his ' ' Amer-
ican Notes. ' ' I repudiated the compliment decidedly. He had
learned that Governor Koerner, by which name I passed
generally but undeservedly, since I have been only Lieuten-
ant-Governor, was in town, and he had taken me to be Gov-
ernor Kinney, who had then been dead more than forty years.
In the summer Mr. Van Buren visited the West and came
to St. Louis. From the landing he was escorted to the Plant-
ers' House by a very large procession. In reply to a reception-
476 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
address by James B. Bowlin, a leading politician, he made a
very neat speech. I renewed my former acquaintance with
him. In the evening he received an ovation from the Germans.
About a thousand had made up a real German torch-light
procession, with wax and pitch torches, a new sight to the
Americans, and serenaded him at the hotel. Van Buren
was surprised and made his acknowledgement in a short but
very eloquent address. It was the first time that the German
element made itself felt by a great demonstration. Van Buren
knew that they had most faithfully stood by him in the late
election.
On Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1842, our little
family was increased by the birth of a pretty little girl, who
was named Augusta for my dear departed sister and also
Sophie for her mother. I may mention also here that we had
now taken a very neat new house, on the corner of Second,
North and Richland Streets, standing on a block or half a
block of ground, with a fine flower and kitchen garden, a
large stable and other outhouses, and a very spacious, shady
yard, a most pleasant place, particularly for the children.
Towards the north there was a fine forest.
CHAPTER XIX
In the Legislature and on the Supreme Bench
I now had to start for Springfield to take my place in
the Legislature, the sitting of which commenced on the first
Monday in December.
The difficulties this Legislature had to encounter were
numerous. Governor Ford in his history gives a lively des-
cription of the condition of our State at the time he entered
upon his office, December, 1842.
"There was no money in the treasury whatever," he
writes, "not even to pay the postage on letters. The revenues
insufficient, the people unwilling and unable to pay high tax-
es, and the State had borrowed itself out of all credit. A
debt of nearly fourteen millions of dollars had been contract-
ed, the currency of the State had been annihilated. The whole
people were indebted to the merchants, nearly all of whom
were indebted to the banks or foreign merchants, and the
banks owed everybody, and none were able to pay. To many
persons it seemed impossible to devise any system of policy
out of this jumble and chaos which would relieve the State.
Every one had his plan and the confusion of counsels among
prominent men was equalled only by the confusion of public
affairs."
THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE OP 1842-43
The task before the Legislature was to put the banks in
liquidation; to make them give up our stock, amounting to
more than three millions, in payment of the debts (loaned
money and treasury-warrants in their hands) which the State
owed the banks; to adopt some measures by which the canal
could be completed; and to elect a United States Senator in
place of Judge Young, whose term was about expiring, as
478 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
well as certain other State officers. Further, owing to their
separation from the banks and to the exigencies of the times,
the revenue laws had to be changed; and owing to the fact
that Illinois had become entitled after the census of 1840 to
seven Representatives, the State had also to be laid out into
new districts, always a difficult and very delicate task, since
every prominent politician wanted his district so shaped as
to make his election to Congress a certainty. Besides, there
was all the customary legislation to attend to.
The sessions began at nine in the morning, with one hour
for dinner ; the afternoon sessions were from one to six. From
eight to midnight the principal committees had to work.
There were no holidays except Christmas and New Year's.
Towards the end we had even night sessions. This was quite
different from the way Legislatures work now. I had been
placed on two very important committees, the Committee on
Finance and the Committee on Judiciary. In addition, I was
made chairman of some two or three special committees on
investigation, requiring the examination of witnesses and
papers and the making of reports.
The Senate contained forty members, was weak and
hardly counted for anything in this Legislature. The House,
one hundred and twenty in number, was however, as was
admitted by everybody, unusually strong. The Whig party
had elected some of their most eminent men. Judge Stephen
T. Logan was considered the acutest and ablest lawyer in
Springfield and the central portion of the State. He was a
Kentuckian of the well-known Logan family, hardly of me-
dium size, and quite thin, but wiry. Thick, reddish curling
hair covered his rather small head. He had the white com-
plexion usual to redhaired people, and his features were
sharply cut. There was nothing particularly brilliant about
his gray eyes. As to his outward appearance, it might be
said that he was the most slovenly man, not only in the Legis-
lature, but in the city of Springfield. Though of ample
means, occupying a very fine residence surrounded by a large
IN THE LEGISLATURE 479
and beautiful park, his clothes were shabby. I have seen him
in the Legislature, in court and out of court, up to the time of
his death only a few years ago, and I never saw him wear a
necktie. He wore an old fur cap hi winter and a fifty-cent
straw hat in summer, baggy trousers, and a coat to match.
Thick, coarse, brogan shoes covered his feet; but nobody
noticed all this. He was undoubtedly an honest man; and,
though an astute lawyer, his disposition was kind and genial.
At times, the Irish in his blood made him lose control of his
temper. While he enjoyed the greatest regard in the House
as a man, and more particularly as a lawyer, he could hardly
be called the leader of his party. He was not enough of a
politician, not positive enough, and created no enthusiasm.
A perfect contrast to him, as far as outward appearance
was concerned, was a distinguished lawyer from Quincy,
Orville H. Browning. He was of an imposing stature, a really
handsome man, with speaking darkish eyes, and in dress a
most exquisite dandy. He always wore a dress-coat of pecu-
liar cut, Prince Albert fashion, with an outside pocket,
from which the ends of a white or light yellow pocket hand-
kerchief dangled out. What made him particularly conspicu-
ous was his ruffled shirt and large cuffs, then hardly ever seen.
He was not only a good debater, but at times could rise to
oratory. He was somewhat jealous of Logan, and evidently
sought to be the leader of the Whigs. Browning afterwards
became a prominent member of the Republican party, was
appointed by Governor Yates a Senator of the United States,
and Secretary of the Interior under President Andrew John-
son. I came into very pleasant relations with him, but I
should have liked him better if he had been a little less con-
scious of his own superiority.
Perhaps the best debater and the best politician on the
Whig side was Mr. Jonas of Quincy. Jonas was of Jewish
extraction, slender figure, brilliant dark eyes, an aquiline nose,
black hair and very good voice. If he was not a lawyer he
ought to have been one. His quickness of perception, his read-
480 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
iness of speech, his plausibility made him a very formidable
opponent. He in later years moved to Louisiana, and Jonas,
the present Senator from that State, is his son. There were
some other capable Whigs in the House, amongst others Jesse
K. Dubois, General Pickering and Richard Yates of Morgan
County, the youngest member of the house and the best-look-
ing. Yates had a tall graceful figure, a very full round face,
ruddy complexion, a fine mouth and well-rounded chin, and
his eyes were deep blue and large; curly blond hair crowned
his head in profusion. Without profound legal knowledge,
he had gained the reputation of being a successful advocate.
His eloquence was of an ornamental order, often florid; but
there was a sincerity about him and an enthusiasm which was
very attractive. He as well as Browning and Logan were my
colleagues on the Judiciary Committee.
The Democrats had also very strong men in the House.
Doctor Murphy of Lake County, Chairman of the Committee
on Banks and Corporations, could well have been the leader
of his party by reason of his great knowledge and experience
in financial matters, his clear-headedness and his debating
ability ; he carried great weight in the assembly, even with the
opposite party. But he did not strive to lead, and was not
positive or rather aggressive enough for a commander of
forces. John A. McClernand of Shawneetown, on the con-
trary, possessed the qualities of a party leader in a high
degree. Tall and wiry, with a long face and a southern Illi-
nois complexion, dark sparkling eyes and an executive nose,
he was a lawyer of long practice and good parliamentarian,
having been before a member of the Legislature. He was bold
in his assertions, denunciatory of his opponents, perfectly fear-
less, an experienced public speaker, never trying to persuade
but to subdue. His unbounded ambition, his untiring energy,
secured him a good measure of success. He was repeatedly
elected to Congress by the Democrats, entered the Union
Army, was made a brigadier-general, and after Donaldson
and Shiloh, was promoted to major-general. He commanded
IN THE LEGISLATURE 481
at the taking of Arkansas Post, distinguished himself at the
unsuccessful storming of Vicksburg, but got into a difficulty
with General Grant on account of issuing an imprudent order
of the day, wherein he exaggerated the deeds of his division
and cast a slur on other troops. He was relieved from his
command and became a private citizen again. He was presi-
dent of the Democratic Convention in St. Louis in 1876, which
nominated Tilden. He was one of my earliest friends.
Isaac N. Arnold of Chicago was also a leading Democrat,
a good lawyer, a precise and logical speaker, of excellent gen-
eral information, but most too refined and too much of a New
England man to have great influence with a body of which by
far the greatest part were natives of the Southern States or of
southern Illinois. Julius Manning of Peoria, for legal knowl-
edge, clear and forcible statement of facts and law, was per-
haps superior to all others; and, in a few years, he became
reputed as one of the greatest lawyers in his State. Almeron
Wheat of Quincy, though a young man, was also a most able
lawyer, a fine debater, and became a very active and influential
member. Arnold, Manning and Wheat were also members of
the Judiciary Committee, of which Orlando B. Ficklin was
chairman, not on account of his legal knowledge, which was
not extraordinary, but by virtue of having been a member of
the Legislature before. He was popular in the eastern part of
the State, and was sent to Congress several times by the Demo-
crats.
I did not speak often, and never on subjects that I did
not believe I understood well. I spoke briefly with one excep-
tion, and so it happened that I had what is called the ear of
the House. On the question of the power of the Legislature to
repeal bank charters I spoke for nearly two hours. The length
of this address was partly due to an excited interruption by
Judge Logan with reference to the parliamentary history of
the celebrated bill to alter and remodel the charter of the East
India Company. I took occasion to correct his statement by
giving a pretty full history of that question in the English
482 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
Parliament under both the minsitry of Fox and that of Pitt.
As the gentleman had become rusty in his history, I had an
easy victory. At any rate my view was adopted by the Legis-
lature in passing laws respecting the charter of the Bank of
Illinois, the Shawneetown Bank and also that of the Cairo
Bank. This speech was fully reported, then rarely done,
and published in most of the Democratic papers in the State.
I also spoke in favor of the Canal Bill; John A. McClernand
and I, I believe, being the only members from southern Illi-
nois voting for it.
I strenuously opposed what was called the Relief Law,
which provided that when an execution was levied on a piece
of property, the property should be appraised by three house-
holders at its value in ordinary times, and that no such prop-
erty should be sold for less than two-thirds of this value. My
objection was that the law related back to contracts made
before its passage, and I had moved to insert the word ' ' here-
after," so that it would only operate on contracts made after
the passage of the law. I took the ground that the law was
unjust in itself, for at the time previous contracts were
entered into no such law existed, and hence no credit would
have been given to the debtor if the creditor had known that
he must pay a higher price than the property under execution
was really worth in order to satisfy the debt. I also insisted
that the law was unconstitutional, as the Constitution of the
United States forbade the States to pass laws impairing the
obligation of contracts. But the law passed with a large
majority, for the law was supposed to be popular, a good many
voting for it under that impression who were of the opinion
that the law was a bad one. A test case soon afterwards
came up before our Supreme Court, which sustained the law,
no doubt somewhat actuated by its supposed popularity. But
when it came before the Supreme Court of the United States
it was there declared unconstitutional and declared to be null
and void. That was the end of this law, and its defeat gave
me at least a professional satisfaction. In both cases I had
IN THE LEGISLATURE 483
taken the side which was unpopular in the middle and south
of the State, but very popular in the north, so that I made a
great many influential and lasting friends in that region,
which soon became more populous and therefore more influ-
ential than the lower parts of the State.
A FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW
I must mention another remarkable incident in my legis-
lative career. The Senate without debate had passed a bill
to prohibit the ingress of negroes into the State of Illinois.
It provided that if any negro was found in the State who
could not prove his freedom by legal papers, he should be
taken up by any sheriff or constable, brought before a justice
of the peace, who should, on failure of proof of freedom,
commit him to the penitentiary, where he was to be confined
at hard labor for one year and then to be taken out of the
State. Nobody in the House seemed to have taken any notice
of the passage of this act, and, on a suspension of the rules, it
was read a second time by its title merely. It was then moved
to read it a third time, which amounted to its passage. Acci-
dentally, I had listened to the first reading. Now there were
members in the House that were thoroughly anti-slavery, such
as Browning, Arnold, Yates, and others from the north, but
they had remained silent. Now if I had attacked the law
directly, I believe it would have passed. All the southern
members, and I believe they were nearly a majority, would
have voted for it ; for that part of the State was really much
overrun by negroes from Kentucky and Missouri, and they
were, no doubt, a very annoying and a very troublesome set.
So I got up and stated that I believed the law was not very
well understood, and that it contained some features which I
thought were unusual; I would therefore move, as was the
case with all general laws, to refer the bill to a committee,
and, as it was a criminal law, to the Committee on Judiciary.
As this course was in fact the regular one, it relieved the
opponents of the bill of their embarrassment in voting directly
484
against it. The friends of the bill at once saw through my
move. McClernand rose, said the bill had been well consid-
ered by the Senate, it was easily understood, and was indis-
pensably necessary to prevent southern Illinois from being
overrun with a most dangerous population. He was aston-
ished that his friend from St. Glair should try to defeat the
passage of this bill, for that committee, of which his friend
was a member, would pocket the bill, and it would never see
daylight again. He was deeply sorry that I should seem
to favor the nefarious and infamous sect of Abolitionists.
But he did not put me down. I replied that the gentleman
was mistaken ; I was not in favor of the Abolitionists, but was
simply a lawyer whose duty it was when in the Legislature to
examine any bill of a general character, particularly if it
involved the liberty of any man, black or white. The vote
was taken on my motion to refer, and carried, as this was
really the only proper and legitimate way. McClernand was
quite right. The bill never did see daylight. I think it was
this action of mine, which made Yates, who was then an Abo-
litionist, though not of the radical wing, so devoted to me for
all time. When the bill came before the committee he could
hardly find words enough to express his satisfaction with the
course I had taken.
Early in the session we elected a United States Senator
in place of Judge Young, whose term was expiring. Judge
Breese, Judge Douglas, McClernand and Young were candi-
dates. It was a close contest, but after a great number of
ballots in the Democratic caucus, about one o'clock in the
morning, Breese was nominated over Douglas by one vote,
and of course elected by the Legislature. My constituents in
St. Glair and all the adjoining counties being for Breese, I
supported him strongly, and he thought and said at the time
he owed his election to my strenous efforts.
JOSEPH SMITH
During the session, quite an interesting scene was wit-
nessed. The Governor of Missouri had sent a requisition to
IN THE LEGISLATURE 485
Governor Ford for the extradition of Joseph Smith the
Mormon prophet, charged with having been a participant in
an attempt to assassinate the Governor of Missouri. Gover-
nor Ford had him arrested, and Smith applied to Judge Pope,
then United States district judge, for a discharge from arrest
under the ' ' Habeas Corpus Act. ' ' At the trial the court-room
was crowded. On the platform where the judge sat, a crowd
of ladies had been admitted, all anxious to see the man of a
plurality of wives. Smith was sitting in front of the judge
with his lawyers, one of whom was the eminent counsel from
Chicago, Justin Butterfield, who opened the case by humor-
ously remarking tyiat he found himself in a somewhat new
position. Here on his right was the prophet, to be tried by
the pope, surrounded by a chorus of angels.
Smith was a middle-aged, good-looking man, but of quite
ordinary features. There was nothing in his face to indicate
a superior mind or anything like enthusiasm. He looked
like a shrewd business man. A modern prophet, indeed!
The arguments were very dry, as only small technical objec-
tions were made to the form of the requisition, which, how-
ever, the court sustained, and Smith was set at liberty to find
his death, a few years later, by a mob while he was in jail at
Carthage, Hancock County. Smith had a brother in the
lower house of the Legislature, who was a mere nullity.
POLITICAL AND PERSONAL
We adjourned on the fourth of March, 1843, having
been constantly in session for three months, and very few
members from the neighboring counties having spent Sundays
at home. Sophie and I kept up a lively correspondence. I
learned a good deal, made interesting acquaintances, and
secured a number of warm friends, who have remained such
through life.
Immediately after the session was over, Judge Breese,
now United States Senator, offered to go into partnership with
me. I hesitated for some time, knowing that a great part of
486 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
the time he would have to be in Washington, and that the bur-
den of the business would fall upon me. But he was so anx-
ious about it that I finally consented, and the result showed
what I had expected. I enjoyed home life very much, but
still I could not help becoming mixed up in politics. A mem-
ber of Congress for the newly established district was to be
elected in August. Shields had resigned the office of Auditor
and was a candidate; so were Governor Reynolds and Lyman
Trumbull. At the convention held in Kaskaskia to nominate
candidates, Shields had a clear majority of all the delegates in
his favor, but owing to some sort of legerdemain he lost the
nomination. The delegation from Madison County had been
persuaded by Robert Smith, a smart business man and lead-
ing politician of that county, to give him on the first ballot
a merely complimentary vote while in reality they were all
for Shields. As there were two other candidates, it was
expected, of course, that a nomination could not be made on
the first ballot. But after the Madison complimentary vote
had been given, all the friends of Reynolds and Trumbull also
voted for Smith, being so instructed on the spur of the moment
by Messrs. Trumbull and Reynolds, whose main object was
to beat Shields, which gave Smith, who really was not consid-
ered a candidate at all, but one county having instructed for
him, a majority. Of course, Shields and his friends were very
angry at this trick. But Smith being a respectable man, of
fair-speaking talents, and a good Democrat, Shields declared
at once that he would cheerfully support the nominee because
he was not a party to the fraud.
I may here mention a curious fact, which would almost
make one believe in a retributive Nemesis. When the elec-
tion came around again two years afterwards, Robert Smith
was nominated at the Democratic congressional convention as
its candidate. Governor Reynolds, asserting that Robert Smith
had promised him at the Kaskaskia convention that he would
not run again, but would leave the field clear to him, ran as
an independent candidate, getting the Whig vote, but was
IN THE LEGISLATURE 487
badly beaten. In 1846, Mr. Trumbull succeeded in getting
the Democratic nomination for Congress, but Smith claiming
that the convention had been illegally packed, ran as an inde-
pendent candidate, and to the general surprise beat Trum-
bull. Not long afterwards, a vacancy happening on the
supreme bench, Governor Ford appointed Shields one of the
judges, and the Legislature of 1844 elected him to the office.
I received two letters from my friend Ernest Thilenius,
the first notifying me of his arrival with his young wife and
child at Philadelphia, and that he intended to look around for
a farm in Pennsylvania, and the second, received some weeks
later from Salem, Indiana, saying that he had bought there a
fine farm with a good dwelling house and a handsome park,
and giving me a most glowing description of his residence
and surroundings, and inviting me to visit him and spend the
fall season with him. But he seems to have been deceived
both as to the healthiness and the pecuniary value of the place,
for a year or so afterwards he sold his place, and with deep
and bitter disappointment, as he wrote me, went back to Ger-
many.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OP 1844
The year 1844 was again a stormy year politically, as a
President was to be elected. James K. Polk was the Demo-
cratic, and Henry Clay the Whig candidate. Of course, we
had numerous political meetings and one very big mass meet-
ing in Belleville, which was particularly memorable, as the
large and substantial platform on which the speakers, the
reception committee and many prominent politicians stood,
broke down while Senator Breese was addressing the people.
Nobody, however, was much hurt. Breese bruised his face,
but could go on speaking. It was suspected by many that a
certain vicious Whig had tampered with the support of the
platform, but no proof could be made against him. Polk was,
of course, elected. Van Buren would have been nominated,
but he had, like Clay, expressed himself as against the imme-
diate annexation of the State of Texas, which was then in open
MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
war with Mexico, asserting that such a step would at once
involve us in a war with Mexico. The South and West were
so much in favor of Texas being united to the United States,
that Van Buren lost the nomination. Clay had, however,
taken the same ground with Van Buren, which probably lost
him a good many Southern Whig votes in the election. The
Democratic battle-cry in the election was "Polk, Dallas, and
Texas." I, myself, was rather of Van Buren 's opinion, and
furthermore dreaded the annexation of Texas, as it had con-
stituted itself a slaveholding State, and would therefore
increase the slave territory. But a glance at the map was
enough to convince one that sooner or later the United States
must extend to the Rio Grande as its natural boundary, and
that the annexation of Texas was only a question of time.
It was in this election that the Native American party
showed its true colors. In Philadelphia, on the occasion of a
disturbance taking place between some Irishmen and a politi-
cal procession, a riot of enormous proportions was started by
the Natives. Every Irishman found in the streets was
assaulted and hunted down. A Catholic church and other
institutions of that denomination were burned down. The
Democratic press denounced the outrage; the Whig press
sought to extenuate it; the Native American press, charging
the Irish with the first aggression, justified it. At a later
period some Germans and Irish and leading Democrats were
attacked at the polls at Louisville, Kentucky, were beaten, and
a great many had to cross the river to save their lives.
Yet the Whig party in New York, as well as in Pennsyl-
vania, in order to carry Clay, dropped their own candidates
for Congress, and declared for the Native American candi-
dates, with the understanding that the Native party should
vote for Clay at the election in November. These outrages
and bargains recoiled on the Whig party at the November elec-
tion, and Polk received a large majority of the electoral and
also the popular vote, for nearly all the voters of foreign birth
IN THE LEGISLATURE 489
gave their votes against Henry Clay, and particularly all
Catholics, native and foreign.
Of all the many calls I received to speak in districts where
there were large German settlements, I could fill only a few.
At Quincy I had a most pleasant time. There I met Douglas,
who was a candidate for Congress in a newly made and
extremely doubtful district. He carried it, however; and
Quincy and Adams Counties went strongly for him. The
" Freiheitsbote, " published by me in 1840, had been a cam-
paign paper only. But Theodore Engelmann started the first
permanent Democratic paper, or at least the first intended
to be permanent, in 1844. It was, of course, circulated all
over the State and did good service. William C. Kinney edited
an English Democratic paper, the "St. Clair Banner." Be-
tween attending to my law business, making stump speeches and
writing most of the articles in both of these papers, I had quite
a busy time. Douglas, in return for my visit, came down to
Belleville and made one of his most telling speeches, just before
the Presidential election in November.
Adolph Engelmann, having completed his course at the
Belleville schools, had been for some time in my office reading
law ; but he went over to St. Louis pursuing his studies in the
office of Messrs. Field and Leslie, one of the most distinguished
law firms of that time. In December I went to Springfield to
attend the Supreme Court. William H. Bissell was elected
States Attorney for our circuit. In the election of this year
he took an active part, and was considered one of the best
political speakers in the State.
In the election of 1844 for Legislature, Don Morrison suc-
ceeded in beating one of the Democratic members, while the
rest of the Democratic ticket was elected. Morrison, though
born and educated as an aristocrat and living as such in his
own home, had a happy faculty of disguising his true senti-
ments. He associated on equal terms with high and low, and
had a knack of assimilating himself to people of different
nationalities. He would drink beer and wine and play cards
490 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
with the Germans in their saloons, call them by their Chris-
tian names, talk Democracy with the Democrats and Whig
with the Whigs. He had married a beautiful daughter of
Governor Carlin. She had been educated at the convent in
Kaskaskia and had Catholic tendencies, of which fact Don
made very good use with the Catholic priests. In fact, Don
was really of a liberal mind, did not much care about party
principles, and being a fine speaker and of a social character,
shrewd and tricky when occasion required it, he was one of
the most formidable demagogues in the State. He succeeded
in getting a good many German votes; still, he would have
been beaten, had not four Democrats run for the Legislature
instead of three. So the Democratic vote was divided, and
Don won by a small majority over one of the Democratic can-
didates.
Letters from my family in Frankfort seemed to put all
hope of my mother and sister coming over out of the question,
owing to the almost continual sickness of one or the other.
They had passed some time at Speyer with the Hilgards, and
also later at Klosterhof, one of Mr. Hilgard's estates, near
Kirchheim-Bolanden.
While I was attending the Supreme Court in Springfield,
Gustave Adolph was born on the 17th of January, 1845, some-
what before the time expected. He was a handsome little boy,
and made us most happy.
APPOINTED TO THE SUPREME COURT
And now politics again claimed my attention. Shields,
who had been on the supreme bench one year, grew tired of it,
became an applicant for Commissioner of the General Land
Office, was appointed by President Polk in March, and re-
signed his office as judge. Now, Governor Ford wanted to
appoint me in his place. I hesitated long before accepting
the offer. In a pecuniary point of view it was no advantage,
my practice being worth more than the salary, and, besides,
the appointment was only a temporary one, for the next Legis-
IN THE LEGISLATURE 491
lature, 1845-1846, had to elect the Supreme Judge. But even
if I failed to be elected permanently, it would help me much
in my practice to have been judge. Besides all my political
friends, Governor Ford, Shields, Senators Breese and Semple
pressed me very much to take the office. There was at that
time much patronage connected with it. The judge could
remove the clerks and masters-in-chancery at his pleasure
and appoint others in all the twelve counties in his circuit.
Some of these offices were more lucrative than the judge's
office itself. What determined me most was the unanimous
wish of my German friends in Illinois and Missouri to see
me on the supreme bench. They argued that such a thing
as having a German in such a place had never before hap-
pened, and that it would give the German element a certain
prestige particularly desirable in these Know-Nothing times.
On the third of April I received my commission and
immediately went on the circuit to hold court. I soon had to
taste some of the bitternesses of my office. Though all the
offices in the circuit under my control were filled with Demo-
crats, I received numerous applications supported by recom-
mendations of prominent politicians for new appointments on
the absurd principle of rotation in office, to which both of the
political parties were wedded. I at once let it be known that
I would make no removals except in cases where the holders
of the office were to my knowledge incompetent. I may here
add that at the next session of the Legislature I was elected
by that body without any opposition from Democrats. The
"Whigs being in the minority, some of them! voted pro forma
for a Whig lawyer.
Shields was delighted with his new place at Washington ;
gave his views about Polk and the new cabinet. He only
regretted that he was not a member of it. He would rush
things if he were. What in the old country would be rash-
ness, was, in this new country, he wrote, sobriety and sanity.
War with Mexico was certain. He had already a plan what
to do with Mexico. In November, 1845, he wrote me :
492 MEMOIRS OF GUSTAVE KOERNER
"Some time ago in one of your letters you very face-
tiously intimated that you would like to know what old system
I intended breaking down, and what new one I intended
building up. You imagined that I must be engaged in some
such enterprise. Well, I have just time to tell you that I have
prepared a report which I am inclined to think will accomplish
two objects, one the introduction of a graduation system of
the price of public land, on very liberal terms, and the other
the blowing up of the whole mineral system of the country.
My report is a flaming one, and will be like throwing a hand-
grenade into the halls of Congress; but you know I never do
anything by halves."
Theodore Engelmann had been appointed circuit clerk by
Shields before he resigned, and William C. Kinney, master in
chancery ; and, as before remarked, Theodore had got married.
Adolph, having completed his law studies in St. Louis, had
gone to Quincy, and commenced the practice of the law there.
My position as judge relieved me from taking any active share
in politics, and this enabled me to pass my summer vacation
with my family most pleasantly, having no business or other
cares on my mind. We had found, however, that beautiful
as was the place where we resided, it was too near the creek to
be healthy. In the spring of the year and early summer the
valley of the creek for a mile or so up and down was regularly
overflowed, and in the thick timber it took a long time to dry
up. Frequent fevers in our family was the consequence, and
we concluded in 1846 to move to our old residence on Illinois
Street, where we found at once much relief from this miserable
fever-and-ague which was so common in the early days in this
part of Illinois.
EUROPEAN AFFAIRS
The annexation of Texas had agitated the United States
greatly during the past year, and Europe seemed to be also
much disturbed. The opposition to Louis Philippe, since the
fatal accident that befell his popular son, the Duke of Orleans,
had been very strong. Several attempts at the King's life had
been made. The Republican party was increasing and grow-
ing bolder every day, and either a change of policy or another
IN THE LEGISLATURE 493
revolution was predicted by many. Still greater was the
commotion in Germany. The general expectation that the
new King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, would pursue a
more liberal course than his father, that he would make him-
self more independent of Metternich's reactionary policy, had
proved elusive. While the King now and then did take steps
in the right direction, he would within a very short time pur-
sue a contrary course, and so left everything to shift along as
before. He was full of various talents, a gifted speaker, and
exceedingly fond of hearing himself. In the excitement of his
talking he committed himself at one time to very liberal prin-
ciples, at another to the most ridiculously reactionary ones.
Mediaeval romanticism and modern pietism were singularly
mixed in his character. In the constitutional States, where
the press was free in a measure, he was very soon sharply
attacked, and what hurt him most, ridiculed. In Prussia a
number of political pamphlets appeared, and even some of
the journals of the kingdom loudly demanded fulfilment of
the promises made when the people were called upon to save
Prussia from foreign domination in the War of Liberation and
since often repeated by the King's father.
A new spirit seemed to pervade the German people. A
religious movement, which at first promised to be of enormous
influence, added to the general upheaval of the old regime.
Excessive demonstrations of the Ultramontane Catholic clergy
by religious festivals, reviving antiquated superstitions, the
exposition of holy bones and of the clothes of Christ and the
saints, attracting extraordinary crowds, had excited opposi-
tion in some priests, who positively denounced these proceed-
ings, and who soon found thousands of followers in their own
church. In many states of Germany large religious communi-
ties formed themselves, and called themselves ' ' German Catho-
lics," the principal object of which was to make the German
Catholics and the priesthood indep 
