Francis Lieber
Encyclopedia
Francis Lieber known as Franz Lieber in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, was a German-American jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

, gymnast
Gymnast
Gymnasts are people who participate in the sports of either artistic gymnastics, trampolining, or rhythmic gymnastics.See gymnasium for the origin of the word gymnast from gymnastikos.-Female artistic:Australia...

 and political philosopher. He edited an Encyclopaedia Americana. He was the author of the Lieber Code
Lieber Code
The Lieber Code of April 24, 1863, also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order № 100, or Lieber Instructions, was an instruction signed by President Abraham Lincoln to the Union Forces of the United States during the American Civil War...

 during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, also known as Code for the Government of Armies in the Field (1863), which laid the foundation for conventions
Treaty
A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention or exchange of letters, among other terms...

 governing the conduct of troops during wartime.

Biography

Franz Lieber was born in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

. While still in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Lieber joined the Colberg Regiment of the Prussian Army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...

 in 1815 during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, and was wounded during the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...

. The year of his birth has been debated because he lied about his age in order to enlist.

Education in Germany

Franz did not receive anything like a normal gentleman's education. Returning to Berlin after the Napoleonic wars (post 1815), Franz studied hard to pass the entrance exams to the University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...

. But being denied admission because of his nationalistic activities, which opposed the Prussian monarchy, he was denied admission. Moving to Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...

 he matriculated in 1820 to the University of Jena and within a span of four months finished writing a dissertation in the field of mathematics. As the authorities caught up with him, he left Jena for Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 to study topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...

 with Major Decker. His studies in Dresden were very brief for as soon as the Greek Revolution of 1821
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...

 broke out he volunteered his services.

European activities

He fought briefly in the Greek War of Independence
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...

, and then spent one year, 1822–1823, in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 in the family of the historian Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers...

, then Prussian ambassador, as tutor to his son. While there, he wrote on his sojourn in Greece. The result was published in Leipzig in 1823 and also in Amsterdam under the title The German Anacharsis. He returned to Germany on a royal pardon, but was soon imprisoned once again, this time at Köpenick
Köpenick
Köpenick is a historic town and locality that is situated at the confluence of the rivers Dahme and Spree in the south-east of the German capital city of Berlin. It was formerly known as Copanic and then Cöpenick, only officially adopting the current spelling in 1931...

. There he wrote a collection of poems entitled Wein- und Wonne-Lieder (Songs of wine and bliss), which on his release, through the influence of Niebuhr, were published in Berlin in 1824 under the pen name of “Franz Arnold.” He fled to England in 1825, and supported himself for a year in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, giving lessons and contributing to German periodicals. He also wrote a tract on the Lancasterian system of instruction, and met his future wife, Mathilda Oppenheimer. Then he was invited to assume the administration of a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...

nasium in Boston, and also establish a swimming program.

American educator and writer

Lieber moved to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 in 1827. He came with recommendations from Jahn
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn was a German gymnastics educator and nationalist. He is commonly known as Turnvater Jahn, roughly meaning "father of gymnastics" Jahn.- Life :...

, as well as from General Pfuel
Ernst von Pfuel
Ernst Heinrich Adolf von Pfuel was a Prussian general.Pfuel was born in Jahnsfelde , Brandenburg. He served as commander of the Prussian sector of Paris from 1814-1815 during the Napoleonic Wars...

 who ran a swimming program in Berlin. Lieber was also acquainted with the outgoing gymnasium administrator, Charles Follen
Charles Follen
Charles Follen was a German poet and patriot, who later moved to the United States and became the first professor of German at Harvard University, a Unitarian minister, and a radical abolitionist.-Life in Europe:...

, both believing thoroughly in the importance of training the body along with the mind. Follen had established the pioneer gymnasium in 1826. Lieber's Boston swimming school of 1827, a new departure in the educational field in the United States, became such a feature that John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

, then President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

, went to see it. The gymnasium had a difficult time once the novelty had worn off and in the face of caricatures in the newspapers. It closed its doors after two years.

In Boston, Lieber edited an Encyclopaedia Americana, after conceiving of the idea of translating the Brockhaus encyclopedia
Brockhaus Enzyklopädie
The Brockhaus Enzyklopädie is a German-language encyclopedia published by Brockhaus.The first edition originated in the Conversations-Lexikon mit vorzüglicher Rücksicht auf die gegenwärtigen Zeiten by Renatus Gotthelf Löbel and Christian Wilhelm Franke, published in Leipzig 1796-1808...

 into English. It was published in Philadelphia in 13 volumes, between the years 1829 and 1833. At this time, he also made translations of a French work on the revolution of July, 1830, and of Feuerbach's life of Kaspar Hauser
Kaspar Hauser
Kaspar Hauser was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Hauser's claims, and his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate and controversy....

. He was also a confident to Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution . In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in...

 on the customs of the American people.

In 1832, he received a commission from the trustees of the newly founded Girard College
Girard College
Girard College is an independent boarding school on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Girard is for academically capable students, grades one through 12, and awards a full scholarship with a yearly value of approximately $42,000 to every child admitted to the...

 to form a plan of education. This was published at Philadelphia in 1834. He resided in Philadelphia from 1833 until 1835.

Then he became a professor of history and political economics at South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...

), where he remained until 1856. During his 20 years at the College, he produced some of his most important works. Such writers and jurists as Mittermaier
Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier
Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier was a German jurist.-Biography:He was born in Munich, and educated at the universities of Landshut and Heidelberg...

, Johann Kaspar Bluntschli
Johann Kaspar Bluntschli
Johann Caspar Bluntschli was a Swiss jurist and politician.-Biography:He was born in Zurich to a soap and candle manufacturer...

, Édouard René de Laboulaye
Édouard René de Laboulaye
Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye was a French jurist, poet, author and anti-slavery activist...

, Joseph Story
Joseph Story
Joseph Story was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. He is most remembered today for his opinions in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and The Amistad, along with his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, first...

 and James Kent
James Kent
James Kent was an American jurist and legal scholar.-Life:...

, recognized in him a kindred mind. The spirit of Lieber's work is indicated in his favorite motto, Nullum jus sine officio, nullum officium sine jure (“No right without its duties, no duty without its rights”).

From 1856 until 1865, he was professor of history and political science at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 (then Columbia College). His title was chosen by himself, and made him the first officially designated political scientist in the United States. In 1860, he also became professor of political science in the law school, which post he held until his death. His inaugural address as professor at Columbia, on “Individualism and Socialism or Communism,” was published by the college.

Civil War activities

Lieber sided with the North during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, even though he had been a resident of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

. As early as 1851, he delivered an address in South Carolina warning the southern states against secession. One of his sons, geologist Oscar Montgomery Lieber (see below), joined the Confederate army and died at the Battle of Williamsburg
Battle of Williamsburg
The Battle of Williamsburg, also known as the Battle of Fort Magruder, took place on May 5, 1862, in York County, James City County, and Williamsburg, Virginia, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War...

. During the conflict, he was one of the founders and served as the head of the Loyal Publication Society
Loyal Publication Society
The Loyal Publication Society was founded in 1863, during a time when the Union Army had suffered many reverses in the Civil War. The purpose of the society was to bolster public support for the Union effort, by disseminating pro-Union news articles and editorials to newspapers around the...

 of New York, compiling news articles for dissemination among Union troops and Northern newspapers. More than one hundred pamphlets were issued by it under his supervision, of which ten were by himself. He also assisted the Union War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...

 and President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 in drafting legal guidelines for the Union army, the most famous being General Orders Number 100, or the "Lieber Code
Lieber Code
The Lieber Code of April 24, 1863, also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order № 100, or Lieber Instructions, was an instruction signed by President Abraham Lincoln to the Union Forces of the United States during the American Civil War...

" as it is commonly known. The Lieber Code would be adopted by other military organizations and go on to form the basis of the first laws of war
Laws of war
The law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct...

.

Preserving Confederate documents

After the Civil War, Lieber was given the task of accumulating and preserving the records of the former government of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

. While working in this capacity, Lieber was one of the last known people to possess the infamous Dahlgren Affair
Dahlgren Affair
The Dahlgren Affair was an incident in the American Civil War involving a failed Union raid on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia on March 2, 1864...

 papers. Shortly after obtaining them, Lieber was ordered to give them to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during the American Civil War from 1862–1865...

, who likely disposed of them, as they have not been seen since.

Diplomacy

From 1870 until his death in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, aged 72, Francis Lieber served as a diplomatic negotiator between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. He was chosen, with the united approval of the United States and Mexico, as final arbitrator in important cases pending between the two countries. This work was not completed at his death. Lieber was a member of the French Institute and of many learned societies in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and elsewhere.

Family

His son Oscar Montgomery Lieber
Oscar Montgomery Lieber
Oscar Montgomery Lieber was a United States geologist.-Biography:He was a son of jurist Francis Lieber. He was educated at the universities of Berlin and Göttingen, and the Freiberg School of Mines...

 was a geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

. During the Civil War, he was killed in action as a member of the Confederate army.

A second son, Hamilton Lieber (7 June 1835, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 - 18 October 1876, Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...

, Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

), entered the volunteer army at the beginning of the civil war as 1st lieutenant, 9th Illinois Regiment, and was badly wounded at Fort Donelson
Fort Donelson
Fort Donelson was a fortress built by the Confederacy during the American Civil War to control the Cumberland River leading to the heart of Tennessee, and the heart of the Confederacy.-History:...

. Afterward he was appointed a captain in the veteran reserve corps, and served during the draft riots in New York City in 1863. In 1866 he was made a captain and military storekeeper in the regular army, and was retired on account of disabilities contracted in the line of duty.

A third son, Guido Norman Lieber
Guido Norman Lieber
Guido Norman Lieber was a United States Army lawyer and jurist.-Biography:He was the son of jurist Francis Lieber...

, was a United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 lawyer and jurist. During the Civil War, he served in the Union army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 and later became a career officer.

Works

  • Notes on the Fallacies of American Protectionists
  • Encyclopaedia Americana (Editor, 1829–1851)
  • The Stranger in America (2 vols., 1833–35)
  • Letters to a Gentleman in Germany, written after a Trip from Philadelphia to Niagara (1834)
  • A Manual of Political Ethics (2 vols. 8vo, Boston, 1838), adopted by Harvard College as a text book, and commended by Kent and Story
    Joseph Story
    Joseph Story was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. He is most remembered today for his opinions in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and The Amistad, along with his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, first...

  • Legal and Political Hermeneutics, or Principles of Interpretation and Construction in Law and Politics (1838)
  • Laws of Property: Essays on Property and Labor (18mo, New York, 1842)
  • The West and Other Poems (1848)
  • On Civil Liberty and Self-Government (2 vols. 12mo, Philadelphia, 1853; new ed., 1874)
  • Memorial relative to the Verdicts of Jurors (1867)
  • The Unanimity of Juries (1867)
  • International Copyright (1868)
  • Fragments of Political Science on Nationalism and Internationalism (1868)

Writings on penal legislation

  • “Essays on Subjects of Penal Law and the Penitentiary System,” published by the Philadelphia prison discipline society
  • “Abuse of the Pardoning Power,” republished by the legislature of New York
  • “Remarks on Mrs. Fry's Views of Solitary Confinement,” published in England
  • “Letter on the Penitentiary System,” published by the legislature of South Carolina

Occational papers

  • “Letter on Anglican and Gallican Liberty”
  • a paper on the vocal sounds of Laura Bridgman
    Laura Bridgman
    Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman is known as the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, fifty years before the more famous Helen Keller...

    , the blind deaf mute, compared with the elements of phonetic language, published in the “Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge”
  • “Individualism and Socialism or Communism” His inaugural address as professor in Columbia College. He regarded these as the two poles on which all human life turns.
  • “The Ancient and the Modern Teacher of Politics” His introductory discourse to a course of lectures on the state in the college law school.

Numerous addresses on anniversary and other occasions.

Translations

With annotations. He also assisted in the gathering of the statistical data for the original book.

Further reading

Cited as the most scholarly biography.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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