Gustave P. Koerner

Born: 1809 | Died: 1896

Attorney, Statesman, U.S. Minister to Spain

Gustavus P. Koerner, born in Frankfurt am Main, received his doctorate of law from the University of Heidelberg (1832). He immigrated to the U.S. after the failed coup in Frankfurt (1833).

Koerner practiced law in southwestern Illinois’ St. Clair County, and with other German intellectuals, founded the German Library Association. He quickly became a leading political voice, serving as associate justice on the Illinois Supreme Court (1845–1848), and Lt. Governor (1852).

Koerner was an ardent anti-slavery proponent and joined Abraham Lincoln, Horace Greeley and others who, fired by the passions of the times, came together to create the Republican Party in 1856. A close Lincoln confidant, Koerner helped write the 1860 Republican Party platform, managed Lincoln's drive to the presidential nomination, and was pallbearer at Lincoln’s funeral. As a German émigré, Koerner played a key role in allying western America's German population with the Union cause during the Civil War.

Lincoln appointed Koerner the U.S. Minister to Spain (1862) where he is credited with influencing Spain’s neutrality during the Civil War.

After the war Koerner served on the first board of Illinois’ Railroad and Warehouse Commission (1871). A prolific writer, Koerner was a regular political commentator in the press, and authored The German Element in the United States, 1818 to 1848 (Cincinnati, 1880); Beleuchtung des Duden'schen Berichtes über die westlichen Staaten Nordamerikas, von Amerika aus, (Frankfurt am Main, 1834), Aus Spanien, and his two volume Memoirs in which he is quoted as saying, “Do right and fear no one.”

For more information Click here.