SKETCH OF FRANCIS LIEBER. 411 



usages of war established at West Point, and to secure the appoint- 

 ment for Lieber. This was never accomplished, but at the close of 

 the war he was appointed to classify the Confederate archives in the 

 office of the War Department. 



Although Lieber was so firm a Union man, we may behold in him 

 the symbol of civil war. His eldest son, Oscar, laid down his life for 

 the cause of secession. His other two sons held commissions in 

 the Union army: Norman, who became a lieutenant, and is now 

 Judge Advocate General, and Hamilton, who lost an arm at Fort 

 Donelson. Although Lieber took a deep interest in all public meas- 

 ures and followed closely the current of political thought, his mind 

 was not adapted to take a practical, everyday part in current politics. 

 His heart was bound up in the welfare of his country, and he could 

 not descend to the level of the partisan. In a letter to me, Hon. 

 A. D. White thus speaks of Lieber : " As regards taking a practical, 

 everyday part in politics, I never thought him of the build for that. 

 In fact, I once saw a curious exhibition of his inability to take such 

 part. He had been elected a delegate to a State Republican Con- 

 vention, and came up to Syracuse, where I then was, to attend it. 

 As he was my guest, I suggested to him, when the time arrived for 

 calling the convention to order, that we should go to the hall where 

 it was held, but he was engaged in very earnest political talk with 

 me, and put off going, probably with the idea that not much would 

 be done until his arrival. We reached the hall about an hour late, 

 found it in all the noise and uproar which generally attends the ses- 

 sions of such bodies, and, as we listened to a roll call, found that 

 another delegate had claimed his seat and had been admitted. He 

 heard the name of his opponent called and responded to, said not a 

 word, listened a little longer, then proposed that we should take a 

 walk, and he never went near the convention again." 



Lieber died October 2, 1872. One who best knew him declared 

 that by his death the whole world sustained an irreparable loss. 

 The influence of his profound works upon the public mind has been 

 great. It has been charged against him that he was a doctrinaire, 

 but even if this were so, it would be no reproach. While strongly 

 grounded in the best thoughts of the best thinkers on political sub- 

 jects, he was as independent in his thinking as any wise man is likely 

 to be. However restricted may have been his popular influence as an 

 author, his opinions and writings have been valued by the foremost 

 thinkers of the age in every land of well-ordered liberty, and his 

 works have been a mine of wealth to thousands who never acknowl- 

 edged it. " ~No right without its duties, no duty without its rights," 

 was Lieber's favorite motto, and his life and writings were molded by 

 this principle. 



