HERWEGH, GEORG. 



HITZIG, FERDINAND. 



385 



studied law at Chambersburg, Pa., was admit- 

 ted to the bar there in 1843, and returned to 

 Indiana to practise. In 1848 he was a member 

 of the Legislature, and in 1850 a delegate to 

 the State Constitutional Convention. From 

 1851 to 1855 he represented the Indianapolis 

 district in Congress, from 1855 to 1859 was 

 Commissioner of the General Land-Office, and 

 from 1863 to 1869 was a member of the United 

 States Senate, in which he was regarded as the 

 Democratic leader. (See ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA 

 for those years article, Congress.} In the Dem- 

 ocratic National Convention of 1868, in New 

 York, he was strongly supported for the nomi- 

 nation to the presidency. (See ANNUAL CY- 

 CLOPAEDIA for 1868 article, United States.) As 

 candidate for Governor of Indiana he was de- 

 feated in 1860 and in 1868, but was elected in 

 1872, for the term ending January 1, 187V. 

 He continued the practice of law till his elec- 

 tion as Governor. 



HERWEGH, .GEOKG, a German poet, was 

 born May 31, 1817, in Stuttgart, and died April 

 7, 1875, in Baden-Baden. He studied at first 

 theology in Tubingen, but, having no taste for 

 this study, he turned his attention to journal- 

 ism. Having had some trouble with an officer, 

 he went to Switzerland, where he published 

 his "Gedichte eines Lebendigen," in 1841. 

 The poems, which were of a political charac- 

 ter, were read by all classes of people, and 

 produced a great sensation. In his poems 

 he gave expression to the desire then felt 

 throughout Germany, the desire for a united 

 fatherland. He urged the King of Prussia to 

 accept the imperial crown, and clearly proph- 

 esied the mission of Prussia to reunite the 

 fatherland, and to take up the old quarrel with 

 the Vatican. In 1842 he undertook a journey 

 through Germany, in which he was everywhere 

 received with enthusiasm. The crowning point 

 of this journey was the audience with King 

 Frederick William IV. The King closed the 

 audience with the words, "Let us be honest 

 enemies." From Konigsberg, where he was 

 particularly well received, he wrote a letter to 

 the King, which from the boldness of its tone 

 was destined to produce serious consequences 

 for him. The letter is as follows : 



KONIGSBERG, December, 1842. 

 YOTJB MAJESTY : " Let us be honest enemies " were 

 the words which Prussia's King recently addressed 

 to me ; and these words give me a right, ay, oblige 

 me, to bring my bitter complaint before your throne 

 openly and in plain terms, without pretending a de- 

 votion which I do not know, or sympathies which I 

 do not feel, nor ever will feel. Let us be honest 

 enemies and on the same day when your Majesty 

 was pleased to pronounce these words, it pleased a 

 high ministry to forbid the booksellers selling a 

 journal which I was to edit, solely on account of my 

 name, of which not a syllable had as yet appeared 

 under my editorship, and whose sale had been per- 

 mitted two months previous, before my appointment 

 as editor had become known. That my name should 

 also have _so bad a reputation with your Majesty, I 

 can and will not believe after what you said to me a 

 few days ago. "Without doubt, your Majesty has no 

 knowledge of these proceedings, and the object of 

 VOL. xv. 2JA 



this letter is only to bring this simple fact to your 

 notice, that your Majesty may further decide what 

 is right. I do not ask for the withdrawal of the 

 order of suppression, for I know that my limited 

 understanding as a subject, my consciousness of a 

 new era, must forever contradict the rule of most 

 German ministers. Gladly would 1 grant to these 

 ministers the right of opposition, if they would only 

 take notice of what is happening around them, that 

 is, what is happening in the lower strata of humani- 

 ty, instead of quarreling with a little foam and wind 

 which are playing on the surface : if, in the opposi- 

 tion made to them, they were only able to discover 

 at times the elements of a new religion, and not only 

 suspect frivolity ; in short, if they would have, be- 

 sides the accident of their birth, and their adminis- 

 trative and police talents, the talent and will to enter 

 into a fair contest with their enemies, instead of ig- 

 noring them at first, and then treating them brutally 

 without knowing thenij thus deceiving the princes 

 and the people in speaking of a tranquillity which in 

 reality does not exist, and can never be enforced by 

 outward measures. There are still men who are to 



them) ; and all the more, as even the enemies of 

 progress no longer possess the courage to use force, 

 because they very well know how dangerous martyr- 

 dom is. But forbidden books, fly through the air, 

 and what the people wish to read they will read, in 

 spite of all suppressions. Some time ago your Ma- 

 jesty's ministers ordered the suppression of my 

 poems, and I have the pleasure of preparing the fifth 

 edition at the present time. I do not asK for the 

 withdrawal of the order of suppression, for I cannot 

 ask for anything in a country I am about to leave. 

 I am by nature a republican, and perhaps even at 

 this moment a citizen of a republic. But my heart 

 has prompted me to direct a last, an honest, even if 

 a passionate, word to your Majesty, a word which 

 shall touch the servants of the sovereign, but not 

 the sovereign himself ; a word in private, but which 

 shall not only be my word, but that of many thou- 

 sands. 



In deepest devotion, your Majesty's most obedient 

 GEOEG HEKWEGH. 



In consequence of this letter he was expelled 

 from Prussia. He was attacked by Geibel and 

 Freiligrath, and a number of poems were writ- 

 ten pro and con. In 1848 he gathered a band 

 of workmen in France, with which he entered 

 Germany. But his force was quickly routed 

 by a detachment of soldiers, and after this 

 Herwegh took but little part in public life. 

 The most important of his later literary works 

 were translations of several plays of Shake- 

 speare, for the new German translations of 

 Shakespeare edited by TJlrici and Bodenstedt. 

 In his political views Herwegh sympathized, 

 in the last years of his life, with the " Inter- 

 nationale," and for the restoration of the Ger- 

 man Empire, which had been the dream of his 

 youth, he had nothing but biting sarcasm. 

 (See " Georg Herwegh," by E. Gottschall, in 

 Unsere Zeit, 1875, p. 751.) 



HITZIG, FEEDINAND, a German Biblical crit- 

 ic, was born June 28, 1807, in Haningen ; died 

 January 22, 1875, in Heidelberg. He studied 

 successively in Heidelberg, Halle, and Gottin- 

 gen. In Halle he attended particularly the 

 lectures of Prof. Gesenius, whose teachings 

 were of great influence on the later works of 

 Hitzig. In 1828, after he had graduated in 

 Gottingen, he became a professor in Heidel- 

 berg. In 1832 he received a call from the 



