Carl Christian Schurz was born on the 2nd of March 1829 in Liblar, a small town within the Rhine Province of Prussia. His father worked as a schoolteacher while his mother served as a public speaker and journalist.
Schurz founded the Bonner Zeitung newspaper to advocate for democratic reforms and joined the revolutionary army when the Frankfurt rump parliament called for citizens to take up arms. He fought against the Prussian Army alongside Franz Sigel and Fritz Anneke until the forces were defeated at the fortress of Rastatt in 1849.
During the Illinois campaign between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A Douglas, Carl Schurz spoke on behalf of Lincoln mostly in German to raise Lincoln's popularity among German American voters significantly. This effort helped secure support from that demographic before Lincoln won the presidency.
In 1869 Carl Schurz became the first U.S Senator to offer a Civil Service Reform bill to Congress advocating for merit-based appointments rather than political patronage. As Secretary of the Interior he dismissed several corrupt officials and instituted wide scale inspections to ensure promotions were based on merit instead of connections.
Rutherford B Hayes appointed Carl Schurz as Secretary of the Interior in 1877 following much of his advice on cabinet appointments. During this tenure he prosecuted land thieves and opposed transferring the Office of Indian Affairs to the War Department.