It was on a damp. foggy day in the autumn of 1852 that. sitting on a beach in Hyde Park. Carl Schurz decided to go to America. He had rebelled against the absolutism and the national disunion of his fatherland. and had lost. He had lived the hollow life of the refugee and had wearied of it. Let me read to you his own words how he came to that decision: I felt an irresistible impulse not only to find for myself a wellregulated activity. but also to do something really and truly valuable for the general good. But where. and how?