LIEBER, FRANCIS, LL.D., 1800-72; b. at Berlin, Prussia. His parents were in mod erate circumstances, but gave him excellent opportunities for study. When only 15 years old, leaving the study of medicine, Lieber enlisted for the Waterloo campaign, and at the battle of Namur was severely wounded. After Napoleon's overthrow he resumed his studies with ardor, and soon, becoming imbued with liberal political ideas, was accused of plotting against the government and imprisoned. The charges never came to trial. but on his discharge permission to re-enter the gymnasia of Berlin was refused. Lu 1820 he took his degree at Jena, and was at Dresden when the Greek struggle for independence excited his sympathy; an account of the part he took in that revolution is givon in his .Journal in Greece (1823). In 1822 be found his way to Rome, where he became a welcome inmate of the family of the great historian ...Niebuhr. With him Lieber returned to Berlin, and was rearrested on allegations of disloyalty based on the old charges. After a short imprisonment at K6pnick. enlivened by the composition of a number of poems, he was released through the efforts of his friend Niebuhr; and wearied by this constant persecution for opinion's sake, left his native country forever. For a short time he resided as a teacher in Loudon, but in 1827 he embarked for the new world; where, though rejected of Berlin, he was to find ia the great cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, a wide and respectful hearing for his profound philosophy, and universal appreciation of his political acumen. ills first work, the editing of the Encyclopadia Americana, was completed during his five years' residence in Boston (1827-32). The next two years were spent in Philauelphia, where he was interested in educational plans in connection with Girard college; in 1835 he removed to Columbia, S. C., where be occupied the position of professor of political economy in the South Carolina university; and here he produced his greatest works: A Manual of Political Ethics {1838); Legal and Political hermeneutics (1839); and, perhaps most important of all, Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1853). In the line of investigation and reflection
suggested by such titles as have just been given, Dr. Lieber stands second to none. As a writer, his diction, though at times lacking in clearness, is elaborate and often eloquent. As a publicist he was singularly free from narrowness, prejudice, or a limited perecte lion. Such writers and jurists as Story and Kent recognized in him a kindred mind. The spirit of his work is indicated iu his often-repeated axiom that every obligation has its corresponding liberty, and every privilege its accompanying duty. Dr. Lieber's appointment to the chair of political economy in Columbia college, New York, was in 1856; the dissimilarity between his ideas and those of the South, as it then was, rendering a prol;'nged stay in South Carolina unpleasant; and shortly after he was made professor of political science in the Columbia law school. In this position he remained until his death, Oct. 2, 1852, instructing not his pupils alone, .but, by his frequent publications, the whole thinking world. In 1870 Mexico and the United States agreed upon him as the final arbitrator in matters then pending between the two countries. Among his volu minous minor writings may be noted: _Reminiscences of _Ariebldkr; Essays on Property and Labor; Laws of Property; 'Penal Laws and the Penitentiary System; Prison Di•cipline; The Origin and Development of the First Constituents of Civilization, and Great Events Described by Great Historians. A collection of Lieber's miscellaneous writing in 2 volumes was published in 1880; the first volume reminiscences, addresses, and essays; the second, contributions to political science, lectures on the constitution of the United States, and other papers. Dr. Lieber contributed many articles to European and Ameri can periodicals, and was a member of several scientific and literary societies of both continents.