Representative Lorenzo Brentano

Lorenzo Brentano (November 4, 1813 – September 18, 1891) was a German revolutionary, jurist, journalist, and Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois. Born Lorenz Peter Carl Brentano in Mannheim in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, he received a thorough classical education in his youth. He went on to study jurisprudence at the Universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg, preparing for a legal career. After completing his studies, he practiced law before the supreme court of Baden, establishing himself as a capable attorney in his native state.

Brentano entered public life in the turbulent years leading up to the revolutions of 1848. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in Baden and, in 1848, became a member of the Frankfurt Parliament, the first freely elected all-German legislative body. During the 1849 Baden Revolution, he emerged as one of the leading figures of the democratic movement and served as president of the provisional Free State of Baden established by the revolutionists. When the revolution failed, he was sentenced to imprisonment for life by the authorities of Baden. To escape this punishment, he fled first to Switzerland and then sought refuge in the United States, joining many other exiled intellectuals and political leaders from the German states.

Upon his arrival in the United States, Brentano continued to combine journalism, political advocacy, and practical work. He established Der Leuchtturm, a German-language anti-slavery journal, in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, using the press to promote abolitionist and republican ideals among German-speaking immigrants. He later settled in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits, adapting to life on the American frontier while remaining active in public affairs. In 1859 he moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced the practice of law, integrating his European legal training into an American context.

Brentano quickly became a prominent figure in Chicago’s German-American community and in the broader civic life of the city. From 1862 to 1867 he served as editor-in-chief and principal proprietor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, one of the most influential German-language newspapers in the Midwest. Under his leadership, the paper became a major voice for anti-slavery, Union, and Republican causes during the Civil War era. The Illinois Staats-Zeitung was sold in 1867, at which time Hermann Raster succeeded him as editor. In addition to his journalistic work, Brentano was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1862, served on the Chicago Board of Education from 1862 to 1868, and was president of the Board in 1867 and 1868. He was a delegate to the 1864 Republican National Convention and, in 1868, served as a presidential elector on the Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax ticket, reflecting his growing influence within the Republican Party.

With the passage of time, political conditions in Germany changed. In 1869, after a general amnesty was granted to the revolutionists of 1849, Brentano revisited his native Baden, marking his first return since his exile. His experience and standing as a German-American leader led to his appointment as United States consul at Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony in 1872. He held this diplomatic post until April 1876, representing American commercial and political interests in a major German cultural and economic center. His family’s engagement in public service continued into the next generation; his son, Theodore Brentano, would later become the first American ambassador to Hungary.

Brentano’s most prominent national role came through his service in the United States Congress. A member of the Republican Party representing Illinois, he was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress and served a single term from March 4, 1877, to March 3, 1879. His tenure in the House of Representatives occurred during a significant period in American history, in the aftermath of Reconstruction and amid debates over civil service reform, economic policy, and the rights of immigrants and minorities. As a Republican congressman from Illinois, he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his constituents, contributing to the democratic governance of the post–Civil War United States. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1878, which brought his congressional service to a close.

After leaving Congress, Brentano devoted himself primarily to literary and historical research, with a particular focus on comparative criminal procedure in the United States and Europe. Drawing on his legal training in Baden and his experience in American law and politics, he undertook studies designed to compare and contrast the criminal codes and trial practices of the two legal traditions. In this line of work, he published a report of the trial of Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of President James A. Garfield, providing a detailed account of one of the most notable American criminal trials of the nineteenth century. He also authored a history of the celebrated Supreme Court case Kring v. Missouri, which addressed issues of double jeopardy and ex post facto law and became a significant decision in the development of American constitutional criminal procedure.

Lorenzo Brentano spent his later years in Chicago, remaining a respected figure in the city’s legal, journalistic, and German-American circles. He died in Chicago on September 18, 1891. His remains were interred in Graceland Cemetery, one of the city’s most prominent burial grounds, where many of Chicago’s political, business, and cultural leaders are buried. His life traced a path from revolutionary politics in Baden to influential roles in American journalism, state and local government, diplomacy, and national legislative service, reflecting the broader story of nineteenth-century transatlantic liberalism and immigration.