Grund, Francis J.

Born: 1805-09-19 Liberec, Austria

Died: 1863-09-29 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Francis J. Grund was born in what was then the Austrian Empire, and studied mathematics at a military academy in Rio de Janeiro, before immigrating to the United States in 1827 and settling in Boston. He taught in a private school in that city from 1828 to 1833 and published several mathematics texts. Grund became involved in politics and campaigned for both Democrat and Whig candidates who hoped to reach German voters. He visited England and Germany late in 1836 and early in 1837, and while in Europe he published his first book, The Americans, in Their Moral, Social, and Political Relations. In 1839, he published a second work on the United States, Aristocracy in America: From the Sketch-Book of a German Nobleman. Grund was firmly in the Whig camp by 1840, editing a campaign newspaper aimed at Pennsylvania Germans and supporting the presidential candidacy of William Henry Harrison. John Tyler appointed him to the Bremen consulate in 1841 and he occupied the post briefly, but returned to Philadelphia when the U.S. Senate did not approve his appointment. In 1844, he received a new appointment as consul at Antwerp, and he remained there two years. Following his return to the United States, Grund took up residence in Washington, DC, and served as an independent correspondent for several newspapers. He leaned toward the Democrats as the sectional crisis deepened, supporting the Mexican War, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Grund campaigned actively for James Buchanan in the election of 1856, giving speeches in midwestern states, including Illinois. Despite his friendship with Stephen A. Douglas, Grund remained in Buchanan’s camp when the Democratic Party split into rival factions supporting Douglas and Buchanan. He served as a special reporter on trade and diplomacy in Europe in 1858 and 1859, and was appointed U.S. consul at Le Havre in 1860 by Buchanan. He held the later position until Abraham Lincoln took office as president. During the Civil War, Grund served as editor of the Philadelphia Age. He initially opposed Lincoln’s war policies but switched his allegiance in the autumn of 1863. This resulted in a Democrat crowd appearing at his Philadelphia home, and Grund died suddenly after fleeing what he perceived as a mob. In 1829, Grund married Larissa Parke, with whom he had one child.

James M. Bergquist, “Grund, Francis Joseph,” American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 9:687-88; Holman Hamilton and James L. Crouthamel, “A Man for Both Parties: Francis J. Grund as Political Chameleon,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 97 (October 1973), 465-84; Francis J. Grund, Aristocracy in America (London: Richard Bentley, 1839); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), South Ward, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA, 118; The Press (Philadelphia), 1 October 1863, 4:1, 6:1.