Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Gurowski, Adam

GUROWSKI, Adam, Count, author, b. in the palatinate of Kalisz, Poland, 10 Sept., 1805; d. in Washington, D. C., 4 May, 1866. He was a son of the Count Ladislas Gurowski, who was an ardent admirer of Kosciusko, and who lost the greater part of his estates through having participated in the insurrection of 1794. Having been expelled in 1818, and again in 1819, from the gymnasia of Warsaw and Kalisz for revolutionary demonstrations, young Gurowski continued his studies at various German universities. Returning to Warsaw in 1825, he became identified with those opposed to Russian influence, and was in consequence several times imprisoned. He was active in organizing the revolution of 1830, in which he afterward took part. On its suppression he escaped to France, where he lived for several years and adopted many of the views of Fourier. He was also a member of the national Polish committee in Paris, and became conspicuous in political and literary circles. His estates had meantime been confiscated and he himself condemned to death; but in 1835 he published a work entitled “La vérité sur la Russie,” in which he advocated a union of the different branches of the Slavic race. The book being favorably regarded by the Russian government, Gurowski was recalled, and, although his estates were not restored, he was employed in the civil service. In 1844, finding that he had many powerful enemies at court, he left secretly for Berlin and went thence to Heidelberg. Here he gave himself to study, and for two years lectured on political economy in the University of Berne, Switzerland. He then went to Italy, and in 1849 came to the United States, where he engaged in literary pursuits and became deeply interested in American politics. From 1861 till 1863 he was translator in the state department at Washington, being acquainted with eight languages. Before coming to this country he had published “La civilisation et la Russie” (St. Petersburg, 1840); “Pensées sur l'avenir des Polonais” (Berlin, 1841); “Aus meinem Gedankenbuche” (Breslau, 1843); “Eine Tour durch Belgien” (Heidelberg, 1845); “Impressions et souvenirs” (Lausanne, 1846); “Die letzten Ereignisse in den drei Theilen des alten Polen” (Munich, 1846); and “Le Panslavisme” (Florence, 1848). During his residence in the United States he published “Russia as it Is” (New York, 1854); “The Turkish Question” (1854); “A Year of the War” (1855); “America and Europe” (1857); “Slavery in History” (1860); and “My Diary,” notes on the civil war (3 vols., 1862-'6).