Background
He was born on April 17, 1848 in Pennsylvania. Charlemagne Tower Jr. was the son of Charlemagne and Amelia (Bartle) Tower, and the descendant of John Tower who emigrated from Hingham, England, to Hingham, Massachussets, in 1637.
(Comparatively few people of the present generation are aw...)
Comparatively few people of the present generation are aware of the inestimable benefits which the French nation conferred upon our forefathers during the American Revolution, at a time when America was without credit abroad and when our cause aroused no other national sympathy in the world... -Charlemagne Tower, Jr., in the Preface In this 1895 biography of one of the key figures of the American Revolution, writer and diplomat Tower traces the career of the Marquis de La Fayette from his arrival in America in 1777 until his return to France after the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781. Using private letters as well as official documents from both private and governmental collections, Tower presents in detail the military operations of the Virginia campaign and delves into La Fayette's time at the Court of Versailles in 1779, when, on leave in France, he was a vocal proponent of the American fight for independence from England. These two vital volumes are an insightful look at a period of American history during which the fledgling nation looked abroad for sustenance and succor. CHARLEMAGNE TOWER, JR. (1848-1923), son of American financier Charlemagne Tower, was trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and president of its department of archaeology and paleontology. He served as U.S. minister to Austria-Hungary from 1897 to 1899, and as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 1899 to 1902 and to Germany from 1902 to 1908.
https://www.amazon.com/Marquis-Fayette-American-Revolution-Vol/dp/1596051876?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1596051876
(Comparatively few people of the present generation are aw...)
Comparatively few people of the present generation are aware of the inestimable benefits which the French nation conferred upon our forefathers during the American Revolution, at a time when America was without credit abroad and when our cause aroused no other national sympathy in the world... -Charlemagne Tower, Jr., in the Preface In this 1895 biography of one of the key figures of the American Revolution, writer and diplomat Tower traces the career of the Marquis de La Fayette from his arrival in America in 1777 until his return to France after the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781. Using private letters as well as official documents from both private and governmental collections, Tower presents in detail the military operations of the Virginia campaign and delves into La Fayette's time at the Court of Versailles in 1779, when, on leave in France, he was a vocal proponent of the American fight for independence from England. These two vital volumes are an insightful look at a period of American history during which the fledgling nation looked abroad for sustenance and succor. CHARLEMAGNE TOWER, JR. (1848-1923), son of American financier Charlemagne Tower, was trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and president of its department of archaeology and paleontology. He served as U.S. minister to Austria-Hungary from 1897 to 1899, and as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 1899 to 1902 and to Germany from 1902 to 1908.
https://www.amazon.com/Marquis-Fayette-American-Revolution-Vol-1/dp/1596051868?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1596051868
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Political-Historical-Charlemagne-Tower/dp/1432532634?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1432532634
He was born on April 17, 1848 in Pennsylvania. Charlemagne Tower Jr. was the son of Charlemagne and Amelia (Bartle) Tower, and the descendant of John Tower who emigrated from Hingham, England, to Hingham, Massachussets, in 1637.
After attending the public schools at Pottsville, Pa. , he entered Phillips Exeter Academy, graduated from Harvard College in 1872, and spent four years in travel and study in Europe and the Near East.
He received numerous honorary degrees.
Two years after his return to America he was admitted to the bar, in 1878, and practised in Philadelphia until his father's extensive interests in the Vermilion Range iron ore fields in Minnesota took him to Duluth in 1882. He became president of that road and a director of the Minnesota Iron Company, both of which had been largely financed by his father.
The Towers sold a large part of their interests in 1887, and he returned to Philadelphia, where he was active in business, especially coal mining and finance, until 1891.
He published The Marquis de LaFayette in the American Revolution (2 vols. , 1895), and he served as a vice-president of the department of archaeology and palaeontology of the University of Pennsylvania and as trustee from 1896 to 1899.
When McKinley became president, Tower's wealth, reputation for learning, and Republican politics made him a logical candidate for diplomatic honors. His appointment on April 1, 1897, as minister to Austria-Hungary, the first of three major diplomatic appointments, launched him upon a diplomatic career that was useful and creditable but by no means brilliant.
During his short two years of service at Vienna, June 1, 1897, to February 9, 1899, he was largely concerned with obtaining the release from military service of naturalized American citizens of Austro-Hungarian birth. In this he was generally successful.
On January 12, 1899, he was appointed ambassador to Russia, where he served from his arrival on March 16, 1899, to November 1902. He negotiated, although he did not sign, an agreement with Russia to submit to arbitration on the claims of American sealing vessels that had been seized in the Bering Sea by Russian cruisers. His representations to Russia on behalf of the "Open Door" in Manchuria were less successful (Foreign Relations, post, 1902).
Relations between Germany and Venezuela were approaching the breaking point when he received his appointment as American ambassador at Berlin on September 26, 1902. As soon as he reached his post in December he was instructed by the secretary of state, John Hay, to protest to the German government against the measures it was taking to force Venezuela to pay the German claims and to preserve the rights of the United States in case of blockade of Venezuelan ports. Although some of the most important of the Venezuelan negotiations, which led finally to the submission of the dispute to the new Hague Tribunal, took place in Washington, a major portion of the discussions were conducted through Tower at Berlin. He also negotiated with the German foreign office regarding the obligation of a naturalized American citizen born in Alsace to perform military service in Germany. Although Germany would not admit that the Bancroft treaties of 1868 applied to natives of Alsace-Lorraine, then a part of France, he persuaded the foreign office to declare its readiness to negotiate a new treaty to include natives of Alsace-Lorraine. Other troublesome issues between the United States and Germany, such as the tariff question, were settled at Washington.
He resigned on June 8, 1908, and returned to Philadelphia.
In 1914 he published Essays Political and Historical. He died in Philadelphia in 1923.
(Comparatively few people of the present generation are aw...)
(Comparatively few people of the present generation are aw...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
On February 8, 1888, he married Helen Smith of Oakland, Cal.
(April 18, 1809 – July 25, 1889) He was an American lawyer and businessman active in acquiring land in the Schuylkill Valley in Pennsylvania and serving as an officer for coal and railroad companies.
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