Charles Jonas 1840-1896: Czech National Liberal, Wisconsin Bourbon Democrat Book

Charles Jonas (Karel Jonas) was an important political and cultural figure in both nineteenth-century Europe and America. As a Czech European in his youth he was representative of a new complexity in Czech political life during the waning years of the Bach era (1849-59) and then during the initial stages of constitutional experimentation in the Austrian empire. His childhood was spent in Malesov, Bohemia, near Kutna Hora, where he probably had contact with Karel Havlicek Borovsky, the pioneer Czech political journalist. In 1859 he was a student at the Prague Technical School until his internal and then external exile in 1860. In Prague his abilities brought him into contact with many prominent political and cultural personalities associated with the Czech revival. Among these were Votja Naprstek, Frantisek Rieger, Frantisek Palacky, Josef Barak, and Karel Sabina. He also aroused attention among officials of the Austrian police because of his writings, associations, and political actions. Austrian police officials forced him to leave Prague in May 1860, and after spending a short period at his birthplace in Malesov and then at an estate north of Prague, he left for England in October 1860. For the next two-and-a-half years he was associated with a group of Czech exiles, including Adolf Straka, medical doctor and 1848-49 revolutionary, and Josef Vaclav Fric, poet, journalist, and revolutionary. This circle maintained contact with Russian emigres, among whom were Alexander Herzen and Mikhail Bakunin, and with Polish exiles. In March 1863 Jonas journeyed to Racine, Wisconsin, to edit the recently established Slavie, a Czech-language weekly paper with which he was associated until his death. Over the next thirty-three years, Jonas became a Czech-immigrant leader, prominent Wisconsin politician, diplomat, and linguist. As a politician he was close to the "Bourbon" democrats of the upper midwest, and as such was associated with William Freeman Vilas, and through him,