Dutch South African politician, born at Wellington, Cape Colony, in 1866, and educated at the Victoria College, Stellenbosch, going afterwards to Amsterdam University. Returning to South Africa he settled in the Orange Free State, where he was called to the bar and was appointed a judge in 1895. During the South African War of 1899–1902 Hertzog served as a Boer general, though without conspicuous personal distinction in the field. Nevertheless he emerged from the war as one of the recognized leaders of the Free State Dutch, and took a leading part in the consultations of the Dutch leaders which preceded the Peace of Vereeniging. He resisted the policy of making an end of the war, and held out to the end against the moderate counsels of Transvaal leaders such as Gen. Botha and Gen. Smuts. This difference was smoothed over later, but the memory of it persisted and had a potent influence on the course of South African history. When responsible government was granted to the Orange River Colony in 1907 Hertzog became Attorney-General and Minister for Education with Abraham Fischer as Prime Minister. As Minister of Education he pursued with determination a policy of placing Dutch side by side with English as the medium of education, a policy sound enough in view of the racial circumstances of the country, but demanding the utmost skill and tact in its administration. Hertzog showed none of the gifts of the skilled administrator, and as his methods revealed themselves resentment and suspicion grew among the English-speaking people of the colony and from them spread throughout South Africa. The circumstances of the time were difficult enough in themselves, but the contrast between the methods of the Botha Government in the Transvaal as to education and those of the Fischer Government in the Orange River Colony was for all to see. The complications of Hertzog’s administration of the Education Department culminated in the summary dismissal by him of Mr. Fraser, an English-speaking inspector in the service of the Department. Hertzog justified this summary action in Parliament and before his constituents by making public accusations against the bona fides of Mr. Fraser, who brought a libel action against him, in which the verdict went heavily against Hertzog. Meanwhile the Union movement grew throughout South Africa. Hertzog was one of the representatives of the Orange River Colony on the National Convention which drafted the Union Act, and took office under Gen. Botha as the first Minister of Justice of the Union of South Africa in 1910. During the meetings of the Convention it had seemed that he was ready to obliterate the racial hatreds of the war, but his conduct as Minister of Justice soon showed that the old spirit of bitterness was still strong in him. He was a thorn in the side of the Botha Ministry, and at the end of 1912 the differences between him and his more moderate colleagues in the Cabinet became so plain that the patience of the Prime Minister could ignore them no longer. In December 1912 Gen. Botha resigned, and taking office again, reconstructed his Ministry, leaving Hertzog out. This was the critical point in a long feud between Hertzog on one side and Botha and Smuts on the other. When the World War broke out, Hertzog, who by then had formed the Nationalist party in the South African Parliament and was in steady opposition to the Botha Ministry, resisted the cooperation of the Prime Minister and Smuts with Great Britain in the war. When, at the end of 1914, some of the Dutch-speaking people went into open rebellion, Hertzog hesitated and attempted to compromise, never bringing himself to utter any straight condemnation of rebellion. This course he and the Nationalists maintained throughout the war, drifting ultimately into a formal claim for a republic in South Africa. In two general elections during 1920, when Gen. Smuts had become Prime Minister after the death of Gen. Botha, Hertzog maintained the Parliamentary strength of the Nationalist party, having refused reunion with the party led by Gen. Smuts on the ground that the claim could not be abandoned.
