action in Germany,--in Vienna and Berlin,--there remained only the
lesser States in which the struggle was still undecided, although the
balance there, too, was leaning more and more against the
revolutionary interest. These smaller States, we have said, found a
common centre in the National Assembly at Frankfort. Now, this
so-called National Assembly, although its reactionist spirit had long
been evident, so much so that the very people of Frankfort had risen
in arms against it, yet its origin was of more or less revolutionary
nature; it occupied an abnormal, revolutionary position in January;
its competence had never been defined, and it had at last come to the
decision--which, however, was never recognized by the larges
States--that its resolutions had the force of law. Under these
circumstances, and when the Constitutionalist-Monarchial party saw
their positions turned by the recovering Absolutists, it is not to be
wondered that the Liberal, monarchical bourgeoisie of almost the whole
of Germany should place their last hopes upon the majority of this
Assembly, just as the petty shopkeepers in the rest, the nucleus of
the Democratic party, gathered in their growing distress around the
minority of that same body, which indeed formed the last compact
Parliamentary phalanx of Democracy. On the other hand, the larger
Governments, and particularly the Prussian Ministry, saw more and more
the incompatibility of such an irregular elective body with the
restored monarchical system of Germany, and if they did not at once
force its dissolution, it was only because the time had not yet come,
and because Prussia hoped first to use it for the furthering of its
own ambitious purposes.
In the meantime, that poor Assembly itself fell into a greater and
greater confusion. Its deputations and commissaries had been treated
with the utmost contempt, both in Vienna and Berlin; one of its
members, in spite of his parliamentary inviolability, had been
executed in Vienna as a common rebel. Its decrees were nowhere heeded;
if they were noticed at all by the larger powers, it was merely by
protesting notes which disputed the authority of the Assembly to pass
laws and resolutions binding upon their Governments. The
Representative of the Assembly, the Central Executive power, was
involved in diplomatic squabbles with almost all the Cabinets of
Germany, and, in spite of all their efforts, neither Assembly nor
Central Government could bring Austria and Prussia to state their
ultimate views, plans and demands. The Assembly, at last, commenced to
see clearly, at least so far, that it had allowed all power to slip
out of its hands, that it was at the mercy of Austria and Prussia, and
that if it intended making a Federal Constitution for Germany at all,
it must set about the thing at once and in good earnest. And many of
the vacillating members also saw clearly that they had been
egregiously duped by the Governments. But what were they, in their
impotent position, able to do now? The only thing that could have
saved them would have been promptly and decidedly to pass over into
the popular camp; but the success, even of that step, was more than
doubtful; and then, where in this helpless crowd of undecided,
shortsighted, self-conceited beings, who, when the eternal noise of
contradictory rumors and diplomatic notes completely stunned them,
sought their only consolation and support in the everlastingly
repeated assurance that they were the best, the greatest, the wisest
men of the country, and that they alone could save Germany--where, we
say, among these poor creatures, whom a single year of Parliamentary
life had turned into complete idiots, where were the men for a prompt
and decisive resolution, much less for energetic and consistent
action?
At last the Austrian Government threw off the mask. In its
Constitution of the 4th of March, it proclaimed Austria an
indivisible monarchy, with common finances, system of customs-duties,
of military establishments, thereby effacing every barrier and
distinction between the German and non-German provinces. This
declaration was made in the face of resolutions and articles of the
intended Federal Constitution which had been already passed by the
Frankfort Assembly. It was the gauntlet of war thrown down to it by
Austria, and the poor Assembly had no other choice but to take it up.
This it did with a deal of blustering, which Austria, in the
consciousness of her power, and of the utter nothingness of the
Assembly, could well afford to allow to pass. And this precious
representation, as it styled itself, of the German people, in order to
revenge itself for this insult on the part of Austria, saw nothing
better before it than to throw itself, hands and feet tied, at the
feet of the Prussian Government. Incredible as it would seem, it bent
its knees before the very ministers whom it had condemned as
unconstitutional and anti-popular, and whose dismissal it had in vain
insisted upon. The details of this disgraceful transaction, and the
tragicomical events that followed, will form the subject of our next.
LONDON, April, 1852.
XV.
THE TRIUMPH OF PRUSSIA.
JULY 27th, 1852.
We now come to the last chapter in the history of the German
Revolution; the conflict of the National Assembly with the Governments
of the different States, especially of Prussia; the insurrection of
Southern and Western Germany, and its final overthrow by Prussia.
We have already seen the Frankfort National Assembly at work. We have
seen it kicked by Austria, insulted by Prussia, disobeyed by the
lesser States, duped by its own impotent Central "Government," which
again was the dupe of all and every prince in the country. But at last
things began to look threatening for this weak, vacillating, insipid
legislative body. It was forced to come to the conclusion that "the
sublime idea of Germany unity was threatened in its realization,"
which meant neither more nor less than that the Frankfort Assembly,
and all it had done, and was about to do, were very likely to end in
smoke. Thus it set to work in good earnest in order to bring forth, as
soon as possible, its grand production, the "Imperial Constitution."
There was, however, one difficulty. What Executive Government was
there to be? An Executive Council? No; that would have been, they
thought in their wisdom, making Germany a Republic. A "president"?
That would come to the same. Thus they must revive the old Imperial
dignity. But--as, of course, a prince was to be emperor--who should
it be? Certainly none of the _Dii minorum gentium_, from
Reuss-Schleitz-Greitz-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf up to Bavaria; neither
Austria nor Prussia would have borne that. It could only be Austria or
Prussia. But which of the two? There is no doubt that, under otherwise
favorable circumstances, this august Assembly would be sitting up to
the present day, discussing this important dilemma without being able
to come to a conclusion, if the Austrian Government had not cut the
Gordian knot, and saved them the trouble.
Austria knew very well that from the moment in which she could again
appear before Europe with all her provinces subdued, as a strong and
great European power, the very law of political gravitation would draw
the remainder of Germany into her orbit, without the help of any
authority which an Imperial crown, conferred by the Frankfort
Assembly, could give her. Austria had been far stronger, far freer in
her movements, since she shook off the powerless _crown_ of the German
Empire--a crown which clogged her own independent policy, while it
added not one iota to her strength, either within or without Germany.
And supposing the case that Austria could not maintain her footing in
Italy and Hungary, why, then she was dissolved, annihilated in Germany
too, and could never pretend to reseize a crown which had slipped from
her hands while she was in the full possession of her strength. Thus
Austria at once declared against all imperialist resurrections, and
plainly demanded the restoration of the German Diet, the only Central
Government of Germany known and recognized by the treaties of 1815;
and on the 4th of March, 1849, issued that Constitution which had no
other meaning than to declare Austria an indivisible, centralized, and
independent monarchy, distinct even from that Germany which the
Frankfort Assembly was to reorganize.
This open declaration of war left, indeed, the Frankfort wiseacres no
other choice but to exclude Austria from Germany, and to create out of
the remainder of that country a sort of lower empire, a "little
Germany," the rather shabby Imperial mantle of which was to fall on
the shoulders of His Majesty of Prussia. This, it will be recollected,
was the renewal of an old project fostered already some six or
eight years ago by a party of South and Middle German Liberal
_doctrinaires_, who considered as a godsend the degrading
circumstances by which their old crotchet was now again brought
forward as the latest "new move" for the salvation of the country.
They accordingly finished, in February and March, 1849, the debate on
the Imperial Constitution, together with the Declaration of Rights
and the Imperial Electoral Law; not, however, without being obliged to
make, in a great many points, the most contradictory concessions--now
to the Conservative or rather Reactionary party--now to the more
advanced factions of the Assembly. In fact, it was evident that the
leadership of the Assembly, which had formerly belonged to the Right
and Right Centre (the Conservatives and Reactionists), was gradually,
although slowly, passing toward the Left or Democratic side of that
body. The rather dubious position of the Austrian deputies in an
Assembly which had excluded their country from Germany, and in which
they yet were called upon to sit and vote, favored the derangement of
its equipoise; and thus, as early as the end of February, the Left
Centre and Left found themselves, by the help of the Austrian votes,
very generally in a majority, while on other days the Conservative
faction of the Austrians, all of a sudden, and for the fun of the
thing, voting with the Right, threw the balance again on the other
side. They intended, by these sudden _soubresauts_, to bring the
Assembly into contempt, which, however, was quite unnecessary, the
mass of the people being long since convinced of the utter hollowness
and futility of anything coming from Frankfort. What a specimen of a
Constitution, in the meantime, was framed under such jumping and
counter-jumping, may easily be imagined.
The Left of the Assembly--this _elite_ and pride of revolutionary
Germany, as it believed itself to be--was entirely intoxicated with
the few paltry successes it obtained by the good-will, or rather the
ill-will, of a set of Austrian politicians, acting under the
instigation and for the interest of Austrian despotism. Whenever the
slightest approximation to their own not very well-defined principles
had, in a homoeopathically diluted shape, obtained a sort of
sanction by the Frankfort Assembly, these Democrats proclaimed that
they had saved the country and the people. These poor, weak-minded
men, during the course of their generally very obscure lives, had been
so little accustomed to anything like success, that they actually
believed their paltry amendments, passed with two or three votes
majority, would change the face of Europe. They had, from the
beginning of their legislative career, been more imbued than any other
faction of the Assembly with that incurable malady _Parliamentary
cretinism_, a disorder which penetrates its unfortunate victims with
the solemn conviction that the whole world, its history and future,
are governed and determined by a majority of votes in that particular
representative body which has the honor to count them among its
members, and that all and everything going on outside the walls of
their house--wars, revolutions, railway-constructing, colonizing of
whole new continents, California gold discoveries, Central American
canals, Russian armies, and whatever else may have some little claim
to influence upon the destinies of mankind--is nothing compared with
the incommensurable events hinging upon the important question,
whatever it may be, just at that moment occupying the attention of
their honorable house. Thus it was the Democratic party of the
Assembly, by effectually smuggling a few of their nostrums into the
"Imperial Constitution," first became bound to support it, although in
every essential point it flatly contradicted their own oft-proclaimed
principles, and at last, when this mongrel work was abandoned, and
bequeathed to them by its main authors, accepted the inheritance, and
held out for this _Monarchical_ Constitution, even in opposition to
everybody who _then_ proclaimed their own _Republican_ principles.
But it must be confessed that in this the contradiction was merely
apparent. The indeterminate, self-contradictory, immature character of
the Imperial Constitution was the very image of the immature,
confused, conflicting political ideas of these Democratic gentlemen.
And if their own sayings and writings--as far as they could
write--were not sufficient proof of this, their actions would furnish
such proof; for among sensible people it is a matter of course to
judge of a man, not by his professions, but his actions; not by what
he pretends to be, but by what he does, and what he really is; and the
deeds of these heroes of German Democracy speak loud enough for
themselves, as we shall learn by and by. However, the Imperial
Constitution, with all its appendages and paraphernalia, was
definitely passed, and on the 28th of March, the King of Prussia was,
by 290 votes against 248 who abstained, and 200 who were absent,
elected Emperor of Germany _minus Austria_. The historical irony was
complete; the Imperial farce executed in the streets of astonished
Berlin, three days after the Revolution of March 18th, 1848, by
Frederick William IV., while in a state which elsewhere would come
under the Maine Liquor Law--this disgusting farce, just one year
afterwards, had been sanctioned by the pretended Representative
Assembly of all Germany. That, then, was the result of the German
Revolution!
LONDON, July, 1852.
XVI.
THE ASSEMBLY AND THE GOVERNMENTS.
AUGUST 19th, 1852.
The National Assembly of Frankfort, after having elected the King of
Prussia Emperor of Germany (_minus_ Austria), sent a deputation to
Berlin to offer him the crown, and then adjourned. On the 3rd of
April, Frederick William received the deputies. He told them that,
although he accepted the right of precedence over all the other
princes of Germany, which this vote of the people's representatives
had given him, yet he could not accept the Imperial crown as long as
he was not sure that the remaining princes acknowledged his supremacy,
and the Imperial Constitution conferring those rights upon him. It
would be, he added, for the Governments of Germany to see whether this
Constitution was such as could be ratified by them. At all events,
Emperor or not, he always would be found ready, he concluded, to draw
the sword against either the external or the internal foe. We shall
see how he kept his promise in a manner rather startling for the
National Assembly.
The Frankfort wiseacres, after profound diplomatic inquiry, at last
came to the conclusion that this answer amounted to a refusal of the
crown. They then (April 12th) resolved: That the Imperial Constitution
was the law of the land, and must be maintained; and not seeing their
way at all before them, elected a Committee of thirty, to make
proposals as to the means how this Constitution could be carried out.
This resolution was the signal for the conflict between the Frankfort
Assembly and the German Governments which now broke out. The middle
classes, and especially the smaller trading class, had all at once
declared for the new Frankfort Constitution. They could not wait any
longer the moment which was "to close the Revolution." In Austria and
Prussia the Revolution had, for the moment, been closed by the
interference of the armed power. The classes in question would have
preferred a less forcible mode of performing that operation, but they
had not had a chance; the thing was done, and they had to make the
best of it, a resolution which they at once took and carried out most
heroically. In the smaller States, where things had been going on
comparatively smoothly, the middle classes had long since been thrown
back into that showy, but resultless, because powerless, parliamentary
agitation, which was most congenial to themselves. The different
States of Germany, as regarded each of them separately, appeared thus
to have attained that new and definite form which was supposed to
enable them to enter henceforth the path of peaceful constitutional
development. There only remained one open question, that of the new
political organization of the German Confederacy. And this question,
the only one which still appeared fraught with danger, it was
considered a necessity to resolve at once. Hence the pressure exerted
upon the Frankfort Assembly by the middle classes, in order to induce
it to get the Constitution ready as soon as possible; hence the
resolution among the higher and lower bourgeoisie to accept and
support this Constitution, whatever it might be, in order to create a
settled state of things without delay. Thus from the very beginning
the agitation for the Imperial Constitution arose out of a reactionary
feeling, and sprang up among these classes which were long since tired
of the Revolution.
But there was another feature in it. The first and fundamental
principles of the future German Constitution had been voted during the
first months of spring and summer, 1848, a time when popular agitation
was still rife. The resolutions then passed, though completely
reactionary _then_, now, after the arbitrary acts of the Austrian and
Prussian Governments, appeared exceedingly Liberal, and even
Democratic. The standard of comparison had changed. The Frankfort
Assembly could not, without moral suicide, strike out these once-voted
provisions, and model the Imperial Constitution upon those which the
Austrian and Prussian Governments had dictated, sword in hand.
Besides, as we have seen, the majority in that Assembly had changed
sides, and the Liberal and Democratic party were rising in influence.
Thus the Imperial Constitution not only was distinguished by its
apparently exclusive popular origin, but at the same time, full of
contradiction as it was, it yet was the most Liberal Constitution in
all Germany. Its greatest fault was, that it was a mere sheet of
paper, with no power to back its provisions.
Under these circumstances it was natural that the so-called Democratic
party, that is, the mass of the petty trading class, should cling to
the Imperial Constitution. This class had always been more forward in
its demands than the Liberal-Monarchico-Constitutional bourgeoisie; it
had shown a bolder front, it had very often threatened armed
resistance, it was lavish in its promises to sacrifice its blood and
its existence in the struggle for freedom; but it had already given
plenty of proofs that on the day of danger it was nowhere, and that it
never felt more comfortable than the day after a decisive defeat, when
everything being lost, it had at least the consolation to know that
somehow or other the matter _was_ settled. While, therefore, the
adhesion of the large bankers, manufacturers, and merchants was of a
more reserved character, more like a simple demonstration in favor of
the Frankfort Constitution, the class just beneath them, our valiant
Democratic shopkeepers, came forward in grand style, and, as usual,
proclaimed they would rather spill their last drop of blood than let
the Imperial Constitution fall to the ground.
Supported by these two parties, the bourgeois adherents of the
Constitutional Royalty, and the more or less Democratic shopkeepers,
the agitation for the immediate establishment of the Imperial
Constitution gained ground rapidly, and found its most powerful
expression in the Parliaments of the several States. The Chambers of
Prussia, of Hanover, of Saxony, of Baden, of Wuertemberg, declared in
its favor. The struggle between the Governments and the Frankfort
Assembly assumed a threatening aspect.
The Governments, however, acted rapidly. The Prussian Chambers were
dissolved, anti-constitutionally, as they had to revise and confirm
the Constitution; riots broke out at Berlin, provoked intentionally by
the Government, and the next day, the 28th of April, the Prussian
Ministry issued a circular note, in which the Imperial Constitution
was held up as a most anarchical and revolutionary document, which it
was for the Governments of Germany to remodel and purify. Thus Prussia
denied, point-blank, that sovereign constituent power which the wise
men at Frankfort had always boasted of, but never established. Thus a
Congress of Princes, a renewal of the old Federal Diet, was called
upon to sit in judgment on that Constitution which had already been
promulgated as law. And at the same time Prussia concentrated troops
at Kreuznach, three days' march from Frankfort, and called upon the
smaller States to follow its example, by also dissolving their
Chambers as soon as they should give their adhesion to the Frankfort
Assembly. This example was speedily followed by Hanover and Saxony.
It was evident that a decision of the struggle by force of arms could
not be avoided. The hostility of the Governments, the agitation among
the people, were daily showing themselves in stronger colors. The
military were everywhere worked upon by the Democratic citizens, and
in the south of Germany with great success. Large mass meetings were
everywhere held, passing resolutions to support the Imperial
Constitution and the National Assembly, if need should be, with force
of arms. At Cologne, a meeting of deputies of all the municipal
councils of Rhenish Prussia took place for the same purpose. In the
Palatinate, at Bergen, Fulda, Nuremberg, in the Odenwald, the
peasantry met by myriads and worked themselves up into enthusiasm. At
the same time the Constituent Assembly of France dissolved, and the
new elections were prepared amid violent agitation, while on the
eastern frontier of Germany, the Hungarians had within a month, by a
succession of brilliant victories, rolled back the tide of Austrian
invasion from the Theiss to the Leitha, and were every day expected to
take Vienna by storm. Thus, popular imagination being on all hands
worked up to the highest pitch, and the aggressive policy of the
Governments defining itself more clearly every day, a violent
collision could not be avoided, and cowardly imbecility only could
persuade itself that the struggle was to come off peaceably. But this
cowardly imbecility was most extensively represented in the Frankfort
Assembly.
LONDON, July, 1852.
XVII.
INSURRECTION.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1852.
The inevitable conflict between the National Assembly of Frankfort and
the States Governments of Germany at last broke out in open
hostilities during the first days of May, 1849. The Austrian deputies,
recalled by their Government, had already left the Assembly and
returned home, with the exception of a few members of the Left or
Democratic party. The great body of the Conservative members, aware of
the turn things were about to take, withdrew even before they were
called upon to do so by their respective Governments. Thus, even
independently of the causes which in the foregoing letters have been
shown to strengthen the influence of the Left, the mere desertion of
their posts by the members of the Right, sufficed to turn the old
minority into a majority of the Assembly. The new majority, which, at
no former time, had dreamed of ever obtaining that good fortune, had
profited by their places on the opposition benches to spout against
the weakness, the indecision, the indolence of the old majority, and
of its Imperial Lieutenancy. Now all at once, _they_ were called on
to replace that old majority. _They_ were now to show what they could
perform. Of course, _their_ career was to be one of energy,
determination, activity. _They_, the _elite_ of Germany, would soon be
able to drive onwards the senile Lieutenant of the Empire, and his
vacillating ministers, and in case that was impossible they
would--there could be no doubt about it--by force of the sovereign
right of the people, depose that impotent Government, and replace it
by an energetic, indefatigable Executive, who would assure the
salvation of Germany. Poor fellows! _Their_ rule--if rule it can be
named, where no one obeyed--was a still more ridiculous affair than
even the rule of their predecessors.