Windrows of Corpses
49
He is no longer the roaring delegate of the "White Saloon," but
has developed the astuteness of the devil, the open sincerity
of a saint.
¶ Fight, fight, fight! Nothing but fight! And all this trying time,
Bismarck suffered excruciating pains from his old rheumatic complaint.
He was irritable, melancholy and jaundiced; sat up all night
half-buried in his mounds of state papers; dictating telegrams,
quarreling with callers, denouncing, adjusting, scheming; four o'clock
found him in bed; he tossed about till seven, when he managed to get
to sleep; and was not seen again till late in the afternoon. The
situation was getting on the master's nerves.
¶ Enemies in the house of his friends spied on Bismarck, endeavored to
poison the King against the doughty Minister. The Crown Prince,
especially, who always had an aversion to Bismarck, despite the
war-dog's inestimable services to the House of Hohenzollern, now tried
to pull the Pomeranian giant down.
To this end, the Prince dissassociated himself from Bismarck's policy,
avoided the great man at court. The situation passed rapidly from
political to social objections on part of the Prince, who spread
before the King the ruin of Hohenzollern if Bismarckian policies were
longer pursued.
¶ But the King would not give Bismarck up. In this regard, William was
as cold as ice. He saw that should Bismarck be asked to go, at that
time, the Liberals would be irresistibly strengthened. The recoil of
the mighty wave against kingcraft might even end by forcing abdication
for the Prussian monarch.
¶ Instead of fearing the Liberal leaders, Bismarck despised their
plots. The master knew enough of human nature to see clearly one great
central fact. The fire-breathing Democrats would, at the hour of
Prussia's peril, join with the hated system of Bismarck and march to
glory. In defense of Prussia, Liberals, Socialists and political
nonconformists of every description, would be carried off their feet.
Then, Bismarck would be able to call on his very enemies to come
forward and help him win the day.
¶ And the old man, as usual, was absolutely correct. In the hour of
danger how the Prussian Liberals fought! Like fiends they stood, took
the murderous fire and went to their death singing, "I am a Prussian,
will a Prussian be!"
* * * * *
¶ The opportunity to test German National faith first came through the
Holstein war, precipitated by Bismarck's clever manipulation of
events.
¶ As well ask from what quarters of the globe the hurricane came which
last night tore up the old oak tree. You can read a dozen fat volumes
on the Holstein problem, and still you will not be convinced.
Schleswig-Holsteiners in their rock-grit lands on the North Sea had
their political troubles about the right of succession, and that sort
of thing; the spit of land up there was aflame with war talk.
¶ The Germans, as a people, wished Schleswig attached as a
principality of the German Confederation, but Bismarck's secret plan
was to seize the territory for the gain of Prussia, a clean political
theft of a huge estate. By pushing the Danes out of the Frankfort
Diet--that antiquated political stuffed-club of Austria--the Emperor
of the South would also be forced out of German affairs. In a few
words, that was the play.
¶ Opposition? Why, Bismarck lived by opposition, grew fat on
opposition. He is no longer the old roaring delegate of the "White
Saloon," in his blossom time. He has developed the astuteness of the
devil, the open sincerity of a saint. As a matter of fact, he now
invited Austria "to co-operate," in settling the complex Danish
question; and the unsuspecting Emperor of the South, who was also
playing a deep game of his own, decided to take a hand.
¶ Throughout his long career, Bismarck was everlastingly trading in
political advantages. Often there was a large element of imagination
in his promises to pay, but he gained his point in the Holstein
problem. He had to face: Dissension between the Prussian Chamber and
the Government; the feeling in rival German states; the general
distrust of Prussia and the hostility of Austria; finally, the
jealousy of other powers.
¶ Volumes have been written, learned decisions handed down on the
complex rights of the warring houses of Schleswig-Holstein. There were
mountains of precedents on this side or that, as you pleased.
Bismarck's plan was to annex the domain to Prussia and seize the
harbor of Kiel, with all the accrued advantages to the Prussian
monarch; and while the talk went on Bismarck manoeuvered to enlist
his old enemy, Austria, to make common cause in a clear way of
plunder, if ever there was one. Then, they swept the country with fire
and sword, took it by the "divine right" of the strongest; and it fell
out that Bismarck stacked the cards against Austria, as a gambler
stacks them against the man on the other side of the table who is
supposed to be his friend, in a gentleman's game. Bismarck at a stroke
thus won away Austria's share.
¶ After the conquest of the Holstein duchies, King William became more
ambitious; henceforth the object of his life was the aggrandizement of
Prussia, in Germany. Bismarck had given the King the taste of blood.
The Iron Chancellor admits the fact. Here are Bismarck's exact words,
from his interviews with Dr. Busch: "The King's frame of mind
underwent a psychological change; he developed a taste for conquest."
¶ Bismarck laid the foundation in this way: He reminded the reluctant
William of the glories of Hohenzollern; how each Hohenzollern had
added to the common family fortunes, ever-widening estates and power.
He told William how King Fr: Wm. IV had acquired Hohenzollern and the
Jande District; Fr: Wm. III, the Rhine Province; Fr: Wm. II, Poland;
Fr: II, Silesia; Fr: Wm. I, Old Hinter Pomerania; the Great Elector,
Further Pomerania, etc.; "and I encouraged the King to do likewise."
¶ Is it too much to say that in this great National crisis, Bismarck
was more than servant of the King? In many respects Bismarck was the
King's master. "If you only knew how I had to struggle to make the
King go to war with Austria!" is a significant comment Bismarck once
made in a moment of confidence.
It is a question whether he loved the King more, or himself less.
* * * * *
¶ "My party consisted solely of the King and myself," wrote Bismarck
many years later, "and my only aim was the restoration and
aggrandizement of the German Empire and the defense of monarchial
authority."
¶ He always had a contempt for parliaments and for parties. This fact
is so clear that we pass it without further comment. In short,
Bismarck measures up to these lines in Tennyson:
"Ah, God! for a man with heart, head, hand
Like some of the simple great ones gone
Forever and ever by;
One still strong man in a blatant land,
Whatever they call him, what care I,
Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat--"
¶ However, in this world all things are relative; the finest coat has
its reverse side, where the ugly seams show; and Bismarck is no
exception. He has all the strong man's virtues, and vices. Make the
most of it.
It is a solemn fact that, in his unfailing loyalty to his country,
Bismarck showed little consideration for men who chanced to oppose
his own principles--but what would you, pray?
Man at best is a curious animal; he indulges in great wars and he is
capable of great mercies; he is all things by turn and nothing long;
on the same day he loves and he hates, he commits crimes and he goes
to church; he has his way and having it, is still dissatisfied.
¶ And Bismarck was no exception.
* * * * *
¶ He always expected absolute obedience. "My ambassadors," he once
said to one of them, "must wheel round like non-commissioned officers,
at a word of command, without knowing why."
* * * * *
¶ "There are indeed," says Sir Spencer Walpole, "few things more
remarkable in modern history than Bismarck's determined disregard,
from 1863 to 1866 of the decisions of Parliament and his readiness to
stake his own life and that of his sovereign on the issue of the
contest."
* * * * *
¶ This Holstein raid was justified as "statecraft," but the gambler's
nerve and the gambler's methods were behind it, from end to end; and
Bismarck shuffled and cut and stacked, and if now and then some shrewd
player caught the sleight of hand and protested, Bismarck coolly
banged him over the head with a chair or flung a wine bottle at his
head and threw him into the street to make off as best he might,
smarting for revenge but not daring to raise a hand; for in his heart
the defeated player realized that in a game of this kind the only
thing to do is to take one's medicine, "put up, pay up and shut
up"--like the lesser known but equally discerning gamblers of old
Mississippi steamboat days.
¶ What were they fighting about in Holstein? Alas, who knows, except
that Bismarck had his great German enterprise well under way. It was
said, at the time, that Disraeli was "the only man in Europe who
really understood the Holstein question," but Disraeli was a British
cynic on all things German, and his explanations must be taken with a
grain of salt. However, Disraeli used Bismarck as "Count Ferroll" in
"Endymion."
50
Bismarck sleeps surrounded by windrows of the dead; it was the
moment he had awaited, all these years.
¶ One fact should never be overlooked. Whether Bismarck talks to his
countrymen of patriotism or of religious duties, through it all and
behind it all, while framing constitutions and putting the ballot in
every man's hand, Bismarck always had something to draw to--and this
something was the invincible Prussian army.
This Prussian army, together with Prussian dog-like discipline, made
Bismarck's plans possible.
¶ Also, he everlastingly kept the substance of power for himself and
his King; for, however much Bismarck from time to time made
concessions to the Liberal side, Bismarck always nourished sentiments
of royalty, in the end deftly substituted the mailed fist for his
talks on religious faith.
¶ His war-dramas are always rich in strife; but somehow, he makes them
conclude in joy.
* * * * *
¶ Realizing that the Austrian war could not much longer be put off,
Bismarck's great care was that there should be no powerful coalitions
against Prussia.
¶ We have spoken before of his closeness to Russia, and the means
whereby Bismarck secured the Czar's neutrality in the oncoming
Austrian war. The King's man next settled with Italy, behind the
screen. He knew that she longed to come into possession of Venetian
powers, held by Austria; Bismarck got after the Italian minister,
Lamarmora; the bargain was this: A secret treaty promising Venetia to
Italy; no separate peace to be made with Austria; the treaty not to be
binding unless Prussia declared war within three months.
¶ Then Bismarck crossed over and proposed to Austria that Frankfort
"reform" the Confederation. The lure to the Liberals was the promise
of a National Convention elected by the people, to decide on a new
Constitution; the solution carried the Holstein question, Bismarck
averred, "not as a piece of monarchial greed but as a National
affair."
¶ Bavaria agreed provided Austria and Prussia would not attack each
other.
¶ At this, Bismarck promised to give to Italy the Venetian provinces,
by peaceful arrangement--war or no war. But Italy wavered; she was
afraid of Bismarck's behind-the-screen policies.
Austria decided to increase her Venetian armaments, and Bismarck,
quick as a cat, seized on this move of his old enemy as an act of
"insincerity" in regard to peace.
¶ Austria now replied by urging that the Holstein question be left to
the Diet, despite the fact that Prussia had expressly denied the
competency of Frankfort to settle questions affecting Prussia.
¶ From this point events moved with rapidity toward war. Troops under
Manteuffel marched into Holstein, alleging the Gastein treaty broken;
Austrians retired, but under protest, alleging that Prussia had
violated Section 11 of the Acts of Confederation, which provided that
members could not make war against each other; and Austria moved that
the Confederation be mobilized, except Prussia. Bismarck thereupon
played his trump card. "The Confederation is dissolved!" he thundered,
and submitted a new draft of articles, leaving Austria out.
¶ Germany was now in two hostile camps; on came the war.
* * * * *
¶ Thus stood matters on the fateful June 1st, 1866, when the critical
situation in the Danish country offered the match to touch off the
powder magazines against Austria; startled Austria immediately called
upon her beribboned, bejeweled Frankfort Parliament to declare war on
Prussia for insolence; and this is exactly what Bismarck wished to
bring to pass; it was the moment he had awaited all these long years.
¶ Hanover and two other states were asked by telegraph to declare
their intentions. The replies being unsatisfactory, Bismarck, with
supreme daring worthy of Frederick the Great, orders von Roon and
Moltke's iron men forward. They poured like fiends into the surprised
territories, overran them in a night, compelling the flight or capture
of three kings.
¶ "With God for King and Fatherland!" That old cry is again heard
throughout the Prussian North country. Austria reckoned stupidly; she
had thought Bismarck's internal political dissensions would make it
impossible for Prussia to rally her iron men in good order; but
Bismarck knew that while Liberal leaders quarreled like dogs and cats
over Prussian policies, still when beloved Prussia was in danger, all
differences would be forgotten--and Prussia in a night would become an
armed camp.
¶ Bismarck, that memorable Thursday night, June 14th, 1866, spent the
long hours pacing up and down under the oaks in the beautiful garden
of the Minister of Foreign Affairs; in deep thought, he awaited the
mobilization order from the King.
Von Moltke, old Roon and Bismarck hold whispered consultations in
which Bismarck is so sure of himself that his mind at times wanders
off war to chatty anecdotes. "This afternoon, in the antechamber of
the King," says Bismarck, "I was so weary I fell asleep on the sofa.
Is not this garden fine? Suppose we take a look at the old trees in
the park, behind the palace?"
* * * * *
¶ Berlin rang with the patriotic "I am a Prussian, know'st thou not my
colors?" and in unnumbered thousands the multitudes pressed around the
palace. On the night of the 29th came the news by telegraph--"First
blood for Prussia!" Berlin goes fairly insane with patriotic joy.
Bismarck leaves the palace at two in the morning; his stern expression
contrasts strangely with the frenzied faces in the crowd; never did
the great man's inherent poise show more clearly, by contrast. The
crowds are singing Luther's hymn, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"--"A
fortress firm in our God." The King comes out on the balcony and
returns thanks. Never-ending cries of triumph force Bismarck to say a
few words from the window of his hotel in the Wilhelms-strasse. It is
a squally, rain-bespattered night, with the tempest near at hand, but
the mobs will not go home. Suddenly, Bismarck raises his hand, shouts
congratulations, ends by inviting a salute for the King and Prussia.
That very instant a peal of thunder rumbles over the city, and a trail
of forked lightning splits the midnight skies. "The very heavens
salute Prussia!" cries Bismarck--and the mobs go wild again.
* * * * *
¶ Bismarck and his King are off to the front. At Sichrow they see the
corpse-strewn field of glory; 5,000 bodies in all the agonizing
attitudes of sudden death are there before the master.
William and Otto pass to the field hospital. The wounded beg for
cigars, and Bismarck writes his wife, "Send cigars by the thousand, by
each courier; also forward copies of the 'Kreutzzeitung.'" This is the
official Bismarckian political organ. So you see, he spreads his
political propaganda, even in the face of death.
¶ Otto winds up his letter with this surprising request, under date,
July 2, Jitschen, "Send me a French novel to read, but only one at a
time."
¶ Then came Sadowa, July 3d. The "Red" Prince Charles assigns his
troops to battle line at dawn, amidst fog and rain. At 9, the King and
Bismarck appear on the bloody field. Bismarck rides his tall roan mare
"Verada," rechristened "Sadowa."
In thunder and smoke the battle goes burning on. For hours the result
is in doubt. All depends on the second battle line, but where is the
Crown Prince? Will he arrive in time?
¶ The vast artillery duel began early and lasted many hours. At the
height of the battle, old King William asked for a cigar, and when the
box was brought took a long time to select one, to his fancy. Bismarck
regarded it as a good sign! "If he can bother about the best cigar,
the battle cannot be lost," was Bismarck's mental comment.
¶ At last, the Austrians began giving way.
¶ In joy, the King took from his neck his own Iron Cross and hung it
on Bismarck's neck.
¶ Moltke came up, bright and happy, with these words: "Your Majesty
has not only won the battle, but the whole campaign."
¶ It was true; the great Austrian war was practically now won, and in
three short weeks!
¶ Sadowa, or Koeniggraetz as the Germans call it, is one of the great
battles of history. There were 445,000 men engaged; Austria lost
30,000 and 1,147 officers.
¶ Bismarck, on his tall roan, was eighteen hours in the saddle;
neither man nor faithful beast had food or drink, except that the
horse, standing now and again among the windrows of corpses, ate
corn-tops and nibbled at leaves. That night, Bismarck slept by the
roadside, without straw, a carriage cushion under his head. The rain
beat down in a drizzle, and for miles the smoke hung like a pall.
Bismarck's rheumatic pains, his weakness from loss of food, wore him
down.
¶ At last, the course of nature can no farther go; and the master
falls into a deep sleep--surrounded by windrows of the dead.
¶ At dawn, as he stood up, half-dead from exhaustion, against the
lowering skies he saw the vultures ready to pick the bones that Glory
had provided in this phase of the terrifying story of German Unity.
¶ The hour of victory again proved Bismarck's astuteness. The
fire-breathers around the King urged that the Prussians march on
Vienna and lay the city in waste; Austria could not prevent; she was
prostrate; but Bismarck said no; and as usual, he had an object. Part
of his far-seeing plan was to take advantage of this psychological
moment to conclude secret treaties with the smaller states, as allies
of Prussia, in case of future wars. It was the forerunner of his last
great work, many years later, the Triple Alliance.
51
Alas, poor human nature! The rejected stone now becomes the
foundation of the palace wall! Otto von Bismarck is justified
at last.
¶ It goes to show that the right man can bring about any idea, whether
to do it makes it necessary to turn Time's clock backward or forward.
Bismarck is magnificent because his extraordinary political work
inspired and carried a new National faith that forced men to bow,
often against their will, to the logic of his own gigantic mind.
Bismarck is magnificent because, too, when the tiger strife was ended,
he who had been despised as the arch tyrant of his time, was now seen
to be the one strong man of his land, who had brought an unwilling
people peace, happiness and prosperity.
¶ After the Austrian war the deputies whom Bismarck had fought granted
immunity to Bismarck for those four turbulent years of unconstitutional
rule; the overjoyed people readily forgave him for exacting 12,000,000
thalers for the secret war chest.
* * * * *
¶ The millions who had looked on him as a madman now hailed him as
little under the stature of a demigod, loaded him with estates, gold,
diamonds, medals, stocked his cellars with the choicest vintages, sent
him train-loads of presents, thousands of felicitations on parchments
done up with blue ribbons, threw up their hats in frenzy only to see
his rattling old coach pass along the streets of Berlin; and in the
National excitement to do something or say something that nobody had
ever thought of, became as children to the extent of offering presents
to Bismarck's dogs.
Also, in the grand distribution of Austrian prize money, Bismarck was
awarded $300,000. With this unexpected good fortune he bought Varzin
estate in Pomerania.
¶ Of late years, his unpopularity has been made clear in a thousand
ways, some harmless, others bloodthirsty; his very life was demanded
more than once, by assassins. But now all had changed.
¶ It is related that a German professor, in Greece, caught out after
dark was beset by bandits.
¶ "Who are you?" they inquired menacingly.
¶ "I am a German."
¶ "Who is your king?"
¶ "The King of Prussia!"
¶ "Ah! Then you are Bismarck!"
¶ And the robbers pulled off their hats and ran headlong in the night.
* * * * *
¶ In America, shops sold Bismarck pipes, Bismarck cravats, Bismarck
hairbrushes, and one came across such advertisements as this: "What is
the difference between Jones' paste and Prince Bismarck? Answer, there
is no difference, because each sticks so fast that once either gets a
hold it is impossible to get away from it."
¶ After Koeniggraetz, the growing sense of German nationality
impressed itself in a thousand joyful ways.
In Spain, lucifer matches bore on the boxes this doggerel:
Als Wilhelm wirkt und Bismarck span
Gott hatte seine Freude dran.
Or, "As William worked and Bismarck spun, God had his joy thereon."
The fashionable world dressed in Bismarck brown; ironclads bore his
name; in Paraguay the "Citizen Bismarck" ran up and down the river;
Bismarck, South Dakota; Bismarck and von Moltke streets; huge Bismarck
strawberries--and what more you please.
¶ The Brandenburg Cuirassiers made him drink out of a silver tankard,
holding a level quart of champagne; Bismarck, at the officers' revel,
put the goblet to his lips and drained the draught in a few long
gulps.
¶ "Another!" cried the National hero.
¶ "Alas," sighed a dyspeptic Frenchman, who heard of it, "champagne
and smoke agree with him--happy man!"
¶ Whenever the Chancellor was out, on foot or on horseback, the news
ran like wildfire through Berlin! Offices were emptied, clerks stood
in windows, the public uncovered and cheered.
¶ The German colony of Constantinople sent him a sword of honor;
thousands begged his photograph, autograph, or lock of his hair;
brewer George Pschorr, at great cost, sent thirty-three gallons of
beer in a carved cask weighing 500 pounds, with solid silver
tankards--veritable gems of art.
¶ Carried away by the general excitement, an inmate of the almshouse
put his name down for $5, on a public list, and when confronted with
his utter inability to pay, replied:
¶ "When the time comes for paying I shall ask them to let me off with
so many days in jail! So many marks, so many days!"
¶ A little town in the Black Forest offered a huge patriotic scroll
composed of bottles of raspberry brandy, with handsome labels,
bordered with the German colors, red, white and black; a Bavarian
organ builder forwarded a huge organ; the inhabitants of Stanaitschen,
a gigantic whip; plovers' eggs came from the people of Jever; the King
of Prussia made Bismarck a Count, presented him with a rich domain;
and in the general excitement, the Chancellor's famous dog Tyras was
honored with a magnificent blanket with his initials worked in gold,
in the four corners, costly collars to match--and a sofa;--also this
explanatory poem:
"Tyras, sei huebsch, artig und gut,
Sei es by Tag, sei es by Nacht!
Bewache unsern Kanzler gut:
Dan wird als Praeset dir dies Kanapé gebracht."
Or, "Tyras, be good, gentle and kind; all day long and through the
night watch over our Chancellor faithfully;--and this gift of a sofa
you'll receive."
* * * * *
¶ But this was only the beginning. At the Universal Exposition in the
jewelers' section, one day a tall stranger was inspecting the
beautiful display, and one of the exhibitors, bowing politely, asked
the stranger to accept a magnificent diamond ring. "Your Highness
knows very well that he cannot deceive me! I respect your Highness'
desire to remain incognito, but your fame has preceded you!"
In vain the stranger protested. The ring was passed, the exhibitor was
highly pleased, the stranger offered a card, "Alexander Schnabel,
Bavaria." The exhibitor still smiled, saying, "I respect your
Highness' incognito!" The stranger then quickly disappeared in the
crowd. What is that shouting over yonder? "Hurrah for Count Bismarck!
He comes! He comes!" In a moment, the diamond merchant saw it all. He
had been cruelly deceived, and furthermore had deceived himself!
52
Strange superstition ingrained in this Bismarck mind; what ikon
do you believe in, as you urge to duty and glory?
¶ In this life, each man has, secretly or openly, some ikon against
which to charge, by way of explanation, his personal history.
In the story of Bismarck many ikons have been used by many writers, to
account for the puzzle of this great man's complex career.
Some call it ambition; others will power; others destiny. Certainly,
in his long and adventurous career Bismarck was often close to death.
¶ Now Bismarck himself always had his own peculiar ikon. He called it
God. His speeches for many years before Sadowa, his protests in behalf
of his King, as against the rising tide of Liberalism, always
contained amidst thunders of political consequence, the name God as
the one explanation of Bismarck's history and Bismarck's ultimate
victory.
¶ If that be true--and it is not for us to say yes or no, for we are
reporting the man as he is and not the way we think he should be--then
God was at the bloody field of Sadowa, on the side of the 221,000
Germans, armed with needle-guns, and not on the side of the 224,000
Austrians, armed with old-fashioned muzzle-loaders;--and the clash of
445,000 men with tens of thousands left dead on the field, was the
final expression of the will of God.
¶ Thus reasoned Bismarck, and surely he should be the best authority
on the conclusions of his own mind? As a matter of fact, Bismarck's
profound belief that God was on his side but shows Bismarck's excess
of faith--the faith that moves mountains.
* * * * *
¶ It has been said by eminent historians that Bismarck as the Unifier
of Germany had in his mind's eye, for many years, the dream of Empire;
and the statement is either true or false.
¶ These writers call Bismarck the man with the vision, the seer, the
German patriot who saw in an early dream the stirring plan to which he
was to devote his long and arduous life.
¶ You are familiar with the painting by LaFarge, depicting the boy
Napoleon, in the school yard at Brien, walking to one side, by
himself? On his youthful brow is already an air of strange
preoccupation, that cloud of ambition, as an outward sign that the
boy's imagination is bodying forth the heroic deeds of the man, many
years hence.
¶ Do not believe it! It is only a poetic fancy, not human life. Plans
such as Bismarck met and carried forth, empires such as Napoleon
founded are not placed constructively before one in a vision, nor are
the complex ramifications attendant upon their ultimate achievement a
matter of pre-vision.
It is only the small mind that plans down to the hair's breadth. Your
truly great man, like Bismarck or Napoleon, takes up life as he finds
it, and little by little learns the business of compelling other men
to do his bidding; and always in this there is a large element left to
the hazard of the die; or to use Bismarck's own phrase just before
Sadowa, "Now we shall see how the god of battle rolls the iron dice!"
Your great man rides forth to the battle, prepared to take instant
advantage of circumstances as they may rise.
¶ Bismarck's idea of United Germany, at least the idea he always gave
to the public, was that the thing might be done, with and through the
power of God.
The word God appears and reappears in connection with his plan; in
his messages, speeches, dispatches, and in his private letters, he
calls on God. I am not here to say that Bismarck had religious
visions. I take it that he never heard mysterious voices or saw
ghostly forms, but instead was an intensely human man who fought out
his life even as you fight out yours--with the powers with which you
are endowed, and for such ends as seem worth the price, to you. The
religious faith learned at his mother's knee, made Bismarck's
life-work a sacred vocation. He believed that he was chosen by God to
educate, guide and discipline the German people.
53
"My dear professor, whoever has once looked into the breaking
eye of a dying warrior on the battlefield, will pause ere he
begins war."
¶ And now we meet Bismarck back in Berlin wearing his Koeniggraetz
military cross, suspended by a ribbon around the collar of his plain
blue Prussian uniform. But the great strain of the years is beginning
to show. For one thing Bismarck's eyes are failing; he uses a glass as
he muses over his mounds of state papers; his face is lined with deep
marks; care has done its work; our Otto is now bald, obese and
stiff-jointed, much more so than his 54 years might seem to call for.
In making speeches he does not speak as boldly, as directly as in days
of yore. He stops, hesitates, stammers, but manages to hold the crowd.
¶ You see he has a world of things on his mind; the under-play of the
great political game absorbs his very life. What, pray, about this
subconscious impression, that everybody has about an impending war
with France? Bismarck, as deep as the sea, is still seemingly as open
as a child.
One day, a famous professor made the fateful inquiry as had hundreds
of journalists--and this time Bismarck replied, "My dear professor,
whoever has once looked into the breaking eye of a dying warrior on
the battlefield, will pause ere he begins a war."
¶ So much for the astuteness of the man with the iron cross. He is
indeed no longer learning the game.
¶ Already Bismarck was thinking of great armaments against France; for
she was now demanding territorial compensations, as between Prussia
and Austria. We find in the "Revue Modern," August, 1865, this
striking interview with Bismarck, by the French writer, Vilbort:
¶ "About 10 p. m. we were in the study of the Premier, when M.
Benedette, the French Ambassador, is announced. 'Will you take a cup
of tea in the salon?' M. de Bismarck said to me, 'I will be yours in a
moment.' Two hours passed away; midnight struck; one o'clock. Some
twenty persons, his family and intimate friends, awaited their host.
¶ "The tiny cloud on the horizon as yet had no name, but this cloud
hung to the west across the Rhine.
¶ "At last he appeared, with a cheerful face and a smile upon his
lips. Tea was taken; there was smoking and beer, in German fashion.
Conversation turned, pleasantly or seriously, on Germany, Italy and
France. Rumors of a war with France were then current for the tenth
time in Berlin. At the moment of my departure, I said: 'M. le
Ministre, will you pardon me a very indiscreet question? Do I take war
or peace with me back to Paris?' M. de Bismarck replied, with
animation: 'Friendship, a lasting friendship with France! I entertain
the firmest hope that France and Prussia, in the future, will
represent the dualism of intelligence and progress.' Nevertheless, it
seemed to us that at these words we surprised a singular smile on the
lips of a man who is destined to play a distinguished part in Prussian
politics, the Privy Councillor Baron von ----. We visited him the next
morning, and admitted to him how much reflection this smile had caused
us. 'You leave for France tonight,' he replied; 'well, give me your
word of honor to preserve the secret I am about to confide to you
until you reach Paris? Ere a fortnight is past we shall have war on
the Rhine, if France insists upon her territorial demands. She asks of
us what we neither will nor can give. Prussia will not cede an inch of
German soil; we cannot do so without raising the whole of Germany
against us, and, if it be necessary, let it rise against France rather
than ourselves.'"
¶ The treasonable speech of the Baron did not, however, bear fruit
"in a fortnight," but Bismarck knew the great political game well, and
everything served him in his German undertakings. We shall see.
54
The curtain falls in triumph on another spirited act in the
great drama "Germania."
¶ The political fruits of Sadowa may be summed up in a few sentences.
We clear the air for the grand finale, at the palace of the French
kings at Versailles, four years later.
¶ By the Prague treaty, August 23, 1866, Austria consented to the
reconstruction of the Federation and retired from the scene.
Bismarck saw that the large states beyond the River Main,--Bavaria,
Wuertemberg, Baden and South-Hesse, were not yet ready for his new
North German Confederation; but he would bring them in--somehow--later!
As for Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Frankfort, and Schleswig-Holstein, they
were now mapped with Prussia, their crime being this, that they had
opposed Prussia in a half-hearted way, before Sadowa.
¶ Bismarck now set up his popular Prussian Constitution. Wonder of
wonders! Really, it differed not in essentials from the hated Liberal
Constitution that he had assailed so vigorously in 1848. Also, up to
1866, the Unifier of Germany had as we have seen always appeared as an
opponent of the National German party. When, however, he had become
its leader, through the great politico-military struggle, he brought
about the results vainly fought for by the patriots in the revolution
of 1848. The distinction was that in the Revolutionary days, the King
would have been obliged to stoop to the gutter for a "people's crown,"
whereas now he need do no such humiliating thing. The two wars had
proven William monarch "by Divine right."
¶ However, a blaze of aristocratic honors at the hands of King William
pleased Bismarck more than he was willing to admit. Count Bismarck,
one night, when the people came with the torchlights, sounded the old
German keynote in a new way, as follows:
¶ "We have always belonged to each other as Germans--we have ever been
brothers--but we were unconscious of it. In this country, too, there
were different races: Schleswigers, Holsteiners, and Lauenburgers; as,
also, Mecklenburgers, Hanoverians, Luebeckers, and Hamburgers exist,
and they are free to remain what they are, in the knowledge that they
are Germans--that they are brothers. And here in the North we should
be doubly aware of it, with our Platt Deutsch, which stretches from
Holland to the Polish frontier; we were also conscious of it, but have
not proclaimed it until now. But that we have again so joyfully and
vividly been able to recognize our German descent and solidarity--for
that we must thank the man whose wisdom and energy have rendered this
consciousness a truth and a fact, in bringing our King and Lord a
hearty cheer. Long live His Majesty, our most gracious King and
Sovereign, William the First!"
¶ A cheer resounded throughout the castle-yard.
¶ The new Constitution gave to the people manhood suffrage and a
popular Assembly. The King of Prussia was made President of the new
Federation, but not its sovereign. Prussia ruled in her own way,
henceforth, but the fiction of the King, as President, served to
steady the minor disgruntled German princelings, who were led to
believe that their councils were still reckoned with in great affairs.
However, the voting was so arranged that Prussia controlled, off-hand,
17 out of 48 units in the new political Confederation--and in a pinch
Bismarck could rely on having the desired majority.
¶ Some say that Bismarck was influenced by the socialist Lasalle to
make concessions to the people, of a piece with the concessions which
in '48 Bismarck had fought because they sprang from revolutionists;
but the liberal aspects of the new Constitution served to place the
great dream of German Unity on a firmer basis than would otherwise
have been possible. Bismarck was learning this: To try to choke the
current of public opinion is folly; the wise man, instead, aims to
direct the waters to his own advantage.
¶ The North German Confederation comprised 22 states and Bismarck was
made Chancellor. The Constitution was adopted February 24th, 1867.
For all practical purposes, the German Empire was now a fact.
¶ But more work was still to be done, by way of bloody Gravelotte,
Metz, Mar-la-Tour, St. Privat, Woerth, Spichern Heights, Sedan, and
the Siege of Paris.
¶ Corpses, corpses everywhere, lying in windrows miles long!
55
The master uses the masses as the gardener utilizes
manure--fertilizing the soil with blood and bones!
¶ Bismarck knows that to demand in an emphatic way is the surest way
of receiving. He is always studying men, looking ahead to the time of
the inevitable French war. He is asking himself, concerning various
monarchs of adjacent nations, opposed to Prussia: "On which side will
he be?" "Is he weak?" "Can he be relied on to stand on my side?" "Is
he dangerous?" "Will he take a bribe?" "At any rate, give him what he
wants--but let me do it in such a way that he thinks he is forcing us
to do what he wants, whereas we know how to make him actually demand
our own terms!"
¶ Thus Bismarck without histronic talent, with his piping voice and
his prohibitory bulk for heroic theater-roles, is at heart the great
actor-manager of his time. Instead of creating parts, he deals them
out.
¶ He goes through this world during these trying times finding the
best men to do his own bidding in the coming war. And when he is
hissed down by those who will not acknowledge his right he breaks
their power by defying them--as the hurricane scatters the clouds, nor
asks permission.
¶ They say that had he lost the Austrian war, he would have gone to
the gallows. Can a Man of Destiny lose?
¶ A new era is dawning. The old worn-out system for a disunited
Germany of 39 jealous states is to be swept away.
¶ For thirty years he dreamed of the inevitable German Union, had his
visions of that glory. He was greater than himself in those black
hours before the Parliament, for four long years thundering for his
side;--with public opinion flat against him, and with mutterings on
part of angry mobs that would bring the rope and hang Bismarck to the
highest tree.
* * * * *
¶ Throughout Germany, distressed as her people had been for years past
by political and social miseries, a growing consciousness of
brotherhood, blood and language was at last about to be politically
realized.
Even Napoleon the Little, political fool that he was in many respects,
at least had one idea that showed his common sense. However, in his
day he was laughed out of court for his "theory of nationality," that
is to say, he believed that people speaking a common language and
living in contiguous territory, have an inalienable right to a common
flag.
¶ Now that is precisely what German poets had in mind, in their
romantic way, when for well-nigh 100 years past they had been dreaming
of a united Fatherland--
Fuer Heim und Herd, fuer Weib und Kind
Fuer jedes treue Gut--
Or, in other words, a man's house is his castle and if men will not
fight for their hearthstones, then they will soon have no
hearthstones.
For home and hearth, for wife and child--
These things we prize the most;
And fight to keep them undefiled
By foreign ruffian host.
For German Right, for German Speech,
For German household ways,
For German homesteads, all and each
Strike men, through battle's blaze!
Hurrah! Hurrah!
Hurrah, Germania!
¶ The words, "Auf, Deutschland, auf, und Gott mit dir!"--"To arms,
Germany, and God be with thee!" is a National hymn breathing the
solemn thought that Germans are not slaves--
Old feuds, old hates are dashed aside
All Germany is one!
¶ Bismarck's work, raw as it may seem in many respects, was
consecrated to the great central idea that the German race is one, or
as the poet Freiligrath puts it in one of his stirring lines, "Das
deutsche Volk ist Eins!"
¶ The whole thing comes down to the inner meaning of the word
"patriotism." Tolstoi calls patriotism a frightful vice; Washington
regarded patriotism as a virtue of virtues.
¶ Take your choice.
¶ He is even now brooding over the element necessary for the
perpetuation of a free and United Germany. He reads his Bible and
prepares for the French war.
¶ Bismarck used the masses as the gardener uses manure. The blood of
the peasantry manured the ground, out of which was to grow the
harvest.