rest at home.—contemplation.—the revolution in paris, february, 1848.—progress of the revolutionary spirit.—the march days of berlin.—the citizen guard.—opening of the second session of the united diet, 2d april, 1848.—prince solms-hohen-solms-lich.—fr. foerster.—“eagle’s wings and bodelswings.”—prince felix lichnowsky.—the debate on the address.—speech of bismarck.—revolution at the portal of the white saloon.—vaticinium lehninense.—the kreuzzeitung letter of bismarck on organization of labor.—bismarck at stolpe on the baltic.—the winter of discontent.—manteuffel.
in a previous section we have already recorded that, shortly after the close of the first united diet, on the 28th of july, 1847, herr otto von bismarck celebrated his wedding at reinfeld, in pomerania, with fr?ulein johanna von putkammer, and then entered upon a journey with his youthful wife by way of dresden, prague, vienna, and salzburg, to italy, meeting his sovereign, frederick william iv., at venice, and finally, returning through switzerland and the rhine-province, fixed his residence at the ancient hearth of his ancestors at sch?nhausen.
it was a short but happy time of rest, passed in rural retirement. the ancient family traits of the bismarcks, after a silent activity in field and forest, became more strongly marked in him than in many other branches of his race, and his wife also retained a charming reminiscence of these peaceful days in sch?nhausen. she still preserves grateful recollections of that happy time. the outward honors, the universal fame of her illustrious husband, have brought no accession of domestic joy; she loves the time in which she was only frau von bismarck, without the excellency.
it is not necessary to say that bismarck, in the happiness of his youthful marriage, had not forgotten his native land; that he still pursued the course of political events with keen appreciation, and could not omit to join in its most serious eventualities. whether he sat in his library amidst his books and maps, roved as a solitary sportsman through his preserves in field or wood, turned to agricultural pursuits with the eye of a proprietor, or visited his neighbors in jerichow or kattenwinkel, he felt an intuitive perception of some great and decisive event about to come. men so politically eminent as bismarck even then was—although he had not, as yet, evinced it in public—bear within them a certain foreshadowing of coming events not to be under-estimated.
when the first news arrived of the revolution of february in paris, bismarck knew for a fact that the signal for a struggle with the prussian monarchy had there been given; he perceived that the wave of revolution would pass over the rhine, and dash against the throne of his sovereign.
he determined upon manly resistance, and his virile courage was not broken when the terrible truth more than fulfilled his anticipations; when the waves of revolution shot with lightning speed through all germany; when a want of presence of mind and irresolute counsels, and at times crass cowardice, rather than ill-will or treason, in almost every direction, lamed or broke down the power of resistance.
he saw, sinking and destroyed, bulwarks and dykes he had held to be unassailable; his heart palpitated with patriotic ardor and manly sorrow, but he lost neither courage nor clear insight, like a true dykesman. it had hitherto been his office to protect the elbe dykes against the floods, and in a similar character it was his duty to act against the floods of revolution. nor[182] has the valiant man unfaithfully acquitted himself of his severe duty.
the march-days of berlin pressed hard upon the heart of the sturdy march-squire, and there ensued a long series of days of grief; for he felt as a personal insult every thing spoken, written, or enacted against his royal master. he passed as in a feverish dream through the streets of the capital of his king, filled with threatening forms.[37] he saw flags displayed and colors fluttering unknown to him; polish standards, tricolors of black, red, and gold, but nowhere the ancient honored flag of prussia. even on the palace of his deceased lord and king the three colors flaunted, ever the battle-standard of the enemies of prussia, never those of the ancient german realm. in place of the proud regiments of guards, he only beheld[183] citizen-soldiers watching in a half-ludicrous, half-dispirited manner. men had ceased to speak; all the world speechified and declaimed; vain folly and ignominious treason grasped each other with dirty hands in an alliance against royalty, and those who ought to have been defending the crown, and indeed desired to do so, found themselves caught in the spider-webs of liberal doctrines: trammelled themselves in the sere bonds of political theories, scornfully rent asunder by the rude hands of revolution.
it was sufficient to bring the burning tear to bismarck’s eye, and his soul struggled in unspeakable torment; but he manfully wrestled insult and vexation down. with a pale but impassible countenance he took his place, on the 2d of april, 1848, in the first session of the second united diet.
the white saloon still existed, but the bright days were gone in which vincke had sought to polish diamonds with diamond-dust; true, the same men were present, but it was a vastly different assembly. in those former days, certain of victory and intoxicated with power, this assembly now meditated suicide; it could scarcely be quick enough in transferring its legislative functions to the new creation, the first-born of revolution, standing impatiently watching at the door.
the president was still the marshal of the guild of nobles, the serene prince of solms-hohen-solms-lich; but the royal commissioner was no longer the freiherr von bodelschwingh-velmede; his place was occupied by the new minister of state, ludolf camphausen—one of the chiefs of the rhine-land liberal party.
some weeks before, a liberal, f. foerster, at the volunteer anniversary, had saluted the minister von bodelschwingh with the compliment that time did not fly with eagle’s wings, but bodelswings; but this very bodelschwingh, the most faithful subject of the king, was now despised by the revolutionary party as an obscure reactionary. there was reason for laughter, had not the crisis been so terribly grave.
camphausen read the well-known royal decree of proposition, after betraying, in his introductory oration, that liberalism no longer felt itself entirely secure; in fact these liberal ministers, such as hansemann, auerswald, schwerin, and bornemann, were[184] not the men able to steer the royal vessel with safety during this severe westerly storm.
prince felix lichnowsky moved the replicatory address. the marshal declared the proposition to be carried unanimously, as he perceived the majority to be of his opinion.
“it is not unanimous. i protest against it!” exclaimed herr von thadden-triglaff.
“carried by an almost unanimous majority!” proclaimed the marshal.
the next proceeding was to frame the address at once, and to accept the plenum at the same session. most unseemly and discreditable haste!
upon this the deputy von bismarck-sch?nhausen rose and said:—
“it is my opinion that we owe to the dignity, ever upheld in this assembly, due discretion in the conduct of all its deliberations; that we owe it to all the simplest rules of expediency—especially on an occasion when we meet for the last time—by no means to deviate from our fixed customs. heretofore every law, however simple, has been referred to a committee, which has considered it with deliberation, and submitted it on the following day to the chamber. i believe at so serious a moment as this, that on the expression of the sentiments of this assembly, still having the honor to represent the prussian people, it is a sufficiently important procedure not to admit of such a hasty consideration of the address—so far removed from the rules of expediency according to my individual feelings.”
bismarck spoke with more than usual hesitation; his features appeared sharper than usual to his friends, his countenance was pale, his white teeth were more visible and prominent, his manner was stolid; he presented the appearance of a man combating a critical hour.
yes—to him it was indeed a critical hour. he was unable to arrest the progress of events, but he was determined to do his duty. the tumult of the streets might rage, the whirlpool of thronging events might carry away with them men usually of the utmost courage; but bismarck was not to be carried away as well. he was unable to stem the rapidity with which the address was draughted, considered, and accepted. milde and company[185] pressed forward, and the second united diet could not be in sufficient hurry to transfer its functions to the convention to be assembled for the consolidation of the constitution.
it is impossible to pursue the progress of this session without pain; it passed over the ruins and fragments of all the royal hopes which but a few months before had existed in all their pride and glory, and appeared so instinct with happiness and founded on such secure grounds.
in this debate on the address it would have been impossible for bismarck to speak, had not his political opponents, von saucken-tarputschen and milde, with much difficulty obtained a hearing for him; so madly was the assembly determined upon self-destruction.
revolution was knocking at the portals of the white saloon.
bismarck, however, said:—“i am one of the few who would vote against the address, and i have only requested permission to speak, in order to explain this disapproval, and to declare to you that i accept the address, in the sense of a programme of the future, at once; but for the sole reason that i am powerless to do otherwise. (laughter.) not voluntarily, but by stress of circumstances; for i have not changed my opinions during these six months; i would rather believe that this ministry is the only one able to conduct us from our actual position into an orderly and constitutional condition, and for that reason i shall give it my inconsiderable support in every case within my power. but the cause of my voting against the address consists in the expressions of joy and gratitude made use of for the events of recent days; the past is buried, and i mourn it with greater pain than many among you, because no human power can reawaken it—when the crown itself has scattered ashes upon the coffin. but if i accept this from the force of circumstances, i can not retire from my functions in this diet with the lie in my mouth that i shall give thanks and rejoice at what i must in any sense hold to be an erroneous path. if it be indeed possible to attain to a united german fatherland by the new path now pursued, to arrive at a happy or even legally well-ordered condition of things, the moment will have come when i can tender my thanks to the originator of the new state of things; but at present this is beyond my power.”
this was the earnest language of a true statesman, and it was not without its impression even then. when bismarck ended, no one dared to laugh. he accepted the situation because he had no other course open to him; but he could not return thanks for that which appeared likely to militate against his reverence for his king. he knew that the past was beyond recall, now that the crown had itself cast ashes upon its coffin—nor, indeed, was it at all within the thoughts of bismarck ever to reawaken the past. he could mourn over the past, and this with considerable affliction; but he began to arm himself for the future; that future he resolved to conquer for the monarchy.
such were the events of the 2d of april, 1848.
the immediate necessity was to strive against revolution, which continued to advance with bloody feet and shameless countenance. first, conferences were held with friends and allies of equal rank and similar opinions; arrangements were made in all directions. he exhibited a restless activity, at first apparently without any hope, and which seemed to lead to no results for weeks, though it were destined in the end to bear fruit. such was the policy pursued by the faithful royalist in the terrible spring and summer of 1848, passed by him alternately at sch?nhausen, berlin, potsdam, reinfeld, and (on the occasion of the presence of the prince of prussia) at stettin.
bismarck was one of those who labored most assiduously and successfully towards the erection of a barrier against revolution even at the twelfth hour. a royal or conservative party could not be conjured up out of the earth, but the elements for such a party, existing in great multitude, were assembled in clubs, united by ties, gradually organized, and finally disciplined.
nor did bismarck ever falter in courage, for he trusted in the divine mercy and the kingdom of prussia, but not in the well-known prophecy of lehnin, as the liberal historian, adolf schmidt, asserted,[38] no matter whether the librarian la croze in 1697 really saw a copy of this document in the hands of a von sch?nhausen at berlin or no. the herr von sch?nhausen in question could scarcely have been a bismarck, as professor schmidt would seem to infer, and our bismarck was, in any case,[187] sufficiently informed to know for what purpose the so-called vaticinium lehninense had been forged, and possessed other sources whence to draw confidence and trust. the revolution had to be combated by clubs and by the press—both so dangerous to the monarchy. no one was more active in the organization of these than bismarck; he entered with confidence on the ground whither events had driven him. thus arose the prussian clubs, the patriotic societies, and many others, and at last the club which bore as its motto, “mit gott für k?nig und vaterland”—(with god for king and country). the new prussian gazette, with bismarck’s aid, was founded, as well as many smaller periodicals. there was also the new prussian sunday news, which, sent in thousands to the smaller towns and provinces, became a powerful weapon.
bismarck at the same time kept a vigilant eye upon the “vereinbarungs” society in berlin, and the parliament at frankfurt, but he never joined the meetings in the church of st. paul, nor the academy of music, nor those in the concert room of the royal theatre in berlin. we do not know whether it would then have been possible for him to have succeeded in getting elected for berlin or frankfurt; at any rate, he never thought of doing so, for he was firmly convinced that nothing stable would be created in either place.
we will here give a highly characteristic example of the manner in which bismarck so powerfully and openly attacked the malicious and silly aspersions upon the junkers, then the order of the day, showing with what acuteness and ability he could encounter the hollow declamations of unconscientious sophists. at the end of august he published the following address, in the form then greatly in vogue, of a communiqué:—
“the deputy for the belgard circle, herr j?nsch, asserted in the debate of the 16th instant that the pomeranian laborers only obtained from 2? to 4 silber groschen per day, and in addition to this had to give 190 days’ labor for nothing. if so, the 52 sundays being subtracted, the earnings of a laborer in the other 123 days, calculated at an average of 3? sgr., would represent 13 thlr. 9 sgr. 9 pf.[39] that no man can live upon that every one must see—even herr j?nsch, if he takes the trouble to think further[188] about it. i should therefore have characterized the statement of this gentleman as a deliberate lie in his official capacity as a national representative, had not the demand for a uniform wage of 6 sgr. proved that herr j?nsch has either not been able, or not had leisure, to make himself acquainted with the condition of the most numerous class of the electors he represents. for with a wage of 6 sgr. the pomeranian laborer would be worse off than he is now. the laborers on the estate of kniephof, circle stargard, for the last eight years, during my residence at that place, were living under the following conditions, which are the same, with very slight differences, common to the whole district—indeed, i could prove that in other places, such as zimmerhausen and trieglaff, they are even better off. the daily wage certainly is, in summer, 4 sgr. per man, 3 sgr. per woman, and in winter 1 sgr. less in each case; and they have to give 156 man’s days’ work and 26 woman’s days’ work in the year without pay. but each working family received from the proprietor the following advantages free:—
“1. house, consisting of parlor, bedroom, kitchen, cellar, and loft, stabling for their cattle of every kind, and the necessary barn accommodation, which is all maintained by the proprietor.
“2. three morgen (acres) plough-land, one for winter corn, one for summer, one for potatoes, for which the laborer finds the seed, but the estate furnishes the appointments, inclusive of manure; add to this one-half morgen (acre) of garden ground, near the house, and one-half morgen (acre) for flax; the whole profit of this superficies belongs to the laborer.
“3. pasture for two cows, six sheep, and two geese with their broods; hay for one cow during the winter.
“4. firing, consisting of turf, and the right of gathering wood through three morgen of forest.
“5. corn from the proprietor’s land, five scheffel (sacks) rye, one of barley.
“6. on an average each laborer gets fifteen scheffel (sacks) corn of each kind for threshing.
“7. medical attendance and medicines free.
“8. if the husband dies the widow receives, until her children are grown up, dwelling-room, one morgen of potatoes, one-half morgen of garden, one-quarter morgen of flax, and one cow,[189] which feeds and pastures with the proprietor’s herd, without any kind of return on her part.
“every day-laborer—those who have not grown-up daughters—keeps one servant-girl, with wages of, say 10 thalers (￡1 10s.) per annum, who, on account of the laborer, performs services to the proprietor, which the laborer’s wife never does, but takes care of the children, and cooks.
“the pay in cash, which such a family, with servant, according to the foregoing tariff, after deducting the produce, much of which remains for sale, is ascertained, according to the number of children able to assist in the work, to be about 34 to 50 thalers per annum.[40] a family without children receives, after deducting the 190 non-paid days (including 60 days for threshing) and the 52 sundays = 242 days (inclusive of market-days and the like), annually, in cash-paid days for man and maid—some of these days being semi-labor days, and so justifying the apparent difference—52 days at 4 sgr., 178 days at 3 sgr., and 150 days at 2 sgr., in all 34 thalers 22 sgr. if this be added to the above-named produce, it will not be astonishing that the pomeranian laborers would not be disposed to exchange their present condition for the poor 6 sgr. per day which herr j?nsch in his ignorance would obtain for them.[41] i will not boast, but only state, as a matter of fact, that the greater number of the proprietors have hitherto voluntarily adopted the usual practice of supporting the inhabitants during calamity, cattle murrain, and years of famine—many to a degree of which the babbling philanthropists who declaim against the junkers have no idea whatever. in the past year of famine, in which the deputy master butcher j?nsch made a disturbance in belgard, which, if i mistake not, obtained some notice from the court of justice, the large class of proprietors he has attacked by erroneous or fictitious statements made great sacrifices to give the inhabitants of their estates no reason to increase the class of the dissatisfied, at the head of whom deputy herr j?nsch now fights to attain tumultuary laurels. i have added this personal remark in order to draw the attention of herr j?nsch to the rest of the article, and thus afford him the opportunity[190] of learning something of the condition of the class he asserts himself to represent; a condition of which he ought to have known, before he talked about them in the national assembly.
“bismarck.
“sch?nhausen, the 21st august, 1848.”
the then deputy for belgard has never attempted to obtain any advantage by a reply!
immediately after the days of march, bismarck, impelled by his prussian heart, addressed a letter to his majesty; not a political letter, full of counsels and plans, but an outpouring of the feelings produced by the moment. throughout the whole of that summer this letter lay upon king frederick william’s writing-table, as a precious token of unchangeable prussian fidelity. during that summer, so fraught with weighty events, bismarck was often called to sans-souci, and the king took his advice in many important affairs.
stolpe, on the baltic, was the residence of bismarck for some weeks of the summer. an incident of his life is furnished by a spectator. after one of the concerts denominated “navy concerts”—for in those days an opinion was entertained that a fleet could be built by means of beer-drinking, concert-pence, and such similar “miserabilities” of good intentions—bismarck, drawing himself up to his full height, majestically addressed one of the gentlemen who had been active in the concert, greeting him as an acquaintance, and added: “you have taken pains to make the work somewhat hotter for us!” it was one of the hottest days of the year. an anxious smile played upon his lips, but bright daring spoke in the firm contour of the bearded face. his hat alone bore the prussian colors. it was indeed refreshing to see such a man in those days.
and when the “winter of discontent” came for democracy, when the question of saving the construction of a ministry was prominent, it was bismarck who took the initiative concerning the introduction of the elder von manteuffel, his partisan at the united diet, and thus drew the eyes of the people upon the man who promptly restored order. he had discovered the right man for the situation as it then existed.
