Blood and Iron Part 22

-- Bismarck's course would have been made somewhat easier had he not openly refused to sit with President Simpson, at the Erfurt convention, denouncing the President as "a converted Jew!"

-- The convention broke up, to meet again in Berlin, where a Prussian Const.i.tution was drawn up.

-- Events moved rapidly. Austria now stood forth for resumption of authority by the Old Diet, established by the Congress of Vienna, while from Berlin one heard of a plan for a "restricted union."

Talk, talk, talk. Finally, in September, 1850, Austria invited Prussia to a seat in the Old Diet. Prussia refused, and the cat was out of the bag.

It meant that German Unity must come through Prussian supremacy and Austrian humiliation--otherwise all might well be forgotten.

But Austria was by no means so easily disposed of. There was much life and fighting blood in her yet!

-- Bismarck's opinions during his years of preparation were, on the whole, unchanging, though often presented in different dress. In 1848, he bitterly objected to the King's softness in recalling his troops from Berlin, instead of definitely crushing the March rebellions; in '49, he stood steadily beside the King in refusing the people's crown, from Frankfort; in 1850, he deplored the Prussian diplomatic defeat at Olmuetz, but swallowed his mortification because he saw that Prussia was not ready to strike; "and he thereon a.s.sisted in reconciling his party to a policy which he deplored."

This situation convinced Bismarck that the first duty of a Prussian statesman is to strengthen the army, "that the King's opinions can be upheld at home; likewise backed by the mailed fist, Prussian authority will be respected abroad."

-- "My idea," he says in his Memoirs, "was that we ought to prepare for war, but at the same time to send an ultimatum to Austria, either to accept our conditions in the German question, or to look out for our attack."

-- Thus out of the Revolution of 1848, Prussia emerged with a written Const.i.tution, establishing a legislative a.s.sembly and giving the people a share in their government.

-- Bismarck's inconsistencies? Yes, by the score, but he was playing a deep game of politics, for his King, and for his beloved German Unity.

Always, you must understand that Bismarck scorned the political Millennium alleged to have been brought in by the French Revolution; with the political ideas from over the Vosges Bismarck would have nothing to do. That old war-cry "the people" made him sick! He believed in discipline and not in mob-rule. But he would not rush unprepared into the war.

-- It is a fact that, in 1850, Prussia had cause for war far more just than that on which she seized in 1866. But Bismarck made his famous anti-war speech!

-- "Woe to the statesman who does not look about for a reason for the war that will be valid, when the war is over!" were his astonishing sentiments.

-- What he really meant was that Prussia was not just then ready to fight; hence, he painted war as detestable; later on, however, we shall see how he looks upon war, when Prussia is ready!

-- Prussia, through her political endors.e.m.e.nt of the people (1850) did not suddenly become a Parliamentary state, despite William's new Const.i.tution. Broad privileges were granted, but Prussia remained an absolute monarchy. While there was henceforth to be a certain restricted cooperation between Crown and Crowd, the Divine-right theory that had come down through the ages was not weakened or its authority compromised; in short, by conciliating certain hostile popular elements, led by fire-breathing first-cousins of the French Revolutionists, a large part of the hated Liberal programme was done away with, in turn consolidating the power of the Prussian kings.

-- This situation also defines the political evolution essential before Germany could become a Nation. Despite various historians, Germany could not at this hour have proclaimed herself a Republic.

-- Bismarck realized more and more, as he grew in experience and power, that the Germans were sick unto death of political experiments; they wanted unity, as a matter of course, but by unity they really meant a head to the National house; a strong father, to advise, protect and punish his children. The parallel extends to the German idea of National rule; thoroughness, efficiency, discipline take the place of political expediency, job-holding for the mere sake of job-holding; in church, in state and in family life the idea of a great central Authority alone satisfies the German mind.

-- Thus, the German conception of a Nation is intensely practical; the state is not merely an aggregation of office-holders, but the state is primarily a vast inst.i.tution, efficiently administered by the best minds, and these servants of the people are instantly responsible to the great central authority, whose power of removal for cause may be exercised as the father corrects his children, for the good of the family.

-- To these fundamental ideas, based on the soul of the German people, Bismarck now addressed himself for many years to come. He knew what the German race demands; his a.n.a.lysis was psychologically correct, although few patriots of '48 could see it that way.

-- As his years of apprenticeship pa.s.s, Bismarck carries on his mission in a new way: is decided to lead Prussia to the conquest of Germany; is done with political platform-making except in so far as the alignments of politics lend themselves to his final purpose.

-- With political instinct for gigantic projects carried out with realism, the King's Man now determined the bold outlines of his National policy.

He did not worry about details: these he would fill in, as time pa.s.sed; but he would on one side hold fast to German National unity and on the other side would sustain Prussian kingcraft as the very voice of G.o.d for Germany; one of Bismarck's strongest ideas was that the King of Prussia was the vicegerent of Christ on this earth. In short, Germany must come through Prussian supremacy, and incidentally exalt Prussian supremacy, otherwise it might not come at all.

-- To clear William's Divine-right once for all, so far as our story goes, let it be known that German historians have always laid stress on the respect of Teutonic tribesmen, from ancient days, for the leadership of a strong fighting man. Tacitus, the earliest writer of importance, detailing the lives of Teutonic tribes, sets forth that it was the custom of the German warriors in times of crises to select their strong man and endow him with the power of rulership; looking to him in turn to lead the tribe to war against the common enemy. This reliance upon kings who were also powerful war lords continuing through the centuries, satisfied the fundamental aspirations of the Germans in their will to military power; but as the generations pa.s.sed the old story of human nature was proved anew, that is to say, what begins as a "privilege" ends as a "demanded right." On the side of the kings, was now proclaimed more loftily than ever that monarchy is the voice of G.o.d.

BOOK THE FOURTH

Blood is Thicker than Water

CHAPTER X

Socrates in Politics

35

Perfecting himself in political intrigue and in vituperative debating, also in caustic letter-writing; all is necessary grist for the Bismarck mill.

-- We come now to the year 1851.

-- The entrance of Emperor Francis Joseph, at this time, on the politico-military stage of Austria was followed by still another era of political reaction; the Liberal Austrian const.i.tution, wrested during the riots, was revoked; as were also those Democratic const.i.tutions pledged for almost every German state.

-- The Germanic Confederation, with political legitimacy vested in the curious Frankfort Parliament, again took the field. It was an Austrian plan to get the advantage of Prussia.

-- "If I do not do well, you can recall me," Bismarck told William. The King decided in his extremity to hazard the appointment of the unknown Bismarck, as Prussian delegate to Frankfort. William remembered those bold "White Saloon" speeches.

-- Now get this straight: Bismarck was a land-owner of ancient days; estates won by the sword had been in the Bismarck family for 600 years; nay, the Bismarcks traced their knighthood to the far-distant year 1200. The force of this appeal in the blood was at once profound and irresistible.

-- Bismarck to the day he died was always an Alt Mark va.s.sal to his liege lord and master, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the King of Prussia. So much is clear.

Bismarck was also much more than this. We repeat, he was a leader of men. The King of Prussia could command old families in scores if not in hundreds, to support the Ancient Regime, socially and politically, but where find that rare man, a born leader for the cause?

-- Duty and self-interest prompted Bismarck to hold up the royal hand, but after all is said, the vital force of Bismarck's endors.e.m.e.nt was found in the man's genius for leadership. It was not so much the cause as it was the man. For had Bismarck gone over to the other side the history of Germany would have been vastly different.

-- This Frankfort parliament, a hydra-headed political creation dedicated to liberty, was in secret doing the purposes of Austrian plutocracy and reaction; it was to be the last stand of the Old Regime, against Democracy.

But it was necessary to move with cautious foot. The sappers were at work under the thrones, and at any instant the mines might be touched off.

-- Bismarck thus, quite by accident, finds himself the representative of William IV, in Frankfort Diet or Bundestag, the political Punch and Judy show originally set up by Metternich, in 1815, to rule the quarreling thirty-nine German states. Their intense individualism was such that Metternich, who dominated at the Congress of Vienna, after the downfall of Napoleon, did not know what was best.

All other parts of Europe, and even the islands of the seas had been rea.s.signed, but no human being could tell what to do with the turbulent thirty-nine German states.

-- "Here, then, was a mysterious 'Court of Chance,' where things dragged on for years, a political circ.u.mlocution office, hopelessly bound by its own interminable seals, parchments and red tape."