New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-07-22
THE CAUSE OF THE WAR.


Benedict and King william.
From the New York World
The direct cause of the final rapture be-
tween France and Prussia seems to have
been, as the direct causes Of such raptures
are too often apt to be personal COLI
sion of an unpleasant character between
two eminent personages. These were the
King William Of Prussia and Count Bene-
ditti, the French ambassador at the Prus-
sian court. King William was at Ems,
near Wiesbaden, place where neither his
majesty nor the Prussians are particularly
admired, but the waters of which are found
to be beneficial to the venerable and rather
morbidly bilious constitution OF the mon
arch. Where the king is there is the court,
and the French ambassador consequently
was at Ems, also, conducting the negotia-
tions set on foot by the sudden explosion of
the Prim- Bismarck continuance for getting
a Prussian price upon the throne OF SPAIN
These negotiations were rather delicate,
since they were intended by France to
bring the Prussian sovereign to fiat dis
avOwal of any hostile intentions in permit
ting the prince, his kinsman, to accept the
Spanish crown. The personal temper OF
the king was, therefore, an element
of peculiar importance in the conduct OF the
affair; for King William well knew both that
the intention of Bismarck in organizing with
Prim the candidacy of Prince Leopold really
had been hostile to France, and that he
himself had for years, desired nothing so
much as an opportunity Of relieving his
soul of profound hereditary hatred of
Frenchmen in general and OF the Bona
parties in particular. Yet, at the same time,
he was we'll aware that he could not posi-
bly, afford, in his capacity as an European
sovereign, to confess that he had connived at
the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of a member Of his own
family with the express object OF insulting
and circumventing friendly power. Had
Count Bismarck been intrusted by the King
with the management of the affair, even out
of this dsagreeable complication peace with
honor might have been perhaps evolved.
For Count Bismarck, with all his contempt
for abstract right, and his love for brusque
and peremptOry solutions of diplomatic i'm
brOgliOs, understands and appreciates the
importance of the public opinion of Europe,
. and Of polite forms very much better
than King William, who, indeed, neither
understands nor appreciates them at all.
But Count Bismarck has been growing out
of favor with his master for some time, ex
actly in proportion as the King has become
recOnciled with Count Bismarck's bitter
personal enemy, the Crown Prince. So
King William insisted upon managing his
intercourse with Count Benedict himself
A sketch of the two men will satisfy the
reader how inevitable was the result of this
royal wilfulness. King William of Prussia
is one of the oldest Of reigning sOvereigns.
He was born in the midst Of the first French
revolution. As a child he witnessed the
humiliation of Prussia, of his father and Of
his family by the first Napoleon, and as a
youth he took part in the avenging cam
paigns of 1913 and 1915. These events gave
a decisive color to his opinions andllis char
acter for life. A younger son, he gave him.
self up to a military career, felt and pro-
fessed openly the utmost contempt for de-
mocracy and constitutionalism, and made
himself SO obnoxious to all the Liberals of
Prussia that in lS4S he was forced to fly the
Kingdom after doing his utmost to TON in.
duce the government to allow
in the blood Of the Berlinese. Camp
hansen contrived to get him back after an
exile Of nine months in England; and in
I849 he signalized himself by his victorious
and merciless campaign against the people
of Baden. In 1854 he was made Governor
General of Rhenish Prussia, and during his
residence ut Mayence he contributed greatly
to intensity the hatred with which Prussia
has long been regarded in that city, doomed
by the military strength of its position to
see all its splendid commercial advantages
reduced to nOught. He bitterly opposed
the neutrality of Prussia in the Crimean
war, longing then to lead an army against
France. He became Regent in 1857 by the
declared lunacy. and King in 1861 by the
William ~. With his reign began the new
military career and policy of Prussia.
In October, 1861, he had himself
crowned with great pomp, and de-
clared that he held his throne
not from the people or the constitution, but
from God alone" This brought on an
open conflict between the Crown and the
Parliament. during which the King never
for a moment bated his naughty absolutism.
When the Liberal party carried the cleo
tions. in 1862 the King refused TO open the
session of Parliament, and when the Parlia-
ment rejected the enormous appropriation
asked for the army, the King sent for Bis
marck, then Ambassador at Paris, to help
him conquer these obstinate cOntemners OF
divine right. The House of Peers backed
the King. The Commons persisted. The
Peers voted the money refused by the Com
mons. The Commons declared the vote
illegal. The King thereupon closed the
session. and cOOlly proclaimed that the APP
preparations had been made. This was the
first instance of a successful royal revOlu-
ton against the rights of the people III the
history of Europe since the days Of 1889. 1t
was followed by prosecutions of the press,
by an alliance with Russia to suppress the
Polish insurrection, by an ordinance
suppresslng the liberty OF the press; and
when the Liberal party succeeded in 1863 in
carrying the elections again by a great ma
iority, the King at once 1anked them by
opening the war with Austria against Den
mark for the conquest of Schleswig-
Holstein Foreign war thus became, as it
had SO often before become. the grave of
domestic liberty. The war of 1866 against
Austria completed what the war Of 1863
against Denmark had begun; and King
William of Prussia is to-day as completely
the representative of armed and irrespon-
sible kingly power in Europe as was the
Gar Nicholas in 1854. He looks the charac-
ter as Thoroughly as he believes in it. Stall
wart, Ieep-chested, with square. rugged
face, bristling, gray mOustache, cold, i'm
pIacable eyes, which rather twinkle than