The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-10

to constitutional life, and held together in |
opposing its spread in the smaller States, in
these latter hostility to the "BundeStdg," the
pitiful remnant Of German unity, passed for
patriotism. Indeed, il could not long
be concealed that nothing could
come of spirited speeches in the small
States, 80 long as their Governments could fall
back upon the "Bundestag," that is upon
the two obsolete leading States. Thoughts
of representation of the people in the Bund
were floating; in Prussia hopeful, if imper-
feet step was being taken in the meeting of
the United 'Llanderstag;" when, for the
second time, an impulse from your country
the February revolution-struck into the
cause of German development. These French
influences we're dangerous for us only so
long as they found us weak; in proportion as
we gained internal strength, they became
more and more desirable, SO that this last,
which was thought to be most unfortunate
for us is to-day bringing to our view more
auspicious consequences than all earlier
ones The impulse of 1S4s came upon
us at moment when in each
of the German States men hal co ne to be
convinced of the fruitlessnnss of all separate
strivings for freedom and popular well-being,
and al one stroke it forced the idea of Ger
man unity to the surface. In the German
Parliament, elected by the general vote, this
thought gained for the first time political
organ, before whose moral authority all ex-
listing individual powers had for some time to
fall into the back ground But if during the
twenty years of reaction the idea of German
unity had had its life principally among our
students, 80 he who would deride might say
that in 1S4S it had passed to
the professors, and so far at least
with truth as in every educated German, ac-
cording to the common expression, there was
something of professor. Enough; the thing
was very thoroughly in theory, but also very
impracticably, set going. In fencing princi-
pies of right, and debating over paragraphs
of the Constitution, invaluable time was lost,
till, unobserved, the actual powers had re-
gained their strength, and the ideal fabric of
new Germany dissolved like castle in the
clouds. From such airy heights the German
imperial throne had been offered to prince
who, although in other respects the man of
the people, had yet so much true insight
that he could neither believe himself
to be the right man for the crown, nor
the crown itself to be a possibility. The
attempts which he then made to appro-
pirate some part of what had been offered
to him ended even more pitifully than the
attempt of the German people to constitute
itself anew. In the course of these struggles
the dualism of Austria and Prussia had more
and more brought itself before mems eyes as
the essential misfortune of Germany During
Metternich's time, Prussia had been kept in
tow by Austria, and this had been thought
the guarantee of all order and security. It's
present attempts, each more earnest than the
last, to have its own will and to carry out its
own proper aims, were not less disagreeable
than novel to Austrian policy Whatever,
therefore, from this time onward, was under
Prussia, beginning with the Zoll-
verein, was both secretly and openly opposed
by Austria Germany fell into the
condition of wagon with one horse before
and another of equal strength pulling be-
hind, with no hope Of moving. But the
times educate their men, provided that
among the young growth there are charac-
ters of the right stuff, and that these find
themselves in their right places Herr Won
Bismarck was a man of such stuff, and in his
position in the "Bundestag' in Frankfort he
was in the right place for penetrating into
the inmost seat of Germanys weakness. 1t
was indeed his Prussian pride which swore re-
venge upon Austria for the humiliations which
she had destined for Prussia; but in this
he was not unconscious that, with
Prussia, Germany also would be helped for
ward. On occasion of the war in Schleswig-
Holstein, the phenomenon was for a moment
seen of the two horses pulling side by side;
yet the end was hardly attained before the
old opposition began again. Now was the
time to cut the traces which fastened the
back pulling horse to the wagon; so would it
be an easy task for the other to move it for
ward true Columbus egg, this thought. 1t
would have seemed that every one must have
shared it, yet there was but one man-if the
thought was not his alone-who conceived
the true means to carry it into effect.
In the life of nations as of individuals
there are times when that which we have long
wished and striven for presents itself in SO
strange shape that we recognize it not, and
even turn away from 1t in displeasure and
resentment So was it with the Austrian
war of 1866 and its consequences. 1t brought
to US Germans what we had so long wished
for, but it brought it not in the manner that
we had wished, and therefore a great part of
the German nation thrust it away from them.
We had hoped to work at the unity of Ger
many from the popular idea from the popu-
lar desire, from the thoughts of its best
men. Now it was by the action of the
de tdctO powers, by blood and iron, that we
! saw the road cut out. We had hoped so wide
and so high had been the range of the idea
to include in one constitution the entire Ger
man race Now, as the result of actually
present relations, not only the Germans in
Austria, but the intermediary South German
States, remained excluded. 1t needed time to
reconcile German Idealism, and perhaps Ger
man obstinacy, with the fact which it found
before it; but the might, nay, the reasonable
ness of this fact, was so irresistible that in
the shortest time the better view had made a
most happy progress.
That which in no small measure contri-
buted to throw a light even upon the most
blinded was the attitude which France took
up toward these events. France had let it be
seen that she hoped to strengthen her pre-
emipence by means of the internal conflicts