Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-10-12
ALsACE AND LORRAINE.
The German Republican Protest
Against Annexation.


The following is the most significant
part of the speech for making which DR..
Johann J. Jacoby was arrested at Konigs-
berg:
''The principal question which we are
to discuss is, Has Prussia or Germany
right to annex Alsace and Lorraine to it.
selfG We are told Alsace and Lorraine
belonged formerly TO Germany France
gained possession of them by fraud and
| force; now, when we have conquered the
French, it is no more than right and
proper that we should take back the prize
that we should ask for the restoration
of ovr stolen property. Gentlemen, do
not be led astray by such fine-sounding
words. And, even if you were to be
Offered all the riches of the world, do not
bow down to the idol of force. Test
these fne-sounding words, and you will
Ind that they are nothing but cloak for
the old barbarian law of right. Alsace
and Lorraine, we are told, were German
property, and must again become
German. What we ask: Have Al
SAGE and Lorraine, then, no inhab-
itants, or are the dwellers in these
PiON3lAlCo ~ uldb41 6CubClCoo bulllRS, VI
which you can without more ado take
possession, and which you can push
hither or thither just as you will2 Have
they, by war, forfeited their rights? Have
they become slaves, whose fate the con-
queror can arbitrarily decided Even the
most jealous, the most thorOugh-goiag
advocate of annexation admits that the
Alsacians and Lorrainers are, body and
soul, French, and wish to remain so.
And, even had they as bitterly as posi-
bic offended against us, it would be
still contrary to all human rights
that we should by force
make them Germans-that we
should against their will incorporate them
into Prussia or any other German State.
Gentlemen, there is an old proverb which,
on account of its truth, has become a
universally admitted principle of morality:
what you would not like to be done to
yourself, do not to others How would
we-how would our National Liberals
ike victorious Pole, on the ground of
right, to demand back and annex the
Provinces of Posen and West Prussia
And yet the very same reasons could be
validity advanced in favor of such meas
ure as the advocates of the annexation of
Alsace and Lorraine now bring for
ward. No, gentlemen; it is our
duty to oppose such movements of Ma
tional self-seeking. Let us hold firmly to
the dictates of right-as in private, so let
it be in public life. Let us proclaim it as
our deep, firm conviction that every in
corporation of foreign territory against
the will of its inhabitants is violation of
the right of people to decide for itself,
and, therefore, as blamsble as it is dan
gerous. Unblinded by the intoxicating
success of the moment, let US raise our
protest against every violence to the in
habitants Of Alsace and Lorraine. He
alone who respects the freedom of others
is himself worthy of freedom.
At the conclusion of this energetic
speech, the meeting passed the following
resolution:
"The members of the popular party,
here assembled, express as their convIc-
ton that neither the declaration of war
by Napoleon nor the German feats of
arms give the conqueror the right to dis
pose of the political fate of the inhabi-
tants of Alsace and Lorraine On the
ground of the right of nation TO decide
for itself, in the interests of freedom and
of peace, we protest against every forci
BILE annexation of French territory"