The sun., 1895-04-01
Bismarck's Birthday.

Not only in the fatherland itself, but
wherever men OF German parentage may
dwell, the name Of BISMARCK will be
cheered to-day. as that of the chief and in
dispensable agent in raising Germany to
. higher place in the estimation Of mankind
than she had occupied since the death of
CHARLEMAGNE. 1t may be said that, but
for the cordial appreciation and unwaver-
1ng support which he received from his
royal master, WILLIAM l., he could never
have evolved a series Of propitious diplo-
matte conjunctures and that these again
might have been fruitless had not the Prus-
sian army been admirably reorganized by
Wow Room and directed on the battlefield
by the rare skill of VoN MoLTKE. This is
but to say that statesman, like every
other workman, must have tools to work
with and material to work on; that his
achievements are not referable solely to his
individual capacity, but depend in part on
the nature Of his environment and of the
instruments ready to his hand. All that he
can do is to contribute to the production Of
precious opportunities; to seize them when
they arise; to divine precisely when the
sword should be thrown into the scale; and
to make the utmost Of military success by
the exercise of far-seeng statecraft.
II ono should undertake to measure the
weight Of BIsMARCK's personality, consider
Cd as a factor in German history, one would
have to mark not only the breadth and the
depth Of the transformations which Ger
many has undergone since he was born, but
also to what extent these changes took
place after his entrance into public life, and
may be directly attributed to his influence.
So far as contemporaries can judge, it seems
certain that, but for BISMARCK the German
nation would be as disunited, as unrespect-
ed, and as powerless to-day as it was eighty
years ago. When BISMARCK was born,
April 1, 1915, the Congress Of Vienna was
in session, and, although Prussia received
from that body compensation for her losses
in the Napoleonic wars, she obtained only a
subordinate place in the newly created Ger
man Confederation; and the thirty-seven
minor States represented in that league
were drawn by fear or by attachment to the
HAPsBURas rather than to the HoHENZoL-
LERNs. Now, the capital fact to be kept in
view is, that this exact state of things existed
when in the summer of 1851 BISMARCK, as
the envoy of Prussia. entered the Diet of the
Confederation at Frankfort, and began his
years previously the friends of German uni
ty and liberty had carried out what seemed
for the moment a successful revolution, had
extorted liberal Constitutions from many
Of the local rulers, had organized national
parliament, and in its name had offered the
imperial crown to the Prussian sovereign.
But that offer had been refused the nation
al uprising had collapsed; reaction had tri
umphed all over Europe; and in 1861, as
we have said, the Diet of the loose -jointed,
discordant, impotent Confederation had re-
sumed its sittings as if nothing had hap
pened. Nothing had happened, except that
the hunger of the German people for unity
and greatness had been so whetted by brief
indulgence that, when 1t should be once
more appealed to by a statesman able to give
1t satisfaction, the response was certain to
be irresistible
That was one of the tremendous instru-
ments which stood ready to B1sMARCK's
hands. Another was the traditional ami
mostly with which Germany regarded
France, which for centuries had humliated
plundered, and dismembered her. Mighty
levers these, no doubt, but in the his
tory of the last forty years there is no evil
dence disccrnible that any German except
BISMARCK was alive to their immeasurable
potency, or possessed the sinews requisite
to WELD them. He recognized from the
outset that the prime condition of German
unity and rehabilitation was the suppress
sion of the Austro- Prussian dualisIn that to
this end the HAPsBURGs must be first iso-
lated in Europe and then cast out of Ger
many; and that for the attainment of such
Il .,I
firm friendship of Russia, and to enlist
against Austria the cupidity of France and
Of Sardinia. The Cars good will was
gained by Prussia's refusal to follow the
lead of the Vienna Government and join the
Western powers in the Crimean war The
sympathies of France and of the house of
Savoy were gained when Prussia held back
The German Confederation from making a
timely interposition on Austria's behalf dur
ing the Italian campaign of 1859. The
Schleswig HOlstein problem, which had tor
tured and befogged the intelects of genera
tions of diplomats, was next so grasped and
solved by BISMARCK as practically to give
Prussia both of the coveted duchies
and to leave Austria only the unwel-
come necessity of invoking war at
an unfavorable juncture, when the new
kingdom of Italy had, planned diversion
OH her flank, and when the Car and Ma
POLEoN III. could not be stirred from their
neutrality. Sixteen years it took BISMARCK
TO accomplish the programme which he
seems to have thought out, so far as the
chief aims and methods were concerned, as
early as 1851, when he appeared in the
Frankfort Diet. The foundations OF Ger
man unity were laid indestructibly in 1867
by the construction of tho North German
Confederation, just before which event
treaties were concluded with the four South
German States, binding them to place their
armies at the disposal of Prussia in time of
war. Fresh in remembrance are the strokes
OF statecraft whereby on that North Ger
man basis was reared the splendid super
structure which received the last touch
from its architect, when, In the palace at
Versailles, the Prlssian conqueror OF France
was crowned Emperor of Germany.