The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-31
HIS POLITICAL CAREER.

HIS POLITICAL CAREER.
From a Provincial Diet to the Cham
celIOrship of the Empire.
Bismarcks political career. properly
speaking may be said to have begun about
the time of his marriage. A few months
prior to his betrothal he had been elected
vicarious knights deputy to the Landtag
of Prussian Saxony, and soon after. when
the then King of Prussia. Frederick Will
liam ", united the eight Diets of the king
dom into central Parliament, he went up
to Berlin, a young man of two and thirty,
burning with ambition, but little supposing
what heights he should scale ere he resumed
his private life forty-three years later. In
the new Parliament he became known as
confirmed upholder of the royal prerogative
and the opponent of all that we term liber-
alism. However. DR.. Busch (his first secre-
tary and lifelong companion) may dislike
it, the Bismarck of 1S47 was as narrow,
bigoted and retrograde junker any who
ever sat in an assembly. His loyalty made
him blind and callous to popular feeling
and progress. He was a Jewbaiter-or, at
all events, opposed Jewish political enamel
patton, a fact which was not forgotten in
1885, when the Jew-baiters ran riot in Ber-
lin-with it was alleged. the tacit assent of
the chancellor.
The revolution of 1S4S shook the founda-
lions of the rotten edifices of European gov
ernments. Prussia could not remain UNI
| touched by these great events. After
| bloody fight in the streets of Berlin, on the
| 18th of March, the King was obliged to
| yield, and the often promised reforms took
! at last a practical shape.
Before helping to frame the constitution
which in 1S49 was drawn up by King Fred
erick William, he spoke and voted against
| all liberal concessions, and when the SOW
ere1gI1, with, one may presume, some humor,
| asked if he was not prepared to back him
| up in his projected constitutional reforms,
| ne blunty replied, well, no. your Males
| ry." But he relented
| He has always loathed and hated all sys-
| TENS of government which rest on the pop
| ular suffrage, and as Charles Lowe, the
| Berlin correspondent of the London Times.
reminds us in his Life of Bismarck" has
| regarded the voting urn much in the light
| of a diceboX, the instrument of chance and
| the fruitful source of chaos
Even at this stage of his career Bismarck
was dreaming of Prussian ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
| He was far TOO prudent, however, and too
| far seeing to advocate precipitation in the
| gobbling up process for which he sighed,
| and thus warmly approved the action of the
| King when he refused the imperial crown of
| Germany offered him by the Frankfort Par
| lament. The petty kingdoms, the duchies
| and principalities of the fatherland were all
Brother Nor as Bismarck T Knows s0f to hs
| cost, have twenty years of unity yet effaced
| German 'particularism.
In 1851 he was made Prussian ambassador
| to the German BundeStag at Frankfort.
| The first chapter in Bismarcks political
| career closed with his appointment to a dip
| lomatic post at Frankfort an honor which
| he accepted, somewhat to the Kings sur
| prise, without the least apparent doubt
| to his own fitness. 1t seems Frederick Will
| liam ventured on some mild hint that he was
| rather confident for young a man, but
| Otto. the fearless, had as usual an answer
| ready.
/ Your Majesty said he, may at least
| give me chance. If l fail it is easy to re-
| call me-.
| He went to Frankfort; he did not fall and
| before long he had gained reputation for
| diplomatic skill
! HIS DIPLOMATIC SERVICE.
For some years after this it was on di-
plomacy and travel Bismarck spent his en-
ergy moving from Frankfort to Ofen, and
| from Ofen to Vienna on various missions
intrusted him by his sovereign. He first
saw Paris in 1857, and did not enjoy his few
days stay in the beautiful city. In a letter
to his sister he complains savagely that
| there are too many clocks and chimney
| pieces in the Partisan rooms and not enough
stoves.
Il have five clocks here, always going,
and yet L never know how late it is. 1
have eleven large looking glasses, and yet
my cravat is always awry"
| In 1859, to the astonishment of all diplo-
n
Austria. 1t seemed to him that the right
moment had arrived for Prussia to free
| herself from the tutelage of Austria. He
thought that Prussia should side with Italy
or remain neutral. Because of these ex-
| pressed opinions he was recalled from his
| post and sent TO St Petersburg. There he
put himself on intimate terms with Alex
| ander III and Prince Gortchakoff, and it is
| reasonably asserted that Rrssia's neutrality
| during the wars of 1866 ana 1870 was in large
degree due to Bismarck's influence. His re-
| lations 10 the Prince Regent OF Prussia,
| afterward the Emperor William of Ger
| many, began at this time to be more inti-
mate and cordial than is usually the case
| between an officer of the state and his royal
/ master and il became a settled opinion in
| political circles that the future prime min
lister of Prussia was the bold, unscrupulous
| influence in German affairs. While minis
| ter to St. Petersburg he said he felt like
champagne on ice" In the frozen regions
! of the Car he learned a great deal of
diplomacy. Among much else he learned to
control his natural impetuoslty. 10 take
cool views of politics, calculate chances and
thoroughly prepare himself for the impor-
tant duties which were soon to devove on
him with his selection for the Prussian
premiership.
Frederick William " died in 1861, and
| William, his brother, succeeded to the
| throne. AT first the new King was afraid
| of the plans of the political adventurer who
| represented his government at st. Peters
| burg, and whether it was to remove him
| from his present scene of action, where he
had seemed to have gained so sound foot
| ing, or whether it was TO make some
further soundings before proceeding to
| further action, Bismarck was recalled from
his St Petersburg mission and sent to Paris
1 in May, 1862 The story of his residence in
Paris, the meeting of the two adventurers
one occupying the throne of France by vir-
| tue of the fame of his uncle and on the
/ strength of the principles of 1889, the other
| a revolutionist in the boldest sense of The
word representing one of the most consery-
alive governments in Europe, is yet an
untold chapter OF history. OF THE Man of
/ Destiny" whom he was destined to ruin
his court and his pcopIe-the Emperor Louis
| Napoleon Bismarck at first formed rather
| high opinion, which he changed later But
| from the first he took a disparaging view OF
j the French nation, regarding Ii as effemi-
1 nate, iespising ii as hystegical and denying
it eyen the merit OF true pollteness. which