The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-02-17
| I'D VIC WINDT HORST
THE GREAT ADVOCATE or FREE
DOM, TRUTH AND RIGHT.

On the 18th day of January, one
hundred years ago, Ludwig Wind
thorst was born near Osnabruck, in
Hanover. Throughout the German
Empire the survivors of his little
army, who witnessed his deep and
tender piety and answering fidelity
to prosecuted church; the sons of
those, for whom in the dark days of
the Kulturkampf, he won the right to
worship in peace at the affairs where
their sires had knelt, commemorated
in a fitting manner the extensive SER
vices which this great Catholic, the
O'Connell of the century's waning
years, rendered to faith and father
land, writes Rev. J. C. Reville, S. ].
Every lover of freedom, truth and the
right, will join in the homage, and
every Catholic will acclaim with pride
the Little Excellency," so kindly, so
unselfish, SO humble, SO truly great,
the Pearl of Meppen," as Mallin-
ckrodt lovingly called him, the honor
able opponent, whom even his bitter
est political enemies, Goszler, Falk
and Bismarck, esteemed and admired.
The two names of Windthorst and
Bismarck, symbolic of such different
ideals, can scarcely be separated. The
Iron Chancellor, passionate, naughty,
domineering, the incarnation of power,
the exponent of the law of might;
Windthorst, always master of himself,
far-seeing, calculating, cool, the en-
bodiment Of reason, justice and right.
One, the burly gladiator, trying to
crush his opponent at a single blow;
the other, the 1.-THE, Incompatible
fencer and swordsman, parrying the
thrusts of his adversary, and finally
bringing him to his knees, begging for
mercy. In the arena of the Reichstag
the two rivals fought one of the long
est and most spectacular duels in the
parliamentary history of the nine
teenth century. The encounters be-
tween Canning and Broughham in the
English House of Commons; the bat
The royal between Webster and Cal
houn in our own Senate are scarcely
more thrilling in their shifting for
tunes and dramatic conclusion.
Bismarck and the KuIturkampf.
At first sight everything seemed to
augur crushing defeat for the one
who would dare to face Otto Won Bis
marck. In 1871, when the chancellor
began his fight against his Catholic
countryment and the religion they pro-
fessed, he was in the flush of victory.
Prussia and the Hohenzollerns were
at the head of United Germany. His
life dream had come true; he had
crushed two great Catholic powers
Austria and France. William, King of
Prussia, was now Emperor of Ger
many, and it was Otto Won Bismarck
who had placed the crown on his
head. Essentially an autocrat and a
believer in the omnipotence the
state, Bismarck would brook no rival
now in United Germany. It was time
to begin his Kulturkampf, his struggle
for civilization and enlightenment, to
free the empire from the tyranny and
darkness of Rome. But it was a
strange civilization and culture, a
strange freedom, which was to make
millions of his fellow-countrymen
helots and slaves. The chancellor,
moreover, was unscrupulous. To him
fair was foul and foul was fair. He
worshipped at the shrine of force.
Then his herculean frame, the iron
ring of his eloquence, which sounded
like the clanking of sabre, his undeni-
able power to sway men, his unflinch-
ing resolve to win at any cost made
him terrible antagonist. Since
Luther, with the possible exception of
Frederick the Great, no such forcefuI
personality had appeared in Germany.
Who was to face this giant?
There were good and able men i'm
the ranks of the Catholic party. There
were Mallinckrodt, KetteIer and the
two Reichenspergers, there were
Savigny, Schorlemer-Alst,P Prince Low
enstein. The Iron Chancellor feared
them all because he knew they were
fighting for justice and the right. But
one man he dreaded above the rest, a
man he felt who would give him no
peace and no quarter. He had met
him before in another political battle,
in the tariff parliament i'm 1858, and
had not retired unscathed from the
encounter. 1t was the little man from
Hanover, Ludwig Windthorst
The "LittIe Excellency."
The Little Excellency" was not
then newcomer ON the crowded and
confused stage OF German politics. AS
a lawyer, a practical administrator, he
had few equals. At the age Of thirty
six he had been appointed counsellor
Of the Supreme Court of Appeal at