176 CHRISTIANITY THE BASIS OF THE STATE. I call such a State Christian, whose problem is to realize and verify the doctrine of Christianity. That our State does not in all ways succeed in this, the Honorable Deputy from the county of Mark yesterday demonstrated in a parallel he drew between the truths of the Gospel and the paragraphs of national jurispru dence, in a way rather clever than consonant with my religious feelings. But although the solution of the problem is not always successful, I am still convinced that the aim of the State is the realization of Christian doctrine; however, I do not think we shall approach this aim more closely with the aid of the Jews. If the religious basis of the State be acknowledged, I am sure that among ourselves the basis can only be that of Christianity. If we withdraw from the State this religious basis, our State becomes nothing more than a fortuitous aggregation of rights, a sort of bulwark against the universal war of each against all, such as an elder philosophy instituted. Its legislation then would no longer recreate itself from the original fountain of eternal truth, but only from the vague and mutable ideas of humanity taking shape only from the conceptions formed in the brains of those who occupy the apex. How such states could deny the right of the practical application of such ideas—as, for instance, those of the communists on the immorality of property, the high moral value of theft, as an experiment for the rehabilitation of the native rights of man-is not clear to me; for these very ideas are entertained by their advocates as humane, and, indeed, as constituting the very flower of humanitarianism. Therefore, gentlemen, let us not diminish the Christianity of the people by showing that it is superfluous to the legislature; let us not deprive the people of the belief that our legislation is derived from the fount ain of Christianity, and that the State seeks to promote the realization of Christianity, though that end may not always be attained. "Besides this, several speakers, as in almost every question, have referred to the examples of England and France as models worthy of imitation. This question is of much less consequence there, because the Jews are so much less numerous than here. But I would recommend to the gentlemen who are so fond of seeking their ideas beyond the Vosges, a guide-line distinguish ing the English and the French. That consists in the proud feeling of national honor, which does not so easily and commonly seek for models worthy of imitation and wonderful patterns, as we do here, in foreign lands." It will be understood that this speech was much criticised; but it became a regular armory for his opponents; it was taken for granted that Bismarck himself had stated that he stood in "the dark ages," that he had "imbibed reactionary ideas with his mother's milk," and other similar things, although he was only ridiculing the ideas of his opponents; there was seldom an opportunity lost, when he was twitted with "the dark ages" and the "prejudices imbibed at the breast." Bismarck possessed humor enough to laugh at this pitiful trick, and once exclaimed very well: "Deputy Krause rode in the lists against me on a horse, in front the dark ages, behind mother's milk!" What a picture Herr Krause, the Burgomaster of Elbing (if we are not misinformed), would make upon such a fabulous steed! Bismarck left the United Diet with a thorn in his breast. He had lost many of the youthful illusions he had carried thither; the Prussia he found in the White Saloon was as remote as heav en from the Prussia he had hitherto believed in, and his patriotic heart was sorrowful. He perceived that the sovereignty of Prussia was about to encounter severe contests; that his duty lay with the monarch's idea, and that his native land must be rescued from the insolent pretensions of the modern parliamentary spirit, from the most dangerous of all paper governments. In short, he arrived with hazy, but somewhat liberal, views, and he returned a politician thoroughly acquainted with his duty and his work, which consisted in aiding the King to restore the Estates' Monarchy. It was a gift, but he received it with a sigh. His youth was at an end. Bismarck has ever remained true to his patriotic duties, everywhere in earnestness, and at no time has he withdrawn his hand. from the plough; he went bravely on, when so many cast their weapons away and fled. 12 CHAPTER III. THE DAYS OF MARCH. [1848.] Rest at Home.-Contemplation.-The Revolution in Paris, February, 1848.-Progress of the Revolutionary Spirit.-The March Days of Berlin.-The Citizen Guard. -Opening of the Second Session of the United Diet, 2d April, 1848.-Prince SolmsHohen-Solms-Lich.-Fr. Foerster." Eagle's Wings and Bodelswings."-Prince Felix Lichnowsky.-The Debate on the Address.-Speech of Bismarck.-Revolution at the Portal of the White Saloon.-Vaticinium Lehninense.-The Kreuzzeitung Letter of Bismarck on Organization of Labor.-Bismarck at Stolpe on the Baltic. The Winter of Discontent.-Manteuffel. In a previous section we have already recorded that, shortly after the close of the First United Diet, on the 28th of July, 1847, Herr Otto von Bismarck celebrated his wedding at Reinfeld, in Pomerania, with Fraulein Johanna von Putkammer, and then entered upon a journey with his youthful wife by way of Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg, to Italy, meeting his sovereign, Frederick William IV., at Venice, and finally, returning through Switzerland and the Rhine-Province, fixed his residence at the ancient hearth of his ancestors at Schönhausen. It was a short but happy time of rest, passed in rural retirement. The ancient family traits of the Bismarcks, after a silent activity in field and forest, became more strongly marked in him than in many other branches of his race, and his wife also retained a charming reminiscence of these peaceful days in Schönhausen. She still preserves grateful recollections of that happy time. The outward honors, the universal fame of her illustrious husband, have brought no accession of domestic joy; she loves the time in which she was only Frau von Bismarck, without the Excellency. |