George Hesekiel

“ If we are worsted, the Federal States will all desert us, like faded plums in the wind; and each State, the capital of which receives a French garrison, will save itself in a patriotic way on the raft of a new Rhenish Confederation. Perhaps it will be possible to attain a combination of measures on the part of the three great neutral Powers. We are too expensively armed to be able to wait the result as patiently as England and Russia, and our intervention will scarcely bring to light that quadrature of the circle—a peace basis agreeable to France and Austria. ”

“ You will, I am certain, in this moment, when all Europe is gazing on you, and through all the future labors of the Diet, prove yourselves true Prussians; and that one thing, believe me, will not be absent—namely, God’s blessing, on which all things depend. Out of our unanimity it will descend on the present and future generations, and, I hope, on all our glorious German fatherland, in one broad stream, beside which we may dwell in peace and safety, as by the shores of the blessing-bringing rivers that water the earth. ”

“ It is a real pleasure to see Bismarck at Varzin among his trees; not during those restless nocturnal wanderings in the park, to which his sleepless illness only too frequently impels him, but when he is pleasantly pointing out his favorites to his guests. It was an event when the North German Chancellor, the summer before last, discovered three magnificent beeches in the midst of a thicket.
On a declivity with a beautiful view, there is a rich deer preserve. Bismarck might even erect a falconry, and hunt with hawks—there are plenty in the Netherlands still. ”

“ Frankfurt, 18th May, ’51.
Frankfurt is wretchedly wearisome; I am so spoilt with having so much affection about me, and a great deal to do; and I now first perceive how unthankful I have been towards many people in Berlin—for I will not take you and yours into the question. Even the coolness of fellow-countrymen and party associates I had in Berlin is an intimate connection compared with the relations one makes here; being, in fact, nothing more than mutual suspicious espionage. If one had any thing indeed to detect or to conceal! The people here worry themselves about the merest trifles ”

“ When the first news arrived of the revolution of February in Paris, Bismarck knew for a fact that the signal for a struggle with the Prussian Monarchy had there been given; he perceived that the wave of revolution would pass over the Rhine, and dash against the throne of his sovereign.
He determined upon manly resistance, and his virile courage was not broken when the terrible truth more than fulfilled his anticipations; when the waves of revolution shot with lightning speed through all Germany ”

“ Though Bismarck has consistently upheld the prerogatives of his royal master, he has not been neglectful of the interests of the nation of which he is the Minister. A spirit of candor breathes through all his actions, and displays him in the light of an emphatically honest man. Unlike the present remarkable occupant of the French throne, he is not tided along by public events; nor, like that potentate, does he extract fame from an adroit bowing to the exigencies of the hour. ”

“ I laid stress upon the fact that, on my arrival in Frankfurt, in 1851, after circumstantial conversations with Prince Metternich, then residing at Johannisberg, I had anticipated that Austria herself would see the wisdom of a policy which would obtain us a position in the German Confederation, consonant with the interest of Prussia to throw all her strength into the common cause. Instead of that, Austria has striven to embitter and impede our position in the German Confederation, and, in point of fact, to force us to seek for allies in other directions. ”

“ What could have induced Bismarck to conclude this truce—for the treaty of Gastein was nothing else? Who can positively say? To the present time it is an enigma not yet solved. Did military exigencies influence the matter? was the season too far advanced? did European politics stand in the way? or the unconcluded negotiations with Italy? was there a threat of intervention on the other side? had the old sympathies for Austria in Prussia, so greatly stimulated by the recent common campaign, to be respected? did King William follow up the old traditional partiality for Austria? ”

“ Strange stories were current about their nocturnal carouses, at which none could equal “Mad Bismarck” in emptying the great beaker filled with porter and champagne. Tales of a wild character were whispered in the circles of shuddering ladies—the power of imagination being rife in dear old Pomerania. At each mad adventure, each wild burst of humor, a dozen myths started up, sometimes of a comical, sometimes a terrible character, until the little mansion of Kniephof or “Kneiphof” was looked upon as haunted. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The accents of the Prussian National Anthem, the strains of the Dessau and Hohenfriedberg March, are well known and beloved among them: but I have never yet heard a Prussian soldier sing, ‘What is the German fatherland?’ The nation whence this army has sprung, and of which the army is the truest representative, in the happy and accurate words of the President of the First Chamber, Rudolf von Auerswald, does not need to see the Prussian monarchy melt away in the filthy ferment of South German immorality. We are Prussians, and Prussians we desire to remain. ”

“ Whether he sat in his library amidst his books and maps, roved as a solitary sportsman through his preserves in field or wood, turned to agricultural pursuits with the eye of a proprietor, or visited his neighbors in Jerichow or Kattenwinkel, he felt an intuitive perception of some great and decisive event about to come. Men so politically eminent as Bismarck even then was—although he had not, as yet, evinced it in public—bear within them a certain foreshadowing of coming events not to be under-estimated. ”

“ Prussia’s rise, therefore, comprehended within it the elements of German political existence. Geographically, the consolidation of a great kingdom in the north was a necessity; and considering how well and prudently Prussia has used its great position, no one can regret the result of the events of 1866. Prussia, as a Protestant country, as a land of education and intellectual refinement, has no equal on the face of the globe. But that single position depends on the race-character of the nation evinced in its utilitarian spirit. Bismarck will perpetuate his policy in time to come. ”

“ Presently a smoking-room suddenly opens—a smoking-room with noble cigars, iced champagne, and hot coffee. Everywhere one sees the Minister-President busy among his guests, conversing in the most agreeable tone, seeing that there is nothing wanting, inviting every one to drink, and himself rejoicing in the gayety he disperses. And whoever departs at about five in the morning, with a hearty shake of the hand from Bismarck, will certainly carry away with him the impression that the First Minister of Prussia is also the most delightful host in Prussia. ”

“ Doubt very often, it is probable, assailed the strong mind of Bismarck, the ghastly ray of suspicion fell upon his courageous heart. The man who had to fight for his King and country, with all the powers, the traditions of ancient brotherhood in arms, the ties of princely relationship, the intrigues of diplomatists, the falling away of old friends, with the wrong-headedness, cowardice, low-mindedness of others, down to the pacific overtures of his opponents, in so superhuman a manner, now gradually grew into a more and more intensified battle with himself. ”

“ The peculiarity of the paternal mansion of Bismarck consists in its quadrangular form, its thick walls, its massive heavy staircase, the depth and low pitch of its rooms, and the almost extravagant use of stucco on the ceilings, friezes, stoves, and panels. But the whole mansion impresses you with an air of comfort and homely solidity; there is a historical air of noble simplicity throughout the whole of the apartments.
Schönhausen would of course not be a correct dwelling-house for an ancient family, if proper ghost stories did not pertain to it ”

“ All the traditions of glorious alliance of the great period of the War of Freedom had become revivified in the hut as in the palace, and they possessed real power; for it is an unquestionable fact that Austria would be the best ally for Prussia from that moment when it determines to allow Prussia to take her proper position in Germany without malice or envy. It was the destiny of Germany that Austria could not resolve to give Prussia what was Prussia’s right; Bismarck’s great political task, however, was to compel the surrender from Austria of that which is the meed of Prussia and Germany. ”

“ A worthy transatlantic Correggio, the name not yet known to fame, has depicted the Count in a sky-blue miller’s coat and bright green trowsers, red neckerchief, and rosy red gloves, such as the dandies of Caraccas probably wear, after a photograph. There is not a trace of likeness in the face, and yet there is something so characteristic in the attitude, that one immediately knows who one has before one—something so like that the very dogs bark at it. Bismarck, it is well known, is an especial favorite among the Germans in America. ”

“ It would have been a humiliating feeling to me, and so it would have been to thousands and thousands of my fellow-countrymen, to see the representatives of princes whom I honor in their own sphere, but who are not my liege-lords, clothed with supreme power; a feeling the bitterness of which could not be diminished by seeing the seats we occupy [205] decked with colors—never those of the German empire—but which for two years have been the colors of rebellion and of the barricades, colors worn in my native land by the democrat alone, except when in sorrowful obedience by the soldier. ”

“ Through the brilliant throng and excitement, in the dazzling illuminations and heat, children wise in their generation, and lucky dogs who know every thing, have discovered the way to obtain a thorough course of refreshments, which is hidden in a dark thicket yonder, and slyly wins in semi-concealment. In noble silver vases there is cool—deliciously cool—beer. All the thirsty souls who drink at this fount sing the praises of Bismarck, for he has introduced this innovation. Bismarck first made beer fashionable in Berlin salons. ”

“ Already is the impious sport with Christianity, the abuse of religion as a means of distinction, recognized in its true form as sacrilege, and is dying away. My firm reliance upon the fidelity of my people, as the surest means of extinguishing the conflagration, has been ever nobly rewarded both by the older and the younger sons of our Prussian country, even where another language than ours is spoken. ”

“ Illustrious noble Princes, Counts, and Lords, my dear and trusty Orders of Nobles, Burghers, and Commons, I bid you from the depth of my heart welcome on the day of the fulfillment of a great work of my father, resting in God, never to be forgotten, King William III., of glorious memory.
The noble edifice of representative freedom, the eight mighty pillars of which the King of blessed memory founded deep and unshakably in the peculiar organization of his provinces, is to-day perfected in your Assembly. It has received its protecting roof. ”

“ On the 4th of August Bismarck returned, in the suite of the King, to Berlin, amidst the nameless rejoicings of the nation. On the next day came the solemn opening of the Diet, and a torrent of work overwhelmed the Minister-President. Then ensued the peace-treaties with individual States, the consolidation of the conquered provinces, the formation of the North German Confederation, cares as to envious malice; and through all this the suffering man held himself up, pale, but firm, sustained by his high sense of duty, by the consciousness of his supreme mission. ”