“ In August, 1867, Bismarck secured his advancement to the presidency of the Chancery of the North-German Confederation. He also became a Prussian Minister of State in 1868, and in both positions, in which he was virtually the representative of the ‘Iron Chancellor,’ he displayed a strict adherence to constitutional principles, notwithstanding the great difficulties frequently encountered in the defense of the measures advocated by Bismarck. ”