# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 09 04_S4
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

4

with new zeal, their opponents to all the more earnest resistance. Even for Schmerling, the Austrian plenipotentiary at the Central Power, the Vienna dose*) was too strong. He resigned his post. A further declaration of Austria, in which a Directory was proposed, in which the sole presidency was assigned to her, a House of States approved, but the House of the People abolished, could only call forth still greater and just indignation. What the hitherto so reserved Austria suddenly made so frankly and naively in her demands was due not only to the victories of Radetzky, whereby Lombardy was again subdued and Piedmont humbled, but chiefly to the advantages which Windisch-Grätz had won over the rebellious Hungarians in the winter and had hitherto maintained in the spring, so that men hoped soon to be done with them there and to get a free hand. In Frankfurt the Austrian deputies now had to hear hard words at times, many wanted simply to show them the door of the Paulskirche, but they declared all the more resolutely that they would not let themselves be driven out. But when it now came to the vote on Welker's motion, it was defeated, and — Gagern resigned from the ministry, because with this the hereditary Emperor also seemed to be — rejected. Yet it was not really so, the hereditary-imperialists did not yet let their courage sink; Gagern still administered the ministry until a new one was got together, and the Imperial Constitution was read a second time. They moderated the fatal §§ 1 and 2, which, in the case of lands comprising German and non-German parts, would admit only a "personal union," that is, only a union through the person of the ruler, to the effect that in the German parts of such lands the Imperial Constitution must have full validity and their connection with the non-German parts must in no way be a hindrance to the carrying out of the German Constitution. They resolved upon an hereditary head of the Empire, but for him only a suspensive veto, that is, only the right that he could indeed reject the first two times a resolution passed by three successive Diets, but the third time it should hold, whether the head of the Empire said Yes or No to it. And this was to hold not only for ordinary measures but also for constitutional amendments. Finally they resolved that the elections to Parliament should be direct and secret, a manner by which door and gate are left wide open to all intrigues. The hereditary Emperor was carried on the 27th of March with a majority of — 4 votes (267 against 263), and on the 28th of March — the King of Prussia was elected German Emperor with 290 votes, the remaining 248 members of the House having abstained from the vote altogether. In Frankfurt, to be sure, the result of the election was at once proclaimed with ringing of bells and thunder of cannon, but in all German lands it would not echo like jubilation. Men felt everywhere: it was a forced affair, a result brought about by compulsion and pressure. So also the reception which the deputation that was to offer the election to the King of Prussia met on its way was very various. Down the Rhine they were now met mutely and coolly, now with loud hurrahs and waving of flags, in Cologne received in a friendly way by one part, but by the Republicans honored with a charivari, etc. But when they had come to Berlin and with good hope stepped before the King, he said to them: "Gentlemen! The message of which you have come to me as the bearers has deeply moved me. It has directed my gaze to the King of kings and to the holy, inviolable duties which are incumbent upon me as King of my people and as one of the most powerful German princes; such a gaze, gentlemen, makes the eye clear and the heart certain: In the resolution of the German National Assembly, which you, gentlemen, bring to me, I recognize the voice of the representatives of the German people. This call gives me a claim whose worth I know how to prize. It demands of me, if I follow it, immeasurable sacrifices. It lays upon me the heaviest duties. The German National Assembly has counted on me before all others, where it is a matter of founding Germany's unity and Prussia's strength. I honor your confidence; express my thanks for it. I am ready to prove by deed that the men have not erred who base their confidence upon my devotion, my fidelity, my love for the common German fatherland. But, gentlemen, I should not justify your confidence, I should not correspond to the mind of the German people, I should not establish Germany's unity, were I, with violation of sacred rights and of my former express and solemn assurances, without the free consent of the crowned heads, the princes and free states of Germany, to take a resolution which for them and for the German tribes governed by them would have the most decisive consequences. It will therefore now be for the governments of the individual German states, in common deliberation to examine whether the Constitution is beneficial to the individual as to the whole, whether the rights conferred upon me would put me in a position to guide with a strong hand, as such a calling demands of me, the destinies of the great German fatherland and to fulfil the hopes of its peoples. Of this, however, let Germany be certain, and this, gentlemen, proclaim in all districts: should the German shield and sword be needed against enemies without or within, I shall not fail even without a call. I shall then go confidently the way of my House and people, the way of German fidelity."

*) Dosis means properly: the dose of a medicine; here is to be understood the bitter physic which was hereby to be prescribed for Austria. Ed.

It was not known whether this was to be a refusal or not. The deputation had been given in prospect by the ministry a more decidedly assenting answer. After deliberation it now gave notice that the National Assembly had made the election of the Emperor only on the presupposition of unconditional acceptance of the Constitution, that the deputation therefore had to take the answer received as a refusal and had nothing further to do in Berlin. In Frankfurt men were astonished and indignant, said aloud that the King of Prussia was greatly mistaken if he supposed that he had been chosen on account of his person and his personal qualities, no, he had been chosen on account of his power; but they did not want to go back any more, the Constitution was conclusively resolved, it could be changed only in the way prescribed in it itself, and even if the question of the head were now to be treated again as an open one, the Constitution itself must nevertheless be carried through unaltered. Gagern also, who since the vote on the hereditary Emperor had taken over the ministry again, declared that indeed the Constitution was conclusively resolved. A special committee for carrying out the Constitution was now chosen, called the Committee of Thirty because it was composed of thirty members.

Meanwhile it was not in the mind of the King of Prussia to reject the election outright, rather he at once sent to all German governments a circular note*), in which he made the matter known to them and called upon them to have a definite declaration on the Imperial Constitution and the head of the Empire delivered within fourteen days by their plenipotentiaries in Frankfurt, so that the so necessary agreement might come about as soon as possible. Thereupon 28 governments declared themselves for the Constitution and the Prussian head of the Empire, but they were only those of the smaller lands, the kingdoms gave reservatory declarations, and the most remarkable was again that of Austria. The National Assembly, it said, had been called to bring the work of the Constitution to completion in common with the princes; in that it now declared its work completed, it had overstepped its authority and had itself set a limit to its legal activity, since it had not only published the arbitrarily resolved Constitution as law, but even intended without authority to give Germany an hereditary Emperor. For Austria, therefore, the National Assembly no longer existed and could therefore exert influence neither by order of a newly to be formed provisional**) Central Power (Prussia had namely in the circular note also

*) A circular letter. Ed.

**) for the time being. Ed.