# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 09 18_S13
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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signature, with which the plenipotentiaries of the Central Power now set out to the several governments, and accomplished — nothing, wherever recognition had not been given beforehand. Bassermann was sent to Berlin and — was converted to the opinion of the government there. Meanwhile in Berlin the second chamber was dissolved and the first adjourned, with the following two principal reasons given: because the second chamber had declared itself for the adoption of the Imperial Constitution, and because it had demanded the raising of the state of siege for Berlin, two measures which were by no means compatible with the welfare of the country. The Saxon government also declared that it could negotiate no further with the entirely democratic and republican second chamber, and dissolved it. Hanover did likewise. In Bavaria the chambers were adjourned, and the adjournment was twice prolonged. In addition, the Prussian ministry now declared in the most definite terms that the King would not accept the imperial dignity and the Frankfurt Constitution, but was inclined to come to an agreement with the other governments upon a German constitution, to be laid on the foundation of the Frankfurt one. And an invitation to this effect was indeed sent out to all the governments. The National Assembly, however, resolved to carry the constitution through without Prussia, and further, to offer the imperial crown to the next most powerful prince who would accept the constitution. (By this they thought to lure Bavaria.) Meanwhile the number of the Frankfurt deputies dwindled more and more; the Austrians had been recalled by their government, one part obeying at once, the other declaring that it would maintain its right and remain, but one vanished after another. The sittings now became ever more stormy again, and the gallery again played its vulgar part, as in the days before the Frankfurt riot, whose victims were Lichnowsky and Auerswald. The Left moved for the establishment of a parliamentary army, and when this did not pass, it raged, and the men of the Right and of the Centre (Gagern also) could hardly set foot in the street without being insulted*), at times in the most vulgar manner. But because the Assembly began to suffer more and more from consumption (for others than Austrians also declared their withdrawal ever more frequently, at times in strong words against the spirit now ruling in the Assembly), it was resolved that the Assembly should be competent to vote if only 150 members were together, while the full number was to amount to over 600. And because Prussia was drawing together three army corps, one of them near Mainz, it was resolved, for fear that the Parliament might be broken up, that the President should have the right to convene the Assembly at any time and at any place. Meanwhile the agitation for the constitution went on in all lands. In the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate a popular assembly declared the Bavarian government rebellious, because it would not recognize the Imperial Constitution, formed a committee for the defence of the land, and this called upon the officials to declare in writing that they recognized the constitution as lawfully valid; where they did not do so, all their official acts were to be regarded as invalid. In Dresden, however, since the King had rejected a petition of the civic guard for the adoption of the constitution, and, when it wished to march out in parade in order to swear to the constitution voluntarily, had forbidden this, it came to a street fight. The King fled to the Königstein, a provisional government set itself up, consisting of the deputies Tschirner, Tod and Heubner. Prussians came to the help of the government, and a six days' battle raged in the streets of Dresden as of old in Saragossa. Many Poles and Frenchmen had arrived by the railway, a Russian, Bakunin, set himself up as dictator, the provisional government was no longer anything and fled; miners from Freiberg had come with small pieces, from which they fired not with balls but with iron cylinders; these men also began to drive a mine toward the palace in order to blow it into the air, but their design was frustrated by putting the cellars of the palace entirely under water. The valuable collection of copperplate engravings and the most precious paintings were saved from the fury of the fire and from the shot only by the resolution of the Court Councillor Schulz, who risked his life for it. Individual houses, such as the Roman Court, had to be almost entirely shot to pieces, then the military pressed forward through the houses and so outflanked the barricades. On the 9th of May the insurgents were at last hemmed in on all sides and so driven into wild flight; they threw themselves toward Freiberg and Chemnitz. In Leipzig also there had been a wild haunting in the first days of May, but the rich merchants and well-to-do citizens there soon noticed what was intended, and chased the agitators away. Thus Dresden too had had to learn from experience how one lives under the dominion of the sweet mob. But in Frankfurt they had taken it very ill of the King of Prussia that he had come to the help of the King of Saxony at his request, and declared his rendering of assistance to be — a breach of the imperial peace. Thus the Imperial Ministry had also sent the second President of the National Assembly, Eisenstuck, to the Palatinate, to dissolve and annul the committee of defence of the land there, and this committee — recognized that committee on conditions and now remodelled it into a "Land Committee for the Defence of the Imperial Constitution." To the Prussian "imperial troops," sent by the Central Power, who were approaching for the protection of the fortress of Landau, he commanded at the frontier to turn back again, because the Palatines felt great anger at their arrival, and so this commissioner had to be recalled very speedily by the Imperial Ministry. Eisenstuck sought to justify his conduct before the National Assembly, and this resolved at last, after repeated vain attempts of the Committee of Thirty, to proceed after all to the swearing of the imperial army to the constitution, whereupon the conservative members of this committee, and ever more of the Assembly, withdrew. A deputation of the Nuremberg March Union had asked for an imperial commission for Franconia, which was indeed refused (Vogt went on his own authority and advised moderation, while the popular assembly that had been summoned swore itself to the constitution); but to take the Palatine movement under the protection of the National Assembly was moved, just when the official recall of the Prussian members in Frankfurt arrived. Several declared even now that they would not obey the summons, yet here also one vanished after another. The Prussian government, however, had declared that it had done everything and overlooked much in order to bring about an agreement with the National Assembly, but now that this, by that resolution, that Prussia was guilty of a breach of the imperial peace on account of rendering assistance when called upon to a government hard pressed by the red republic, had placed itself in an openly hostile position and had overstepped all the bounds of its authority, one could not recognize it any further nor negotiate with it. When now later the Imperial Assembly really desired to take the Palatine insurrection under its protection and to appoint an imperial governor, the whole Centre, 90 men, withdrew at once, and the Left with difficulty scraped together an assembly of 150 members, in order to resolve that the Parliament should still be competent to act even with a number of 100 members. In the meantime the Imperial Regent had chosen the deputy Gräwell, hitherto of the Assembly, as Prime Minister, since the Gagern ministry, because the Imperial Regent had not accepted its programme, had taken its dismissal for the second time. The Gräwell ministry, however, soon after its entrance upon office, which was celebrated with laughter, received a vote of no confidence from the Rump Parliament, but declared that it was not affected by it.

Meanwhile things had gone ever further in the Palatinate; a provisional government had been set up, the garrisons of the imperial fortresses Landau and Germersheim had been made perjured and drawn over to the "People," so that in Landau only 1000 men remained, and the wavering artillery, seduced by a Lieutenant Függer, was kept to its duty only with difficulty, while the officers themselves shared the guard duty in the fortress with the soldiers, but the commandant turned the cannon upon the little town, and threatened, in case of an attack, rather to blow himself into the air together with the fortress than to surrender. The citizenry of Landau, however, on the whole kept faithfully to the garrison. The Palatinate, however, entered upon a

*) stopped and abused. Ed.