Bismarck imposed no conditions, came forward with no programme; the faithful vassal of Electoral Brandenburg placed himself simply at his King’s disposal, with that chivalric devotion which contemplates the most difficult position as self-intelligible. The beloved kingdom of Prussia had to be upheld against the parliamentary spirit; the new organization of the army, on which the future of Prussia and Germany depended, had to be saved; such was the task imposed upon Bismarck.
When Bismarck arrived in Berlin, about the middle of September, 1862, he found opposite himself the party of progress, almost certain of victory, clashing onward like a charger with heavy spurs and sword, trampling upon every thing that came in its path, setting up new scandals every day, and acting in such a manner that the wiser chiefs of that very party shook their heads. Besides the party of progress, and partially governed and towed along by it, was the Liberal party, in the greatest confusion after their recent amazing catastrophe, but possessed, with the exception of a minority, of an almost still greater dislike for Bismarck than was entertained by the Progressists: very easily might this be understood, as it was this party more than any other that Bismarck had opposed since the first United Diet.
Bismarck had only the Conservative party in his own favor, but, during the new era, this had fallen away to an almost vanishing fraction in the Electoral Chamber; its political activity was maintained only by the Upper House and by the Neue Preussische Zeitung, together with a portion of the provincial press, and was just then once more beginning to express its views in a louder tone by the revival of the conservative associative principle. The new era had shown Conservative politicians that a Conservative party in Prussia, although possessing perfect individuality upon single questions, could only as a great whole be a Government party. “With the Government in courage, without the Government in sorrow, if needs be against the Government with humility; such is the path of the Conservative party!” Such was once the fine and proud axiom of the Conservatives, but only true so far as it concerns special questions. Conservative Prussia can only go hand in hand with the Royal Government; but, on the other hand, it is equally certain that a truly Royal Government in Prussia can only be a Conservative Government. The proofs to the contrary imported from France or England are not applicable to the peculiar circumstances of Prussia, and hence act in a manner productive of confusion.
The support which the Conservative party could then give to Bismarck was, as it were, that of a vanquished army, and its ranks required reorganization ere it could be led against the foe. But Conservative support was tendered voluntarily, and with perfect devotion, even by that fraction of the party which was piqued with Bismarck since he had, at Frankfurt, shown a front against Austria, which, indeed, was almost in open hostility towards him, since he had proposed more friendly relations with France, had supported the unpopular doctrine of international interests, and had declared himself for Italy. The acute men of Hochkirchen, the intelligent representatives of conservative idealism, the firm pillars of the policy of the Holy Alliance, the enthusiastic defenders of all legitimacy, from whose ranks Bismarck himself had emerged, had partly become his antagonists; but at the ominous hour when he assumed the head of the Government, they did not deny themselves to him, and “our azure blues,” as the late Baron von Hertefeld used to call them, in his peculiar tone of admiration and malice, have honestly stood by Bismarck through difficult years, in the good fight he had fought for the Prussian monarchy.
What a battle, however, this was may be judged from the fact that many of the best fellow-soldiers of Bismarck no longer contended for victory, but, so to speak, sought only a chivalric death. In all Conservative circles it was everywhere said that the fight was only continued from a sense of duty: the victory of progress and parliamentarianism over the old Prussian monarchy was now only a question of time, but it was necessary to die standing. The last advocates of the Prussian monarchy at least desired to win the respect of their antagonists. Such was the phrase of those days; most of them have probably long since forgotten it, but it is fitting that they should sometimes be reminded of it. In the year 1863, one of the most zealous personal partisans of Bismarck determined to accept an important mission offered by him, with the certain conviction that in so doing he was preparing for an honorable fall. Certainly there also existed in those days fresh undejected minds who stood to their imperishable belief in the Prussian monarchy as in an impregnable fortress, and flung the flag of hope merrily to the breeze; but of these the number was very small.
Did Bismarck belong to these? Yes. He believed in his Prussian monarchy, had faith in the future of Prussia and Germany; but he was also perfectly conscious that he was engaged in a mortal conflict.
He has not publicly expressed himself on this, but several isolated remarks which he has, in his characteristic manner, let drop to various friends, place this beyond a doubt. Several times he said—
“Death on the scaffold, under certain circumstances, is as honorable as death on the battle-field!” and, “I can imagine worse modes of death than the axe!”
Only six years lie between that time, in which such words were fraught with such terrible significance, and to-day, when that time seems to us like a frightful dream; but that it wears such an aspect to us, is due, under God’s mercy and the valor of King William, to the faithful devotion and energetic policy of Count Bismarck.
For the rest, Bismarck entered upon office with strong confidence; he really hoped at first to arrive at some solution of the crisis. All those who saw or spoke to him in those September or October days, remember the unwearied bearing and joyful assurance with which he went to work. “He looks thin, healthy, and sunbrowned, like a man who has traversed the desert on a dromedary!” was the description given of him by a friend at the time. At first he thought it not impossible to win over the hostile party leaders, and he conferred with many of them: whether they were Liberals or Progressists, in the end they were, at any rate, Prussians. He appealed to their Prussian patriotism; they could not fail, although they sought it by different ways to himself, to have their country’s fame and glory as a common goal. But if they desired the well-being of Prussia and Germany, they could not but also desire the means to that end—the newly organized army. No doubt that many of those with whom Bismarck negotiated, or who were negotiated with by others at his instance, felt their hearts beating loudly at this appeal; but he succeeded only in winning a very few. With the majority, the rigid party doctrine prevailed as an insurmountable barrier; with others, every attempt at an understanding was rendered unsuccessful by unvanquishable suspicion; many well understood the hints—and more than hints it was impossible for Bismarck to give—but they did nothing more. He thus finally attained to a summation of undeceptions, which did not discourage him, although this gradually filled his patriotic heart with the deepest sorrow.