Know, my lords, I do not read the feelings of my people in the green arches and huzzahs of festivity; still less in the praise and blame of the press, or in the doubtful, sometimes criminal, demands of certain addresses which are sent to the Throne, and States, or elsewhere. I have read them with my own eyes in the touching thanks of men for benefits scarcely promised, scarcely begun; here, where broad districts of land stood under water; there, where men scarcely recovered from hunger. In their grateful joy, in their wet eyes, did I read their feelings three years ago, when the lives of myself and the Queen were so wonderfully preserved. This is truth—and in my words is truth, when I say, that it is a noble people; and I feel entirely the happiness of presiding over such a people. And your hearts will understand me and accord with me, when in this great hour I urgently call upon you—“Be worthy of this people!”
Illustrious Princes, Counts, and Lords, you will have recognized in the position assigned to you by law in this United Diet, my intention that that position should be a dignified one, at once answering to the conception of a German order of nobles, and also beneficial to the whole community. I rely upon your deeply feeling at this hour, and in these times, what is meant by being the first of a nation, and also what is required at your hands. You will repay my confidence.
You, my Lords of the nobility, and my faithful Burghers and Commons, are, I am firmly persuaded, impressed with this truth, that on this day, and in this hour, you are the first of your respective Orders; but, therefore, also the protectors of your ancient renown. Look at this throne! Your fathers and mine—many princes of your race, and of mine, and myself—have fought for the preservation, the deliverance, and the honor of that throne, and for the existence of our native land. God was with us! There is now a new battle to be fought on behalf of the same glorious possessions—a peaceful one, indeed, but its combats are not a whit less important than those of the field of war. And God will be with us yet again, for the battle is against the evil tendencies of the age. Your unanimity with me, the prompt expression of your wish to aid me in improving the domain of rights (that true field for the labor of kings), will make this Diet a pitched battle gained against every evil and lawless influence that troubles and dishonors Germany; and the work will be to your renown and that of the country, and the contentment and satisfaction of the people.
Representatives of the Nobles, be now and for the future, as of old, the first to follow the banner of the Hohenzollerns, that for three centuries has led you on to honor. And you, Burghers, give to the whole world a living testimony that the intelligence—the great mass of which you are proud to represent—is, among us, that right and true one which ennobles by the development of religion and morality, and by the love of your King and country. And you, representatives of the Commons, you and your Order are never the last when your country and your King call on you, whether it be in peace or in war. Hear the voice of your King, that tells you they require you again!
In my kingdom, neither of the three Orders ranks above or beneath the other. They stand beside each other on an equality of rights and honor, but each within its limits, each with its own province. This is a practicable and reasonable equality. This is freedom.
Noble Lords and trusty Orders, a word more on the question—yes, the question of existence between the Throne and the different Orders. The late King, after mature consideration, called them into existence, according to the German and historical idea of them; and in this idea alone have I continued his work. Impress yourselves, I entreat you, with the spirit of this definition. You are German Orders, in the anciently received sense of the word—that is, you are truly, and before all, “representatives and defenders of your own rights,” the rights of those Orders whose confidence has sent here the far greater portion of this Assembly. But after that you are to exercise those rights which the Crown has recognized as yours; you have, further, conscientiously to give the Crown that advice it requires of you. Finally, you are free to bring petitions and complaints, after mature deliberation, to the foot of the throne.
Those are the rights, those the duties, of German Orders; this is your glorious vocation. But it is not your province to represent opinions, or bring opinions of the day, or of this or that school, into practical operation. That is wholly un-German, and, besides, completely useless for the good of the community, for it would lead necessarily to inextricable embarrassments with the Crown, which must govern according to the law of God and the land, and its own free, unbiased resolution, but which can not and dares not govern according to the will of the majority, if “Prussia” would not soon become an empty sound in Europe. Clearly recognizing my office and your vocation, and firmly resolved to treat that recognition faithfully under all circumstances, I have appeared among you, and addressed you with royal freedom. With the same openness, and as the highest proof of my confidence in you, I here give you my royal word that I should not have called you together had I had the smallest suspicion that you would otherwise understand your duties, or that you had any desire to play the part of what are called representatives of the people. I should not have called you together for that purpose, because, according to my deepest and most heartfelt conviction, the Throne and State would be endangered by it, and because I recognize it as my first duty, under all circumstances and events, to preserve the Throne, the State, and my Government, as they at present exist. I remember the axiom of a royal friend, “Confidence awakens confidence.” That is this day my brightest hope. That my confidence in you is great, I have proved by my words, and sealed by my act. And from you, gentlemen, I expect a proof of confidence in return, and an answer in the same manner—by your acts. God is my witness, I have summoned you as your truest, best, and most faithful friend; and I firmly believe that, among the hundreds before me, there is not one who is not resolved, at this moment, to preserve that friendship. Many of you were at Königsberg on the 10th of September, 1840; and I can even now hear the thunder of your voices as you pronounced the oath of fidelity, that then penetrated my soul. Many of you, on the day on which I received the homage of my hereditary estates, joined with thousands in the still echoing “Yes!” with which you replied to my demand whether you would, “in word and deed, in heart and spirit, in truth and love, help and assist me to preserve Prussia as it is, and as it must remain, if it would not perish: that you would not let or hinder me in the path of considerate but vigorous progress, but endure with me through good days and through evil.” Now redeem your word—now fulfill that vow!
You can do it by the exercise of one of your most important duties—namely, by choosing from among you faithful and upright friends of the Throne and of our good purpose for your Committees—men who have comprehended that at this time it is the first duty of the Orders to encourage and support the good disposition and fidelity of the country by their own example, and, on the contrary, to strike down and discountenance every kind of many-headed faithlessness—men who, enemies of every kind of slavery, are, above all, enemies of that shameful yoke which a misguiding opinion (branding the name of freedom of thought) would lay upon your necks. This selection is a very critical act—one pregnant with consequences. Weigh it in your hearts, and choose conscientiously.