Bismarck rode into the political lists in 1847 as a courageous, sensible, and honorable man, and has held his place in the arena for more than twenty years as a loyal champion of the King, both in single combat and general battle. He has made mistakes in his innumerable contests, but he has learnt from them, has gallantly paid in person, and never concealed or denied his colors or insignia.
Even the most furious opponents of these colors and insignia can not deny this.
We have not used the simile of the knightly tournament unadvisedly, for the whole political faith of Bismarck is founded on a chivalric idea, in the deep immovable conviction of his personal position towards the Prussian sovereignty. The ultimate foundation of Bismarck’s political action consists in his personal position as an Alt Mark vassal and nobleman to his liege lord, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the King of Prussia. It will be understood that this position is the ultimate, but not precisely the only one; it is only the least, but also the inmost circle, whence the other principles around him have evolved themselves, according to his consciousness. As the liegeman stood in personal relation to his lord, so the deputy stood to the King, and the relation to the Regent was analogous to the relation of the Minister-President and Chancellor of the Diet to the King and Chief of the North German Federation. From this strong consciousness of the moral connection of his own person with that of the sovereign, his liege, Bismarck’s whole political acts arise and may be discerned.
King William is, however, aware of the construction which Bismarck places upon their inter-relations, and in this, on the one hand, lies the strength, on the other the weakness, of the position held by Bismarck, as chief counsellor of the King. This hint may here suffice.
And if we now contemplate, from this point of view, the whole political life of Bismarck—his speeches, his letters, his dispatches and ordinances, the result of his exertions everywhere, from the beginning until now—what do we find? The same loyal Brandenburg statesman, who, in chivalrous and liege faith, has grown greater in courage and self-sacrifice; learning more how to perform his functions as year by year has passed away; with greater self-possession and good-humor before the throne of his monarch; before that throne, in his conception, the bulwark of Prussia and Germany, and defended by him with equal zeal against inward detractors and outward foes.
At the first United Diet, in the year 1847, he was impressed with the idea that liberalism might endanger the throne of his liege; it was not a perfect conviction, but the daring phrase roused him; he supposed he saw danger, and he instantly showed a firm front to it.
At that time he was but little acquainted with the use of parliamentary weapons; his opponents were far more experienced in eloquence than himself, and he stood, as it were, almost alone before a multitude; for those of his own opinions, with the exception of the two Manteuffels, perhaps, were still less experienced speakers than he; but the bravery with which he encountered the word “liberal” deserved all praise. The bold attitude with which he entered the arena revealed to his opponents that the unknown Dyke Captain from the banks of the Elbe was not a man to be undervalued by them; this they did not do; and the fierce irony with which they, with more or less talent, overwhelmed him, betrayed the fact that in this Junker the Crown had found a mighty defender.
When the second United Diet took place, the enemy of the kingdom was no longer liberalism, but democracy, and Bismarck met this foe with the most unhesitating conviction. But the nobleman who honors in the King of Prussia his liege lord, is by no means the Aga, or Pasha, of an Oriental Sultan, blindly obedient and adoring. The manly words of Bismarck were a rebuke, not only to the low, but the high.
In 1849-’51 Bismarck occupied a position in the Diet, as one of the chief leaders of the Conservative party against democracy. He entered into the strife with ardor, both at Berlin and Erfurt; wherever he saw the sovereignty of Prussia assailed, he sprang to the breach with decision. He seemed to have a fine intuition for every thing hostile to his beloved sovereignty.
When Ambassador at Frankfurt to the Federation, he at once recognized the impending ruin of Prussia to consist in the false position she there occupied, and he arrived at the conviction that the jealousy of Austria would strive to retain Prussia in this position, and not only that, but would employ itself in active measures, by which it should end in the final destruction of Germany. He therefore resolved upon opposition to Austria. This was not a very easy task; the compact between Prussia and Austria had descended to him from his fathers as a sacred tradition. He would readily have held out his hand, he would have desired earnestly to remain true to tradition; nor did he remit in attempts and offers, until he knew that there was a change coming over the policy of Austria not tending to the good of Prussia and Germany. He then changed with military precision. The vassal approached with full front before the throne of his liege, even against Austria. He did not do it secretly, but openly and honestly; every one might be able to tell how it fared with him everywhere. He defined his position in writing from Frankfurt, from St. Petersburg, from Paris, both by his own hand and by that of others.