¶ Bismarck’s further official presence was irksome to the new master. With the iron decision characteristic of Hohenzollern, William II ended the situation, with a stroke of his imperial will. In this attitude William not only acted wisely, but showed himself every inch a Kaiser.
¶ Besides, Bismarck was plotting in a very human way to support and advance the rising fortunes of the Bismarck family. Would you not have done as much, or even more?
In his princely office, Bismarck thought to found a diplomatic dynasty of his own, wherein the servant becomes the master; he made his son, young Count Herbert, Minister of Foreign Affairs, a rise in life prodigiously fast for one who used to fill the function of holding his father’s dispatch bag in the Parliament, when the old man made speeches, supported by incessant drinking of brandy.
Bismarck, himself, was Chancellor, Minister-President, Foreign Minister; his cousin, Minister of the Interior; and there were many other Bismarcks in state service, trained to know the old man’s policy. Constructive governmental work was all in Bismarck’s power;—and he meant to keep it there.
¶ These many acts of family favoritism, arousing the indignation of the new Emperor, played an important part in determining the old man’s dismissal. The King was offended by Bismarck’s many acts of nepotism, “the greatest,” he secretly declared, “which politics have ever recorded.”
¶ A high official said to Bismarck after Koeniggraetz: “You should be well satisfied;—it made you a Prince!”
¶ “It made me a Prince,” mused Bismarck, with a sudden and unaccountable show of irony. Then, pointing to the map of United Germany, he replied with deep-rooted conviction that revealed how the fires of ambition were consuming his very soul: “A Prince, did you say? Yes, there is my principality!”
¶ From that hour, the suspicious and irrascible side of Bismarck’s mind continued to expand. Some of us quarrel with our family, our partners, or our political party, asking who was responsible for the disaster, but the most deadly disputes are those called forth by ambition to decide not who was responsible for the loss, but who made the success.
¶ Small cause; great effect.