January 17. [ . . . ] The growth of the Socialist Party in Dresden is very conspicuous. [ . . . ] The [Conservative] Party is being blamed for the fact that Bebel managed to reach the run-off election, because many who have now joined the party would have voted for the Progressive candidate [Heinrich Eduard] Minckwitz in the past. At any rate, the assumption seems to be correct that the sorry state of economic affairs has prompted many people who would not otherwise be considered Social Democratic to favor Bebel. This phenomenon will recur even more noticeably, though for other reasons, in the run-off election [ . . . ]. [The Conservatives say openly that] they would rather give their votes to the Social Democrat Bebel than to the National Liberal Mayhoff. These Conservatives belong to the nobility – the court circles. As in the past, the members of these incorrigible social circles still do not admit that hostility against Prussia is the actual and exclusive foundation upon which all of their thinking and judgements rests; however, they have found a field in which they are once again able to vent their passionate and long-suppressed anger under the guise of conservative convictions. It goes without saying that in all this, the ultramontane clique, including the Austrian and Bavarian envoy together with their devout Catholics, is acting in an anti-Prussian way. According to the Conservatives, the liberal laws are to blame for the growth of the proletariat in the industrial centers, for creating the Founding Era frauds, for ruining industry and commerce, and for driving the impoverished populace towards Socialism. All of this is regarded as the doing of the National Liberals, who appear all the more despicable because, in the opinion of the particularists, they are working toward the destruction and nationalization of Saxony, in which context the realization of the national railroad project is supposedly the first step. Their motto is: Saxony may only be represented in the Reichstag by real Saxons, because the idea that a German member of parliament might advocate German interests does not even occur to them. So after the Conservatives have foundered with their candidate Käuffer (whose rank of captain, by the way, did him a lot of harm), they face the question whether to vote for Mayhoff, a Mecklenburger, or for Bebel, or to abstain from the vote altogether.
It is worth noting how many of these gentlemen appear determined to vote for Bebel. Some of them seem to assume that a few more Social Democrats in the Reichstag will not pose much of a threat, that a strengthening of this party means damaging the National Liberals, and that, most importantly, all wheels are to be set in motion to topple the latter party.
Others argue that the faster the Socialist Party grows and the more unexpectedly the government is confronted with the danger the Socialists pose to the state, the more certain is the prospect of the government yielding and following a conservative line.
As a last resort – so the argument goes – the government would bring up cannon against the Social Democrats, but it would not dare to attack the National Liberals.
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