[ . . . ]
When on the day before yesterday the same right was claimed for the Prussian Landtag, I heard not a single cry of astonishment, aside from the one I repressed inside myself. I believe, gentlemen, that those who made this statement indeed underestimate the earnestness of the situation in which we find ourselves. Do you really believe that the magnificent movement that last year led into battle the peoples [ . . . ] from the Rhine to the Prut and the Dniester, which led to the iron game of dice in which the stakes were royal and imperial crowns; that the millions of German warriors who fought against each other and bled on the battlefields from the Rhine to the Carpathians; that the thousands upon thousands of those killed in battle and those who succumbed to disease, who with their death sealed this national decision, do you believe all this could be written off with the resolution of a Landtag?
(Bravo!)
Gentlemen if you believe that, then you really do not grasp the situation!
I do not desire to lay down any sort of threat, for I respect the rights of our Landtag, just as I gladly would have respected them from the beginning if, according to my conviction, that would have been compatible with the continued existence of the Prussian state. But I am of the firm conviction that no German Landtag will pass such a resolution if we come to an agreement here.
(Bravo!)
I would indeed like to see how the gentlemen who are considering these possibilities would answer, let us say, an invalid from the Battle of Königgrätz, when he inquired about the outcome of the stupendous deeds done there. They would perhaps say to him: “Yes, to be sure, with respect to German unity once again nothing has happened. When the occasion arises things will turn out all right on that count. Unity is easy to acquire. An agreement is possible at any time. However, we have rescued the right of the House of Deputies of the Prussian Landtag to approve the budget, the right annually to place in question the existence of the Prussian army,
(commotion on the left)
a right that we, as good patriots, would never make use of, indeed should an assembly ever go so far astray as really to want to do so, then we would call to account as traitors to their country the ministers who were party to the execution of the orders. But it is, nevertheless, our right. It was for this that we struggled with the emperor of Austria outside the walls of Pressburg.” With that the invalid ought to console himself over the loss of his limbs, with that the widow who has buried her husband ought to find solace?
Gentlemen, it is really a completely impossible situation that you are creating for yourselves here. I thus gladly turn from these fantastic impossibilities back to realm of reality, to a few objections that have been made here against the content of the constitution. It has already been said – I do not know whether the phrase was left in the king's address – that we consider the draft to be capable of improvement. I can at least testify here that we are receptive to any suggestion honestly intended to improve the constitution and to facilitate its enactment.
(Bravo!)
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