It has always – naturally, varying with the persons – more or less always inclined toward the liberal ideas of the era, because everywhere these favor the mechanical handling of conditions. (Bravo!)
This is in the nature of things. Hence, for decades, this great process of disintegration has – even in those countries that had no Chambers – been accomplished by the bureaucracy, and have these been set back in comparison with countries that have Chambers? We want to open its mouth and free up its arms for conservatism and its representatives, so that it may attend to its rights itself through word and deed in public assembly.
The task [at hand] is therefore not the abolition, but above all the correct formation of a regional representative body. And here I can only profoundly lament that our last motion did not gain the support of our government; this would have immediately secured the constitution against future dangers. Therefore what matters now is to employ the assistance of a healthy parliament to repair the damage in individual portions of the constitution, and this only selectively, that is, everywhere where the need is apparent, not in a doctrinaire fashion through general revision. The last changes to such a work that might remain would then be to eliminate those provisions that, while completely harmless, are by no means completely dignified and appropriate.
Such a legal order, which we have set as our goal, but the achievement of which we cannot guarantee, by no means contradicts Prussian history; it is, on the contrary, in the inmost harmony with the same. There are two themes that run through the glorious history of this country. One is the power of the kings; the other is the spiritual participation of the people. The Prussian Volk was never merely a passive object of the government. Its kings achieved great deeds, but [the Volk] itself never helped achieve them merely as an instrument, but rather morally through its own will, its own consent and dedication and sacrifice. This applies to the Seven Years War, to the Wars of Liberation, and last of all to Prussia's restoration in the autumn of 1848. (Bravo!)
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