12. Rectifying the disproportion between labor and capital by means of a special labor ministry, which shall oppose usury and protect labor, in particular secure labor a share of the profits created by labor.
13. Abolition of the thousand-fold and mutually divergent systems of civil law, penal law, trial law, ecclesiastical law, and constitutional law, and matters of coins, weights, post office, railways etc., and their replacement by laws which, arising from the spirit of our time, establish the inner unity of Germany in spiritual [intellectual] and material terms along with its freedom.
14. Termination of the disunity of Germany and the restoration of division in imperial districts with all due consideration to present conditions.
15. Termination of the hereditary monarchy (despotism) and its replacement by freely elected parliaments headed by freely elected presidents, all united in the federalist Confederal Assembly on the model of the North American free states.
German people, these are the principles with whose help alone, in our view, Germany can become happy, respected, and free.
German brethren East and West, we urge you to support us in the effort to unify you and obtain inalienable human rights for you. In Frankfurt a. M. we will remain united until a freely elected parliament can take charge of Germany's fate. In the meantime, we will draft the necessary bills and, with a freely elected executive committee, prepare the great work of Germany's recovery.
Source: W. Blos, Die deutsche Revolution 1848/49 [The German Revolution 1848/49], p. 487 ff.
Original German text reprinted in Ernst Rudolf Huber, ed., Deutsche Verfassungsdokumente 1803-1850 [German Constitutional Documents 1803-1850], vol. 1, Dokumente zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte [Documents on German Constitutional History], 3rd ed., rev. and enl. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1978, pp. 332-34.
Translation: Jeremiah Riemer
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