452 



GERMANY. 



that the " National Verein " and the " General 

 Assembly of the members of German Diets," 

 agreed in all important points, and that they 

 demanded a more liberal and democratic basis 

 for the reconstructed union than the Great Ger- 

 man Party, although the latter contained like- 

 wise a strong democratic element. 



The first General Assembly of the members of 

 German Diets met at Weimar, on Sept. 28th. 

 The members of the Austrian Council of the 

 Empire had been specially invited, but none of 

 them made their appearance. The assembly was 

 attended by 213 deputies, representing most of 

 the German states, and elected Mr. Fries, of 

 Weimar, president, and Mr. Unruh, of Prussia, 

 and Barth, of Bavaria, vice-presidents. Upon 

 motion of Mr. Joseph, of Saxony, it was re- 

 solved, that the admission by the assembly of de- 

 puties from states, where constitutions had been 

 introduced or modified without the assent of 

 the chambers, did in no way prejudge the valid- 

 ity of these constitutions. It then adopted 

 the following resolutions : 1. The Federal unity 

 of Germany such as it was legally expressed 

 by the German constitution of March 28th, 

 1849, without encroaching upon the independ- 

 ence of the particular states, is a political ne- 

 cessity both for making Germany respected 

 abroad and for securing liberty at home. It 

 can only be afiected by the convocation of a 

 parliament. The creation of a parliament for 

 all Germany constitutes a right of the German 

 people. It is the duty of every German, of 

 each government, and of every German chamber 

 to urge by all legal means the establishment of 

 this constitution. 2. The German parliament 

 must emanate from a free popular election. The 

 proposed assembly of delegates cannot be re- 

 garded as even a first step, and ought, there- 

 fore, to be rejected. 3. The proposed Feder- 

 al tribunal appears to be very dangerous to lib- 

 erty, and must be absolutely rejected. 4. Ger- 

 man unity must embrace all Germany; no 

 people ought to be excluded, and it is the right 

 as well as the duty of all the states to unite. 

 This holds good, particularly of German Aus- 

 tria. But if insurmountable obstacles should 

 oppose themselves in the beginning to the for- 

 mation of a Federal unity embracing German 

 Austria, this should not be a reason for the 

 other states to delay on their part the execu- 

 tion of this national work. On the other hand, 

 the admission of other countries of the Aus- 

 trian empire, which have heretofore formed no 

 part of the Germanic Confederation, is irrecon- 

 cilable with the national wants of the German 

 people. 6th. The question of the executive Ger- 

 man power should not be definitely settled with- 

 out the participation and the assent of the first 

 German parliament. In the discussion which 

 preceded the adoption of these resolutions, only 

 one dissenting voice was heard, that of Herr Von 

 Gagern, who pleaded the caiise of Austria and 

 demanded that the central power should be 

 placed conjointly in the hands of Austria and 

 Prussia. The assembly appointed a standing 



committee of twenty members, who jointly 

 chose eleven additional deputies. 



A few days later, on Oct. 6th and 7th, the 

 annual general assembly of the " National Ve- 

 rein " was held at Coburg. It passed resolu- 

 tions similar to those passed at Weimar. Ac- 

 cording to a report of the committee, the " Na- 

 tional Verein " at this time numbered 25,325 

 members. 



The first general assembly of the " Great Ger- 

 man " Party was opened at Frankfort on Oct. 

 28th, and attended by about 550 members, many 

 of whom were representatives of the chambers 

 of Austria, Bavaria, Baden, Hanover, and other 

 states. The views of this assembly are expressed 

 in the following resolutions, which were adopted 

 almost unanimously, viz. : 1st. The reform of 

 the constitution of the Germanic Confedera- 

 tion is an urgent and indispensable necessity. 

 2d. The reform must make it possible for all the 

 German states to enter the union. 3d. It can 

 be achieved only by the creation of a strong 

 Federal executive with a national representa- 

 tion. 4th. The only possible form for the Fed- 

 eral executive under the actual circumstances 

 would be an executive college with an appro- 

 priate distribution of votes. 5th. The assem- 

 bly of delegates, proposed by eight governments, 

 must be accepted as a first step toward the crea- 

 tion of a national representation ; but it is to 

 be hoped that the governments will not delay 

 to transform this assembly into a periodical rep- 

 resentation near the Diet with an extension of 

 its powers. 6th. In order to procure for it the 

 required moral authority, it ought to have a 

 sufficiently large number of members. The 

 legislatures of the several states ought to have 

 the right to fix the mode of their election ; but 

 in no case should the eligibility be limited to 

 the members of the several national represent- 

 ations. 7th. The reform should be effected 

 by way of agreement upon the basis of the ac- 

 tual Federal Constitution. 8th. Although a 

 Federal tribunal whose independence should be 

 secured appears to be one of the most useful 

 institutions, the plan proposed by the eight 

 governments does not appear to answer the 

 desired end. 



The Federal Diet toward the close of the year 

 had animated debates on the question of estab- 

 lishing an assembly of delegates. Austria and her 

 allies (the four kingdoms, Hesse-Darmstadt and 

 Nassau) maintained that such a measure would 

 not be an organic change of the constitution, 

 and that therefore no unanimity of votes was 

 required for its passage. This view was opposed 

 by Prussia and Baden, the latter power main- 

 taining, moreover, that if a representation of 

 the people was to be inaugurated at all in con- 

 nection with the Diet, it ought to have great- 

 er powers than were accorded to it by the 

 scheme of Austria and her allies. A vote on 

 the subject was reached on Jan. 22d, 1863. 

 Only seven out of the seventeen votes of tin 

 minor council declared in favor of the Austrian 

 scheme. Denmark declared that the negotia- 



