"Neue Rheinische Zeitung" - ["To My People"]

["To My People"]

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung" No. 301, May 19, 1849]

*
Cologne, May 18. "To My People!" Not to "My glorious army!" Have the Russians been beaten, then? Has the wind turned and once again, as in March of last year, knocked the military cap off the head of the "undiminished" lackey of Russia? Are the besieged "loyal subjects" once more in full rebellion?

When in 1813 the old "blessed" one likewise drew the necessary courage from the
advance of the Cossacks
to shed his wretched poltroon’s role, the bloody castigations of the revolutionary empire, it was, despite Cossacks, Bashkirs, and the
"glorious army," known from Jena, from Magdeburg, from the surrender of Küstrin to 150 Frenchmen,
only the mendacious promises of a
"Proclamation To My People"
that brought about the crusade of the Holy Alliance against the successors of the French Revolution. And now! Has the re-invigorated Hohenzoller not derived the necessary courage, from the march of the Cossacks onto German soil, to abandon his post-March poltroon’s role, to do away with the "piece of paper thrust between him and his people" by the revolution? Has not "My glorious army" in Dresden, Breslau, Posen, Berlin, and on the Rhine, through the brave massacres of the defenceless, women and children, with shrapnel and lunar caustic, wreaked worthy vengeance on the revolution?

Has not the newly imposed martial law charter <See
"The New Martial Law Charter"
>
"even outside the state of siege"
once again annulled the last cowardly concessions of March – abolition of censorship, right of association, arming of the people?

No, the son of the hero of Jena and Magdeburg does not yet feel secure enough despite alliances with Cossacks, despite privileges of murder and martial law granted to the "glorious" soldiery let loose.
The undiminished crown is afraid
, it appeals "To My People," it "feels impelled" to address a cry for help, for support against "internal and external enemies," to the trampled-down, besieged,
people
, mown down with grapeshot.

"Prussia is called upon, in so grievous a time, to shield Germany against internal and external enemies. Therefore I even now call My people to arms. The task is to restore order and law in Our own land and in those other German lands where Our help is requested; the task is to found the unity of Germany, to protect its freedom from the reign of terror of a party which would sacrifice civilisation, honour and loyalty to its passions, a party which has succeeded in casting a net of delusion and madness over a part of the people."

"That is the pith of the royal address," cries the police sewer Dumont, and Dumont’s paid police claqueurs have indeed found the right "pith."

The "external enemies"! It is the "party of terror," the party that spells terror for the valiant Hohenzoller, which, in the
"other
German

lands,"
demands our intervention. The people in the Rhineland, Silesia, Saxony are called upon, "in the name of German
unity,"
to put an end to the revolutionary movements in
German
foreign parts – in Baden, Bavaria, Saxony! And to this end the bait of Hohenzoller popular bliss of 1813 is repeated, the tried and tested "royal word" is once more pawned, the "people" are promised a castrated acknowledgement of the Frankfurt Constitution and the "protection of right and liberty" against "godlessness" is held out. "I and My house will serve the Lord." Is the tried and tested pawning of a "Hohenzoller’s royal word" not worth a crusade against "the party of terror for the much-promising crown"?

The mighty imperial-Russian under-knave has recalled the Prussian deputies from Frankfurt solely in order now, in accordance with his March promise, to place himself "at the head of Germany." The Agreement Assembly and the imposed Chamber have been sent packing, the "piece of paper" replaced by the martial-law constitution and military murder-courts, solely in order to guarantee the people "the protection of right and liberty."

And freedom of the press is suppressed, the press in Erfurt placed under
censorship,
the newspapers throughout Posen, in Breslau, in Silesian provincial

towns, in Berlin itself even the "National-Zeitung" directly banned, in Düsseldorf censorship reintroduced de jure, the press completely eliminated de facto (Düsseldorfer Blätter, "Neue Rheinische Zeitung," etc.), and the "free" subjects are at last fobbed off with nothing but the filthy police sewers of the "Kölnische Zeitung" and the Berlin gallows-sheet – all this so that not even the last doubt may arise as to the value of the "royal word"!

And the word of the Hohenzoller is indeed so valuable that the people should don the uniform to bolster the royal courage, in order to procure for the wives they leave behind, according to the Landwehr law, "as protection against beggary," one thaler a month in royal grace money.