The Draft Address of the Second Chamber

[“Neue Rheinische Zeitung” No. 247, March 16, 1849, Extraordinary Supplement]

Cologne, March 6. We communicate below to our readers the draft address of the Second Chamber, a pale, servile copy of the Throne Speech <see “The Throne Speech”>. Its author is the notorious knight of the red earth, the valiant (!) v. Vincke.

The Address Commission “acknowledges” (Old Testament style) the “establishment” of the “legal order through the Constitution of 5 December of last year gratefully.” It even offers this thanks in the name of the “Prussian people”. And why does the people of the Address Commission thank for the December constitution imposed by the sabre? Because it is “imbued” “with the desire for the return of a public legal order”. Vincke, poor knight! He had to prove himself as the man of the “legal ground”, which “constitutes his speciality”. And how to acknowledge the “legal ground” vis-à-vis the Brandenburg Ministry, which just blew this legal ground to pieces by tearing up the laws of 6 and 8 April 1848? Nothing simpler! The Ministry has imposed a new legal ground, martial law, and simultaneously the Charter, the Code and the philosophy of martial law, the Constitution of 5 December. First the Ministry abolishes the “public legal order”. Then the government proclaims another, the first Croatian “public legal order” that comes along, a legal ground quelconque <at will>. And the Address Commission in the name of the Prussian people and Vincke in the name of the Prussian Address Commission [have] nothing more urgent to welcome than the return of a (any, the first that comes along) “public legal order”! The legal ground is dead! Long live the legal ground!

If the Prussian government is overthrown tomorrow, if a comité du salut public <Committee of Public Safety> is proclaimed in Berlin, among the first congratulators, the wedding knights, there will inevitably be a “man of the legal ground”, some Vincke or other, who will acknowledge with emotion “the return of a” some “public legal order” or other.

The Address Commission and the dead ride fast. First “thanks” (following the prescription of the *Neue Preußische Zeitung*) for the coup d’état of 5 December! Then the constitution of martial law proclaimed as “the henceforth valid fundamental law of the Prussian state”! Finally the vow made to carry out the “revision with all reverence and loyalty towards Your Royal Majesty”, i.e. to revise in the sense of the gift-giver. On this path we shall hopefully be led back to behind the United Diet!

As regards the “state of siege” of Berlin, the Address Commission will allow itself to be governed exclusively by the platitude that “true freedom cannot exist without legal order”. We know the battle-cry of “legal order!” from Warsaw. If only Prussia could exist without money and obtain the money without these importunate parliamentary prattlers! As regards the sporadic states of siege “outside the city of Berlin”, the Address Commission deems it appropriate “to await a further communication from Your Royal Majesty’s government”. In the meantime, Erfurt and the Silesian districts placed under a state of siege are left empty-handed. Vincke is satisfait <satisfied> so long as the Erfurt and Rosenberg military censors <see “Censorship”> do not “delete” his draft address. No danger!

Vincke then promises in the name of the Address Commission, and the Address Commission promises in the name of the Second Chamber, and the Second Chamber promises in the name of the people, to complete the tasks imposed by the Royal Prussian Government on the “so-called popular representation” “with strenuous activity” and to the greatest possible satisfaction. Good luck!

“Joyfully we too recognise that Prussia’s army has proved its warlike renown in days of battle, its loyalty in severe trials.”

Danish Reichskammergericht campaign! Battle of Miloslaw and Wreschen! <see “A New Year’s Greeting”, p. 162> Victories in Anhalt, in Mainz, in Frankfurt am Main! More! Vincke joyfully recognises the loyalty with which “My magnificent army” hunted down Vincke’s predecessors and heated the stove with the documents of the old National Assembly. Vincke has every reason. Without the “loyalty” of “Prussia’s army in severe trials” our Vincke would never have found occasion to immortalise himself by this draft address of his own composition. Incidentally, we note in passing that the Address Commission, in this passage too, follows in schoolboy fashion the prescriptions given by the *Neue Preußische Zeitung* in the Hohenzollern overall reform plan <see “The Hohenzollern Overall Reform Plan”>.

And the German question?

“Prussia” will “shrink from no sacrifices” to seize Little Germany by other means than Frederick the Great seized Silesia. With regard to “conquests”, modern Prussia pays homage to “peaceful” progress. Moreover, the Address Commission “hopes” for “agreement of all German governments with the German National Assembly”. We hope that the German governments will not make much fuss with this imperial teachers’ seminary.

Also from “the denunciation of the armistice by the Crown of Denmark” the Address Commission wishes “no disturbance of the peace”. Vincke knows very well that this Danish armistice denunciation is meant no more seriously than the Prussian-Danish war. Prussian troops as imperial troops in Schleswig-Holstein, the Schleswig-Holstein troops as imperial troops in South Germany, the former here, the latter there proclaiming martial law!

Condolence on the death of Prince Waldemar, protestations of self-sacrifice with which the v. Bodelschwinghs, the Riedels, v. Seckendorf, Arnim, Harkort, Count Renard, Camphausen, Vincke, the Grüns and similar rabble have degraded themselves to Prussian Lycurguses and Solons; fear of God, respect for the law, public spirit, justice, Providence, the hearts of kings and the future of Prussia “and with it Germany”, all this is served up as dessert by the Address Commission through the kind mediation of v. Vincke!

Idiocy must possess the right of citizenship in a popular representation and in a people which allow a v. Vincke, in the name of an Address Commission, in the name of a Chamber, in the name of the people itself, to dare to make themselves the laughing-stock of the European gallery with such a shabby piece of work.