that all laws imposing taxes must originate in the elective chamber.

ART. 9. The king shall convoke the two chambers annually; he may prorogue their sessions, and may dissolve the elective chamber; but in this case he shall convoke a new assembly at the expiration of four months.

ART. 10. No tax may be imposed or levied unless approved by the chambers and sanctioned by the king.

ART. 11. The press shall be free, but subject to laws for its control.

ART. 12. Individual liberty shall be guaranteed.

Section 63. Outcome of the Revolution of 1848 in
Germany

The members of the Frankfort Assembly, which met in the spring of 1848, laboriously worked out a constitution, but before they had finished it, conditions became highly unfavorable to their hopes of a political regeneration of Germany.. Austria once more regained its former influence, and when, a year later, the Assembly offered the imperial crown to the timid Frederick William of Prussia, he naturally declined it. He proposed, nevertheless, that Prussia should join the other German States in preparing a revision of the constitution drawn up by the deputies at Frankfort, who had been very generally discredited by the conduct of the radical and republican factions.

To my People:

Taking as a pretense the interests of Germany, the enemies of the fatherland have raised the standard of revolt, first in the neighboring Saxony, then in several districts of south Germany. To my deep chagrin, even in parts of our own land some have permitted themselves to be seduced into following this standard and attempting, in open rebellion against the legal government, to overturn the order of things established by both divine and

human sanction. In so serious and dangerous a crisis I am 234. The moved publicly to address a word to my people.

king of Prussia

dered him

I was not able to return a favorable reply to the offer of a refuses th crown on the part of the German National Assembly, because crown tenthe Assembly has not the right, without the consent of the Gerby the man governments, to bestow the crown which they tendered Frankfort me, and, moreover, because they offered the crown upon con- Assembly (May 15, dition that I would accept a constitution which could not be 1849) reconciled with the rights and safety of the German States.

I have exhausted every means to reach an understanding with the German National Assembly. . . . Now the Assembly has broken with Prussia. The majority of its members are no longer those men upon whom Germany looked with pride and confidence. The greater part of the deputies voluntarily left the Assembly when they saw that it was on the road to ruin, and yesterday I ordered all the Prussian deputies who had not already withdrawn to be recalled. The other governments will do the same.

A party now dominates the Assembly which is in league with the terrorists. While they urge the unity of Germany as a pretense, they are really fighting the battle of godlessness, perjury, and robbery, and kindling a war against monarchy; but if monarchy were overthrown, it would carry with it the blessings of law, liberty, and property. The horrors committed in Dresden, Breslau, and Elberfeld under the banner of German unity afford a melancholy proof of this. New horrors are occurring and are in prospect.

While such crimes have put an end to the hope that the Frankfort Assembly can bring about German unity, I have, with a fidelity and persistence suiting my royal station, never lost hope. My government has taken up with the more important German States the work on the German constitution begun by the Frankfort Assembly.

...

This is my method. Only madness or deception will dare, in view of these facts, to assert that I have given up the cause of German unity, or that I am untrue to my earlier convictions and assurances. FREDERICK WILLIAM

Conduct of

the republi radicals

CHARLOTTENBURG, May 15, 1849

235. Speech of king of Prussia on

taking oath

to observe the new

constitution

The uprising in Berlin in 1848 had led to the assembly of a Prussian national convention, which set to work to draft a constitution, but was dissolved by the king before it completed its labors. The king thereupon proclaimed on his own authority a constitutional charter, which he later submitted to the revision of the two chambers for which it provided. He then solemnly swore to observe this charter; and on taking the oath, February, 1850, he gave the following explanation of his conduct to the Prussian parliament.

Gentlemen:

I ask your attention. The words I am about to speak are entirely my own, for I appear before you to-day as I never have done before, and never shall do hereafter. I am here, not to exercise the innate and hereditary sacred duties of the royal office (which are exalted high above the opinions and wishes (February, of parties); above all, not sheltered by the responsibility of 1850) my highest counselors, but as myself alone, as a man of honor, who is about to give that which is dearest to him - his word, his yea! — firmly and deliberately. Therefore a few words by way of introduction.

The work which I am this day about to sanction took its beginning during a year which the loyalty of coming generations will wish in sorrow, but in vain, to blot from our history. In the form in which it was first submitted to you it was indeed the outcome of the devoted loyalty of men who have saved this throne, men to whom my gratitude will only be extinguished with my life; but it originated during a period when, in the strictest sense of the word, the very existence of the fatherland was threatened. It was the work of the moment, and bore the broad stamp of its origin.

It is a legitimate question, How can I, with this in mind, give my sanction to this work? Yet I do it because I can; and it is, thanks to you alone, gentlemen, that I can. You have laid an improving hand upon it. You have removed objectionable points from it, and have introduced improvements

in it; by your admirable labors, and by the adoption of my last proposals, you have given me a pledge that you will not, after my sanction, abandon the perfecting work already begun, so that our united, honest endeavors may succeed in rendering it, in a constitutional manner, ever more conformable to the vital requirements of Prussia. I am in a position to sanction this work because I can do it with hope. I acknowledge, with the warmest thanks to you, gentlemen, and I say it with joyful emotion, — that you have deserved well of the fatherland. And so I declare, God being my witness, that my oath to the constitution is sincere and without reserve. But the continued existence and success of the constitution, as you and all noble hearts in our country feel, depend upon the fulfillment of essential conditions.

You, gentlemen, must help me, as well as the diets after you; the loyalty of my people must help me against those who would use the freedom thus granted by the monarch as a cloak for malice and for an attack on its originators and the authority appointed by God; you and they must help me against those who would wish to regard this document as taking the place of even God's blessed providence, of our history, and of the old sacred loyalty. All the good people of the country must unite in loyal respect for the monarchy and for this throne, which rests upon the victories of our armies, on the observance of the laws, on a faithful fulfillment of the oath of allegiance, as well as of the new oath of loyalty and obedience to the king, and on the conscientious observance of the constitution, — in a word, the condition of the constitution's continued existence is that government may be rendered possible to me under this The divine new fundamental law; for in Prussia the king must govern ; and I govern, not because it is my pleasure, God knows it, but because it is God's ordinance; therefore I am determined to continue to govern. A free people under a free king; that has been my watchword for ten years, so it is still to-day, and will so remain as long as I breathe.

Before I proceed to the ceremony of the day I will renew before you two former pledges in view of the ten years of my government which have elapsed.

nature of

the Prussia

monarchy

First, I repeat and confirm, solemnly and expressly, the pledges which I took before God and man at Königsberg and here. Yes, so help me God.

Secondly, I repeat and confirm, solemnly and expressly, the sacred vow which I pronounced [at the opening of the Prussian Estates General] on the 11th of April, 1847, “With my House to serve the Lord." Yes, yes, that I do, so help me God! That vow stands above all others; it must be contained in every one, and, like the pure water of life, must run through all other pledges, if they are to be of any value.

Now, moreover, as in virtue of my royal sovereignty I hereby sanction the Constitution, I vow solemnly, truly, and expressly, before God and man, to maintain the Constitution of my country and realm firmly and inviolably, and to govern in conformity with it and the laws. Yes, yes, that I will, so help me God!

And now I commit the law thus sanctioned into the hands of God Almighty, whose providence in the history of Prussia can plainly be recognized, in order that, out of this work of man, he may make an instrument for the salvation of our dear fatherland, namely, for giving effect to his holy will and decrees. So be it.