Mr. Motley to Mr. Seward.
Sir:There are symptoms that the German-Danish question in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, now pressing for its solution, after vain attempts for so many years to bury it, may lead to a European war.
The condition of affairs was critical before the death of King Frederick VII, which occurred on the 15th of this month.
Denmark has a total population of about 2,700,000; of which the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg are, in round numbers, a million, or considerably more than one-third of the whole.
Holstein is, actually and undoubtedly, German in population and in feeling; and King Frederick, in his capacity of Duke of Holstein, was a member of the German confederation.
Schleswig is neither historically nor politically a constituent part of what is commonly called Germany, and is not represented at the Frankfort Diet, but it has a considerable German population, among whom the recent efforts on the part of the government to consolidate its power, and give preponderance to the Danish element in schools, churches, and the public service, has produced much dissatisfaction, and called forth loud complaints of tyranny and ill usage. Born German Schleswegers here, to my knowledge, complained that they were treated more cruelly than the Poles in Russia, or than the slaves in the southern States of America.
This is doubtless a figure of speech, but it illustrates the exasperation of feeling which exists. These outcries have awakened a universal sympathy throughout Germany, where, to judge from the language of the press and of conversation, there is no difference of opinion on this matter, every man, from prince to peasant, feeling with equal keenness in regard to it.
[Page 129]On the other band, the government, feeling that its national existence was at stake—for without the duchies Denmark could hardly rank as an independent kingdom—and that the gravitation of this portion of its domain towards Germany should be checked at all hazards, proceeded with stringent measures in regard both to Schleswig and to Holstein, which called forth remonstrances from the German Diet, and led to a sharp correspondence between that body and the Danish government. The events, as they have developed themselves during the past year, have doubtless attracted your attention; so that, without going into details, or expressing any opinion as to the merits of the question, I need only remind you that, at last, the Frankfort Diet formally notified the Danish government that unless its decree of 30th March last should be revoked, which the Diet had declared to be a violation of the laws of the German confederation and of treaty stipulations, troops would be sent from Germany to occupy the duchy of Holstein, in order to execute this declaration of the Diet, and keep possession until the desired revocation. The Danish government replied that the decree itself was provisional, but it proceeded to mature a constitution for Denmark-Schleswig, incorporating that duchy with the kingdom, and to maintain in form certain objectionable regulations in Holstein.
This constitution, being ultra-Danish in its character, was considered as embodying and perpetuating the principles of the 30th March decree, and as violating engagements formally entered into by Denmark, and the Diet resolved to proceed with the execution if the new constitution should be signed by the king.
That constitution was drawn up and ready to be signed on the 13th of the present month, but the king, who had for some time been ailing, was unable to attend to business. On the 15th the world was startled by the news of his death.
The sensation was as great as that which a week before had been caused by the speech from the French throne. At first, however, it was hoped by many that the accession of the new king would produce a favorable change. It would obviously be not only courteous but necessary to pause in the execution until Christian IX should develop his policy. He might refuse to sign the constitution, which his predecessor had been prevented by death from signing. He might remove his ministers, dissolve his parliament, and exchange ultra-Danish proceedings for more German measures. But should he incline to do this, it was at once evident that he would forfeit his crown before he had time to put it on his head. After a very brief interval of reflection, he yielded to the pressure of the Danes, signed the constitution, and retained his ministers.
There is no reason, therefore, why the execution should not be proceeded with at once. And the news to-day is that the Saxon and Hanoverian contingents are about to march towards Holstein, while the popular excitement throughout Germany is very great. It is said and hoped that this measure will not be accepted by the Danish government as an act of war; but I have it on excellent authority that it will recall its legations from the German courts as soon as the execution shall take place. Whether this be true or not, time will soon show. It will be seen, too, whether England and France will take part with Denmark in resisting by force of arms the execution, or whether they will counsel and compel her to avoid war by prudent concessions. Denmark takes the ground that she has conceded and parleyed and argued enough, and that if her existence be, as the great powers have avowed, a political necessity, it is time that they help her to maintain that existence by something stronger than words.
The governments of Prussia and Austria are the more ready now to go on with the execution, because the death of the last sovereign, whose claim was undisputed, has opened a new question, which, it was hoped, had been settled by the protocol of 1852; for it must not be forgotten that the execution question [Page 130] is an entirely distinct one from the question of succession, although both threaten a European war. I have no desire to examine the merits of the succession question, and I shall only very briefly recall to your remembrance one or two leading facts.
The protocol of 1852, by which the Duke of Schleswig-Glucksburg was declared the successor of the childless King Frederick VII, who has just died, was signed not only by England, France, and Russia, but by Austria and Prussia. The protocol was distinctly stated to have for its object the maintenance of the integrity of the Danish monarchy, as a European necessity. It did not affect to untie the legal knot of succession to the duchies of Schleswig, Lauenburg, and Holstein, which centuries of intermarriages had made nearly insoluble, but it cut it in pieces. A large number of claimants to the heritage of these provinces were at once set aside, so far as the protocol could do it; and the most prominent of them, the Duke of Schleswig-Augustenburg, renounced his pretensions in his own name and in that of his descendants. He also received three millions of thalers, but whether as compensation for his claims or for his private estates in the duchies is, I believe, like everything else, a matter of dispute.
The protocol, however, although signed by Austria and Prussia as European powers, was never sanctioned by the estates of the provinces in question, nor by the German Bund. Bavaria, indeed, and one or two other small powers, protested against it at the time; and it has always been anticipated that the death of Frederick VII would bring about the commotions in Germany which are now taking place.
Yet it has been rather the fashion in Europe to sneer at the Schleswig-Holstein question, as the embodiment of all that was tedious and incomprehensible, and to shove it aside for what were considered graver matters. It now rises again with a more menacing aspect than ever out of the grave of the late king, and will not be so easily exorcised. It may now cost thousands of lives before it will consent to vanish.
The Prince of Schleswig, Augustenburg, son of the duke who renounced his family rights, has formally assumed the title of Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, announced his accession to the estates, and summoned the Bund to recognize his plenipotentiary at the Diet as the rightful representative of Holstein and Lauenburg. Several of the lesser German sovereignties, as Baden, Coburg, Altenburg, and others, have expressed their intention of supporting him; and the question has already been put in the hands of a committee at a meeting of the Diet.
His supporters speak fluently of his legal claim to the duchies as unuqestionable. I should say that all that was unquestionable was, that, if German law prevails in the duchies, the female branch, and those claiming through females, cannot succeed; and that, therefore, the right of Christian IX, and with it the integrity of the Danish monarchy, rests entirely upon the protocol, and upon the vigor with which it is defended by the sword of Denmark and her allies. But to say, on the other hand, that the claims of the Augustenburgs are unquestionable, is to speak specifically. There are many claimants not only to each of the three duchies, but to separate portions of each duchy, the most formidable among which heirs-at-law to a part at least of the property is the Czar of Russia as chief of the house of Holstein-Gottorp.
Moreover, it is maintained that in Schleswig it was arranged centuries ago by formal instruments, with every legal sanction, that the succession to that duchy should follow the succession to the Danish crown. In short, any one who has ever studied law or history must recognize at a glance that this is exactly one of those questions which might occupy all the jurisconsults and genealogists of Europe for the rest of this century, before it could be settled beyond possibility of cavil, and which, if it regarded a private estate, would be sure to be kept in [Page 131] chancery until the whole property was consumed, and two or three generations of claimants had died of starvation.
I have, therefore, not the faintest intention of examining the merits of the case; and it would certainly be a marvellous spectacle if all Europe, in this age of the world, were to be plunged into a sanguinary and protracted struggle to settle such a lawsuit.
One would have thought that the time had gone by for wars of succession; but they must, perhaps, periodically recur, as results of the European principle, that great countries, with all their inhabitants, are the private property of a small number of privileged families.
The probable attitude of the great powers on this question is far more important than the legal aspects of the case. Austria and Prussia signed the protocol, but it is contended that they did not sign it as members of the Bund, but only as European powers. Moreover, Austria and Prussia might easily be outvoted in a plenary sitting of the Diet. Practically, however, it is absurd to suppose that the Bund could take active war measures, or active measures of any kind, without the consent of these two great constituents. The Germanic Confederation, even with Austria and Prussia, is but a political shadow. Without them it is not even the shadow of a shade.
As a matter of fact, the Austrian government is most anxious to recognize Christian IX as Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, and to maintain the Danish monarchy in its entirety. It also desires to act in concurrence with Prussia on this question. Up to the moment of this writing, however, Prussia has not yet answered a proposition of Austria to this effect, and has not yet shown its hand.
Meantime, to judge by the almost universal language of the German press, and by excited speeches made by prominent members of the liberal party to the National German Union League, and to enthusiastic mass meetings, embracing six to ten thousand, (according to reports,) in Hamburg, Hanover, Frankfort, and other places, the German feeling is rising to fever heat. It is loudly proclaimed that the hour has at last struck for delivering a million of German brethren from Danish oppression, and for reannexing to the fatherland these duchies, which are once for all to be now separated forever from Denmark.
The chronic rivalry between Austria and Prussia for the leadership of Germany makes it difficult and dangerous for either power to balk this German enthusiasm in its first effervescence, and to confront this strong manifestation in favor of the Augustenburg as the legal proprietor and master of the duchies and all their inhabitants—who thus, by an odd combination of circumstances, appears at once as the standard-bearer of the most antiquated legitimacy, and the representative of the great principle of German nationality and popular rights.
The moment is an anxious one. How can the Band make, or even contemplate, war with Denmark, backed up certainly by England, and probably by France and Russia? Yet how can all this Germanism be got to bubble quietly away, and subside without any blood-letting?
On the other hand, how, in case of the Bund’s proceeding to actual hostilities, can England tolerate the immense damage to her commerce which would be caused by the blockading by Denmark of Hamburg, Bremen, and other German ports in the North sea? It is useless to deny the existence of a very widespread desire among the inhabitants of Germany to sever the duchies from Denmark; and this desire is encouraged and shared in by many of the less important sovereigns of the country. Should this desire ripen into determination, it is possible that the people may compel the leading German powers to place themselves at the head of the movement. In this case Denmark must fight for the protocol, and be supported in so doing by other powers, or it must cease to exist. The Austrian government is anxious to stand by the protocol, and recognize [Page 132] Christian IX as sovereign over all the realms of his predecessor, but Prussia still hesitates.
Meantime the supreme tribunal of Holstein has refused the oath of allegiance to the new king, an expression of a legal opinion the gravity of which cannot be gainsaid.
I shall say no more to-day, except that Europe is likely to have enough on its hands at home during the coming year, and that certain of the great powers are likely to check that periodical and mischievous desire for intermeddling in our affairs which is so apt to break out when the cisatlantic world is comparatively tranquil.
We have it on the high authority of the Emperor Napoleon that the political fabric of Europe is dilapidated—that its foundations are crumbling in all directions. Since those words were spoken a great war threatens to desolate Europe in order to settle the comparative value of a protocol, signed a dozen years ago, by the representatives of half a dozen kings, and a series of musty parchments centuries old. A lawsuit about a meagre province of puny proportions in the North sea is about to set Europe in flames, while already a congress has been called to avert a war in another direction, and nobody believes in its efficacy. In the last dozen years there have already been two great European wars, besides lesser and more distant ones, which are chronic, carried on by the leading powers. Not a great power of them all but holds in subjection by force of arms millions of mankind, alien to their language, their race, or their religion. One great monarchy bombards and burns populous cities at one end of the earth, every inhabitant of which is innocent of any thought of offence against the bombarding nation; another great monarchy carries fire and sword into a republic at the other end of the world, and seeks to subjugate it by force of arms and convert it into an empire; meantime the whole surface of Europe conceals smouldering revolutionary fires, which are likely to find vent at any moment and in any direction; while the fear of such outbreaks, combined with the perpetual rivalries and international hatreds of hostile dynasties and nations, necessitates enormous armaments by land and sea, even in times of peace, which cripple the energies, exhaust the resources, and sicken the hearts of the people. A contemplation of European politics leads us to the sincere prayer that America may never be Europeanized.
I may be oversanguine, but a doubt has not yet crossed my mind that the American republic, based upon constitutional law, popular self-government, and the great principles of reason and justice, will suppress an insurrection made for the perpetuation and extension of African slavery, and for the abrogation of the first principles of freedom. I expect as much to see the sun set at noonday as to witness the destruction of our noble commonwealth and its dismemberment into a jarring, warring Europe, without the historical excuses of Europe.
The American people will carry on its righteous war of self-defence so long as a single rebel remains in arms to threaten the national existence, or to extend and perpetuate the accursed institution out of which all our misery has flowed. When that blessed result, which cannot now be far off, is reached, America may justly hope for centuries of peace, prosperity, and power; while if we fail our future is endless war. Meantime Europe, occupied with its own dynastic wars, in which the people have no part, will have less time just now to read us moral lectures on the blessings of peace.
I have the honor to remain, respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.