[Extract.]
Mr. Wright to Mr.
Seward.
No. 26.]
Legation of the United States,
Berlin,
April 11, 1866.
Sir: * * * * * *
No great change has taken place in the relations between Prussia and
Austria since my last despatch. I enclose you two notes which have
passed between the two governments. Austria has been more fortunate than
Prussia in the character and tone of her note. With the smaller German
states, Austria has undoubtedly the advantage. The reply of the Austrian
government to the Prussian note has not yet been made public. It is
understood, however, to be moderate in its tone, but at the same time
demands that the Prussian armaments should cease, and intimates if they
do not, Austria will call upon the federal diet to interfere.
Count Bismarck’s proposition to call a German parliament is not sustained
by his own party, while the liberals ridicule the idea. It was well said
by one of the members of the last Prussian chambers, at a meeting held
last night in this city, when alluding to this subject, “It will be time
enough to have a German parliament when Prussia has one of her own.”
There is no disposition on the part of any of the other nations to
interfere in the Austro-Prussian difficulty, and they will be left
alone. There will be no fighting. The contest will likely continue for
some time. An effort will, in all probability, be made, to dissolve the
German confederation (Deutsche-Bund,) now of some fifty years’ standing.
Should this take place, then the larger states, Austria, Prussia, and
Bavaria, will attempt to exercise a kind of diplomatic oversight or
provisional care of the smaller surrounding German states. This would
lead to strife and war. The present contest will end, in my opiuion, in
the retirement of Count Bismarck. Large meetings are being held all over
Prussia, manifesting decided opposition to war with Austria on this
subject.
* * * * * * *
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Austrian note to the Prussian government.
On the 31st ultimo Count Karolyi, the Austrian minister in Berlin,
delivered to Count von Bismarck a note, of which the following is
said to be a correct copy:
“It has come to the knowledge of the imperial government that, in
order not to assume the responsibility of having raised
apprehensions for the preservation of peace, the Prussian government
has accused the court of Vienna of harboring hostile intentions, and
has even gone so far as to hint at the eventuality of an armed
aggression on the part of Austria against Prussia. Although the
unfounded nature of such an assertion is notorious and generally
recognized throughout Europe, the Austrian government feels it
incumbent upon it to protest against an inculpation in flagrant
opposition to the evidence of facts.
“The undersigned, consequently, has been instructed to declare
categorically to Count von Bismarck that nothing could be further
removed from the intentions of his imperial Majesty than an
offensive action directed against Prussia. Such an intention is
formally precluded by the feelings of friendship towards the King,
as well as the Prussian nation, of which the Emperor has so often
given proof, both by word and deed; but the Emperor, moreover, does
not forget the duties which Austria and Prussia solemnly accepted in
signing the German federal pact. His imperial Majesty, for bis part,
is firmly determined not to place himself in contradiction with the
stipulations of article eleven of the federal pact, which prohibits
the members of the confederation from endeavoring to redress their
grievances by force.
[Page 14]
“The undersigned, while requesting the president of the council to
submit the present note to his august sovereign, is instructed to
express the desire that the Prusian cabinet may repel, without
ambiguity, and as clearly as the undersigned has done himself, in
the name of his government, all suspicion of a wish to violate the
peace. By doing this the Prussian cabinet would restore that general
confidence in the maintenance of the peace of Germany which ought
never to have been shaken.
The Prussian reply to the Austrian
note.
Baron von Werther, the Prussian minister at Vienna, has delivered the
following to Count Mensdorff, in reply to the Austrian note of the
31st ultimo:
“Berlin,
April 7, 1866.
“The undersigned is instructed by his government to notify to your
excellency the reception of the Communication which the imperial
envoy in Berlin presented in a note dated the 31st ultimo to the
president of the ministry for foreign affairs, Count Bismarck. The
president of the ministry did not delay submitting that note, in
accordance with the wish therein expressed, to his Majesty the King,
his most gracious sovereign, and, with reference thereto. the
undersigned is instructed to address to your excellency the
following observations:
“The fears of danger to the preservation of peace have arisen from
the fact that Austria, without any apparent cause, has begun, since
the 30th of last month, to push forward considerable armed forces in
a threatening manner towards the Prussian frontier. The imperial
government has given no explanation respecting its movements for
this strange proceeding; for the statement that the apprehension of
the Jewish inhabitants had rendered those armaments necessary is as
irreconcilable with the extent of the latter as it is with the
locality at which the assembled re-enforcements are stationed,
namely, on the Saxon and Prussian frontier, where the security of
the Jews has never been endangered.
“Had Austria, like Prussia, believed herself to be threatened, it
might certainly have been expected, after the sentiments expressed
in Count Karolyi’s note, that the cabinet of Vienna, while referring
to article XI of the federal pact, would have made known to the
federal Diet, or at least to the Prussian government, the facts
which appear to Austria to be of a threatening nature. Instead of
that, up to the present time there has been no endeavor to justify
the pretended defensive character of the Austrian armaments by
specifying any signs of a danger against which defensive measures
should be directed. The secrecy with which the Austrian armaments
have been surrounded, and the effort to make their well known extent
appear in the eyes of the Prussian government less important than it
actually is, has only strengthened the natural impression respecting
them, namely, that the imperial troops on the northern frontier of
Austria, which have been daily re-enforced during the last
fortnight, are destined for an offensive undertaking against
Prussia. Notwithstanding this, the Prussian government delayed for
ten days, viz., till the 28th ultimo, the issue of orders to prepare
measures of defence, because the King, the undersigned’s most
gracious sovereign, foresaw that the accumulation of military forces
in front of one another would more seriously endanger peace than
could have been the case until then through the exchange of
diplomatic despatches. Only when, through the number and position of
the Austrian troops on the Bohemian frontier, the safety of the
Prussian territory threatened to become dependent upon the
resolutions of the Austrian cabinet, did his Majesty order measures
to be taken for the protection of the country, at the same time
taking note of the fact that it was the Austrian government which,
from motives up till now unexplained, had, by military menace,
placed the Prussian frontier in a situation of danger for which no
precedent is to be found in the politics or international
intercourse of Europe, and for which the Prussian government must
decidedly reject every responsibility. Unless the Austrian
government really intended to attack Prussia, the Prussian
government cannot understand why Austria should have adopted these
military measures.
“The undersigned energetically repels the utterly groundless
suspicion that Prussia has hitherto had any intention to violate the
peace, and is at the same time instructed formally to declare to
Count Mensdorff that nothing is further from the intention of his
Majesty the King than an offensive war against Austria.
“The King of Prussia is the less able to doubt the Emperor’s personal
sentiments inasmuch as he entirely reciprocates them, and will
preserve his own feelings of friendship towards his imperial Majesty
undisturbed by political circumstances. The imperial government
cannot fail to have opportunities for expressing by its acts its
friendly sentiments towards the Prussian kingdom.
“His Excellency Count Mensdorff,
&c., &c.,
&c.”
