They have a feeling
for freedom and are capable of it; but, because you so willed, they
have followed you into sanguinary war against that which to them
seemed freedom. Some among you have later willed otherwise, and, again
because you so willed, they have followed you into that which to them
must seem a war of annihilation against one of the last remnants of
German independence. Since that time they have endured and have borne
the oppressive burden of common woes; yet they do not cease to be
faithful to you, to cling to you with inward devotion, and to love
you as their divinely appointed guardians. Yet may you notice them,
unobserved by them; set free from surroundings which do not invariably
present to you the fairest aspect of humanity, may you be able to
descend into the house of the citizen, into the peasant's cottage,
and may you be able attentively to follow the still and hidden life of
these classes, in which the fidelity and the probity which have become
more rare in the higher classes seem to have sought refuge! Surely,
oh, surely, you will resolve to reflect more seriously than ever how
they may be helped! These addresses have proposed to you a means of
assistance which they believe to be sure, thorough, and decisive. Let
your councillors deliberate whether they also find it so or whether
they know a better means, provided only that it be equally decisive.
But the conviction that something must be done and must be done
immediately, that this something must be radical and final, and
that the time for half-measures and procrastination is past--this
conviction these addresses would fain produce, if they could, in
you personally, as they still cherish the utmost confidence in your
integrity.
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