The Importance of Observance of the Law

In 1850 Otto von Bismarck, then the thirty-five-year-old deputy in the Prussian Parliament, was at a turning point in his career. The issues of the day were the unification of the many states, including Prussia, into which Germany was then divided and a war against Austria. Woe unto the statesman, he said, who makes war without a reason that will still be valid when the war is over. This after all was the man who years later would say, the great questions of the time will be decided not by speeches and resolutions, but by iron and blood.