Lasalle

The Art and Wisdom of Drafting Constitutions
If, gentlemen, you not only carefully analyze the speech I have just had the honor to deliver to you, but also think through to all theconclusions which follow from it, you will acquire all constitutional art and constitutional wisdom.

Constitutional questions are first and foremost not questions of right but of force; theactual constitution of a nation lies in the real, actual relation of forces existing there, written constitutions are valid and stable only when they correctly express the actual relation offorces in a society – these are the principles you should remember.

Today I developed these principles only in respect to the military force – first, because time did not permit me toanalyze other aspects and second, because the armed forces are the most weighty and decisive of all organized forces. But you understand that the same applies to the organization of theadministration of law, government functionaries, etc. These also represent the organized instruments of force in society.

Remember this speech well, gentlemen, and you will know, if everagain you are put in a position where you yourselves can draft a constitution, how to go about it and how the task is really accomplished only through the changing of the actual relation offorces and not through the filling up of a sheet of paper.

Until then, for everyday use, you will also have gleaned from my speech, without my having said a word about it, what urgency hasforced the new military reforms, concerning the increase of the armed forces, which are being demanded of you through parliament. You will he able now to lay your finger upon the innermostsource from which these proposals spring.

The monarchy, gentlemen, has practical servants, not fine talkers, but such practical servants – it remains for me to wish that you had.