Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/165

 marched back to the market-square. There it was reported to us—whether truly or not—that during our visit to the rector the unpopular officer in question had speedily packed his trunks and already left the town.

While the jubilation over the “Märzerrungenschaften”—the results of the revolutionary movements in March—at first seemed to be general, and even the adherents of absolutism put a good face on a bad business, soon a separation into different party-groups began between those whose principal aim was the restoration of order and authority—the conservatives; those who wished slow and moderate progress—the constitutionalists; and those who aimed at securing the fruits of the revolution in “a constitutional government on the broadest democratic basis”—the democrats. Instinctive impulse as well as logical reasoning led me to the democratic side. There I met Kinkel again, and our friendship soon became very intimate. In the course of our common activity the formal relations between teacher and pupil yielded to a tone of thorough comradeship.

In the beginning the zealous work of agitation absorbed almost all our time and strength. Kinkel, indeed, still delivered his lectures, and I also attended mine with tolerable regularity; but my heart was not in them as before. All the more eagerly I studied modern history, especially the history of the French Revolution, and read a large number of politico-philosophical works and of pamphlets and periodicals of recent date, which treated of the problems of the time. In this way I endeavored to clear my political conceptions and to fill the larger gaps in my historical knowledge—a want which I felt all the more seriously as my task as an agitator was to me a sacred duty.

First we organized a democratic club consisting of