Six Centuries of Self-Government

ON the first day of August, 1291, just six hundred years ago, a group of unpretentious patriots, ignored by the great world, signed a document which united into a loose confederation the three peasant communities of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, situated on the Lake of Lucerne in Switzerland. By this act they laid the foundation upon which the Swiss state was afterward reared, and it is therefore with just pride that the Swiss people have determined to celebrate this summer the sixth centennial of their national existence with popular holidays and appropriate festivities. In their naive but prophetic faith the contracting parties called this agreement a perpetual pact, and they set forth in the Latin legal phraseology of the day that, seeing the malice of the times, they found it necessary to take an oath to defend one another against outsiders, and to keep order within their own boundaries ; at the same time carefully stating that the object of the league was to maintain lawfully established conditions. On the whole, it was a conservative utterance, — a sort of compromise between a declaration of independence from the petty nobles who harassed them and an oath of allegiance to the feudal system itself, as befitting a people conscious of a grievance, and yet unwilling to break with the past.

Nothing more beautiful could be imagined than the surroundings amid which this historic document was signed. The name of the exact spot is not given in the text, but, judging from indirect evidence, the choice lies among three places so near to one another upon the Lake of Lucerne that in any case the environment must have been very much the same. There is a strong probability in favor of the village of Brunnen, because the text of a subsequent pact, which the Confederates concluded in 1315, mentions it as the place of signature. Travelers will remember this village on account of its incomparable position in the angle formed by the abrupt turn which the Lake of Lucerne takes to the south, where it opens out into an arm known as the Lake of Uri. Brunnen is now a favorite summer resort, with large hotels, monumental omnibuses, wood-carving stalls, and all the other paraphernalia of a Swiss tourist place ; yet at the time of the primitive pact it must have been a little hamlet of sunburnt chalets. But that delightful outlook over both branches of the lake has never changed, where, touched by the sun, the water sparkles into vivid blues and greens ; nor can the matchless velvet of the higher slopes lose its gentle charm, or the snows on the Uri Rothstock their tranquil magnificence, for they are immutable glories on the face of Nature.

According to the White Book of Sarnen, the semi-legendary chronicle which contains the first full version of the story of William Tell, the three lands, when once united, “ held diets at Beckenried, when they had aught to do ; ” while in another part of the chronicle it is said that the three Confederates and their companions 舠 went by night towards the Myten Stein to a corner called jm Rüdli [Rütli], . . . and held diets at that time nowhere but jm Rüdli.” Beckenried is a modest village, within sight of Brunnen, on the southern shore of the lake, hiding behind some enormous walnut-trees that stand by the water side, — a rural hamlet, whose habitual quiet is disturbed only by the periodic visits of the brisk little steamer that stops at the dock with much churning of the water and ringing of bells. The Rütli is a sloping, uneven meadow upon the flank of the mountain opposite Brunnen, and dear to every Swiss heart as the traditional cradle of national liberty; while the Myten Stein is a striking landmark, being a jagged rock that rises some eighty feet from the surface of the water, and is now covered with an inscription in honor of Schiller. In point of fact, the evidence in favor of Brunnen or Beckenried as the place of signature in 1291 is incomplete; but it must be acknowledged that the position of the Rüth is a strong argument in favor of its being the scene of earlier secret meetings. For who that has visited the spot can have failed to notice how wonderfully it is adapted for the meeting of confederates? At once central for the inhabitants of the three Forest States, and yet secluded to a remarkable degree, it possesses in reality all the requirements of an ideal trysting-place.

It is the misfortune of Swiss history that although very little is popularly known about it, that little is almost invariably incorrect. The subject has so long lain neglected in the literary garret that the cobwebs have gathered over it and hidden the treasure. The task of brushing them all away would be too great for the writer of this article; suffice it to set aside the fundamental misconception which obtains concerning the origin of the Swiss Confederation. There is a widespread but vague idea that a regularly organized republic has existed in the Alps from time immemorial under the name of Helvetia. Nothing could be more misleading; for. as a matter of fact, the Swiss Confederation had no existence before the perpetual pact of 1291, at which date it makes its first entry upon the historic stage. As for the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii, who inhabited parts of Switzerland under the Roman dominion, they had no more to do with founding the Swiss Confederation than had the Indians in America to do with framing the Constitution of the United States. Around the three communities, Uri, Schwvz, and Unterwalden, as a nucleus, the Swiss Confederation grew in course of time by the adherence of other sovereign communities, until it reached its present proportions of twenty-two cantons in 1815. The very name of Switzerland was unknown before the fifteenth century, when for the first time the eight states which then composed the Confederation began to be called collectively Die Schweiz, after the community of Schwyz, which was the most pronounced of the primitive states in its opposition to the pretensions of the German nobility. Nor did the early Swiss set up a sovereign republic, in our acceptation of the word, either in internal or external policy. The class distinctions of the feudal age continued to exist in their midst, and they by no means disputed the supreme rule of the head of the German Empire over them, but rather gloried in the protection which this direct dependence afforded them against a multitude of intermediate preying nobles. It was not until 1648, by the Peace of Westphalia, that the complete independence of the Swiss from the German Empire was established beyond question. There is another fact which must be borne in mind, namely, that Swiss self-government is Teutonic in character, like that of England and the United States. Although Switzerland is now a polyglot state, and her constitution expressly says that German, French, and Italian shall all alike be considered national languages, the majority of the inhabitants are Germanspeaking, and determine the quality of government which shall be in force. The other Romance - speaking cantons were acquired by conquest, and were not admitted on a footing of equality until the beginning of the present century.

A good map is an indispensable commentary on Swiss history, for the peculiar geographical features of the country have their counterparts in its political institutions. The great mountain ranges divide the territory into deep valleys, each of which naturally forms a political unit, the commune or parish, a miniature world, concentrated in a small space, and representing the sum total of life to its inhabitants. Eugène Rambert, a Swiss author who has written charmingly upon this subject in his Études Historiques, thus describes a typical Swiss valley : “ In the centre is the village. The church and the parsonage are upon an eminence ; sometimes the houses are grouped around in a circle ; sometimes they form a line in the direction of the valley ; at other times they are scattered about here and there. Not far off lies what is known as the end [bottom-land], which is the most fertile part of the valley, the best cultivated, the portion set apart for the tilled fields. . . . On the slopes of the valley are the common pastures, the forests, the grazing-lands for the summer, and finally the peaks that cut off further view.” It was only natural that, thus bounded and hemmed in, the inhabitants of each valley should acquire the practice of managing their own affairs in sovereign communes ; self-government becoming a second nature to them, and any other political methods perfectly incomprehensible. But the peculiar form which selfgovernment assumed in those secluded regions is worthy of note. It took the shape of patriarchal democracy ; that is, certain men and certain families maintained themselves at the head of public affairs, but with the consent and coöperation of the whole population, much in the same way as the Landsgemeinde cantons are governed to this day.

In support of this statement, which is somewhat at variance with the usual conception of the political life of the early Swiss, let me cite only one piece of evidence. The names of the persons who signed the memorable pact of 1291 are, unfortunately, unknown, but a little more than two months after the conclusion of that league Uri and Schwyz entered into a separate alliance with Zürich, and the names of their representatives on that occasion have luckily been preserved in the text of the document then drawn up. For Uri there was the Landammann Arnold, Mayor of Silenen, besides Knight Werner von Attinghausen, Burkart, the late Landammann, and Conrad, Mayor of Erstfeld ; and for Schwyz there was the Landammann Conrad Ab Iberg, Rudolf Stauffacher, and Conrad Hunn, — representatives of all the classes in the community, from noblemen to serfs. The title of 舠mayor” had originally been given to a set of officials who governed Uri in the name of the Abbey of Nuns in Zürich, to which institution the greater part of Uri had been deeded by the Emperor Ludwig, the German, in 853 ; but in course of time the mayors became hereditary nobles, and retained their titles even when the valley had become free from the rule of the abbey. To this day the towers of their habitations may be seen, in a more or less ruinous condition, at Altdorf, Bürglen, Silenen, and Erstfeld. If then the representatives of Uri and Schwyz in the alliance with Zürich may be taken as typical leaders in their communities, the conclusion is legitimate that the early leagues were in reality the work of a native aristocracy as well as of the common people. Moreover, if the names of any men are to supplant that of William Tell in the hearts of the Swiss people, now that the archer has been declared a legendary character, they are those of the patriots mentioned above, who, with the addition of the unknown Landammann of Unterwalden, and perhaps Knight Henry von Winkelried, were the great personages then living in the Forest States. It is not too much, therefore, to proclaim them the real founders of the Swiss Confederation.¹

From a modern standpoint, this primitive, patriarchal type of democracy is by no means satisfactory, although of course it was a great step in advance of the various forms of feudal government which were in force throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. It has a tendency to breed a sort of collective despotism, intolerant of new things. Sordid and selfish, it develops a narrow conception of public duty, turning always to what the Germans so aptly call Kirch,thurmpolitik ; that is, to the political interests of a small circle with the church tower as a centre. In fact, during the eighteenth century, prior to the French Revolution, the democracy of these valleys had degenerated into barefaced oligarchy, and must inevitably have perished altogether amid the cries of the infuriated mountaineers had not certain ancient regulations concerning the holding of common lands mitigated its evil qualities. As the writer has already on another occasion referred, in the pages of The Atlantic, to the part played by these common lands in preserving the wonderful stability of the commonwealth of Uri, it will suffice to mention only one more influence which helped to produce this good result. The life upon the summer pastures, which the herders led then for half the year, as they do still, what was it but a training-school in the best principles of true democracy? Up there the wind sweeps free across a heath common to all ; the torrent, the avalanche, and the precipice are no respecters of persons ; the very flowers smile on all alike ; the buzz of the straying bee and the cry of the wild bird are for all who will face the dangers and brave the hardships: and that is why, in the clusters of storm-beaten chalets where the herders live, no man dare speak of class distinctions, for these would sound like satire in the face of those serene snows and unchanging heights. Through all the centuries the idea of liberty, of man’s divine individuality, was nurtured on the mountains, and defeated the ambitions of those in the valleys who might attempt to herd the mountaineers into submissive masses. The influences in favor of true democracy were always stronger than the powers of the small aristocracy.

From the commune to the canton, and from the canton to the Confederation,— those were the steps by which the Swiss state was consolidated ; the communes uniting to form cantons, and the cantons the Confederation. In the course of this growth Switzerland has passed through three great constitutional stages, has thrice halted before advancing again, and is now in the midst of a fourth epoch, which is distinctly superior to the rest in all that goes to make up a noble national life. The first period may be described as that of the League of the Fight States, which lasted about one hundred and thirty years ; the second as the League of the Thirteen States, which remained unaltered for more than two hundred and fifty years; the third was the so-called Helvetic Republic ; and the fourth is represented by the Swiss Confederation of to-day.

The first pacts concluded by the states were but little more than offensive and defensive alliances against HabsburgAustria ; there was no intention of setting up a separate state, and there was, in fact, no national idea upon which to found one. When the Confederation had grown to he a league of eight states, it resembled an agglomeration of independent communities, rather than a wellbalanced, logical scheme of government. There was neither a perfect political union nor a geographical one ; for not only did the constitutions of the individual states vary as much as possible from one another, but the states themselves did not together form a compact territory, since here and there alien tracts of land were wedged in between them, while others were completely cut off and surrounded by hostile ground. In view of the looseness of this bond, one may well marvel that the Confederation held together at all. Its wonderful vitality seems to have resulted from the pressure exerted on the outside by HabsburgAustria’s enmity, and from the principle of perpetuity inserted into all the successive pacts, which proved sufficiently strong to maintain this imperfect union without the aid of any central authority whatever, executive, legislative, or judiciary.

In those early days there was no federal constitution, unless the sum of the enactments contained in the pacts which were drawn up as the new states were admitted to membership can be considered as the rudiments of a constitution. But as time went on new problems came up for solution, and it was found necessary to agree upon certain charters and covenants, which, taken together, formed for some five centuries the only body of organic law which the Confederates possessed.

The first of these ordinances, the socalled Priests’ Charter (Pfaffenbrief), had its origin in a somewhat trivial cause. It seems that the chief magistrate (Schultheiss) of Lucerne was returning, in the autumn of 1370, from the annual fair at Zürich, when he was seized and cast into prison by order of the Provost of the minster in Zürich, a great personage, with whom he was involved in a lawsuit. Widespread indignation followed this act, and the Confederates united for the first time in passing a series of resolutions to protect the liberty of the individual and restrain the secular power of the priesthood within their boundaries. Another advance towards closer union was made in the Covenant (Verkommniss) of Sempach, concluded in 1386, just after the battle of that name, and designed to remedy certain defects in the discipline of the military forces. Again in 1481, at the close of the great war with Charles the Bold of Burgundy, delegates from the various states, convened at Stans in Unterwalden, issued a new agreement, the Covenant of Stans, which is principally noteworthy on account of certain clauses of a restrictive character, forbidding popular gatherings without the permission of the authorities in power. It is related by the only contemporary chronicler of this convention that the delegates, unable to arrive at an agreement upon certain articles, were on the point of adjourning amid scenes of great disorder, and civil war seemed inevitable, when Nicholas von der Flüe, a hermit who lived at Sachseln, near Stans, suddenly appeared in the hall, restored order, and persuaded the angry crowd to listen to his words of peace. In consequence of this timely intervention the delegates resumed their labors, and brought them to a successful termination.

The fifteenth century marks an era of great extension in the territory of the Confederation, for there was something contagious in the example of the Swiss fighting successfully against the feudal lords, which tempted the peasantry in neighboring lands to do the same, and then to seek admission within their ranks. Unfortunately for the stability of their union, the Confederates themselves, inflamed by successive victories, sent out expeditions of conquest, dividing up the lands thus acquired amongst themselves, or governing them in joint ownership. It is evident that such a system could not fail to be fraught with disastrous consequences, opposed as it was to the democratic traditions of earlier periods.

The League of the Thirteen States was, therefore, no improvement over that of the Eight, for there was the same want of a central controlling force, although the Confederates now began to meet occasionally in diets. The whole presented the same appearance of a motley group of communities united rather by force of circumstances than by premeditation. Besides the thirteen real members of the Confederation, there were a number of allies (Zugewandte Orte), bound sometimes to one, sometimes to several, of the thirteen states. There were also subject lands (Unterthanenlande) under the rule of various combinations among the thirteen. Not to enlarge too much upon the fatal weaknesses inherent in the organization of the old Confederation, let me simply enumerate the causes which finally produced its complete downfall at the time of the French Revolution. There was first the inequality of the states amongst themselves, for they had not all been admitted on the same footing; and then the holding of conquered lands, which resulted in all sorts of rivalries and jealousies, and produced governing classes. Moreover, the surprising success which had followed the Swiss arms on all occasions had suggested to the great powers the desirability of hiring Swiss soldiers for their wars, and so the corrupting mercenary system had arisen. To these disrupting influences the religious contentions of the Reformation were added, leaving the country divided into two armed camps, and all sentiment of a distinct nationality obscured by questions of faith. When the cry of the French Revolution fell upon the air, the Swiss Confederation was too weak from internal degeneration to offer a successful resistance to the call for surrender which came from Bonaparte. De Tocqueville once said, before the French Academy of the Moral and Political Sciences, that the ordinary political liberties in the states of the old Confederation were “ more unknown to the great majority of the citizens of these republics [the individual states] than they could have been, at the same period, to the subjects of most monarchies.舡 Under the auspices of the French Revolutionists an Helvetic Republic was erected in 1798, from which all feudal inequalities were banished ; but, unfortunately, the federal principle which was indispensable to the very existence of the Swiss state was also uprooted, and the country declared “ one and indivisible,” after the model of the French Republic. The experiment lasted five years, but was so little appreciated by the people that Bonaparte, in 1803. modified the constitution to correspond more closely to the real needs of the land. After his overthrow the liberated cantons attempted to revive the antiquated features of the old government, hut in 1848 they finally united in adopting a definite constitution, which, with a few amendments, is now the organic law of Switzerland.

There is a process in the animal world which, in its various phases, so nearly resembles the development of the Swiss Confederation that the writer cannot refrain from applying it, although it may seem somewhat fanciful in connection with an historical subject. The old Confederation seems like the caterpillar, destined in dying to give place to something better; the Helvetic Republic like the chrysalis, acting as a means of transformation ; and the present Confederation like the butterfly which finally emerges, the fair product of the decay which has preceded it.

Such is the brief record of Switzerland’s experiments in self-government. The six centuries during which she has grappled with this problem display a veritable catalogue of priceless precedents for the benefit of all nations engaged in the same task. Unostentatious, and seemingly so insignificant amongst the great powers of the world, she has in the past had a noble mission, and in the future will have a still nobler one. The patriotic Swiss writer, Eugène Rambert, whom I have already quoted, closes one of his best chapters by saying: " A majority of Teutonic stock respecting a minority of Romance origin, a Protestant majority respecting a Catholic minority, a certain number of relatively populous and strong states, thrown with full sails into the current of modern life, respecting the slowness of those old pastoral democracies for whom centuries seem like years, — that is the example which Switzerland mast present to the world; that is the mission imposed upon her by nature. It is worth the while to live in a country destined to so noble a trial.”

We Americans may therefore well send our congratulations to the Lake of Lucerne at this season, where the inhabitants of the oldest republic in existence are celebrating their great anniversary, wishing the brave little nation Godspeed on her mission, and another six centuries of self-government.

W. D. McCrackan.