Bismarck repudiated the epithet.

"I am not a prodigal son," he said; "my father's house is Prussia and I have never left it." He could not more clearly repudiate the title German.

The others were moved by enthusiasm for an idea, he by loyalty to an existing State.
Nothing was sound, he said, in Germany, except the old Prussian institutions.
"What has preserved us is that which is specifically Prussian.

It was the remnant of the _Stock-Preussenthum_ which has survived the Revolution, the Prussian army, the Prussian treasure, the fruits of many years of intelligent Prussian administration, and the living co-operation between King and people.

It was the attachment of the Prussian people to their hereditary dynasty, the old Prussian virtues of honour, loyalty, obedience, and the courage which, emanating from the officers who form its bone and marrow, permeates the army down to the youngest recruit." He reminded the House how the Assembly at Frankfort had only been saved from the insurgent mob by a Prussian regiment, and now it was proposed to weaken and destroy all these Prussian institutions in order to change them into a democratic Germany.