Lassalle never tired of representing in vivid colors the injustice of our present social institutions. The crimes, selfishness, and heartlessness of the _bourgeoisie_ were unfailing topics in his agitation. The laborers were told that they had no right to be contented with their lot. It is this damnable, easily satisfied disposition of you German laborers which is your ruin, they were told.[185] “The German laborer was finally moved. His anger and discontent became permanent and terrible in proportion as it had been difficult to arouse him. He was not to be easily pacified. He soon showed strength and determination in such manner as to attract the attention of the civilized world. Statesmen grew pale and kings trembled.”[186] Lassalle did not live to see the fruits of his labors. He met with some success and celebrated a few triumphs, but the Union did not flourish as he hoped. At the time of his death he did not appear to have a firm, lasting hold on the laboring population. There then existed no social-democratic party with political power. Although Lassalle lost his life in a duel, which had its origin in a love affair, and not in any struggle for the rights of labor, he was canonized at once by the working-men, and took his place among the greatest martyrs and heroes of all times. His influence increased more than tenfold as soon as he ceased to live. This was not entirely undeserved. Men remembered and appreciated better his extraordinary talents and his ardent, romantic temperament. Even Bismarck, with whom he had been personally acquainted, took occasion once, in the Reichstag, to express his admiration for Lassalle. I was in Germany at the time, and remember well what a sensation his words created. He expressed himself as follows:[187] “I met Lassalle three or four times. Our relations were not of a political nature. Politically he had nothing which he could offer me. He attracted me extraordinarily as a private man. Lassalle was one of the most gifted and amiable men with whom I have ever associated—a man who was ambitious on a grand scale, but not the least of a republican. He had a very marked inclination towards a national monarchy; the idea towards the attainment of which his efforts were directed was the German Empire, and in this we found a point of contact. Lassalle was ambitious on a grand scale, and whether the German Empire should close with the house of Hohenzollern or the house of Lassalle, that was perhaps doubtful; but his sympathies were through and through monarchical.... Lassalle was an energetic and exceedingly clever man, and it was always instructive to talk with him. Our conversations have lasted for hours, and I have always regretted their close.... It would have given me great pleasure to have had a similarly gifted man for a neighbor in my country home.”