PALACKÝ AND CZECH POLITICS AFTER 1876
private philanthropic, patriotic, and cultural associations by which Czechs collectively worked to further national revival and prepare for the day when imperial laws would authorize limited civil liberties and popular political activity. Despite imperial censorship of his and other patriotic writings and the imprisonment of many contemporaries, Palacký confidently expected that his countrymen would ultimately obtain more national autonomy and civil rights within a federated Habsburg Monarchy. His having worked patiently and intelligently toward these goals in trying times surely encouraged his fellow countrymen in similar circumstances to do likewise.8
Palacký’s political influence after 1876 also owed much to the fact that he had for more than three decades led the Czech people toward greater national autonomy and individual freedom with wisdom, prudence, and courage. His conduct of politics from 1848 to 1876 appeared wise to posterity, in large part because he based that conduct upon clearly defined goals, thorough knowledge of political circumstances, and a keen sense of historical development. This conduct was also wise to the extent that he delineated political objectives for the Czech nation compatible with those of other small nations seeking to achieve some measure of national emancipation and social reform. He also tried to base Czech politics on such broad principles as liberalism and the right of each nation to cultivate its best and most unique qualities in order to contribute to the general well-being of mankind. By conducting Czech politics in accordance with these principles and with the aspirations of other small European nations, Palacký, recognizing that no small nation could or should go it alone, sought to encourage Slavic solidarity and the cooperation of all Europeans in advancing individual and national freedom and achievement. Simultaneously, he thus helped reassure the Czechs that they acted in accordance with powerful and irreversible historical currents in seeking to advance individual rights and national autonomy. In this sense, the Czechs’ confidence by 1876 in their ultimate success appeared especially warranted in light of the recent German and Italian unifications and the rapid advances toward unity and independence made by smaller European peoples, such as the South Slavs, the Irish, the Norweglans, and the Greeks.9
Palacký’s political tactics may appropriately be defined as prudent, at least to the extent that he and his National Party colleagues did not act without carefully considering pertinent political circumstances and the possible consequences of any action. These tactics and his notions of what would be politically possible as well as desirable powerfully conditioned middle class and agrarian Czech politics until the disintegration of the Habsburg Monarchy. Prudence, a realistic appraisal of Czech political
