ABSTRACT
On the eve of the elections for the constituent Reichstag, economic and social conditions in the district of Dusseldorf were moderately unfavorable. An epidemic of cholera had struck the area in 1866, and the Seven Weeks’ War had disrupted trade and production. The attitudes of individual liberals towards unification and the future constitution were shaped by the way they had reacted to the indemnity bill. Those Progressives who had opposed the bill may have desired unification, but they were not willing to sacrifice liberty to achieve it; they would be chary of accepting any constitution that they regarded as illiberal. Progressive candidates also ran in Elberfeld-Barmen and Solingen, but their platforms followed more closely the compromise pattern of the national program of the united liberals. In Moers-Rees, Kleve-Geldern, and Kempen the sole or main opposition to conservative or conservative-liberal candidates came from Catholics.
