CHAPTER XXVIII
THE HELVETIC REPUBLIC
To preserve the independence and welfare of Switzerland is our highest goal. Both
are threatened by the present internal and external relations of the country. These
are due in part to the troubles of the day, but mostly to the deficiencies of our gov-
ernments.... Our governments should do now what they should have done long
ago—give Switzerland a constitution which, while granting equal rights and equal
liberties to all, endows all with a single interest, and so creates a total community
endowed with a new force of life, which can stand against threats both present and
future.
—PAULUS USTERI TO PETER OCHS,
ZURICH, JANUARY 8, 1798
All Switzerland is only twice as large as the American state of New Jersey, but
until 1798, small as it was, it was an incredibly complex mosaic of dissimilar pieces.
Nowhere else was the impact of certain principles of the Revolution more appar-
ent and more lasting—especially of the principles of legal equality and of the unity
and indivisibility of the Republic. If in New Jersey, with the passage of a few gen-
erations, there has grown up a jungle of adjoining boroughs, townships, cities,
planning boards, boards of education, and joint districts and authorities of many
kinds, they at least exist within a single state and under a comprehensive system of
law. In Switzerland, over a millennium, there had grown up an indefinite number
of small communities—from cities like Zurich to remote clusters of pastoral fami-
lies in Alpine valleys—which no longer belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, and
did not yet belong politically to anything else.
SWITZERLAND BEFORE 1798Today Switzerland is composed of twenty- two cantons. There were only thirteen
at the beginning of 1798, and the thirteen embraced only parts of the region