Esteemed Committee of the Estates! The tempest ravaging the times in which we live has laid bare Germany’s political stuation in all its lamentable reality, clearly visible for all to see. In such eventful times, it is vital that Germany be properly armed, if not to challenge others then certainly to defend and shield its borders. [...] / A nation steeped in the sacred duty not to relinquish so much as an inch more of its imperilled soil lacks the assurance that it will never be required to take up arms as the unwilling tool of diplomatic machinations; also denied it is the enthralling consciousness of deploying all that it holds most dear for a politically worthy place among the civilised nations. – / The great weakness of our all-German fatherland can be summarised in just a few words: it lacks the very cornerstone of nationhood, that is, a free and autonomous people whose opinions and sentiments are taken into consideration when determining the life of the body politic. Inferior to none in intellectual and moral education, the German nation must still expect its fortunes to be decided not by the spirit that dwells within it but rather by the conventions of wise statesmanship. This fundamental flaw has fractured into numerous fault lines, the largest and gravest of which are everywhere crying out to be remedied. / It lacks the effective representation of the nation there where the weightiest internal and external affairs of the fatherland and where those essential rights that are enshrined in the constitutions of its states are decided; it lacks, in most states of the confederation, a people sufficiently well-armed as to ensure that only such wars are prosecuted as the said people recognize as necessary; it lacks free expression in the press, the which right is clearly enshrined in the Württemberg constitution; assemblies and societies that have a say in public affairs are subjected to the most oppressive restrictions; the oral and public administration of justice that is indispensable to an understanding of, and general trust in, the same, is so rudimentary as to be unequal to its task; it lacks the preconditions necessary to the flourishing of a communal spirit within its communes and corporations; and in the constitutional life of Württemberg, which we would like to see tied to that of all of Germany, there is no scope for the unimpeded expression of public opinion through a pure, popularly elected chamber, which is a grave shortcoming that severely impairs both the necessary trust that should develop between a people and its representatives and the effectiveness of the latter. / Wherefore we, the undersigned, do hereby present to the esteemed Committee of the Estates, as deputies of the chambers not assembled at present, this most urgent petition:
The Assembly of the Estates shall be convened without delay that the chambers may put the following most urgent motions to His Majesty’s Government forthwith:
1) Formation of an all-German constitutional confederation of states, whose peoples are represented by an all-German parliament;
2) the general arming of the people;
3) full freedom of the press as per § 28 of the written constitution;
4) the repeal of all those restrictions that prevent societies and assemblies from being consulted on matters of public concern;
5) full implementation of the basic principle of the oral and public administration of justice with all the consequences attendant upon the same;
6) the institution in full of true autonomy and independence for all communal and district corporations;
7) the revision of the written constitution in line with the experience gained during the first 28 years of its existence, specifically for the purpose of constituting an unmixed chamber of deputies elected by the people.
If we have refrained from submitting detailed grounds for each of these motions, then because they concern matters that are well known to an assembly of the German states, and because we envisage that the call of our times, which we ourselves are heeding, will also beat audibly in the hearts of the parliamentarians and leadership of the state.
Respectfully etc. etc.
Tübingen, 2nd March 1848
Followed by 1102 signatures

Address to the Committee of the Chambers of the Estates. Composed by Ludwig Uhland. Declared the 'First product of a free press in Tübingen'.
(Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen, Signatur L XV 56.2, 2. Stück)

In his address to the Committee of the Württemberg Chamber of Estates, Uhland names the lack of direct representation as the ‘fundamental flaw’ of the existing political system, and from this derives a whole catalogue of demands: for freedom of the press and of assembly, for the parliamentary representation of the people and for free elections.