Page:The Rise of the Swiss Republic (1892).djvu/99

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THE FIRST PERPETUAL LEAGUE.
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are mentioned in the document then drawn up. For Uri there was the Landammann Arnold, Mayor of Silenen, besides Knight Werner von Attinghausen, Burkart, the late Landammann, and Conrad, Mayor of Erstfeld; and for Schwiz there was the Landammann Conrad Ab Iberg, Rudolf Stauffacher, and Conrad Hunn—representatives of all the classes in the community, from noblemen to the descendants of serfs.

The conclusion is legitimate that the above-mentioned men were typical leaders, and it is quite probable that they, or at least some of their number, were also the signers of the first perpetual league. If this be the case, we may infer that these early leagues were in reality the combined work of the common people and of the native aristocracy, co-operating in the great cause which lay so near their hearts.

Moreover, it is not too much to say that the patriots, whose names appear in the alliance with Ziirich, with perhaps the addition of the unknown Landammann of Unterwalden, may be proclaimed the real founders of the Swiss Confederation.