These two years saw the long-awaited Revolution finally arrive in the Toggenburg and its neighbouring cantons, but Bräker had much of his attention diverted, first by crises in his own affairs and those of his family, and eventually by his last illness. Dramatic events were taking place and some account of them is needed to explain Bräker's references to them later on. I have therefore added some accounts by another recorder of his times: a merchant of St. Gallen called David Schlatter. Bräker may have met him; he was Girtanner's brother-in-law. Born in 1738 and so a near contemporary of Bräker, he was much wealthier, he owned two houses in St. Gallen and another just outside the city. The quotations are taken from letters written to his daughter and son-in-law. He was an eyewitness to many of the events described, not too prejudiced, and his accounts convey vividly the atmosphere of the time, when the upper classes of St. Gallen (the city not being under the Prince-Abbot's rule) could enjoy their banquets and parades, quite unconcerned that only a few streets away a raging mob of disaffected peasants was hurling abuse at the Prince-Abbot and threatening to force him into submission. Schlatter was also better placed than Bräker to show what the ruling classes were doing behind the scenes (if anything).
The Gütliche Vertrag, though it made far-reaching concessions, had been accepted by the revolutionaries only as a step in the right direction. The death of the Prince-Abbot and his replacement by a more implacably conservative ruler, had resulted in delays in carrying these concessions out. In January 1797 the Landvogt Karl Müller-Friedberg attempted to pacify the Prince-Abbot's subjects by issuing a new "Landmanat", an updated statement of his rights and duties, but unrest increased. This concerned the demands made in 1793 by the commune of Gossau. The Hard and Soft parties (respectively con and pro the Prince-Abbot) were at loggerheads. On 18th February a group of the Hard party organised a march on the monastery of St. Gallen to compel the release of two men imprisoned for political reasons. The Prince-Abbot appealed to the "Schirmorte"
[protector cities]
Zürich and Bern for mediation. In March the Schirmorte deputies
assembled in Frauenfeld and decided generally in favour of the Abbey.
On 26th April the Landsgemeind assembled at Hundwil. Hans Konrad Bont (1767-1817) [Bräker spells his name as Pundt], owner of an Indian-muslin factory at Herisau, and already known as a pro-French agitator, together with Johann Ulrich Vetter (1701-1806) and one Rüsch, succeeded in making the assembly pass a resolution calling on all the communes to collect grievances against the government. The selection of a Landammann caused the meeting to degenerate into a riot. Just under a month later, on 22nd May, the Hards and Softs fought and one of the Hards was killed, which caused further serious rioting.
In June illegal assemblies were held in the St. Gallen region; Künzle attended them but tried to maintain unity. The Prince-Abbot called in the Schirmorte again and asked for troops to help restore order, they refused but sent representatives to meet in St. Gallen. The Chronik [p 447] indicates that this time all four Schirmorte, Zürich, Luzern, Schwyz and Glarus, were represented. A letter written by Schlatter on the 11th shows that even at the start of this period the recently appointed Prince-Abbot, Pankraz Vorster, was not popular: "... the Abbot is not loved by eleven-twelfths of his subjects, one might say nearly all of them. His despotic behaviour displeases them. And moreover it now happens that the greater part of the chapter are also against him, so that people certify that there is squabbling among the black cassocks [...] The prince may have spoken in vain, if danger is near he will depart and leave them in the lurch, if he has right on his side he ought to stay with them and share their danger [...] The peasants are all united again and want to make common cause."
(This confirms Bräker's account of the same events in his diary of August 1797.)
On 16th July: Schlatter writes: "I learned yesterday evening that the peasants are much incensed at the behaviour of the prince, and have announced with one voice that today they will come and give the black cassocks the fright of their lives. The noble deputies
