In 1854 he took part in the Bamberg conferences, in which the smaller German states claimed the right to direct their own policy independently of Austria or of Prussia, and he was the leading supporter of the idea of the Trias, i.e., that the smaller states should form a closer union among themselves against the preponderance of the great monarchies. In 1863 he came forward as a warm supporter of the claims of the prince of Augustenburg to Schleswig-Holstein. He was the leader of the party in the German diet which refused to recognize the settlement of the Danish question effected in 1852 by the Treaty of London, and in 1864 he was appointed representative of the diet at the peace conference in London.