B 3 110 
 
 
 
 GERMAN-FRENCH 
 
 OIF 1 187O-71. 
 
 WM. E. F. KRAUSE, 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF" 
 
 Received . .afLSy.i? 
 Accession No...Z.Al.J.. - Class No. ..... 
 
THE 
 
 GERMAN-FRENCH WAR OF 1810 
 
 ITS CONSEQUENCES 
 
 UPON 
 
 FUTURE CIVILIZATION. 
 
 BY WM. E. F. KRAUSE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " AMERICAN INTERESTS IN BORNEO," THE UNITED STATES INTERESTS 
 
 ABROAD," AND A NUMBER OF POEMS IN THE ENGLISH 
 
 AND GERMAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
 
 JOS. WINTEKBUEN & COMPANY, PBINTEBS AND ELECTBOTYPERS, 
 No. 417 Clay Street, between Sansome and Battery. 
 
 1872. 
 
ROOMS OF THE 
 
 ODD FELLOWS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, FEBRUARY 28th, 1872. 
 SIR: , 
 
 I am requested by the Government of the Association to acknowledge 
 your donation of your works on " BORNEO/ " THE INFLUENCE OF THE 
 UNITED STATES ABROAD," " AMERICA, THE HOPE OF MANKIND," " FOUR 
 POEMS," "THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE," "22 POEMS IN THE GERMAN LAN 
 GUAGE," and the " HISTORY OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR OF 1870," all of 
 which have been bound and placed on our shelves, and to return their 
 thanks for the same. 
 
 HENRY C. SQUIRE, 
 
 SECRETARY. 
 To W. E. F. KRAUSE, ESQ. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, 
 
 CALIFORNIA. 
 
 *^1 / 
 
 
 
 The anniversary of Mr. Krause s 20 years residence in California. 
 Arrival of the Steamship Golden Gate, Capt. Patterson, from Panama. 
 
 Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1872, 
 
 BY WM. E. F. KKAUSE, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
PAGES. 
 
 PAET I. INTRODUCTORY : The Advance of Kepublicanisin 1-11 
 
 The War. 
 
 a. The Diplomacy of France and Prussia 11-21 
 
 6. The Crown of Spain as proffered to the Prince 
 
 of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen 21-28 
 
 c. The acceptance of said Crown by a Prince of 
 Hohenzollern considered by the government 
 of Napoleon as a casus belli 28-34 
 
 PAET II. Napoleon s calculations of success in a war with 
 Prussia, and the Declaration of War. 
 
 a. Napoleon s Calculations 34-37 
 
 b. The non-interference by all the European 
 
 nations 37-46 
 
 c. The Official Declaration of War by France to 
 
 Prussia 46-47 
 
 d. Interesting Speeches and Diplomatic Corres 
 
 pondence between France and Prussia on 
 the Subject of the Balance of Power in 
 Europe 47-69 
 
 PART III. The Provisional Battle Ground 69-72 
 
 PAKT IV. The Prussian and French Army Organizations 72-78 
 
 PART V. The War in Detail : 
 
 a. The Staff of Generals of the French and Ger 
 
 man Armies The Executive Command over 
 the entire German Army entrusted by the 
 King of Prussia to General Moltke 78-79 
 
 b. The Commencement of Hostilities 79-80 
 
 c. The Battles 80-85. Continued from 100-112 
 
 PAET VI. The French Republic 85-94 
 
 PAET VII. Why Peace was not concluded at Sedan 94-100 
 
 PAET VIII. The Capitulation of Strasburg and Metz Naval 
 
 Engagements 100-103 
 
IV 
 
 PART IX. The Siege of Paris and the Battles against the 
 
 Army of the Loire 103-112 
 
 PART X. The Consequences of the "War upon Future Civ 
 ilization 112-121 
 
 PART XI. Peace The New Boundary of Germany 121-124 
 
 a. The Preliminaries of Peace 124-129 
 
 PART XII. Germany at Home 129-134 
 
 PART XIII. Historical Future The Regeneration of the 
 
 Netherlands 134-139 
 
 PART XIV. The Cosmopolitan Power of the United States 
 of America, Great Britain, and United Ger 
 many 139-142 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CaL, February 22d, 1872. * 
 
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 ERRATA. 
 
 2, line 29th, read 1,000,000,000, instead of 1,000,000. 
 40, line 15th, read Tartary, instead of Turkey. 
 
 94, line 26th, read the, instead of they. 
 
 95, line 34th, read herself, instead of itself. 
 130, line 1st, read welded, instead of smelted. 
 130, line 33d, read civilized, instead of barbarous. 
 135, line 27th, read her, instead of its. 
 
 135, line 30th, read their, instead of her. 
 
 136, line 13th, read best, instead of but. 
 141, line 15th, read upon, instead of to. 
 
PART THE FIRST. 
 
 THE ADVANCE OF 
 
 IT being an avowed characteristic of the high order of civilization 
 attained to at this period of the world s history, for man and nations 
 to sympathize with and aid in ameliorating the misfortunes of one 
 another, it is quite natural that, we find the people of the United 
 States not only averse to and regretting all wars, from principle, 
 themselves politically acting upon its high commands, but observe 
 them aggrieved at the war which in turn has devastated France, aa 
 affecting one of the most civilized nations by retarding its general 
 progress of prosperity. 
 
 Truly loyal in their wishes for the maintenance of the Republic in 
 France, and eager in discerning symptoms of a like improvement upon 
 government in other civilized nations, the American people, while 
 pondering over the extraordinary commotion of this war, experience 
 a relief in the contemplation that with the tranquil demise of the ven 
 erable Emperor of Germany, the great intellectual union of the Ger 
 man people may signify the unveiling of the bright Goddess of Lib 
 erty in Germany, and, resting at her heart, feel its throbbings a 
 mother s love for every child alike. 
 
 Then, with Great Britain and her colonies simultaneously to follow, 
 there is indeed a fair prospect, at this age, for all mankind to become 
 free! And how unlike the dark periods of history when the Romans 
 failed in the permanency of the Republic through want of universal 
 education, precluding a high state of morality, and were not guided 
 to happiness by experience in the inestimable advantages of an enlight 
 ening Christianity. 
 
 With us the republican versus the monarchical government has 
 stood a centennial test enough positive proof of not only its ra 
 tional superiority over all other forms of government, but of its admi 
 rable efficiency, de facto, and its indivisibility and feasibility in enlight 
 ened ages. It now excels as the most glorious achievement of 
 progress, because under it can be, and with us has been, is daily, and 
 shall forever be attained, the true object of all civilization: the individ- 
 
2 
 
 ual happiness of man to an universal extent, duly commensurate with a 
 steady advance in the general progress of civilization, so as to justify, 
 as in accord with it, the prediction of its ultimate adoption by all 
 nations, and to be by them regarded as manifest destiny, so soon as 
 sufficiently enlightened and consequently unanimously determined of 
 proclaiming, appreciating and revering it. 
 
 Its legitimacy is found sacred, inasmuch as all truth and knowl 
 edge is derived from an incessant and correct interpretation and judi 
 cious application of nature, which wisdom, by labor attained, as ren 
 dering man good, virtuous and prosperous, enables him to properly 
 appreciate life, directing reason to guide him to actions which, when 
 sagaciously applied to the present, create his happiness, and, united 
 with others, expand civilization, in chronological order of the day, 
 through all ages of time. So the earnest reflectant not merely per 
 ceives man as living in great numbers, scattered all over the earth, and 
 originally born in mental and physical equality, but observes him as 
 with impartiality tenderly cradled amidst the grand loveliness of 
 nature, which, heralding the voice of God, distinguishes him as His 
 image by the exuberance of his reasoning powers, and vouchsafes him 
 happiness everywhere, while it demands of him the sacred duty of 
 fraternity. This duty, be it understood, the American people, as a nation, 
 really and almost only religiously obey, but which ought in this age to 
 serve every civilized being as the syntax of the great study of the use 
 of life, as acknowledged and demonstrated by civilization, which study 
 is made altogether supreme in importance by the force of reflection 
 upon the surety, as well as the mysterious uncertainty of the time, of 
 death. 
 
 The duty of fraternity is realized from the fact of the existence at 
 our age of about 1,000,000 people. Furthermore, God creating man 
 and not nations, land and not countries, nature not only points to 
 man s independence through his individuality, as an inalienable right 
 wherever he lives, but to freedom of his actions and the liberty of 
 his will. As man at all arrives at civilization through external influ 
 ences, elevating his mind and cultivating his heart, so the circle of his 
 personal friends shall widen in proportion of his own advance to 
 that of others in usefulness and sympathetic attractiveness through 
 education, refinement and social intercourse. Consequently, the more 
 readily and generally the duty of fraternity is fulfilled, the more tol 
 erant, forbearing and compassionate man is, the more communicative 
 of his knowledge, the more considerate in his regard for the feelings 
 of others, the more gracefully and unassumingly he deports himself- 
 the more genteel and accomplished he is, the happier his life, the more 
 religiously and sensibly does he act; and the more universal such 
 enlightenment in a nation, the more civilized a people composed of 
 
such ladies and gentlemen, and the more conspicuous the truth of 
 republicanism, which alone guarantees the independence of man. 
 
 Therefore no system of government is compatible with civilization 
 in the fullest sense of the word, in which man, its first principle, its 
 true idiom and object, is precluded from, is not considered morally fit 
 for self-government; who, possessing the attribute of moral fitness, as 
 emerged from cannibalism and heathenism, and with reasoning powers 
 unimpaired, has unquestionably the right, from the fact that he adds 
 at least some share of usefulness to the common wealth, of demanding 
 participation in a government which consolidates but for the one object, 
 and, unitedly only, successfully carries it out: the ennobling of man 
 the happiness and usefulness of all in the presence of God. 
 
 In order that all mankind may adopt our precedent, we, finding at 
 least the European nations abundantly prepared for self-government, 
 which is daily ascertained from the German and French as well as any 
 other immigrant to whom we grant the vote and whom we receive into 
 the bosom of our commonwealth with the kindness and trust of a 
 friend consequently whose brother (unfortunately for us left behind) 
 is equally fit for voting there it becomes not only necessary but a duty 
 incumbent on the American people, as the most happy portion of the 
 fraternity of mankind, of illustrating by all manner of means the 
 direct effect of our institutions upon the happiness of men residing 
 here and forming the American nation, to all foreigners outside, for 
 their special edification and encouragement. 
 
 This duty effectually to carry out, which obviously is of such inesti 
 mable aesthetic worth to civilization, appears and becomes imperative 
 from the standpoint of our institutions, by which we foster, a care for 
 the interest of humanity in all places and at all times; while officially 
 their peaceable tenor prescribes observance of strict neutrality in all 
 international affairs. It includes the hope for an "universal law ere 
 long to be agreed upon and passed, by which wars may henceforth be 
 peremptorily avoided through mutual obligations of settling all unto- 
 wardly arising political dissensions by arbitration substituting 
 for expensive standing armies the economical volunteer system and 
 similarly humane, rational and judicious derivations. 
 
 As an agreeable task, cheerfully undertaken, it is satisfactorily 
 accomplished by manfully expressing our gratitude for the happiness 
 we as a nation enjoy under the banner of freedom in this country, on 
 all occasions, publicly and privately availing ourselves especially of 
 every foreign imbroglio to do so. 
 
 Such a feature would undoubtedly show its efficiency abroad because 
 
 3 lawfulness and access to the censors. It convinces. To vituper- 
 
 -tively denounce monarchical governments, or to praise our own in a 
 
 pompous manner, could not be thought of an instant; both attempts 
 
at making the desired impression would prove altogether futile the 
 former with the ignorant abroad creating hatred, and with the pow- 
 ful a scornful delight ; while the latter would present the American 
 citizen altogether in a wrong light, likewise falling short of effect. 
 
 No; if the truth must be told, let every one prove his words by his 
 residence in this country, and not for whole years in European capi 
 tals; by his quiet contentedness here, so envied by the wealthiest 
 roaming cosmopolite; by his studied silence of opinion in regard to 
 wars as unelating and disagreeably obvious of misery; by a profound 
 disregard of the hollowiiess of a mere and altogether unreputed 
 appearance of man, as best stifling in the bud the spirit of aristocratic 
 intolerance; by a liberal acknowledgement of talent here and abroad; 
 by lavish exhibitions of industry in this country, while promptly fre 
 quenting those of Europe ; and by the diminution in the cost of 
 steamship travel and of letter postage, viewed as the carriers of civili 
 zation, which make known to the world the truth of republics and 
 influence emigration ; and we cannot fail in drawing the attention of 
 all foreign people upon us, touch with dignity and due effect the 
 pernicious pride of the aristocrat, the obstinate enemy of fraternity 
 and good will toward all men the stoic skeptic in the religious truth 
 of the republic and we shall succeed in arousing an earnest 
 longing and a fluttering among all classes to either emigrate here 
 or to be similarly free and happy there, leaving man s opinion to 
 mature on the spot, from the richness of facts received in double-quick 
 time. 
 
 These facts, vividly illustrated, as they shall depict life in the 
 United States in all phases of a veritably unsurpassed progress in civ 
 ilization, the cause of freedom, of man s personal independence in this 
 country; and of all the appliances of civilized life free schools, a free 
 press and free labor and not of favorable natural advantages and a 
 thinly-populated country only, so often, with lamentable ignorance, 
 held forth as an argument by men, strange to say, in our very midst: 
 these proofs are daily abundantly given, and are hourly carried by 
 telegraph and by steam, in person, to and fro, the world over; in 
 books and in letters, by millions; are magnificently displayed by the 
 fabulous wealth of our commerce at home and abroad; then again, by 
 the unknown existence at any time of a poverty-stricken multitude in 
 our large cities, as one of the greatest blessings which republics only 
 afford, where men are Kworii by the vote to the duty of ameliorating 
 the condition of one another, in order that all be drawn to the siirface 
 of ease and comfort, and no partiality shown in detriment to the 
 divine rights of another, while purposely remiss in adulation of the 
 wealth of the man whose individual usefulness to the country at large 
 does not stand in exact proportion to it, or whose moral example is 
 
none, nor his heart known to pulsate audibly for love as well as 
 public charities, as in the case of a charitable bachelor millionaire 
 acquiring with enormous wealth the peculiar duty of judiciously dis 
 posing of the greater part of it to the public before he dies; by the eti 
 quette of our National Government, which expects of the best of men 
 as well as the most useful and learned to say to himself, cc There are 
 others aspiring to what I once honorably craved and now glory in, 
 of having successfully attained"; by the less than nominal expense to 
 the wealthiest nation upon earth of the care for the bodily comfort of 
 the inmates of the White House, as in concert with the habits of the 
 real American, who values wealth but as a medium of carrying out 
 intelligent ideas worthless to him as a clap-trap for either power, 
 glory or fashion; and rising as another brilliant star to outshine the 
 allurements of Europe, .where the retinue of courts serves as a gas by 
 which the fashionable avenues of trade are lit up; then, again, by 
 the innumerable institutions of benevolence; by the respect and cour 
 tesy shown to every lady in every station of life; by the protection 
 given and license of freedom granted to every child ; and, above all, 
 by the Press, in the light of a daily producer and conveyancer of 
 wholesome as well as delicious nutriment for the mind of man, serving, 
 caring and ambulancing the wounded hearts of mankind, without 
 intermission, to the glory of civilization, besides being the most irre 
 pressible arm of Freedom, the ever invulnerable shield of Liberty. 
 
 By such means as those enumerated, which we know are in con 
 stant, active use, and. always on the increase ever since the telegraph and 
 steam in reality the manual hands of civilization, have almost anni 
 hilated geographical distances, it appears an utter impossibility for the 
 leading European nations to adhere any longer to monarchical govern- 
 ernments and classifications of society which are not only unnatural 
 but superannuated by the force of universal enlightenment. As a 
 standard truth, this assertion is verified by the full weight of the 
 naturalization oath resting upon it which the intelligent foreigner 
 takes in this country when, from conviction and sheer intelligence, he 
 abjures all allegiance to royalty as inconsistent with his conception of 
 what is humanly right. In doing so he likewise abjures all sympathy 
 with the usurped power of its mandates and adopts this country as his 
 only home, because of its entire freedom from arbitrary and hereditary 
 individual power, and with institutions drafted to that effect, as afford 
 ing him the desired and expected guarantee for, and a permanent 
 and peaceable enjoyment of, all his own individual and lawful rights. 
 
 In order to produce in California, or America generally, a synoptical 
 portraiture sufficiently explanatory of the various causes which led to 
 this memorable war, is perhaps preferably done by translating from 
 some work, well spoken of on the continent of Europe, instead of going 
 
6 
 
 I 
 
 to the infinite trouble of compiling it here. It possesses the considera 
 ble advantage of making the reader acquainted, in a piquant manner, 
 with many local incidents otherwise unattainable, yet indispensable, on 
 account of their elucidating events, when and where these have occurred 
 items of importance in historical literature, and realty serviceable for 
 better comprehension of the general subject under view. Besides, as little 
 lights of history, they are duly retained, destined of dispersing, to some 
 extent, the gloom which is cast over the mind during the perusal of 
 belletristic works, by their throwing an electric glare of truthfulness 
 over the dismal pages of nightly ignorance and gory battle-fields, 
 which latter they point out with unerring precision, and by the force 
 of the limpid, spasmodic dazzlertess peculiar to the artificial nature of 
 that extraordinary light, awake in every one anew the hope which 
 precedes the glorious daylight of enlightenment, that wars be altogether 
 eschewed through an obligatory international law, and its obedience 
 practically enforced among the nations, through the establishment of 
 a republican form of government. 
 
 As republicanism is the highest tribunal of civilization, it wields the 
 executive power of impartial justice to all men, mainly through the 
 institutional or lawful provision of peace, the ethereal shield of liberty, 
 protecting life, individually and collectively, nationally and internation 
 ally, publicly and privately, at all hazards. 
 
 In times of peace only, as obviously is the object of civilization, 
 the individual happiness of man, to an universal extent, duly at 
 tained, in full accordance with religion, which teaches us through 
 nature that God, creating man to live, intends him to die a natural 
 death. To expose one s self to an unnatural death, or worse, precipitate 
 it intentionally, is, therefore the one a personal fault, and the other an 
 uncivilized action similar to insanity, hereditary or not, which, caused 
 by disease of the vital brain, the consequence of an unwise life uncongru- 
 ous of nature, proves that life stands entirely unconnected with the time 
 of death, as so chastely and omnipotently veiled by God only. Then 
 again, the local items above referred to mournfully serve as links in 
 the chain of study, how far this war has detained the march of prog 
 ress although it must be admitted that any war, like sin, once com 
 mitted, is a step nearer atonement, which signifies, in regard to politics, 
 that by the ready avowal of republican institutions, as redeeming a 
 nation from sin by freeing it from the last remnant of barbarism, may 
 render it in future more prosperous, and each individual better 
 and happier. In the same proportion that the Christian religion 
 stands to Paganism, civilization to barbarism, peace to war, the quick 
 spread of republicanism to universal popular enlightenment, so sure it 
 is that its advance in Europe stands parallel to the influence which it 
 receives from the United States of America. Eevered by us as a politi- 
 
cal as well as private acme of justice, and accordingly practiced as a 
 national law, in all international affairs, Peace is the Minerva of Liberty 
 in a free country, the Aurora Australis, which lovingly animates the 
 power of virtue, enabling man s happiness to unfold itself through 
 life in all its pristine purity and strength, and the terrestrial temple of 
 the soul, in which the conscience of man piously worships God. As 
 such America introduces republicanism into the civilized world, sub 
 stantiated by our greatness as a nation the incontestible proof of 
 man s incomparable happiness, here attained under the canopy of in 
 dependence as well as of heaven. 
 
 No longer a matter of time, but of absolute certainty in this en 
 lightened age, of succeeding in making republicanism universally 
 appreciated, it requires but reduction of expense and of time in our 
 steamship travel and in letter postage. The more we gain upon anni 
 hilation of geographical distances by telegraph and steam, the speedier 
 we shall attain to the desired end of elevating all nations into political 
 manhood, affording them proper opportunities to copy from us, as 
 the living example. By thus constantly increasing the number of our 
 steamers, plying between America and Europe, and the world at large, at 
 the smaller an expense of passage and of freight moneys as practical 
 the better, increasing likewise the speed of travel, if at all possible, as 
 valuing time, we shall unfailingly bring about the desideratum the 
 great point at issue in civilization an increase of the explanation be 
 tween brother and brother, which knows of no hindrance, fears no 
 censor is the sunny light of reason and of love, which goes to heart, 
 convinces, and succeeds. This reflection is drawn directly from the 
 uncontrovertible fact that Europe has gained more in liberal ideas since 
 the days of steamship travel, bringing it into frequent contact with 
 America, than its progress in that direction amounted to ever since the 
 invasion by the Huns, and which progress in the practical promulga 
 tion of civilizing principles is bound to increase in exact proportion to 
 the tide of immigration setting in here strongly, which ebbs its fer 
 tilizing truths through the lunar agency of sublunary happiness into the 
 hearts of all mankind, arousing them to be faithful and unfailing in 
 their own sovereign independence as republicans. 
 
 Every information in regard to European affairs generally, received 
 in America, whether officially or privately, it ought to be borne in mind 
 is furnished from abroad by aliens, who as such are unfortunately 
 biassed in the judgment of international affairs, from the very nature 
 of their governments, as consequent upon the conventional life the 
 people traditionally lead as rigid adherents to caste ; less indeed from 
 ignorance and prejudice, or good intentions in many individual cases, 
 concerning the duty of elevating man to the moral standard of social 
 equality, than what appears to us a willful and sinful lack of determina- 
 
8 
 
 tion of familiarizing themselves with, and without any more circumlocu 
 tory ado in this age, adopt our system of government, in which that stand 
 ard is secured to all as a form and basis of civilization, as they have 
 had ample opportunity afforded them during a hundred years, of 
 doing so. 
 
 I have already shown in the introductory of this work that the Ger 
 man and French, as well as any other immigrant here, proves to a 
 fault that his relatives he left behind possess to a like degree the proper 
 fitness for self-government there, and that dire necessity no longer 
 legitimatizes monarchical governments, where the people have by uni 
 versal enlightenment emancipated themselves from an originally bar 
 barous condition of unfitness to live peaceably and within the 
 boundaries of law, but that, proving now to be enlightened they ought 
 to know that government is not a compulsory institution among prac 
 tically, intelligent, and unbigoted beings, but merely a clerkship of 
 the nation, composed of everybody as an integral, a natural, and an in- 
 devisable part, and should never be dreaded as an instrument of arbi 
 trary power ; on the contrary, may well and should be loved as a huge 
 law cfiioe, in which the legitimate rights and the sacred welfare of 
 man are in quite a fraternal manner broadly and intelligently discussed 
 in the eyes of God. 
 
 The judgment of the powerful abroad with reference to war re 
 sorted to in order to adjust difficulties, as if they still lived in medieval 
 ages, in which the rational being had not the full intellectual force of 
 fortitude at his disposal of combating with and of controlling the 
 infuriated senses of man and nations, constantly embarrasses us of 
 conceiving as justly, because bloodshed never coincides with noble or 
 brave acts, constituting enlightenment, nor ever was, or is now at this 
 period of the world s history, in accord with civilization, in which 
 peace at all hazards, in the settlement of difficulties, both privately and 
 politically, predominates as the principal characteristic, and rises on 
 the horizon of enlightenment as the most brilliant star, guiding man 
 through the dark labyrinthic nights of ignorance. We therefore 
 rigidly practice it as a nation, as in adherence to the superior wisdom, 
 and in proper conformity of the charitable principles pervading all our 
 institutions and industrious habits of life, confident that with the spread 
 of republics man s unhappiness will everywhere disappear from sight 
 altogether. 
 
 In regard to historical productions, they dwindle down to a mere 
 clever recital of authenticated occurrences, not at all elating in them 
 selves ; on the contrary, and in reality, very pitiable in their sad con 
 sequences of so much sanguinary awfulness and general misery they 
 entail, sternly demanding no positively necessary attention beyond 
 tearful, and of course substantial succor, except that in every one of 
 
us it should arouse anew the one overwhelmingly sacred duty, amenda 
 tory of such misery, and incumbent upon an American to comply with, 
 and as a man of honor and personified truth cheerfully and voluntarily to 
 fulfill, which is to express his gratitude for our institutions, under 
 which, in peace and amidst plenty, he, and every one, is blessed, and can 
 live happily, who labors, acts sensibly, studying contentment and health, 
 and which is not the case in any other nation to such an approxima- 
 tingly universal extent, but should be the case the world over. Such 
 an avowal is not only always timely, but especially so now. It strenu 
 ously draws the attention of the world upon us, in order that foreign 
 nations be led to respect us by such a manful demonstration of a 
 proper feeling of nationality, which, while it honors us, refutes but 
 their stubborn unbelief in the superior merits of our institutions ; it 
 is theory practically applied. For sheer want of such morally con 
 vincing proofs they remained so deplorably long in ignorance of the 
 manifold blessings they afford, openly derided them, even held the 
 same in abuse for selfish purposes of their own, in no accord with 
 either the conscience of the rulers nor the intellectual greatness of a 
 nation so duped, showing it quite conclusively that the chances here 
 tofore afforded them for knowing America well, and of thoroughly 
 estimating its vast moral power, did anything but suffice. 
 
 Availing themselves of the misfortunes to man, monarchs covertly 
 denounced republics as a conglomeration of lawlessness, when secretly 
 at heart they fear the promulgation of the eternal truth of the equality 
 of man s mind for culture in the eyes of the civilized world, as laying- 
 bare their position of aristocrats as untenable in this age, and pointing 
 with decimating effect towards the ruse of the origin of their preroga 
 tives as altogether unwarrantable, because devoid of charity and gen 
 erosity to fellow-men, and as to a hereditary right to them the absurdity 
 appearing like a dense fog, which disperses only when the sun rises 
 then not the shadow of a vapor remains to justify it. 
 
 A sort of tomahawk they still use in blasphemously quoting the 
 Bible as authority of the will of God that rule and servitude should 
 exist on earth, and cite nature as legitimatizing coercion, when from a 
 study of the same nature we are taking quite a different version, and 
 find that it leaves us at a loss how to conceive man irrational. Eeason, 
 therefore, by the strong, unobtrusive power of which we conceive and 
 comprehend God s love of all mankind alike, as our bright vision be 
 holds man living in inimitably animated forms of anatomically perfect 
 construction and equality, leading us to the decorous demeanor of 
 justice and kindness toward one another in the paths of private life, 
 led us to unanimously declare our independence from man s aggres 
 sion upon another s rights, and politically accomplish a gathering of 
 free and good men, denominated the republic, which significantly in- 
 
10 
 
 eludes all mankind. That its security be imperishable, and the world 
 may readily adhere to its sacred vows, we gathered into it all the avail 
 able principles which render man good, and consequently happy, so as 
 to serve not only us for the time being, but all mankind forever. 
 
 Upon this truly religious and equally rational comprehension of 
 God s will rests our conviction that all nations will arrive at. the appre 
 ciation and adoption of the republican form of government, the time 
 for their proclamation being fixed according to the advance reached in 
 general intelligence by the people universally. 
 
 That in spite of the Christian religion, which the civilized world has 
 adopted, on account of its incomparably humanizing principles, but 
 we, and a few other but thinly populated countries, have as yet fol 
 lowed its divinely moral teachings, which although so near common 
 sense, appear still so distant in time of application, proves the difficulty of 
 the task, that without the aid of all, republican principles cannot be 
 thoroughly appreciated, inasmuch as universal enlightenment and per 
 sonal worth, based upon education, and, above all, a diffusion of a 
 fraternal spirit of amiability and generosity are indispensable requisites 
 for the due attainment to its desirable, ultimate end. 
 
 WM. E. F. KRAUSE. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, February 22d, 1871. 
 
THE 
 
 It appears that on the 19th of July, 1870, the Emperor of the 
 French declared war against Germany, to the great astonishment and 
 surprise of the people of the latter country, there being no palpable 
 reason for a necessity of any such warlike demonstration on his part. 
 It was, therefore, quite natural that the German people united in pre 
 venting serious mischief, leaving internal controversies pending as is 
 always the case when a foreign foe is intermeddling or intruding. 
 This patriotic feeling became the more intensified the more ib became 
 known, from the various pretexts advanced, proving to be shallow, that 
 they covered nothing less than a deliberate design upon the independ 
 ence and the freedom of the German people, thus forcibly reminding 
 them of the great war of liberty in bygone days, and securing for this 
 one that unanimous action which augurs victory from the commence 
 ment by its energetic execution, as inspired by the very holiness of the 
 cause of " the defence of national freedom." 
 
 What these pretexts were which the Emperor of the French ad 
 vanced for the inauguration of the war, and his real intentions en 
 shrouded by them, that has to be enunciated, that the latter, although 
 of a twofold nature, as being dynastical or personal, and political or 
 traditional, were by him blended into one determined design of ag 
 grandizing upon Germany. 
 
 During his entire reign the care for his throne, and a continuancy 
 of his dynasty, has actuated his policy at home and abroad, availing 
 himself of the influence of the church upon the peasantry, likewise of the 
 Imperialists, and of the army, with whom the name of Napoleon bears 
 a charm, and of the majority of the middle classes, who were his 
 staunch supporters, because they feared anarchy. By such aids he 
 held successfully in check the Bourbons, the Orleanists, the Liberals, 
 and even the Kepublicans, always occupying the army in a manner 
 satisfactory to their martial spirit. But ever since his transatlantic ad 
 ventures in Mexico, the French nation, a liberty-loving people, began 
 to show their sagacity by leaning towards the espousal of the republi 
 can cause, exhibiting this inborn desire to be free ; in other words, in 
 dependent of the rule of any man whomsoever born of woman 
 publicly and unmistakably which showed Napoleon that not only had 
 republicanism and enlightenment largely increased in France since 
 1848, but that his throne was tottering in consequence, and his dynasty 
 in jeopardy of expiring. Such a calamity to his imperial self-inter- 
 
12 
 
 ests he had two ways of encountering either by war with a neighbor 
 ing nation or by a plebiscitum. Both were slippery and dangerous to 
 traverse. As to a war abroad, there was but one really popular, a war 
 with Germany, as answering the political traditions of France. In 
 case of victory, it would be considered by the nation as an answer 
 received to the queries of Leipsic, Waterloo, and Koniggratz, accom 
 panied by the Rhenish provinces, so ardently and persistently coveted, 
 as a pledge of the sincerity of future friendship. 
 
 But be it understood, in case of victory only, that the very attempt 
 of making victory a condition was not only hazardous in the extreme, 
 but fatal to himself and dynasty in case of defeat; while of course by 
 dictating peace from Berlin, his power Avould become indestructible 
 from that day, as far as the arbitrary rule of a monarch can find sub 
 missive supporters in oppression. Delay, however, was out of the 
 question, because of the imminent danger of his position, denying the 
 difficulty and nature of available means to avert it. 
 
 The idea of going to war with Germany, so daring in itself, became 
 preposterous when it was considered that France was not at all pre 
 pared for it. The genius of Napoleon, correctly estimating the press 
 ure of time, therefore, abstained for the present from this mode of 
 procedure, and adopted first the peaceable way not, however, losing 
 sight of the dilemma wherein he might be placed of risking at any 
 time his fortune by war, for which untoward neceessity he never 
 nagged of preparing with consummate precision. His resolution now 
 was taken; votes were cast, he standing well in the eyes of the world 
 as the elect of the French people thanks to the clergy, the prefects and 
 the maires. Still it was not enough. A liberty-loving people require 
 proofs, not words. Concessions they wanted, and concessions Napo 
 leon now made . To the astonishment of France it was a new Consti 
 tution, well framed, which he gave, at the same time with a majority 
 in the House devoted to himself which would secure for him, at all 
 times, personal control of all important decisions generally. 
 
 In spite of these apparent successes, France was observed to be still 
 in a ferment, the cause being that during the plebiscitum many had 
 voted aye upon condition that no war should be declared; but then 
 again and what constituted more than his misgivings the army, the 
 main pillar of the Napoleonic Empire, to the figure of 43,000 strong 
 just about one in ten had voted nay. 
 
 In the French Senate there was next observed a very obstinate and 
 energetic minority rising to awake stormy debates, proving to Napo 
 leon still more demonstratively the waning of his power, notwith 
 standing his success at the elections . 
 
 Several years had so elapsed, during which the greatest activity 
 was displayed and persevered in to procure the necessary material for 
 
13 
 
 war. The preparations were upon such a gigantic scale that all the 
 world might have guessed correctly who was meant by it, leaving 
 nothing doubtful but the moment of time for the outbreak of war. Na 
 poleon therefore decided upon war with Prussia and Germany, but 
 endeavoring first to attain to the same object by diplomatic means. The 
 object of course remained the Rhenish Provinces and the annexation 
 of Belgium ; and as the genius of Napoleon is well known to befit 
 him more conspicuously for diplomacy than the battle-field, he tried to 
 effect the object by diplomacy. It was as early as 1862, during the 
 Mexican expedition, that he made the first attempt of absorbing Bel 
 gium and adjusting the Ehenish frontier with the assistance of 
 Prussia, consulting Count Bismark anterior to the Count s acceptance 
 of the portfolio of Prime Minister of Prussia. This defined to the world 
 the position of France in the German-Danish war in favor of the allies. 
 But when the Treaty of Gastein, between Austria and Prussia, was 
 signed, he immediately changed his tactics, showing a marked un 
 friendliness towards the latter country, accountable for only on the fear 
 that a too intimate friendship between Austria and Prussia would 
 deprive him of the fruits of his diplomacy in the German-Danish war. 
 
 About the same time Bismark gave Napoleon, at St. Cloud, a 
 general outline of his views upon Germany, while Napoleon responded 
 with his views upon Belgium, without further comment on either part 
 upon the feasibility of the execution of these plans. The silence of 
 Count Bismark on this occasion, Napoleon interpreted in favor of his 
 plans, having expected that the war between Austria and Prussia 
 would be fought in 1865, and instantly approached Prussia with 
 friendly overtures upon the rupture between Austria and Prussia 
 becoming imminent availing himself of the presence of Prince Napo- 
 leoii in Berlin, as well as other confidential agents, to propose various 
 schemes for enlarging their respective boundaries. In one case it was 
 Luxembourg!!; in another, the boundary of 1814, together with Lan- 
 dou and Sar-Louis ; then again, touching larger objects for instance, 
 the territory of the French-speaking Swiss or the boundaiy of Pied 
 mont to be adjusted according to the language most prevalent among 
 the people. 
 
 All this occurred previous to the war between Austria and Prussia 
 in 1866, and in May of that year the proposals assumed the shape of 
 an offensive and defensive alliance, of which Count Bismark made 
 mention in his circular of the 29th of July, 1870, the Count stating that: 
 
 Firstly In case of a Congress, it should be unanimously declared 
 that Venetia be ceded to Italy, and the Duchies of the Elbe to Prussia. 
 
 Second Should these cessions hot be realized, then an offensive 
 and defensive alliance. 
 
14 
 
 Third The King of Prussia would commence hostilities within 
 ten days from the adjournment of Congress. 
 
 Fourth Should Congress not at all assemble, Prussia to take the 
 field thirty days after the signatures to the agreement in question had 
 been exchanged. 
 
 Fifth The Emperor of the French to declare war to Austria as 
 soon as hostilities between Austria and Prussia should have com 
 menced; to take the field in thirty days, with 300,000 men. 
 
 Sixth No separate peace with Austria should be made. 
 
 Seventh Peace to be concluded upon the following conditions: 
 Venetia to Italy; the German terrritories mentioned, footing up about 
 seven to eight millions of population, upon choice, to Prussia; besides 
 Federal reform in the Prussian sense of view. To France, the terri 
 tory between the Moselle and the Rhine, with a population of 500,000, 
 without the strong fortresses of Coblentz and Mayence; the section of 
 Bavaria upon the left bank of the Rhine ; the cities of Birkenfield, 
 Homburg and Darmstadt, with a total population of 213,000. 
 
 Eighth After the signatures to this treaty be obtained, a military 
 convention would be agreed upon between France and Prussia. 
 
 Ninth The King of Italy should be a party to the convention. 
 
 The number of troops with which the Emperor of the French 
 should assist the King of Prussia, according to Article V, was men 
 tioned at 300,000 men, and the population to be acquired by France 
 1,800,000, according to a somewhat superficial census. 
 
 Here, adds Count Bismark, every one more specially acquainted 
 with the diplomacy and military history of the year 1866, may fathom 
 the political intentions which France had in regard to Italy, with 
 which it likewise secretly treated, and later acted upon with both 
 Prussia and Italy. Prussia, however, firmly declining, in June, 1866, 
 the alliance above mentioned, notwithstanding its threatening pressure 
 on the part of France on several occasions, the French Government 
 had now to rely upon victory of the Austrians over the Prussians and 
 what diplomatic advantages they might secure to themselves from 
 such a defeat. That the proposed Congress would have had the effect 
 of allowing the three months time to elapse without affording Prussia 
 the chance of making use of the treaty which existed betweii Prussia 
 and Italy, is well known ; likewise how France was active in. regard to 
 Custozza, to jeapardize Prussia s interests. The anything but enviable 
 position of the French Minister of State, M. Rouher, serves as a com 
 mentary to these transactions. 
 
 From that day France never ceased to allure Prussia with projects 
 detrimental to Germany and Belgium. The impossibility of consent 
 of the Count of Bismark to these schemes was obvious ; yet in the 
 interest of peace, by acceding to nothing, even verbally, the Count 
 
15 
 
 suffered the French statesmen to enjoy their illusions delightfully, and 
 during as much time as possible, considering that a deprivation of 
 their hopes by way of an abrupt astonishment would endanger the 
 peace of not only Germany but Europe, which to cherish was the 
 decided advantage of all. 
 
 The Count was not of opinion to prevent a war with France, 
 because it being inevitable ; he counted upon Providence as unveiling 
 the future, and was right. Even victory he considered an evil, as 
 viewed from the high principle of civilization. He could not but 
 calculate upon the possibility of radical changes in France and in 
 French politics, which might altogether do away with the threatening 
 aspect of war between Germany and France a hope, indeed, well 
 worthy his silence. 
 
 Alter the end of the correspondence with the King of the Nether 
 lands in regard to Luxembourg, France repealed her proposals to 
 Prussia in regard to Belgium and Southern Germany. During that 
 conjuncture, the Benedetti manuscript was transmitted. That the 
 French Ambassador should have committed himself, and, without 
 authorization from his sovereign, should himself have made proposals, 
 placing them in the Count s hands, conferring with him repeatedly, 
 modifying the meaning of the writing, is as improbable and unlikely 
 as on another occasion it was stated that the Emperor Napoleon 
 never consented to the fortress of Mayence being ceded, which demand 
 was officially made to Prussia through the French Ambassador in 
 August, 186G, with threats of war if refused. 
 
 The various phases of French dislike and war delights which hap 
 pened from 1866 to 1869, very nearly coincide with the signs of incli 
 nation and disinclination for it which the French agents thought the 
 Count had inadventently at times betrayed to them. 
 
 In March, 1868, at the time of the Belgian Kailway trouble, Count 
 Bismark states he was given to understand by a person of high rank, 
 undoubtedly acquainted with former negotiations in regard to this diffi 
 culty that, in case the French should occupy Belgium "Nous trouver- 
 ions bicji noire Bdgique aitteurs." In a similar manner, 011 former 
 occasions, the Count was induced to consider that France, in a settle 
 ment of the Oriental question, could not absorb her share in the far 
 Orient, but on the frontier. 
 
 The Count had the impression that nothing but a sure conviction 
 that success with Prussia, to get at more territory, was impossible, 
 would induce Napoleon to try his best to prevent Prussia having any 
 success of the sort. 
 
 The Count had every reason to believe that, had this question not 
 been made public, France would have to offer proposals to us after 
 knowing we were ready for war, to advance upon Europe with a mil- 
 
16 
 
 lion of men, and carry, by force of arms, the proposals previously 
 made, viz : to make peace either before or after the first battle, entirely 
 at the expense of Belgium, according to Benedetti s proposals. 
 
 In regard to these proposals, the manuscript which we have posses 
 sion of was the handwriting of Count Benedetti s, upon paper of 
 the Imperial French Embassy, and recognized as such by the various 
 Embassadors and Charge d Affairs of Austria, Great Britain, Russia, 
 Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, Hesse, Italy, Saxony, Turkey and Wurten- 
 berg. 
 
 In Article I, Count Benedetti, during the first reading, passed the 
 last sentence putting it in parenthesis after the Count had told him 
 that it meant an interference of France into the internal affairs of 
 Germany which he, the Count, could not submit to even in documents 
 held private and in his keeping. Of his own accord he altered in Arti 
 cle II, on the margin, some sentence of less consequence. Lord Aug. 
 Loftus had verbally been made aware of the existence of this docu 
 ment on the 24th inst, and as the noble Lord doubted it, invited him 
 to inspect it himself. This he did on the 27th, and was convinced that 
 it was in the handwriting of his former French colleague. 
 
 That the Imperial Cabinet to-day denies these overtures, which 
 since 1814 it accompanied with alternating promises and threats, in 
 order to hurry us into submission, is quite explainable as matters now 
 stand. 
 
 This remarkable document from the manuscript of the treaty to 
 which Signer B. refers in his dispatch, reads as follows: 
 
 H. M., the King of Prussia, and H. M., the Emperor of the 
 French, considering it useful to strengthen still more the bonds of 
 friendship which now happily exist between them and their respective 
 nations as neighbors, and, on the other hand, convinced that they are 
 dutifully obliged to satisfactorily settle questions in regard to the 
 future of both nations, upon the result of which rests the peace of the 
 world, have for this purpose concluded to propose the following treaty, 
 having appointed as their respective representatives, H. M., etc.; 
 H. M., etc.; who, after having exchanged their credentials and found 
 them correct, have agreed upon the following articles: 
 
 AETICLE I. H. M., the Emperor of the French, admits and 
 acknowledges the acquisitions made by Prussia in her late war with 
 Austria and the allies of Austria, as well as submits to the steps taken 
 already, and to be taken, by Prussia, for the formation of a North 
 German Union, and obligates himself at the same time to assist in 
 maintaining it. 
 
 ARTICLE II. H. M. , the King of Prussia, promises to facilitate the 
 acquisition of Luxumbourg by France; to which end H. M. shall con- 
 
17 
 
 fer with H. M., the King of the Netherlands, in order to induce that 
 sovereign to cede to the Emperor of the French his rights to the 
 Dukedom for a fair compensation or in some other way, the Emperor 
 of the French paying all costs and charges. 
 
 ARTICLE III. H. M., the Emperor of the French shall not oppose 
 a federal union of North Germany with the States of the South, 
 Austria excepted, which Confederacy should have a Parliament, but 
 so formed that the sovereign rights of the clivers States should be 
 respected. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. In case circumstances should arise which shall induce 
 H. M. , the Emperor of the French, to cross with his army the frontier 
 of Belgium, for the purpose of conquest of that country, the King of 
 Prussia shall assist France with troops and with all his might, by land 
 and by sea, against any other nation which should declare war to 
 France on that account. 
 
 ARTICLE V. For the purpose of a perfect execution of the aforesaid 
 designs, H. M., the King of Prussia, and H. M., the Emperor of 
 the French, by this agreement form an offensive and defensive alliance 
 between themselves, which to respect they solemnly pledge them 
 selves; added to which their Majesties consider this alliance valid on 
 all other occasions on which the integrity of either country might be 
 jeopardized by a foreign foe, then to arm forthwith, being actuated 
 by no scruples, admissible of no excuse for evading the alliance. 
 
 Annexed is given a letter of Count Benedetti to Count Bismark, 
 with the manuscript of the treaty, as both were received from the 
 hands of the French Ambassador. 
 
 The letter reads as follows, as published at the time in the Staats 
 Anzeiger : 
 
 MY DEAR PRESIDENT : In reply to the communication which I trans 
 mitted from Nikolsburg to Paris, in consequence of our conversation 
 on the 26th ultimo., I have received from Vichy the plan for a secret 
 convention, of which I beg to send you the inclosed copy. I hasten 
 to acquaint you with it, that you may digest it at your leisure. I am 
 at your service in talking the matter over with you at any Jbime you 
 shall desire it. BENEDETTI. 
 
 SUNDAY, August 5, 186G. 
 
 The manuscript of the plan for this treaty reads as follows: 
 
 ARTICLE I. The French Empire again accedes to the lands which 
 formed in 1814 the boundaries of France, and which to-day belong to 
 Prussia. 
 
18 
 
 ARTICLE II. Prussia pledges herself to obtain those lands which 
 are on the left bank of the Khine and belong to the King of Bavaria 
 and the Grand Duke of Hesse, upon compensation to them for the 
 same, and to cede possession of those lands to France. 
 
 ARTICLE III. Those dispositions which connect with the German 
 Union such lands as are standing under the sovereignty of the King 
 of Holland are canceled; likewise those which refer, to such right to 
 lands within the fortress of Luxembourg. 
 
 In consequence of this note an official interview took place between 
 the Count of Bismark and the French Ambassador, in which the latter 
 insisted upon his demands being complied with, which had been pro 
 jected by him, and threatened Prussia with war if refused. Notwith 
 standing this, the Chancellor respectfully declined ; upon which the 
 demand upon Luxembourg was made, which likewise did not succeed; 
 upon which, again, the more important demand upon Belgium was 
 made, which formed the contents of Count Bismark s explanatory dis 
 patch of July 29th, originally framed by Count Benedetti, and pub 
 lished in the Times. 
 
 All these diplomatic versions demonstrate clearly that State and 
 personal motives were blended by France into that traditional policy 
 which Louis XIV originated, and which ever since the great French 
 Revolution was rigorously adhered to. 
 
 This tradition comprises points which no Government in France has 
 ever slighted or lost sight of. 
 
 Firstly The Rhine is the natural boundary of France. 
 
 Secondly France is destined and therefore justified and obliged to 
 
 be the leading power in Europe, and has to judge by arbitration in all 
 political matters disturbing the peace of Europe, and considers itself 
 duty bound to prevent other powers from doing anything without 
 her will. This the French elaborately conceive and euphemistically 
 and charmingly express by saying: " France marches at the head 
 of civilization." 
 
 Thirdly and finally As an united Germany would not only en 
 danger, but cancel these rights, and affect the dignity and the interests 
 of Frarfce \ in other words, the two points first mentioned, it must 
 never be allowed to unite. Every attempt at this dangerous union 
 must instantly be stifled, destroyed, and Germany kept down at all 
 hazards. 
 
 Shortly before hostilities commenced, the Moniteur expressed it ex 
 actly so : France merely intends keeping Europe in its normal con 
 dition and bring it back to its equilibrium, and is of opinion that a 
 disunited Germany signifies an absolute division there in permanancy; 
 
19 
 
 in which state of severed strength and consequent weakness of the 
 Germans, as a nation, they, the French, have nothing to apprehend, 
 and which opinion is even so yet to a far greater extent: they are 
 wrong, because in preventing the consolidation of the German union, 
 for political reasons of their own, they injure the German people, 
 morally and materially disabling them from abolishing every remnant 
 of feudalism, through not allowing them the necessary peace of Europe 
 to succeed in it. 
 
 If, therefore, the German nation at large had not at this juncture 
 found itself providentially blessed with a Bismarck, whose patriotism 
 and unfathomable genius took hold of the matter correctly, frustrating 
 both their designs -the motive for the prevention of the German 
 union, as well as the motive for the war, by conferring with the pres 
 ent Emperor of Germany, to apply the efficient strength which his 
 great genius knew existed in the military and their leaders, a worse 
 misery might have been entailed upon the German people than is now 
 lamented by the French, for reasons of the above named particularism, 
 aggravated by the consequences of conquest, in which the uncontroll 
 able fury of the Kabyles figures among the undefensive. 
 
 But not only to the Count Bismarck, but to the Emperor of Ger 
 many is the German nation forever indebted, who, as a sovereign, thus 
 nobly appreciated the Count, enabling him to give full vent to and ex 
 ercise his genius and allowing him to use his discretion in the above 
 two matters he knowing full well what such a consolidation of Ger 
 many would eventually lead to, in times of undoubted national strength 
 and general enlightenment, beyond the present temporary absorption 
 of the attention of the people by the war. 
 
 Returning from this digression to the balance of power in Europe, 
 as viewed by the French nation, from their political tradition and ver 
 sion, it rests upon the validity and instrumentality of these aforesaid 
 three points being maintained and adhered to. These formed, there 
 fore, the nominal reasons advanced by Napoleon and his ministers for 
 the legitimacy and necessity of the war about to commence. 
 
 How the Emperor of the Fi:ench and his ministers managed and 
 succeeded in making this war sufficiently popular in France so as to be 
 sanctioned by the people and undertaken, is best seen from a protocol of 
 Count Bismark s, which he produced during the twenty-sixth sitting of 
 the federal council, and which was laid before the German Parliament 
 on the 20th July. In which protocol the Count says : " The events 
 which during the last fortnight have transpired, disturbing the peace 
 of Europe, plunging it into war, are so well known, that but a re 
 capitulation of facts is necessary to clearly define and comprehend the 
 state of affairs at this moment. 
 
 Aware of the communication which the President of the Spanish 
 
20 
 
 Ministerial Council made to the Cortes on the llth of last month, like 
 wise of the circular dispatch of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Af 
 fairs, of the 7th inst. , published in the newspapers, and of the explanation 
 which Sefior Salazar had on the 8th inst. printed in the Mazaredo of 
 Madrid, explanatory of the Spanish Government having for months past 
 negotiated with Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern for the acceptance 
 of the crown of Spain, that these negotiations were directly made with 
 the Prince and his father, through the medium of Sefior Salazar, with 
 out participation and interference of any foreign government ; and, 
 furthermore, that it is known that finally the Prince decided upon ac 
 ceptance of the proffered crown. His Majesty the King of Prussia, 
 upon being made acquainted with this decision, concluded to let it pass, 
 the Prince being of age could do as he liked, the more readily so as 
 the Prince s father had given his consent to his son. Neither the For 
 eign Office of the North German Union nor the Government of the 
 King of Prussia knew anything at all about it. They first heard of it 
 through the telegram of the Paris Havas, of the third evening, reporting 
 that the Spanish Government had decided upon offering the crown of 
 Spain to Prince Leopold. On the 4th the French Charge D Affairs 
 presented himself at the Foreign Office. By order of his government 
 he was pained to state that this news had been very ill received at 
 Paris, authenticated, as it had proved to be, by Marshal Prim, and 
 asked whether Prussia was a party to it. Upon which the Secretary of, 
 State told him that it was no affair concerning the Prussian Govern 
 ment, nor Prussia in a position of explaining negotiations which might 
 have been made by or were pending between the President of the 
 Spanish Cortes and Prince Leopold. 
 
 " On the same day the Charge D Affairs of the North German Union 
 at Paris had an interview with the Duke of Grammont, relative to the 
 same subject, and in presence of Minister Olivier/ 
 
21 
 
 It becomes here necessary to throw into high relief the moral and 
 praiseworthy grounds and motives, upon which stands the executive 
 of the Spanish nation before the world, w r hen, seeing the republic 
 as yet impossible, the consequence of a criminal neglect of free 
 schools, it conferred upon a Prussian Prince the alternative of the 
 honor to accept the government over the people, the so-called crown 
 of Spain, as the best known guarantee to the Spanish nation for the 
 time being of a peaceable future and probably great national advan 
 tages. Therefore the French Government, in preventing the con 
 summation of such a laudable design, by allowing political reasons 
 and arbitrary actions to sway and impede the most noble impulses of 
 civilization: those of an indirect and sympathetic co-operation with 
 other nations besides their own in anxious strides towards national 
 prosperity in general laid bare a degree of officiousness and peevish 
 ness which will never stand the paltry excuse for self-preservation; 
 on the contrary, does demonstrate a fund of jealousy highly compli 
 mentary to Prussia, especially after the battle of Sadowa, and still 
 more so by the remembrance of the Prussian Government of not hav 
 ing remonstrated with France at the time when one of the French 
 Princes became the son-in-law of the King of Italy and brother-in-law 
 to the Queen of Portugal. 
 
 Fortunately for FAirope, with its many warlike nations densely peo 
 pled and all votaries to past feudal glories of strife civilization has 
 comparatively of late astoundingly advanced in appliances and devel 
 opments of arts and sciences for the purpose of destroying the oppor 
 tunity that war, with all its exploits of personal bravery in self- 
 defense, is affected to such an extent as to reduce that virtue, called 
 personal courage to a mere reliance upon skill and strategy to butcher 
 in bulk. The present war, of but seven months duration, proves 
 that a climax in the art of killing has about been reached, and by it 
 the domineering power of France over Europe transferred to the 
 cool prowess, practiced scholarship, and compact strength of Ger 
 many. Peace thus shielded by Germany, is now sure to the warlike 
 millions of Europe. Germany will henceforth be to Europe what the 
 Atlantic is to America: the safeguard against aggression. As long as 
 monarchical surveillance shall be necessary among nations unfit to 
 govern themselves, Germany is the country which knows how to 
 guard peace from without and within. It will stand between and 
 pacify Great Britain and Russia. Having taken the place of France 
 in the balance of power in Europe, it will for many reasons always 
 be listened to as a mediator. Therein successful, Germany is synony 
 mous of peace it is the guarantee for future peace to Europe. As 
 to tiny other cloud arising at any future time upon the political hori 
 zon of Europe, it will give but weather lightning! 
 
22 
 
 Keturning to the interview which the Charge d Affaires of the North 
 German Union had with the Duke of Grammont relative to the Span 
 ish crown question, and in presence of Minister Ollivier, it is stated 
 that the French Minister of State was 011 that occasion likewise cha 
 grined at the general news. Public opinion, he averred, would pro 
 nounce against it; a transaction of so grave an importance having 
 been held so profoundly secret by both Spain and Prussia, and now 
 having been made public, it could not possibly be otherwise inferred 
 but that France had been intentionally slighted. The main point at 
 issue being indeed the most immaterial one, whether the Prussian 
 Government were at all initiated into the affair or not, considering 
 the magnitude of consequences as bound to issue from these pro 
 ceedings. Should, therefore, the event really take place, peace would 
 be seriously jeopardized. It therefore were highly advisable to 
 appeal to the wisdom of the King of Prussia to withhold his approval 
 of said combination, now that he was aware that as a secret it could 
 serve no longer. The French Minister then considered it a happy 
 omen that, it so happened tha,t, Baron Werther being about to set out 
 for Ems, could report to the king the irksome effect this affair had 
 made in Paris, at the same time enabling Baron Werther of telegraph 
 ing at an early convenience to the French Minister any important 
 decision arrived at in regard to and of a pacific nature to the subject. 
 Baron Werther left Paris on the fifth. On the day of the departure 
 of Count Benedetti Mr. Cochery brought the Spanish question 
 before the legislative body, but already the day after, a space of time 
 far too brief for the reception of any return news from Ems, the 
 Duke of Grarnmont responded to the interpellation of Mr. Cochery. 
 The Duke s answer, of course, avowed the impossibility of knowing- 
 particulars in regard to the matter, yet he declared that with due 
 regard for Spain as a friendly neighboring nation , and respect for her 
 sovereign right as to her conducting State affairs unmolestedly by any 
 other nation, he, notwithstanding, could not suffer a foreign power to 
 interfere by placing one of her princes upon the throne of Charles V. 
 The consequences would be not only detrimental to the interests of 
 France, but would disturb the balance of power in Europe. Upon 
 this statement having become public, it could not be expected of the 
 Charge d Affaires of the North German Union, who intended to com 
 municate with the Duke, that he should transmit to him any dis 
 patches at all. Instead of which he informed the German Embassy at 
 Paris of it on the ninth, and exactly alike in substance to what the 
 Prussian Government had on the fourth rendered in extent of informa 
 tion to the French Charge d Affaires at Berlin. It amounted to this, 
 that the Spanish throne question did not effect the political relations 
 between Spain and Germany, but concerned Spain alone, as far as 
 
23 
 
 the nature of the candidature for her throne had made it needful for 
 the Government of that country to go outside and fill it there. Thus, 
 in reality, it was only nominally an international affair, but practically 
 of importance only to none but the candidate himself. It was further 
 stated that Marshal Prim had these negotiations privately undertaken 
 without participation by the Prussian Government, and had directly 
 conferred with Prince Leopold, the King of Prussia not having been 
 found willing, out of respect for the will of the Spanish nation, to 
 influence the acceptance of the offer by a German prince. 
 
 In the meantime the French Government ordered the representative 
 at Berlin, who happened to be on furlough at Wildbad, to repair to 
 Ems. On the ninth the King of Prussia received Count Benedetti, 
 although the circumstance of meeting at a watering place implied a 
 desire on the part of the venerable King of at least not having to be too 
 lengthity engaged in matters of State. The information which Count 
 Benedetti then and there transmitted to the King of Prussia agreed 
 with what the Duke of Grammont had communicated to Baron von 
 Werther upon the same subject, amounting in substance to an appeal 
 to the wisdom of the King not to sanction the acceptance of the Span 
 ish crown by Prince Leopold a decision of such moment in the 
 opinion of the French Government that it would be enough for 
 Europe to thereby regain its quietude. Upon which the Count was 
 diametrically given to understand, that the disquietude existing in 
 Europe had not been created by Prussia, nor was the Prussian Gov 
 ernment to be blamed for it, but might at once be successfully traced 
 into the inaccessible altitude of the legislative body of France. The 
 troubles which the Spanish throne question had thus unnecessarily 
 brought about, sprung from there. The volume of criticisms which 
 had issued forth had, in its rapid course, submerged Europe, and 
 endangered the peace of the world by its torrent of tribulations and 
 anticipations of all sorts of hallucinations, and predictions of disas 
 trous consequences, His (the King s) position as head of the family 
 of Hohenzollern, was exclusively and naturally one of a domestic 
 character, admitting of no control over the sovereign will of any of 
 its members in regard to the actions of a prince. As to affairs of 
 State, those stood entirely unconnected with matters of personal 
 interest. Neither the Prince and the Prince s father had by him been 
 interfered with, nor the honor of the acceptance of the Crown of 
 Spain by Prince Leopold been made the basis for private speculation 
 on the part of the royal house of Prussia. 
 
 On the twelfth instant Prince Leopold declined the candidature. 
 The Prussian Government received the first tidings of this important 
 step from Paris. It so happened that Baron von Werther having left 
 Ems for Paris on the eleventh, and arriving the next day, was present 
 
24 
 
 at an interview which the Spanish Ambassador there had with the 
 Duke of Grammont, upon which occasion the telegram had been pro 
 duced which Prince Leopold had sent, transmitting his decision 
 declining the honor. Upon another occasion, later in the day, the 
 Duke of Grammont remarked to Baron von Werther that, after all, 
 the refusal of Prince Leopold was but of accessory consequence, inas 
 much as France would anyhow not have permitted the Prince to ascend 
 the throne of Spain at the same time laying great stress upon the 
 slight inventively conceived to have been received at the hands of the 
 King of Prussia, in having at all granted to the Prince the alternative 
 of the acceptance of so important an offer without first consulting 
 France in regard to it. However, the Duke appeared satisfied with 
 the King of Prussia s explanation of the affair, in a letter to Napoleon, 
 having said that in granting to Prince Leopold the alternative of the 
 acceptance of the Crown of Spain. he had not been of opinion that the 
 interests and dignity of France would thereby be necessarily affected. 
 Now that the Prince had declined of his own free will, he (the King 
 of Prussia) had, of course, acquiesced to the decision of the Prince. 
 
 The day following, at Ems, Count Benedetti, upon meeting the 
 King, requested a confirmation of the refusal as transmitted by the 
 Prince, and an assurance besides that, at no future time, an accept 
 ance of this candidature by a German prince should be sanctioned by 
 the King. From that clay Count Benedetti had no more interviews 
 with the King of Prussia. 
 
 How the Government of France could seriously view the acceptance 
 of the Crown of Spain by a German prince as positively dangerous to 
 France, moreover profess it as an affront to the French nation, 
 is inconceivable, otherwise than as a pretext for finding an excuse to 
 declare war, and for no other earthly purpose than to dim the light 
 of a rising star. All these subtilties and evasions serve as an evidence 
 of the culpable weakness of monarchial governments, in which the 
 nation is debarred by law from energetically interfering and uttering 
 at the right moment its powerful voice of disapproval, and of insisting 
 upon a peaceable settlement through the instrumentality of law and 
 the aid of diplomacy. 
 
 In the United States of America, such a case as was presented to 
 the world in the shape of the preliminaries to this war, would be 
 everywhere ridiculed. May be that boast is quite naturalthe whole 
 world could not invade America. The idea of succeeding in misling 
 a whole nation to shoulder arms within, so to say, a day or 
 two, betrays an ignorance on the part of all of the knowledge of 
 common occurrences of the day, which stamps the daily press of 
 France the tutor of the million as most deplorably deficient. The 
 most plausible reason for a war against a large foe in Europe, when 
 
25 
 
 by somebody advanced in Great Britain, is never listened to by the 
 nation until the Orkney Islands know as much about the legitimacy 
 of the impossibility to avoid it as the Prime Minister himself. But 
 England is in this respect altogether republican ; it differs but in 
 name ; her monarchs are but hereditary presidents, drawing heavy 
 salaries, though. As it is undoubted that the King of Prussia was 
 unofficially made acquainted with the negotiations pending betw r een 
 the Government of Spain and Prince Leopold ; it enjoined upon him 
 the condition of privacy when he heard of it. It being a- foreign 
 secret, officially affecting neither Prussia nor the North German 
 Union, its non-publicity by the King to the German nation at large 
 was decided upon as wise and proper. At the same time the King of 
 Prussia found it equally correct in the Spanish Government that it 
 should pursue its deliberations in search of a suitable candidate for 
 the Spanish throne, without hesitancy and compunction as to where 
 it should be pleased so to do, and the more independently, as the poli 
 tical position of Spain towards France invited this step, and in con 
 sideration, likewise, of certain personal amenities existing between 
 Napoleon and the Southern branch of the House of Hohenzollern. 
 As to the interests a Napoleonic dynasty could profess to have in a 
 Spanish national question, it confined itself to a vigilant guard against 
 the dreaded spread of republicanism or the organization of an Orleans 
 dynasty in a neighboring country ; but to view a secret correspond 
 ence regarding the honor of the acceptance of the Spanish Crown by 
 a German prince in the light of an intended affront by Prussia to the 
 French nation, was, indeed, as significant of personal ambition as it 
 was venturesome. Indeed it was too obvious that such rigor covered 
 the existence of an ulterior design hostile to the German nation, 
 as being not merely unwarrantable but altogether foreign to the inci 
 dent. If otherwise, all the French Government had to do in order to 
 ward off the troublesome coincidence, was to have addressed the King 
 of Prussia in a familiarly handsome manner upon the subject, pending 
 a satisfactory settlement in a diplomatic way, instead of which the 
 Napoleonic Government unhesitatingly rented the peace of Europe, 
 by the Duke of Gammont, in the legislative body of Paris, violently 
 calling the nation to war. To declare it, and upon so frivolous a pre 
 text as that of humbling the German nation, was, therefore, extremely 
 impolitic and full of surmises, especially when dispassionately consid 
 ered that the science of destroying human lives by tens of thousands 
 has reached its culminating climax to perfection, in producing woe 
 and misery to an unanswerable extent, and must end in victory 
 of republicanism over all moriarchial governments extant. A sensible 
 proceeding, if for no other purpose truly than of making peace inter- 
 
26 
 
 nationally and lawfully respected and abided in hereafter, viewing it 
 as the first necessity of civilization. 
 
 In order to S3 r stematically arrange all the causes which have led to 
 this memorable war, it is now necessary to produce the note which 
 Senor Sagasta, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, transmitted to the 
 various Spanish Ambassadors abroad, announcing the decision of the 
 Spanish Government to offer the crown of Spain to Prince Leopold. 
 It is worded as follows : 
 
 * Your Excellency have on previous occasions been made acquainted 
 11 with the important explanations which were transmitted to the Cor- 
 " tez on June the llth, by the President of the Cabinet. In confessing 
 " that the steps taken to find a suitable candidate -for the throne of 
 " Spain had been unsuccessful, he announced that he had received 
 "full power to continue his search to the best of his ability. He 
 had at first received this authorization from the Provisional Goverii- 
 " ment, then from the Executive Committee, and at last from the Re 
 gency. 
 
 1 Fortified with such power, Marshal Prim recommenced his diffi- 
 " cult mission in a discreet and secret manner, anticipating success, 
 " and hoping to give satisfaction to the nation at large. I have now 
 " the gratification of communicating to you, by order of the Spanish 
 " Government, that at a Cabinet meeting held at La Granja, on the 
 " fourth, and presided over by the Regent, Prince Leopold of Hohen- 
 " zollern Sigmaringen has been chosen and accepted as candidate for 
 " the throne of Spain. Public opinion having pronounced in favor 
 " of this Prince, the Government of Spain is hopeful that its candi- 
 " date will be joyously heralded by a large majority in the Cortes as 
 " King of Spain. The Provisional Government which began in 1868 
 " shall then close, 
 
 " Yesterday, as soon as it was possible to break silence, as until now 
 " demanded by discretion, I telegraphed to you the decision arrived 
 " at by the Government, which should best meet the approval of the 
 " Cortes, strictly mindful of the general constitutional law of the land, 
 " as well as of the rules which appertain to the choice of kings. In 
 " requesting of you to announce this event to the Government to 
 " which you are accredited, I alluded to its real and political im- 
 " portance and significancy as unconnected with international affairs, 
 " notwithstanding the great influence which it necessarily must exer- 
 " cise upon and disclose to the Spanish nation in future. 
 
 " The extraordinary situation of the nation, as created by the Sep- 
 " tember revolution, had been well maintained by the Provisional 
 " Government until the day when the Cortes decided upon monarchy. 
 " From that day, however, the Provisional Government became a 
 1 danger, because the wishes of the Spanish people as containing 
 
27 
 
 " their preference had not then been realized by facts. Should, 
 " therefore, the Government not find means and ways of realizing this 
 " idea, her enemies would speedily gain ground and harass it by 
 " unreasonable expectations of every sort. But these difficulties have 
 " been obviated, thanks to the efforts made by the majority of the 
 "people, and by the Government a rare occurrence, indeed, in any 
 " civilized nation of having been able, under similarly trying circum- 
 " stances, to maintain peace over two years. At last public opinion 
 " at home and abroad loudly demanded a radical change. 
 
 " In the interior of Spain the desire to crown the work of the revo 
 lution became great, while in foreign countries, befriended with 
 " Spain, the same wishes were expressed. The world required a 
 " guarantee for a permanent peace, as your Excellency has had fre- 
 " quent opportunities of ascertaining. 
 
 " This very success of which I have made mention affords the 
 " Spanish Government to-day an opportunity of communicating 
 " through your Excellency to the Government of * * *, and 
 " which gratifying news I doubt not will be cordially received. Both 
 " countries, indeed, reciprocate a feeling of sincere friendship, ani- 
 " mated by expectations and wishes for its permanent continuancy. 
 " The present Government of Spain has always exerted itself in its 
 " foreign relations to merit public opinion, and benefit the Spanish 
 
 o 
 
 "nation. 
 
 " Should Prince Leopold be chosen to ascend the throne of Spain, 
 " upon the vote of the Cortes, as alone invested by the people with 
 " sovereign power to decide upon a prince s choice, and declare him 
 " King, then shall he represent a constitution the most democratically 
 " liberal of any ever possessed of by us or by any other nation so and 
 " similarly governed. Although he is a foreigner, about to occupy 
 " the highest position in the gift of the nation, his Government will 
 * have less difficulty in obeying public opinion than might be inferred 
 " from the strange fact of he being a foreigner. From the day he 
 " does ascend the throne of San Fernando he shall be considered a 
 " Spaniard, and in a truly Spanish manner shall he continue to 
 " strengthen the great achievements of the September revolution. 
 " His energies shall be principally directed towards a complete regen- 
 " eracy of the nation in her internal organization in all national 
 " points of view, while externally he shall observe the strictest neu- 
 " trali tv in all international relationships, and shall thus be enabled 
 " to devote all his studious efforts to the advancement of the moral 
 " and material interests of the country, in order that through him the 
 " object may be attained of making Spain prosper. In this sense it is 
 justifiable that the Government of the Regent, free to direct its 
 " steps according to discretion, has acted in this matter upon its own 
 
28 
 
 " responsibility, and addressed Prince Leopold directly, nor reflected 
 " an instant upon it being honorable to avoid every influence from a 
 foreign Cabinet. I beg leave to direct your Excellency s special 
 c attention to this point, as much depends upon it being reliably 
 known that the Government of the Regent has acted upon its own discretion 
 " in furthering this plan, and so that it maybe thoroughly understood 
 " that no national interest abroad, far less a foreign interest, has actu- 
 " ated the Government in pursuance of these negotiations. 
 
 "Nothing but the desire to grant the wishes of the nation, and to 
 " fulfill the mission which the Regent and the Cabinet Ministers had 
 " delineated, has prompted him to address a prince duly of age, and 
 " related to most of the reigning families in Europe, at the same time 
 1 standing in 110 direct lineage of becoming the recipient of a special 
 " crown, therefore free to accept and to become the possessor of the 
 " one of Spain; a point of importance to the Spanish nation, that it 
 might at all times feel secure against hostilities from foreign powers 
 " upon dynastical ground. 
 
 " Thus the candidature of the Prince of Hohenzollern Signiaringen 
 " interferes in no wise with the friendly relations which Spain enjoys 
 " reciprocatedly abroad, nor can and should affect the interests of 
 " other reigning families as dynastically allied. As your Excellency 
 is now assured of the intentions which animated the Government to 
 " decide upon this candidature, which shall be duly laid before the 
 lt Cortes for acceptance, your Excellency will be able to act in con- 
 " formity with the motives which have led to these intentions and 
 " ultimate actions whenever an opportunity should present itself of 
 " explaining this event at the court to which you are accredited. I 
 " hold myself before hand convinced that your Excellency will zeal- 
 " ously convey the exact meaning of the purposes in view which have 
 " instigated the actions of the Government of his Highness. 
 
 " Please read this dispatch to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and 
 " then hand him a written copy. May God preserve your Excellency 
 " many years. 
 
 (Signed) " PKAKEDES M. SAGASTA. 
 
 "MADRID, 7th July, 1870." 
 
 Upon this document now follows the answer which the Duke of 
 Grammont gave, July Oth, in the legislative body at Paris, upon the 
 interpellation of Mr. Cochery : 
 
 The Duke replied that " Marshal Prim had offered the Crown of 
 " Spain to the Prince of Hohenzollern, and that the Prince had 
 1 accepted the same. The Spanish people, however, had not expressed 
 " themselves upon that point. The French Government was not 
 " acquainted with the respective negotiations, and he (the Duke) 
 
29 
 
 " thought best of adjourning the discussion upon this topic as alto- 
 " gether deficient in particulars in order to correctly judge in the 
 matter. The Government would continue its neutrality, but would 
 " not suffer a foreign power in placing one of her princes upon the 
 " throne of Spain, and thus trespass upon the honor and dignity of 
 " France. The French Government had confidence in the wisdom of 
 " the German, and the friendship of the Spanish people. Should it be 
 " disappointed, it would know its duty without delay and weakness." 
 
 This speech was much applauded by the majority in the House, and 
 commented upon, on the fifteenth of July, by Mr. Ollivier, viz. : 
 
 " The mode and manner in which you have received the explana- 
 " tions as rendered on the sixth of July, assures us positively that 
 " you sanction our policy, and that we could be sure of your assist- 
 " ance in case of emergency. We, hereupon, entered into negotia- 
 " tions with foreign powers, inviting them as mediators for the purpose 
 " of convincing Prussia of the legitimacy of our complaints. We 
 " have not required anything from Spain; the sensitiveness of her 
 "people we had no desire to evoke. We have not negotiated with 
 " the Prince of Hohenzollern, because we considered that Prince 
 " under the tutillage of the King of Prussia. We have abstained 
 (t from commingling complaints over other matters with this particu- 
 " lar affair. The majority of foreign powers approve more or less of 
 " the justice of our complaint ! 
 
 The Prime Minister of Prussia has responded that he c knew nothing 
 " of this affair, nor would the Cabinet of Berlin become cognizant of 
 " it. We then addressed the King. The King avowing that he 
 " had authorized the Prince of Hohenzollern to use his own judgment 
 " in accepting the Crown of Spain, declared that he was not acquainted 
 " with the particulars of the negotiations as pending between the 
 " Prince of Hohenzollern and Spain, he having acted in this mat- 
 " ter as head of the family, and not as Sovereign. The King of 
 " Prussia, moreover, has mentioned that this affair had by him been 
 * turned over to Count Bismarck. We could not accept this answer 
 " as satisfactory ; we could not admit such delicate distinctions be- 
 " tween head of a family and head of a nation/ In the meantime 
 " we received from the Spanish Ambassador the news of the refusal 
 " of the Prince of Hohenzollern. It came unexpectedly, and from a 
 " direction which we had not anticipated. This happened on the 
 " twelfth of July, while our correspondence was going on with 
 " Prussia. 
 
 "We insisted that the King should second the refusal ; that he 
 " should pledge himself not to give his sanction of the acceptance of 
 " the Crown of Spain by a prince of Hohenzollern, should it at any 
 " future time be again offered. Our demand was in itself moderate, 
 
30 
 
 " and couched in an equally decorous language. We then wrote to 
 " Benedetti he might reiterate that we kept nothing under disguise, 
 " nor were searching for pretexts. The King refusing to grant this 
 " demand, told Count Benedetti that in this matter he preferred 
 " keeping his own counsel, as well as on all similar occasions, as cir- 
 <( cumstances might arise which demanded full liberty of thought and 
 " action on his part. 
 
 "Notwithstanding, and out of sheer love of peace, we did not 
 "break off negotiation. In proportion to our forbearance, was our 
 surprise great, when we heard yesterday that the King had officially 
 "refused an audience of Benedetti which news had come over 
 " from the Prussian Government. At the same time, we received in- 
 " formation that the Prussian Ambassador, von Werther, had been 
 " recalled, and that Prussia was arming. Under such circumstances 
 " it would have been remiss, undignified, and forgetful of duty, on 
 " our part, not to have made preparation for war. We have pre- 
 " pared ourselves to accept the challenge, leaving everybody his due 
 " part to enact, and responsibility to answer for; we have since yester- 
 " day called in the reserves and taken measures for the protection 
 " of the interests, the security, and the honor of France." 
 
 The conduct of Count Benedetti is best seen from the lucid de 
 scription of the occurrence, and enables history to infer who really 
 was the aggrieved party. 
 
 Count Benedetti solicited on the 9th of July, in Ems, an audience 
 of the King of Prussia, which was immediately granted. During 
 this interview Count Benedetti demanded that the King should com 
 mand the Prince of Hohenzollern to withdraw his acceptance of the 
 Spanish crown. The King replied that as far as this affair had devel 
 oped itself, he having been applied to as head of the family, and not 
 as King, he had not commanded the Prince 1 to accept the candidature 
 for the Spanish throne, nor could he now command the Prince to 
 withdraw from the same. On the llth following, Count Benedetti 
 requested and was granted, a second audience, during which, he 
 rather pressed compliance with his demands. The King replied that 
 the Prince being of age, knew himself what course to pursue without 
 his, the King s, interference. Besides, he knew not even the where 
 abouts of the Prince at present, as he had been known of late to travel 
 among the Alps. , 
 
 On the 13th, on the Esplanade at Ems, the King handed Count 
 Benedetti an extra from the Cologne Gazette, just received, containing 
 a telegram from Sigmaringen, in which the Prince, upon his own free 
 will, refused acceptance of the Crown of Spain, and mentioned to the 
 Count, at the same time, that not even he himself had received a 
 communication on the subject from the Prince, although, of course, 
 
\ B R A R y 
 
 OF THF 
 
 31 I UNTV 
 
 . ?* 
 
 due during the day. Count Benedetti hereupon replied that he had 
 
 known it already, the night previously, direct from Paris. The King 
 now thought the matter satisfactorily settled. To his astonishment, 
 Count Benedetti demanded of the King that he should distinctly de 
 clare himself unwilling, at any future time, to grant a similar permis 
 sion. This the King flatly refused, and remained firm, although 
 again and again importuned upon the same subject. Now Count 
 Benedetti requested a third audience. Upon being asked by an aid- 
 de-camp what he had of so much importance to communicate, he 
 answered that he wished to have the honor of conversing upon the 
 same topic as in the morning. The King refused the audience, send 
 ing him word that he had no other answer to give, and referred the 
 Count to the Government at Berlin for further views upon the sub 
 ject. Count Benedetti, wishing to leave Ems, expressed a desire to 
 pay a last visit to the King, which was granted, the King receiving 
 him at the railway station, before the train started for Coblenz. 
 
 From this minute description of the manner of Count Benedetti, in 
 this affair, it might be inferred that he acted under instructions from the 
 French Government, disguising two set purposes: the one, to either 
 compromise the King in the eyes of all Germany and Europe, should 
 he have acceded to their demands ; or, the other, the more likely, 
 upon refusal of their compromising demands, incense the King of 
 Prussia to such a degree that the French Government might therefrom 
 weave the textile fabric of a casus belli. 
 
 That there was a way of guarding dignity and right, and maintain 
 both without having resort to war, appears to have been of unfath 
 omable depth in the minds of French statesmen, or maybe, that they 
 considered such a possibility too unreal. Compared with them, how 
 different the noble and dignified bearing of King William in this 
 matter; that military, so amiable as a gentleman, not merely baffled 
 the vileness of the snare laid for him to entrap himself in, but made 
 it serve him in convincing the entire German nation that the intent of 
 the insult received, was not for himself, but for the German Union. 
 When it became known how he had resented that imputation, then 
 the whole nation applauded him, and threw back with terrible vigor 
 the attempt at disturbing the peace of Europe upon frivolous pretexts. 
 From the manner in which the Duke of Grammont had answered the 
 interpellation of Mr. Cochery, and Count Benedetti conducted his mis 
 sion, there could be no further doubt as to their intention of forcing 
 a war. The peevish manner in which the Duke of Grammont had 
 received the news of the refusal of the Prince of Hohenzollern, cor 
 roborated it to a certainty. Another proof may be found in the fol 
 lowing expose of Monsieur Ollivier: 
 
 The Duke of Grammont having declared in a conversation he had 
 
32 
 
 6 
 
 with Lord Lyons, the English Ambassador at Paris, that the refusal 
 of the Prince Hohenzollern would smooth matters entirety in regard 
 to the Spanish question the London Cabinet at once endeavored to 
 bring about a verity of the settlement. When subsequently the de 
 sired non-acceptance had been obtained, instead of expressing him 
 self satisfied, he declared to the English Embassador that it was very 
 perplexing. On the one side public opinion was so aghast that he 
 doubted very much that the Government could maintain itself beyond 
 the morrow, if he should say the affair was satisfactorily settled, 
 unless more satisfaction could be obtained from Prussia and produced. 
 The very refusal of the Prince should here have ended the origin of 
 the dispute, and settled the affair de facto; instead of which, the pro 
 gramme of war was completely rehearsed by France. 
 
 As to Spain, it could no longer be drawn into the quarrel should it 
 come to war, as France and Prussia now only were concerned. The 
 English Ambassador remonstrating with the Duke, the latter evasively 
 said, that everything depended now upon the conclusion to be arrived 
 at to-morrow, the 13th of July, at a Cabinet meeting, presided over 
 by the Emperor, and which decision would at once be handed over to 
 the Legislative body, and he be unable to communicate to him. It 
 appears, however, that in the sitting referred to, no resolutions were 
 arrived at, for the Duke of Grammont had to announce to the Legis 
 lative body: " that the negotiations which we continue with Prussia, 
 " and which at no time embraced another point, have not, as yet, 
 "been concluded." 
 
 To the Ambassador of the North German Union, Baron von 
 Werther, the Duke of Grammont unburdened himself, on the 12th of 
 July, without restraint. The refusal of the Prince of Hohenzollern 
 he considered, as before stated, of very little importance, inasmuch 
 as the French Government would have anyhow prevented his ascen 
 sion to the throne of Spain; it was the secret manner in which it had 
 been done, which had vexed him, and he feared would create an ill 
 feeling between the two nations. Moreover, he actually demanded 
 a letter from the King apologizing to the Emperor; proposed contents; 
 in short, became so ludicrous, and at the same time autocratic, as to 
 make one think that he had suddenly transplanted himself into the 
 days of Louis XIV. The expose of Minister Ollivier on the 15th of 
 July, the day on which the French declared war against Germany, 
 was no less peremptory. Introducing the subject, he said: "We 
 (( have not required anything of Spain, nor are willing to touch the sen- 
 " sibilities of the Spanish nation. Then in regard to the permission 
 " given by King William to the frincc to use his own judgment in ac- 
 " cepting the crown, and to the demand made by France to withdraw 
 "that permission, he said: "We could not receive the answer as 
 
33 
 
 " satisfactory, it being too subtle a distinction for us to acquiesce 
 " to father of the family and father of the nation," which plainly 
 proves, inasmuch as the distinction between one and the other is not at 
 all subtle, or could not be readily acquiesced to, that Napoleon 
 wanted war at all hazards. 
 
 Throwing all the blame for the war upon Prussia, because the King 
 had not received Benedetti, that "the Prussian Ambassador had been 
 " recalled, and Prussia was arming," Ollivier wound up by saying : 
 " We are prepared to accept the war which is offered to us." Upon 
 which the Germans answered the French as did the Komans the Car- 
 thagenians : "You will have war well, war you shall have !" 
 
 3 
 
PART THE SECOND. 
 
 NAPOLEON S C A L C U L A T IONS, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 OIF 
 
 When Napoleon had decided upon war against Prussia and its 
 probable allies, four years had elapsed during which time he had 
 prepared for it. He had minutely weighed his resources and those 
 of his antagonists, considered and reconsidered the alliances which 
 might possibly be his ; in short, thought of having omitted nothing 
 which might debar him of success. 
 
 In the first instance he counted upon the enthusiastic and excitable 
 nature of the French people. He thought the very chance offered to 
 regain the so-called c natural " boundary of France should add new 
 glory and new honors to the "great nation" of Europe, wipe out 
 the blots of Leipzig, Waterloo and Sadowa, and secure still more last 
 ingly the ambition of France to be the guardian of Europe; all these 
 points he thought would silence the various factions in the country, 
 inimical to, and endangering his dynasty, and would bring back to 
 him the army in admiration and devotion, without which, he well 
 knew he could not guard his throne against the republicans. 
 
 In this he was mistaken. The France of 1870 was not the France 
 in the sense of the first Napoleonic empire, the less so as he had not 
 the power the first Napoleon wielded, which, however, was necessary 
 to convince all parties of the intelligence of his grand idea, and of 
 the justice of the cause, for which the war should be fought and lives 
 and property risked and staked. Instead of which, factions in 
 creased, stormy debates in the Legislative body became frequent, the 
 demand arose for him to abdicate, without desire, "in favor of his 
 son," as the latter was not even mentioned. Of course this demand 
 originated with the Eepublicans, but the Orleaiii^ts were equally de 
 monstrative, although silent upon their aim. This in their stead did 
 the Empress Eugenie, who openly said that Napoleon s fall would in 
 stall the Orleans. From the ranks of the army it was occasionally 
 
35 
 
 predicted that even the outbreak of war would not better Napoleon s 
 position. A French officer, later in captivity, said to a German: 
 11 Oh, you and your army know well what you fight for; you go to 
 "war to carry out a fixed idea; but we fight to gratify the whims and 
 "caprices of two ladies. He meant the Empress Eugenie and the 
 " Ex-Queen Isabella of Spain." 
 
 The second consideration of Napoleon comprised the dissensions 
 which jealousy created among the many German sovereigns and vari 
 ous political factions. He had assiduously exerted himself to find 
 out the exact truth in regard to it, which has become well known 
 through the French Embassy at Stuttgart in Wurtemberg, which 
 propounded 41 questions on the subject, as follows, which proves 
 his Napoleonic designs: 
 
 1. How were the parties situated in Wurtemberg previously to the 
 war of 1866 ? 
 
 2. What changes have the events of 1866 produced in these parties. 
 
 3. How strong is the Democratic party; how strong the Catholic; 
 how strong the Prussian or Union; how strong the Anti-Prussian or 
 Conservative party ? 
 
 4. Yv^hich is their modus operandi of gaining strength ? Who are 
 the leaders among these parties, who are the most influential persons ? 
 What newspapers have they got ? 
 
 5. Which party has gained the most popularity and has the best 
 auspices jt or future success ? 
 
 6. What are the views of the various classes of society? 
 
 7. Is the dynasty popular ? Has it a party of its own? Would 
 these risk everything to defend it ? 
 
 8 Are there any political events of note which have transpired 
 since 1866 ? 
 
 9. What are their principle laws, duly passed by both Houses ? 
 
 10. How do the parties in the first House confront each other since 
 the war ? How in the second House ? 
 
 11. What effect has the new army organization had upon the peo 
 ple ? What the duty 011 tobacco ? on salt ? and what views in regard 
 to the loan ? 
 
 12. How do the people like the new law of election? and how do 
 they regard universal suffrage ? 
 
 13. What will be the effect of it in future ? 
 
 14. What is the opinion of the people in regard to the organization 
 of the army ? and in how far has it been successful ? 
 
 15. What is the situation of Wurtemberg in point of advance in 
 industry and commerce ? 
 
 16. What effect have the late events had upon commerce and 
 industry ? 
 
36 
 
 17. Has general prosperity increased ? 
 
 18. What is the amount of the annual value of their exports at 
 present ? and of their imports ? 
 
 19. What effect have the events of 1866 had on Change ? 
 
 20. The most important event of the last two years is the tariff dis 
 cussion. What do the people think and say of it ? Do they predict 
 for it a future ? 
 
 21 . What is the cause of the defeat of the Prussian party during 
 the tariff elections ? 
 
 22. Why did they not succeed in a Southern German Union ? 
 
 23. What creates the jealousy among the Southern German States ? 
 (divise ?) 
 
 24. Are the material interests of the South such as to be hazarded 
 by a formation of a Southern Union ? 
 
 25. Are the general interests of the South identically those of the 
 North ? Can these at all be separated? What are these interests ? 
 
 26. Are there not affiliations of reciprocated interests between South 
 Germany and Austria. 
 
 27. Could it not be made at all possible to create a vast commerce 
 between the East and the West : between South Germany and the 
 countries bordering on the Adriatic ? 
 
 28. What is the Prussian policy in regard to the Southern German 
 States ? 
 
 29. Has it abandoned the idea of the Union of Germany ? 
 
 30. Why does Austria not try to regain its influence in South 
 Germany ? 
 
 31. What policy does the present Government in Wurteinberg pur 
 sue ? What is its position towards the other parties ? Towards Prus 
 sia ? towards Austria ? 
 
 32. Does it regret the alliance, offensive and defensive, with Prussia ? 
 
 33. In case of war would Wurtemberg be an ally of Prussia ? 
 
 34. In case of war with Prussia would France find allies in the 
 South of Germany ? 
 
 35. Is the devotion of the Wurtemberg army great? 
 
 36. Why does the Wurtemberg Government persist in prussianiz- 
 ing (prussiaiiiser) her army still more ? 
 
 37. Does the Government seek entrance into the North German 
 Union ? 
 
 38. What are the political views and general tendencies of the 
 principle members of the Cabinet ? 
 
 39. What political influence does Queen Olga enjoy ? 
 
 40. Does Russia befriend and assist Wurtemberg ? 
 
 41. As matters now stand, can this state of affairs last? Does it 
 lead to some non-chimerical predictions in future ? 
 
37 
 
 Upon these forty-one and other similar queries, the respective 
 French charge d affaires, must have answered, more or less, suitable 
 to the plans of the Parisian Cabinet. With how great a certainty the 
 French Government counted upon the alliance of the South German 
 States with France, in case of war with Prussia, and upon what mo 
 tives it thought the various South German Governments would be 
 thereto prompted, may be partially seen from the ebullition of temper 
 which Count Moosburg, French charge d affaires atCarlsruhe, Baden, 
 gave vent to, in a fit of diplomatic indiscretion, when, hearing of a decla- 
 atioii of war by Bavaria to France, he finally ejaculated : 
 " cannot understand it : The Emperor Napoleon meant it well with 
 " the King of Bavaria, and intended to assist him in enlarging the 
 " boundaries of his Kingdom." This episode shows, more than any 
 thing, the want of penetration on the part of the French agents in 
 correctly fathoming public opinion, and the advanced and enlightened 
 patriotism of Germany, as it had of late matured: mainly owing to 
 free and good public schools, and the influence every where in Europe, 
 and especially in. Germany, from the United States of America, as 
 the model of nations, in which, above all other proofs of civilization, 
 the National Union is sacredly revered and defended by the people as 
 an imperishable bulwark of solid and invulnerable strength. 
 
 Entirely owing to incorrect views upon progress in Germany, the 
 French Cabinet was lulled into the belief that the same animosity ex 
 isted among the German Princes, which facilitated the military achiev- 
 ments of the First Napoleon there, and, consequently now would those 
 of Napoleon III. The Parisians, far too exclusive citizens, seldom 
 going outside of beautiful France, nor the reminiscences of her past 
 glory, thought little of Germany from 1813 up to 1848; somewhat 
 more since 1864 and 1866, until now, when enlightenment upon the 
 general progress of the world forces itself upon them in rather an ec- 
 lataiit manner. Another misguidance was, that the French Govern 
 ment thought the newly acquired provinces of Prussia maintained still 
 a traditionally barbarous idolatry of discontent and envy among 
 themselves. The belief originated from Hietzing, where it was taken 
 for granted that the Hamioveriaiis, the Nassau people, the Hessians, 
 the people of Schleswig-Holsteiii, and the citizens of Frankfort-on- 
 the-Maiii would hail with delight the victorious French armies, and 
 would be found anxious to free themselves from the nick-named 
 "Prussian Yoke." This additionally tended to encourage the 
 French Government in expecting success without adequate efforts; in 
 short, to see the days of the first Empire repeated, culminating in the 
 dictating of peace at and from Konigsberg, and. similar hallucinations. 
 Then again, Napoleon III relied upon Denmark and Austria as his 
 allies the moment war should be declared. He considered both as 
 
38 
 
 naturally allied to his cause, as they were hereditary enemies of Prus 
 sia, falling short, however, in his reckoning by not reflecting upon 
 the situation in which both Denmark and Austria were placed. He 
 anticipated some diversion on their part, advantageous to French 
 arms, but never anticipated they would not tight. Denmark, he 
 thought, might have ventured it by risking the fortunes of war, 
 although, alone, it was too weak, and the aid which France could so 
 give, confined to naval attacks only. Neither had Sweden an interest 
 in so doing; by becoming an ally of Denmark in a war with Prussia 
 setting aside the probability that in rotation Russia would have 
 attacked Sweden. 
 
 Both Sweden, as well as Denmark, were therefore forced to remain 
 neutral, unless the latter had been indiscreet enough in taking a 
 course by which it would have risked its very existence. 
 
 Of Austria it was supposed an alliance with France might be ex 
 pected; but the internal condition of that country, at that time, kept 
 a strain upon its ability to do so. Besides the Austrian German pro 
 vinces always stand by Germany. As to Hungary, it did not even 
 listen to an alliance, as Russia might have found a pretext for uncere 
 moniously absorbing Galicia. Nor had Austria recovered from the 
 shock of 1866 ; her army was not prepared to front an antagonist, 
 well armed and but lately victorious ; her treasury was likewise not 
 sufficiently encouraging to undertake a war against Prussia ; and as 
 to internal dissensions respecting her crown lands, those were con 
 stant and alarming : in fact have gained an importance that the pros 
 perity of Austria is, through them, seriously retarded, and its free 
 dom of action paralized. 
 
 From these remarks it may be seen that Louis Napoleon was disap 
 pointed as to those aforesaid alliances. No less was he in error in 
 regard to the two great powers of Eurppe Great Britain and Rus 
 sia. England, he thought, might become his ally on account of 
 Hanover ; yet it was not so : England does not go to war frivolously 
 with civilized nations. And as to Russia, the Emperor of all the 
 Russias answered the French Embassador, upon being asked permis 
 sion to transmit the Czar s well wishes for the French arms, " My 
 wishes for France go by way of Germany." As to Italy, it remained 
 neutral because the people were found unanimously in favor of Ger 
 many, while the Government was in favor of France, a very danger 
 ous devise, indeed, to be abruptly disrespected. Even Turkey 
 remained neutral. 
 
 Great Britain and Russia, the two leading European powers, be 
 sides a united Germany and France, were found disinclined to declare 
 themselves enemies of Germany. 
 
39 
 
 Great Britain in thus regretting the still existing yet tiresome alli 
 ance with France, which had led to the treaty of Paris of the thirtieth 
 of March, 1856 nothing shorter than an epitaph upon the graves of 
 the Scottish Greys at Balaklawa, and others then and there uselessly 
 slain truly the bitter cup of a political blunder of not having allied 
 herself at the time with modest but substantial Prussia, kindred to her 
 in race and religion, instead of heterogenious, vain-glorious France, 
 unnatural to her feelings and traditions the sure precursor of the 
 natural consequence of such a mistake as "the thirteenth of March, 
 1871," plainly denominated the " Pontus boundary question ratified." 
 By whom? Russia and Turkey, and Germany, France, Austria, and 
 Italy. And where ? In London ! as it should have been done already, 
 in 1855, peaceably, instead of upon the Malakoff. 
 
 This great power remained passive during this terrible war of 1870. 
 She had no further desire to uphold a dynasty which she once was 
 most vigorously active in destroying, and regarded as forever banished 
 far into the broad bosom of the Atlantic, until suddenly and com 
 pletely beguiled by Gallia. England s Pitt, Fox, Canning, or the 
 later Palmerston, unfortunately no more, proud Albion was weak, 
 and yielded to the syren. But the English nation soon rued its 
 unheard of sentimentality when it saw arise, right opposite Ports 
 mouth, another s a friend s formidable Cherbourg, from which Na 
 poleon intended, after the programme of having conquered Germany, 
 to invade England. So she thought correctly better late than 
 never and stood aloof. Moreover, the shadow of old Blucher, and 
 others of Waterloo and Blenheim memory, during the period of this 
 war, having suddenly reappeared at Sadowa in the person of the 
 greatest strategist of this century, named " General Moltke," and 
 better informed by her own child than France was through Colonel 
 Stoffel, of the true and solid growth and strength of Germany in 
 enlightenment and moral courage, she felt the proper sympathy for 
 Germany, thought of sweet home of old England, was wise and 
 remained there, quietly watching her daughter and a little foster 
 ling across the Channel, to Ostend. In spite of Earl Granville s igno 
 ble remark, on the nineteenth of July, that the French would visit 
 Berlin in three weeks, the once staunch allies of Prussia at Waterloo, 
 the British nation, repudiated the idea, and respectfully begged leave 
 to be excused from believing any such or similar nonsense. The 
 British know why Prussia has to be a military nation why its stern 
 discipline. The interpellation of Disraeli s premising a secret under 
 standing between Russia and Prussia, as having existed anterior to the 
 war, was decidedly spiritualistic, and too infidel altogether, for a saga 
 cious and powerful nation like the English to be intimidated by. 
 Besides, Great Britain had internally changed very much, indeed, 
 
40 
 
 since her unnatural alliance with France, which has served Napoleon 
 in his phantastic designs at the expense of British lives in the Crimean 
 war, and England nothing whatever, because, neither Suez nor even 
 Constantinople are the keys to India, but Aden and Massowah only, 
 which it is not likely that all Europe will touch. As to entering 
 India via Persia, although feasible at various points, Persia first would 
 have to be conquered by Russia too remote a day to now expect its 
 consummation setting aside the ease with which Great Britain could 
 at all times land her armies on Persian soil via Herat in the North, as 
 well as via the Straits of Ormus in the South. 
 
 Routes like the Paropomisan Mountains, leading into the extreme 
 north of Afghanistan, through interminable deserts first, ere these are 
 reached on such an Hannibal adventure, are too impracticable to be 
 even thought of without railroads of infinite extent traversing the 
 dreary steppes of independent Turkey, and innumerable steamships 
 to be built on the Volga, and crossing the Caspian Sea towards the 
 South, before even the inhospitable mountains itselves shall come in 
 sight of by the Russians. 
 
 The powerful influence of England in Europe, as formerly wielded 
 by an ambitious aristocracy, requiring heavy sacrifices, but somewhat 
 recompensing the nation with their successes, is felt 110 longer. The 
 first Parliamentary reform bill forced the aristocracy to a division of 
 power with the gentry, upon which ensued the second Parliamentary 
 reform bill, which even now is but a few years old, and suits the people 
 so well, that, should Gladstone s bill pass concerning secret elections, 
 and waving of costs at elections, there can be no farther doubt of the 
 national party coming into power. With such a change it is no won 
 der that her international policy is materially altered, general interests 
 of humanity predominating with Manchester men, eschewing traditional 
 military glory. Instead of war diplomacy, free schools, versus gen 
 eral uncharitableness. None of the people censured the parties who 
 sold arms and ammunition to the French, although it increased the 
 misery and prolonged the agony of the inglorious ally of the Govern 
 ment, but solvent customers withal. Wise people all over the world 
 are in the habit of making a little something by the folly of others ; 
 in fact, are necessitated in the very face of civilization to counteract 
 a stagnated commerce and the robbing of a virtuous peace by accel 
 erating the end of war. It is one way, a new and very radical one, this 
 methodical killing by the ten thousand, which is bound to put a 
 stop to quarreling, outrooting wars altogether. It will serve as a pre 
 ventive, horrid as it is, until the blessed school book shall have 
 enlightened the million to feel its abhorrence, and so keenly as to 
 shun it as a barbarous way of settling difficulties, having made man to 
 man sufferable in daily social intercourse, amiable and law-abiding, 
 
41 
 
 In the hands of Germany, at least, the weapon of war is safe. A 
 hard task, though, to keep peace among two hundred and eighty mill 
 ions upon so small a ground as Europe, unless assisted in by the 
 working people, who form the millions and are the soldiers to be 
 killed, that they connect to denounce every war except leading to 
 republican independence. 
 
 Upon the pages of history the Anglo-French alliance is but a waste 
 of sixteen years ; to Great Britain, however, an everlasting lesson that 
 the power of civilization is vested in the Germanic race mainly, to which 
 she and her colonies America, and Germany belong. Their triumvirate 
 directs the intellectual and physical world, shields Christianity against 
 barbarism, worships God from the innermost soul, and gives readiest 
 access of free schools to the poorest of the poor, encircling and com 
 prising all. 
 
 Like the American Union succeeded in quieting the Rebellion, even 
 the French Republic has since execrated hers, so has Germany at 
 last succeeded in baffling the equivocal designs of past monarchical 
 France in regard to Southern Germany, and neither Great Britain nor 
 Russia shall ever regret their neutrality, which enabled the Southern 
 German States to appreciate Prussia, and her disinterested national 
 policy. 
 
 As to Russia, the immediate and formidable neighbor of Germany, 
 it was natural that Prussia should have been anxious to secure her 
 neutrality by expressing a willingness to assist in pushing aside the 
 Pontus treat}% so humiliating to not only the Czar, but the entire Rus 
 sian nation. But of a further understanding than this, between the 
 two nations history has no clue. Russia s policy in regard to Ger 
 many has been quite logical. Her boundaries on the Baltic are not 
 sufficiently wide, although she succeeded during the last century in 
 conquering from Sweden several provinces, which annihilated the 
 supremacy of the Swedes upon the Baltic; yet she was not sure 
 of Germany uniting with Denmark for the purpose of blockading 
 the Baltic so as to hinder her free egress. As long as Germany was 
 disunited, it of course was impossible; the several single German 
 States, even when united with Denmark, would not have been able to 
 cope with Russia. On the other side, Denmark could not possibly 
 have pursued an anti-Russian policy and united with one or the other 
 of the German States as long as in possession of Schleswig and Hoi- 
 stein, which necessitated her intention to embrace an anti-German 
 policy, in which she relied upon Russia to assist her in securing pos 
 session. 
 
 Russia, like France, uncharitably trusting in the disunion of Ger 
 many, thought Schleswig and Holstein, an integral part of Denmark, 
 the German provinces of Russia, Russian; Hanover, English ; The 
 
42 
 
 Dutch, a distinct nation, Holland; the Flemish people, Belgium; and 
 Alsace and Lorraine, French; 14 millions Germans of the Austrian 
 empire of 34 millions population, Austrian leaving out Switzerland, 
 which stands aloof a republic. But Russia, when recovered from 
 the shock of 1812-15, had been perfectly absorbed until 1856 by the 
 attention she had to bestow upon the consequence of the war of lib 
 erty of the Greeks, and felt herself too weak to declare war against the 
 German Union without an ally, with the problematical issue in view 
 of becoming mistress of the Baltic. Therefore she abided by the 
 dictation of the Congress at Vienna, which , enabled her to serve as 
 umbrage to both Prussia and Austria. The war of 1863-64 against 
 Denmark by both Prussia and Austria, threw Russia, in common 
 with France, off the track. No nation comprehended the policy of 
 Prussia endeavoring to accomplish the German Union without Aus 
 tria. In the Austrian-Prussian war she hoped France would join 
 Austria, so that Russia joining Prussia, might after the war, together 
 with France, as being equally anxious to prevent the consummation of 
 the German Union, frame conditions detrimental to the cause of Ger 
 many. But France was engaged with Italy, and absorbed in the 
 reorganization of her own army, so that Russia was obliged, together 
 with all other nations, to observe the issue of the war without solic 
 ited interference. The interests of both nations, Russia and France, 
 collide the least of any in Europe. The war in the Crimea changed 
 somewhat this enteinte. Russia s war, in Palestine, with France, 
 assumed dimensions which did not suit France. Although careless as 
 to Russia s progress in Turkey, if satisfactorily recompensed, after 
 peace was declared at Paris-France was prevented by Great Britain, 
 the avowed antagonist of Russia, to ally herself more closely with 
 Russia. Thej battle of Sadowa, alarming both Russia and France, 
 these nations tried hard to seduce the Southern German States to 
 infidelity and unfaithfulness towards the Fatherland of the Germans, and 
 to strengthen Austria in her ancient Oerman policy. Suddenly France 
 declared war in 1870 against Prussia. Impatient, and not properly 
 prepared, though sufficiently informed by Colonel Stoffel of the mili 
 tary strength of the North German Union, it became evident that the 
 fash act itself emanated from Paris alone. The dynasty of Napoleon 
 waning, the nation nevertheless became clamorous for outside trans 
 actions. How Napoleon and the French nation were both doomed to 
 disappointment, history has shown. Russia not prepared and in 
 want of all communicative aid, remained neutral; an alliance with 
 France was by no means sure to lead to victory over Germany, so 
 that she should become sole mistress of the Baltic and gain France 
 over to her plans in the southeast of Europe. As one of the great 
 powers of Europe, Russia, like Great Britain, was fully aware that 
 
43 
 
 the victor in a German-French war would change the balance of 
 power in Europe. Yet, in a European war at large, her interests 
 seriously collided with those of Great Britain, and knowing that Ger 
 many was anxious to fight it out alone with France, while France 
 tried hard to give the war the dimensions of a European one, she, 
 like Great Britain, remained neutral at the risk which she could not 
 obviate, of losing some of her political prestige among the nations 
 of the world. 
 
 The fact of the neutrality of Eussia, as well as that of all other 
 large nations, explains the sympathy for Germany all over the world. 
 Victor over France without any aid whatsoever, it blots out the pages 
 of the history of the First Napoleon, which the French themselves 
 have thrown into eternal oblivion by the destruction of the Arc of 
 Triumph, demonstrating thereby that France has sworn fidelity to the 
 Republic, and by that simple act elevated herself to a higher stand 
 ard of civilization than any other nation in Europe, with the exception 
 of Switzerland, has as yet de facto reached and enjoyed. 
 
 The neutrality of Austria, since the battles of Sadowa and Konigs- 
 gratz was added to the neutrality of Eussia : The one of Italy by the 
 desire for Union, and universal education, by means of free schools 
 throughout all other Catholic countries, upon the American and Prus 
 sian plan. As in nations, so in individuals throughout the world: the 
 intelligent and well informed have sided with Germany, to the credit 
 of civilization and their own honorable impartiality; and be it well 
 understood, that not only the various Governments, but the great 
 million were imbued with the necessity of Germany superseding the 
 power of France so as to hereafter afford peace as the principal 
 condiment of civilization, for the purpose of paving the way to Eu 
 ropean Republicanism. No better proof is more convincing or can 
 be more gratifying than that the vast millions of Germany at least 
 possessed this understanding of their real interest in this war as well 
 as knew of the more cosmopolitan advantages which would accrue 
 to them from victory, than was demonstrated by the mechanics and 
 working classes of Gratz, Austria. At a time much later in the his 
 tory of the war, when victories had been obtained (thanks to the love 
 of right and justice of the Germans) their courage and enlighten 
 ment in mastering beforehand their own ancient and now forgotten 
 feuds and passions those Austrian mechanics issued a manifest to 
 United Germany which augurs extremely well for the peaceful future 
 of their common fatherland. A nation composed of such bone and 
 sinew may now already vie with America, for there is no longer any 
 chance for either extreme : rebellion or despotism, dismember 
 ment or treachery. They said, " In consideration that it has become 
 " apparent that the developments of liberty and the rights of nations 
 
44 
 
 " can be secured only through a permanent European peace, of 
 which a powerful and invincible Germany is the guarantee now and 
 " forever, and in consideration that the French nation has availed 
 " itself of its former supremacy of power, to enfeeble all other nations, 
 " blaspheming liberty while the Germans have totally excelled them 
 " by cosmopolitan views of life, and the exercise of justice in political 
 " matters, 
 
 " Be it Resolved, by the German ^Republican (democratischer Club*) 
 " that the welfare of mankind, the developement and security of lib- 
 " erty, require that Germany brings the present war then only to a 
 
 * The democracy of Europe comprises the republican element there, after the 
 American definition of radicalism in party sentiment here, but, in monarchies 
 abroad, is, of course, not lawfully enacted, therefore, without revolution, remains 
 secret and ineffective in public. 
 
 The confusion of these names, Democracy and Republicanism, does great harm 
 in America, where the brave immigrant landing upon our blessed shores is beguiled 
 by the name only of voting, in due time of citizenship, the democratic ticket, not 
 knowing that ticket is legitimately subdivided, and does not alone and exclusively 
 embody the principles of American or lawful republicanism, nor that freedom neces 
 sarily signifies an unanimous sentiment in regard to the manner and means by which 
 liberty in a free country reaches, is enacted and enjoyed of by everybody. Not 
 being aware of either that there should be a republican party necessary besides a 
 democratic one, for the better working of the machinery of government, he, upon 
 hearing of it, often remains prejudiced, through the force of habit, against the repub 
 lican party, imagining that, after all, the latter may signify a tendency, like in bon- 
 daged Europe, towards lawlessness and rebellion. 
 
 That both the democratic party as well as the republican, with their many minor 
 subdivisions, more or less radical, constitute harmonious and integral parts of the 
 sworn and legitimate Republic of the "United States of America at large, versus and 
 in eternal distinction and defense of, against monarchism and blood aristocracy of 
 the world, synonymous, the latter with hereditary and concrete imposition upon jus 
 tice, through criminal neglect of duty to alike educate the people ; as well as through 
 the upholding of exclusive privileges of man to the palpable detriment of the rights 
 of fellow-men, from a religious and charitably humane and equitable point of view, 
 he, the emigrant, does not at once entirely comprehend, nor that democracy differs 
 from republicanism in minute form and various axioms of conservatism. 
 
 Inexperienced why it is absolutely necessary that both parties should here exist, 
 in order to separately, at the polls, yet conjointly in force, fully draw out the 
 strength of the mind and will of a free and independent citizen and voter, who con 
 stitutes the American nation at large, it may be useful to foreigners to here state 
 that thereby the Government is effectually prevented from at any time relapsing 
 into a barbarous incongruity and European idolatry, insidiously undermining the 
 strength of justice and of right, so put in imperishable republican form, and now 
 nearly centennially ancient. 
 
 Inasmuch as truth is in itself imperishable as characterizing the inimitable works 
 of Creation, in our species is founded in and is perpetuated by a well-drawn-out 
 and hourly more cultivated reason, so is mankind redeemable to republicanism 
 through civilization, in no matter how many ages to come. The principle is the only 
 correct one because it is the principle of Life heavenly ordained, blissful, and 
 eternal. 
 
45 
 
 " close, concludes peace then only when by it the unrepublican war- 
 " like power of France is forever broken, as of no use whatever to 
 "civilization. Germany receives back Alsace and Lorraine, and a 
 state of affairs is created, which shall entrust Germany alone with 
 " the leadership over the great family of European nations, and the 
 " guardianship over European civilization." 
 
 As the aforesaid are the sentiments of laboring men in German Aus 
 tria, sentiments thoroughly honest, it becomes a matter of cer 
 tainty that fourteen millions Germans shall ere long be added to the 
 great collective Union of Germany, nor would it be just and equita 
 ble not to recover the German Eussians and old Germanic Holland, 
 which Germany reveres of old, and which is essentially necessary to 
 a united race and fatherland. If the King of Prussia can lay down 
 his crown upon the German fatherland, the King of Holland can, 
 and others, as the Kings of Bavaria, of Saxony, of Hanover and of 
 Wurtemberg have done. In regard to England, the greater the 
 power of Germany the greater the friendship of Great Britain, as iden 
 tical with progress, and her best security for India in future ; besides 
 Queen Victoria s daughter will be Empress of Germany as long as 
 Emperors are at all necessary for guiding an enlightened nation, which 
 is rapidly advancing in fitness to guide and govern itself. France 
 a republic, England is no longer forced to add her strength to the 
 maintenance of peace in Europe. She is now ready to follow Amer 
 ica in the enjoyment of the colossal material advantages accruing 
 to her vast domain all over the world from the blessings of perma 
 nent peace. Europe begins fully to comprehend the principle of the 
 republican form of government, as exemplified in the United States 
 of America, a cosmopolitan nation, where peace is lawfully abided 
 in under all international circumstances occurring; although, with two 
 hundred and eighty millions Europeans, instead of forty millions in 
 the United States, and numerous war-like aggressive neighboring 
 nations to contend with, and at a few day s notice, instead of none at 
 all, and isolated withal, it may yet take ages in Europe to achieve 
 what the United States have already enjoyed with perfect impunity 
 nearly a century. And as to Europe so soon disarming previously to 
 a far more universal state of enlightenment in the million, than exists 
 after all this day, such a blessing to the people s prosperity can unfor 
 tunately, as yet, but be implored. 
 
 The most annoying of all circumstances to Napoleon, had been that 
 he was necessitated to withdraw his troops from Borne, because in a 
 war with Germany he could not spare their number. 
 
 By this step he offended the priests, without whom, he could not 
 do much, and whom he expected should at this particularly critical 
 moment be his most valuable allies. 
 
46 
 
 When these reflections are recapitulated, none of which arguing suc 
 cess, and Napoleon is, nevertheless, known to have declared war, it 
 becomes evident that he relied, for reasons of his own whether or not, 
 upon victory, and that he fancied the French army superior to the 
 Prussian in the same proportion as the Prussian army had proven 
 itself superior to the Austrian. Again, it is owing to his incompetent 
 military agents in Germany, who have thus served him scandalously. 
 Colonel Stoffel explained to him from Berlin, that the Prussian inno 
 vations upon military organizations were disadvantageous, therefore 
 advantageous to France. Thus, Napoleon anticipated the whole war 
 to become a delightful military promenade to Berlin and beyond, 
 halting at Konigsberg, where peace would be declared. Connected 
 with these illusions rose the hope that, after the first victory should 
 have been obtained the South German States would desert Prussia, 
 the newdy annexed provinces of Prussia would rebel and revolt, and 
 Denmark and Austria, encouraged by the success of the French arms, 
 appear on the scene of action as aiding participants. 
 
 Buoying himself up with this hope, Napoleon now framed his 
 famous declaration of war to Prussia, which arrived in Berlin on the 
 19th of July, and reads as follows: 
 
 " The undersigned Charge d Affaires of France, in execution of the 
 command received from his Government, has the honor of commu- 
 " nicating to His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs of His 
 ft Majesty, the King of Prussia, that the Government of His Majesty, 
 " the Emperor of the French, in viewing the plan of placing a 
 fc Prussian Prince upon the throne of Spain as hazardous to the ter- 
 " ritorial security of France, has been necessitated to demand of His 
 " Majesty, the King of Prussia, the assurance that such a combination 
 " should not be realized with his consent. As His Majesty, the King 
 " of Prussia has refused to extend this assurance, and moreover, has 
 " given the Charge d Affaires of His Majesty, the Emperor of the French, 
 " to understand that, he would act in this case, as well as in any 
 " other similar emergency, according to circumstances possibly arising 
 " and influencing his decision, the Imperial Government of France 
 cannot but suspect from the declaration of the King of Prussia that it 
 " covers a design hostile to France as well as jeopardizing the balance 
 " of power in Europe. The aforesaid declaration has even been 
 "aggravated by the announcement to the various Cabinets of the 
 refusal to receive the Charge d Affaires of the Emperor and to 
 " further animadvert upon the question. 
 
 " In consequence of which, the French Government considers it a 
 " duty, broaching no delay in its execution of defending its honor 
 " and of guarding its injured interests, and is determined for this 
 purpose to avail itself of all strenuous measures demanded by the 
 
47 
 
 " situation. It therefore declares itself from this day at war with 
 Prussia. 
 
 " The undersigned has the honor of assuring His Excellency of 
 his highest esteem and regard. " 
 
 (Signed) LE SOUBD. 
 
 BERLIN, July 19, 1870. 
 
 Before commenting upon the declaration of war and the conse 
 quence arising therefrom, it becomes necessary to refer to that episode 
 when first the Times brought to light Napoleon s policy, to which 
 Count Bismarck responded, and then what interesting developments 
 the case divulged. A synopsis of the French and German army 
 organization is likewise necessary in order to portray correctly and 
 vividly the events which followed. 
 
 The moral defeat which the Parisian Cabinet had sustained by the 
 publication of, the projected treaty with Prussia had been too great, 
 and the impression it had made upon neutral powers too extraordi 
 nary as that France should not have made every imaginable effort of 
 placing the matter in a different light. In order to bring this about 
 the following letter of Count Benedetti to the Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs was published in the Journal Official: 
 
 "PARIS, July 29th, 1870. 
 
 DUKE : No matter how unjust may have been the criticisms to 
 " which I saw myself exposed, when it became known in France 
 " that the Prince of Hohenzollern had accepted the Spanish Crown, 
 " I have not deemed it fit and proper to confront them. My duty 
 " commanded me to leave the trouble to the Imperial Government of 
 " setting those criticisms right. I cannot, however, indulge in that 
 "same silence considering the use which Count Bismarck has made, 
 " of a document to which he endeavors to attach an importance 
 " which it never had, and I entreat Your Excellency to explain every 
 " solitary fact with minute precision. It is well known everywhere 
 " that Count Bismarck before and during the last Prussian war with 
 "Austria, had been found willing of assisting France in annexing 
 :< Belgium, if France returned the civility to Prussia by allowing her a 
 " similar compensation in the direction of territories coveted by 
 " Prussia, which since then have been acquired. The whole European 
 " diplomatic body could bear witness, as every member became cog- 
 " nizant of it. The Imperial Government has constantly refused 
 " these offers, and one of its predecessors, Monsieur Drouyn de 
 cc 1 Huys, is in a position to explain it, and in a manner that can leave 
 "no doubt. "When peace had been concluded at Prague, and con- 
 " sidering the excitement which prevailed in France consequent upon 
 "the annexation of Hanover, Kurhessen, and the city of Frankfort- 
 
48 
 
 " oii-the-Main, by Prussia, Count Bismarck again expressed his great 
 " desire of amending the balance of power thus gently shaken by his 
 " acquisitions. Different combinations they were, to be sure, not 
 concerning lands bordering upon the frontiers of either France or 
 " Germany, which had become the topic of several interviews, in all 
 " of which Count Bismarck endeavored to obtain preference for his 
 " personal ideas. To one of these interviews I consented, in order to 
 "be better able to comprehend his combinations thoroughly, and 
 " copied, so to say, what he dictated. The form as well as the con- 
 " tents of that manuscript proves plainly that it has been my purpose 
 " to confine myself to sketching the project as it had been conceived 
 " and developed itself. Count von Bismarck retained it, wishing to 
 " transmit it to the King. I, on my part, immediately communicated 
 " the contents, precisely and correctly as they were given to me, to 
 " the Imperial Government. 
 
 " The Emperor refused these schemes immediately. I must say 
 " that even the King of Prussia did not approve of their basis, so that 
 " ever since, viz., during the last four years, I have not compared notes 
 " and exchanged ideas with Bismarck upon the topic above mentioned. 
 1 Had the initiative to any such agreement been taken by the Im- 
 " perial Government, the copy of the manuscript would have been 
 " retained by the Ministry, so that I would have been unable to pro- 
 " duce a copy written by myself. Besides which, it would have been 
 "revised, and would have afforded an opportunity of entering into 
 " negotiations upon the subject, which would have been carried on 
 " simultaneously in Paris and in Berlin. In such an event, you may 
 " rely upon it, Count Bismarck would not have been satisfied with 
 "publishing its contents in an indirect way, especially at a moment 
 " when your Excellency set to rights other errors, which were iiiten- 
 " tionally circulated by inserting the dispatches in the Journal Offi- 
 " cial. But to attain to his end, viz., to mislead public opinion, and 
 "to be ahead of any little indiscretion which we might have been 
 " unwise enough to commit, he availed himself of this aid, because, by 
 " so doing, he rid himself of the necessity of minutely quoting at what 
 " precise time, under what circumstances, and in what manner this 
 " important document had originally been composed. He undoubt- 
 " edly thought such silence would lead to premises which would 
 " exonerate him, and compromise the Imperial Government of France 
 "instead. 
 
 " Such a proceeding need not be further commented upon ; suffice 
 " it to publish it, and all Europe will be able to decide. 
 "Accept the assurance, etc., etc., 
 
 "V. BENEDETTI." 
 
4:9 
 
 The Parisian journals have exposed the flatness and shallowness of 
 the aforesaid epistle, and emphatically avowed the absurdity of the sup 
 position that Count Bismarck should have retained the manuscript for 
 the purpose of handing it over to the King-, after it had just before 
 been said, and clearly demonstrated, that the manuscript contained 
 the full expression of the ideas of Count von Bismarck. Had that 
 been the case, of what use would have been the manuscript ? Why ! 
 all Count Bismarck had to do was to verbally communicate to the 
 King his ideas, which certainly would have been done more impres 
 sively than with a document composed by the French Ambassador. 
 
 To an equal certainty the Parisians comprehended from Benedetti s 
 letter the inadequateness of the rejection of the accusation, so that 
 shortly afterwards a circular appeared of the Duke of Grammont s to 
 the French diplomatic body abroad, which was intended to serve as an 
 answer to the accusations of Count Bismarck in his last circular, and 
 neutralize its effect. The French circufar said : 
 
 PARIS, the 3d August, 1870. 
 
 Y. Exc. : We have, this day, become acquainted with the fur 
 ther meaning of the telegram which Count Bismarck has transmitted 
 to the Prussian Ambassador in London, in order to communicate to 
 England those supposed secrets, of which the Chancellor of the North 
 German Union professes to be aware. His dispatch, however, contains 
 no additional and essentially important information beyond the facts 
 which he has already brought to light. We, ourselves, find only some 
 more improbabilities. Public opinion has already pronounced judg 
 ment upon these assertions, which do not gain authority by the bold 
 ness with which they are repeated. We consider it as finally settled, 
 in spite of all denial, that the Emperor Napoleon never proposed to 
 Prussia a treaty which had for its purpose the forcible annexation of 
 Belgium. This idea belongs exclusively to Bismarck, and intended 
 to serve him as one of the means with which to manage his unscrupu 
 lous policy, which, however, is now as we hope fast approaching its 
 frustration. I would have altogether refrained from reciting assertions, 
 the wroiigfulness of which stands to-day manifested, if the author of 
 the Prussian dispatch, with a want of tact which has no precedent to 
 my knowledge in any diplomatic document, had not cited relatives of 
 the Emperor as having been the bearers of such compromising commu 
 nications and messages. With what a disgust I feel necessitated to 
 follow and keep an eye upon the Prussian Chancellor, and pursue a 
 course contrary to my habits, I cannot tell; yet, I must overcome this 
 feeling, because it is my duty to defend the members of the Imperial 
 family against the horrid insinuations which are meant for them, and 
 evidently directed to reach the Emperor himself. 
 
50 
 
 It was at Berlin where Count Bismarck, taking hold of the initiation 
 of the ideas, the first conception of which he to-day dexterously 
 ascribes to us, accosted the French Prince, whom he now draws 
 with contempt of all conventional rules into the circle of his polemic, 
 with these words: You searched for "a thing- impossible. You 
 " want to take the provinces of the Khine, which are German. Why 
 " do you not rather annex Belgium ? made up of people partially of 
 " your own race, who profess the same religion, and who speak the 
 " same vernacular. The same thing I have already given the Emperor 
 " to understand : that if he should share my views, we would aid 
 " him to take Belgium. As far as I am concerned, if I was master 
 " here, and not hindered by the stubbornness of the King, it would 
 te have been done by this time." These words of the Prussian Chan 
 cellor were, so to say, repeated verbatim by Count von der Goltz, at 
 the French Court. This very Ambassador made it so little a secret 
 there that the number of wi&iesses who have heard it is considerable. 
 I have to add that, at the time of the great exhibition, these propositions 
 from Prussia reached the ears of a somewhat more than exalted per 
 sonage who took a precise notice of it, and even now remembers it 
 well. Besides it was with Count Bismarck no effervescent whim; on 
 the contrary, a well meditated project which he fostered with his am 
 bitious plans, and in which he persevered with a pertinacity which 
 augured realization until it was wrecked upon the unshakable will of 
 the Emperor, whom he often visited in Paris, as well as in Biarritz and 
 other places for that very purpose, but who declined to participate in a 
 policy which was unworthy of Napoleon s loyalty. 
 
 I now quit this topic, which I have touched upon for the last time, 
 being determined not to return to it any more, and approach a really 
 new one, found in the dispatch of Count von Bismarck : "I have 
 " reason to believe (so he says) that, if the treaty had not been made 
 " public, France would have made us the offer after we had both 
 " armed, to execute her propositions previously made, as we had now 
 " together a well equipped army of more than a million of men, 
 against unarmed Europe, by which Bismarck intended to convey: 
 (< to grant peace before or after the first battle, according to the pro- 
 " posals of Mr. Benedetti, and of course at the expense of Belgium." 
 
 It would not be proper for the Government of the Emperor to suf 
 fer to consider such an assurance. In the face of Europe the Minis 
 ters of His I. Majesty demanded of Count Bismarck to produce a solitary 
 proof from which it might be inferred they had shown an intention, 
 either directly or indirectly, officially, or with aid of secret agents, to 
 unite with Prussia for the purpose of committing an attentat upon the 
 independance of Belgium similar to the one that has been enacted 
 upon Hanover. We have not negotiated with Count von Bismarck 
 
either in regard to Belgium nor in regard to anything else. Far 
 from seeking war, of which we stand accused, we have even 
 requested Lord Clarendon to intervene with the Prussian Minister 
 in order to bring about a reciprocated disarmament, which important 
 mission Lord Clarendon unhesitatingly undertook, out of friendship 
 to France, as well as out of devotion to the ideas of peace. 
 
 But the following letter will prove to a fault that the ire of the 
 French arose from the designs of their intervention, in 1866, having being 
 frustrated by the victories of Sadowa and Konigsgratz, as France had 
 but one motive by that intervention, if possibly to participate in the 
 spoils without having done anything in the way of help of action. Of 
 course, Germany never listened to it, and Bismarck paid nothing in 
 the way of inches of territory. 
 
 Drouyn de 1 Huys wrote to the Prussian Ambassador in Paris, 
 Count v. d. Goltz : 
 
 VICHY, 3d August, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR AMBASSADOR : I hasten to answer your letter of the day 
 before yesterday, in regard to the wish of Count von Bismarck, that 
 we (France) officially acknowledge the annexations which Prussia 
 intends to make in Northern Germany. 
 
 As often as I have touched, in my conversations with you, upon 
 this question of territorial modifications in favor of Prussia, I have 
 expressed to you my confidence in the Berlin Cabinet, acknowl 
 edging the propriety and equity of France of asking a recompensation 
 for it in a manner which shall have for its purpose the somewhat com 
 parative increase of the defensive strength of the French Empire. 
 
 Of this sort of condition I reminded Count Benedetti, on the twenty- 
 third of July, in a dispatch approved of by the Emperor. It was by 
 him confidentially communicated to Count Bismarck, who acknowl 
 edging the pardonable nature of the principle, exchanged with him 
 some ideas in regard to the manner and means by which the concep 
 tion might be practically realized. 
 
 Said conversation, of which Count Bismarck told me in his letter of 
 the twenty-sixth of July, preceded the signing of the preliminaries of 
 peace, and of the armistice. It should be taken up again later. On 
 the twenty-ninth, by telegram, in my answer to his letter, approved 
 of by the Emperor, I have precisely stated our views. Our Ambassa 
 dor must have received the telegram either at Nickolsburg or in 
 Berlin. 
 
 As you, my dear Count, refer in your letter to the conversations 
 which you have had with the Emperor upon the subject, I have handed 
 the letter to his Majesty, and requested his commands. Here is the 
 answer which I am authorized to give you : 
 
52 
 
 " When the Emperor offered his good services because of the recon- 
 " str action of peace, he did not hesitate to acknowledge that Prussia, 
 " by her victories, had a right to ask of Austria a territorial extension 
 " of her boundaries, to the figure of three to four millions of inhabit- 
 " ants upon it. If otherwise, the Emperor would not mistake that 
 " an undue enlargement would derange the equlibrium of strength 
 ts upon our boundary. 
 
 " But His Majesty would not increase the difficulty of an affair which 
 " was of a general European magnitude, by treating beforehand with 
 " Prussia upon territorial questions which concern France particularly, 
 * besides were not mentioned in the preliminaries of peace. 
 
 " It appeared to his Majesty as enough to have alluded to this ques- 
 " tion, reserving to himself an examination of the same in unison with 
 " the Cabinet of Berlin, as soon as the role he had played as inter- 
 " ventor should have been finished. 
 
 " With these views upon the subject, the Emperor commanded me 
 " to instruct Count Benedetti as mentioned." 
 
 As soon as we shall have received his reply, I shall be enabled to 
 inform you, my dear Count, of the decision of the Emperor in regard 
 to the points comprising the contents of your letter. 
 
 D. DE L H. 
 
 The manner in which these sly importunities of France were an 
 swered in Berlin, the diplomatic archives published last year have 
 shown. It is certain that both Germany and France distrusted each 
 other from those dates of Sadowa and Konigsgratz. It was nothing 
 more nor less than a grudge. 
 
 It is well the heart is relieved, the pachy dermal fury evaporated, 
 and calm reason prevails. 
 
 Here follow the words which Count Daru, in a letter of the first of 
 February, expressed to the Marquis of Lavalette, French Ambassador 
 in London, as being the intentions of the French Government : 
 
 " I would assuredly not mix myself up in this affair, nor request of 
 " England to meddle with it, if it was merely and simply a banale and 
 " formal controversy, having no other purpose, than to afford Count 
 "Bismarck an opportunity of renewing his expression of a refusal. 
 " But it requires a firm, earnest, and positive action. The Secretary 
 " of State appears to predict that Count von Bismarck will experience 
 " a sensation of discontent and annoyance. It is possible, but not 
 "certain. In this expectation, however, it is perhaps well to so 
 " arrange matters that a negative answer is thereto at once avoided. I 
 " am convinced that reflection and time will bring the Chancellor to 
 " seriously contemplate the step England has taken; if he has not 
 
53 
 
 " the first day refused explanation, then the interests of Prussia and 
 " Germany will soon loudly demand of him to relent. He will not 
 " arouse public opinion of the whole country against him. What, 
 " indeed, would be his position if we took away from him the sole 
 " pretext behind which he could possibly barricade himself, viz., the 
 * arming of France ?" 
 
 Upon this Count Bismarck answered he could not well do it and 
 lay before the King the communication from the British Government, 
 being sufficiently informed of the views of his Sovereign, as not to be 
 able to anticipate the impression such communication would certainly 
 make upon him. King William, he said, would observe in a step of 
 that sort from the British Cabinet, a proof of a change in the friendly 
 sentiments of England towards Prussia. Finally, the Chancellor 
 recapitulated his explanation : "It would be impossible for Prussia 
 "to modify a military system which was firmly interwoven with the 
 " traditions of the country, formed a part of the basis of its consti- 
 " tution and was totally normal." Count Daru was not discomfited 
 by this first response. On the 13th of February he wrote to Mr. von 
 Lavalette : "I hope Lord Clarendon does not consider himself van- 
 " quished, and will lose his presence of mind. We shall very soon 
 afford him another opportunity to return to the same attack when- 
 " ever he shall see fit to reopen the discourse upon the same topic 
 " with the German Chancellor, which has thus been interrupted. 
 " Our intention really is to dimmish our contingent; we would have 
 diminished it much more if we had received from the Chancellor of 
 " the North German Union a favorable answer; we shall now diniiii- 
 " ish it less, because his answer was negative; nevertheless, we do 
 " diminish it, and the reduction I hope will amount to 10,000 men, 
 " each contingent; this number I shall propose. In this manner we 
 " shall attest our policy and intention by action, which are always 
 " worth more than words. Nine contingents diminished, each of 
 " 10,000 men, make a total of 90,000 men. That is something a 
 " tenth of the army; I regret only that I cannot do more. The law in 
 " regard to the contingent shall soon be presented; Lord Clarendon 
 " may then judge whether it is time to remonstrate with Count Bis- 
 rnarck, that it is the Prussian Government alone in Europe which 
 " does not make concession in favor of peace, and that it puts itself 
 in a critical position among the nations of Europe, because it lends 
 " arms to all tbe world against itself, even against the people thus 
 " oppressed by military taxes as necessarily levied upon them. 
 
 Lively pressed, Count Bismarck considered it necessary to give 
 Lord Clarendon new explanations. These were full of reticencies as 
 transmitted to us by letter from Mr. von Lavalette, dated February 
 23d. The Chancellor of the North German Union had returned to 
 
54 
 
 his first resolution, and had had a conversation with King William 
 upon the proposal as recommended by England. The King, however, 
 had declined. Count Bismark based this refusal upon the apprehen 
 sion of a possible French alliance between Austria and South Ger 
 many, and the inclination which France might evince in enlarging 
 her boundary. Above all, he clouded his argument into the anxiety 
 which the policy of Russia gave him, and upon this occasion made 
 some pointed remarks in regard to the Court of St. Petersburg, which 
 were incomprehensible to me. 
 
 These are the grounds upon which Count Bismarck based his 11011- 
 compliance with the request of the French Imperial Government, as 
 transmitted through Lord Clarendon, and duly represented as a loyal 
 and conscientious matter. 
 
 If, therefore, Europe remained under arm when a million of men 
 were about to wound each other upon battle-fields, then it is not any 
 longer permissible to deny that Prussia is responsible for such a con 
 dition of things ; she has rejected every thought in regard to disarma 
 ment when we have had the proposition made, and commenced by 
 giving an example. Is not, moreover, this behavior explainable 
 from the fact that in the same hour in which France diminished her 
 contingent, the Prussian Cabinet organized in the dark the provoking- 
 candidature of a Prussian Prince for the Spanish Throne ? No mat 
 ter what calumnies the Chancellor of the North German Union may 
 have invented, we are without fear. He has lost the right to find 
 credence. The conscience of Europe and history shall say that Prus 
 sia provoked the present war by aiming an insult at France, while the 
 latter was busy perfecting its political improvements, which affront 
 no proud and courageous nation could have stood without deserving 
 execration from all the world. 
 
 With assurances of high regard, etc., etc., 
 
 (Signed) GRAMMONT. 
 
 Even the aforesaid circular was not sufficient to allay the distrust 
 once aroused among the European Courts, as it contained nothing 
 new beyond what Benedetti had already advanced by stating, without 
 proofs, that Count Bismarck had been the originator of the project 
 which the Emperor of the French had perseveringly rejected. The 
 most interesting part of the document is, however, the manner in 
 which developments, as systematically arranged by Count Bismarck, 
 were made to connect with the candidature of the Prince of Hohen- 
 zollern for the throne of Spain, its conception likewise ascribed to him 
 and which fusion had to serve France to get as a pretext for the inaug 
 uration of the present war. By this artful device the Duke of Gram- 
 mont is lucky enough to put down Count Bismarck as the abomina- 
 
55 
 
 ble originator of the war, and place France near him as the innocent 
 lamb which had to go against its will, that civilization might be saved 
 and the disturbed balance of power in Europe readjusted. It cannot 
 be denied, though, that the following document, which had appeared 
 not long before the one just given, and serving as an introductory to 
 the same, has been executed with so much dramatic skill, that it is not 
 to be wondered at that in the eyes of Frenchmen, who love and 
 admire, above everything, a good theatrical effect, it appeared as an 
 expression of the most verified truth. This document reads as fol 
 lows : 
 
 PARIS, 21 July, 1870. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : You are already aware of the entanglement of facts 
 which have brought about the breach of peace with Prussia. The 
 announcement which the Government of the Emperor had, on the 
 15th inst., issued forth from the tribunal of the corporation of great 
 nations, the exact contents of it I have duly communicated to you, 
 has explained to France and Europe the quick changes wrought in 
 a negotiation which had for its purpose the preservation of peace, 
 during the management of which the secret plans of an adversary, 
 determined to contract our exertions in behalf of peace, developed 
 themselves, and at the same ratio at which we redoubled our efforts 
 of securing it. 
 
 Be it that the Berlin Cabinet considered war necessary in order to 
 be enabled of carrying out its old plans against the independence, of 
 the German States, be it that the Berlin Cabinet was not content 
 with possessing, in the very heart of Europe, a military power which 
 had already become extremely formidable to its neighbors, and 
 was anxious of making use of that power, self-evidently for the 
 purpose of deranging the international balance of power in Europe, 
 at any rate the well denned intention to refuse a positively necessary 
 guarantee for our security as well as our honor, clearly shows itself 
 throughout its demeanor. 
 
 The following was undoubtedly the plan projected against us: Ac 
 cording to an agreement made with non-responsible persons, it should 
 have carried the result of the measure directly to the spot, where the 
 Cortes were to be suddenly made acquainted with the candidature of 
 the Prussian Prince. A vote thus attained by surprise and forestall 
 ing the mature deliberation of the Spanish people upon so important 
 an event, should then such was the hope unanimously pro 
 claim Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern the Heir to the Scepter of 
 Charles V. 
 
 " In this manner Europe would have found itself confronted by an 
 " accomplished fact, while it indulged in speculations upon our con- 
 " stant readiness to advance the grand principle of the sovereignty of 
 
56 
 
 C( peoples. Therefore, Europe expected that France would stand 
 " firmly by that principle in spite of her transient anger, when brought 
 opposite the expression of a nation apparently real, for whom all 
 " the world is aware of our sympathies. 
 
 " As soon as it had been informed of the danger, this Government 
 " did not hesitate to inform the agents of the country, as well as all 
 "the European Cabinets, of it; to then counteract the manoeuvre, we 
 were assisted in by public opinion, which became the legitimate ally 
 "of the Government. The impartial minds have nowhere been tlis- 
 " appointed in regard to the real state of things, these quickly compre- 
 " hended that if it touched us painfully to see Spain assigned to play- 
 " ing a role in the exclusive interest of an ambitious dynasty, not at 
 " all suitable to the loyalty of that chivalrous people, besides did so 
 " little accord with the promptings and transfer of friendship which 
 "binds Spain to us, we could not be expected to dissemble our 
 " constant esteem for the independence of her national decisions, 
 
 " One has felt it that the but little scrupulous policy of the Prus- 
 " sian Government played here its part. That Government is it in 
 " reality, which, not considering itself bound by common right and 
 " regard of the rules, to which the wisest powers have possessed the 
 " wisdom of bowing, has attempted to burden a deceived Europe with 
 " so dangerous an extension of its influence. France, however, has 
 " taken the case of the balance of power in hand, viz: The case of 
 "all nations which are jeopardized by a disproportioned enlargement 
 " of some kingly house. 
 
 "Every nation, we take a pleasure in so saying, is mistress of its 
 " own destiny. This principle, which France has openly acknowl- 
 " edged, has become one of the main laws of modern politics. But 
 " the right of each nation, exactly the same as the right of every in- 
 " dividual, is kept in check by the right of another, and it is forbid- 
 " den to a nation, under pretext of exercising its own right of sover- 
 " eignty, to endanger the existence or the security of a neighboring 
 "one. In this sense spoke one of our great orators, Mr. von Lain- 
 " artiiie, in 1847: that the moment the question comprised the election 
 " of a sovereign, a government had never the right to demonstrate 
 " demands, but it had the right to remonstrate them. This doctrine 
 " is under circumstances adhered to by all cabinets, and is analogous 
 "to the one in which the candidature of the Prince of Hohenzollern 
 " has put us, and particularly to the one of the year 1831, to the one 
 " in the Belgian question of 1830 and in the Greek question of 18G2. 
 " In the Belgian question the voice of all Europe was heard. The 
 " five great powers decided. The three Courts which took the Greek 
 " question in hand were unanimous among themselves, being guided 
 
57 
 
 " by interests which they had in common with each other, not to 
 " accept the throne of Greece for one of their princes. 
 
 " The Cabinets of Paris, London, Vienna, Berlin and St. Peters- 
 " burg, all of which were represented at the London Conference, 
 " made an example of it; they set it down as a rule, when negotiating 
 " on questions affecting the peace of the world. They did homage 
 so solemnly to this great law for the equilibrium of strength, as 
 " forming the basis of the European political system. In vain the 
 " Belgian National Congress insisted, in spite of this agreement, to 
 " elect the Duke of Nemours; France adhered to its obligation and 
 "rejected the crown, which the Belgian delegates had brought to 
 " Paris. But France insisted in a like manner that the candidature 
 " of the Duke of Leuchtenberg should similarly not be accepted. 
 " Likewise in Greece, the Government of France prevented the can- 
 " didature of Prince Alfred of England, and of another candidate, 
 " the Duke of Leuchtenberg. 
 
 "England, acknowledging the weight of our proposition, declared 
 
 " at Athens that the Queen had forbidden her son to accept the Crown 
 
 " of Greece. Russia declared similarly in regard to the Duke of 
 
 Leuchtenberg; besides, that nobleman does not come within the 
 
 " pedigree of the Imperial family. Finally, and voluntarily, the 
 
 " Emperor Napoleon declared his adhesion to these principles, and 
 
 " published a note, on the first of September, 1860, in the MoniLewr, 
 
 " in which he refused the candidature of Prince Murat for the throne 
 
 " of Naples. Prussia, which we had not omitted of reminding of 
 
 " these precedents, appeared for a moment to yield to our represen- 
 
 " tation ; Prince Leopold declined the candidature ; one was nattered 
 
 " that peace would not be disturbed. But this hope soon waned. 
 
 "New anxieties arose, which increased to a certainty, that Prussia, 
 
 " without seriously withdrawing her pretensions, contemplated to 
 
 " gain time. The language upon the subject, as made use of by the 
 
 " head of the family of Hohenzollern first evasive, then decisive and 
 
 " haughty his refusal to adhere to the same avowed non-acceptance 
 
 "in future, the treatment of our Charge d Affaires, who had been 
 
 " denied further audiences, disabling him from amicably arrang- 
 
 " ing this case as instructed, finally the publicity to which these 
 
 " extraordinary preliminaries were exposed to in the Prussian news- 
 
 " papers, and which had been given of the same to the various Cabi- 
 
 " nets all these consecutive symptoms of hostile plans could not but 
 
 " put aside every doubt in minds the most partially inclined. Is there 
 
 " a mistake possible, when a Sovereign, who can dispose of over a mil- 
 
 " lion of soldiers, and putting his hand upon his sword, declares he 
 
 " will reserve to himself his decision, and be guided by circumstances 
 
 only ? We have about arrived at the utmost point, where a nation 
 
 6 
 
58 
 
 " which feels what it owes to itself does not further negotiate for 
 " demands upon its own honor. If these last named proofs in this 
 " woeful controversy do not throw a sufficient light upon the matured 
 " plans of the Berlin Cabinet, a circumstance will certainly do it, which 
 " is far less known, but which, nevertheless, stamps those plans as 
 " real and decisive. 
 
 " The fact is, the thought to put a prince of Holienzollern upon the 
 "throne of Spain was not a new one. Already, in March, 1869, we 
 had been given to understand, by our Charge d* Affaires at Berlin, that 
 such a thought existed . We authorized him to explain to Count 
 " Bismarck how we, the Imperial Government, would view such 
 " eventuality. Count Benedetti had made it known in several conver- 
 satioiis which he had upon the subject with the Chancellor of the 
 " North German Union, as well as with the Under Secretary of State, 
 " that we could not permit it that a Prussian prince should succeed in 
 " reigning on the other side of the Pyrenees. 
 
 " Count Bismarck on his part declared that we had it not necessary 
 " to busy ourselves with a combination which he himself considered 
 " inexecutable ; and later, at a time when the Chancellor happened to be 
 " absent, and Count Benedetti thought it a good moment to express 
 " himself unbelievingly and pressiugly, Mr. Von Thiele had given his 
 " word of honor that the Prince of Hohenzollern was not in earnest a 
 " candidate for the Spanish throne, nor could he become one. 
 
 "If one should draw into doubt the veracity and truthfulness of 
 1 such explicit official assurances, all diplomatic intercourse would 
 " cease to be the pledge of European peace, and be nothing but a 
 " snare and a danger. As soon as our Charge d Affaires conimuni- 
 " cated those declarations to us without reserve, the Imperial Gov- 
 " eminent considered itself as notified to interpret the same favorably. 
 " It has been constrained to draw into doubt the good belief of this 
 " assurance up to the moment when this combination suddenly 
 " revealed itself, which evidently is the contrary to the same. TJnex- 
 " pectedly retiring from the word given to us, without even the at- 
 " tempt to release herself from an obligation, Prussia has prepared for 
 " us a real disappointment. Informed of the value which the most 
 formal assurances of Prussian statesmen possess, we considered it a 
 " peremptory duty in future incumbent upon us, of asking a guarantee 
 " for our honesty, which should secure us against a new attempt of 
 " disrespect. We therefore were obliged to do as we have done, viz., 
 " to insist upon receiving a security which should be definitive and 
 " earnest, and not full of reserves, as the former. 
 
 " It is evident that the Court of Berlin bears the responsibility for 
 " the war from a time previous to the combination, while it had all 
 
59 
 
 " the means at its disposal of avoiding it, but insisted upon having. 
 " And under what circumstances has it sought the strife? 
 
 " After France had, during four years, given proofs of an unalter- 
 " able moderation, after she had abstained with an anxiety perhaps 
 " carried too far from reminding the Prussian Government of the 
 " treaties which had been made by intervention of the Emperor, the 
 " international disregard discernible in all the acts of said Govern- 
 " ment clearly demonstrates that it already intended to rid itself of the 
 " same when it signed the contract. 
 
 " Europe bears witness to our conduct, and has had time to com- 
 " pare that of Prussia. To-day it may pronounce its veto on the jus- 
 " tice of our cause. Whatever may be the fate of battles, we expect, 
 " without disquietude, the judgment of contemporaries, as well as that 
 " of the future. 
 
 " Pray accept the assurance of, etc., etc/, 
 
 " GRAMMONT. " 
 
 This remarkable document, the sophistry and illusive surmises as 
 to consequence of the contents of which an unpreposessed mind can 
 easily grasp, was vigorously reinforced by two proclamations which 
 were no less noticeable, one of which was directed to the French 
 people. I shall here produce and comment upon both. The procla 
 mation to the French people reads as follows : 
 
 " There are, during the existence of a nation, solemn moments : 
 "when the honor of a nation, violently assailed, rises, Avith an irre- 
 " sistable might, when it commands all other interests, and manages 
 " alone and directly the fate of the nation. One of those decisive 
 " moments is the ^resent one for France. Prussia, which we have 
 " shown the most forgiving sentiments to during the war of 18(j(), has 
 " ever since taken no notice at all of our good will and forbear- 
 " ance. Impetuously pursuing its course of conquests it has given 
 " reasons for mistrustfulness; made everywhere excessive armaments 
 "necessary; transforming Europe into a military camp, in which 
 " apprehension prevails. 
 
 " The glorious nag which we once more unfurl to those who pro- 
 " vokes us, is the same which has carried the civilizing ideas of our 
 " great revolution all over Europe ; it represents the same ideas ; it 
 " will inspire the same feeling* of devotion. Frenchmen, I am ready 
 " to place myself at the head of this brave army, which is imbued 
 " with a keen sense of duty, and animated by its love of France; the 
 " army knows its own worth, for it has seen how, in four divisions of 
 " the globe, victory accompanied its footsteps. I take my son with 
 " me, notwithstanding his youthfulness he understands the duties 
 " which his name demands of him ; he is proud of being permitted 
 " to share the dangers of those who fight for France. A last inter- 
 
60 
 
 " veiling event 1ms been added, which brings more fully to light the 
 " changebleness of international relations, showing the full earnest- 
 " ness of the situation. Opposite the new pretensions of Prussia are 
 " our reinforcements. One has despised them, followed by atesti- 
 "fied contempt. Our country has been deeply incensed in conse- 
 " quence, and the war-cry heard from one end of France to the other. 
 :< Nothing is now left to us but to let our fate be decided by force of 
 " arms. We do not wage war against Germany, the independence of 
 " which we respect. We have the wish that the people of whom the 
 " German Union is composed may, of their own free will, decide in 
 " tins case. We ourselves require a state of things which guarantees 
 " our security and our future. We want to attain to a lasting peace. 
 " God will bless our exertions. A great people defending a just cause 
 " are invincible. 
 
 " NAPOLEON." 
 
 It is interesting to observe how groundless reproaches against Prus 
 sia, over-estimation of their own actions, and general egotism are 
 harmoniously blended together for the purpose of producing a sem 
 blance of a substance, palatable to French military vanity. In regard 
 to the praised forbearance of France we now find out its source : the 
 hope of enlarging her territory ; the victories in four divisions of 
 "the globe." It might be useful to remember that Napoleon III 
 did not obtain one without allies ; as soon as he fought alone he 
 did not achieve anything, which the events in Mexico have clearly 
 shown, and this present war still more so. How little correct the 
 assurance is that the war-cry was heard from one end of France to 
 the other, is best attested by the demands for peace from Nizza and 
 Bordeaux, and by the remarks from Michelet and Louis Blanc in 
 newspapers. Those of Louis Blanc may serve as an example. 
 
 He wrote to the Rappel:*" . . . . Be it well understood that this 
 " war to which we are driven by the martial spirit of honest minds, 
 " betrayed by the martial spirit of knavish souls, is entered into on 
 " the one side to make despotism stronger than liberty, and 011 the 
 " other side to cover the lack of success of a Napoleonic dynasty and 
 " adjust the damage done at the expense of France. A double reason 
 " to be on guard and to prevent it! The Union of Germany is, nev- 
 " ertheless, a danger. I repeat, that this Union, difficult and slow 
 as it can be effected in times of peace , will instantly be consolidated 
 " when the war trumpet sounds. Put Germany under threats of war, 
 " one may rely on it she will rise to a man. Don t speak any more 
 " of annihilating Prussia, but reflect upon annihilating Germany. A 
 "terrible shock, that of the Latin and Germanic races, a shock in 
 " which we, a Latin nation, would, strange to say, have Latin nations 
 
61 
 
 ce arraigned against us a shock which would sow enmities for ever, 
 " and carry civilization back a century, perhaps two. That it is which 
 " is demanded of France, to that she shall allow herself to be driven, 
 " under the pretext that the vanity of some diplomatist is tanta- 
 " mount to the dignity of the nation; and for what purpose? it is 
 " barely concealed; of giving the baptismal of glory to the supposed 
 " heir to the throne! Great people of France! is it possible that one 
 dares to count upon a harrassed mind to such an extent ? dares to 
 " ensnare your bravery to such a degree ?" 
 
 The language of many others in the newspapers conveys pretty much 
 the same meaning, as the words of Louis Blanc, demanding peace in 
 the most determined manner, and shows the power of republicanism. 
 
 Finally, the reproaches against Prussia of her desire for conquest, 
 her insatiable ambition, etc., etc., those are as old and unfounded as 
 they are unproved, and if she is particularly reproached because of 
 having lately enlarged her territory, it is not to be forgotten that 
 Prussia was menaced in her very existence, during the war with Aus 
 tria, by the hostility of Hanover and other States, and the artful 
 devises of jealous adversaries, among whom France was by no means 
 the smallest one. Besides, Prussia had been previously put at the 
 Congress of 1815, in a position, the natural condition and doubtful 
 ness of which, was such as to sooner or later predict a rupture or a 
 radical change in the destiny of Prussia, lest she should have had to 
 rue complete annihilation. 
 
 Herein consisted the impetus, germinating the power, which, since 1815 
 has produced all these events, and which is not to be attributed to vainglo 
 rious ambition, or a desire for conquest, which the ivorld has been made 
 to fancifully believe as having alone actuated the policy of Prussia, but 
 to self-preservation through self-defense and the true belief in God and 
 themselves. 
 
 The second document commences with the same words as the first, 
 so that it might be inferred it has had the same author, it is by no 
 means less noticeable than the first, and reads as follows: 
 
 There are during the existence of a nation solemn moments when 
 " God affords them an opportunity of showing who they are, and 
 " what they can do. One of those moments has come for France! 
 " One has often had the opinion that the great nation, so resolute in 
 " attack, did not well know how to bear misfortune. What now 
 " developes itself before our eyes resents the calumny with falsity. 
 The bearing of the population shows no discouragement; on the con- 
 " trary, a patriotic fierceness towards the aggressors of France, who 
 " shall here find their graves. All Frenchmen shall rise to a man. They 
 " will remember their ancestors and think of those who shall follow. 
 " Behind them centuries of glory, before them a future full of liberty 
 
62 
 
 " and power, which their heroism shall create. Never before has 
 " France shown her noble pride and the strength of ner national 
 l character in such an equally great and imposing- manner. Every- 
 body full of enthusiasm exclaims : To arms ! to conquer or die ! While 
 " our soldiers heroically defend the soil of the country, Europe is 
 ie justly full of anxiety in regard to (he successes of Prussia. One does 
 11 not know how far the ambition of that insatiable power may carry it, 
 " should a final triumph make it still more presumptive. 
 
 "It is an unchangeable law of history that every nation which dis- 
 11 turbs the general balance of po\ver by its extraordinary success, is 
 " awakening a reaction consequent upon those very victories, and cre- 
 " ates for itself the enmity of all other nations. It cannot fail that 
 " this truth shall now again be confirmed by facts. So especially con- 
 " sidered. 
 
 " Who, then, after all, is interested in a reconstruction of a German 
 "Empire? Who, after all, can wish that the North Sea and the 
 " Baltic become Prussian lakes ? Is it, perhaps, Sweden, Norway, and 
 " Denmark, which the triumph of Prussia would annihilate? or is it 
 " Russia, whose interest it is, more than any other power, to protect 
 " the equilibrium of the North against the advance of a compact Ger- 
 " many? Is it, perhaps, England, which as a great naval power and 
 " protector of Denmark, is obliged to protest against further pro- 
 " gress in the formation of the Prussian marine? Is it, perhaps, Hol- 
 " land, which has been long enough threatened by the intrigues of 
 Bismarck ? 
 
 " In regard to Austria, the reconstruction of the German Empire 
 " by the house of Hohenzollern, would be the most dangerous blow 
 " dealt not only to the dynasty of the Hapsburgs, but to the very 
 " existence of an Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Prussia would surely 
 " endeavor to make promises to the Cabinet of Vienna, but one knows 
 " what belief to attach to the words of Bismarck. A proffered guaran- 
 " tee, of whatever nature, could never be stronger than the ties which 
 " have bound Prussia to the former German Union, and, notwith- 
 " standing which, Prussia, unmindful of her obligations, has rented in 
 " such a violent manner. A definitive triumph of the house of Hoheii- 
 " zollerii would be for Italy no less deplorable than for Austria. A 
 " German Empire would seek to provide for itself, at all costs, 
 " countries bordering upon the sea, as well in the South as in the 
 " North. It would covet possession of Venice, Triest, as well as Am- 
 " sterdam. Thus, the regeneration of Italy would be in danger, as 
 " well as Austria and Holland. 
 
 " We appeal to the Governments and the nations of Europe to tear 
 " Europe off the grasp of Piussiaii despotism, in order that they 
 11 may be able to assist us, by alliances and sympathies, to protect the 
 
63 
 
 " European balance of power. In England, Denmark, and Sweden 
 " there are already signs of such a turn. Austria and Italy have com- 
 " meiiced to arm. Our patriotism is proof against all dangers. The 
 " more seriously the circumstances, the greater the energy the nation 
 "shall display." 
 
 That what especially rivets the attention of the aforesaid document 
 is not the pass itx, which places Prussia as an insatiably ambitious 
 power in Europe, which should be fully feared, and which accusation 
 serves but as a somewhat modified repetition of what had been 
 advanced in the previous document ; but the ^assws in which the ques 
 tion is put and answered who it is that after all is interested in the 
 restoration of a German Empire V The answer, of course, is : " nobody/ 
 
 On the contrary, all are interested that such a consolidation should 
 not be realized ; in other words, that Germany should remain weak 
 and disunited as in times of yore. One has denominated this passus 
 in diplomatic circles : a mendicancy of France to obtain alliances, and 
 justly so ; for that is its version from the one side. But the purpose 
 of it is by no means thereby exhausted. On the contrary, the more 
 important and extensively versified portion of that passus has not 
 therein even been touched. This passus expresses on the one side the 
 apprehension of France of a change in affairs as inaugurated previ 
 ously to 18(54, and which the Moniteur calls " normal," viz., predicting 
 the destruction of the supremacy of France presumptively exercised 
 over the European continent ever since the days of Louis XIV, and 
 of the possibility of a future cessation of the supremacy of England 
 in the European waters through the full development of the strength 
 of Germany. The " enteinte cordiale" between France and Great 
 Britain, of which so much was made, rested in its exact meaning upon 
 the thoughts to strengthen by mutual action the supremacy of both 
 in Europe, for the purpose of keeping it at bay, for the execution of 
 which strategy it became, however, absolutely necessary that Ger 
 many remained disunited, and consequently weak and powerless. 
 
 This "enteinte cordiale" cooled off when Great Britain thought it 
 detected other purposes on the part of France, which were directed 
 towards absorbing from England, at a fit opportunity, her share of 
 the supremacy at sea, which thought matured in English opinion by 
 France constantly strengthening her fortifications at Cherbourg, be 
 sides noticing the considerable increase of her navy, as there was no 
 other nation in Europe but England against which such hostile pre 
 parations of magnitude might be warranted to be so developed in 
 embryo. The pointed hints which Napoleon III threw out with refer 
 ence to and in anticipation of a successful realization of the assiduous 
 and indefatigable exertions of Prussia striving to form a German Em- 
 
64 
 
 pire, should serve to stimulate the commercial ambition as well as 
 awaken the suspicion of Great Britain. Of course, his purpose was 
 to again attract that great moral power to the modern alliance, so as 
 to cosily hide his mischievous connivings before the world* How, in 
 1855, so shortly after his ascension to the throne as a revenging spectre 
 of his uncle, he ever succeeded in duping England to such an extent 
 as to induce that stern power to completely untomb at St. Helena the 
 shade of Napoleon I, in the eyes of the Holy alliance, is more than 
 history will ever draw information of and fathom from blue books. 
 
 Similar purposes should the addresses serve, which Napoleon trans 
 mitted to the other nations of Europe, as mentioned in the aforesaid 
 document, leaving nothing further to remark but that those were of 
 as feeble a nature as they were frivolous. He simply relied 011 the 
 feeling of awe, which pervaded all Europe, and which the wars of his 
 uncle had bequeathed to him as a very serviceable legacy. The 
 French nation forsaking in 1848, the Eepublic, relied upon the talis 
 man of the name Napoleon as creating a reality, expecting nothing- 
 short of a repetition of a victorious run through Europe. The battle 
 of Sadowa, therefore, ignited the martial spirit of the French, and 
 throwing themselves upon Napoleon, forced him to the mad attempt 
 of this war. It shows that the world never went beyond antecedents, 
 and with Indian fierceness and ignorance failed to consider that the 
 foe of barbarity, the ABC book, had been about and at work. Natu 
 rally they all have found it out by this time, that the combined war 
 like hordes of the world could not now conquer Germany, monarchi 
 cal though she yet is, having but lately been freed from political 
 shackles, which of course prevented her of doing the republic. 
 
 The same school-book will affix itself to the bravest soldier holding 
 fire-arms in self-defense, as David slew Goliah, strip wars of their 
 glory by the scientific process of extermination and additional moral 
 courage, until all mankind shall disarm and live law-abidingly, peace 
 fully and happily. 
 
 As many proofs more could be shown and defended in favor of an 
 accomplishment of the endeavor to form a strong German empire, 
 and that such a power could not but exercise a beneficial influence 
 upon the peace and liberty of Europe. In fact, Germany owes her 
 present success to her clear-headedness which defines to her the duty 
 of absorbing upon civilized grounds of humanity and charitableness, 
 all other strayed-off German elements, monarchical alienated, besides 
 Alsace and Lorraine in due avail of her physical powers if made rea 
 sonably necessary. 
 
 As it is this enlightened feeling which pervades her actions in this 
 war, not a feudal delight to cripple her adversary, she will not dis 
 continue uniting the remainder of Germanic races at once. She has 
 
G5 
 
 been signally crowned with immediate success in this war, at the same 
 time ridding herself and Europe of the glare of igneous firebrands 
 of war in a feudal sense. 
 
 She will now continue in a friendly manner to first induce Austria 
 andEussia to act humanely just, and give up the Germans and not 
 thwart the happiness of millions of people now forlorn and alien. 
 
 The land which said aliens at present occupy, shall by Germany be 
 most liberally bought and paid for. 
 
 Speedily accomplished either way, peaceably or by main force, she 
 shall have received twofold blessings; the exquisiteiiess of conscience, 
 of having performed her duty to the fatherland, and the impossibil 
 ity of a re-occurrence of war, especially with France, should the 
 master spirit of faith be there once more overruled, and the republic 
 be a third time made a sham, which republic alone places France to 
 day next to the "United States of America in general importance of 
 the civilization of the world, attained so far. The republic shall 
 eventually intimately befriend France with Germany, if the latter 
 country continues to prove its wisdom by at all times of the future 
 assisting the French people in never permitting; a monarch to again 
 rule over France, plunge the world into agony and the French nation 
 into moral and political retrogradation. 
 
 Secondly, and especially important, is the document, because it 
 expresses the leading opinions of all the European nations in regard 
 to the Union of Germany, as so considered at least by France. It is 
 a French opinion, from a party stand-point, therefore one-sided, not 
 withstanding there is much truth in it worth noticing and to be 
 reflected upon. 
 
 Thirdly, and finally, the document points out the means of which 
 Napoleon III availed himself in order to attain to his end with the 
 nations he has mentioned; they consisted of suspicion, an awakening 
 distrust and general mischievous talk of results already gained, or 
 to be so nearly. As a set-off to such damaging insinuations, one may 
 simply remember the conduct of the European nations, as shown 
 throughout this matter, in order to realize the weak ground from 
 which the wrong-fulness of French insinuations had been produced. 
 The trouble is that France, with but thirty-six millions of popula 
 tion and no more, feels that she has far less population than a United 
 Germany has, comprising the Germanic race on the continent of 
 Europe sure to unite ere very long. From nowhere has a voice been 
 heard which justified the proceedings of France, or sanctioned the 
 motives for the war. Everywhere Napoleon s manner has been most 
 severely censured, and instead of having served him as a moral assist 
 ance, as he boasts of, it has been transferred to the Germans as pro 
 voked to war because attacked, and has been gladly accorded and 
 7 
 
66 
 
 avowed by all nations, with the exception of the Scandinavians, equally 
 troubled as France, for the very same reasons of a minority of popu 
 lation, compared with the Union of the Germans. 
 
 Previously to the commencement of actual hostilities at the time 
 when the German Diet was about to adjourn at Berlin, Count Bis 
 marck entered and issued the following manifest : 
 
 " It has been my intention to lay before you the documents in con- 
 " secutive order, which are in the hands of the Government, and 
 " refer to the origin of the dispute with France. I expect these doc- 
 " uments every moment. For the present I have but to explain that 
 " the collection is very meagre. We have received in this whole 
 " affair but one official communication, and that is the declaration of 
 " war [motion j. That is the only official document* which has at all 
 " been transmitted to us by the French Government. In regard to 
 " it, all conversation which Count Benedetto, in his capacity as Charge 
 " d Affaires, had upon the subject with the King, privately and at the 
 " Springs of Ems: 
 
 " Likewise all definitions which one has attempted to force in that 
 " way, and which, perhaps would have been so forced if His Majesty 
 " had been less manly and firm of character than he is, would always 
 c have been considered personal expressions which the Monarch would 
 " have confirmed in a different manner, if that had been his earnest 
 "will. 
 
 " After having said this in advance, I take the liberty of throwing a 
 short glance at those other documents, which were produced after the 
 affair could not any longer be peaceably arranged, simply to explain 
 to the other Governments how this case developed itself. In the 
 order here given, these communications contain the particular news 
 paper telegram already known, which the French Ministry consider as 
 the real cause of the war, for the reason that one has attached to it 
 the importance of a " note " by which the French Cabinet fancies 
 itself to have been deceived. [Hear ! Hear !] I shall not go to the 
 trouble of explaining what is meant by " notes." For all those at all 
 acquainted with diplomacy it is enough to understand that " newspa 
 per telegrams " cannot be qualified and become " notes." The gen 
 tlemen then have taken good care not to produce the said document, 
 [Hear ! Hear !] for everything would have been considered as naught 
 upon the contents of the document becoming known. The second 
 and third documents are those already known through the newspa 
 pers, referring to the authenticated occurrences at Ems. Then, 
 fourthly, a dispatch from Baron v. Werther, dated Paris, twelfth July. 
 That one, at least, is an official document, exchanged between Prus 
 sian authorities, and not between Prussia and France. In this dis 
 patch there are the contents given of a conversation which Barron v. 
 
67 
 
 Werther had had with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and at 
 the same time with the Minister of Justice, Monsieur Ollivier. In this 
 dispatch we are made acquainted with the unacceptable demand of a 
 letter of apology [Laughter] which the King should have to write. I 
 have, hereupon, answered the Charge, d A/faircs nothing more than 
 that he could not but have misunderstood the wishes of the French 
 Government, as they had appeared to ine impossible. I do not con 
 sider myself justified to lay before the King demands of that sort. 
 [Bravo !] I wrote to the Representative he might ask of the French 
 Government to put their demand in form, and to have it here offi 
 cially presented through their Charge d Affairs. The fifth is the cir 
 cular of the eighteenth of July, and the sixth the dispatch from 
 the English Government to intervene. The seventh is the response 
 of the Chancellor of the North German Union, which has not as 
 yet been made known to the House. 
 
 " Count Bismarck read the reply, from which it appears that 
 although the proposition of an intervention had been gratefully 
 acknowledged, and nothing would have been rejected which might 
 have enhanced the security for an acceptable basis of peace, yet, 
 one was now no longer in a position to avail oneself of the initiative, 
 after having unofficially heard that France had already declined the 
 intervention of England, because such a step would be misunderstood 
 by the Germans, whose national pride had been wounded by the 
 threats of France. The gentlemen might rest assured that the For 
 eign Office of the North German Union had not been one moment 
 remiss in advising moderation and quiet, 
 
 Upon this follows the French version of the declaration of war, 
 of which the translation into German is already known, and then a 
 circular to the Ambassadors of the North German Union, which ex 
 plains the causes from which originated the war, and the manner in 
 which we treat the affair. [Lively applause.] The documents shall, 
 after the close of this session, be immediately handed over by the 
 Chancellor of the North German Union to the President of the House, 
 and then published in the daily papers." 
 
 Thereupon the session was declared closed by the President, and 
 when afterwards resumed, Bismarck explained : 
 
 GENTLEMEN : The three Presidents of the Diet have been permitted 
 already, shortly after noon, to transmit to the King the addresses which 
 had been decided upon this forenoon. His Majesty ordered the 
 addresses to be read to him, and then directed iis in his name to 
 express to the House his most sincere and grateful thanks; for as the 
 King literally said : " The beautiful and ennobling expressions of devo 
 tion to the German Fatherland." [Here the whole house rose.] In 
 this declaration so unanimously decided upon, the King recognizes 
 
68 
 
 likewise a pledge for the final and complete success of the great 
 tasks which lie before him and before us. He likewise found his full 
 confidence confirmed that the nation would never cease to pursue 
 those aforesaid tasks with unrelenting perseverance. [Lively ap 
 plause.] 
 
 In order to more lucidly explain the declaration of the Diet, we 
 may as well here produce the newspaper telegram, to which the 
 Chancellor refers, and which the French Minister valued as a "note" 
 and reasoned that therefrom had emanated the actual cause of the 
 war. 
 
 " After the advices of the refusal of the hereditary Prince of 
 " Hohenzollern had been officially transmitted by the Spanish to the 
 " Imperial French Government, the French Charge d Affaires had 
 " demanded of the King of Prussia, at Ems, that the King should 
 " authorize him to telegraph to Paris, that he pledged himself for all 
 " future not to give his sanction to such an alternative of acceptance, 
 " should a Prince of Hohenzollern again return to the candidature. 
 " The King hereupon declined to further receive the French Charge 
 " d Affaires, and had sent him word through his Aid-de-camp on duty, 
 " that he had nothing further to communicate to him." 
 
 On the 21st of July the Chancellor again adjourned the Diet, 
 because in one respect the purpose for its assembling had been real 
 ized, and in the other, the Government, in consequence of the pres 
 sure of events, had now to direct its attention to other more import 
 ant matters, especially the necessary preparations for the war about 
 to commence, the more obligatory as the time for their completion 
 had been but tardily given. The most important point of all was, of 
 course, the arming of the troops in the shortest possible time, which 
 succeeded so happily and speedily, thanks to the admirable efficiency 
 of the army organization, that it became impossible for the French 
 to surprise the Germans. 
 
FART THE THIRD. 
 
 THE PROVISIONAL BATTLE-GROUND. 
 
 The German-French Frontier is divided into two entirely distinct 
 parts. From Basle in Switzerland, to Lanterburg, a distance of twenty- 
 two and a half miles (one German mile is equal to four and a quarter 
 English), the Khine forms the frontier, while the Bavarian palatinate 
 of the Rhine, and the Prussian province of the Ehine commence at 
 Lauterburg to be the neighbors of Ifraiice. The Rhine along its right 
 the German bank, is accompanied as far as Lauterberg by the heav 
 ily timbered mountain ridges of the so-called "Black Forest." These 
 stretch nearly down to the banks of the river, and continue so nearly 
 down from Schlingen. From there mountains extend off the river at 
 a distance of about one to two German miles, forming the fertile val 
 ley of the Ehine. The discontinuation of the Black Forest from these 
 plains is quite abrupt and bluff. The Black Forest at the upper end, 
 as far as the River Murg, appears as a rugged and almost impenetra 
 ble fastness, over the summit of which but few paths lead. Length 
 ways along the summit the mountain roads are almost impassable, so 
 that the Black Forest there may be considered a heavy obstacle to 
 all military operations. Its breadth from Muhlheim to Blumberg is 
 ten German miles, although in the north it loses of its breadth as 
 well as elevation, footing up but six and a half miles between Frei 
 burg and Donau-Eschingen, and but six miles between Baden and the 
 city of Weil, at an elevation the same as at the strong fortress Eastatt. 
 The central part of the Black Forest, from the Murg to the Pfing, 
 admits of a more passable formation, and at its lower end from the 
 Pfing to the Neckar it gently verges into undulating hill lands. In 
 consequence of which the central and lower sections of the Black 
 Forest can barely be considered more than a weighty obstacle to mili 
 tary operations, when large armies are concerned. Further to the 
 north is the Odenwald, or Odenforest, with which the space from 
 the river Neckar to the river Main is filled. The slope of these hil 
 locks are steep towards the Neckar, and even the more elevated por 
 tions of it are rough and densely timbered. The leading roads avoid 
 
70 
 
 the Odenwald ; others are scarce, and very bad in rainy weather and 
 during winter, because of the limy and muddy soil, so that this hilly 
 section might likewise be termed an obstacle to military operations. 
 (Between the Ehine and the western section of the river Main, the 
 Odenwald, as well as the Black Forest, afford the richest kind of 
 farming lands to a width of two to three German miles.) 
 
 Upon the left bank of the Ehine, opposite the Black and the Oden 
 Forests, stretch the Vosges mountains, upon French soil. These rise in 
 the neighborhood of the source of the river Moselle (in equal eleva- 
 vation with Muhlheim, Blumberg, therefore exactly opposite the Black 
 Forest in its largest horizontal and vertical extension) and like the 
 Black Forest, fall steeply towards the valley of the Rhine, gradually 
 diminishing towards the north, in both elevation and breadth. In the 
 palatinate, as well as in the mountains of the Haardt, the Vosges bor 
 der there upon a broad valley of the Rhine, and are frequently crossed 
 by roads and even railroads. 
 
 If one so compares the so-called military sections of the country adja 
 cent to both banks of the Rhine, one finds that the higher and less 
 passable elevations of the mountains on both sides are in the South, 
 and not easily suitable for military operations. From Rastatt-Hagenau 
 down, the valley of the Rhine appears to become much broader, and 
 the mountains more passable. Should, therefore, military operations 
 take place south of the river Main, it must necessarily be between 
 Mayence, Saarbruck, Strasburg, Rastatt, Pforzheim, Heilbronn, 
 Wurzburg, and Frankfort-on-the-Main. The impassable parts of the 
 mountains of the " Oden Forest" may be in this case avoided, from 
 the southwest, either via Darmstadt or Heidelberg, towards Wurzburg 
 Up to Lauterburg, the Rhine opposite France, forms a line of defense. 
 The German-French boundary from Lauterburg, as far as the neutral 
 Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, however, is free, and the German terri 
 tory behind exposed to hostile invasion. To the northwest, from 
 Lauterbach, the Haardt rises, of which mountain chain already men 
 tion has been made. It fails abruptly towards the east, while towards 
 the west it gradually verges into an open, hilly ground. From 
 Kaisers Lautern, through a sort of sink which separates the Haardt 
 from the Mountains of Donner, as well as through numerous valleys, 
 there lead railroads and many other roads, from the upper Saar 
 to the Rhine, as far as Lauterburg-Bingen. The valley of the Nahe 
 forms towards the northwest, the -last chance for these communica 
 tions. On the other side of the Nahe, between it and the other rivers, 
 the Moselle and the Saar, the Mountains of the Dog s Back extend, 
 which, together with the Mountains of Taunus, surround the 
 stream, and like those latter mountains, characterize themselves by 
 their rocky ground and yawning abysses, encircling the lower val- 
 
71 
 
 leys. Along the narrow valley of the Moselle, spirally appear, oppos 
 ite the Dog s Back, the principal sections of the West Lower-Rhim sh 
 hilly landscapes, which cover the whole country half down the Maas, 
 and are known by the names, Eifel and High Veen, together with 
 the mountainous country of the Westerwald, (or Westerforest) and 
 that of the so-called Sauerland encompassing the Khine further down 
 as far as the neighborhood of Bonn. The Plateaux of the Eifel and 
 High Veen are, moreover, compressed and very rough, especially when 
 these approach the deep crevices which ultimately lead into the larger 
 valleys of the Moselle, and especially the Rhine, besides are studded 
 everywhere with isolated peaks and entire and conically-shaped 
 mountain ranges, befitting them very unfavorably for military opera 
 tions upon a large scale. 
 
 As the system of the communication answers to the topography of 
 the country, as just now sketched, it becomes evident that it is and 
 would so be found the most widely spread in the valley of the 
 Khine, between Lauterburg and Mayence, and on the other side in 
 the belt between the Rhine and the Maas. In the Eifel High Veen 
 and in the Dog s Back it has fewer branches, while among the hilly 
 lands, as well as in the Haardt, communications are mostly formed by 
 defiles. 
 
 From the peculiar condition of the boundary line, as well as from 
 the geographical relationship to adjacent objects, it is clear that mili 
 tary operations which are aimed at Paris by Germany, and at Berlin 
 by France, can be undertaken by two routes : the one by way of the 
 Bavarian palatinate of the Rhine, above Mayence, and the other 
 by way of the Upper Maas in France via Luxemburg, in the vicinity of 
 Duseldorff, or, vice versa. The valley of the Moselle, with the adja 
 cent impassable portions of the Dog s Back and of the Eifel, confronts 
 both directions of these military operations, separating both battle 
 grounds from one another. 
 
PART THE FOURTH 
 
 THE PRUSSIAN AND FRENCH ARMY ORGANIZATIONS. 
 
 It is well known that France can throw an army upon the Rhine 
 much easier than Prussia can, "because the way from Paris to Saar 
 Louis is but half as far as from Berlin to Saar Louis, and the yearly 
 frequented camp of Chalons, as well as the strong and well mantled, 
 fortresses of Metz and Strasburg, (which since have capitulated) close 
 upon the boundary of Germany, and facilitate essentially the initia 
 tive to such a mammothian enterprise. It was, therefore, on the part 
 of the Germans, no useless apprehension of such surprise, as it would 
 have forced them beyond the Rhine. But the haste with which the 
 French diplomatists accelerated the breach of peace, upon which the 
 declaration of war should immediately follow, a proof of their utter 
 ignorance of affairs in Germany, especially of military organizations, 
 prevented the execution of the attempt at a surprise which otherwise, 
 beyond a doubt, would have become dangerous to Prussia. 
 
 France, however, unable to act as quickly as the voluble tongue of 
 her diplomatists dictated, gave Germany time to rally her strength to 
 a proportionate extent. The cause itself of their delay in action, 
 from the declaration of war to the commencement of hostilities, was 
 chiefly in placing the French army on a war footing, the consequence 
 of an organization so extremely bad, that it frustrated the advantages 
 that its greater strength in times of peace decidedly possesses over 
 the Prussian. Single sections of the army, for instance, the guards, 
 soon gathered their quotum of men from soldiers on furlough 
 in and near Paris; likewise the Zouaves Turcos and the Foreign Le 
 gion, which sustain in times of peace their full strength; all these are 
 quickly put in marching order. Even the infantry has, in proportion 
 to the Prussian, far less reserves and furlough to gather. 
 
 Yet the draft requires a greater time, because the regiments have to 
 draw their men, not from certain provinces close by, but from all over 
 the country. In the Prussian military organization, however, each 
 army corps is formed of men drawn from a certain province or county; 
 for instance, Pomerania, Mark, Westphalia, etc., and the war material 
 attached to it likewise from there. Such a system for the orgamza- 
 
73 
 
 tion of army corps, divisions and brigades is unknown in France; 
 their regiments receive their reserves as promiscuously gathered from 
 all over the Empire. (Which, by the by, to California readers it may 
 be interesting to remember, has two hundred thousand English square 
 miles, with about thirty-six millions of population upon it, while our 
 beloved State, Eureka, has one hundred and eighty-eight thousand 
 square miles, and about one million thoroughly happy people upon 
 it, who, by way of a past- time, always prefer bear-hunting to man 
 slaughter, and a serene happiness to the agony of ambition.) 
 
 Besides, in France there is no organization which reaches beyond 
 the formation of a regiment. The tactical combination of army corps, 
 the brigade division and corps connections, which in Prussia are per 
 manent, have in the French army, at the commencement of a war, to 
 be newly formed. 
 
 To these military defects may be added those of State. The Gov 
 ernment is, in a manner, unnaturally centralized in Paris, which 
 tends to suffocate and stifle all progress in towns and counties, by 
 alienating the thousands of various officials there from their duty as 
 free men, to be at all times personally responsible for their actions. 
 Everything has to emanate from Paris, and unless it is there com 
 manded, nothing whatever is done in the counties. 
 
 In Germany, especially in war times, every official throughout the 
 Empire holds in readiness what could possibly, and on a sudden, 
 be of him required by his immediate superior, so that as to the 
 army, the fact maybe illustrated to its full admiration, that although 
 not a soldier of the entire army stood in the ranks on the 15th of July, 
 yet on the 4th of August, the frontier of Germany, towards France, 
 was found guarded in a manner that made a surprise on the part of 
 the French an impossibility. 
 
 But France had been busy ever since Sadowa, to put her army, if 
 not on a war footing, at least in readiness, and Minister Kouher never 
 uttered a more truthful word than when he said that peace, at that 
 date, existed only because Napoleon was not ready. May be he would 
 have waited still further, if he had succeeded in gaining Prussia over 
 to his plans in regard to the annexation of Belgium, and on the other 
 hand, by so much waiting and inertness, could have been sure that 
 the army would not have forsaken him. But the French army, ever 
 since 1866, underwent reforms ; the nation had been roused from its 
 security, although it was felt its present army system could not stand 
 securely the shock of war, especially against Prussia. Said reforms 
 were of a two-fold kind : either of a practical nature, like the intro 
 duction of the Chassepot rifle, the replenishing of the arsenals, the 
 increase of stock of small arms, the change in the system of drilling, 
 the rebuilding of eastern fortresses fit to stand the new inventions in 
 8 
 
74 
 
 cannon: or again readied the basis of army regulations, the recruit 
 ing system, or amended the law to buy off allegiance to serve ; like 
 wise the time of service in the army; the duty as reservist and the 
 establishment of the Mobile or volunteer guard. All these changes were 
 well conceived, but did not eradicate the evil. The permission to buy 
 off service had been considerably curtailed, but the main defect in the 
 French -army system: the want of every kind of reserve remained 
 unaltered to its former full and pernicious extent. As to the Guard 
 Mobile, it was but a sorry imitation of the Prussian Landwehr system, 
 which all military men have entirely condemned. Particularly bad had 
 been the effect upon the military system of the expedition to Mexico, 
 having cost so much money, and above all, having injured the French 
 nation. The Government would not dare to state the figures it had 
 amounted to. All that was done, instead of replenishing the lost 
 material, large furloughs were granted to artillery and cavalry, which 
 put the army into such a state that it required all the energy and 
 indefatigable spirit of Marshal Niel, as Minister of War, to set 
 things somewhat right. The Senate granted one hundred and fifty- 
 eight million francs, and in 1868 sanctioned a loan of four hundred 
 and eleven million francs. All this money had been expended on 
 military purposes, as re-building of forts, manufacturing of Chasse- 
 pot rifles and other war materials. To every regiment of the line 
 were added two new companies ; a new regiment of Chasseurs had 
 been formed so as to reach the former compliment of cavalry; the artil 
 lery augmented in 1867 by one hundred and twenty cannon, made in 
 Austria and Germany, and a purchase made of thirty-six thousand 
 horses, and in 1868 ten thousand horses and mules additionally. 
 Marshal Niel then declared that but twenty-eight thousand horses 
 more were needed to consider the entire army on a war footing. 
 Probably that statement had been as incorrect as that there should 
 be ready up to 1870 nine hundred and twenty-two thousand Chassepot 
 rifles. 
 
 But there were other defects in the French army which were not 
 changed by these amendments and augmentations of materials. Louis 
 Napoleon had made his Marshals millionaires, and his soldiers pecuni- 
 arly independent. In 1855 he had introduced by law the horrid prac 
 tice of a buying off service ; a miserable system, according to which 
 every Frenchman could rid himself of military duty, by paying into 
 the Dotation Fund the sum of two thousand three hundred to two 
 thousand eight hundred francs, obliging the State to find a substitute 
 for him. In order to do so, the State re-enlisted old soldiers about 
 to quit, by paying them a bonus, increasing their pay; and then after 
 the time of their additional service had altogether elapsed, granted 
 
75 
 
 them an annuity, so that army service afforded means, after a certain 
 time, of making the individual pecuniaiiy independent. 
 
 The baneful consequences of this system to the French army, no 
 body more elaborately nor truthfully depicts and explains than Trochu, 
 in his celebrated work regarding the French army. He shows therein 
 that by it the consciousness of personal duty is entirely destroyed, 
 when the State finds substitutes, and societies are formed which find 
 such substitutes even for those who with little money can secure them 
 selves against the fatal muster roll of conscription. 
 
 That the army had to deplore such comradeship taking the place of 
 volunteers from all classes of society, is the natural consequence of 
 such a system. Soldiers becoming grey in barracks cannot again 
 become serviceable as industrious citizens of the nation, having alien 
 ated themselves from society, and not unfrequently become corrupted 
 by vices emanating from idleness, especially bad whisky. Every am 
 bition which might have been advantageous to both army and people 
 is thereby wantonly destroyed and made naught. 
 
 The original intention oi this system, which so signally has failed, 
 had been to create an army personally devoted to the Napoleonic 
 dynasty, needing no yearly additions and renovations, yet ruined the 
 strength and the martial spirit of the army. Of the contingent of 
 one hundred thousand men, which, since 1856. should yearly be got 
 together, but twenty-three thousand appeared. Thus, the re-enlisted 
 old soldiers footed up one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, 
 and with other service added, viz., volunteers who choose the mili 
 tary career, officers, gens d arms, foreign legions, in all about two 
 hundred and forty thousand men. Then the military budget of three 
 hundred million francs did not suffice for four hundred thousand men 
 in times of peace, although, in fact, there were but three hundred and 
 thirty to three hundred and fifty thousand in all ; consequently, there 
 was bufc room for one hundred thousand raw recruits, which was 
 abundantly filled during seven years with twenty-three thousand men 
 annually. In a military point of view, the natural consequence of 
 this pernicious system proved to be the dying out of all strength of 
 reserves. In times of war the army was without means to recuperate 
 its strength from the people. Napoleon experienced it already during 
 the Italian war, because in case of a war with Prussia at one and the 
 same time, he had only sixty thousand men left, deducting the depots 
 and fortresses, to guard the eastern frontier of France. Afterwards 
 he tried his best to amend the fault. Why he did not succeed had 
 two reasons the one of a military, the other of a political nature. 
 From a military stand-point it contradicted the custom of annually 
 recruiting ninety thousand reserves necessary for a successful reorgan 
 ization, requiring a devotion to the task of drilling on the part of 
 
76 
 
 officers and sub-officers, which is not at all part of the French char 
 acter. In the other case, by drawing from and again returning to 
 the nation, a full third of that figure would have given to the army 
 the appearance of an army of the people, which did not at all suit the 
 plans of Napoleon. He therefore adhered to the buying-off system 
 with its old soldiers, and annually small additions, but endeavored 
 to create a sort of army of reserve this way, that by a decree of 18G1, 
 he divided the number of annual recruits into two halves ; the one 
 should serve a longer time and then be attached to the so-called active 
 companies, while the other half should be drilled but two or three 
 months annually, and later five months, and then with their flighty 
 knowledge be dismissed, yet should stand ready in>war times to serve 
 as recruits. Thus Napoleon thought of having solved the grand 
 problem of the organization of reserved bodies. General Trochu con 
 demns it by saying it does not depend upon large ciphers, but upon 
 the quality of troops. In 1869 the buying-off system was somewhat 
 modified, and the old decree of 1832 reinstalled, which made it op 
 tional to the man on duty to find a substitute. The re-enlisting was 
 abridged. After a five years service the soldier should but serve 
 another five years as substitute, and those which had entered a ten 
 years service should receive a situation in the civil service instead of 
 pecuniary remuneration. Since 1865, the first demand would bring a 
 contingent of sixty- three thousand men ; the second, with five months 
 service, twelve thousand men. In this manner, and in obedience to 
 the law of the first of February, 1868, which guaranteed after a five 
 months service a four yearly reserve, the army in nine years, there 
 fore 1877 would have a strength of seven hundred and seventy -six 
 thousand men. 
 
 But the duty to serve as reservist never suited French habits, while 
 the Prussian soldier serves as reservist six years, and as militia six 
 years. Marshal Niel then proposed to increase the Mobile Guard up 
 to five hundred and fifty thousand men from all over France, consist 
 ing of infantry and artillery, two thousand men each company. They 
 drilled, but could not be expected to stay more than a day from home. 
 Their duty should be to represent and take the place of the army in 
 large cities, fortresses, and on the coast and frontier, caring likewise 
 for security within the country. It consisted of young Frenchmen, 
 who did not serve in the army, together with volunteers, while officers 
 and sub-officers were pensioned officers and sub-officers of the regular 
 army there. Besides their pension they received a handsome pay for 
 this particular service. Since the death of Marshal Niel this innova 
 tion is, however, neglected, as it did not receive the approbation of 
 the people, especially in the south and west of France. General 
 Trochu touches these defects as not only detrimental to the tactical 
 
77 
 
 advancement of the troops, but so personally. Styling the infantry 
 the " Queen of Battles," he deplores their disregard. At first special 
 annual recruits select their necessary arms, then the best drilled sol 
 diers are attached to the guards, and finally each battalion of the line 
 adds two special companies. The consequence is, that the four com 
 panies of the center form a feeble mass. Gen. Trochu succeeded in 
 abolishing the latter so as to disperse them among the whole battalion 
 as soldiers of the first class, but he failed in demanding for each bat 
 talion a company of efficient sharpshooters besides. Gen. Trochu 
 explains the want of tactical education in French officers as follows: 
 
 " In our last wars our tactic was to allow the troops nobly inspired 
 " to run for the battle-field; as soon as the first perished the battalion 
 " advanced, but no longer compact, general dissolution ensued." 
 
 Incapable of flying, and likewise incapable of being cool and col 
 lected, they stormed onward to ascertain the cause of the effect. Dis 
 obeying the officers, they became commingled in large masses with 
 the enemy, which paralized the action of their artillery and cavalry, 
 upsetting the plan of the battle, and all the ramified and general 
 combinations which their commanders-in-chief had made. 
 
 Gen. Trochu states that the cause is the nervous temperament of 
 soldiers from bad habits acquired in Africa, reducing systematic mili 
 tary operations to a guerrilla warfare, and lastly as consequent upon 
 the rigid rules of manoeuvres in time of peace, perfectly useless in 
 war. 
 
 While the French forgot the doctrine of Napoleon I, the Prus 
 sians studied it and added to its theory the experiences of the Crimean 
 war, the Italian and the North American. The French adhering to 
 the German idea or the old Dessauer, drilled continually in barracks, 
 which proved to be of 110 use whatever in practice . 
 
 Although on the 16th of March, 1869, new orders were given as to 
 the drilling of infantry, yet France knows of its rigor little more 
 to-day than it did in 1792, which shows that France is by inclination 
 less martially than peacefully and republicanly inclined. 
 
PART THE FIFTH. 
 
 THE WAR IN DETAIL 
 
 At the commencement of the war, the French army confronting 
 the German, footed up about four hundred thousand men, although 
 nominally, all reserves included, it was given at eight hundred and 
 sixty thousand men. They comprised but eight corps in all: 
 
 Guards, under General Bourbaki. 
 
 1st Corps " Marshal McMahon. 
 
 2d " " General Frossard. 
 
 3d " " Marshal Bazaine. 
 
 4th " General de FAdmirault. 
 
 5th " " General de Failly. 
 
 6th " " Marshal Canrobert. 
 
 7th " " General Felix Douay. 
 
 The North German army numbered four hundred and ninety-three 
 thousand men, and one thousand two hundred and forty-eight pieces 
 of artillery. The militia available at any time, two hundred and 
 thirty thousand men. During war the body of reserves numbers 
 one hundred and thirty thousand; in all, eight hundred and fifty -three 
 thousand men. The South German army numbers Bavaria, seventy 
 thousand men, with one hundred and ninety-two pieces of artillery; 
 Wurtemberg, twenty-three thousand six hundred men, and fifty-four 
 pieces of artillery; Baden, twenty-one thousand six hundred men, 
 and forty- two pieces of artillery. 
 
 The entire army, nine hundred and sixty-eight thousand two hun 
 dred men, with one thousand five hundred and thirty-six pieces of 
 artillery. 
 
 Commander-in-Chief of the entire army is the King of Prussia. 
 
 1st Army Corps, commanded by General von Steinmetz. 
 
 2nd Army Corps, commanded by Prince Frederick Charles, of 
 Prussia. 
 
 2nd Army Corps, commanded by the Crown Prince of Prussia. 
 
 4th Army Corps, commanded by the Crown Prince of Saxony. 
 
 First Army Corps of Eeserves, commanded by the Grand Duke of 
 Mecklenburg-Schwerin. 
 
79 
 
 The Bavarian! Army Corps, commanded by General von der Tann. 
 
 The "Wurtemberg Army Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General 
 von Obernitz. 
 
 The Baden Army Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General von 
 Beyer. 
 
 SKIRMISHING. 
 
 The watch of the Khine gives the alarm ; 
 
 The great horn of Orlando is sounded. 
 
 Let Alsace oe mine, which does you no harm; 
 
 With Metz and Lorraine the matter be rounded. GEKMANIA. 
 
 Small detachments of African Chasseurs of the French army cros 
 sing the German frontier on the 19th of July, were immediately driven 
 back on French soil by German Lancers. The French, returning in 
 larger bodies, skirmishing commenced near Saarbruecken on the 24th; 
 at the village Gerweiler, south of the little river Saar, and to the 
 west of Saarbruecken, on the 26th ; and at Nieclerbronn, five Ger 
 man miles from the frontier, until the 30th of July, noon, when the 
 first telegram was received from Trier, which stated that the enemy 
 kept quiet. Later in the day, at five P.M., another telegram was 
 received at Saarbruecken, which said that the German infantry had 
 orders, in case of overwhelming masses, to quickly retire from Saar 
 bruecken, the cavalry only keeping the enemy in sight. It was fur 
 ther mentioned that the French were concentrating to the east of Thi- 
 onville, having vacated Gersweiler, after having been chased out of 
 the forest of St. Arnual. Next day, at nine A.M., a telegram was 
 received from Saar Louis, which informed the German commander 
 that the French were beyond Forbach, with four regiments of infan 
 try strong, one company sharpshooters, three squadrons cavalry, and 
 one battery. The idea of the French had been to separate the Ger 
 mans at Saar Louis from those at Trier, by destroying the railroad 
 which runs parallel with the French frontier from Saarbruecken to 
 Saar Louis and Trier, it being the only one which directly connects 
 the latter cities. They attempted it from Forbach, a frontier town of 
 French Lorraine, as it is situated opposite the Prussian frontier town 
 of Saarbruecken, the railroad there being but two English miles dis 
 tant from France. St. Arnual and Gersweiler, both Prussian villages, 
 are situated between Forbach and Saarbruecken, while Louisenthal 
 and Voelklingeii are little railroad towns between Saarbruecken and 
 Saar Louis. The Germans, of course, were equally industrious in 
 destroying the French railroad between Saargemund and Hagenan, 
 which traverses the Kheinthal (valley of the Rhine) down to the river 
 Saar, and might have been very serviceable to the French in trans 
 porting provisions for their troops, besides possessing other tactical 
 and strategical advantages. 
 
so 
 
 Matters became rather trifling until the 2nd of August, when sud 
 denly the French darkened the sun with the Chassepots of three 
 divisions (about forty thousand men) and twenty-three pieces of artil 
 lery, under the heir apparent, with the tremendous intention of annihal- 
 ating seven hundred and fifty solitary Prussian Leonidasians in the 
 Thermopilan passes of that anything but gappy neighborhood. The 
 fourth and fifth dispatches explain this affair earnestly: "On the 
 " second of August, ten A.M., the small detachment at Saarbruecken 
 " was attacked by three divisions and the town bombarded with 
 " twenty-three pieces of artillery. At noon the heights, and at two 
 " P.M. the town were duly deserted, the detachment retiring to the 
 " nearest station. Loss comparatively trifling. At the same time it 
 " was mentioned that Emperor Napoleon had arrived at eleven o clock 
 " before Saarbruecken." 
 
 On the same day the King of Prussia had arrived at Mayence. The 
 command over the three army corps, duly entrusted by him to Gen 
 eral von Moltke, subdivided, as they were, into the first, the northern, 
 mostly centered in the county of Trier, resting on the fortress Coblenz, 
 and commanded by General von Steinmetz ; the second, the central, 
 centered in the Bavarian palatinate, and resting on the fortress of 
 Mayence, and commanded by Prince Frederick Charles ; and the 
 third, the southern, centered in the palatinate, and resting 011 the 
 fortress of Kastatt, commanded by the Crown Prince^ of Prussia; 
 the venerable Moltke took command. 
 
 THE BATTLES. 
 
 Having issued his orders to the three army corps to advance upon 
 the enemy, the southern wing, under the Crown Prince of Prussia, 
 began, on the 4th of August, to close on the enemy at Weissenburg, 
 Alsace, and storming the adjacent strongly fortified Gaisberg, defeated 
 the French division under Douay, in a very decisive manner. Con 
 tinuing to advance, the same commander, but a few days later, 
 on the 6th, engaged the French in the first great battle, the 
 memorable one of Woerth, in which the third army put to flight 
 the first corps of the French, under Marshal McMahon, while on 
 the same day the Northern army, under Steinmetz, with death- 
 defying impetuosity, stormed the heights of Spicheren, defeat 
 ing Frossard, in command of the second corps of the French. The 
 natural consequence of these thorough victories had been that the 
 entire French army was forced to retreat towards the river Moselle. 
 
 To counteract the terrible blow which French official statements of 
 victories, instead of defeats, had dealt to the dynasty of Napoleon, the 
 
81 
 
 Emperor decided upon transferring the command of the French army 
 to Marshal Bazaine. 
 
 Be it remembered that the genius of Moltke having so placed the 
 German army as to form with its three army corps a wide half -circle, 
 of which the center under Prince Charles had not as yet been in action 
 at all, Moltke now commanded the united forces to at once close upon 
 Metz, the virgin fortress of Germany, taken from her three hundred 
 and nineteen years ago, and one of the principal strongholds of 
 France. 
 
 Although the French army had entrenched itself near the river 
 Nied, on French territory, it, nevertheless, vacated the neighborhood, 
 crossing the river Moselle, near Metz, upon the cavalry of the Ger 
 mans arriving before Metz, Pont-a-Mousson, and Nancy, together 
 with sections of the army from Strasburg. Here it was, before Metz, 
 where in three days the redoubtable Germans dashed to pieces the 
 old glory of French arms, and transferred upon themselves the grim 
 visage of Mars, who, wherever he thrones, holds the crimes which are 
 heirs to barbarism in subjugation. On the fourteenth of August, 
 General Steinmetz threw into confusion three French divisions, at 
 Pange and Courcelles, forcing them back upon Metz. On the six 
 teenth, Prince Frederick Charles having crossed the Moselle but a day 
 previously, annihilated in twelve hours, at Mars la Tour and Vionville, 
 the martial pride of selected French troops, while on the eighteenth 
 of August the venerable hero, King William, in grand command 
 of the whole slaughtering force, attacked the French in their fortified 
 position to the west of Metz, and wrung from them in nine hours time 
 the victories at Gravelotte and Razonville, beyond a doubt for ever fatal 
 to the French nation as a ruling war power in Europe. 
 
 From that hour history asserts it that the French had to yield the 
 continental power of Europe to Germany as practically consequent 
 upon this very victory, and owing to the decided superiority in the 
 leadership over the German armies in comparison with the one over 
 the French. Leaf after leaf was duly plucked by Germany from 
 gory battle fields in victories without end, in self-defence of her 
 national independence, and to wind the wreath of laurels which shall 
 forever grace the broad forehead of Germania, as the future continental 
 safeguard of peace, enlightenment, and constant exercise in humane 
 deeds of love. The newly-born sister of America will, in due time, 
 receive the baptismal of political liberty, without restraint, as the 
 natural consequence of the prodigious effect of universal free schools, 
 to be realized in times of peace only ; but until then, in the face of the 
 awful fact of being closely surrounded by less advanced, and conse 
 quently murderous and warlike nations, on the continent of Europe, 
 9 
 
82 
 
 Germany has to stand for possibly a generation to come in the unen 
 viable position of a gaoler. 
 
 It has, furthermore, to enforce law and order at home, to prevent a 
 disturbance of the prolific soil against immature republicanism, best 
 denominated " the unripp fruit of knowledge instead of communism." 
 The sound seed is long ago sown ; like upon a bed of flowers, the 
 young plants in due time appear and become visible in masses upon 
 a sudden, so shall Germany produce in due time a compact mass of 
 principally equally informed millions of men, who, in their real, con 
 sequently social amiability, shall so have universally advanced, and so 
 be considered sufferable to each other, while coming in contact with 
 one another in public life, as to be able to neutralize the chilly fog of 
 the spirit of caste, which hangs over all aristocratic atmosphere, and 
 obscures the happiness of all on the sole account of that uneven dis 
 tribution of knowlege. Dispersed, the genial warmth of the ever 
 charitable sun of enlightenment, will quickly mature reason so as to 
 make the obvious truth fully bloom in all its pristine loveliness, that 
 every man living at any time upon earth shall not merely be his own 
 independent sovereign, but respect the sovereignty of every other mart 
 he sees living next to him, near him, far and wide. 
 
 When on the evening of the last named great day, the Pomera 
 nians, the bravest of the brave, on a par in physical strength with 
 our stalwart backwoods-men, stormed, under the very eyes of 
 Moltke, all the heights to make sure of victory, when the legions un 
 der Bazaine waved for shelter towards the walls of Metz, (Moselle) 
 when at last the greatest 1 warrior of the age, the aforesaid Moltke, 
 testified to the historically astounding truth, of a complete victory: 
 Suddenly appealing before the King, merely saying, while he delib 
 erately wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, cc Sire, the battle 
 is won, the enemy retires," then it was that the French war power 
 was crushed, and European civilization rescued from the fangs of 
 surplus crime and that mediaeval superstition so easily practiced in 
 blood. 
 
 Germany, the world may rest assured, shall never have to blush 
 before it, as having had other intentions than to prepare Europe for 
 self-government, but not until that distracted division of the globe 
 is thoroughly competent for the task through education and general 
 enlightenment, which shall, like with us, ensure a peaceful permanency 
 to the republic of nations, shall she relinquish the grasp upon the 
 sword to awe the vast millions of Europe in obedience into law and or 
 der, nor cease to prevent unmerciful masses from blaspheming before 
 hand with carnage, and revenge the sacred republic and her worthy 
 disciples in France and everywhere else in Europe. 
 
 Bazaine, with a greater portion of the French army thrown into 
 
83 
 
 Metz, McMahon, with the remainder of the army thoroughly pre 
 vented from joining Bazaine, the Germans found free the road to 
 Paris. 
 
 Prince Frederick Charles immediately tightening the ring around 
 Metz, the 3d army corps, under the Crown Prince of Prussia, began 
 at once to march upon Paris in a south-westerly direction, in company 
 with the newly formed 4th army corps commanded by the Crown 
 Prince of Saxony, moving northwardly along the river Maas. 
 
 Suddenly their movements had to be changed, as McMahon having 
 received reinforcements, had quitted the Camp at Chalons (Marne); 
 but instead of hastening to cover Paris, he endeavored to again reach 
 the north, intentionally of joining Bazaine. However, the Crown 
 Prince of Saxony barricaded his way on the 27th of August, near 
 Busancy, which afforded the army under the Crown Prince of Prus 
 sia the necessary time for returning from the feint, and joining the 
 former, enabling the Germans to conjointly finish the army of Mc 
 Mahon at Beaumont, and in a manner that a junction with Bazaine 
 was henceforth not only made impossible, but the single road into 
 Belgium at all left for the disorganized columns of the French to pos 
 sibly effect their, escape upon. 
 
 Bazaine likewise had not been idle. On the 31st of August he de 
 bouched with all his forces, left at his disposal, in an easterly direc 
 tion towards Servigny and Noisseville, trying with all his might to 
 break the iron fetters of the Germans. However, the heroic resist 
 ance of the division of Kummer, and of the East Prussians under Man- 
 teuffel, impenetrable like bristling cactus hedges, forced him after a 
 fight of thirty-two hours duration, to return to his prison. During 
 the night, from the 31st of August to the 1st of September, the Prus 
 sians, Saxons, and Bavarians, forming upon the banks of the river 
 Maas, encircled the French army in a wide space to the east of the 
 fortress Sedan (Maas). With the dawn of day, the terrific battle, 
 of which history shall forever make mention, commenced with 
 what was designed to either capture or route the entire French 
 army and finish the war. The French driven from the villages Floing 
 and Bazeilles, before a fire out of 800 pieces of artillery, the circle of 
 the German army became smaller and smaller, until the enemy within, 
 inclusive of Napoleon, was hurled like Caffres into a kraal, in hurried 
 flight into Sedan. Forsaken by his own soldiers, who had lost th^ir 
 irresistible elan, and under circumstances had become demoralized, 
 Napoleon wrote to the King of Prussia expressing himself willing to 
 deliver up his sword and himself as prisoner of war. Maximum im- 
 perium sibi imperare. The capitulation of the army followed next 
 day; Marshal McMahon, being dangerously wounded^ General 
 
84 
 
 Wimpffen delivered up the army, 83,000 men, with 4,000 officers. A 
 few hours later Napoleon appeared before the King of Prussia. 
 
 The Napoleonic empire broken upon the battle-field on the 2d Sep 
 tember, 1870, which news Palikao kept secret for forty-eight hours, 
 ceased to be on the 4th of September a national institution of France. 
 With it disappeared the Empress, her son, Benedetti, Ollivier, and 
 especially, Grammont, and as usually the republic was declared. 
 
 In the most brilliant manner have victories upon victories justified 
 the Prussian military organization of 1860 as the greatest providen 
 tial fortune which ever Germany was favored by. It has served as 
 the mightiest aid towards the accomplishment of the union of Ger 
 many. The few croakers against it in Southern Germany have disap 
 peared as if by magic, and are not any longer noticing the bard 
 Count F. Filippi de Faby, who resides at a short distance from Berlin, 
 in No. 22 Place Napoleon Cherbourg, who tried to chant a poem to 
 
 them : 
 
 D un Napoleon, la gloire 
 Vous voit encore abatus: 
 C est toujour la votre histoire 
 La seul de vos vertus. 
 Vous pensier d etre invincibles 
 Soit dompte peuple trop vain ! 
 Pour toi, restant inflexibles 
 Nous garclous les bords du Rhine. 
 
 [Exit Napoleon and his bard forever.] 
 
 Created in 1860 and improved upon and introduced into all Ger 
 many in 1866, the Prussian military organization has saved Germany. 
 Through it the country was enabled to appear upon the frontier with 
 an overwhelming army, to surprise and defeat the single divisions of 
 the enemy in constant succession. The enormous number of reserv 
 ists and militia put Germany in a position to immediately fill voids 
 which a murderous fire had made, and without allowing a weakening 
 of the army of operations to take place, made it possible that strong 
 divisions of reserve could enter France, and large numbers of com 
 panies of militia could occupy the long lines of operations and re 
 possess those portions of territory which had lately been occupied. 
 
 The North German divisions of militia alone amount to over 200,000 
 men, and the South German divisions over 30,000 men. That they 
 are all very competent has become known even abroad, especially so 
 they have proved at the siege as well as in the close battles before 
 Metz. Germany would have had no chance of success in a war like 
 this, in which it not only depended upon victory after victory to pre 
 vent the enemy from recuperating, but to hold the ground which had 
 been conquered, which comprised pretty nearly one -third of France, 
 if it had not been for the Prussian organization of the army. It has 
 not only created an army of unsurpassed numerical vastness, but 
 every soldier was fit to be called one, which alone culminated in the 
 * success of subduing the French upon their own ground. 
 
PART THE SIXTH. 
 
 THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, 
 
 It appears reasonably certain that 110 monarch can fill the vacant 
 chair of Favre! Had Favre at once remained as President of the 
 republic instead of Thiers a former Minister of Louis Phillip- 
 being substituted, not only would the rebellion from the 18th of 
 March to the 19th of May, 1871, not have occurred, but the republic 
 would have been maintained quite satisfactorily to the majority of the 
 people. If the republic cannot command respect by virtue of the 
 law, how can a future monarch protect the law without access to 
 force ? It is therefore reasonable that the republic be maintained 
 and thus peace made lawful, without a name as President, whose an 
 tecedents were monarchical, and who as such must be obnoxious to 
 the very people who with glad consent declared and voted the repub 
 lic on the 4th of September. Besides, to return to monarchs them 
 selves whom the French nation indulged in only for vainglory of their 
 arms, is now made impossible since the Napoleons, so to say, self- 
 made monarchs by success of arms, and not of blue blood, are like 
 wise legitimately and consistently obliterated from their memory. 
 The second Napoleon in rule having filled, the right scale to an over 
 flow of misery for the nation, justice now lifts high the left scale of 
 the first Napoleon, with his martial and especially his political suc 
 cesses, as based and consequent upon his ambition and meddlesome 
 diplomacy, which succeeded so long in alienating the Southern Ger 
 man States from the natural tie of the Northern, upon the obtuse 
 plea that the humanization of mankind, heterogeneous as to national 
 ities, could be effected icithout preparatory education under monarchi 
 cal rule in other words, by rude force. 
 
 As to Germany, the world will admit that in regard to the Union of 
 Germany, it is nob the offspring of fear of Prussia on the part of the 
 Southern German States, but is the natural consequence of enlight 
 enment having attained its principal height in Prussia, diffused itself 
 through the North as well as through Bavaria, Baden and Wurtem- 
 berg, and is daily encouraged in by the example of America, where 
 about eight millions of citizens reside who are of German origin. 
 
86 
 
 (As to manifestations of rejoicings of the latter at the Union so 
 cemented by brotherly love, they were indeed touching in the extreme. 
 
 The torch-light processions in beautiful San Francisco a distance 
 from Germany of just about half around the globe were large 
 enough, on several occasions, to suffice to illuminate the hearts of all 
 Germany as now seen from the Cathedral of Strasburg, and make 
 them confident as sympathy can only.) 
 
 Again, the conduct of the revolutionists in Paris, proves conclu 
 sively that the greatest freedom from caste cannot aid the Republic at 
 all, unless the people become universally enlightened, and conse 
 quently peaceable, by means of a radical reform in school education, 
 and make it everywhere a municipal law that the poorest of the 
 poor children of the million have free and unpaid access, to it. 
 The pedigree of civilization rests upon merit, as merit upon knowl 
 edge, and knowledge upon developed reason through education in 
 peaceful times. It will place itself where it belongs in progress, aided 
 by the Odd-Fellowship of the appreciation of the worth of man, in 
 this enlightened age, which knows naught but of merit. That merit 
 has but one towering ambition : to please God !* 
 
 * Diverge to the very antipodes of the globe, and, for instance, place God s child 
 of a Cannibal of the Solomon group off Northeastern Australia, whose parent, 
 to-day, habitually partakes of man food, into civilized hands at a very tender age, 
 give it education, and nourish its divine soul with love, and it will be in proper time 
 as useful a member of society as anybody else. But should an uncharitable aristo 
 crat by heart, although republican by name an ignorant anthropologist, who, vexed 
 at being unable to find out whether Adam and Eve, names which shall signify the 
 first pair of the human race, who lived and were created to live the short space of 
 time upon earth, had been brown, yellow, red, black or white, where, and especially 
 when those two had been living, if such an ante-mundane visionary should get hold 
 of the little one, then, of course, *t is not to bo wondered at, should he be all his life 
 time afraid of the anthropophagic propensities of an innocent child s late royal 
 savage great grandfathers. 
 
 Forgetting that the Mongolians settled in Europe though comparatively to the Jura 
 period but a few years ago, he is incensed at the Chinese in China remaining again 
 concealed, and won t even associate with him there, nor of their own accord visit 
 him here, until he shall have proved to them in their own vernacular, which is 
 necessary for him to do, in order to introduce an effect upon their understanding, 
 how much better he is than they are, and in what his superiority over them exists, 
 and more than that, shall have convinced them of it within the top of their cues. How 
 wonderfully he will do in China, where they pretend to have never heard of earth 
 quakes in Java, or the lied Sea flooding the globe, the dense millions then of East 
 ern Asia not having been communicative, and with whom a few days, synonymous of 
 a few thousand years later, Vasco de Gama and Magellan found that virtues existed 
 which it must have taken ages to acquire for instance, that hunger is with them 
 interpreted by cheerful labor, a good appetite by health ; thirst is assuaged by tea, 
 and quarrels by smoke, and love, the priceless treasure of -the heart, is not a ware 
 which is vended in Sultanic callousness, and who as one nation foot up a concourse 
 
87 
 
 History now continues its pages of this war, as unwisely waged by 
 the Republic of France. It is, therefore, the second period of the 
 war. Before it so does, reference to important events which have 
 occurred in the east of France, take due precedent. Just as little as 
 it had been possible for the French armies to resist upon the open 
 battle-field the efficient precision of the German artillery, could the 
 fortresses in the north-east of France do it, which it was necessary 
 for the Germans to take. A number of them had capitulated up to 
 
 of 400,000,000 people, possessing a literature without an alphabet, and a language 
 without a grammar, thus realizing the solution of the greatest enigma ever heard of. 
 As to countless centuries, during which the Government has been in the hands of 
 State philosophers, and the vernacular dialects have been abandoned to the laboring 
 classes, how he will be startled to find that the Chinese language is, notwithstanding, 
 by no means the most intricate, cumbrous, and unwieldy vehicle of thought, that 
 ever in spite of eighteen distinct dialects, obtained credence among other people 
 including himself. 
 
 The fact is, it is for this Government to enlighten the remainder of the civilized 
 world upon the immediate consequences so multitudinously resulting from steam, 
 now permanently connecting the great race of mankind in Asia, inclusive of Japan 
 ese, and exclusive of Hindoos, (as being the latter taken care of by the British) 
 nearly 450,000,000 of people, with all the chances of an appreciation of our system 
 of civilization, from which consequences the realization of our hopes of success of 
 progress among mankind at large may be safely predicted, upon one condition, viz., 
 that the Chinese language be introduced all over the less populated civilized world. 
 It being the language spoken by a living people numbering 400,000,000, would be 
 far more useful in the end to know than any language except the English ; and as to 
 Latin and Greek, the wisdom derived through them from those defunct pagan nations 
 might be found, upon close study, considerably exceeded and excelled, for what we 
 are really aware of this day, by the Chinese classics, and at once much valuable time 
 saved to the LIVING AGE. A people so very ancient and great in numbers, who 
 cariy with them, wherever they happen to go for a minute or two, three standard 
 virtues of our civilization Peacefulness, Industry, and Sobriety should not be 
 reasoned with by the sword by any nation, as stamping the civilized and reasoning 
 world in their eyes as far more uncivilized and unreasonable, than they themselves are, 
 at least surely were, previous to this century, in that particular respect, and fully 
 explains that, for the present, the Chinese are not a migrating people, and when they 
 do, proudly enshroud themselves in their ancient habits, not finding the civilized 
 world at all comprehensibly superior to themselves. 
 
 Another reason is this, that they, when traveling, acquire knowledge of the Eng 
 lish language, and interpret falsely our civilization after their own concretely, pre 
 judiced fashion, because a mere smattering of a foreign language, sufficient in daily 
 life, is quite insufficient to draw wisdom from literature, nor adequate to do justice 
 to and appreciate the virtues of a people, while we, altogether, tapping in darkest 
 ignorance of the Chinese language, presumptively judge at random from hearsay, 
 knowing in reality next to nothing ourselves personally of them. All this accounts 
 that the Chinese contribute nothing to our civilization, except eatables and wearables, 
 nor voluntarily and gladly allow the civilized world to benefit them, because of igno 
 rance of their language, and prejudices of every sort against them, as consequent 
 upon general ignorance of their literature. That China and Japan are redeemable 
 
88 
 
 September, 1870, after a resistance of more or less duration of time- 
 but two of them, Strasburg and Metz, had not. Being strongly for 
 tified, they fell into German hands much later, and not until after a 
 long and laborious siege. Already in August the Government over 
 the two provinces of Alsace and the German part of Lorraine, 
 had been duly and justly transferred to Germany, as one of the 
 necessities and consequences of the war. Not only are the people of 
 Alsace and Lorraine originally German, whom the sacred duty to the 
 Union require that they should be annexed, no matter how long a 
 time they had been alienated from her, but, by abridging them from 
 France and adding them to Germany, the numerical strength of the 
 former became duly diminished, while that of the - latter augmented 
 
 in time to republicanism, through adoption of our civilization, appears very encour 
 agingly certain from the virtues aforenamed, which they very universally possess to 
 an astonishing degree, and the friendliness which their Governments and peoples 
 show America in preference to Europe, which they view as a torn-to-pieces conglom 
 eration of small nations, very far inferior to them in compactness, and as they con 
 clude, from constant wars, in all other respects. No ! our honor now forbids to rest, 
 since steam affords us a constant opportunity of coming in close contact with them, 
 until we can explain to them in their own vernacular why we are the civilized peo 
 ple, of whom they would and should profit, morally, socially, and materially, and 
 thus gain upon them the adoption of our American principles of civilization, and the 
 steady customship of innumerable articles of commerce, especially the consumption 
 of our impenetrable forests, which, on the Knitchpack, in Alaska alone, would pay 
 for the little outlay of $7,250,000 ten-fold to begin with, and which, otherwise, would 
 stay there until the next flood. 
 
 The antipathy which the civilized world has against them to-day, as absorbing 
 labor to the pecuniary detriment of our people, would last forever, as consequent 
 upon the impossibility of nationally and familiarly associating with them as yet, on 
 account of the prevailing ignorance of their language, and our pardonable prejudices 
 against their tastes, their habits, and their manners, in consequence of having, so to 
 say, but now come in earnest contact with them since the creation of the world, 
 which reciprocated antipathy befogs the true interests and enlightened duties of two 
 halves of mankind. 
 
 The time has come for the ice of clannishness and intolerance the offspring of 
 ignorance to melt, before the genial warmth of an ever-progressing, universal 
 enlightenment, and the question forever and ever truthfully answered. Has God cre 
 ated two halves of mankind, that they should live estranged upon this earth ? that 
 they should live in enmity, or be the laughing stock of each other ? Has the aristo 
 crat ever charitably conceived it that the savage lives by the same grace of the 
 Almighty Creator of the illimitable Universe as he does ? And that, consequently, 
 he should go there and befriend him, and consider the Samaritan promptings of such 
 an act in the light of a performance of a filial duty to God, and himself as a 
 gentleman. Besides, what would our civilization really amount to if we could not 
 make more money out of barbarians than they of us? Onithe other hand, in what 
 does Europe benefit America? Setting aside the immigrant question, in what would 
 it so do, suppose we had 110 commerce with Asia, with Oceanica, and with Africa ? 
 Perhaps the aristocrat will condescend to answer candidly ! Again, how those 
 
89 
 
 to approach to and form an equal balance of power of strength 
 among the two nations, which, for the sake of peace hereafter, was, 
 more than any other reclamation, absolutely necessary, and, there 
 fore, demanded of France to comply with. 
 
 The hue and cry which arose against this proceeding among civil 
 ized nations, had a treble origin, all of which three reasonings were 
 not alone unjust, but wrong altogether. 
 
 Firstly. The republicans all over the world thought it their duty to 
 be with the Eepublic of France, as Napoleon had left with no possi 
 bility of a return; who, having once not only abjured the Republic, 
 
 Chinese and Japanese yearn to learn of us, the Japanese have lately best shown. 
 Therefore, it is our turn, indeed, to quickly learn, if not Japanese, at least Chinese, 
 as being a vernacular spoken by a ten times larger nation than the Japanese lan 
 guage is diffused among, teach it in all public schools of America and Europe. 
 Waste no more time upon dead languages than is materially considered absolutely 
 necessary. Our Oriental students coming here to study Webster, Clay, and Sumner, 
 and finding us bending over Plato, Cicero, or Demosthenes, would politely substi 
 tute the great Chinese Confucius, and with all the etiquette of a devout Salaam, leave 
 for home by the next mail steamer. 
 
 The smaller scholars in our schools would be far .more amused to learn Chinese 
 than any European language, for the reason that the writing is so contrived as to 
 denote by the same character the sounds of each cf the nineteen different words, all 
 of which it equally represents, and is, therefore, very easily acquired. It is likewise 
 known that it is of no great use among the multitude in China who cannot read, 
 which would be of so much greater advantage to our people in the end. 
 
 At present it appears that of all the great scholars of the Chinese language, outside 
 that mysterious fraternity, there is probably not one who to-day can converse in six 
 of those aforesaid eighteen dialects, or could either orthographically write or inter 
 pret an important State paper without the assistance of a teacher. Alas ! Those 
 teachers, who are they ? So far to foreigners in China, on account of prejudice and 
 mistrustfulness on the part of the Chinese, for reasons above stated, the teachers which 
 can be obtained are obviously but the very scum and refuse of the Chinese literary 
 body, the plucked of the examinations, and the runagates from justice or tyranny. 
 These are engaged at a lower salary by foreigners than they would obtain among the 
 Chinese as Secretaries to a high official, if they were otherwise suitable ; and if they 
 are calygraphists, or speak a tolerable idiom, or pronounce with a certain purity of 
 accent, (although they have to be unavoidably feared as domestic spies, repeating all 
 they see and hear) they are blandly respected by some confiding Sinologue, who 
 maintains them because he can t help himself. If one of those Chinese philologists 
 should happen also to be the son of some small mandarin, he becomes to his pupil 
 a very great authprity on Chinese politics. Chinese politics ! Good ! Non-inter 
 course ! which signifies that all mankind is barbarous save themselves, because they 
 can do without the outside world of 600,000,000, and have so done for ages, together 
 with the Japanese, while we cannot do without them, because we need their teas. 
 The above teacher is, at the same time, a Petronius of Chinese ceremonial. Papers 
 are indited, and foreign policy is shaped according to the response of this oracle. 
 The Sinologue who derives his inspiration from this source, is again taken as an 
 absolute authority by the civilized world in general. He has, furthermore, to think 
 it his official duty to adopt, while he is in the flowery land, what he is given to 
 10 
 
,90 
 
 had ever since availed himself of his sovereign power to gratify dynas- 
 tical pride at the expense of the prodigal trust of a confiding nation. 
 That from under imperial robes, thus folded a republican heart, 
 should designedly have disguised itself, harboring the noble intention 
 of setting Europe free after France should have conquered its heteroge 
 neous millions and annexed them to France, upon the example of Amer 
 ica absorbing into the folds of outstretched brotherly arms the emigrant 
 from any portion of the terrestrial globe, the world has long ago 
 eschewed as a base imposition upon its credulity, and therefore exe 
 crated the Napoleons. 
 
 The idea of monarchs and conquerors taking America as an 
 example ! Why, America, no more than a Free Mason or an Odd 
 
 understand are Chinese customs, and to amuse himself the best way he can by pity 
 ing instead of studying the Chinese anti-flooded, rather antique and interesting cere 
 monial of 100,000,000 peaceable, sober, and industrious people. 
 
 Returning to the moral principle of republicanism as resting upon enlightenment, 
 it is considered the first, highest, and strongest pillar of truth, which reason builds 
 through all nges, that, the human race has equal rights and duties. An universally 
 educated country will always guarantee an easy going republic. As to France, it 
 has less idolatrous spirit of caste, and consequently is more self-possessed of a 
 manly appreciation of the principles of republicanism, than any other nation in 
 Europe. Her people are proverbial for graceful, social manners, and a jovial, 
 hilarious spirit. Proofs are, her various attempts at a republic, while every 
 where else in Europe, ignorance, and strange to say including France among 
 280,000,000 of people and their want of all personal influence and power, in con 
 sequence, was hithertofore so pitifully discernible that it could not much more than 
 be thought of by them, far less be attempted with the remotest hope of success. 
 Republicanism is altogether the personification of gentility. It is universal par 
 excellence. The definition of that word is Freedom, is Christianity, is Masonry, is 
 Odd Fellowship, etc. ; in short, is everything reasonable, good, enlightened, amia 
 ble and independent. In the United States of America every born American is a 
 gentleman by the breath of liberty. The formal European finds it out in about a 
 score of years; the poor, however, feel it upon landing that the Americans are not 
 the only ones so born. In the meantime the aristocrat suffers dreadfully from 
 ennui. Everybody labors but he : the effeminated or prejudiced European does not ; 
 at least not with that natural ease with which the born American performs that 
 wisely ordained intellectual duty by which he guards himself against sin, until the 
 habits of the European are entirely changed by the ever-tossing wheel of time. 
 Then only has he benefited by his travels, and then only does he stay where he is 
 and is genteel. As labor, demanded by the physical condition of man, is a wise 
 peremptory necessity, so it is destined to serve as the promoting power of virtue 
 and morality, being the whetstone of the intellect, when obeyed in cheerfully and 
 voluntarily, mentally or manually performed. It consequently creates that gentility 
 which is but a double progress an augmentation of the attributes of civilization 
 and an increase of the comlort, :incl happiness to the individual being. 
 
 The application of time constantly devoted to either mental or manual labor, 
 leaving no room for a waste of energy from idleness and its degrading effects of 
 slothful habits leads to the attainment of wealth. That there are among the 
 40,000,000 Americans already more substantially wealthy individuals than can be 
 
91 
 
 Fellow, thinks of forcing people into the union of brotherly love ! 
 It might as well ask a grown up Apache, or a bigamist, or a criminal, 
 or an habitual drunkard, or an infidel, or any other vicious or crazy 
 element, to be their brother ! No ! If charity demands pity of man and 
 nations in the sight of GocL. it likewise demands prudence not to 
 expose a good cause to the infallible ruin from seduction by what 
 is barbarous and fatal to it. Charity strives, by all manner and 
 means, to civilize and befriend man wherever he lives forlorn, in order 
 that he may appreciate freedom for his own and for the good of man 
 kind. 
 
 found among 280,000,000 Europeans, is traceable only to that fact of an universal 
 love of voluntary individual labor, which is instigated by personal independence in 
 a free and fabulously rich country. Such men always appreciate freedom, enjoy 
 wealth, and live peaceably. Every gentleman is peaceable when In? is at work. It 
 includes a fearful courage at the same time, when he is disturbed at it. Attack a 
 peaceable man, a peaceable nation, and the aggressor is either cut by the frown of 
 independence and the etiquette of disgust ; or, if murderously inclined, suffers 
 extermination forthwith. So it was in the war for the defense of the Union in 
 America, and so it is now for the defense of the Union of Germany. Deplorable as 
 the cases are in this enlightened age, yet they admit of no alternative. Revenge is 
 unknown, unforgiving heart s revenge. A civilized man governs himself, and 
 never offends. The law is made for ungovernable men. Every gentleman lives 
 withfn. the boundary of decorum, therefore within the pale of law and decency. In 
 the United States of America law is subordinate to the immense masses of gentle 
 men, who do not need it except as a guarantee for the comforts of life to be officially 
 testified to. As to a fear of the law, it is not so understood in America at all. A 
 gentleman fears nothing, averring rightly that fear is the consciousness of guilt the 
 remembrance of a bad action; a gentleman is never guilty of anything which might 
 be called bad; he communes with God and governs himself before he acts, which 
 leads to lawful and civilized actions makes friends instead of enemies wherever he 
 lives, which is sense well applied, and which education, good company, especially 
 Ladies , and an appreciation of art, science, and the beauties of nature, develop in 
 him. 
 
PART THE SEVENTH. 
 
 WHY PEACE WAS NOT CONCLUDED AT SEDAN! 
 
 The republicans, in other words, the entire unbiased civilized 
 world, became at last convinced that the republic of France had bet 
 ter yield the two provinces to Germany, because these were, as 
 already stated, of German origin, had been German property once 
 summarily taken, had now in monarchical fashion been legitimately 
 re-conquered, and by their population diminishing France and en 
 larging Germany, adjusted the physical strength of both nations upon 
 a satisfactory equality absolutely necessary for the sake of future 
 peace in Europe. They argued correctly that the republican cause 
 had lost nothing by the cession, if considered that Germany toJday 
 like Great Britain stands upon intellectual and moral grounds, dis- 
 guisedly nearer the principles of a legitimate, lawful, Taw-abiding and 
 therefore permanent republic, nourishing in peace only, than France 
 visibly does in spite of the latter, remaining ahead of both Germany, 
 Great Britain with her colonies, as well as the entire remainder of 
 nations upon the continent of Europe, with the only exception of 
 Switzerland and Montenegro, because it is one to-day, and the others 
 are not, which guarantees to a republic wherever it is in reality es 
 tablished, the sympathy of the civilized world with the United States 
 of America at their head, acknowledging its legitimacy. 
 
 Viewed from this consistent point of view, the idleness of the 
 SECOND ARGUMENT against the acquisition of Alsace and a portion 
 of Lorraine is likewise exonerated and explained as follows: The 
 two provinces conquered from Germany posterior to the foundation, 
 in due historical rotation, of the French monarchical power over the 
 continent of Europe, as founded by Henry IV, within that period of 
 his reign which dates from 1598 to 1610, and was possible only and 
 consequent upon the decline of Spain at the time of the government 
 of Lerma, and which French traditional power has been perpetuated 
 as such through the three consecutive dynasties of the Bourbons, the 
 Orleans arid Napoleons, up to the 4th of September, 1870, when it 
 was duly ceded to Imperial Germany by the force of this war as to 
 these two provinces republican France now says, it will not spare an 
 
93 
 
 inch of territory. What does it mean ? Do they think the people 
 of Alsace and Lorraine are consigned to perdition ? are irredeema 
 bly lost to republicanism ? which principle embraces not only Ger- % 
 many, but mankind!! No. It means nothing less than that the 
 Republic will continue in the footsteps of the principles of mon 
 archy, power! and is not sure of its permanency, being harrassed by 
 monarchical claimants and their troublesome adherents. Anyhow, 
 it is very inconsistent and very unwise if considered that Germany 
 never yet proved an aggressive spirit, nor that any monarchy ever 
 yet dared to attack a legitimate republic, and in this case, Germany, 
 a disguised republic as to comparative intelligence and fitness, and as 
 such peaceably inclined towards all foreign nations, except those 
 which shall withhold German non-republican, elements from immedi 
 ate cession to the fatherland, gives as great a guarantee to Alsace and 
 Lorraine for the future happiness of the prosperity of their popula 
 tion as France does. 
 
 Monarchical Germany can wage war against those foreign nations 
 only which call a Germanic population their own, as Austria, Russia, 
 Holland, excluding Switzerland only, where the Germans are already 
 living under a republican form of government, and need no prelimi 
 nary fostering and care, and which aforesaid nations shall refuse that 
 liberal pay or exchange for their Germanic elements, which Germany 
 is duty bound to prodigally offer for the sake of the fulfillment of 
 her sacred duty to complete the union by gathering together her Ger 
 manic elements, but never will the Emperors of Germany wage war 
 upon civilized nations with an anti-feudal aggressive design upon ter- 
 ritor} r , and indulge in a Caesarian lust for barbarous conquests gen 
 erally. 
 
 When thereupon the French republic argues : You do not take 
 the German Swiss from the republic of Switzerland, why do you take 
 the German French from the republic of France ?" The answer is, 
 that if France to-day had Alsace and Lorraine, it would to-morrow 
 forsake a third time the glorious republic and be monarchical toute 
 suite, and as such would be unjustly unforgiving, war inclined as 
 before, try as quickly as possible to recuperate, endeavor to form 
 alliaDces with all Europe if possible, and march like locusts by mill 
 ions in balloons, with the white flag or the lily flowers pending, as 
 the case may be, to Berlin as if nothing at all had lately happened. 
 That explains it for the very good of the republic, why Emperor 
 William did not already conclude peace at Sedan, because he could 
 not get from the Republic of France those strategical points and 
 lands necessary for the defence of Germany in case of a third over 
 throw of the republic. He had history as well as knowledge of the 
 character of the moiiarchically inclined portion of the French peo- 
 
94 
 
 pie to guide him, and although he proved by the acknowledgment 
 of the republic, that politically he had confidence in its permanency, 
 yet he had. duties to perform towards Germany which were peremp 
 tory in the face of the Bourbons and the Orleans being visibly about. 
 He is by no means unamiable on that account, or at all a conqueror 
 in a barbarous sense; if he was a second Barbarossa he would have 
 conquered the whole of France at once, and kept it, instead of which, 
 he was satisfied with the symbolical act of a centaurian gallop around 
 the Arc of Triumph, like a man of principle and not of retaliation, 
 in memory of his father, Frederick William III, and the entire Ger 
 many, balancing accounts with the shade of the first Napoleon, and 
 then quietly retired without further noticing the captive one at Wil- 
 helmshcehe. 
 
 When, therefore, the Germans marched on from Sedan to Paris, 
 and there around the Arc of Triumph, to finish the conquest over the 
 former general monarchial power of France, still smouldering in a 
 warlike and revengeful republic, the sturdy architect of Germany did, 
 simultaneously of time, a signal service, and a great deal of good to 
 the republican cause, which it is obvious he must have had at heart, 
 when he acknowledged the young republic born under his very eyes, 
 weighing correctly the chance of her permanency against those of a 
 disgraceful collapse as dearly affecting the peaceful growth of future 
 Germany. It demonstrated confidence in the majority of the French 
 nation, while it pointed to the olive branch of peace, which, above all, 
 should be the greatest adornment upon the forehead of the Goddess 
 of Liberty that they Republicans should not further resist as unworthy 
 of their principles. 
 
 Has ever a brave nation, or really a brave man, a good cause, a 
 noble intention, been disgraced by defeat? Can, for instance, a 
 republic like America ever be disgraced ? By whom or by what ? 
 One should- like to know. Has Christ not forgiven the very people 
 whom he could not with his two hands prevent killing him? So 
 should every republican be as good as Christ, and every man be a 
 republican, until there is not a hand lifted to strike, which makes 
 self-defense of the other unnecessary. That is why the civilized world 
 are called Christians, that we should follow his example ; that, incase 
 of helpless misery in life, of defeat, or even of death, among bar 
 barians, we possess that inner courage fortitude, resignation, and 
 faith which is ready in a good conscience at all times to cling in the 
 exquisitiveness of a loving caress to God, the Creator of the Universe, 
 by whose inscrutable wisdom we at all here do live and die. Does 
 man ever forget, or is so blind that he can t see, that he is God s son, 
 as well as anybody that is and was created by His Grace ? That each 
 tiny plant, each worm, lives by the same inscrutable grace only, for 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 95 
 
 purposes which are mysterious and yet are not ? That we live now 
 while others lived in the remotest past ? What arrogates to man superi 
 ority over the brute creation ? Man s equally distributed possession of 
 the divinity of an originally healthful reason, endowed with for the 
 purpose of living happily himself, and to make others happy, while so 
 living upon earth. Therefore, to act unreasonably, is to be cruel and 
 bad, non-republican and warlike ; and no civilized being likes to thus 
 stand degraded within himself before the great Creator. 
 
 The world now acquiesces in the cession of those provinces, as the 
 population of Alsace and Lorraine is not lost to republicanism, no more 
 than we do consider the entire civilized world lost to it ; on the con 
 trary, it is steadily preparing for it as all mankind is plainly and rea 
 sonably redeemable to it. 
 
 That by an augmentation of Germany the cause of republicanism in 
 Europe should be retarded, because Germany is as yet inonarchial, is 
 not dialectical, therefore unlogical and altogether wrong. The enmity 
 of the cause of republicanism in Europe has disappeared, with the dis 
 closure of the Germans acknowledging the Kepublic of France at the 
 very moment of complete victory, generally so seductive an oppor 
 tunity for crowned heads to forget their vows, except in this glorious 
 case of Emperor William. History has duly marked it that from now 
 dynastical rules are no longer considered stringently necessary. It 
 really and incontestably proves that Europe is far advanced in civil 
 ization ; it is constitutional ; therefore on the high road to republican 
 ism. It is, so to say, a political syllabus got rid of ; it is Protestant 
 freedom, politically and nationally practically applied, It is in 
 accordance with liberalism, as far as the untutored millions are -daily 
 more quickly becoming reduced in numbers to digest it, and be thank 
 ful for it to God only. With the King of Prussia transmuting into an 
 Emperor of Germany, and acknowledging the French Kepublic when 
 he had it in his power to absorb the whole French country, all politi 
 cal hierarchy and infallibility to rule by especial divine right is left 
 with the empty chrysalis. That act speaks volumes of rational hope for 
 Germany itself ; it is a just tribute paid to the fact of the existence of 
 enlightenment, and a constant increase of liberty in Germany ; it is 
 the unmistakable dawn of freedom. Thus reason wings itself etheri- 
 ally high, throwing off all dogmatical restraint which hinder its flight 
 .within the realm of bliss, and lives not to conquer and to die, but to 
 live and to love. With such a version of the condition of Germany 
 and all Protestant monarchial countries, the THIRD AKGUMENT against 
 the acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine is already principally refuted, 
 which advanced the theory that the Roman Catholic religion would be 
 assailed, as if religion was a terrestrial body, which could at all be 
 slain. Koman Catholics have found out by this time that Protestant- 
 
96 
 
 ism and Liberalism go there hand in hand at the same rate as Roman 
 Catholicism and Liberalism go hand in hand in Italy. In the same 
 proportion that beyond a constitutional monarchy a nation advances 
 into the highest order of civilization, the fitness for self-government, 
 which are the republics all over the civilized world, so does religion 
 advance to prepare the mind of civilized man to a direct pious com 
 munion with God. In republics it is precisely where Roman Catholics 
 and Protestants hinder each other, if at all, then very harmlessly 
 indeed, and certainly not politically, of any consequence. Their 
 occasional hatred in this age is simply nonsensical, because it is not 
 any more the offspring of ignorance and bigotry, but an old, decrepid 
 habit which is fast becoming exploded and extinct. It is on a par 
 with the hereditarily diffused blue blood of aristocracy, which fears an 
 inoculation from the lowly, forgetting that it is their crime of not 
 having educated the masses, which criminal neglect created hitherto- 
 fore all the insecurity, hatred, and general disobedience to law and 
 order. Besides, Protestants and Roman Catholics have more to do 
 than to hate each other, when they reflect a little that far over half of 
 mankind await their eloquent persuasion. 
 
 Inasmuch as republicanism testifies to civilization and signifies it, 
 so does Christianity strive to make proselytes among the nearly treble 
 number of heathens in Asia, Africa, and Oceanica, where Roman 
 Catholics and Protestants pioneer hand in hand with this noble 
 cosmopolitan purpose in view, of redeeming them to our faith. There 
 is no heart so obdurate which would not cease to hate when minutely 
 reflecting upon the vulgarity of such antipathy and animosity among 
 Christian brethren, that it involuntarily reminds one of a poem by 
 Tiedge, about a hundred years old, which always elates and edifies 
 wherever and whenever it is read: 
 
 "PIETY . 
 
 Alas! should st from Thy grave 
 
 Thou greatest sufferer! arise; 
 Once more teaching, bent upon a stave, 
 
 A wanderer through life, so wise! 
 Should st Thou behold the mischief all!! 
 
 How they pervert the truth, this gift 
 Of wisdom, plain, yet so beautiful, 
 
 Flowed from your lips, the soul to lift! 
 How they disdain all love s affection, 
 
 Press persecution from Thy teachings, 
 Which teach to love and bless upon reflection ! 
 
 How they forget all tolerant doings, 
 Which bear with faults, love what is good 
 
 And Thou, alas! dejected by contumely 
 Up to thy very last in Cypress blood 
 
 Hast exercised upon Thy murderers truly. 
 
97 
 
 Thou would st now shed a tear 
 
 So bitter! as ever from Thy mortal eyes 
 Then fell upon the olive mount so dear. 
 
 And should st Thou here your teachings 
 Yourself reveal they would: these elves 
 
 And pseudo exegetics hearken to proceedings, 
 Who hear no one but themselves 
 
 Should st Thou, however, dare to differ; 
 Not do, as bid by their presumption, 
 
 Not believe in Thee, except through their transfer 
 They would surely crucify you twice. 
 
 Free schools to all liberally paid for by a government, acknowledged 
 as the divine right of mankind to their heavenly dowry, " reason," 
 which education enables them to further develop in active life for the 
 purpose of being able to lead a happy and useful existence, and to 
 cosmopolitanly appreciate republican life, as guaranteeing the inde 
 pendence of man while it rests upon the individual ability of piously 
 revering the commands of God so obvious to that effect is the first 
 doctrine of civilization practically applied. 
 
 The French nation hithertofore barricading the way of Germany to 
 uniting her elements, had to be disabled by physical force of contin 
 uing it in the face of the degree of civilization attained to in the 19th 
 century of the Christian era. The French had to be thoroughly dis 
 abled for that purpose; it was absolutely necessary, and one may as 
 well assert, the will of heaven that the provocation to this war, which 
 accomplished the union, should have been given by France. Now 
 while the iron is hot, the Austrian Germans, the Eussian Germans, 
 and Holland ought at once to return to their original national allegi 
 ance; the quicker it is now enforced by Germany, the better, for 
 France recuperated, unless she remains republican, might ally with 
 Austria and Russia for the same vainglorious purpose of conquest as 
 of yore. But if fourteen millions of Austrian Germans, together 
 with all the other non-republican German elements outside of Ger 
 many, as that country to-day shows its configuration of forty millions, 
 are added to it, then peace is permanently established in all Europe, 
 and with the rise of another generation the Germanic race in Europe 
 may be predicted shall be republican. In the meantime Germany 
 and England unite to allow education to take a deep root, and what 
 ever revolutionary disturbances may take place in Europe, they will 
 rightly pronounce them premature, and take care of the north of 
 Europe. United Italy, on the other hand, will take care of the south 
 of Europe, being now unmolested by France a republic so that 
 Spain and Portugal, together with the rest of the south of Europe, 
 may f not be disturbed in their earnest strides for progress. Republi 
 can France is equivalent to peace. Every republic is equivalent to it. 
 11 
 
98 
 
 On the other hand, nobody will dispute in Germany and England 
 that the love of country is sacred; but to say, to prefer a monarchi 
 cal government to a republican, and to try to prove it, that life and 
 property, law and order, are safer and greater, would show an effem 
 inacy of manhood, which is quite unnatural to any sensible being, 
 and has but one parallel that of a rich bachelor, or amiable maiden 
 Lady to make the world believe they live happier in their single 
 blessedness than if they were married, as if they knew anything at 
 all about it. Again, take a widower or widow Lady deprived of his or 
 her playmate by death or lawful divorce, and observe how quickly 
 they again embrace matrimony at all hazards. So it is exactly with 
 an intelligent and moral man who once has lived in a republic, and 
 should change his domicil and again live in a monarchical country; 
 how he yearns until he has returned to the republic. As to the Uni 
 ted States of America, there is not a man who ever lived in sunny 
 California is absent abroad upon some occasion or other, who would 
 not readily exchange the world for his lovely Eureka. 
 
 One of the most potent reasons why the remainder of the civilized 
 world acquiesced in the cession of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany, 
 was besides the impossibility of preventing it by force, the justice of 
 the case itself, which clearly demanded it. The idea to deprive a 
 victor of his booty, after the entire Germany had been exposed to the 
 chances of ruin, and had to offer upon the altar of Liberty a life, a 
 human life, of greater value than the universe, and more than that, 
 tens of thousands of such sacred lives, ignorant people only could 
 have harbored, or worse than ignorance of theirs that Germany, which 
 had just now positively proved a sagacity and strength greater than 
 any continental nation in Europe possesses, could so have been reck 
 less and soft as to leave a conquered country empty-handed, and all 
 out of womanish mercy and sickly sentimentality, knowing, as all the 
 world does, that thereby it would have actually encouraged France 
 to a repetition of the same sort of intent to at an early convenience 
 invade Germany as in 1870. Better ask a tiger to give you back the 
 lamb; war is barbarous and conducts itself as such, vice versa. 
 
 This gandering arose at Sedan, and continued at Paris (beautiful 
 Paris, a third of which demolished by exasperated French citizens) 
 that Germany could afford to be magnanimous and abstain from 
 humiliating France. Of course she could, bui^ see France five years 
 hence, as hinted before, resume the same business of frightening 
 peaceable nations. No ! the Bowie-knives had to be kept ; leave 
 France to-day as strong as Germany, and there is never any peace. 
 For that reason Germany now adds all her Germanic elements, dom 
 ineered over by foreigners, for the purpose of being not only equal 
 but stronger than France, in order to arrive at a permanent European 
 
99 
 
 peace. It is then immaterial, in a strictly political point of view, 
 whether France remains true to the present republic or not. 
 
 As Germany does not aggress for purposes of conquest, surely 
 France cannot be parceled out like helpless Poland. So Germany 
 took pay in those two provinces, and Metz as the key to the European 
 powder magazine of wars, for no other reason than duty to the Ger 
 man fatherland. 
 
 This action, was, therefore, never intended to humiliate France, no 
 more than the First Napoleon ever intended humiliating Germany 
 by overrunning the whole country. It is by no means retaliation, 
 which is as urichristianly as war itself, but simply proves that war 
 lurks in ambush, and that the Christian disciple is insincere.* 
 
 Germany acts, therefore, extremely wise, if she continues to absorb 
 all Germanic elements throughout Europe, for the one purpose, and 
 as swiftly as possible: to outnumber France in population, as France 
 might forsake the Republic, for the third time, and again go to war. 
 
 * Kather should man ensnare the strong lion and rhinoceros and other felines and 
 pachyderms living upon earth, although even those cannot be exterminated because 
 they are there and eminently dangerous no more than the most destructive arms 
 can exterminate war, despotism and revenge; the guillotine aristocrats, or a Bar 
 tholomew s night, the Protestants. The weapon successfully wielded against fury, 
 injustice and intolerance is equal knowledge. It is by reason that man and nations 
 shall govern himself and themselves, and overcome difficulties as God points to the 
 aforesaid physically thousand-fold stronger creation that it shall be so. 
 
 Look upon the street, and you will find the divine nationality of the race the 
 promiscuous multitude of human beings of equally puny height within an inch or 
 two, as being equally destined by God to live socially, contentedly and hopefully in 
 the world. It is the clue to the truth that the rights of man are the same which 
 knowledge the developed reason explains and duly expounds. You will find 
 them following each other through this life like monkeys crossing a stream, co con 
 tinue upon the other side in safety and harmony. That swarth for man is wisdom 
 to live peaceably everywhere and enjoy life socially. It is reason fully developed. 
 It is the Eden found upon earth ; the lee-side of the storm of war and individual 
 passion. It is wisdom ^liow to lice. 
 
 As God gives life, he takes it and nobody else dare. 
 
 I 
 
PART THE EIGHTH. 
 
 THE CAPITULATION OF STRASBURG AND METZ. NAVAL 
 ENGAGEMENTS. 
 
 The province of Alsace and the German portion of Lorraine were 
 therefore added to Germany, and Strasburg and Metz taken, as per 
 emptorily necessary for future safety. The fortress of Strasburg, so 
 bravely defended by its commander, General Uhrich, from the llth 
 of August, yielded the keys on the 28th of September, at last. Nei 
 ther the investment nor a dreadful bombardment, which unfortun 
 ately devastated a large portion of the city, with its columns and 
 treasures of arts, proved of avail to induce the heroic General Uhrich 
 to surrender. A regular assault had to be made before success 
 crowned the heroic efforts of the great German General von Werder. 
 Hoisting the white flag to the world renowned Strasburg Cathedral, 
 at the immense height of 430 feet, it being the 27th of September, 
 1870, reminded Germany of how, 198 years ago, that celebrated city 
 was torn from the German empire by France. The day of that anni 
 versary, the 27th Sept., 1870, the fortress mournfully capitulated. A 
 month later the energy and perseverance of the German troops were 
 likewise and equally brilliantly recompensed by the success before 
 Metz. After having nine long weeks invested the place, apparently 
 an invulnerable one, suffering hunger and cold, and exposed as a 
 target to a deadly fire of grape, and having repelled those energetic 
 assaults of ^Bazaine s, which he ventured on even after the battles of 
 Noisseville, of Peltre, of Mercy, of St. Remy, and at last of Woippy, 
 on the 7th of October, which latter lasted nine hours; then it was at 
 that critical moment that the misery of the besieged becoming an ally of 
 the Germans, induced the proud Marshal, with 173,000 men, to capit 
 ulate. At the castle Frescaty, on the 27th October, 1870, this event 
 received its historical signature, and the second French army corps, 
 like the first one, was sent into captivity to Germany. So the laurels 
 faded which Bazaine, the victor of San Puebla, had not long since 
 usurped in Mexico, while Prince Frederick Charles had patriotically 
 gathered new ones at Metz, in France, similarly to the Crown Prince 
 
101 
 
 of Prussia, the victor of Orleans, had gathered his, both receiving the 
 rank of Field-Marshal Generals, as memento mori in due conse 
 quence of their services to the German nation, and the well deserved 
 sincere thanks besides. 
 
 Less prominent than were the successes on terra jirma, yet not 
 without importance to Germany, were those at sea, in the memorable 
 summer and fall of 1870. General Yogel von Falckenstein, having 
 been appointed Governor-General of all the lands upon the German 
 coast, issued, on the 24th of July, a demand for volunteers to join 
 the marine. Then torpedoes were laid and the coast properly forti 
 fied to prevent the possible landing of the enemy, and the little Ger 
 man fleet lay ready at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven to cope, to the best of 
 its ability, with the by far stronger one of the French, relying some 
 what upon the ignorance of the French of the geography of the coasts 
 of the North sea and the Baltic. Strange to say, the French fleet was 
 really unsuccessful. Barely two engagements deserve mention : the 
 one off the island Ruegen, and the other off Weichselmuende, 
 the harbor of Danzig upon the Vistula. In the West Indes, off the 
 Moro of Havana, the German gun-boat "Meteor" preserved the 
 honor of the German flag in a bout with the " Bouvet." The Ger 
 man ships " Grille," and " Nymphe," had done similar brave acts in 
 the German waters. 
 
 In the meantime, the second period of the siege of Paris had com 
 menced to develop itself against the Republic of France. 
 
 On the 19th of September, the larger portion of the German armies 
 had reached Paris in forced marches, forming a huge and strong gir 
 dle of some forty odd English miles in extent around the city, which 
 the statesman under Louis Phillippe, the venerable Thiers, had once 
 metamorphosed into one of the strongest fortresses upon the globe. 
 It was about that time that peace appeared near at hand, for suddenly 
 the President of the French Republic, Monsieur Jules Favre, appeared 
 at the German headquarters, soliciting an interview with Count Bis- 
 rnarck respecting the chances for an armistice. But their auspices 
 were not good, and the non-republican conduct of the French at the 
 time, of not yielding what was demanded by common sense and 
 equity, and had and should be granted to the Germans as victors, 
 frustrated their accomplishment. This political blunder on the part 
 of the young republic has already been explained at large upon pre 
 vious pages. Suffice here once more to say that the world at large 
 approved the cession of territory for the purpose of the equalization of 
 the military strength of the two nations, and a payment of five mil 
 liards of francs for damages besides, for what, in fact, "cannot be at 
 all refunded: the divine lires of human beings, having died by thou 
 sands, contrary to civilization. Therefore, war continued, and more 
 
102 
 
 sanguinary in proportion to the resistance offered than before. In 
 fact, all France arose and followed Gambetta, to try what was neither 
 wisdom nor republicanism, but savored much of hatred and revenge 
 instead of patriotism. Besides, as might have been foreseen, it proved 
 unavailing. 
 
 The damage done by the French to France in these national efforts, 
 in the way of destruction of roads and property, was a severe lesson 
 to the young republic for having disgraced the sacred republican doc 
 trine of peace, having parliamentary ways at her disposal to force 
 Thiers to leave. The excuse for self-defense on their part was inad 
 missible, because the Germans had been found ready to accept peace 
 against being paid for what was fair, and besides were known as not 
 harboring any intention whatever of an opprobrious kind, as touching 
 the independence of France. As to the frantic fury of the French, in 
 trying to prevent the organized German armies of continuing their 
 besieging operations before Paris, it was, as might have been expected, 
 ineffectual. 
 
PART THE NINTH. 
 
 THE SIEGE OF PARIS, AND THE BATTLES AGAINST THE 
 AKMY OF THE LOIRE. 
 
 General Trochu having been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 
 besieged forces within the walls of Paris, by the Kepublican Govern 
 ments at Paris and at Tours, had an army of at least 350,000 men 
 under his command, inclusive of National and Guards Mobile. The 
 numerous and good artillery within the forts consisted mostly of 
 marines. Scarcely had the Germans completed their investment, 
 when the sorties of the French commenced, demanding incessant 
 attention on the part of the Germans. The latter, however, soon 
 made their work in a manner thorough, that, after destruction of the 
 subterranean telegraph lines, the French had no other way of com 
 municating from Paris with outside France than by balloon, which 
 was rather an out-of-the-way mode of communicating, on account of 
 accidents from shots of the enemy, and also under circumstances 
 of being so very uncertain. After the King of Prussia had moved 
 his headquarters to Versailles, the residence of Louis XIV, the 
 sorties of the French became often ostensibly to exercise the troops, 
 but intentionally to break through the enemy s lines. On the 7th 
 October they pressed towards Malmaison ; on the 13th towards 
 St. Cloud, which latter castle was destroyed by their own grape from 
 Mount Valerien, and on the 15th towards Villejuif. The battle on 
 the 21st October, near Malmaison, in the presence of King William, 
 was very severe, as were those near Le Bourget, on the 28th and 30th 
 October, which place had to be stormed by the Prussian Guards in 
 the most heroic manner, signifying severe losses of the latter in offi 
 cers and men. 
 
 The month of November went off comparatively quiet, because the 
 newly-formed provincial armies had to receive their first teachings 
 from the mythological Mars ; the forts, however, keeping up a lively 
 but expensive cannonade, which resulted in a dead German costing 
 France about 80,000 francs. 
 
 Gambetta had gone early in October, by balloon, to Tours, to there 
 organize three new armies, known as the army of the Loire. The 
 
104 
 
 venerable Garibaldi, the celebrated General of Italy, appeared among 
 them, and, with his two sons, took command. But the defense, 
 nevertheless, degenerated into a guerilla warfare, in spite of the 
 remonstrances of Garibaldi, through the formation of bands of 
 Fraiic-Tireurs, or sharpshooters, who, lying in ambush } like at Ablis 
 and Chatillon, tried hard to decimate the gallant Prussians, by mur 
 dering them. It was, therefore, luck, indeed, for the Germans that 
 Metz fell into their hands the latter part of October, which enabled 
 them to send a great army against them to silence them forthwith. 
 Part of the entire army of the Germans remained before Paris, the 
 other under Prince Frederick Charles and the Grand Duke of Meck 
 lenburg, was directed to operate against the army of the Loire. Thus, 
 the battles of the Germans against the French Republic were fought 
 by three armies stationed : the first, easterly, south of Alsace, the sec 
 ond along the River Loire, and the third in the North of France. 
 
 After Strasburg had capitulated, General von Werder had the com 
 mand assigned to him over the Eastern army, consisting of Baden 
 troops and Prussians, with whom he cleared Alsace the first half of 
 October, in the skirmishes at Champenai, Nompatelize, Epinal, and 
 other places, leaving nothing of weight but the strong fortress in the 
 mountains named Belfort, the siege of which was commenced later 
 on the 8th of November. Upon this, General von Werder, reinforced 
 by the reserve army of General Lowenfeld, advanced south upon the 
 Eastern army, under General Cambriels, and upon the Garibaldians. 
 The first he vanquished in the fight at Oignon Lake, and the latter 
 he drove out of Gray, invested Dijon, (Burgundy) Montbeliard, and 
 Dole, and then spread his operations toward the west, the upper part 
 of the River Seine. On the 22d November, the General was attacked 
 by the Garibaldians, at Nuits, who felt somewhat more confident 
 since their surprise at Chatillon. He stood it bravely, so that when 
 a few days later the venerable hero, Garibaldi, repeated the attack, 
 near Pasques, trying to circumgo his location near Dijon, he, the 
 commander of Strasburg memory, scattered the Garibaldians on the 
 26th and 27th November. 
 
 Now succeed the battles in the south, the great battle-field of this 
 war, which occurred from October 1870 to January 1871. These were 
 indeed the most difficult, complicated and laborious of the whole 
 campaign. Already in September raids of cavalry had been made 
 against the army of the Loire down towards Orleans. In the early 
 part of October the Bavarian General von der Tann, reinforced by 
 the Crown Prince of Prussia, marching their respective armies south 
 and engaging the enemy in victorious battles at Toury, Etampes and 
 Artenay, forced the latter to retreat towards Orleans. That city they 
 stormed on the 12th of October, after an engagement of nine houis, 
 
105 
 
 which sent the French across the Loire. Shortly afterwards, north 
 of Orleans, General von Wittich annihilated a French army at 
 Chateaudun, and taking the city, invested Chartres on the 21st of 
 October. Towards the end of that month the German armies in the 
 south, especially those under Prince Charles, had been largely in 
 creased after Toul, Soissons and Metz had been taken, and the end 
 of the war supposed to be near at hand. Such was, however, not the 
 case. The energy of Gambetta must have been of an enormity truly 
 admirable, although it was not wisely conceived, for not only did he 
 manage to largely increase the army of the north, under Bourbaki, 
 the army of the west under Keratry, and the army of the Loire under 
 Aurelles de Paladine, but he put the same on a regular war footing. 
 The latter General, who had already early in November more than 
 80,000 men under his command, tried now to cut off the Bavarians at 
 Orleans, he having a vastly superior force at his disposal, and if suc 
 cessful, to reach Paris forthwith; circumstances favored him so far 
 that General von der Tann had to give up Orleans, and after the fight 
 at Coulmieres had to retire upon Toury, although the Grand Duke of 
 Mecklenburg had put to flight part of the army under Keratry, on 
 the 17th of November, near Dreux, and General von Wittich had 
 forced back a second portion of the enemy s army upon Chateauneuf . 
 Matters stood thus doubtful, when Prince Frederick Charles came to 
 the rescue, and thoroughly routing Paladine on the 28th of Novem 
 ber at Beaune la Eolande, while on his way to Paris, prevented a 
 serious conflict, for General Trochu, informed of the intention of 
 Paladine, made those energetic sorties at Brie and Champigny on the 
 30th of November, and 2d of December, respectively, in consequence 
 of which history has taken note that these have been unfortunately 
 very sanguinary, but nevertheless were repulsed. Simultaneously 
 with these events General Manteuffel cut off the north army under 
 Bourbaki, preventing it from reaching Paris, by defeating it at Amiens. 
 In spite of all these disasters the French were by no means discom 
 fited. Dismissing Aurelles de Paladine, and gathering the disheveled 
 masses, (which Prince Charles in the meantime had promptly pursued, 
 retaking Orleans on the 4th of December) under General Chanzy, in 
 the west, and under Bourbaki in the east, it had been shrewdly 
 decided to intrust the army of the north to the most intelligent gen 
 eral of France, General Faidherbe, as ceded to him by General Bour 
 baki. The French army was now divided into two commands, in 
 stead of as formerly into three. General Chanzy endeavored to stay 
 the advance of Prince Charles upon Tours, which city, the Govern 
 ment fancying defeat possible, had wisely quitted in time, and 
 adjourned to Bordeaux, but was defeated a second time in battles 
 lasting four days from the 7th to the 10th of December at Beau- 
 12 
 
106 
 
 gency and Marchenoir, retiring towards le Mans (Oiieannais). The 
 iron Prince, together with the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, contin 
 uing their pursuit, chased the French out of Yendome on the 15th of 
 December, and took possession of the whole line from le Mans to 
 Tours. Not, however until January, after many skirmishes had taken 
 place, was the army of the west thoroughly beaten. The battle of le 
 Mans (province Orleannais) lasting four days, finished Chanzy and 
 the army of the west. The severity of the winter had assisted the 
 Germans as it did of yore the Kussians against the first Napoleon, 
 besides the Germans are, as were then the Russians, used to such 
 horrid cold weather France, therefore, could not be saved in that 
 direction. As to the second chance : the army of the north under 
 Faidherbe had to succumb to the superior vigor of the Generals Man- 
 teuffel and von Goeben, although the former, General Manteuffel, 
 had had to evacuate St. Quentin (Picardie) after having invested 
 Rouen, the great manufacturing town upon the River Seine, famous 
 for its iron works, and Dieppe, a small seaport. Yet he managed to 
 throw the army of the north, fully 60,000 strong, upon Arras, after 
 the French had suffered a second defeat near Amiens (Picardie) on 
 the 23d of December, two days before Christmas. 
 
 General Faidherbe, nothing daunted, tried it once more, early in 
 January, to attack General Manteuffel, but the Germans stood the 
 brunt well nearJBapaume, on the 2d and 3d January, 1871. General 
 Manteuffel, upon being transferred to a command in the East, General 
 Goeben took charge of the German army of the North. He, likewise, 
 was attacked by Faidherbe off Cambray, but the Germans repulsed 
 him a third time in a battle near St. Quentin, (prov. Picardie) which 
 Jasted seven hours, and this time in a manner which was equivalent to 
 a rout. 
 
 While all this took place, Paris having now been invested over three 
 months, yet unwilling to give up the keys of the city, having managed 
 to get at sufficient food some way or another, and being determined to 
 resist to the last, approached its fall. From the 19th to the 22d 
 December, General Trochu debouched, but without success. The 
 German artillery at last did the work effectively ; it destroyed the 
 strong position of the French upon Mount Avron on the 27th and 
 and 28th December, and on New Years day 200 cannon sent the molten 
 gifts of Vulcan into Paris and the forts, with compliments from 
 General v. Karneke and the Prince of Hohenlohe, Paris was para 
 lyzed. Once more, on the 19th January, the French tried it near 
 Mount Valerien, but were again defeated under the very eyes of 
 Emperor William of Germany. General Trochu had now to leave 
 his command, and President Favre appeared, on the 24th January, at 
 the headquarters of the Germans at Versailles, to negotiate for a sur- 
 
107 
 
 render. Paris then had been in a state of mutiny. At midnight of 
 27th January firing ceased. Next day the armistice was agreed to, to 
 last three weeks, which handed Paris over to the Germans after a 
 siege of four weeks. From said armistice, however, the Eastern bat 
 tlefield was excluded. 
 
 A constitutional assembly was formed at Bordeaux, which should at 
 once decide upon the future form of Government, in order to be ena 
 bled to make peace. 
 
 The 18th January, 1871, had its especial significance. The King of 
 Prussia had been, on the 16th December, 1870, unanimously declared 
 Emperor of Germany by the German Reichstag, after a proposal by 
 the King of Bavaria, on the 9th December, 1870, to all the German 
 Princes and free cities of Germany. On the 18th January the victorious 
 Emperor celebrated the historical event in Versailles, only seventy 
 years after the Kingdom of Prussia had at all been founded. 
 
 The month of January was likewise decisive in the East. There 
 stood Garibaldi with his volunteers, reinforced by the new army of 
 Lyons, under command of General Bourbaki, whom Gambetta wished 
 to throw back the weaker numerical strength of Werder, should retake 
 Belfort, (Alsace) and march into Northern Germany. Good ! the 
 idea was by no means bad, for danger there was ; therefore the Ger 
 mans quickly sent aid to Werder, by the 2d and 7th army corps, 
 as he had to retire before overwhelming forces from Dijon upon 
 Vesoul, in order to cover Belfort. But even before all these auxiliary 
 troops were upon the spot, the heroic Werder had repulsed Bourbaki, 
 in a three days fight at Montbeliard, which forced him to retire to 
 Besaiiqon. 
 
 The second plan of the French to unite with Garibaldi was likewise 
 frustrated. The brave General was attacked at Dijon by the Gist 
 Regiment, and had to remain there, which enabled the 2d army corps 
 to arrive unobserved, and place itself between the two combatting 
 armies, and in a manner that, with Werder, surrounded the entire 
 French army under Bourbaki. There was then no other alternative 
 left for the latter but to either surrender or retire into Switzerland. 
 On the 1st February, at Sombacourt and Frasne, Bourbaki fought 
 desperately and lastly, but he was thoroughly defeated, and his de 
 moralized army had to disarm before the Swiss General Herzog. 
 
 The celebrated, and very bravely defended fortress of Belfort, in 
 Alsace, capitulated, on the 16th February, with free egress of its brave 
 garrison. 
 
 The eight months are gone the war finished ! What horrors ! and 
 yet how small the hope that it has been the last. May the Omnipotent 
 console those loving mothers, sisters, wives, and brides. Man cannot, 
 nothing on earth can ; not a deluge of tears could. May he send to 
 
108 
 
 us all a genius, who shall know how to prevent bloodshed among 
 civilized nations ! since everybody reads the Bible, and nobody fol 
 lows the doctrine of peace. 
 
 When it is asserted that in 180 clays 156 fights, and 17 nrore or less 
 battles occurred, that 26 fortresses more or less strong were stormed, 
 373,000 prisoners made, 6,700 pieces of artillery taken, and 120 
 standards and other military emblems were conquered ; that these 
 astounding victories gave back to Germany what is hers, Alsace and 
 the German part of Lorraine, together with Metz, and reimbursed the 
 nation for the costs of the war with about 1,300,000,000 thalers, equiv 
 alent to five millards of francs, and enlarged Germany to 9,900 square 
 German miles (a German mile is about equal to 4J English miles), 
 with a population of 40,000,000 upon it, and divided into twenty-five 
 States, then it may be rightly supposed that the peace made at Frank- 
 fort-on-the-Maiii is based upon the physical impossibility of France 
 of ever again attempting to disturb it. 
 
 Setting aside the moral improbability of the republic of France, 
 so far forgetting her advance in civilization as to again fall back into 
 the fetters of monarchical rule, it is a national and sacred duty in 
 cumbent upon Germany, to propose without delay to Austria and 
 Russia the cession of the German provinces upon the most liberal 
 terms, at the same time peremptorily insisting upon compliance with 
 such a natural and patriotic demand. It is supposed that nearly 
 twenty millions of population of German origin are living under for 
 eign monarchical rule. There can be no peace until these have re 
 turned to their national allegiance; besides, an alliance might be 
 arranged at any future time between recuperated France (should it not 
 remain republican) Russia and Austria, as it is so easy to tear to pieces 
 what blood upon battlefields has cemented, and monarchs dispute 
 anew. As monarchy signifies war, and the republic peace, and the 
 one is based upon physical and the other upon moral strength, so 
 does it appear as extremely unlikely that peace can be applied to 
 Europe as long as Germany is not among monarchical nations the 
 highest power of physical strength. Bound as she is then to meta 
 morphose herself into a correctly acting republic, she is, at least, up 
 to that time a bulwark of force and a tower of strength against Aus 
 tria, Russia and France, should the latter prove a sham and undue 
 the republic. As this last hypothesis is now unlikely, as France takes 
 a high rank as a republic, having succeeded in quieting the rebellion, 
 Germany will easily manage with Austria, Russia, etc., either peacea 
 bly or by war. 
 
 But their Germans must belong to the general nation at all hazards, 
 and upon any condition. It is the great desideratum of the age, the 
 centralization of the nationalities. It is done in the interest of civil- 
 
109 
 
 izecl mankind; it will accelerate age by age the promulgation of the 
 commands of God, who created neither nations nor countries, but 
 the independent being upon the one land, of the earth. France, at 
 present impotent, and as a republic, unwilling Great Britain the 
 natural ally of Germany in case of war with Russia, Austria and the 
 remainder of European nations Avar will not be resorted to on that 
 account, and the Germans be released against any amount of money 
 and non- Germanic territory. 
 
 As to Poland, she has a more natural future among the broad Scla 
 vonic race which it is the destiny of Austria to henceforth gather; 
 and as to Russia, she has a similar one from among the more dis 
 persed and heterogeneous nationalities of the entire northern Asia.* 
 
 The world wishes France well; it is fully aware of her misfortune; it 
 has ascertained abroad what her grief is at home. The Nouvelliste 
 in Rouen, repeating the words of the novelist, Alexander Dumas, 
 who acquainted the world with the grief of France in the following 
 touching passage, says: "For the moment it s clear, that the invasion 
 has conquered and muddled us, that the rebels have cleaned us out 
 and dishonored us, that the country has lost two of its most beautiful 
 provinces, that the most elegant third of Paris is in ruins, that the 
 capital of the civilized world has proved again in 1871 what it did in 
 1793, viz., that it stands always at the disposal of horror, and that 
 our people possess the same qualifications as Kings do, viz., to learn 
 nothing from misfortune. Public disasters, private misery, irrepar 
 able losses of life, of inspiration, of love, of hope, of luck, of labor, 
 of faith, an enormous foreign debt, a senseless one at home, humilia 
 tion, disheartedness, doubt, apprehension, gloom, high and low, and 
 everywhere gloom, dispersion of families, dissolution of parties, a rout 
 of principles, and especially a double current ; of an instinctively 
 
 * The world has a right to exchange opinions in regard to the future of nations, 
 which have undergone a radical change either in prosperity or adversity. It is es 
 pecially inclined to wish well to the unfortunate as in accordance with the tower 
 ing principles of civilization. It is one of its most ennobling traits to be charitable. 
 As in individuals, so in nations, to sympathize with the afflicted and to be always 
 ready to stretchout the helping hand to the needy without waiting to be called 
 upon so to do, shows the true disciple of Christ, applies practically the finger sign 
 of heaven, so feelingly illustrated by the act of the Samaritan, as the sweetest nutri 
 ment to the living soul upon earth. The greater the delicacy with which these 
 heavenly inspirations lead to the act of charity, the more the donor prevents the 
 blood mantling upon tho cheeks of the holpless recipient the more delightful is the 
 moment of ineffable bliss of having done one s duty in a grandly religious manner, 
 and the more visibly does Providence reward him upon the spot. As it is at the 
 same Unite the equally distributed chance to all of heavenly wealth, it proves that 
 the principle of benevolence is the developing element of gentility and general civ 
 ilization, planted by education, and germinated by religion. 
 
110 
 
 double need of reprisals and rest ; of retaliation and resignation, of 
 hatred and love ; that is, in a few words, our situation at this hour." 
 And, possibly, it is ; but France is not lost no more than a gentleman 
 is. A mind full of faith, repentance, energy, and health, lives ; it 
 views crucification as purification ; it draws strength from defeat, and 
 fortitude from sorrow ; it is the sunlit-smiling earth after the raven 
 blackness of a tempestuous night ; it is, above all, a momentarily 
 clearer conception of the hope of an eternally blissful hereafter, as 
 powerfully convinced of by the inimitable existence of life, of the mo 
 ment in so grand and obviously perishable a world in common with 
 us, awaiting the further will of Heaven, to continue altogether, and 
 thus realize the purpose of creation. 
 
 France is a republic, and Dumas is too severe when he says she has 
 learned nothing from misfortune; she has learned a great deal: she 
 has learned to conquer the rebels, what she didn t know when she 
 allowed Napoleon III to forsake the republic scarcely twenty years 
 ago, which proves that there are to-day far more enlightened men in 
 France than ignorant ones. In whatever country that is the case, 
 freedom is permanently at hand. Educate! educate! continue to edu 
 cate every child living, and pay for it by law, and you will strengthen 
 the republic and uproot vice upon this earth, circumgo the intoxicated 
 profligate gambling parent (the cause in all countries of the growth of 
 vice in children), crime and wars ! Education and peace live upon 
 reason and love; their strength cements the union and the universe, 
 and social life becomes not only bearable, in a rigorous conventional 
 point of view, but shows its divine nature ; as men approach each 
 other naturally, the All-wise wills it that there should be no distinc 
 tion except the sweet rivalry of how to add to the usefulness and hap 
 piness of one another, until the moment of life, which is in God s 
 hand, is by Him recalled. France has leveled these distinctions, by 
 force upon Napoleon, disowning his vows to the republic, and be per 
 mitted so to do, instead of like Washington standing by the side of 
 the people and be forever beloved. Great Britain, Germany and 
 Italy will level them peaceably. France the Gallic race is impetu 
 ous; the Teutons are not; they await all the effects of universal edu 
 cation upon the worth of man to appreciate freedom quietly and 
 resignedly. Their govermeiital heads at least mean well or else the 
 world had to despair of their sincerity ; they change the diet of the 
 patient in proportion to his convalescence. They await the arising of 
 the million in the terrestrial garden of free air and liberty with joy 
 and hope, as every physician does who is not a charlatan, and can 
 premise the time of convalescence as far as study goes, and the Al 
 mighty s heavenly will in the case commences. 
 
Ill 
 
 Although France is a republic, and as such synonymous of peace, 
 and has proved her inner strength by the subjugation of her improp 
 erly educated brethren, yet she may as well remember for a while 
 longer the significant words of Picard in his proclamation of the 27th 
 of February, announcing the entry of the German troops into Paris. 
 The confused monarchical spirit among some incorrigible minds, is 
 still a heavy incubus upon an easy-going young republic, setting aside 
 the customary dynastically selfish attempts of the three dynasties 
 plotting an entry, to either one of which it would be idle to suppose 
 for a moment that the French nation would forget itself so far as to 
 listen. Picard said, " We conclude peace with the expectation of 
 " future retaliation," at least many so said with more or less distinc- 
 tiveness, and many French who do not say it think so beyond 
 doubt. It would be difficult to teach those who pushed the war, liv 
 ing upon glor}^ and brooding over the chances of enlarging the terri 
 tory of the country, to henceforth think otherwise. This great 
 knowledge of the character of many, guided Bismarck in asking 
 proper security for peace in the shape of territory belonging to the 
 republicans. To continue the war to the knife was as unwise of the 
 republic as it was impolitic and useless. Has ever a sensible man 
 doubted the bravery of a Frenchman ? Of what use was, then, an 
 idle attempt to struggle with the giant of fate ? All it did it showed 
 lack of wisdom. To cope with impossibilities, is to compare man, frail 
 as he is, struggling in the grasp of a pachyderm. If the French made 
 peace upon this comparison, and not for wisdom s sake, then they are 
 really to be pitied, for there are three realities, which are as clear as 
 daylight, that they cannot regain what they have once lost as Ger 
 many is too intelligent to idle and vegetate upon war laurels. It is 
 ahead of France now, and will labor to so continue. 
 
PART THE TENTH 
 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR UPON FUTURE CIVIL 
 IZATION. 
 
 Above all this war has demonstrated to France the complete mili 
 tary superiority of Germany. France possesses really better small 
 arms ; but the great physical strength of the soldier, the more thorough 
 organization of the army, and the better discipline and the superiority in 
 moral qualities, has everywhere been acknowledged has given victory to 
 the Germans. Those are, indeed, superiorities which cannot be easily 
 acquired, even in a long time, especially if the national character and 
 public affairs are not exactly favorable to the performance of exploded 
 war measures; viz., upon universal military service France is not 
 likely to decide, on account of its principles of republicanism. 
 
 France has no inclination for this earnest exercise of military duty. 
 A preponderance of physical strength is, therefore, put out of reach. 
 The French people diminish slightly in physical strength, as this war 
 has evidently shown. Increase of population advances much slower 
 in France, in percentage, than it does in Germany. The ex 
 haustion in France of disposable men took place quicker during 
 this war than it could be possible among the Germans, setting aside 
 that the French enlisted old men and small youth promiscuously. 
 Besides, in a few years from now, after the Prussian system of the 
 organization of the army shall have been adopted by all Germany, 
 both North and South, Germany shall have far more numerous armies 
 than at present. The times are not yet such as to disband soldiers 
 and make working men out of them. The Rhine is not quite so broad 
 as the Atlantic ! This alone will make the French think twice before 
 they overthrow the republic and commence a dynastical war. 
 
 The second reality is the changed boundary and the new constitu 
 tion of Germany. The boundaries of Germany hithertof ore, as good 
 as if they stood widely open, together with the political separation of 
 the South from the North, were a great seduction JOY France under 
 either of the three dynasties to wage war with her German neighbors. 
 To-day Germany has finely locked boundaries, and stands united to a 
 man against the combined continent of Europe. 
 
113 
 
 What must be her security of peace to Europe when the foreign 
 non-republican Germans are added to the Union ! Then she may force 
 Europe to disarm, and be the first to do it. 
 
 The third reality is the financial impossibility. In the French 
 Budget for 1870, the interest of the national debt absorbed already 
 twenty-four per cent, of the entire income ; army and navy, twenty- 
 eight per cent. At present, the costs of the war, so it was stated at 
 Bordeaux, footed up three and a half millards of francs, besides the 
 five millards which she has to pay to Germany. At five per cent, this 
 enormous debt of eight and a half millards of francs adds to itself 
 annually 425,000,000 of francs. The ease with which she lately paid 
 the first installment of the debt to Germany, although it proves propor 
 tionately large wealth, and but little impaired credit, yet is the dam 
 age done by the rebels fearfully great, nor was the destruction of 
 property, both private and public, by any means small, which the 
 French in their eagerness to defend Paris, rashly considered neces 
 sary to destroy, in order to keep off the enemy. Likewise the lost 
 material of war, during the campaign, upon both battle-fields, as well 
 as in the fortresses, has been of note. As all this will be felt for 
 many years to come, France cannot retaliate even if she was not repub 
 lican ; she has, therefore, to reduce the expenses of the army and 
 navy, which, in 1870, comprised about 590,000,000 francs, and has to 
 change her tariff and income taxes. France managed, during the 
 reign of Napoleon III, to pay four milliards of francs war expenses ; 
 and when in the summer of 1868 she made a loan for army expenses, 
 etc., and everybody anticipated a war with Prussia, which then only 
 was prevented by the revolution which had broken out in Spain, said 
 loan was signed thirty-four times. At the high rate of 69J francs for 
 three-francs bond, equivalent to 115 5-6 for five per cent., fully fifteen 
 milliards were put at her disposal. It was, indeed, a speaking witness 
 of the accumulated wealth of France. It is an historical fact. To 
 this same extent it is deplorable that these milliards of France are 
 nearly gone already. The Pays so stated it in the fall of the year 
 (1870) as having been expended upon the war up to that time and 
 until its end. It cited the figures : 
 
 1 milliard for armaments from 1868 to 1870. 
 
 1 i do. for destroyed and rebuilding of fortifications. 
 
 1J do. for arms, and cannon, and other war materials, which 
 the Germans have destroyed and taken as booty. 
 
 2 do. for destruction of buildings, fields, and other immovable 
 
 property, by both the French and their enemy. 
 1 do. for complete and partial ruin of manufacturers, farmers, 
 and speculators. 
 13 
 
114 
 
 2 J milliards for payment to Germany for the cost of the war (which 
 has since then been doubled by Bismarck). 
 
 2 do. for losses consequent upon the direct effect of all these 
 misfortunes. 
 
 These figures are rather summarily taken, yet they may have come 
 within the knowledge of the exchequer. At least Pouyer-Quertiers 
 stated in June, 1871, after this war was ended, and the damage done 
 could be somewhat less vaguely estimated, that loans had to be made 
 to the figure of eight milliards. Then it has to be considered that at 
 least fourteen counties in which the war waged could not produce any 
 grain, and the remainder seventy-five had 110 hands left to do the 
 work. Most of the manufacturers were equally stagnated. The 
 harvest of 1870 had not been gathered in at all upon a large section 
 of the country, and in other parts it was wilfully destroyed that it 
 might not fall into the hands of the Germans ; besides, was not a good 
 one in consequence of insufficient rains. This want of grain, last 
 year, has proved since then to have been severely felt, as could not be 
 otherwise expected. 
 
 Another consideration is, that the rich had left the country, at least 
 would be absent for a long while ; in short, the non-republican conduct 
 of waging war has added losses upon losses without necessity. As to 
 the world, generally it does not admire at all heroism of bloodshed in 
 any shape any longer. The days of Ciesarism are over, and the poet 
 writes the epitaph : 
 
 Caesar Galliam subegit, Caesar noster maximus, 
 Castra fregit et Gallorum hostium exercitus, 
 Fugans milites Suaves Gallicosque Zephyros. 
 
 Imperator Germanorum, Caesar noster maxinius, 
 Regnuin fundat exoptatuin, rem exoptatissirnam 
 Nobis adferens a flava Sequana in patriam. 
 
 En Augustus imperator, Caesar noster maximus, 
 Fines auget Germanorum, quondam elieu ! perditos, 
 Lotharingi cum Alsatis redeunt in patrios. 
 
 Ecce venit Triumphator, Caesar noster maximus, 
 
 Ecce venit in triumpho maximus exercitus, 
 
 Ecce venit Pax triumphans, fructus noster aureus. 
 
 Unfortunately the proximity to each other of so many largely pop 
 ulated and warlike nations in Europe having made it indispensable 
 for self-preservation to study the science of life destruction minutely, 
 it has fortunately developed itself to a degree that it is not likely that 
 war shall again be resorted to for purposes of settling political diffi 
 culties by it, as it borders upon the aboriginal character of cruelty. 
 
115 
 
 As to the present war it demonstrates but the ancient principle of 
 how to carry it on victoriously. The initiation or strategical inde 
 pendence is the main point. The genius of the commander-in-chief 
 secures it to the army, holding it in readiness to commence operations 
 sooner than his antagonist, arid if at all possible, with a numerically 
 stronger force. The Germans acted upon this principle, and the 
 result has been astonishingly good and unprecedentedly successful. 
 The French were always taken by surprise. All the German gener 
 als listened to but one voice : the King s of Prussia in grand com 
 mand, with General Moltke as his immediate executive. 
 
 The French had Napoleon, and Napoleon had Leboeuf. Unfortu 
 nately, Napoleon resigned his command and placed it in the hands 
 of two commanding generals instead of one, which proved ruinous. 
 
 The Germans quickly cutting Bazaine off Verdun and Thion- 
 ville prevented his junction with McMahon, forcing the latter to capit 
 ulate. When Bazaine decided to retreat upon Verdun, he wasted 
 forty-eight hours, as he had to return the same way, which enabled 
 the Prussians to blockade his way. Equally slow McMahon ap 
 proached Stenay, moving to and fro without covering his inarch at all. 
 It is well known that the Germans at Saarbruecken as well as at 
 Mars la Tour, were much weaker in point of numbers than the French, 
 not having at all concentrated their strength; yet they conquered 
 through mutual and timely assistance among each other during the 
 fight although Napoleon I used to say that two-thirds of success 
 is the consequence of calculation, and but one-third luck; it appears 
 that the Germans calculated all three-thirds the whole war through, 
 not having lost a single battle. Fifty thousand cavalry covering at all 
 times the armies, while preparing for battle as well as while march 
 ing, it cannot be said otherwise but that they carried out this plan 
 methodically, which realized their victories. Wars carried on with 
 the assistance of railroads, telegraphs and needle-guns, are almost 
 new; at least the old Bulow system is exploded. Troops are trans 
 ported three times quicker than before, and heavy war materials fif 
 teen times. The French already in their Italian war in 1859, availed 
 themselves of railroads. It appears that the destructive needle-gun 
 and chassepots procrastinate the commencement of the fight. Bayo 
 nets and cavalry have changed their importance but little, except that 
 the attack commences from far greater distances than before. The 
 artillery aims 5,000 paces and ceases with 1,500, while formerly it 
 commenced firing at 1,500 paces. And as to the mitrailleuse of the 
 French, it has proved of little service. The dreaded French mitrail 
 leuse requires as great a circumference as its organization is expen 
 sive and preparation costly, without even coming up to anything like 
 t he effect which the canon has in all collective points of consideration. 
 
116 
 
 It likewise offers to the enemy s fire an equally large aim as the canon 
 does. In firing at large distances it proves to be of little or no ac 
 count, because its absolute capacity to hit is too deficient, the room 
 it can command too small, and an observation almost impossible. 
 Upon small distances the densely collected sharp-shooters of the 
 enemy are as dangerous to it as to artillery in general. Towards 
 troops behind covering, it cannot be used at all, because its shots have 
 not the power to pierce nor to scatter. To initiate the offensive it 
 cannot be used, and for defense, it can aid the infantry then only 
 when the necessary room for the front is wanted in order to direct the 
 sufficient number of rifles from a suitable position for instance, in 
 the defense of narrow mountain passes, etc. It is, therefore, very 
 rare indeed that it can aid the infantry advantageously. These 
 are the reasons which convince that canister shot will not be largely 
 resorted to in future wars, as long as this sanguinary way of settling 
 difficulties is at all tolerated by civilization. 
 
 Strange to say the terrific battles of the war of 1870, were, after all, 
 less sanguinary than those of Borodino and Waterloo. The German 
 loss at Gravelotte is estimated but at six per cent., and that of the 
 French at eleven per cent. , as the consequence of firing at very large 
 distances. The so-called lack in war is now, fortunately, put into so 
 small a compass, through knowledge, which includes the knowledge 
 of the inhumanity and crime of war, that peace, which is the well 
 applied knowledge of civilization, will soon conquer war to the only 
 and true glory of sound sense as the element of knowledge. Thus, 
 Germany, at least, being both physically and intellectually the domi 
 neering power OD the continent of Europe, will force war back among 
 nations that henceforth shall prove their semi-civilization by a reck 
 less provocation to it. On the other hand, she will endeavor and 
 succeed in a diplomatic way, conjointly with Great Britain and 
 America, to pacify beforehand the temper of nations having differ 
 ences to adjust, so that the tender growth of the proletariat of man 
 kind into the social circle of gentility, as the grand object of civilization, 
 may not be disturbed by wars any more. It cannot be heralded often 
 enough throughout the world that wars are the consequence of a void 
 in civilization on the part of the great masses of the population form 
 ing a nation, from which deplorable fact had sprung in ancient times 
 the dire necessity of monarchial governments, which, in adjustment of 
 the degree and nature of barbarity thus lawlessly practiced, and in 
 consideration of the number of millions thus found barbarous, ruled 
 autocratically. In proportion to the waning of barbarity in the mil- 
 lions of a nation the rigor is relaxed, and a constitutional government 
 adopted, until the nation at large has altogether emancipated itself from 
 
117 
 
 every remnant of feudalism, and is able to govern itself, adopting the 
 republican form of government. 
 
 Man then lives peaceably through the power of culture, and appre 
 ciates reveringly the sovereign power endowed with by the Creator for 
 His inscrutable purpose of the human race at all existing upon earth ; 
 therefore, while so living to be personally independent, to live hap 
 pily, and to act humanely. The republican government thus appears, 
 and really is the clerkship of a nation, as composed of such an enlight 
 ened fraternity, of whom every one is supposed to avail himself of the 
 full republican trust of personal independence to render himself 
 through life better in virtues than he is, and the nation at large to 
 progress the civilization of the age by socially developing their moral 
 acts, and unitedly apply them. 
 
 On the other hand, how quickly a nation can recover from the shocks 
 of a devastating war lasting four years, to-day the condition of the 
 United States proves best. The victorious Union had to make loans 
 to the amount of over $3,000,000. The quick recovery was made pos 
 sible by immediately after the war reducing the expenses of the army 
 and navy to the utmost extent. France, of course, is not as rich in 
 resources, and capability of standing heavy losses, as the United States 
 are. Although famous for its manufactures, yet the French people, 
 like the remainder of European continental people, are rather ne 
 cessitated to value money, the whole of Europe footing up as much 
 land as is about arable in the United States of America. 
 
 When four years afterwards one of the most distinguished men of 
 progress of this or any other age, Ex-Governor of California, Leland 
 Stanford, planned the greatest technical enterprise of the day, a 
 through railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it became evident 
 that the thinking, laboring people of the United States had forgotten 
 all about the war. And if not so fast as the people of the United 
 States, still the French will recover. Her national property will 
 steadily reproduce itself in its principal sections. The French, with 
 a vivaciousness of spirit rarely found, inhabiting a fertile country, 
 although but as large as one single State among some odd thirty of 
 the United States, the State of California, still its situation, the 
 national character of the people, will soon forget the debt of five mil- 
 lards of francs, provided they follow the example of the United States, 
 and disarm, as demanded by the principle of the republic, and then 
 impose a very heavy import duty upon every superfluous article of 
 luxury which the rich can stand and the poor don t care for. 
 
 The French national character has excellent qualifications. The 
 French are sober, industrious, parsimonious, and singly very peace 
 able throughout the country the clubs of Paris excepted. What is, 
 therefore, understood by the word, " the people/ these have found 
 
118 
 
 out by this time, through the pressure of debt, what is meant by 
 bearing the incubus of royalty. 
 
 The idea of being dazzled by royal splendor in this age would 
 show an Indian taste, as everybody knows that it is despotically main 
 tained at the expense of the people, to the detriment of their ability 
 to directly provide for themselves more comforts of their own choice, 
 and deprives the nation from superintending the expenditure of such 
 regal money for the benefit of all, in the manifold manner in which it 
 is done in America. 
 
 But the pressure of debt will operate upon France ; her economists 
 shall attentively read J. Stuart Mill, the English national economist, 
 or send over to Washington for information. Franee shall soon be out 
 of debt. She shall be vigilant as to the Bourbons, Orleans, Napole 
 ons, these so-called hereditary adherents to royalty. That there 
 is a minority of benighted people left at all times, and in all civilized 
 countries, who adhere to legends of such a past, is deplorably unal 
 terable. These are like corn-flowers in a wheat field which has been 
 ploughed and resown a dozen times ; they are both of no account, 
 simply beautiful to look at ; the economist and farmer are accustomed 
 to them. The Orleanists, it is vividly remembered, openly said : 
 "France is rich enough to pay for her glory." What glory? The 
 glory of ambition and of conquest the crime of murderous wars. A 
 nice glory in the face of reason and America ! ! of civilization and of 
 practically applied common sense ! an inadmissible theory an ex 
 ploded practice ! France is now fully convinced that wars are non- 
 republican, wicked, and belong to mediaeval times and ungovernable 
 people. This war did it. Sebastopol, Syria, China, and Mexico were 
 not enough, nor the splendor of the metropolis could hide the cripples 
 in the glare of the sun of day, nor the neglect of the thousands of the 
 needy. But now the French Republic, having proved by the over 
 throw of the rebellion that by far the greatest number of the popula 
 tion of the country are aware of the danger that is consequent upon 
 rebellion, and more so from aristocrats who created rebellion, by not 
 educating the poor, they will, in the face of the five millards of francs 
 which their last doings levied upon them all, take good care that it 
 does not reoccur. They shall not listen to chauvinists who harangue 
 a republican, country with retaliation. The nation will know how 
 to put into the legislative body men universally respected and care 
 fully voted for, who are enlightened, and consequently peaceably 
 inclined, and industrious, producing citizens withal, and who, as such, 
 put out of the way the old seductive budget of the army and navy, 
 reducing it, like in America, to a reasonable and legitimate standard. 
 Taking America as an example, where a. President of the United States 
 receives $25,000 per annum, because he would feel hurt if the country, 
 
119 
 
 the people, should be forced, on account of his position, to support 
 him as if he was a cripple, and not a worthy man, the worthiest of 
 them all, in their own judgment, who labors and is happy to do his 
 duty to the country at all times, which, like the religion of man, is 
 rewarded from within and not without. The French should now make 
 a law which prohibits the exchequer to be drawn upon for w T ar pur 
 poses, it being then to rescue native-born citizens from incarceration 
 while traveling, like the English nobly did it in Abyssinia, the 
 Americans lately in Corea, China, and in this war the Germans mem 
 orably repulsed the French. Such wars are in their nature necessary 
 in this age lawful constabulary proceedings. They rest on a differ 
 ent principle altogether ; it is simply self-defense, like the Union of 
 America defended itself against rebellion, any nation against invasion, 
 man against a murderer, or the exercise of force is used in the main 
 tenance of law. How often do we hear people in Europe exclaiming : 
 :( Life is not safe in a republic !" the idea as if they could not reason 
 ably comprehend that life is everywhere safe if man takes care of him 
 self first. It is little credit to a man, and looks very suspicious in a 
 nation, to ask a gens d arms to do it for him. A gentleman includes 
 the guarantee to himself, through his gentlemanly behavior, that he 
 has no enemies, and that consequently his life is safe. 
 
 Besides there are far more robbers, etcetra, bad people in a monar 
 chical country than in a republic, on account of abject poverty: the 
 consequence of a lack of social freedom to enable man to better his 
 condition himself, and so perfect himself in the legitimate exercise of 
 his individual sovereignty, which is his right. 
 
 One of the weightiest reasons of all, which can predict to the repub 
 lic of France a speedy recovery from the calamities of war, is the utter 
 void of retaliation on the part of the Germans during this war guar 
 anteeing to France no unnecessary disturbance in future, which con 
 cerns her. The republic knows well that public opinion best shields 
 it against foreign aggression, but if ever it should prove weak, 
 and allow an attempt at overwhelming and overthrowing the republic 
 to be successfully made a third time culminating in royalty, which 
 signifies war against Germany, then Germany shall demand full pay 
 of the old score of 1806 and 1808, and in proportion to the following- 
 figures : If 4,500,000 Prussians who inhabited a piece of territory 
 after the peace of Tilsit as concluded by Napoleon I, of 2,856 square 
 German miles were obliged to pay to the French nation; thalers, 
 245,000,000, Prussian currency, how much, shall 35,500,000, or more 
 of French people have to pay, in land and money, who live upon 
 such a date of the declaration of war against Germany, upon a piece 
 of territory exclusive of colonies of just about 200,000 (English) square 
 miles ? A fresco painting with an appropriate inscription, should im- 
 
120 
 
 mediately adorn the tribunal of the presidential chair, in the legisla- 
 lative hall at Paris, that the solution to the above Pythagorean prob 
 lem may paralize the effort of any member there who shall intend to 
 annul the republic ! 
 
 France now dutifully takes every surplus franc; firstly, to educate 
 the million, and, further, expends it upon the proletariat in comforta 
 ble abodes, after the Peabody plan, and lawfully and carefully looks 
 after it. France does it in a truly charitable, republican manner, and 
 so should all Europe. 
 
 The houses for the inebriates should be all over Europe multiplied, 
 and the river Styx dammed off, the waters of which are intoxicating 
 beverages, which infuriate. The latter mammothian enterprise will 
 set millions to work, for the river Styx overflows the whole of para 
 dise upon earth, fertilizing in it the domain of Satan Sin. As among 
 civilized nations the Americans are the most industrious people, among 
 mankind the Chinese, and of all creation the bees, nature so proves 
 by its love of labor the superiority: .of the one in universal individual 
 comfort; the other, one-third of all mankind, in the comparative free 
 dom from vice; and the third, by the accumulation of honey, which puts 
 at all times to shame the labor of the most industrious man. Our 
 dreadful ignorance of the Chinese language, debared us, hitherto- 
 fore, from estimating properly those 400,000,000 of living people, but 
 the time is at hand, since steam girdles the world, when civilized 
 nations may learn a great deal of them, as they constantly do of 
 nature. Besides the English and the Americans, the French republic 
 has the best chance, thanks to the acquisition of those six provinces 
 in Anam (Cochin-China), which are theirs, to reimburse the nation 
 for the outlay, at the time of what was intended not to reach all, like 
 in a republic, but be absorbed by the Napoleonic dynasty. 
 
PART THE ELEVENTH. 
 
 PEACE. THE NEW BOUNDARY OF GERMANY. 
 
 After the capture of Naplecm III at Sedan, and the flight of the 
 Regency from Paris, Germany found herself in a dilemma of the most 
 serious kind. She saw nobody with whom to conclude peace. With 
 whom, therefore, was an idle question, because it could not be 
 answered. Germany was ready to make peace, asking nothing but 
 security for the impossibility of France to ever again rise in the offen 
 sive against Germany, as well as for the covering of the costs of the 
 war. Napoleon, in spite of his captivity, was yet the legitimate head 
 of the nation ; "the latest legitimate expressions of the wil] of the 
 French people, the plebiscitum of May, 1870, had not been canceled 
 nor revoked. The Legislative Body and the Senate, though by force 
 dispersed on the 4th of September, could not be considered as having 
 been sent away by the nation ; on the other hand the Provisional 
 Government of the Republic existed, acknowledged, at least, by the 
 majority of the^people. De facto it had no legal basis to rest upon, 
 because the French nation at large had not been consulted in regard 
 to sanctioning it. Germany therefore reserved to herself, Napoleon, 
 or his Regency, to make peace with ; or again, with the Legislative 
 Body of France, or with the party of national defense, respectively: 
 with a committee so authorized by France to conclude peace. Napol 
 eon, therefore, was treated at Wilhelmshohe not as a prisoner, but as 
 a fugative Emperor, at the same time that Favre was admitted to 
 the German head- quarters soliciting to negotiate for an armis 
 tice and convoke a provisional government. The latter attempt was 
 given up at the end of September, a second time at the end of Octo 
 ber, when Thiers had returned from his visit to the various neutral 
 governments of Europe, and was formally introduced by them to the 
 French nation as the proper person who, and with whom, peace could 
 be negotiated. He came, introduced by monarchs, but not by the 
 republic of France. However, the government of national defence, 
 organizing new armies and sending them to Paris, preferred a sort of 
 dictature to both Theirs and peace. They intentionally evaded a 
 14 
 
122 
 
 national representation of the will of the people. At last negotiations 
 were cut off altogether, which was surely not the fault of the Ger 
 mans. 
 
 This dictature must have believed in the ultimate success of the bat 
 tles, and so the war was resumed. 
 
 Matters remained in stafti quo until the armies were everywhere 
 defeated, and Paris could not be saved. 
 
 At that time, about the end of January, 1871, Germany might as 
 well have taken Paris and its forts, made 180,000 prisoners, disarmed 
 the national guards, occupied the town and forts, assumed the cus 
 tody over the exchequer of France, and introduced the police into 
 the clubs. All that was possible and executable after monarchical 
 maxims generally, but the original question, with whom to make 
 peace? what finishes the war? remained unanswered. In that case, 
 as just now mentioned, peace could not be concluded with the pro 
 visional government. The government a prisoner as Napoleon had 
 been made one at Sedan had no authority to negotiate for peace. 
 In Bordeaux Gambetta continued war ; he would indeed have con 
 tinued it until all France would have had to be occupied by the Ger 
 mans, and even then the question could not have been answered, with 
 whom to negotiate peace. Of Napoleon, the Germans could not 
 think any longer, nor of his Regency, as both had lost every influence 
 in France ever since September, 1870. The Napoleons were indeed 
 consigned to oblivion by the French nation. 
 
 Germany, instead of taking and occupying Paris, found, never 
 theless, the way to make peace. The provisional government in 
 Paris had not to be disturbed, that was the idea. It could not pos 
 sibly be, accomplished. It had to be so managed that the provisional 
 government, which was well aware of the necessity on its part to 
 make peace, had to so conduct itself that the war party should res 
 pect it, and then take measures for an election all over France, 
 which should lead to a new national government. That by it peace 
 would be arrived at, was expected as natural. The armistice of the 
 28th of January was, therefore, an important step towards it. It 
 saved Germany the trouble of transporting 180,000 prisoners to Ger 
 many, and the pacification and. support of the excited Parisians, which 
 their own government enjoyed. Another advantage was that the 
 neutral powers could be convinced of the moderation of Germany, 
 and its earnest desire for peace. Already Gambetta ceased his war- 
 cry; early in February the elections took place, and proved, as was 
 duly predicted, a large majority in favor of peace. A chief of the 
 executive was appointed by the national assembly, the first legitimate 
 government since the 4th of September, who, imbued with the neces 
 sity to make peace, duly negotiated at German head-quarters for it, 
 
123 
 
 and signed the document accepted by the national assembly at Bor 
 deaux. The preliminaries of peace were solemnly and mutually rati 
 fied at head-quarters, on the 2nd of March, and the answer to the 
 query found and given. 
 
 From these preliminaries to the " definitive peace," was not an easy 
 matter to proceed, by any means, and not expected by either party 
 on the 26th of February, when the preliminaries were settled, that it 
 would be so difficult to bring peace about. In France existed a lawful 
 assembly, and a government accordingly. Nobody could foresee 
 what pretensions might be made on the 18th of March, to question 
 the rights of the national assembly and its executive of government 
 to make peace. The case was strangely exceptional: indeed without 
 example in history. And still there arose one. It was the Paris 
 commune. Still stranger the revolution spread in quarters of Paris 
 within range of the north and east forts, occupied by the Germans. 
 The danger of this rebellion was the possibility that the conduct of 
 the metropolis might be imitated in other large cities of France; then 
 again, the great weakness and helplessness of the government with 
 which Germany had concluded peace ; likewise the consequences of 
 the possibility of a successful rebellion, or one so partially as it, would 
 affect the exchequer of France by retarding the financial and eco 
 nomical growth of it, of interest to Germans at that moment. As to 
 Germany, she kept perfectly quiet ; the Germans had nothing to do 
 with internal French quarrels. Besides, another difficulty arose, 
 from another direction : the French government, though anxious to 
 conclude peace as quickly as possible, and to be on good terms with 
 Germany, exerted itself to postpone the conferences at Brussels rather 
 than push them. Doubts arose after all whether they could or would 
 be in favor of peace. The German empire had 110 representative at 
 Versailles who might have found out and informed the country of the 
 true cause of this vascillation. The situation was to such a degree 
 delicate and perplexing that the Germans were about to take Paris 
 without further ado, and keep it as a pledge until the French should 
 bend to the necessity of making peace. Bismarck, however, adroitly 
 managed the difficulty. He hit upon the expedient of personally con 
 fronting the French ministers, and succeeded admirably. He soon 
 found out that the difficulty rested on a misunderstanding. Not only 
 did he find the French ministers at Frankfort quite tractable, determined 
 to make peace, and as quickly as possible, and by no means bashful 
 as to acknowledging the truth : that France could very well afford to 
 pay so just a sum of money. Whether it was a change of climate 
 which invigorated their manliness, or the absence of English advice 
 and mediators, or the Bismarckian eloquence which created the lovely 
 harmony between them, it is hard to tell. Enough that the French 
 
124 
 
 ministers at Frankfort were found to be entirely different genii than 
 were the negotiators at Brussels. They even decided to still further 
 secure the money which had been in the proclamation agreed upon to 
 be paid. The first half milliard should be paid thirty days after the 
 capitulation of Paris, the second payment of 1000 millions to be paid 
 during 1871, and then only Germans to quit the forts of Paris. By the 
 4th of May, 1872, the fourth half milliard should have to be paid. All 
 payments to be made in coin or notes on good banks, and first-class 
 bills of exchange. As to the remaining milliards to be produced, the 
 stipulated time, as given in the preliminaries, should be adhered to. 
 
 The occupation of the forts of Paris until one and a half milliards 
 should have been paid by the end of 1870, was considered absolutely 
 indispensable and necessary as a matter of precaution against fluctu 
 ations, to which the internal condition of France at that time remained 
 exposed. In regard to the treaty of commerce, when it is part of the 
 financial system, and forms one of the most important portions of 
 indirect taxation, Germany took the firm ground that it should not 
 be forced upon a great nation. The working classes, as they now con 
 template the matter in spite of the episode of free trade during the 
 reign of Napoleon, would feel constantly chafed at Germany being at 
 all favored by the tariff. Suffice it for Germany that the reduction in 
 the tariff, and similar advantages which France has accorded to Great 
 Britain, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, and Kussia, should 
 continue to be accorded to Germany also. The extraordinary favors 
 above this, as accorded to the Zolverein in 1862, would, however, be 
 canceled. It does not matter much to Germany, for France has always 
 been slow to make concessions. At one time France wished to cancel 
 all the above named treaties of commerce, the one of Germany in 
 cluded ; whether it can now afford to so do, remains to be seen. 
 
 THE PEELIMINAEIES OF PEACE. 
 
 The preliminaries of peace, as stipulated at Versailles, on the 26th 
 of February, 1871, were worded as follows : 
 
 Between the Chancellor ctf the German Empire, 
 
 Count Otto von Bismarck-Schonhausen, 
 who holds power of attorney from the Emperor of Germany and 
 
 King of Prussia, 
 The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the King of Bavaria, 
 
 Count Otto von Bray-Steinburg, 
 
 The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the King of Wurtemburg, 
 Freiherrn August von Waechter, 
 
125 
 
 The Minister of State and President of the Ministerial Council of 
 the Grand Duchy of Baden, Julius Jolly, Esq., 
 all of whom represent the German Empire 
 
 on the one side, 
 And the Chief of the Executive Power of the French Republic, 
 
 Monsieur Thiers, 
 
 And the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jules Favre, 
 
 who represent France, 
 
 on the other side ; 
 
 (the power of attorney of all being found in good and regular 
 form correct,) is made the following agreement, which shall serve as 
 the preliminary basis to peace, to be ratified later (and which was 
 duly concluded at Frankfort-on-the-Main, on the 10th of May, 1871). 
 ARTICLE I. France resigns to Germany all her rights and preten- 
 tions to those territories which. lie to the east of the boundary, which 
 is sketched as follows : The line of demarcation commences on the 
 northwesterly boundary of the Canton Cattenom, stretching towards 
 the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, continues southward to the western 
 boundary of the Cantons Cattenom and Thionville, divides the Canton 
 Briey, while running lengthways of the western boundaries of the par 
 ishes of Montois-la Montague and Roncourt, as well as lengthways of 
 the eastern boundaries of the parishes of Marie-aux Chenes, Saint Ail, 
 and Habouville, touches the boundary line of the Canton Gorze, 
 which it divides lengthway of the boundaries of the parishes Vionville, 
 Bouxieres and Onville, runs parallel to the southwest respectively, 
 the south frontier of the County of Metz, the western boundary of the 
 County Chateau-Salins, as far as the parish Pettoncourt, of which line 
 it embraces the western and southern frontier, and then follows the 
 spur of hills which stretch between the Seille and the Moncel, as far 
 as the frontier of the County of Saarburg, south of Garde. Then the 
 line of demarcation unites at the frontier of this county as far as the 
 County Tanconville, of which it touches the northern boundary. 
 From there it follows the spurs of hills which are situated between the 
 sources of the rivulets Sarreblanche and of the Vezouze, as far as the 
 boundary of the Canton Schirmeck, continues along the western fron 
 tier of said canton, includes the parishes of Saales, Bourg-Bruche, 
 Colroy-la-Roche, Plaine, Eanrupt, Saulxures, and Saint Blaise-la- 
 Roche, all of which are within the Canton Saales, and then joins the 
 western boundary of the provinces of Lower and Upper Rhine, as far 
 as the Canton Belfort. Quitting the southern boundary of it, not far 
 from Yourveiians, it divides the Canton Delle at the southern frontier 
 of the parishes Bourogne and Froide-Foirtaine, and so reaches the 
 frontier of Switzerland, running along the eastern boundaries of the 
 parishes of Jonchery and Delle. 
 
126 
 
 The German Empire shall, forever, possess these boundaries in full 
 sovereign power and right of ownership to same. An international 
 commission, consisting on both sides, in equal numbers, of the rep 
 resentatives of the contracting parties, shall immediately be ordered, 
 after exchange of ratifications of the present treaty, to arrange upon 
 the spot the new boundary line in accordance with the aforesaid stip 
 ulation. 
 
 Said Commision shall govern the division of ground and soil, as 
 well as divide the value of property which heretofore belonged in 
 common to districts and parishes, which now are separated by the 
 new boundary line. In case of differences of opinion among them 
 selves in regard to the boundary line, and the orders for their set 
 tlement, said Commissioners shall refer the matter to their respective 
 Governments for ultimate decision. 
 
 The boundary line, fixed as above delineated, is given in green upon 
 the new map, of which two have been made, which are exactly alike, 
 and show the territorial sections which come under the Government 
 of Alsace, as published already in September, 1870, at Berlin, by the 
 geographical and statistical department of the War Office. The two 
 maps shall be affixed, one to each of the documents of the present 
 treaty. 
 
 The line of demarcation as so far given, has, however, been changed 
 as by mutual agreement of the contracting parties, and altered as 
 follows : In the former department of Moselle the villages Marie-aux 
 Chenes, near St. Privat-la-Moutagne and Vioiiville, to the west of Ee- 
 zonville, are ceded to Germany, against which France shall keep the 
 town and forts of Belfort, with some city property attached to it, 
 which shall later be fixed upon. 
 
 ARTICLE II. France shall pay to the Emperor of Germany the sum 
 of five milliards of francs. At least one milliard of which shall be 
 paid in the course of the year 1871, and the remainder in the course 
 of three years from the date of the ratification of the present treaty. 
 
 ARTICLE III. The evacuation of the French from territory taken 
 possession of by German troops shall commence after the ratification 
 of the present treaty by the National Assembly in session at Bordeaux. 
 Immediately after the ratification, the German troops shall quit the 
 city limits of Paris, as well as those forts of Paris which are situated 
 upon, the left bank of the River Seine. The Germans shall likewise 
 evacuate in as little time as possible, according to agreement between 
 the military authorities of both countries, the departments altogether 
 of Calvados, Orne, Sarthe, Eure et Loire, Loiret, Loir et Cher, Indre 
 et Loire, and Yonne ; and further, the departments Seine inferieure, 
 Eure, Seine et Oise, Seine et Marne, Aube, Cote d or, down to the 
 left bank of the Seine. At the same time the French troops shall 
 
127 
 
 withdraw to beyond the Loire, which river they shall not be permitted 
 to cross ere the treaty of definite peace is signed. Excepted is the 
 garrison of Paris, the strength of which shall not exceed 40,000 men, 
 and those garrisons which are absolutely necessary to be maintained 
 for the security of fortified places. 
 
 The evacuation by German troops of departments which are situ 
 ated between the right bank of the Seine and the eastern boundary, 
 shall gradually take place after the ratification of the definitive treaty 
 of peace has been signed, and the payment of the first half milliard of 
 contribution money shall have been duly made, as stipulated in Arti 
 cle II. 
 
 The evacuation shall commence from those departments which lie 
 nearest to Paris, and shall so continue in proportion to the contribu 
 tion money coming in. After the first payment of half a milliard, the 
 following departments shall be evacuated : Somme, Oise, and those 
 sections of the departments Seine inferieure, Seine et Oise, arid Seine 
 et Marne, which are situated upon the right bank of the Seine, as 
 well as the sections of the Department Seine, and the forts upon the 
 right bank of the Seine. 
 
 After the payment of two milliards, the occupation of French, terri 
 tory by German troops shall comprise but the departments of Marne, 
 Ardennes, Haute Marne, Meuse, Yosges, Meurthe, as well as the 
 fortress Belfort, with its city limits, which shall serve as further pledge 
 for the debt until the remainder three milliards shall have been forth 
 coming. The number of German troops upon said territory shall not 
 exceed 50,000 men. 
 
 It is left for the Emperor of Germany to decide whether he will 
 accept a financial guaranty to a territorial one, which he has got now, 
 while occupying certain sections of France, should the Government 
 of France make overtures to that effect for the purpose of a riddance 
 of the Germans from France, and the Emperor of Germany prefer 
 accepting them as in the interest of Germany as amounting to the 
 same thing. 
 
 For the three milliards, if their payment should be put off, five per 
 cent, interest will be added to the sum total until paid, and counted 
 from the day of ratification of the present compact. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. The German troops shall not touch anything in the 
 departments which they occupy, in the way of requisitions, whether 
 of money or property, of the French. Against which those troops 
 who have to remain in France for the present shall be maintained 
 at the expense of the Government of France, and provided for at a 
 ratio as shall be agreed upon by the Commissary Department of the 
 German Empire. 
 
128 
 
 ARTICLE V. The interests of the inhabitants of territory ceded by 
 France to Germany, shall be regulated for them as favorably as possi 
 ble, in regard to their commerce and industrial rights, and as soon as 
 the conditions of a definitive peace shall have been fixed upon. For 
 this purpose a certain time will be agreed to, within which those 
 inhabitants shall enjoy especial facilities for a free exchange of their 
 commercial productions of industry. The German Government shall 
 not hinder the free egress of inhabitants from those sections of terri 
 tory, nor shall it take measures towards any of those inhabitants 
 which touch the person or property. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. The prisoners of war who have not as yet been liber 
 ated, by way of an exchange of prisoners, shall be delivered up imme 
 diately upon the ratification of the preliminaries. In order to facili 
 tate the transportation of the French prisoners, the French govern 
 ment shall put a certain number of railway cars at the disposal of the 
 German authorities, and send so many of them into the interior of 
 Germany as shall be found expedient for such an accommodation 
 and at a charge the same as paid in France by the Government for 
 the transport of the military. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. The opening of the negotiations in regard to a defin 
 itive peace, which is to be concluded upon the basis of these prelimina 
 ries, shall take .place in Brussels, and without delay, after ratification 
 of their contents by the National Assembly and the Emperor of Ger 
 many. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. After conclusion and ratification of the definitive 
 peace, the administration of the departments which have to remain 
 occupied by German troops, shall again be turned over to French 
 authorities. Yet the latter shall have to submit to the dictation of 
 commanding generals of those German troops in regard to what they 
 consider necessary to be required of said authorities for the safety, 
 the care, and the cantonments of soldiers. 
 
 In the departments so occupied the collecting of taxes shall be at 
 tended to after ratification of the present treaty for account of the 
 French Government and through French officials. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. It is understood that the present treaty stipulations 
 cannot give to the German military authorities a right of any kind to 
 the ownership of those sections of the territory, which are not at 
 present occupied by German troops. 
 
 ARTICLE X. The present preliminaries shall be laid without delay 
 before the Emperor of Germany, as well as before the French 
 National Assembly, which holds its sessions at Bordeaux, for ratifica 
 tion. (Signatures.) 
 
 Done at Versailles the 26th of February, 1871. 
 
 Witness : BLUME, 
 
 Mayor in the staff of Generals. 
 
PART THE TWELFTH 
 
 GEBMANY AT HOME. 
 
 At home Germany has now laws, thanks to progress, which give 
 freedom to the press, that man may promulgate his opinion and cul 
 tivate truth, knowledge and taste among the people give liberty to 
 marry by pacifying the old feudal anxiety of caste, so mainly and 
 obviously detrimental to nuptial bliss of the parties concerned does 
 away with the uncharitable act of imprisonment for debt, which 
 debars man from rallying his energies thus paralized, while it lulls 
 the other into inertness to look out for his own business, whom to 
 trust and when losing, is apt to blame everybody else save himself, 
 in spite of the law shielding him in the courts of justice against 
 downright villainy secures free labor, and finally regulates trade and 
 commerce among the divers States of the Union; provides for the 
 homeless, the sick and the needy in a dutiful and suitable way. and 
 in a fraternal Christian manner. 
 
 How greatly and beneficially these aforesaid laws affect personal 
 liberty, advance the unrestrained movements of man, and above all, 
 lift the working classes into home comforts through these laws, which 
 secure their happiness and shield their independence, enabling them 
 to put a proper value upon their labor and time, and thus receive far 
 better wages than hithertofore attainable according to their labor s 
 legitimate worth, all these traits of civilization cannot be loudly 
 enough commended and applauded, nor by the Germans sufficiently 
 heartily appreciated. 
 
 That Germany has so changed for the better, within comparatively 
 a brief space of time, is perfectly wonderful, and what is still more 
 gratifying, the world believes in it as having been proved by success, 
 and correctly and justly attributes the defeat of the French, not to a 
 decadence bf prowess in the latter nation, but simply to the greater 
 moral and intellectual strength of Germany as displayed by the 
 Union. 
 
 Those mental links of theirs, composed of the strength of enlighten 
 ment, which were commenced to be made a generation previously to 
 15 
 
130 
 
 1870, have now been hotly smelted in the unearthly fire of the war 
 by all concerned, and have completed the chain of brotherhood to a 
 length which shall maintain its solidity of independence forever, It 
 shall be extended to the outside world, until the last German now 
 under foreign monarchial rule shall belong to the mother country, 
 and the change of the present form of Government into the repub 
 lican be duly, peaceably, and everlastingly inaugurated. 
 
 This latter task of the requisition of foreigners shall comparatively 
 be an easy one, and it is to be hoped will be a peaceful one. 
 
 Instead of 40,000,000, as at present, Germany shall then foot up 
 about 60,000,000 population, a strength which is at all times of the 
 future a guarantee for peace, as long as monarchial governments 
 addicted to Avars shall be in Europe ; but at the same time points to 
 the impossibility of harmonizingly holding together so vast an enlight 
 ened nation, except under a republican form of Government, after the 
 experience in the United States of America. 
 
 How petty monarchies wane under such auspices this war has best 
 shown. As the previous alienation of the South from the North was 
 the work of unscrupulous machinations, therefore unenlightened, so 
 it had to wane before the power of genius of a Bismarck, and the 
 patriotism of an Emperor William and his son. 
 
 Some thirty kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, free cities, etcetera, 
 German sovereignties, among one kindred people, upon a small piece 
 of land of the globe, harrassing one another by wanton obstreperous- 
 ness, to love each other as nearest relatives among mankind, suddenly 
 concentrating into one national government in Germany. What pro 
 gress of the age ! 
 
 What is it which so blessed their understanding ? bearing the grey 
 veil from their eyes, and showed them cured of glaucoma, with no 
 fear of a relapse ? It was the universally applied medicine of the 
 school book 1 ! ! Eeligion, faith in God and themselves, as evoked 
 upon the occasion by the hostility of a warlike and aggressive nation 
 self-defense in barbarous times, made necessary to be deplored. 
 
 It lead to the internal application of knowledge, instead of the use 
 of the painful and risky operations of external force. And who is the 
 learned physician, the Graeffe of the faculty? America ! America ! 
 where 8,000,000 of citizens of German origin continually correspond 
 with their respective relatives on the continent of Europe, and tell 
 them how freely, unrestrainedly, and comfortably they live and are 
 nappy.* 
 
 * The poorer of the means of subsistence foreigners arrive in America, the more 
 gratefully and quicker will they write home, provided always, and applicable to all 
 nations alike, the individual has temperate habits; but the richer the universal for 
 eigner arrives in America, the longer the time in which he improves to comprehend 
 
131 
 
 As to this war, if there is anything which could at all recompense a 
 citizen for having bravely risked his life to save the country, outside 
 of the reward, with which his conscience of having clone his duty fills 
 his breast with serene happiness, it is for once the undisguised, 
 straightforward intention on the part of the Germans to amend their 
 social laws and what is more, they have done it. 
 
 There now exists a universal right and liberty of a citizen of one 
 State desirous of choosing and settling in any other German State, to 
 so do, and to be viewed in every respect as it he were born there. It 
 is altogether in imitation of America ; it is completely republican, 
 humane, and broad. The citizen so settling has free liberty to do 
 what he may please in pursuit of his happiness ; he has the same state 
 rights as the citizen born there, can settle permanently, labor as he 
 may prefer, can apply for some official position, can buy and sell 
 land, can become, as said before, a citizen, if he chooses, of that 
 State ; in fact, stands on a par with one born there, including every 
 justice in courts, which is eked out to him as to others, and every 
 juridical protection. Neither the State where he was born in, or came 
 from last, nor any other, can molest him, while in his new domicil 
 
 this incomparably free country. The latter gentlemen, from Dan to Bethslieba, 
 alight at their respective clubs and stay there, adding nothing to their knowledge, 
 nor do they forget what afflicted them in Europe with the glaucoma upon their vis 
 ion; they absolutely defy, above everything, the appreciation of me virtue of labor 
 in any shape, which necessarily consigns them to the more arduous duties of the 
 refinement of the aboriginal, in the various shapes of sensual gratification more or 
 less gross. They are the unrelenting enemies of the charitable feeling of brother 
 hood and tolerance, until introduced to members of the club, having excised their 
 curiosity by their good breeding, their knowledge and their wealth. 
 
 Upon becoming more intimately acquainted, the Europeans begin to reflect, and 
 are beyond measure astonished to find that their new co)t js\ the Americans, are the 
 beloved sons of self-made men, and their amiability, unresisting, because natural 
 in the atmosphere of this country, and the Americans, that the ancestors of the 
 foreigners of rank slew more human beings in battle than the King of Ashantee, 
 and the "accomplished gentleman " generally an icy matter of form. 
 
 It is this incorrigible restraint, fostered by a want of productive labor, and aggri- 
 vated by aristocratic customs, which prevents an intelligent foreigner from compre 
 hending the moral strength and vastness of the number of useful and important 
 citizens in the United States to their veal worth, and actually leaves the country 
 with a theatrical impression upon his mind that the liberty of America is a gaudy 
 coulisse, behind which the tragedy of pandemonium is rehearsed, which is bound to 
 swallow up the Union with lire and brimstone, when the country shall be as popu 
 lated as Europe. 
 
 It is well that he leaves, and better still, should he be accompanied by a precious 
 bevy of promiscuous infidels, who, born Christians, have lost their pious faith in 
 God, in the permanency of the Republican institutions, and in marriage. Setting 
 aside the reprehensible tendency in a purely patriotic view, such harrangue, at this 
 age, from otherwise intelligent people, to which one is unavoidably subjected, is, to 
 say the least, extremely vulgar, and would deserve no notice whatever if it was not 
 
and abode. This law, so generous, humane, and republican, came 
 into force 1st July, 1871. All the States of the Union embraced it 
 except Bavaria, and that State is, of course, but for the present reluc 
 tant to so do. 
 
 It comprises not only laboring men, mechanics, and merchants, but 
 every citizen. As it is of more general avail among persons in the habit 
 of constantly moving about, it is so much more beneficial in a public 
 point of view. This great law answers the modern principles of social 
 rights, it does away with the old barrier of sedentary habits and here 
 ditary customs, cures the lethargic effects of home sickness, and hurls 
 every one into the great current of public usefulness and cheerful 
 labor. Soon the country will be too small, and they want colonies. 
 Go ahead. If that law is not copied from America, then the members 
 of the German Diet are men of sound republican principles, beyond a 
 doubt, and are, indeed, original, and deserve encomium far and wide. 
 With this great law the last fibre of a narrow-minded, selfish, particu- 
 larismus is outrooted. 
 
 As it is in the Union of America, so it is in Germany : A citizen of 
 California is as dear to the Union of America as a citizen of Maine or 
 Florida ; and in Germany a citizen of Prussia is as integral a part of 
 the Union of Germany to-day as is one of Saxony or Wurtemberg. 
 All this was planned in 1866, and in four years fully consummated. 
 What a progress ! 
 
 positively dangerous to public welfare because of its contamination among the un 
 sophisticated. 
 
 To openly rattle at pillars of the civilization of ages, built and hourly strength 
 ened by reason, truth and duty, fully sustained by grateful experience, and resting 
 eternally erected upon the living truth of life itself, cannot but end in an entire 
 overthrow of the mind of such an unfortunate individual, ultimately consigning it 
 either to the asylum , or a paroxism of suicidal despair. 
 
 The fact is, the rich European seeks America in large cities only, just as he erron 
 eously judges France from Paris only, mistaking the dash of extreme fashion for the 
 governing principle of civilization, and therefore remains ignorant of the import 
 ance of the nation at large. 
 
 To an aristocrat the definition of the word materialismus is at all times wanted. 
 His intellect is perfectly obfuscated as to the purposes of labor and its virtuous ten 
 dencies towards the advancement of the morality and happiness of man, as he 
 never experienced the pecuniary necessity of it. He therefore cannot comprehend 
 that to a civilized being, to the most civilized nation, there is nothing left but labor 
 to save them, rich or poor, from idiocy or barbarism. 
 
 How can such minds comprehend the wealth which freedom in America lavishes 
 upon everyone worthy of himself, and enables him to make labor of all kinds, at all 
 times, immediately productive and useful to himself and mankind at large. The 
 sweets of toil, the charms of fraternity, are pitifully lost to the aristocrat, the igno 
 rance of which sours his temper and makes him disagreeable to, and frequently 
 derided by all enlightened fellow-men, all because inertness debarred him from 
 knowing himself. 
 
133 
 
 It appears from the broadness of this blessed law that it will become 
 entirely unnecessary for Germany to forcibly insist upon the transfer 
 of the not-united, monarchically ruled Germans ; suffice that it be 
 comes known abroad. The respective foreign governments will be 
 obliged to initiate the question themselves, and meet Germany half 
 way upon the subject, or else expect a revolution in their own coun 
 tries which would lose them the provinces without remuneration. 
 
 As a matter of course, these various laws which the German Diet 
 have so honestly made, were vouchsafed by the constitution ! To 
 carry out the constitution is to guarantee liberalism and prepare for 
 republicanism. It shows the spirit of the Union as being largely 
 and equally diffused among the more uniformly enlightened people, 
 which shall henceforth enable the nation to progress steadily and 
 without hinderance by foreign nations, being at all times in a position 
 to ignore with patriotic contempt any outside design at an impedi 
 ment to such a steady national growth, correctly judged by them as 
 emanating from a political jealousy, and the daring of the attempt 
 itself at such a hostile act, to be sternly viewed in the lio-ht of a COSHS 
 betti. 
 
 Those aforesaid intelligent classes shall continue to enlarge them 
 selves from the million, just like in the United States of America, 
 constantly reaching the surface of intellectual strength through as 
 much universally uniform a school system as ever possibly to continue 
 to be created, in order to be enabled to pave their own way to the 
 notice of their merits in after life, by the fellow-citizens of their 
 country and the world at large. 
 
PART THE THIRTEENTH. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE GERMANIC RACE. THE REGEN 
 ERATION OF THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 All that Germany needs besides the inland Germans, ruled over by 
 foreigners, is Holland, its fleet and colonies, as it would, give to the 
 entire German Union the necessary adjacent seacoast to unitedly 
 develop itself from, and to be enabled to create and maintain com 
 mercial facilities in proportion to its political greatness. Germany 
 may then consider herself international^ independent, and in a posi 
 tion to enjoy freedom, happiness and influence in a full cosmopolitan 
 view. Without Holland, the trans-oceanic commerce of Germany 
 could never develop itself in due and full proportion to her national 
 strength in general, and would unavoidably fall a prey to other 
 nations, to the obvious detriment of her political influence. 
 
 As to the two only cosmopolitan nations of the World, the United 
 States of America and Great Britain, they would conjointly receive 
 the youthful giant with open arms, the only one besides them that 
 was needed to vest the progress of future ages principally in the Ger 
 manic race. As there is room enough in Oceanica and Africa for the 
 youthful giant to colonize among the natives, Germany does not in 
 terfere with the interests of Great Britain; on the contrary, the two 
 nations shall progress together. The comparatively slumbering 
 energy of the Dutch and Hanse-towns would revive to a miraculous 
 extent under the strong shield of protection from the all-common 
 fatherland. There never was a theory which could so easily be prac 
 tically applied. The idea of the French, an inferior nation as to 
 population when compared with Germany, as it should be, can be, 
 and must be, to settle in Cochin-China ! It would be an everlasting 
 opprobrium to Germany to now not unite all her elements for a simi 
 lar purpose. What glory it would be to civilization! What a future 
 for Holland! 
 
 Why ! she would by far eclipse Prussia in Germany. Holland in 
 Germany would represent Germany in the world, while Prussia 
 alone can represent the present Union but in Europe only, possessing 
 
135 
 
 neither colonies nor a fleet in adequate proportion to the present con 
 solidation of the country. Holland, together with the Hanse-towns 
 and Baltic ports, would lead the way into the world, converting once 
 more their own commerce into uncountable gold, and the united pro 
 ductions of such a Germany into requisition by all mankind. 
 
 Holland and Belgium, (the lower lands of Germany, as formerly 
 continental Germany formed the upper land of the Dutch Empire) 
 have shown to the world in ages past what progress a nation can pave 
 when possessing accessible and good harbors, and what a union of 
 energetic men is capable of performing and achieving. Just like her 
 incomparable neighbor in Europe to-day : the British nation. What 
 has made Great Britain great? Character, knowledge of geography, 
 indomitable courage, perseverance and discretion. Has she not got 
 the same attributes ? Enough, Holland has proved it once, and shall 
 prove it again. Those same virtues that gave her neighbor a London, 
 a Liverpool, a Manchester, a Birmingham, a Glasgow, and a Calcutta, 
 gave to the Netherlands of that great Dutch Empire an Amsterdam, 
 a Eotterdam, a Middleburg, a Batavia, and to the now called Belgium 
 an Antwerp, which was, about three centuries ago, the largest com 
 mercial city upon the globe. Imperishable as her renown is the one 
 of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, which sisterhood shall again pro 
 duce a cosmopolitan greatness, and undoubtedly greater than before, 
 because assisted by steam. 
 
 As to Belgium, which is partially hidden from the German Union 
 by the French language, the British Empire has hithertofore gladly 
 protected her against the encroachments of France as entirely owing 
 to the previous incompetency of Germany, on account of its distrac 
 tion so to do, but which is now obviated by this war. The Belgians, 
 as early as the fifteenth century, were proud to call themselves of 
 Germanic origin. Her alienation, like that of Holland, is, therefore, 
 unnatural, and, consequent only, upon the rise of the British Em 
 pire as having superseded the greatness of the Dutch Empire, from 
 which dissolution the Netherlands were saved. 
 
 As Holland once included Germany, so shall Germany now include 
 Holland, because, as said before, a great Union has to require a great 
 seacoast. The re-establishment of the greatness of the Netherlands, 
 and Hanse-towns, depends, therefore, entirely upon the entrance of 
 the former into the present Union of Germany. The world will be 
 lieve in it, because it remembers that the Wallonian city of Luttich 
 vied in elegance with any other of the period that the Luxembur- 
 gians afforded princes who ascended the throne of Germany, as 
 well as that the memorable battle of Muehldorf decided the fate of 
 Germany and Italy that it was in Flanders where the German Hansa 
 
136 
 
 lived her imperishable renown before the world, and that Brugge was 
 unsurpassed. 
 
 The most palmy days of Brabant where those when her people 
 commingled their interests with those of the German Empire. As to 
 the Vlamish people, those are of Germanic origin, best proved by the 
 Vlamish language. They should all belong to Germany, with the 
 exception, perhapw, of the Wallonians, who have, more or less, adopted 
 French habits and customs ; in fact, are partially identified with the 
 French. 
 
 How great the change has been among the two greatest nations of 
 the world the United States of America and Great Britain in their 
 esteem for the present German Union, and all the exemplary intelli 
 gent men who have so signally contributed to it is but seen here from 
 the sudden silence of the sneering tongue among the vast forty mill 
 ions, pardonably doubting at the commencement of the war victory 
 over the French, although somewhat prepared for it since the battle 
 of Sadowa, yet by no means expecting it as a certainty said tongue 
 became more and more paralized during the continuancy of the war 
 and its endless victories. It ceased altogether from one end of the 
 country to the other to audily vibrate, when by the venerable Em 
 peror s entrance into Paris, the strange fact of the existence of a larger 
 and stronger nation upon the continent of Europe than the French 
 were, revealingly flashed upon them all at once, having become a 
 glaringly incontrovertible and undeniable fact. 
 
 From the day that the Hollandish Knickerbockers had settled in 
 New York, down to the hour in which the battle of Jena had lately 
 been balanced in Paris by the above symbol of justice, the Americans 
 at large had fancied the German to be a degenerated Hollander, the 
 so-called Germany being incomprehensible to them on account of the 
 confusion of petty sovereignties and feudal enmities among a kindred 
 people, who were to them therefore excusably less known than the 
 tribes of Indians upon their Occident. 
 
 The less educated again down to the altogether unceremonious boy, 
 indulged even in epithets, which though law and inhospitable, had 
 likewise their origin in the political nonentity of the Germans as a 
 nation of union, of harmony, and of strength, not having had, until 
 the battle of Sadowa, a single proof to the contrary on record, nor 
 at all caring to investigate causes. 
 
 Although the present Germany is not as yet by any means what 
 Holland once was ^a cosmopolitan nation, and at her time the most 
 powerful nation upon the globe, because of not having either colo 
 nies or a fleet in proportion to her continental greatness to-day- 
 still America begins, as well as England, to expect it. As Holland 
 once included Germany upon reasons of compactness, so Germany 
 must now include Holland, her colonies and fleet. 
 
137 
 
 It is the new doctrine of the concentration of nationalities practi 
 cally carried out by monarchs, in order to save to the people not 
 merely the expense of so many hereditary superfluities, but to legiti 
 mately centralize their power to suit the times, which demand on the 
 part of a people, the expansion of general progress in proper accord 
 ance with this age of fleetness, which intends to exhaust the wealth 
 of the world ever since Steam has brought it within reach of all. 
 
 If the Kings of Prussia, of Bavaria, of Saxony, of Hanover, of 
 Wurtemberg and the remainder of German princes, can lay down 
 their crowns upon the altar of the German fatherland, surely the 
 King of Holland can, and Holland shall, like the Hanse-towns have 
 already commenced to gain by the broadness of the impetus given to 
 commercial progress, the full revival of its ancient renown and cos 
 mopolitan importance as explained already in previous pages. 
 
 When, in the rotation of history, the Dutch yielded their supremacy 
 of the commerce of the world to the British, the Americans, although 
 indifferent to the power of the latter, nevertheless always considered 
 the English, in case of aggression, a competent foe to compete with, 
 but never did they estimate Germany or any other nation as of any 
 real consequence in the balance of power of the world. Even 
 France never excelled much in their eyes beyond a continental Euro 
 pean power far less than any other power upon the continent of Eu 
 rope; and that little political respect which America had for France 
 as a cosmopolitan power, during the reign of the first Napoleon, was 
 fully obliterated by the fiasco the other Napoleon made in Mexico, 
 doubting the Union of the United States of America. Too exalted 
 to take any notice of his non-Monroeian intentions at the time, and 
 too republican and noble to exult over the defeat of the French in 
 this war with Germany, they were like the English, heartily relieved 
 when French influence suddenly disappeared in a cloud. 
 
 In Great Britain the change has been equally great. Justly vexed at 
 the inconsistency of her own Government of having inveigled the nation 
 into an alliance with France, at the time of the Crimean war, instead 
 of having elevated, as was then feasible, tiny but vigorous Prussia, 
 for the same purpose of counteracting the influence of Kussia in 
 Turkey, etc., is explained from an over-estimation of French power 
 and general importance ever since the reign of the first Napoleon, 
 the world not having had an opportunity afforded of becoming dis 
 abused of it. England now embraces the opportunity of not only 
 remembering the auld lang syne of Waterloo, and is naturally at all 
 times sweetly reminded of the welfare of her own daughter, but com 
 prehends the harmony of race and religion . 
 
 Vice versa the German politicians who are unfriendly to Great 
 Britain, or worse, defend a monarchical against the American form 
 16 
 
138 
 
 of government, are always theorists who, in their younger days have 
 not traveled outside of the small continent of Europe; they don t 
 know anything of Great Britain and the United States of America 
 either as nations; they cannot possibly get at any correct conception 
 of what a cosmopolitan power really means, because they have not 
 traveled in what is called " the world " nor even themselves been 
 Hamburg or Bremen merchants, of a world- wide influence, to be 
 able to judge correctly of the power of nations. A voyage to the 
 United States of America, continued to China and India, would facil 
 itate their theoretical knowledge, to be condensed into practical views 
 and enable them to more steadily progress. 
 
PART THE FOURTEENTH. 
 
 THE COSMOPOLITAN POWER OF THE UNITED STATES OF 
 AMERICA, GREAT BRITAIN, AND UNITED GERMANY. 
 
 History, in viewing and recapitulating the social consequences of 
 this war, at this high period of the world s civilization, above all notes 
 the firm basis which education has so far built in Europe, and upon 
 which liberalism securely rests. That basis is of a firmness which no 
 anti-liberalism can distrust or assail. There is no falling back from 
 the height of knowledge attained ; there is no labyrinthian darkness in 
 the mind of man when the external sun of liberty, of humane tole 
 rance, of goodness, and of charitable plenty, pierces the openings in 
 the walls of reason, but very dimly lit up at all times in any one 
 by the artificial light of knowledge of any kind. That such is the case 
 in Europe is now an incontrovertible fact, thanks to liberalism, thanks 
 to its causes education, thanks to America which influenced its appli 
 cation, thanks to steam and telegraph, by which geographical distances 
 have been annihilated, so as to hourly and ceaselessly promote its 
 spread, and thanks to the pioneers of liberalism and those of com 
 merce, a liberalism cosmopolitanly, materially, and practically aiding 
 it. The anti-Liberal constraint in religious, political, and social matters, 
 is gladly found to abate rapidly. The concentration of crowns, espec 
 ially in Germany and Italy, asserts the truthful fact. 
 
 The non-interference of Great Britain in this war, another import 
 ant proof of how liberalism is but synonymous of peace, humanity, 
 tolerance, individual comfort and enlightenment, the fruits of educa 
 tion, gathered from the tree of life, which is ordained to be indepen 
 dent. Great Britain, a non-interferent in this war, while an ally of 
 France, showed most undoubtedly that her people acquiesced in the 
 doctrine of the continuancy for the present of monarchial power, for 
 the same careful reasons which Germany and Italy advance. She 
 could not have sided with France against those convictions, as that 
 would have led to revolution all over Europe. Personal restraint, 
 which is so chronic in Great Britain and Germany, it is to be feared 
 if violently rented, would bring untold misery. The ripe fruit of 
 
140 
 
 republicanism will fall off the tree of knowledge, without hindrance, 
 in due time, like any fully ripe garden fruit. 
 
 The hatred of some of the French people against foreigners a 
 sickly glare from the smouldering embers of ambition on the part of 
 their monarchial adherents after France, to-day, is enjoying the prac 
 tical blessings of the republican form of government, is another reason 
 why the remainder of the people upon the continent of Europe can 
 not as yet be republican, nor even venture to disarm, especially con 
 sidered that the normal condition of society is but now enabled to 
 commence changing for the better. France thus herself in danger, 
 cannot be said to enjoy peace. The humane institutions of the repub 
 lican form of government, as resting upon peace, are already assailed 
 by those rotating dynastical interests of monarchial aspirants there. 
 
 In order to henceforth shield Europe against the eventuality of 
 dynastical wars, Great Britain., Germany, and Italy have to unite to 
 guard the liberalism of Europe, synonymous of progress, as resting 
 upon and developing itself in peace only, until that division of the 
 globe shall be so universally intellectual and strong as to respect it 
 law-abidingly. 
 
 America, so favorably isolated by the Atlantic, comprehends the stu 
 pendous efforts of enlightened Europe struggling to surety and continu 
 ally, but gradually, advance Freedom. Upon a piece of territory but as 
 large as half the Occident, and crammed with five times the popula 
 tion of the whole of our division of the globe, it is no easy matter to 
 accomplish. It is not only the desparity of population, but a feudal 
 autocratic power now only waning within the latter half of this cen 
 tury, from which public, mature understanding is alone capable of 
 rescuing Liberty, and of comprehending the vastness of the strides 
 which it costs to accomplish it legitimately. Time, the divine ameli 
 orator of Grief, shall soon roll over this war, and the bright encour 
 agement of Hope, diffusing life, enable nations to henceforth insure 
 their happiness and progress peaceably. Then to disarm will be the 
 order of the day. What happiness and wealth is sacrificed by such a 
 state of suspense and dread of war ! What misery entailed upon 
 millions of people by the one word hate " war, rivalry in physical 
 force, all of which gladiatorship is centered in the two words " un 
 educated and bad " America only can as yet comprehend. 
 
 Fed during two centuries as was the former monarchial power of 
 France, by the permanent disunion of Germany and Italy, that nutri 
 ment is gone, Europe, the hunting ground for man, "fenced in !" 
 " The watch of the Ehiiie ! a huntsman, a weather-beaten dead shot, 
 on the look-out !" He shall not keep his eye off France as long as 
 the Eiver Rhine flows upon the earth, nor of Europe until it is repub 
 lican, and is fit to be so called. Until then it will be difficult for 
 
141 
 
 Europe to disarm. That difficulty rests entirely with society, the 
 normal state of which time only can ameliorate the conventional rigor 
 of, and universal education radically change. 
 
 That in consequence of the crammed nature of European popula 
 tion within the small periphery of the territorial size of Europe, and 
 that in consideration of the many heterogeneous national elements 
 adhering to legends of the past, hatred of the present, and revenge 
 for the future, " republicanism in its manhood" is yet far distant, is 
 deplorably clear. 
 
 The only hope which shall not stay the deliberate progress of Eu 
 rope, is that Germany, more intelligent than the rest, becomes doubly 
 as numerically strong as France, instead of as to-day, merely equal 
 to her in strength. She will then be able to relax from the rigor of 
 discipline which alone secured to her her physical preponderance, and 
 bestow her exclusive attention to a radical change in the normal rules 
 of her society. From her compact strength she at present may guard 
 peace, although she cannot initiate disarming; but the full develop 
 ment of her greatness depends upon the social elevation of the people 
 at large, and the cosmopolitan extension of her commerce. 
 
 The nations of United Europe have, therefore, for the present to 
 continue to maintain the folly of former ignorance, and pay for it. 
 That folly, that incubus, that terrible detriment, consisted on the 1st 
 of September, 1871, in maintaining upon land and seas 5,164,300 
 soldiers and 512,394 horses, and keep from rust 10,224 pieces of 
 artillery, exclusive of about 800 mitrailleuses of which ruinous in 
 vestment Germany alone maintains 18 army corps with 37 divisions of 
 infantry and 10 divisions of cavalry, and 337 batteries, actually sup 
 porting 1,152,506 men, and caring for 239,314 horses, and keeping 
 on a war footing 824,990 men, with 95,724 horses and 2,022 pieces of 
 artillery. 
 
 The consequences of this war recapitulate in this : Great Britain 
 having allied herself in 1856 with France instead of Prussia, entitles 
 the present Union of Germany, since the defeat of the French in this 
 war, to the Netherlands, which viewed as the remnant of the former 
 great Dutch empire, are as such, consistently and inevitably necessary 
 to now contribute to the formation of an equally vast German empire. 
 
 The consummation of this desideratum to be considered peremp 
 tory as demanded by duty towards the entire Germanic race, embrac 
 ing all who are at present alienated under foreign monarchical 
 governments to the detriment of the expansion of the Union in its 
 great aim and strides of progress : the fitness for self-government and 
 the possibility of contributing greatly towards the humanization of 
 mankind at the present age. 
 
142 
 
 Thus the present regeneration of the Netherlands, the Hanse-towns 
 and Baltic ports to their former greatness centuries ago the realiza 
 tion of the manifest destiny of the German Union, shall induce 
 Great Britain to morally ally herself with Germany, as strictly de 
 manded by Progress, is facilitated by race and religion, is augmented 
 by similarity of character and strength, is made serviceable to mutual 
 advantage because possible, and is incumbent as a duty which the 
 two nations are destined to fulfill unitedly, peaceable and harmoni 
 ously, to the glory of civilization. 
 
 As to the English language, it is evident it shall become the lan 
 guage of the civilized world, because the United States of America, 
 absorbing the immigration from all parts of it, absorb likewise the 
 various languages. 
 
 THE END. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 
 - 1953 LU 
 
 MAY 2 b 1982 
 
 
 7 a 
 
 LD 21-100m-7, 52(A2528sl6)476