teously when a few men, called the
"State," can commit you to the most serious enterprise in your history
without your previous knowledge or consent, and can then keep you in
ignorance of vitally important documents and activities in order to
insure your full support of their perilous undertaking? Such is the
thought which has always led America to denounce as false the old theory
of "divine right of kings," long imposed upon the German people in the
more subtle and, therefore, more dangerous form of "the divine right of
the State." Our conviction that such a government as yours is
reactionary and incompatible with true liberty, and that it stunts and
warps the intellects of its citizens, has been amply confirmed by
extended observation in your country, and more particularly by the
unanswerable fact that millions of your best blood, including
distinguished men of intelligence and wealth, have forsaken Germany to
seek true liberty of intellect and action in America, renouncing
allegiance to the Fatherland to become citizens here. Some of them
still love the scenes of their childhood, but few of them would be
willing to return to a life under such a Government as Germany
possesses.

To summarise what I said above: Americans, prior to the war, admired the
remarkable advances made by Germany in recent years in economic and
commercial lines; held in high regard your universities and many of your
university professors; loved your music, and felt most cordial toward
the millions of Germans who came to live among us and share the benefits
of our free institutions. The prevalence of bad manners among Germans we
regretted, but made allowance for this defect; and we did not fail to
recognise that some Germans are fine gentlemen of the most perfect
culture, while most of them have traits of character which we admired.

We recognised the immense value of Germany's contributions to art,
literature, and science, but did not consider Germany's contributions in
these lines as equal to those of other nations. We never have regarded
German culture as superior, but rather as inferior, to that of certain
other countries; and the Germans' loud claims to superiority have seemed
to us egotistical and the result of a weak point in the German
character. For your form of government and the philosophy of history
taught by your university professors we could never have much admiration
or respect. Both seemed to us unworthy of an intelligent, civil