States by
illegal acts, by counsels of violence, by contravention of law, or by
any means whatever that could offend the American people in the pride
of their own authority.... I can only say, and do most emphatically
declare to Germans abroad, to German-American citizens of the United
States, to the American people all alike, that whoever is guilty of
conduct tending to associate the German cause with lawlessness of
thought, suggestion or deed against life, property, and order in the
United States is, in fact, an enemy of that very cause and a source of
embarrassment to the German Government, notwithstanding what he or they
may believe to the contrary."

The stimulus for this politic disavowal, and one must be sought, since
German statements always had a genesis in antecedent events--was not
apparently due to continued plot exposures, which were too frequent,
but could reasonably be traced to a ringing address President Wilson
had previously made to Congress on December 7, 1915. The President,
amid the prolonged applause of both Houses, meeting in joint session,
denounced the unpatriotism of many Americans of foreign descent. He
warned Congress that the gravest threats against the nation's peace
and safety came from within, not from without. Without naming
German-Americans, he declared that many "had poured the poison of
disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life," and called
for the prompt exercise of the processes of law to purge the country
"of the corrupt distempers brought on by these citizens."

"I am urging you," he said in solemn tones, "to do nothing less than
save the honor and self-respect of the nation. Such creatures of
passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out."

Three days before this denunciation, the Administration had demanded
from Germany the recall of Captains Boy-Ed and Von Papen, respectively
the military aid and naval attache of the German embassy. Unlike the
procedure followed in requesting Dr. Dumba's recall, no reasons were
given. None according to historic usage were necessary, and if
reasons were given, they could not be questioned. It was sufficient
that a diplomatic officer was _non persona grata_ by the fact that his
withdrawal was demanded.

Germany, through her embassy, showed some obduracy in acting upon a
request for these officials' recall without citing the cause of
complaint. There was an anxiety that neither should be recalled with
the imputation restin