shall
forthwith observe the rules of international law universally
recognized before the war, as are laid down in the notes presented by
the Government of the United States to the British Government,
December 28, 1914, and Nov. 5, 1915.

"Should steps taken by the Government of the United States not attain
the object it desires, to have the laws of humanity followed by all
belligerent nations, the German Government would then be facing a new
situation, in which it must reserve to itself complete liberty of
decision."

The first feeling aroused by the German note, with its wounded tone
and qualified compliance with the American demand, was one of
irritation. But after closer study the President was willing to accept
the German undertaking on probation, without taking a too liberal view
of the phraseology employed, and to regard the intrusive strictures
on the United States as intended for German, not for American reading.
The disposition was to be charitable and to take cognizance of the
matter rather than the manner of Germany's backdown, and to wait and
see if her government would live up in good faith to its new
instructions to submarine commanders, without recognizing the
impossible conditions imposed.

But in the country at large public opinion was less ready to interpret
the German note except as it read textually. It was denounced in
scathing language as shuffling, arrogant and offensive, or as
insulting and dishonest. One paper deemed its terms to be a series of
studied insults added to a long inventory of injuries. Said another,
Germany's mood is still that of a madman. A third comment on the note
described it as "a disingenuous effort to have international petty
larceny put on the same plane as international murder and visited with
the same punishment." A fourth paper remarked: "If an American can
read the note without his temples getting hot then his blood is poor
or his understanding dense." The weight of American press opinion was
against Germany, especially in the South, and either called for the
breaking of diplomatic relations or considered such a course
inevitable.

For the United States even to contemplate, as Germany proposed, "an
alliance between Germany and the United States to break a British
blockade that Germany cannot break" was viewed as unthinkable.
Intellectual dishonesty, characteristic of Germany in its attitude
toward the world since the war began, and especially shown in
negotiation