nstitution, with such modifications
as the history and condition of Germany seem to require. The local
governments of the several members of the union are preserved, while
the power conferred upon the chief imparts strength for the purposes
of self-defense, without authority to enter upon wars of conquest and
ambition.

The cherished aspiration for national unity which for ages has
inspired the many millions of people speaking the same language,
inhabiting a contiguous and compact territory, but unnaturally separated
and divided by dynastic jealousies and the ambition of short-sighted
rulers, has been attained, and Germany now contains a population of
about 34,000,000, united, like our own, under one Government for its
relations with other powers, but retaining in its several members the
right and power of control of their local interests, habits, and
institutions.

The bringing of great masses of thoughtful and free people under a
single government must tend to make governments what alone they should
be--the representatives of the will and the organization of the power
of the people.

The adoption in Europe of the American system of union under the control
and direction of a free people, educated to self-restraint, can not fail
to extend popular institutions and to enlarge the peaceful influence of
American ideas.

The relations of the United States with Germany are intimate and
cordial. The commercial intercourse between the two countries is
extensive and is increasing from year to year; and the large number of
citizens and residents in the United States of German extraction and the
continued flow of emigration thence to this country have produced an
intimacy of personal and political intercourse approaching, if not equal
to, that with the country from which the founders of our Government
derived their origin.

The extent of these interests and the greatness of the German Union
seem to require that in the classification of the representatives of
this Government to foreign powers there should no longer be an apparent
undervaluation of the importance of the German mission, such as is
made in the difference between the compensation allowed by law to
the minister to Germany and those to Great Britain and France. There
would seem to be a great propriety in placing the representative
of this Government at Berlin on the same footing with that of its
representatives at London and Paris. The union of the several States