the American people love better than peace. They love the
principles upon which their political life is founded. They are ready
at any time to fight for the vindication of their character and honor.
I would rather surrender territory than ideals."

Whether this utterance was a warning to Germany or not, the
_Lusitania_ negotiations afterward became more promising. Throughout
them Germany balked at making an outright disavowal; she indicated a
willingness to go part of the way to meet the United States, but
always conditional to an expression being inserted in her apologia
that the attack on the _Lusitania_ was a justifiable reprisal against
Great Britain. A proposal by Germany to submit the question of
disavowal to arbitration was rejected, for the second time, on the
ground that the "vital interests and national honor" of the United
States were involved and were therefore not arbitrable. The right of
Americans to be on board the _Lusitania_, under the protection of
international law accorded to neutrals on the high seas in war time,
was too firmly established to admit of debate. A renewed reminder to
Germany that the private conversations threatened to end in failure,
which meant further consideration of the alternative of a cleavage of
relations between the two countries, brought from Germany a reply on
February 4, 1916, which was described as "one word short" of a
satisfactory surrender. The word needed was a synonym for "disavowal"
which did not convey that Germany had committed an illegal act. So the
proposal again fell short of the demand; it did not contain the exact
form of disavowal insisted upon by the United States. But it came
nearer to meeting the American demands than any of the varied
proposals Germany had previously submitted. The dispute turned on
terminology that did not affront Germany's sensibilities. The aim
sought was the avoidance of the words "illegal" and "disavowal" or
whether to "assume" liability, which seemed to imply a voluntary act
of grace, or "admit" liability, which implied an acknowledgment of an
illegal act, or "recognize" liability, which was President Wilson's
solution. On February 8, 1916, the outcome of these efforts in search
of the acceptable word or words was a reported agreement on a
memorandum which contained "language sufficiently broad to cover
substantially the demands of the United States."

This bright prospect of a speedy settlement was suddenly dimmed by a
communicat