It would be a serious mistake to suppose that Americans feel any
hostility or jealousy toward Germany, or fail to recognize the immense
obligations under which she has placed all the rest of the world,
although they now feel that the German Nation has been going wrong in
theoretical and practical politics for more than a hundred years, and is
today reaping the consequences of her own wrong-thinking and
wrong-doing.
There are many important matters concerning which American sympathy is
strongly with Germany: (1) The unification of Germany, which Bismarck
and his co-workers accomplished, naturally commended itself to
Americans, whose own country is a firm federation of many more or less
different States, containing more or less different peoples; while most
Americans did not approve Bismarck's methods and means, they cordially
approved his accomplishment of German unification; (2) Americans have
felt unqualified admiration for the commercial and financial growth of
Germany during the past forty years, believing it to be primarily the
fruit of well-directed industry and enterprise; (3) all educated
Americans feel strong gratitude to the German Nation for its
extraordinary achievements in letters, science, and education within the
last hundred years.
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