To decide the fate of a province without consulting the inhabitants
seems perfectly natural to German Kultur, but to Americans it is not;
the days of slavery have gone, and wherever slavery still exists it is
time to make a change.
As to Alsace-Lorraine, says Dr. Dernburg, "the facts are known that it
had belonged to Germany until it was taken by Louis XIV., against the
will of the people, and that it was returned to Germany as a matter of
right." Such an argument is mediaeval, and it might just as well be
argued that Germany should now belong to France, because Germany was
once conquered, civilized, and organized by inhabitants of France, led
by their Frankish King. And it is not sure that in 1648 Alsace was not
glad to become French, because Louis XIV., by the Treaty of Westphalia,
then granted perfect religious freedom to the Alsatians, who unlike
their neighbors, lived ever since without fear of religious
persecutions. Lorraine itself was not annexed by Louis XIV., nor by
force, as it was peacefully united to France at the death of Stanislas,
father of the Queen of France, Marie-Lesinzka. As for the inhabitants of
Metz, they were considered long ago as French.
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