536 RELATIONS BETWEEN UNITED STATES AND GEEMANY. 



in the last days of 1773, the '' tea party '' at Boston gave the opening 

 signal for separation. 



There is, therefore, a connection, both in time as well as in the per- 

 sons concerned, between the origin of the Union and the establishment 

 of Prussia as the leading German state. 



Now, the reason for the still closer relations that ensued between 

 young America and Prussia upon this historically prepared ground 

 arose from the behavior of England toward Frederick in the last 

 years of the Seven Years' war, in which she might be reckoned as an 

 enemy rather than as a friend. King Frederick had not forgotten 

 that, and treated as feasible the propositions of the Colonial States 

 then struggling toward freedom in their conflict with England. 

 Had he been able to provide a fleet he would have made a commercial 

 treaty with the States while the conflict was still going on. Again and 

 again he says that without a fleet he has no means of enforcing a 

 treaty and making it operative. He was therefore obliged to con- 

 tent himself with stopping the passage through Prussian territory 

 of the auxiliary troops England had obtained from various German 

 states, particularly from Hesse, and with favorably influencing to- 

 ward America otheT states, among them France and Russia. That 

 the yoinig Government might grow Mp to be the first great Republic 

 was to the far-seeing monarch no obstacle. I need only refer in 

 this connection to his noteworthy commentary, in which he compares 

 the republican and monarchical forms of government." 



We should take care, however, not to place too much weight upon 

 the expression by Frederick of favorable and friendly sentiments 

 toward the United States. The great king was a practical politician; 

 sentimental politics were entirely out of his line. With him the 

 controlling principle was the welfare of his State, down to that of 

 his humblest subject; hence the rule that directed his conduct was 

 care for the intellectual elevation and education of his people. Ban- 

 croft '' has an excellent, brief passage on this subject: "No prince 

 could be further than Frederick from the romantic attempts to res- 

 cue from oppression foreign colonies that were beyond his reach. 

 * * ^' His cares are for the country which he rather serves than 

 rules; he sees and exactly measures its weakness as well as its 

 strength ; he cares for every one of its disconnected parts, and 

 gathers them all under his Aviugs; but he connects his policy with 

 the movement of the world toward light and reason, the ameliora- 

 tion of domestic and international law," 



Yet that might and did suffice for the equally practical sense and 

 sober judgment of the Americans. In the United States Frederick 

 the Great has always remained a national figure in the best sense of 



'^Oeuvres, I, 239. '' History of the United States, Vol. X, p. lO.^. 



