592 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-VII 



It was frequently made clear that the Emperor William 

 and the German officials were not the only ones to experi 

 ence the results of Bismarck s ill health: the diplomatic 

 corps, and among them myself, had sometimes to take it 

 into account. 



Bismarck was especially kind to Americans, and, above 

 all, to the American diplomatic representatives. To this 

 there was but one exception, my immediate successor, and 

 that was a case in which no fault need be imputed to 

 either side. That Bismarck s feeling toward Americans 

 generally was good is abundantly proven, and especially 

 by such witnesses as Abeken, Sidney Whitman, and Moritz 

 Busch, the last of whom has shown that, while the chan 

 cellor was very bitter against sundry German princes who 

 lingered about the army and lived in Versailles at the 

 public expense, he seemed always to rej oice in the presence 

 of General Sheridan and other compatriots of ours who 

 were attached to the German headquarters by a tie of 

 much less strength. 



But, as I have already hinted, there was one thing which 

 was especially vexatious to him ; and this was the evasion, 

 as he considered it, of duty to the German Fatherland 

 by sundry German- Americans. One day I received a let 

 ter from a young man who stated his case as follows: 

 He had left his native town in Alsace-Lorraine just be 

 fore arriving at the military age ; had gone to the United 

 States ; had remained there, not long enough to learn Eng 

 lish, but just long enough to obtain naturalization; and 

 had then lost no time in returning to his native town. He 

 had been immediately thrown into prison; and thence he 

 wrote me, expressing his devotion to the American flag, 

 his pride in his American citizenship, and his desire to 

 live in Germany. I immediately wrote to the minister of 

 foreign affairs, stating the man s case, and showing that 

 it came under the Bancroft treaties, or at least under the 

 construction of them which the German Government up to 

 that time had freely allowed. To this I received an an 

 swer that the Bancroft treaties, having been made before 



