MY RECOLLECTIONS OF WILLIAM 11-1879-1903 243 



portrayed as tyrants, drunkards, clowns, beasts of prey, 

 and reptiles, has not yet been received into German modes 

 of thought. Luther said that he &quot; would not suffer any 

 man to treat the Gospel as a sow treats a sack of oats&quot;; 

 and that seems to be the feeling inherent in the German 

 mind regarding the treatment of those who represent the 

 majesty of the nation. 



And here a word regarding the relation of Kaiser and 

 people. In one of the letters to John Adams written by 

 Thomas Jefferson as they both were approaching the 

 close of life, the founder of American democracy declared 

 that he had foreseen the failure of French popular rule, 

 and had therefore favored in France, democrat though he 

 was, a constitutional monarchy. Had Jefferson lived in 

 our time, he would doubtless have arrived at a similar 

 conclusion regarding Germany, for he would have taken 

 account of the difference between a country like ours, with 

 no long period of history which had given to dominant 

 political ideas a religious character, a country stretching 

 from ocean to ocean, with no neighbors to make us afraid, 

 and a country like Germany, with an ancient historic 

 head, with no natural frontiers, and beset on every side by 

 enemies; and Jefferson would doubtless have taken ac 

 count also of the fact that, were the matter submitted to 

 popular vote, the present sovereign, with his present pow 

 ers, would be the choice of an overwhelming majority of 

 the German people. The German imperial system, like 

 our own American republican system, is the result of an 

 evolution during many generations an evolution which 

 has produced the present government, decided its char 

 acter, fixed its form, allotted its powers, and decided on 

 the men at the head of it ; and this fact an American, no 

 matter how devoted to republicanism and democracy in 

 his own country, may well acknowledge to be as fixed in 

 the political as in the physical world. 



Of course some very bitter charges have been made 

 against him as regards Germany, the main one being that 

 he does not love parliamentary government and has, at 



