When I reached America, on October eleventh, I was given a most
flattering reception and the freedom of the City of New York.
Within a few days after my arrival, the President sent for me
to visit him at Shadow Lawn, at Long Branch, and I was with him
for over four hours and a quarter in our first conference. I saw
him, of course, after the election, before returning to Germany,
and in fact sailed on the fourth of December at his special request.
Before I left I was impressed with the idea that he desired above
all things both to keep and to make peace. Of course, this question
of making peace is a very delicate one. A direct offer on our part
might have subjected us to the same treatment which we gave Great
Britain during our Civil War when Great Britain made overtures
looking towards the establishment of peace, and the North answered,
practically telling the British Government that it could attend
to its own business, that it would brook no interference and would
regard further overtures as unfriendly acts.
The Germans started this war without any consultation with the
United States, and then seemed to think that they had a right
to demand that the United States make peace for them on such
terms and at such time as they chose; and that the failure to
do so gave them a vested right to break all the laws of warfare
against their enemies and to murder the citizens of the United
States on the high seas, in violation of the declared principles
of international law.
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