No. 134.
Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Fish.
Berlin, December 2, 1871. (Received December 26.)
Sir: The Americans sojourning in Berlin celebrated the national thanksgiving-day in the morning by religious services, in the afternoon [Page 186] by a public dinner, at which about two hundred were present. Among the guests was Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, late prime minister of Bavaria, during whose ministry our treaty of naturalization with Bavaria was concluded and ratified. He is now first vice-president of the Diet of the German Empire, and is one of the purest and most enlightened statesmen of Germany. Prince Bismarck had promised us to be present, but was detained by severe indisposition. Of the high officers of the government, we had Mr. Yon Philipsborn, who, in 1888, rendered us more service in bringing our naturalization treaty to a happy issue than any one except the chancellor. The Berlin University was represented by its rector, and by several of its most distinguished professors. Mr. Petre, for the interim the representative of Great Britain in Berlin, also gave us the pleasure of his company. All sections of our country were represented. The toast in honor of the President of the United States was received with a unanimity which showed how greatly the asperity of party feeling has died away, and given place to the sentiment of nationality. In reply to that toast, Prince Hohenlohe rose, of his own choice, and delivered a short speech, of which there follows an exact translation:
Most honored ladies and gentlemen: Should you travel through the small cities and market-places of my native Bavaria, especially of Franconia, you would not easily find a spot where one or more of the inhabitants are not connected, either by family ties or business relations, with the United States, and indeed it could not be otherwise. For long years of that period which lies behind us, in which legislation hindered the free development of our every-day life, America has been the refuge of thousands of industrious laborers; for long years of political wrestling she has been the refuge of many honest combatants for the cause that to-day has triumphed.
Through long years has Germany looked toward the free States of America with hope and consolation. In this way intellectual and material bands have been fastened, both of which are alike indissoluble. Every pulsation of American life is felt on this side the ocean.
In the last decade with what intenseness we watched the great battle of the United States for their Union; this battle was fought for our union, too.
In like manner have our struggles enjoyed the sympathy of the people of the United States. Of this we have received the grandest and sublimest proofs; and I am happy to-day to be allowed to express the thanks of Germany. I offer, then,-this glass to the United States of America. They were a support to Germany at the beginning of our political development. They were our generous and unenvying friends in the time of our victories. They will, I am confident, be our faithful allies in the peaceful development of our greatness. Long live the United States of America!
At a later hour in the evening Mr. Yon Philipsborn made some remarks on the festival as having its foundation in the purity of American family life. In the course of them he introduced the following observations:
As in the life of men so in the life of nations, there are sympathies and antipathies. Between Germany and the United States, between the United States and Germany there exist only sympathies, and I see no one point that can give rise to a doubt that it will continue so.
I have the more satisfaction in reporting to you the remarks of Prince Hohenlohe and of the ministerial director, Mr. Yon Philipsborn, as they were deliberately made, and were intended to mark the sentiments of Southern and of Northern Germany, alike of governments and people toward the United States. We were all delighted at the calm and sincere manner in which Prince Hohenlohe declared that it was our success in our great struggle for union which made the union of Germany possible. Continuing the subject in conversation, he explained to me how our defeat would have given such strength to the spirit of separatism in Germany that the German States never could have formed an efficient confederation. This accorded exactly with the judgment which I had [Page 187] formed. The men who fought successfully for our Union opened the way for the renovation of Germany.
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I am, &c,