Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Fish
Sir: The day which the President selected for the national thanks-giving was also the day on which the Diet of North Germany convened for the last time. With the opening of the new year the North German Union will be merged in the United States of Germany.
I am able to inclose to you to-day a copy of the substance of the treaties effecting this union with Bavaria and Würtemberg. The grand result is brought about by the liberal and orderly tendencies of the German people, by the patriotic wisdom of a part of its rulers and the [Page 359] apprehensions of the rest. The new organization hears the marks of its origin. The aristocratic party who desired an upper house of princes and nobles has found no hearing; and as yet the chief of the United States of Germany retains the name of President.
Should the South German dynasties desire that he should be called emperor the North would probably yield its assent; but thus far the change of name has not been made; the title of kaiser is not specially in favor. Regenerated Germany renounces all affinities with the Roman empire of the middle ages. When the deliberations on the new constitution are at an end, I will endeavor to report to you the final result of the complicated negotiations. At present I call your attention to the restrictions imposed on the President of Germany as to the declaration of war, which hereafter will require the previous consent of the German council.
In my former reports I have led you to expect for United Germany the establishment of the most liberal government on the continent of Europe, and all that I may have led you to expect seems likely to be realized. In one sense the new government is the child of America; but for our success in our civil war it would not have been established. Our victory in that strife sowed the seeds of the regeneration of Europe.
A great international result is the first consequence of the union of Germany. This people, though willing to free Russia from the restrictions on her rights as a sovereign, disapproved the abrupt manner in which the Czar took his redress. Count Bismarck proposes a conference at London for the settlement of the difficulty which has thus been raised, and the British ministry gladly accepts his friendly and conciliatory intervention. The Oriental question, as it has been called, assumes a larger importance, and now involves interests extending from Constantinople, or rather from Monte Negro, to the Japanese Seas. Heretofore it has been considered as a question of rivalry between Russia and Great Britain; two other powers now rise up in strength, Germany and the United States, both most deeply interested in the solution, and both looking at it with other eyes than those of Great Britain; both untouched by jealousy of Russia, both anxious for the spread of civilization in Asia, and both ready to welcome oppressed Christian nationalities to the recovery of freedom, culture, and prosperity.
I remain, &c.,