The Belgians with us at Clermont-Creans, instead of being a burden, as I had feared, are making themselves useful.  They are very welcome.  They are gradually recognized and appreciated as estimable people, and are employed in the homes and farms and fields.  We should like to have more of them.  How we shall regret them when they leave! * * *

The German Emperor must stand either as a pacifist or as a conqueror.  He cannot pass as both.  All the results which may follow this war could well have been obtained in peace by a general effort of good-will.  On the other hand, the legacy of the war will be endless rancor, hatred, reprisal, and savagery.  When it shall be understood that, in spite of Governments and Parliaments, the war has been, in large part, excited by the manoeuvres of an international band of the dealers in military supplies and by their all-powerful newspapers, when it shall be thoroughly comprehended that these dealers and these newspapers have played with rumors of war as with a scarecrow, for the purpose of keeping up a general condition of disquiet favorable to their sinister operations, then, too late, alas! there will be a revulsion of public opinion to sustain finally those men, like our friends, who have urged arbitration rather than war, and conciliation rather than arbitration.

* * * More than ever our motto, “Pro patria per orbis concordiam,” will be that of every good patriot who wishes to develop the internal prosperity of his country through friendly foreign relations. * * * More than a century ago you Americans condemned and executed British imperialism; subsequently Europe condemned and executed Napoleonic imperialism; Europe is now going to condemn and execute Germanic imperialism; profit by this threefold lesson to make an end of imperialism in your country, and by your good example to render to Europe an incalculable service.

Such an example will be more efficacious than overhasty or superficial intervention, however well intentioned it might be.  Above all, beware of offering aid to Europe in a spirit of opportunism rather than of high principle.  Especially, do not try to take advantage of some circumstances in order to urge a lame and ephemeral peace.  Public opinion will be bitterly divided if the war is brought to an end merely by lassitude and a desire for comfort.  Public opinion will accept only a peace inspired with high ideals, without needless humiliation for the conquered, and equally without sacrifice of any principles which have brought together the anti-German coalition.

The war itself, however atrocious it has been and still may be, will have been only a commencement, the beginning of continual wars into which the New World will be drawn, if we do not leave the desire of life and the means of living to Germany, conquered but still alive.  It is possible to conquer and to exterminate armies, but it is not possible to exterminate a nation of 70,000,000 people.  It will then be necessary to make a place for Germany which will permit the exercise of her fecund activity in the struggle of universal competition.  If we yield to the temptation to make an end of German competition, we shall neither end the competition nor shall we end war.