Office a man who was always solving temporary irritations with his eyes constantly fixed upon a great goal, and that the United States had as ambassador in London a man who had the most exalted view of the mission of his country, who had dedicated his life to the world-wide spread of the American ideal, and who believed that an indispensable part of this work was the maintenance of a sympathetic and helpful cooeperation with the English-speaking peoples.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 90:  In a letter addressed to “My fellow Countrymen” and presented to the Senate by Mr. Chilton.]

[Footnote 91:  This was in October, 1914.  In August, 1915, when conditions had changed, cotton was declared contraband.]

[Footnote 92:  Mr. Chandler P. Anderson, of New York, at this time advising the American Embassy on questions of international law.]

[Footnote 93:  Mr. Irwin Laughlin, first secretary of the Embassy.]

[Footnote 94:  Sir Cecil Spring Rice, British Ambassador at Washington.]

[Footnote 95:  Sir Edward Grey.]

[Footnote 96:  Senator William J. Stone, perhaps the leading spokesman of the pro-German cause in the United States Senate.  Senator Stone represented Missouri, a state with a large German-American element.]

[Footnote 97:  See Chapter VII.]

[Footnote 98:  Private secretary to Sir Edward Grey.]

[Footnote 99:  The reference is to an attempt by Germany to start peace negotiations in September, 1914, after the Battle of the Marne.  This is described in the next chapter.]

CHAPTER XIII

GERMANY’S FIRST PEACE DRIVES

The Declaration of London was not the only problem that distracted Page in these early months of the war.  Washington’s apparent determination to make peace also added to his daily anxieties.  That any attempt to end hostilities should have distressed so peace-loving and humanitarian a statesman as Page may seem surprising; it was, however, for the very reason that he was a man of peace that these Washington endeavours caused him endless worry.  In Page’s opinion they indicated that President Wilson did not have an accurate understanding of the war.  The inspiring force back of them, as the Ambassador well understood, was a panic-stricken Germany.  The real purpose was not a peace, but a truce; and the cause which was to be advanced was not democracy but Prussian absolutism.  Between the Battle of the Marne and the sinking of the Lusitania four attempts were made to end the war; all four were set afoot by Germany.  President Wilson was the man to whom the Germans appealed to rescue them from their dilemma.  It is no longer a secret that the Germans at this time regarded their situation as a tragic one; the success that they had anticipated for forty years had proved to be a disaster.  The attempt to repeat