The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-10
GENERAL GRANTS GERMAN MESSAGE

GENERAL GRANTS GERMAN MESSAGE.
From the N. Y. World.
The Presidents message to Congress,
printed Wednesday resembles a stately porch
erected in front of dog-kennel. The noun
tain is in labor and gives birth to a ridiculous
mouse. The practical recommendation which
follows pompous dissertation on the great
ness and beauty of the new German empire
and it's close resemblance to our own Federal
republic (merciful heavens!) is that the salary
of Mr.. George Bancroft shall be raised from
$12, 900 to $17, 800 per annum magnilo-
quent document from the head of great
nation on paltry appropriation of $500!
Who could have put it into General Grants
head to make all this parade on so trivial a
matter? We are not in his confidence and
cannot pretend to know; but there needs no
initiation into Government secrets to decide
who has the greatest interest in prompting
him to this ridiculous display. 1t is quite
according to human nature that the sugges-
tion may have come from Berlin. 1t con-
Germs Mr. Bancroft himself more thaniany-
body else to have his salary raised and no.
body was SO likely as he to approach the sub
ject with all this swelling bombast.
MIR. Bancroft may not have sent the Pres-
dent draft of the message; but certain it is
the whole texture and tissue of its ideas are
of his manufacture. In the latter part of
the year 1868 he sent to the State Depart
ment long communication drawing an ella
borate parallel between the North German
Government, as it had been then recently
organized, and the Government of the United
States; communication which was published
in all the American newspapers. General
Grants message is faithful synopsis of that
document. 1t is perfectly identical in sub
stance, differing from it only by its greater
compression and brevity. Either Mr.. Ban
croft furnished the draft of this message, or
its writer merely abridged Mr.. Bancrofts
stilted despatch and moulded it into a new
form. 1t is the purpose of both documents
to run parallel between the Government of
Germany and that of the United States The
absurdity of the parallel and the close resem-
blance of the documents demonstrate either a
common authorship or a seryile copy. 1t
| looks as if MIR. Bancroft, wishing to get his
salary raised, had written to the President
telling him what a capital stroke of policy he
| could make by adopting this method of re-
commencing himself to the German voters of
| the United States. If General Grant should
appoint new Minister to Berlin, Mr.. Ban
croft will find that he has shaken the bush for
somebody else to catch the bird
For aught we know, an increase of salary
| for the Berlin mission may be fit and appro-
pirate. But the chief arguments by which
| General Grant recommends it are absurd.
The fanciful resemblance between the Ger
| man lnblllullOuS anu ours, lb no reason Tor
putting the mission on different footing.
That resemblance, whatever there may be in
it, was just as perfect and striking in 1868,
when Mr.. Bancroft wrote the despatch of
which this message is an abridgment, as it
is to-day; and was therefore as good an argu-
ment for raising the salary then as it is now.
If similarity of institutions were a reason for
increasing tbs dignity of foreign mission,
we ought TO maintain frst-olass missions in
Mexico and the South American re-
publcs. The mission to Paris has
always been of the first rank, although
France was despotism under the first and
the second Napoleon. Resemblance in insti-
tutions has nothing to do with the subject,
the rank of foreign mission being measured
solely by dignity of the power to which it is
sent, and the closeness and importance of our
commercial and political relations. Russia is
a first class power; but we have never main
tanned frst-class mission at St. Petersburg,
because our commerce with Russia is CON-
paratively small, and our political relations
not very important. That Germany has be-
come great nation, or that her government
resembles ours, is no reason at all for increas-
ing the Importance of the mission, unless
(Which does not yet appear the recent
changes bring us into mora intimate inter