Year: 1871

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gress, has recommended that the salaries Of
our Minister and Secretary Of Legation at


Berlin be respectively increased to the same
amounts allowed to those at London and


Paris, or, in other words, that we officially
recognize the new empire Of Germany as a
first class Power, ranking with England and
France. The fact Is fixed, the case ia very
clear, and in our diplomatic recognition
henceforth OF Berlin we can give that i'm
perial capital no secondary place. So we
entertain no doubt Of the increase Of Minister
Bancroft's salary as logical necessity result
ing from the unifcation of Germany. His
present salary as Minister to the kingdom Of
Prussia Is twelve thousand dollars; his future
salary as Minister to the empire Of Germany
must be seventeen thousand five hundred dol
lars--a clear gain to our Minister'S pocket OF
five thousand five hundred dollars from the
increased dignities and responsibilities of his
| position.


Mr.. Bancroft, as logical historian will
thoroughly comprehend the convincing argu-
ment of General Grant in favor of this pro-
posed addition of five thousand five hundred
dollars to Mr.. Bancroft's salary. According
to the real position of united Germany among
the great Powers his salary ought to be raised
to at least twenty thousand dollars but still,
in advancing it to that of our Ministers respec-
lively at London and Paris, it simpliiies the
diplomatic question, and it will do And
mark the convincing argument Of General
Grant on the subject. He says that this union
OF the German States, in many respects re-
sembling our Union, ''cannot fail to touch
deeply the sympathies Of the people of the
| United States;" that this German union is due
''to the long continued and persistent efforts of
the German people Of twenty-four States !"
that the local governments of the States are
preserved and that the empire strengthens them
| all against their enemies; that the aspiration
| cherished for ages among the unnaturaly
| divided German family is now happily attained
| in the new confederation Of thirty -four mil
lions of Germans, and that 'the bringing of
great masses Of thoughtful and free people
under single government must tend to make
governments what alone they should be-the
representatives of the will aud the organiza-
tOuS VI Tue power OI the people.


All this is very good but General Grant
has something more to say in his warm admi-
ration of Germany and the Germans. He
says shat the relations Of the United States
with Germany are intimate and cordial !" that
the commercial intercourse between the two
countries is extensive and increasing, and that
''the large number of residents and citizens in
the United States Of German extraction. and
the continued flow of emigration thence into
this country have produced an intimacy of
personal and political intercourse approaching,
if not equal to, that with the country from
which the founders of our government derived
their origin" From all these considerations
General Grant thinks our Minister at Berlin
should stand as high in his official boots as our
Minister at London. And we think so too.
Nor can we suppose that there will be any
difficulty in Congress in adding, for the reasons
assigned. five thousand five hundred dollars
to the compensation of Mr.. Bancroft. 1t will
be doing the handsome thing at very small
expense after all. According 10 the scale
upon which Tammany does the handsome
thing for her high dignitaries fifty thousand
dollars to Bancroft aud big diamond and
service Of plate of ten thousand dollars in
value would, be about the figure for hand
some official recognition of the new empire of
Germany.


But as Congress bestows all its big plums,
rich perquisites and fat jobs upon the rail
way land-grabbers, claim agents such as
Chorpenning and other lobby jobbers, while
our federal government officials who are
honest are half starved, we don't ask more
than the proposed addition Of five thousand
Eve hundred to the salary Of our Minister at
Berlin. And we think the simple proposition
from General Grant to Congress would have
been enough without the stump speech en-
bodied in his recommendation. Why, then,
this stump speech? We suspect it is designed
as flank movement upon Carl SchurZ and
other republican boilers who have been and
are tampering with the German vote out West
to the prejudice of General Grant, looking to
the next Presidency. And we think this mes
sage good move to head off Schurz and these
other Western boilers and to rally our Ger
manic fellow citizens around General Grants
administration. We suspect that, having vainly
tried through Collector Murphy to get round
to the blind side of our Irish citizens in our
last November election, General Grant has
resolved upon holding fast to the Germans no
matter what our Irish lovers Of France may
think of his admiration of the German empire.
Democratic critics may say that this message
very plainly shows that General Grant is up
for another term, and that when he makes
good hit for Buncombe he intends to make it.
But what can they do against such capital
hit as this, in view of the fact that the Ger
mans, more than ever heretofore, are hence
forth going to be in this country, as at home,
power to be respected. That is the question