Harper's Weekly

“ If both governments are equally hostile to freedom, then certainly that which insists upon adding the sufferings of war to those of slavery is the more to be condemned by humane men every where. Because King William is arrogant, and the Prussian army officers are haughty, and Bismarck is aristocratic, there are those who would willingly see them punished by Louis Napoleon. But they will not be punished; and do those reasons reconcile any American to the immeasurable anguish of wholly innocent persons which is to overspread two great countries? ”

“ Prussia is declared to be a military despotism of boundless ambition, which means to dominate Germany and Europe, and there are those who say that they would not be sorry to see her humbled. France, on the other hand, they declare, was our first friend. But for France the colonies would not have been independent. She is our traditional ally, and we do wrong to condemn her so rigorously. ”

“ Moreover, the war being forced upon Prussia, she begins by making it as humane as possible. Americans are neutrals; and the first act of Prussia is to declare the rights of neutrals in the utmost extent ever claimed by the United States. France refuses, and abides by the letter of her last agreement, the Treaty of Paris in 1856. And if we come to traditions, it is not to France nor to Celtic civilization that we owe the great muniments of American freedom. ”

“ It is sometimes asked whether liberty has any thing to choose between the Prussian King and the French Emperor, and whether it is not foolish to prefer one side to the other in the pending war. The Prussian King, it is said, is arrogant and despotic ”