The Writings of Carl Schurz/To Count Dönhof, May 18th
TO COUNT DÖNHOF[1]
| Heimfelder Holz, near Harburg, | |
| May 18, 1888. |
Will you permit me, dear Count, to consider you as my confidential friend in the great world of Berlin and to encroach upon your time for a moment? Last week I found a notice in a Hamburg paper which referred to a report published in Frankfort about some remarks said to have been made by Prince Bismarck to “two prominent men from abroad.” This notice speaks also of a denial published in the Norddeutsche Allegemeine Zeitung. The reporter of the New York Herald, who called upon me here a few days later, told me that he had heard from the banker Bleichröder that I had been indicated as one of these “prominent men” and also that the words attributed to the Prince had been made use of for purposes of speculation on the bourse. Hereupon I tried to procure the originals of the Frankfort paper and of the answer in the Norddeutsche Allegemeine Zeitung. I have received these articles, and at the same time an explanation purporting to come from me, which appeared in the Frankfort Europäische Correspondenz.
All these things were entirely new to me. I have not yet the faintest conception what may be the source of these Frankfort publications. In America, where, by the way, the journalistic spirit of invention is scarcely more developed than here, I have learned to treat similar things with indifference. I would do the same now, if this case were not a rather serious matter for me. The article of the Norddeutsche Allegemeine Zeitung, which is generally supposed to be inspired by the Chancellor, and the wording of which I now see for the first time, gives rise to the supposition that the “unnamed men in the background” may be equally responsible with the reporter for the report circulated about the remarks of the Prince. As it seems that I am regarded as one of these “men in the background,” you may well imagine how painfully this affair affects me. As it happens, you yourself have accidentally been a witness of the circumspection with which I have treated the newspaper correspondents with whom I came in contact, and you know how anxious I have been not to commit any indiscretion. If I should have reason to believe that the friendliness with which I was honored by these eminent persons might now be regretted by them as misplaced cordiality and might, in a more or less direct way, be publicly so considered—this would of course be in the highest degree painful to me.
May I ask you, who move familiarly in the social as well as the political circles of the Prince, to tell me how, in your opinion, the matter has been there regarded and what view I am to take of it? If I am imposing too much upon your friendly sentiments, have the goodness to tell me so frankly. But you will understand how much I desire this explanation.
The reporter has played me another trick. A newspaper notice is circulating now that I have personally requested the Crown Prince to intervene in the Techow affair.[2] Of course there is not a word of truth in it. May I ask you, by the way, if anything new has come to your notice about this case? Mr. Rottenburg was so kind as to let me hope that I should be informed if anything could be done. But I have not yet heard anything.