c under the direction of a bishop and became a _decapole_, or
province with ten free cities. This league of free cities had control
for two hundred years, and with this in mind it is easy to see where and
how this principle of liberty and freedom was born in the hearts of
these people.

At the close of the Thirty Years War, at the Peace of Westphalia in
1648, these provinces came back to France and constituted a part of this
country until the close of the Franco-Prussian War when Germany took it.
The Treaty of Frankfort, which ceded this land to Germany was, as some
one says, "not a treaty of peace but a treaty of hatred." Bismarck
declared that Metz and Strassburg had been an open door through which
France came again and again to invade Germany and he proposed to lock
the door and throw the key into the well. Of course he had an eye upon
the rich iron mines which were absolutely necessary to Germany in her
preparation for a world war.

This country has been a battlefield for centuries. It was the religious
battleground in the seventh century. The Thirty Years War devastated
almost every foot of the territory. It is said that in one community
there was not a wedding for twelve years and not a baptism for fifteen
years. Strassburg with its great university and priceless library was
burned. The writer of these lines passed through this country years ago
where it is said that there were two hundred square miles of cemeteries
instead of farms.

In 1870-1871 came the Franco-Prussian War and once more these provinces
were largely devastated. Somehow the people got an inkling that their
land might go to Germany and at once they were up in arms about it. They
sent a delegation of twenty-eight men to the national assembly at
Bordeaux with the following appeal: "Alsace-Lorraine are opposed to
alienation. These two provinces, associated with France for more than
two centuries in good and evil fortune and constantly opposed to hostile
attack, have consistently sacrificed themselves in the cause of national
greatness; they have sealed with their blood the indissoluble compact
that binds them to French unity. With one accord, citizens who have
remained in their own homes and the soldiers who have hastened to join
the colors, proclaim by their votes or by their action on the field, to
Germany and to the world, the unalterable determination to remain
French."

When the decision was reached to give these provinces to Germany they
s