Germany's defiance.
Despite the protests of scattered pacifists, the country was as nearly a
unit in its approval of Wilson's action as its heterogeneous national
character permitted. All the pent-up emotions of the past two years found
expression in quiet but unmistakable applause at the departure of the
German Ambassador.

The promptitude of the President's dismissal of von Bernstorff did not
conceal the disappointment which he experienced from Germany's revelation
of her true purposes. He seems to have hoped to the end that the German
liberals would succeed in bringing their Government to accept moderate
terms of peace. Even now he expressed the hope that Germany's actions
would not be such as to force the United States into the War: "I refuse
to believe that it is the intention of the German authorities to do in
fact what they have warned us they will feel at liberty to do.... Only
actual overt acts on their part can make me believe it even now." But
"if American ships and American lives should in fact be sacrificed by
their naval commanders in heedless contravention of the just and
reasonable understandings of international law and the obvious dictates
of humanity, I shall take the liberty of coming again before the Congress
to ask that authority be given me to use any means that may be necessary
for the protection of our seamen and our people in the prosecution of
their peaceful and legitimate errands on the high seas. I can do nothing
less. I take it for granted that all neutral governments will take the
same course." He was careful, moreover, to underline the fact that his
action was dictated always by a consistent desire for peace: "We wish to
serve no selfish ends. We seek merely to stand true alike in thought and
in action to the immemorial principles of our people.... These are the
bases of peace, not war. God grant we may not be challenged to defend
them by acts of willful injustice on the part of the Government of
Germany!"

But Germany proceeded heedlessly. Warned that American intervention would
result only from overt acts, the German Admiralty hastened to commit such
acts. From the 3d of February to the 1st of April, eight American vessels
were sunk by submarines and forty-eight American lives thus lost.
Because of the practical blockade of American ports which followed the
hesitation of American shipping interests to send boats unarmed into the
dangers of the "war zone," President Wilson came again to