telen, and
especially wished to say that it issued no instructions of any kind
which could have led him to violate American laws."

It is essential to the record to chronicle that American sentiment did
not accept German official disclaimers very seriously. They were too
prolific, and were viewed as apologetic expedients to keep the
relations between the two governments as smooth as possible in the
face of conditions which were daily imperiling those relations.
Germany appeared in the position of a Frankenstein who had created a
hydra-headed monster of conspiracy and intrigue that had stampeded
beyond control, and washed her hands of its depredations. The
situation, however, was only susceptible to this view by an inner
interpretation of the official disclaimers. In letter, but not in
spirit, Germany disowned her own offspring by repudiating the deeds of
plotters in terms which deftly avoided revealing any ground for the
suspicion--belied by events--that those deeds had an official
inception. Germany, in denying that the plotters were Government
"agents," suggested that these men pursued their operations with the
recognition that they alone undertook all the risks, and that if
unmasked it was their patriotic duty not to betray "the cause," which
might mean their country, the German Government, or the German
officials who directed them. Not all the exposed culprits had been
equal to this self-abnegating strain on their patriotism; some, like
Fay, were at first talkative in their admissions that their pursuits
were officially countenanced, another recounted defense of Werner
Horn, who attempted to destroy a bridge connecting Canada and the
United States, even went so far as to contend that the offense was
military--an act of war--and therefore not criminal, on the plea that
Horn was acting as a German army officer. In other cases incriminating
evidence made needless the assumption of an attitude by culprits of
screening by silence the complicity of superiors. Yet despite almost
daily revelations linking the names of important German officials,
diplomatic and consular, with exposed plots, a further repudiation
came from Berlin in December, 1915, when the New York Grand Jury's
investigation was at high tide. This further disavowal read:

"The German Government, naturally, has never knowingly accepted the
support of any person, group of persons, society or organization
seeking to promote the cause of Germany in the United