But, when the Panama tolls incident was closed, they regarded the President as his own Foreign Secretary; and thus our Government as well as our Nation came into this high measure of esteem.
"The war began.

We, of course, took a neutral attitude, wholly to their satisfaction.

But we at once interfered--or tried to interfere--by insisting on the Declaration of London, which no Great Power but the United States (I think) had ratified and which the British House of Lords had distinctly rejected.

That Declaration would probably have given a victory to Germany if the Allies had adopted it.

In spite of our neutrality we insisted vigorously on its adoption and aroused a distrust in our judgment.