Thank you, Charles! I knew I had bungled the full quote, but what I remembered so vividly was that phrase and the author's clear tone of disapproval.

--Previous Message--
: However, while
: reading a microfilm copy of the New York
: Times from the day after Wilhelm II's
: accession in 1888 (the entire front page was
: given over to stories related to the German
: succession, as it had been 99 days earlier),
: I came across what we'd now call an analysis
: piece in which the author said something
: like, "One wonders what it means for
: the peace of the world when a man who hates
: his own mother sits of the throne of the
: German Empire." I may not have the
: whole line exactly word for word, but I
: vividly recall being struck by that phrase,
: "a man who hates his own mother,"
: because what I had thought was a royal
: family secret was right there on the front
: page of the New York Times!
:
: "It is perhaps logical that a man who
: hates his mother does not love anything
: except himself, his country not excepted,
: and many people, the Socialists and Jews of
: Germany perhaps the most of all, may
: bitterly regret the untimely death of
: Emperor Frederick and the accession of
: William II." - New York Times, June 16,
: 1888, page 1.
:
: