I
The speech I am about to make is attuned to the spirit and the fact of
war.
A few days ago, as you all know, President Wilson once more spoke to
this nation and to the world in a great and noble message of splendid
vision--holding up a veritable beacon light of right and justice for
all peoples.
We all pray with eager and earnest hope that the German people will
recognize the spirit and meaning of that lofty utterance and that,
casting aside the odious leadership of the militarists, they will
grasp the hand stretched out to them in such generous and unselfish
meaning.
Even as I speak the leaven of that great message may be working in
Germany with potent effect. I have no information other than what you
all have, but I hope I am not over-sanguine in giving heed to a
feeling that some parts of what I am going to say are perhaps in
process of being superseded by events that may be forming.
Let us all trust that it be so, and that we may soon be enabled to
substitute for the harsh accents of arraignment and enmity the
feelings and the language of peaceful intercourse and of that new
relationship which the President's leadership is seeking to bring
about amongst all the nations.
But until that "consummation devoutly to be wished" is attained, let
us take care lest we permit the hope of it to diminish our effort or
to weaken our determination. Neither hope nor any other motive or
influence must be suffered for one moment to divert us from the stern
and resolute pursuit, to the utmost of our capacity, of our high and
solemn purpose as it has been proclaimed in the great messages of
America's spokesman and leader.
* * * * *
In attempting to deal with the questions that I shall discuss, I must
apologize for using the personal pronoun a good deal more than would
seem consonant with due modesty. My excuse is that whatever weight my
observations may have with you, lies mainly in the fact that I am of
German birth, that until the outbreak of the war I kept in close touch
with German men and affairs, that I loved the old Germany and that the
conclusions which I am about to state I have reached in grief and
bitter disappointment.
For these reasons, also, what I shall say from personal knowledge and
observation and in a personal way may have some effect upon those
among my fellow-citizens of my own blood whose eyes may not have been
opened fully to the difference between the Germany they knew and the
Germany of 1914, and who, owing to insufficient and incorrect
information, may not yet have discerned with entire clearness the path
of right and duty nor perceived the true inwardness of the
unprecedented tragedy which has befallen the world.