of the seas which in international conference after conference
representatives of the United States have urged with the eloquence of
those who are convinced disciples of liberty, and that moderation of
armaments which makes of armies and navies a power for order merely, not
an instrument of aggression or of selfish violence.
"And the paths of the sea must, alike in law and in fact, be free. The
freedom of the seas is the sine qua non of peace, equality, and
co-operation.
[Sidenote: Question of limiting armaments.]
"It is a problem closely connected with the limitation of naval armament
and the co-operation of the navies of the world in keeping the seas at
once free and safe. And the question of limiting naval armaments opens
the wider and perhaps more difficult question of the limitation of
armies and of all programs of military preparation. * * * There can be
no sense of safety and equality among the nations if great
preponderating armaments are henceforth to continue here and there to be
built up and maintained.
[Sidenote: How peace must be made secure.]
"Mere agreements may not make peace secure. It will be absolutely
necessary that a force be created as a guarantor of the permanency of
the settlement so much greater than the force of any nation now engaged
or any alliance hitherto formed or projected that no nation, no probable
combination of nations, could face or withstand it. If the peace
presently to be made is to endure, it must be a peace made secure by the
organized major force of mankind."
[Sidenote: Entente peoples welcome President Wilson's views.]
[Sidenote: The German note to Mexico.]
If there were any doubt in our minds as to which of the great alliances
was the more in sympathy with these ideals, it was removed by the
popular response abroad to this address of the President. For, while
exception was taken to some parts of it in Britain and France, it was
plain that so far as the peoples of the Entente were concerned the
President had been amply justified in stating that he spoke for all
forward-looking, liberal-minded men and women. It was not so in Germany.
The people there who could be reached, and whose hearts were stirred by
this enunciation of the principles of a people's peace, were too few or
too oppressed to make their voices heard in the councils of their
nation. Already, on January 16, 1917, unknown to the people of Germany,
Herr Zimmermann, their Secretary of Foreign Affairs, had secretly
dispatched a note to their Minister in Mexico, informing him of the
German intention to repudiate the _Sussex_ pledge and instructing him to
offer to the Mexican Government New Mexico and Arizona if Mexico would
join with Japan in attacking the United States.
[Sidenote: Sinister German intrigues in the New World.]
In the new year of 1917, as through our acceptance of world
responsibilities so plainly indicated in the President's utterances in
regard to a league of nations we felt ourselves now drawing nearer to a
full accord with the Powers of the Entente; and, as on the other hand,
we found ourselves more and more outraged at the German Government's
methods of conducting warfare and their brutal treatment of people in
their conquered lands; as we more and more uncovered their hostile
intrigues against the peace of the New World; and, above all, as the
sinister and anti-democratic ideals of their ruling class became
manifest in their manoeuvres for a peace of conquest--the Imperial
German Government abruptly threw aside the mask.
[Sidenote: The new submarine war zone proclaimed.]
On the last day of January, 1917, Count Bernstorff handed to Mr. Lansing
a note, in which his Government announced its purpose to intensify and
render more ruthless the operations of their submarines at sea, in a
manner against which our Government had protested from the beginning.
The German Chancellor also stated before the Imperial Diet that the
reason this ruthless policy had not been earlier employed was simply
because the Imperial Government had not then been ready to act. In
brief, under the guise of friendship and the cloak of false promises, it
had been preparing this attack.
[Sidenote: Count Bernstorff receives his passports.]
This was the direct challenge. There was no possible answer except to
hand their Ambassador his passports and so have done with a diplomatic
correspondence which had been vitiated from the start by the often
proved bad faith of the Imperial Government.
On the same day, February 3, 1917, the President addressed both houses
of our Congress and announced the complete severance of our relations
with Germany. The reluctance with which he took this step was evident in
every word. But diplomacy had failed, and it would have been the
hollowest pretense to maintain relations. At the same time, however, he
made it plain that he did not regard this act as tantamount to a
declaration of war. Here for the first time the President made his sharp
distinction between government and people in undemocratic lands:
[Sidenote: American attitude toward the German people.]
"We are the sincere friends of the German people," he said, "and
earnestly desire to remain at peace with the Government which speaks for
them. * * * God grant we may not be challenged by acts of willful
injustice on the part of the Government of Germany."
[Sidenote: Submarine order must be withdrawn.]
In this address of the President, and in its indorsement by the Senate,
there was a solemn warning; for we still had hope that the German
Government might hesitate to drive us to war. But it was soon evident
that our warning had fallen on deaf ears. The tortuous ways and means of
German official diplomacy were clearly shown in the negotiations opened
by them through the Swiss Legation on the 10th of February. In no word
of their proposals did the German Government meet the real issue between
us. And our State Department replied that no minor negotiations could be
entertained until the main issue had been met by the withdrawal of the
submarine order.
[Sidenote: President Wilson advises armed neutrality.]
By the 1st of March it had become plain that the Imperial Government,
unrestrained by the warning in the President's address to Congress on
February 3, was determined to make good its threat. The President then
again appeared before Congress to report the development of the crisis
and to ask the approval of the representatives of the nation for the
course of armed neutrality upon which, under his constitutional
authority, he had now determined. More than 500 of the 531 members of
the two houses of Congress showed themselves ready and anxious to act;
and the armed neutrality declaration would have been accepted if it had
not been for the legal death of the Sixty-fourth Congress on March 4.
No "overt" act, however, was ordered by our Government until Count
Bernstorff had reached Berlin and Mr. Gerard was in Washington. For the
German Ambassador on his departure had begged that no irrevocable
decision should be taken until he had had the chance to make one final
plea for peace to his sovereign. We do not know the nature of his report
to the Kaiser; we know only that, even if he kept his pledge and urged
an eleventh-hour revocation of the submarine order, he was unable to
sway the policy of the Imperial Government.
[Sidenote: Armed guards on American merchant ships.]
And so, having exhausted every resource of patience, our Government on
the 12th of March finally issued orders to place armed guards on our
merchant ships.
With the definite break in diplomatic relations there vanished the last
vestige of cordiality toward the Government of Germany. Our attitude was
now to change. So long as we had maintained a strict neutrality in the
war, for the reason that circumstances might arise in which Europe would
have need of an impartial mediator, for us to have given official heed
to the accusations of either party would have been to prejudge the case
before all the evidence was in.
[Sidenote: Germany is forcing the United States into war.]
But now at last, with the breaking of friendly relations with the German
Government, we were relieved of the oppressive duty of endeavoring to
maintain a judicial detachment from the rights and wrongs involved in
the war. We were no longer the outside observers striving to hold an
even balance of judgment between disputants. One party by direct attack
upon our rights and liberties was forcing us into the conflict. And,
much as we had hoped to keep out of the fray, it was no little relief to
be free at last from that reserve which is expected of a judge.
[Sidenote: Perfidy of the German Government.]
Much evidence had been presented to us of things so abhorrent to our
ideas of humanity that they had seemed incredible, things we had been
loath to believe, and with heavy hearts we had sought to reserve our
judgment. But with the breaking of relations with the Government of
Germany that duty at last was ended. The perfidy of that Government in
its dealings with this nation relieved us of the necessity of striving
to give them the benefit of the doubt in regard to their crimes abroad.
The Government which under cover of profuse professions of friendship
had tried to embroil us in war with Mexico and Japan could not expect us
to believe in its good faith in other matters. The men whose paid agents
dynamited our factories here were capable of the infamies reported
against them over the sea. Their Government's protestations, that their
purpose was self-defense and the freeing of small nations, fell like a
house of cards before the revelation of their "peace terms."
[Sidenote: The German record.]
[Sidenote: Arrogant intolerance of the Prussians.]
And judging the German Government now in the light of our own experience
through the long and patient years of our honest attempt to keep the
peace, we could see the great autocracy and read her record through the
war. And we found that record damnable. Beginning long before the war in
Prussian opposition to every effort that was made by other nations and
our own to do away with warfare, the story of the autocracy has been one
of vast preparations for war combined with an attitude of arrogant
intolerance toward all other points of view, all other systems of
governments, all other hopes and dreams of men.
With a fanatical faith in the destiny of German Kultur as the system
that must rule the world, the Imperial Government's actions have through
years of boasting, double dealing, and deceit tended toward aggression
upon the rights of others. And, if there still be any doubt as to which
nation began this war, there can be no uncertainty as to which one was
most prepared, most exultant at the chance, and ready instantly to march
upon other nations--even those who had given no offense.
[Sidenote: Atrocities in Belgium and Servia.]
The wholesale depredations and hideous atrocities in Belgium and in
Serbia were doubtless part and parcel with the Imperial Government's
purpose to terrorize small nations into abject submission for
generations to come. But in this the autocracy has been blind. For its
record in those countries, and in Poland and in Northern France, has
given not only to the Allies but to liberal peoples throughout the world
the conviction that this menace to human liberties everywhere must be
utterly shorn of its power for harm.
[Sidenote: German defiance of law and humanity.]
For the evil it has effected has ranged far out of Europe--out upon the
open seas, where its submarines, in defiance of law and the concepts of
humanity, have blown up neutral vessels and covered the waves with the
dead and the dying, men and women and children alike. Its agents have
conspired against the peace of neutral nations everywhere, sowing the
seeds of dissension, ceaselessly endeavoring by tortuous methods of
deceit, of bribery, false promises, and intimidation to stir up brother
nations one against the other, in order that the liberal world might not
be able to unite, in order that the autocracy might emerge triumphant
from the war.
[Sidenote: The rulers of Germany must go.]
All this we know from our own experience with the Imperial Government.
As they have dealt with Europe, so they have dealt with us and with all
mankind. And so out of these years the conviction has grown that until
the German Nation is divested of such rulers democracy cannot be safe.
[Sidenote: German relation with the Russian autocracy.]
There remained but one element to confuse the issue. One other great
autocracy, the Government of the Russian Czar, had long been hostile to
free institutions; it had been a stronghold of tyrannies reaching far
back into the past, and its presence among the Allies had seemed to be
in disaccord with the great liberal principles they were upholding in
this war. Russia had been a source of doubt. Repeatedly during the
conflict liberal Europe had been startled by the news of secret accord
between the Kaiser and the Czar.
[Sidenote: The people of Russia overthrow the Czar's Government.]
But now at this crucial time for our nation, on the eve of our entrance
into the war, the free men of all the world were thrilled and heartened
by the news that the people of Russia had risen to throw off their
Government and found a new democracy; and the torch of freedom in Russia
lit up the last dark phases of the situation abroad. Here, indeed, was a
fit partner for the League of Honor. The conviction was finally
crystallized in American minds and hearts that this war across the sea
was no mere conflict between dynasties, but a stupendous civil war of
all the world; a new campaign in the age-old war, the prize of which is
liberty. Here, at last, was a struggle in which all who love freedom
have a stake. Further neutrality on our part would have been a crime
against our ancestors, who had given their lives that we might be free.
"The world must be made safe for democracy."
[Sidenote: The President's message to Congress.]
On the 2d of April, 1917, the President read to the new Congress his
message, in which he asked the Representatives of the nation to declare
the existence of a state of war, and in the early hours of the 6th of
April the House by an overwhelming vote accepted the joint resolution
which had already passed the Senate.
"_Whereas_, The Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts
of war against the Government and the people of the United States of
America: Therefore be it
[Sidenote: The declaration of the existence of a state of war.]
"_Resolved_ by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between
the United States and the Imperial German Government which has thus been
thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and that the
President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the
entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources
of the Government to carry on the war against the Imperial German
Government, and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all
the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the
United States."
Neutrality was a thing of the past. The time had come when the
President's proud prophecy was fulfilled:
[Sidenote: America guided by moral force.]
"There will come that day when the world will say, 'This America that we
thought was full of a multitude of contrary counsels now speaks with the
great volume of the heart's accord, and that great heart of America has
behind it the supreme moral force of righteousness and hope and the
liberty of mankind.'"
THE WAR MESSAGE
PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON
[Sidenote: Why Congress was called in extraordinary session.]
I have called the Congress into extraordinary session because there are
serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made
immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible
that I should assume the responsibility of making.
On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you the
extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on and
after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all
restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every
vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and
Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled
by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean.
[Sidenote: The question of submarine warfare.]
[Sidenote: A cruel and unmanly business.]
That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier
in the war, but since April of last year the Imperial Government had
somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft, in conformity
with its promise, then given to us, that passenger boats should not be
sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its
submarines might seek to destroy, when no resistance was offered or
escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given at least a
fair chance to save their lives in their open boats. The precautions
taken were meagre and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing
instance after instance in the progress of the cruel and unmanly
business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.
[Sidenote: Germany sweeps all restriction away.]
The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind,
whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination,
their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning
and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of
friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital ships
and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of
Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct through the
proscribed areas by the German Government itself and were distinguished
by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless
lack of compassion or of principle.
[Sidenote: International law on the seas.]
I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in
fact be done by any Government that had hitherto subscribed to humane
practices of civilized nations. International law had its origin in the
attempt to set up some law which would be respected and observed upon
the seas, where no nation had right of dominion and where lay the free
highways of the world. By painful stage after stage has that law been
built up, with meagre enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished
that could be accomplished, but always with a clear view, at least, of
what the heart and conscience of mankind demanded.
[Sidenote: Germany shows no scruples of humanity.]
This minimum of right the German Government has swept aside, under the
plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it
could use at sea except these, which it is impossible to employ, as it
is employing them, without throwing to the wind all scruples of humanity
or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the
intercourse of the world.
[Sidenote: Lives cannot be paid for.]
I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and
serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of
the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in
pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern
history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for;
the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German
submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.
[Sidenote: American lives taken at at sea.]
It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American
lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of,
but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been
sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no
discrimination.
[Sidenote: Our motive vindication of human right.]
The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how
it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a
moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our
character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away.
Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the
physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of
human right, of which we are only a single champion.
[Sidenote: Submarines are in effect outlaws.]
[Sidenote: Must be dealt with on sight.]
When I addressed the Congress on the 26th of February last I thought
that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our right
to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our
people safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now
appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect outlaws,
when used as the German submarines have been used against merchant
shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks, as
the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves
against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open
sea. It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity indeed,
to endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their own intention.
They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all.
[Sidenote: Armed neutrality ineffectual]
The German Government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all
within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense
of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their
right to defend. The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which
we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale
of law and subject to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed
neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circumstances and in
the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; it is likely
only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain
to draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness
of belligerents. There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of
making; we will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most
sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated.
The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs;
they cut to the very roots of human life.
[Sidenote: Course of Germany actually war on the United States.]
With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the
step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves,
but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I
advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial
German Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the
Government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the
status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it; and that it
take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough
state of defense, but also to exert all its power and employ all its
resources to bring the Government of the German Empire to terms and end
the war.
[Sidenote: Necessary to co-operate with Ententes.]
What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost practicable
co-operation in counsel and action with the Governments now at war with
Germany, and, as incident to that, the extension to those Governments of
the most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so
far as possible be added to theirs.
[Sidenote: Resources must be organized.]
It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material
resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the
incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most
economical and efficient way possible.