Message to the Senate
January 22, 1917
Gentlemen of the Senate:
On the 18th of December last I addressed an identic note to the
Governments of the nations now at war, requesting them to state,
more definitely than they had yet been stated by either group of
belligerents, the terms upon which they would deem it possible to make
peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and of the rights of all neutral
nations like our own, many of whose most vital interests the war puts
in constant jeopardy.
The Central Powers united in a reply which stated merely that they were
ready to meet their antagonists in conference to discuss terms of peace.