The present war must first be ended; but we owe it to candor and to
a just regard for the opinion of mankind to say that so far as our
participation in guarantees of future peace is concerned it makes a
great deal of difference in what way and upon what terms it is ended.
The treaties and agreements which bring it to an end must embody terms
which will create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and preserving,
a peace that will win the approval of mankind; not merely a peace that
will serve the several interests and immediate aims of the nations
engaged.
We shall have no voice in determining what those terms shall be, but
we shall, I feel sure, have a voice in determining whether they shall
be made lasting or not by the guarantees of a universal covenant, and
our judgment upon what is fundamental and essential as a condition
precedent to permanency should be spoken now, not afterward, when it
may be too late.
No covenant of co-operative peace that does not include the peoples of
the New World can suffice to keep the future safe against war, and yet
there is only one sort of peace that the peoples of America could join
in guaranteeing.
The elements of that peace must be elements that engage the confidence
and satisfy the principles of the American Governments, elements
consistent with their political faith and the practical convictions
which the peoples of America have once for all embraced and undertaken
to defend.