I feel that I ought, in view of that fact, to obtain from you full and
immediate assurance of the authority which I may need at any moment to
exercise. No doubt I already possess that authority without special
warrant of law by the plain implication of my constitutional duties
and powers, but I prefer in the present circumstances not to act upon
general implication. I wish to feel that the authority and the power
of the Congress are behind me in whatever it may become necessary for
me to do. We are jointly the servants of the people and must act
together and in their spirit, so far as we can divine and interpret it.
No one doubts what it is our duty to do. We must defend our commerce
and the lives of our people in the midst of the present trying
circumstances with discretion, but with clear and steadfast purpose.
Only the method and the extent remain to be chosen upon the occasion,
if occasion should indeed arise.
Since it has unhappily proved impossible to safeguard our neutral
rights by diplomatic means against the unwarranted infringements they
are suffering at the hands of Germany, there may be no recourse but to
armed neutrality, which we shall know how to maintain and for which
there is abundant American precedent.