(_April 2, 1917_)
We are now about to accept the gage of battle with this natural foe to
liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation
to check and nullify its pretensions and powers. We are glad, now that
we see the facts with no veil of false pretence about them, to fight
thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its
peoples, the German people included; for the rights of nations great
and small, and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of
life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its
peace must be planted upon the trusted foundations of political liberty.
We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion.
We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the
sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the
rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those have been made as
secure as the faith and freedom of the nation can make them.
Just because we fight without rancour and without selfish objects,
seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all
free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as
belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio
the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting
for.... We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it
because there are no other means of defending our rights.
It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents
in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus,
not in enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injury
or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an
irresponsible Government which has thrown aside all considerations of
humanity and of right and is running amuck.... There are, it may be,
many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us.
It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war,
into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself
seeming to be in the balance. But right is more precious than peace,
and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest
to our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to
authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and
liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a
concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations
and make the world itself at last free.
To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything
that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those
who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend
her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and
happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she
can do no other.