I call you to witness, my fellow-countrymen, that at no stage of this
terrible business have I judged the purposes of Germany intemperately. I
should be ashamed in the presence of affairs so grave, so fraught with
the destinies of mankind throughout all the world, to speak with
truculence, to use the weak language of hatred or vindictive purpose. We
must judge as we would be judged. I have sought to learn the objects
Germany has in this war from the mouths of her own spokesmen, and to
deal as frankly with them as I wished them to deal with me. I have laid
bare our own ideals, our own purposes, without reserve or doubtful
phrase, and have asked them to say as plainly what it is that they seek.
We have ourselves proposed no injustice, no aggression. We are ready,
whenever the final reckoning is made, to be just to the German people,
deal fairly with the German power, as with all others. There can be no
difference between peoples in the final judgment, if it is indeed to be
a righteous judgment. To propose anything but justice, even-handed and
dispassionate justice, to Germany at any time, whatever the outcome of
the war, would be to renounce and dishonor our own cause, for we ask
nothing that we are not willing to accord.
It has been with this thought that I have sought to learn from those who
spoke for Germany whether it was justice or dominion and the execution
of their own will upon the other nations of the world that the German
leaders were seeking. They have answered--answered in unmistakable
terms. They have avowed that it was not justice, but dominion and the
unhindered execution of their own will.