Gentlemen of the Congress,--Eight months have elapsed since
I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded
with events of immense and grave significance for us. I shall not
undertake to detail or even to summarize these events. The practical
particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before
you in the reports of the executive departments. I shall discuss only
our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties and
the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always
in view.
I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable
wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany
have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true
American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider
again, and with very grave scrutiny, our objectives and the measures
by which we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion here
in this place is action, and our action must move straight toward
definite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war, and we shall
not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But
it is worth while asking and answering the question, When shall we
consider the war won?
From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental
matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is
about, and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization
of their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and
intention.
I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices
of dissent--who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the
noisily thoughtless and troublesome. I also see men here and there
fling themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomitable
power of the Nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neither
its nature nor the way in which we may attain it, with uplifted eyes
and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speaks for the
Nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be
left to strut about their uneasy hour and be forgotten.