But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say
plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be
for, and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching
issues. We are the spokesmen of the American people, and they have a
right to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the
overcoming of evil, but the defeat once and for all of the sinister
forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish
to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we
propose. They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort
of compromise--deeply and indignantly impatient--but they will be
equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our
objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make
conquest of peace by arms.
I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that
this intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us
the ugly face, this menace of combined intrigue and force, which we
now see so clearly as the German power, a Thing without conscience or
honor or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed, and, if it
be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly
intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its
power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss
peace--when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can
believe, and when those spokesmen are ready, in the name of their
people, to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall
henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of the
world--we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace
and pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will be. It will be
full, impartial justice--justice done at every point and to every
nation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as
our friends.
You catch with me the voices of humanity that are in the air. They
grow daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they
come from the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war
shall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or
people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers
of a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong.
It is this thought that has been expressed in the formula, "No
annexations, no contributions, no punitive indemnities."