by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic Government could be trusted to keep faith within it, or to observe its agreements. It must be a league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plotting of inner circles, who could plan what they would and render an account to no one, would be a corruption seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end, and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interests of their own.

Indeed, it is now evident that German spies were here even before the war began. They have played their part in serving to convince us at last that that Government entertains no real friendship for us, and means to act against our peace and security at its convenience. That it means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors, the note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence.

We are accepting this challenge because we know that in such a Government, following such methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured security of the democratic governments of the world.

We are now about to accept gage of battle with this natural foe of liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the 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 tested 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 rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nations can make them.

Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free people, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.

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.

We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early reëstablishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts.

We have borne with their present Government through all these bitter months because of that friendship, exercising a patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and actions toward the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live among us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it toward all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour of test.

They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if

they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose.

If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few.

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. 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 into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civiliza

war

tion itself seeming to be in the balance.

But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts - for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free people 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.

On July 4, 1918, the United States had been at war for more than a year, and it seemed to the millions of people who were anxiously waiting for the peaceful giant to awake that very little had been accomplished. They were fearful that the Germans in their next

great offensive, for which they had been preparing for over two months, might capture Paris, or at least get near enough to it to destroy the city with their long range artillery. The offensives, already launched by the Germans, had been frightfully effective, and the Allies felt that American soldiers in large numbers were necessary to save them from possible disaster. They were looking for a great "push" by the enemy and one that German leaders had promised the people at home would bring victory and settle the war in their favor. This offensive, as we know, was launched on July 15 and instead of succeeding was changed by Marshal Foch's counter-stroke into a serious defeat for the Germans.

But this outcome could not of course be predicted in America on July 4, and hearts were heavy with fear that the United States might after all be too slow and too late. It was not then generally known that during the months of May and June, over a half million American soldiers had been landed in France.

On July 4, 1776, the American colonies by a Declaration of Independence determined to fight for liberty and democracy; on April 6, 1917, the American Congress declared that the United States would help defeat the selfish aims of Germany. In the early fight of the American colonies for independence, the first battles were fought in April and the Declaration of Independence was signed in July of the next year;

in the fight for the liberty of all peoples, the German included, the Americans entered the war in April, and the President on July 4 of the following year, standing at the tomb of Washington at Mount Vernon, read a Declaration of Independence, not for America alone, but for the entire world.

In 1776, the declaration was supported by a small army of a few small colonies, in 1918 the declaration was supported by the full strength of the greatest and wealthiest nation on the globe.

It was a beautiful day with a cloudless sky and a cooling breeze. President Wilson and his party, including members of the cabinet; the British ambassador, the Earl of Reading; the French ambassador, Jules J. Jusserand; and other members of the diplomatic corps, had come down the Potomac from Washington on the President's steam yacht, the Mayflower.

When they had gathered around the tomb of Washington near his old home, Mount Vernon, on the banks of the beautiful Potomac River, representatives of thirty-three nations placed wreaths of palms on the tomb to show their fealty to the principles for which the "Father of His Country" fought; then all stood with bared heads while John McCormack sang "The Star-Spangled Banner." As the beautiful notes rose and swelled and echoed over the hallowed ground, into the hearts of all present came the conviction that the starry flag would soon bring to all the peoples