R E Q U E S T F O R A D E C L A R A T I O N

O F W A R

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–––––––––––––––––––––– Woodrow Wilson –––––––––––––––––––––

The new [German] policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every

kind…have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning and without

thought of help or mercy for those on board.…The present German submarine

warfare…is a war against all nations.…Our motive will not be revenge or the

victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication

of right, of human right.…We are…the sincere friends of the German

people.…We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in

our daily attitude and actions towards the millions of men and women of

German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and share our life.…

There are…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 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 Governments, for the

rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right…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.…