WE MUST FIGHT FOR JUSTICE AND RIGHTS

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2267

WILSON DELIVERS WAR MESSAGE AS CAPITAL IS BATHED IN A FRENZY OF PATRIOTISM

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred years ago this evening, April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson, speaking to a joint session of Congress, asked for a war declaration against Germany.  

The President said...

"I have called the congress into extraordinary session because there are serious...choices of policy to be made.  The new (German) policy (of unrestricted submarine warfare) has swept every restriction aside.  Vessels of every kind...have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning and without...mercy.  The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind."

The President concluded his message with these words...

"There are many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead....civilization seeming to be in the balance.  But the right is more precious than peace...We shall fight for democracy....and make the world itself at last free.  God helping (America) can do no other."

When the President finished, "the congress broke all bounds of restraint (as) senators stood in their seats" applauding and cheering.  Senator Henry Cabot Lodge shook Mr. Wilson's hand and said...

"Mr. President, you have expressed in the loftiest manner possible the sentiments of the American people."

The following day, The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that "wave upon wave of patriotism" swept through the Capital.  Crowds gathered "along the entire stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to Capitol Hill."  The Presidential motorcade had to take an "unfrequented route" to avoid the crowds in reaching the Capitol.

SOURCES

"U.S. At War: Wilson," The Chicago Daily Tribune, April 3, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/

 "U.S. Entry Into World War I, 1917," United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, www.history.state.gov/

"Wave Upon Wave of Patriotism Sweeps Capital," The Chicago Daily Tribune, April 3, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/

President Wilson Asks for War Declaration

April 2, 1917
Library of Congress Photo

OVERT ACT BY GERMANY WILL EARN US RESPONSE

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2216

OVERT ACT BY GERMANY WILL RESULT IN U.S. MILITARY RESPONSE

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred years ago today, February 10, 1917, the Chicago Daily Tribune published a front page story reporting discussion at President Woodrow Wilson's cabinet meeting the previous day.

The main topic was the question of what action by Germany would result in a declaration of war by the United States.  While it was agreed that "no overt act" had yet been committed by the Germans since their resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare**, any overt act on their part would cause the President to "ask authority (of the Congress) to employ the armed forces of the nation."

Overt action was identified as the sinking of American ships without warning or killing American citizens aboard merchantmen of any  nationality.

President Wilson indicated, however, he would not ask for a declaration of war in such an instance, but would "protect the lives and rights of Americans on the high seas" by using the armed forces.

One of the participants in the cabinet meeting identified by the Tribune was Secretary of State Robert Lansing.**

*unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink vessels without giving warning beforehand.  Germany resumed usw on Feb 1, 1917 declaring the waters around the British Isles a "war zone" where all merchant ships, including neutrals, were subject to attack.

**Robert Lansing (1864-1928) was born in Watertown, NY & graduated from Amherst in 1886.  He was admitted to the bar in 1889.  RL served as legal adviser at the US State Dept at the outbreak of WWI & as Secretary of State 1915-1920.  

RL was head of the US Commission at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of the war, but fell out of favor with the President because he did not agree that the League of Nations was essential to the peace treaty.  After the President suffered a stroke, Mrs. Wilson asked for Mr. Lansing's resignation.

SOURCE

"Wilson Ready To Use Force If Necessary," The Chicago Daily Tribune, Vol LXXVI -- No. 36, Final Edition, February 10, 1917.

President Wilson & His Cabinet

Photo from "Liberty's Victorious Conflict:

A Photographic History of the World War"

by C.V. Buck

The Magazine Circulation Co., 1918

PRESIDENT WILSON ASKS FOR WAR DECLARATION

PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON WANTS USA TO ENTER WORLD WAR

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Ninety-eight years ago today, April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson, speaking to a joint session of Congress, asked for a war declaration against Germany.

The World War, later to be labeled World War I, had begun in 1914.  President Wilson asked the American people to be neutral "in thought as well as deed." That would be easier said than done for the people as well as the president.  

In January 1917, critical factors would lead to President Wilson's decision to ask for the war declaration the following April.

Germany had initiated a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.  This meant that any vessel of any country, at war or neutral, military or civilian, was subject to attack if sailing in the established "war zone."

When an unarmed French vessel named the Sussex was torpedoed in the English Channel by a German submarine in March 1916, President Wilson threatened to cut off diplomatic relations unless Germany agreed to refrain from attacks on ALL passenger ships and allow the crews of enemy merchant vessels to abandon ship prior to any attack.

The Germans agreed to the "Sussex Pledge" on May 4, 1916.  By January 1917, the decision was made to resume unrestricted submarine warfare in hopes that Great Britain could be defeated within five months time.

German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, believing this decision would bring the United States into the war, objected. 

The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, as the Chancellor feared, resulted in President Wilson's decision to break off diplomatic relations with Germany.  

In February and March 1917, German submarines attacked and sank several U.S. ships. Also, a secret telegram sent by the German ambassador to Mexico, Arthur Zimmerman, was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence.  

The Zimmerman Telegram offered Mexico return of lost territory to the United States if she agreed to join Germany in the war against her neighbor to the north.

In his address to Congress of April 2, 1917, President Wilson called the attacks by German submarines to be "a warfare against mankind".  The President concluded his message with these words:

"There are many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead....civilization seeming to be in the balance.  But the right is more precious than peace..."

"We shall fight for democracy....and make the world itself at last free.  God helping (America) can do no other."

The United States Senate approved the war declaration on April 4th and the House of Representatives followed on April 6th.

The United States of America had entered the war to "make the world safe for democracy."  Very soon, America's "doughboys" would be on their way "over there."

SOURCE

"U.S. Entry Into World War I, 1917," United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, www.history.state.gov/

President Wilson Asks for War Declaration

April 2, 1917
Library of Congress Photo