JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2260
PRESIDENT WANTS CONGRESS TO DECLARE STATE OF WAR
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, March 26, 1917, Secretary of State Robert Lansing* conferred with Democratic house leaders on the form of a prospective resolution "declaring a state of war with Germany, on the early enactment of espionage legislation, and on the creation of a great secret service to guard against the operation of German plotters."
According to a special bulletin in the Chicago Daily Tribune of March 27, 1917, the Secretary of State told the house leaders that the President wanted Congress to declare a state of war, as opposed to making a "straight out" declaration of war, to place the responsibility for aggression upon the Germans.
The Tribune's special bulletin stated that the congressmen approved President Wilson's request.
JFK+50 NOTE
President Wilson finally asked Congress to declare war on Germany on April 2, 1917. The US Senate did so on April 4 followed by the US House of Representatives on April 6, 1917.
*Robert Lansing (1864-1928) was born in Watertown, NY & educated at Amherst College. RL was legal adviser to the State Department at the outbreak of WWI & served as President Wilson's Secretary of State from 1915 to 1920.
SOURCES
"Draw War Resolution," Special Bulletin, The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 27, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/
"US Entry into World War I, 1917," Office of the Historian, www.history.state.gov/
PRESIDENT WANTS CONGRESS TO DECLARE STATE OF WAR
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, March 26, 1917, Secretary of State Robert Lansing* conferred with Democratic house leaders on the form of a prospective resolution "declaring a state of war with Germany, on the early enactment of espionage legislation, and on the creation of a great secret service to guard against the operation of German plotters."
According to a special bulletin in the Chicago Daily Tribune of March 27, 1917, the Secretary of State told the house leaders that the President wanted Congress to declare a state of war, as opposed to making a "straight out" declaration of war, to place the responsibility for aggression upon the Germans.
The Tribune's special bulletin stated that the congressmen approved President Wilson's request.
JFK+50 NOTE
President Wilson finally asked Congress to declare war on Germany on April 2, 1917. The US Senate did so on April 4 followed by the US House of Representatives on April 6, 1917.
*Robert Lansing (1864-1928) was born in Watertown, NY & educated at Amherst College. RL was legal adviser to the State Department at the outbreak of WWI & served as President Wilson's Secretary of State from 1915 to 1920.
SOURCES
"Draw War Resolution," Special Bulletin, The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 27, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/
"US Entry into World War I, 1917," Office of the Historian, www.history.state.gov/
Your Country Is At War
U.S. Poster (1917)
Library of Congress Image
