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Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

"President Wilson's Addresses"

May I not add that I hope and believe that I am in
effect speaking for liberals and friends of humanity in every nation and
of every program of liberty? I would fain believe that I am speaking for
the silent mass of mankind everywhere who have as yet had no place or
opportunity to speak their real hearts out concerning the death and ruin
they see to have come already upon the persons and the homes they hold
most dear.
And in holding out the expectation that the people and Government of the
United States will join the other civilized nations of the world in
guaranteeing the permanence of peace upon such terms as I have named I
speak with the greater boldness and confidence because it is clear to
every man who can think that there is in this promise no breach in
either our traditions or our policy as a nation, but a fulfilment,
rather, of all that we have professed or striven for.
I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should with one accord
adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the doctrine of the world:
that no nation should seek to extend its polity over any other nation or
people, but that every people should be left free to determine its own
polity, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid,
the little along with the great and powerful.


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