While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be very
clear, and make very clear to all the world what our motives and our
objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual and
normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not
believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded by
them. I have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in mind when
I addressed the Senate on the twenty-second of January last; the same
that I had in mind when I addressed the Congress on the third of
February and on the twenty-sixth of February. Our object now, as then,
is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the
world as against selfish, and autocratic power and to set up amongst the
really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of
purpose and of action as will henceforth ensure the observance of those
principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the
peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the
menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic
governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by
their will, not by the will of their people.
Pages:
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358