We are ready
to plead at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster.
Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great faith
to which we are born, and a new glory shall shine in the face of our
people.
REPLY TO THE POPE
[This important and eloquent document, though signed by the Secretary of
State, was of course authorized by the President, and indeed bears
internal marks of being his own composition. The Pope had made a plea
for peace, which was by our government deemed premature.]
AUGUST 27, 1917.
TO HIS HOLINESS BENEDICTUS XV, POPE:
In acknowledgment of the communication of Your Holiness to the
belligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the President of the United
States requests me to transmit the following reply:
Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this terrible war
must be touched by this moving appeal of His Holiness the Pope, must
feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous motives which
prompted it, and must fervently wish that we might take the path of
peace he so persuasively points out. But it would be folly to take it if
it does not in fact lead to the goal he proposes.
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