Our response must be
based upon the stern facts and upon nothing else. It is not a mere
cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable and enduring peace. This
agony must not be gone through with again, and it must be a matter of
very sober judgment that will insure us against it.
His Holiness in substance proposes that we return to the status quo ante
bellum, and that then there be a general condonation, disarmament, and a
concert of nations based upon an acceptance of the principle of
arbitration; that by a similar concert freedom of the seas be
established; and that the territorial claims of France and Italy, the
perplexing problems of the Balkan States, and the restitution of Poland
be left to such conciliatory adjustments as may be possible in the new
temper of such a peace, due regard being paid to the aspirations of the
peoples whose political fortunes and affiliations will be involved.
It is manifest that no part of this program can be successfully carried
out unless the restitution of the status quo ante furnishes a firm and
satisfactory basis for it. The object of this war is to deliver the free
peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast
military establishment controlled by an irresponsible government which,
having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry the
plan out without regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty or
the long-established practices and long-cherished principles of
international action and honor; which chose its own time for the war;
delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly; stopped at no barrier either
of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within the tide of
blood--not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women
and children also and of the helpless poor; and now stands balked but
not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world.
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