The American people have suffered intolerable wrongs at the
hands of the Imperial German Government, but they desire no reprisal
upon the German people who have themselves suffered all things in this
war which they did not choose. They believe that peace should rest upon
the rights of peoples, not the rights of Governments--the rights of
peoples great or small, weak or powerful--their equal right to freedom
and security and self-government and to a participation upon fair terms
in the economic opportunities of the world, the German people of course
included if they will accept equality and not seek domination.
The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it based upon
the faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon the word of an
ambitious and intriguing government on the one hand and of a group of
free peoples on the other? This is a test which goes to the root of the
matter; and it is the test which must be applied.
The purposes of the United States in this war are known to the whole
world, to every people to whom the truth has been permitted to come.
They do not need to be stated again. We seek no material advantage of
any kind.
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