We are the spokesmen of the American people and they have a right to
know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming
of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinister forces that
interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how
closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose. They
are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of
compromise,--deeply and indignantly impatient,--but they will be equally
impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives
are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest of peace by
arms.
I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this
intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly
face, this menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see so
clearly as the German power, a Thing without conscience or honor or
capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it be not
utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly
intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its
power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss
peace,--when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can believe
and when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people to accept
the common judgment of the nations as to what shall henceforth be the
bases of law and of covenant for the life of the world,--we shall be
willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, and pay it
ungrudgingly.
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