Albany´s Part in the World War (Classic Reprint)
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Partner: | buecher.de |
Hersteller: | Forgotten Books (Cohen, Harry) |
Stand: | 2015-08-04 03:50:33 |
Produktbeschreibung
Excerpt from Albany´s Part in the World War Declaring, before a joint session of Congress on the night of April 2, 1917, that the Kaiser and his autocracy were a menace to the peace of the world, President Wilson delivered his powerful address in which he arraigned the German empire, and urged that the United States enter the conflict for the protection of the rights of humanity. In asking Congress for a formal declaration that a state of war existed between the United States and Germany, President Wilson said: "With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the imperial German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it and that it take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense, but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the government of the German empire to terms and end the war. "We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nations can make them. "I have said nothing of the governments allied with the imperial government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor. "We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights. It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all consideration of humanity and of right and is running amuck. "It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars; civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things we have always carried nearest our hearts - for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. "To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. "God help her, she can do no other." The formal declaration by Congress that a state of war existed between the United States and Germany followed on April 6, 1917. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
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