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 which 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 helping her, she can do no other. Woodrow Wilson [Illustration: GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING _Commander-in-Chief_ AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES] [Illustration: ADMIRAL SIMS _Commander-in-Chief_ UNITED STATES NAVAL FORCES] _Lanett_ [Illustration: =Corp. Joe F. Adams= Company F 167th Infantry] [Illustration: =Pvt. George Alexander= Company E 167th Infantry] [Illustration: =Pvt. Loyd Allen= Company F 167th Infantry] [Illustration: =Pvt. Will T. Anderson= Company C 106th Am. Train] [Illustration: =Pvt. Clyde Andrews= Company B 3d Infantry] [Illustration: =Pvt. Chas. H. Barnett= Battery C 6th Field Artillery] [Illustration: =Corp. Harry Bachelor= Company F 167th Infantry] [Illustration: =Pvt. Claude Barnett= Bakery Co. 357] [Illustration: =Sailor George Bankston= U.S.S. Rhode Island] [Illustration: =Pvt. Jesse Berry= Company C 106th Am. Train] [Illustration: =Pvt. Earl Beal= Battery F 53d Artillery C.A.C.] [Illustration: =Pvt. Edgar Blakely= Medical Corps] [Illustration: =Sgt. James Blackmon= 19th Division Supply Train] [Illustration: =Corp. Mark B. Blackmon= Company C 106th Am. Train] [Illustration: =Pvt. Willie H. Brewer= Company G 2d Training Reg.] [Illustration: =Pvt. Earnest G. Brewster= Company 39 157th Depot Brigade] [Illustration: =Pvt. Eddie E. Buchannan= 1st Company 1st Army Corps School Det.] [Illustration: =Sgt. Thos. H. Cason= Company C 106th Am. Train] [Illustration: =Pvt. George Caldwell= Company B 324th Infantry] [Illustration: =Pvt. Merritt E. Carlisle= Company L 327th Infantry] [Illustration: =Corp. Henry Carlisle= Battery E 21st Field Artillery] [Illustration: =Sgt. Jno. G. Chapman= Quartermaster Corps] [Illustration: =Pvt. T. G. Clements= 2d Provisional Depot Battalion] [Illustration: =Sgt. Maj. Guy Coffee= Hdqtrs. Company 384th Infantry] [Illustration: =Tipton Coffee= Y. M. C. A.]