Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed.: A Collection of Speeches and MessagesCoolidge, Calvin
History
Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed.: A Collection of Speeches and Messages
Coolidge, Calvin
Massachusetts
This diplomat sums up the whole case when he says: "I had to support in
London a policy the heresy of which I recognized. That brought down
vengeance on me because it was a sin against the Holy Ghost." What an
indictment of Germany from her own confession! A plan to use the
revelations of science for the sack and slavery of the earth; the
degradation, perversion, corruption of a whole people, and by those who
should have been the wardens of their righteousness, done for the
temporal glory of a military caste, and all in the name of divine right.
Much of this was not known in America when we declared war. It is with
great difficulty we realize it now. We had seen Germany going from
infamy to infamy. We did know of the violated treaty of Belgium, of the
piracy, the murder of women and children, the destruction of the
property and lives of our neutral citizens, and finally the plain
declaration of the German Imperial Government that it would wantonly
and purposely destroy the property and lives of any American citizen who
exercised his undoubted legal right to sail certain portions of the sea.
This attempt to declare law for America by an edict from Potsdam we
resisted by the sword. We see at last not only the hideous wickedness
which perpetrated the war, we see that it is a world war, that Germany
struck not only at Belgium, she struck at us, she struck at our whole
system of civilization. A wicked purpose, which a vain attempt to
realize has involved its authors in more and more wickedness. We hear
that even among the civil population of Germany crime is rampant.
Looking now at this condition of Germany and her Allies, it is time to
inquire what America and her Allies have to offer as a remedy, and what
effect the application of such remedy has had upon ourselves. We have
drawn the sword, but is it only to
"Be blood for blood, for treason treachery?"
Are we seeking merely to match infamy with infamy, merely to pillage
and destroy those who threatened to pillage and destroy us? No; we have
taken more than the sword, lest we perish by the sword; we have summoned
the moral power of the Nation. We have recognized that evil is only to
be overcome by good. We have marshalled the righteousness of America to
overwhelm the wickedness of Germany. A new spirit has come over the
nation the like of which was never seen before. We can see it not only
in the new purity of camp life, in the heroism of our soldiers as they
fight in the faith and for the faith of the fathers, but we see it in
the healing influences which a righteous purpose has had upon the evils
which beset us.
We entered the war a people of many nationalities. We are united now;
every one is first an American. We were beset with jealousies, and envy,
and class prejudice. Service in the camp has taught each soldier to
respect the other, whatever his source, and a mutual sympathy at home
has brought all into a common citizenship. The service flag is a great
leveller.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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