United States -- Politics and government -- 1913-1921; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
instrumentality of cooeperation by which the fair thing will be done all
around. I am hopeful that some such instrumentalities may be devised,
but whether they are or not, we must use those that we have and upon
every occasion where it is necessary have such an instrumentality
originated upon that occasion.
So, my fellow-citizens, the reason I came away from Washington is that I
sometimes get lonely down there. So many people come to Washington who
know things that are not so, and so few people who know anything about
what the people of the United States are thinking about. I have to come
away and get reminded of the rest of the country. I have to come away
and talk to men who are up against the real thing, and say to them, "I
am with you if you are with me." And the only test of being with me is
not to think about me personally at all, but merely to think of me as
the expression for the time being of the power and dignity and hope of
the United States.
THE CALL FOR WAR WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress,
December 4, 1917.]
GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:
Eight months have elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you.
They have been months crowded with events of immense and grave
significance for us. I shall not undertake to retail or even to
summarize those events. The practical particulars of the part we have
played in them will be laid before you in the reports of the Executive
Departments. I shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast
affairs, our present duties, and the immediate means of accomplishing
the objects we shall hold always in view.
I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable
wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany
have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true
American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again
and with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which
we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion here in this place
is action, and our action must move straight towards definite ends. Our
object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer
ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But it is worth while asking
and answering the question, When shall we consider the war won?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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