Woodrow Wilson actually said...

I have taken it, and taken it in the confidence that it will meet with your approval and support.

The Government of the United States earnestly protested.

We owe it to a due regard for our own rights as a nation, to our sense of duty as a representative of the rights of neutrals the world over,...

It has therefore become painfully evident that the position which this Government took at the very outset is inevitable.