In this we are no partisans but heralds and prophets of a new age.
Woodrow Wilson
The Public Record
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, he was born in Virginia and raised in Georgia before moving to New Jersey, where he became a prominent political figure. Wilson was a key leader of the Progressive Movement, advocating for reforms such as antitrust legislation and the establishment of the Federal Reserve System. His presidency is also noted for significant events such as the United States' involvement in World War I and his efforts to promote the League of Nations, an international organization aimed at preventing future conflicts.
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The country cannot and should not consent to remain any longer exposed to profound industrial disturbances for lack of additional means of arbitration and conciliation which the Congress can easily and promptly supply.
And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to the power of the Executive to make immediate and uninterrupted use of the railroads for the concentration of the military forces of the nation wherever they are needed and whenever they…
To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to leave his work before receiving the approval of society in doing so would be to adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence, which I take it for granted we are not…
It can and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interests and liberties of all concerned as well as for the permanent interests of society itself.
Their urgency lies in the manifest circumstances which render their adoption at this time not only opportune but necessary.
Action can be taken now with facts for guidance and without suspicion of partisan purpose.
The thing must be done now, because the opportunity is here and may escape us if we hesitate or delay.
The present laws governing the island and regulating the rights and privileges of its people are not just.
We have created expectations of extended privilege which we have not satisfied.
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 toward…
Our object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won.
I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is about and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their purpose in it.
I hear men debate peace who understand neither its nature nor the way in which we may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits.
But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues.
We are the spokesmen of the American people, and they have a right to know whether their purpose is ours.
They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose.
They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compromise deeply and indignantly impatient--but they will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are and what we are planning for…
It will be full, impartial justice-justice done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our friends.
They grow daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men everywhere.
They insist that the war shall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong.
But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why a right use should not be made of it.
Let it be said again that autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claim to power or leadership in the modern world.
Not until that has been done can right be set up as arbiter and peacemaker among the nations.
Politicians like Woodrow Wilson
