Why We are at War | Page 9

their sustenance.
We are speaking of no selfish material rights, but of rights which our
hearts support, and whose foundation is that righteous passion for
justice upon which all law, all structures alike of family, of state, and of
mankind must rest, and upon the ultimate base of our existence and our
liberty. I cannot imagine any man with American principles at his heart
hesitating to defend these things.

IV
WE MUST ACCEPT WAR
Message to the Congress April 2, 1917

Gentlemen of the Congress:
I have called the Congress into extraordinary session because there are
serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made
immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible
that I should assume the responsibility of making.
On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary
announcement of the Imperial German Government that on and after
the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of
law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that
sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland or the
western coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the enemies
of Germany within the Mediterranean. That had seemed to be the
object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since
April of last year the Imperial Government had somewhat restrained
the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity with its promise
then given to us that passenger-boats should not be sunk, and that due

warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines might
seek to destroy when no resistance was offered or escape attempted,
and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save
their lives in their open boats.
The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was
proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel
and unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.
GERMANY'S RUTHLESS POLICY
The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind,
whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their
errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning, and
without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of
friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital-ships
and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of
Belgium, though the latter were provided with safe conduct through the
proscribed areas by the German Government itself and were
distinguished by unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with
the same reckless lack of compassion or of principle.
I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would, in fact,
be done by any Government that had hitherto subscribed to the humane
practices of civilized nations. International law had its origin in the
attempt to set up some law which would be respected and observed
upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion, and where lay
the free highways of the world. By painful stage after stage has that law
been built up with meager enough results, indeed, after all was
accomplished that could be accomplished, but always with a clear view
at least of what the heart and conscience of mankind demanded.
This minimum of right the German Government has swept aside under
the plea of retaliation and necessity, and because it had no weapons
which it could use at sea except these, which it is impossible to employ
as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of
humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to
underlie the intercourse of the world.
I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and
serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of
the lives of non-combatants, men, women, and children engaged in
pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modem

history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for;
the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be.
GERMAN WARFARE AGAINST MANKIND
The present German warfare against commerce is a warfare against
mankind. It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk,
American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to
learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations
have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There
has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each
nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make
for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a
temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives