President Wilsons Addresses

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President Wilson's Addresses

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Title: President Wilson's Addresses
Author: Woodrow Wilson
Editor: George McLean Harper
Release Date: December 31, 2005 [EBook #17427]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PRESIDENT WILSON'S ADDRESSES ***

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ENGLISH READINGS FOR SCHOOLS

"The virtue of books is the perfecting of reason, which is indeed the
happiness of man."
_Richard De Bury._
"On bokès for to rede I me delyte."
_Chaucer._
English Readings for Schools
GENERAL EDITOR
WILBUR LUCIUS CROSS
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN YALE UNIVERSITY
[Illustration: Woodrow Wilson]

PRESIDENT WILSON'S ADDRESSES
EDITED BY
GEORGE MCLEAN HARPER
PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY; AUTHOR OF
"MASTERS OF FRENCH LITERATURE," "LIFE OF
SAINTE-BEUVE," AND "WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, HIS LIFE,
WORKS, AND INFLUENCE"
NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
Copyright 1918, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

CONTENTS

Introduction
First Inaugural Address First Address to Congress Address on the
Banking System Address at Gettysburg Address on Mexican Affairs
Understanding America Address before the Southern Commercial
Congress The State of the Union Trusts and Monopolies Panama Canal
Tolls The Tampico Incident In the Firmament of Memory Memorial
Day Address at Arlington Closing a Chapter Annapolis
Commencement Address The Meaning of Liberty American Neutrality
Appeal for Additional Revenue The Opinion of the World The Power
of Christian Young Men Annual Address to Congress A Message
Address before the United States Chamber of Commerce To
Naturalized Citizens Address at Milwaukee The Submarine Question
American Principles The Demands of Railway Employees Speech of
Acceptance Lincoln's Beginnings The Triumph of Women's Suffrage
The Terms of Peace Meeting Germany's Challenge Request for
Authority Second Inaugural Address The Call to War To the Country
The German Plot Reply to the Pope Labor must be Free The Call for
War with Austria-Hungary Government Administration of Railways
The Conditions of Peace Force to the Utmost

INTRODUCTION
These addresses of President Woodrow Wilson represent only the most
recent phase of his intellectual activity. They are almost entirely
concerned with political affairs, and more specifically with defining
Americanism. It will not be forgotten, however, that the life of Mr.
Wilson as President of the United States is but a short period compared
with the whole of his public career as professor of jurisprudence,
history, and politics, as President of Princeton University, as Governor
of New Jersey, as an orator, and as a writer of many books.
Surprise has been expressed that a man, after reaching the age of fifty,
should be able to step from the "quiet" life of a teacher and author into
the resounding regions of politics; but Mr. Wilson's life as a scholar,
professor, and author was not at all quiet in the sense of being easy or

untouched with exciting chances and changes, and, in the second place,
he carried into politics the steadying ideals and the methodical habits of
his former occupation.
As these addresses themselves prove, he has retained something of the
teacher's interest in showing the relation between specific instances and
the general forms of thought or action of which they are a part. Not fact
alone, but principle, is what he seeks to discover to his audiences. In
the addresses made in 1913 it is apparent that his main effort was to
fasten attention upon the principles of international justice and good
will and to restrain the impulses of those Americans who were inclined
to hasty action with reference to Mexico. From the beginning of the
Great War to a point not much earlier than our own entrance into the
struggle, he counselled neutrality and inaction, with what motives one
must judge from his statements and from events. Only a few speeches
belonging to this period have been included in the present collection.
When it became practically certain that war between the United States
and Germany was inevitable, there came into his utterances a new
temper and a more direct kind of eloquence. With scarcely an exception,
this collection includes every one of his addresses made between
August, 1916, and February, 1918.
Some of the addresses are state papers, read to Congress, and were
carefully composed. Others, delivered in various places, appear to have
been more or less extemporaneous. All are full of their author's political
philosophy, and many of them contain expressions of his opinions on
general subjects, such as personal character and conduct.
In order more