(Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) was the 28th President of the United States, 1913-21; married Edith Bolling Galt, 1915, after death of first wife; Governor of New Jersey, 1911-13; president of Princeton University, 1902-10; professor at Princeton University, 1890-02; professor at Wesleyan University, 1888-90; instructor of history at Bryn Mawr College, 1885-88; married Ellen Louise Axson, 1885; graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, 1883-85; admitted to bar, 1882; graduated from University of Virginia Law School, 1882; and graduated from Princeton University, 1879.
In 1911, at a Denver rally, Governor Woodrow Wilson remarked:
<A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about...
The Bible...is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation.> 1856WW001
New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson stated in Denver, Colorado, at the Tercentenary Celebration of the Translation of the Bible into the English Language, May 7, 1911:
<Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, the thought that entered my mind first as I came into this great room this evening framed itself in a question, Why should this great body of people have come together upon this solemn night?
There is nothing here to be seen. There is nothing delectable here to be heard. Why should you run together in a great host when all that is to be spoken of is the history of a familiar book?
But as I have sat and looked upon this great body of people I have thought of the very suitable circumstance that here upon the platform sat a little group of ministers of the gospel lost in this great throng.
I say the 'suitable circumstance,' for I come here to night to speak of the Bible as the book of the people, not the book of the minister of the gospel, not the special book of the priest from which to set forth some occult, unknown doctrine withheld from the common understanding of men, but a great book of revelation - the people's book of revelation. For it seems to me that the Bible has revealed the people to themselves. I wonder how many persons in this great audience realize the significance for English-speaking peoples of the translation of the Bible into the English tongue.
Up to the time of the translation of the Bible into English, it was a book for long ages withheld from the perusal of the peoples of other languages and of other tongues, and not a little of the history of liberty lies in the circumstance that the moving sentences of this book were made familiar to the ears and the understanding of those peoples who have led mankind in exhibiting the forms of government and the impulses of reform which have made for freedom and for self-government among mankind.
For this is a book which reveals men unto themselves, not as creatures in bondage, not as men under human authority, not as those bidden to take counsel and command of any human source. It reveals every man to himself as a distinct moral agent, responsible not to men, not even to those men whom he has put over him in authority, but responsible through his own conscience to his Lord and Maker. Whenever a man sees this vision he stands up a free man, whatever may be the government under which he lives, if he sees beyond the circumstances of his own life.
I heard a very eloquent sermon to-day from an honored gentleman who is with us to-night. He was speaking upon the effect of a knowledge of the future life upon our conduct in this life. And it seemed to me that as I listened to him I saw the flames of those fires rekindled at which the martyrs died - died forgetful of their pain, with praise and thanksgiving upon their lips, that they had the opportunity to render their testimony that this was not the life for which they had lived, but that there was a house builded in the heavens, not built of men, but built of God, to the vision of which they had lifted their eyes as they passed through the world, which gave them courage to fear no man, but to serve God.
And I thought that all the records of heroism, of the great things that had illustrated human life, were summed up in the power of men to see that vision.
Our present life, ladies and gentlemen, is a very imperfect and disappointing thing. We do not judge our own conduct in the privacy of our own closets by the standard of expediency by which we are daily and hourly governed. We know that there is a standard set for us in the heavens, a standard revealed to us in this book which is the fixed and eternal standard by which we judge ourselves, and as we read this book it seems to us that the pages of our own hearts are laid open before us for our own perusal. This is the people's book of revelation, revelation of themselves not alone, but revelation of life and of peace. You know that human life is a constant struggle. For a man who has lost the sense of struggle life has ceased.
I believe that my confidence in the judgment of the people in matters political is based upon my knowledge that the men who are struggling are the men who know; that the men who are in the midst of the great effort to keep themselves steady in the pressure and rush of life are the men who know the significance of the pressure and the rush of life, and that they, the men on the make, are the men to whom to go for your judgments of what life is and what its problems are. And in this book there is peace simply because we read here the object of the struggle. No man is satisfied with himself as the object of the struggle.
There is a very interesting phrase that constantly comes to our lips which we perhaps do not often enough interpret in its true meaning. We see many a young man start out in life with apparently only this object in view - to make name and fame and power for himself, and there comes a time of maturity and reflection when we say of him, "He has come to himself." When may I say that I have come to myself? Only when I have come to recognize my true relations with the rest of the world. We speak of a man losing himself in a desert. If you reflect a moment you will see that is the only thing he has not lost. He himself is there. What he means when he says that he has lost himself is that he has lost all the rest of the world. He has nothing to steer by. He does not know where any human habitation lies. He does not know where any beaten path and highway is. If he could establish his relationship with anything else in the world he would have found himself. Let it serve as a picture.
A man has found himself when he has found his relation to the rest of the universe, and here is the book in which those relations are set forth. And so when you see a man going along the highways of life with his gaze lifted above the road, lifted to the sloping ways in front of him, then be careful of that man and get out of his way. He knows the kingdom for which he is bound. He has seen the revelation of himself and of his relations to mankind. He has seen the revelations of his relation to God and his Maker, and therefore he has seen his responsibility in the world. This is the revelation of life and of peace. I do not know that peace lies in constant accommodation. I was once asked if I would take part in a great peace conference, and I said, 'Yes; if I may speak in favor of war' - not the war which we seek to avoid, not the senseless and useless and passionate shedding of human blood, but the only war that brings peace, the war with human passions and the war with human wrong - the war which is that untiring and unending process of reform from which no man can refrain and get peace.
No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace out of his acquiescence. The most solid and satisfying peace is that which comes from this constant spiritual warfare, and there are times in the history of nations when they must take up the crude instruments of bloodshed in order to vindicate spiritual conceptions. For liberty is a spiritual conception, and when men take up arms to set other men free, there is something sacred and holy in the warfare. I will not cry 'peace' so long as there is sin and wrong in the world. And this great book does not teach any doctrine of peace so long as there is sin to be combated and overcome in one's own heart and in the great moving force of human society.
And so it seems to me that we must look upon the Bible as the great charter of the human soul - as the 'Magna Charta' of the human soul. You know the interesting circumstances which gave rise to the Magna Charta. You know the moving scene that was enacted upon the heath at Runnymede. You know how the barons of England, representing the people of England - for they consciously represented the people of England - met upon that historic spot and parleyed with John, the King. They said, "We will come to terms with you here." They said, "There are certain inalienable rights of English-speaking men which you must observe. They are not given by you, they can not be taken away by you. Sign your name here to this parchment upon which these rights are written and we are your subjects. Refuse to put your name to this document and we are your sworn enemies. Here are our swords to prove it."
The franchise of human liberty made the basis of a bargain with a king.
There are kings upon the pages of Scripture, but do you think of any king in Scripture as anything else than a mere man? There was the great King David, of a line blessed because the line from which should spring our Lord and Savior, a man marked in the history of mankind as the chosen instrument of God to do justice and exalt righteousness in the people.
But what does this Bible do for David? Does it utter eulogies upon him? Does it conceal his faults and magnify his virtues? Does it set him up as a great statesman would be set up in a modern biography? No; the book in which his annals are written strips the mask from David, strips every shred of counterfeit and concealment from him and shows him as indeed an instrument of God, but a sinful and selfish man, and the verdict of the Bible is that David, like other men, was one day to stand naked before the judgment seat of God and be judged not as a king but as a man. Is not this the book of the people? Is there any man in this Holy Scripture who is exempted from the common standard and judgment? How these pages teem with the masses of mankind. Are these the annals of the great? These are the annals of the people - of the common run of men.
The New Testament is the history of the life and the testimony of common men who rallied to the fellowship of Jesus Christ and who by their faith and preaching remade a world that was under the thrall of the Roman army. This is the history of the triumph of the human spirit, in the persons of humble men. And how many sorts of men march across the pages, how infinite is the variety of human circumstance and of human dealings and of human heroism and love! Is this a picture of extraordinary things? This is a picture of the common life of mankind. It is a mirror held up for men's hearts, and it is in this mirror that we marvel to see ourselves portrayed.
How like to the Scripture is all great literature! What is it that entrances us when we read or witness a play of Shakespeare? It is the consciousness that this man, this all-observing mind, saw men of every cast and kind as they were in their habits, as they lived. And as passage succeeds passage we seem to see the characters of ourselves and our friends portrayed by this ancient writer, and a play of Shakespeare is just as modern to-day as upon the day it was penned and first enacted. And the Bible is without age or date or time. It is a picture of the human heart displayed for all ages and for all sorts and conditions of men.
Moreover, the Bible does what is so invaluable in human life - it classifies moral values. It apprises us that men are not judged according to their wits, but according to their characters - that the last of every man's reputation is his truthfulness, his squaring his conduct with the standards that he knew to be the standards of purity and rectitude.
How many a man we appraise, ladies and gentlemen, as great to-day whom we do not admire as noble! A man may have great power and small character. And the sweet praise of mankind lies not in their admiration of the smartness with which the thing was accomplished, but in that lingering love which apprises men that one of their fellows has gone out of life to his own reckoning, where he is sure of the blessed verdict, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Did you ever look about you in any great city, in any great capital, at the statues which have been erected in it? To whom are these statues erected? Are they erected to the men who have piled fortunes about them? I do not know of any such statue anywhere, unless after he had accumulated his fortune the man bestowed it in beneficence upon his fellow men, and alongside of him will stand a statue of another meaning, for it is easy to give money away. I heard a friend of mine say that the standard of generosity was not the amount you gave away, but the amount you had left. It is easy to give away of your abundance; but look at the next statue, the next statue, and the next in the market place of great cities, and whom will you see? You will see here a soldier who gave his life to serve, not his own ends, but the interests and the purposes of his country.
I would be the last, ladies and gentlemen, to disparage any of the ordinary occupations of life, but I want to ask you this question: Did you ever see anybody who had lost a son hang up his yardstick over the mantelpiece? Have you not seen many families who had lost their sons hang up their muskets and their swords over the mantelpiece? What is the difference between the yardstick and the musket? There is nothing but perfect honor in the use of the yardstick, but the yardstick was used for the man's own interest, for his own self- support. It was used merely to fulfill the necessary exigencies of life, whereas the musket was used to serve no possible purpose of his own. He took every risk without any possibility of profit. The musket is the symbol of self-sacrifice and the yardstick is not. A man will instinctively elevate the one as the symbol of honor and never dream of using the other as a symbol of distinction.
Doesn't that cut pretty deep, and don't you know why the soldier has his monument as against the civilian's? The civilian may have served his State - he also - and here and there you may see a statesman's statue, but the civilian has generally served his country - has often served his country, at any rate - with some idea of promoting his own interests, whereas the soldier has everything to lose and nothing but the gratitude of his fellow men to win.
Let every man pray that he may in some true sense be a soldier of fortune, that he may have the good fortune to spend his energies and his life in the service of his fellow men in order that he may die to be recorded upon the rolls of those who have not thought of themselves but have thought of those whom they served. Isn't this the lesson of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Am I not reminding you of these common judgments of our life, simply expounding to you this book of revelation, this book which reveals the common man to himself, which strips life of its disguises and its pretenses and elevates those standards by which alone true greatness and true strength and true valor are assessed?
Do you wonder, therefore, that when I was asked what my theme this evening would be I said it would be 'The Bible and Progress'? We do not judge progress by material standards. America is not ahead of the other nations of the world because she is rich. Nothing makes America great except her thoughts, except her ideals, except her acceptance of those standards of judgment which are written large upon these pages of revelation. America has all along claimed the distinction of setting this example to the civilized world - that men were to think of one another, that governments were to be set up for the service of the people, that men were to be judged by these moral standards which pay no regard to rank or birth or conditions, but which assess every man according to his single and individual value. This is the meaning of this charter of the human soul. This is the standard by which men and nations have more and more come to be judged. And so the form has consisted in nothing more nor less than this - in trying to conform actual conditions, in trying to square actual laws with the right judgments of human conduct and more than liberty.
That is the reason that the Bible has stood at the back of progress. That is the reason that reform has come not from the top but from the bottom. If you are ever tempted to let a government reform itself, I ask you to look back in the pages of history and find me a government that reformed itself. If you are ever tempted to let a party attempt to reform itself, I ask you to find a party that ever reformed itself.
A tree is not nourished by its bloom and by its fruit. It is nourished by its roots, which are down deep in the common and hidden soil, and every process of purification and rectification comes from the bottom - not from the top. It comes from the masses of struggling human beings. It comes from the instinctive efforts of millions of human hearts trying to beat their way up into the light and into the hope of the future.
Parties are reformed and governments are corrected by the impulses coming out of the hearts of those who never exercised authority and never organized parties. Those are the sources of strength, and I pray God that these sources may never cease to be spiritualized by the immortal subjections of these words of inspiration of the Bible.
If any statesman sunk in the practices which debase a nation will but read this single book, he will go to his prayers abashed. Do you not realize, ladies and gentlemen, that there is a whole literature in the Bible? It is not one book, but a score of books. Do you realize what literature is? I am sometimes sorry to see the great classics of our English literature used in the schools as textbooks, because I am afraid that little children may gain the impression that these are formal lessons to be learned. There is no great book in any language, ladies and gentlemen, that is not the spontaneous outpouring of some great mind on the cry of some great heart. And the reason that poetry moves us more than prose does is that it is the rhythmic and passionate voice of some great spirit that has seen more than his fellow men can see.
I have found more true politics in the poets of the English-speaking race than I have ever found in all the formal treatises on political science. There is more of the spirit of our own institutions in a few lines of Tennyson than in all the textbooks on governments put together:
A nation still, the rules and the ruled,
Some sense of duty, something of a faith,
Some reverence for the laws ourselves have made,
Some patient force to change them when we will,
Some civic manhood firm against the crowd.
Can you find summed up the manly, self-helping spirit of Saxon liberty anywhere better than in those few lines? Men afraid of nobody, afraid of nothing but their own passions, on guard against being caught unaware by their own sudden impulses and so getting their grapple upon life in firm-set institutions, some reverence for the laws themselves have made, some patience, not passionate force, to change them when they will, some civic manhood firm against the crowd. Literature, ladies and gentlemen, is revelation of the human spirit, and within the covers of this one book is a whole lot of literature, prose and poetry, history and rhapsody, the sober narration of the ecstasy of human excitement - things that ring in one's ears like songs never to be forgotten. And so I say let us never forget that these deep sources, these wells of inspiration, must always be our sources of refreshment and of renewal. Then no man can put unjust power upon us. We shall live in that chartered liberty in which a man sees the things unseen, in which he knows that he is bound for a country in which there are no questions mooted any longer of right or wrong.
Can you imagine a man who did not believe these words, who did not believe in the future life, standing up and doing what has been the heart and center of liberty always, standing up before the king himself and saying, 'Sir, you have sinned and done wrong in the sight of God, and I am His messenger of judgment to pronounce upon you the condemnation of Almighty God. You may silence me, you may send me to my reckoning with my Maker, but you can not silence or reverse the judgment.' That is what a man feels whose faith is rooted in the Bible. And the man whose faith is rooted in the Bible knows that reform can not be stayed, that the finger of God that moves upon the face of the nations is against every man that plots the nation's downfall or the people's deceit; that these men are simply groping and staggering in their ignorance to a fearful day of judgment; and that whether one generation witnesses it or not the glad day of revelation and of freedom will come in which men will sing by the host of the coming of the Lord in His glory, and all of those will be forgotten - those little, scheming, contemptible creatures that forgot the image of God and tried to frame men according to the image of the evil one.
You may remember that allegorical narrative in the Old Testament of those who searched through one cavern after another cutting the holes in the walls and going into the secret places where all sorts of noisome things were worshipped. Men do not dare to let the sun shine in upon such things and upon such occupations and worships. And so I say there will be no halt to the great movement of the armies of reform until men forget their God, until they forget this charter of their liberty. Let no man suppose that progress can be divorced from religion or that there is any other platform for the ministers of reform than the platform written in the utterances of our Lord and Savior.
America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I ask of every man and woman in this audience that from this night on they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in their daily perusal of this great book of revelations - that if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits free and pure by this baptism of the Holy Scripture.> 1856WW002
On Tuesday, March 4, 1913, in his First Inaugural Address, given on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., President Woodrow Wilson challenged the nation:
<The Nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge of wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and made an instrument of evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out of God's own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge and the brother are one....
This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity. Men's hearts wait upon us; men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to day what we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dare fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but council and sustain me!> 1856WW003
On May 31, 1913, in a Proclamation for the Preservation and Protection of Fur Seals and Sea Otter, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<The Convention between the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Russia for the preservation and protection of the fur seals and sea otter which frequent the waters of the North Pacific Ocean....Now,
Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States...authorize the naval or other officers of the United States to arrest, detain, and deliver to the proper officers of such Governments, respectively, all persons and vessels subject to their jurisdiction, offending against said Convention....
Done at the city of Washington this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-seventh. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.> 1856WW004
On July 4, 1913, in a message delivered at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, President Woodrow Wilson declared:
<Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. What shall we do with it? Who stands ready to act again and always in the spirit of this day of reunion and hope and patriotic fervor? The day of our country's life has but broadened into morning.
Do not put uniforms by. Put the harness of the present on. Lift your eyes to the great tracts of life yet to be conquered in the interest of righteous peace, of that prosperity which lies in a people's heart and outlasts all wars and errors of men.
Come, let us be comrades and soldiers yet, to serve our fellow men in quiet counsel, where the blare of trumpets is neither heard nor heeded and where the things are done which make blessed the nations of the world in peace and righteousness and love.> 1856WW005
On October 1, 1913, in a Proclamation for the Protection of Migratory Birds, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<All wild geese, wild swans, brant, wild ducks, snipe, plover, woodcock, rail, wild pigeons, and all other migratory game and insectivorous birds which in their northern and southern migrations pass through or do not remain permanently the entire year within the borders of any State or Territory, shall hereafter be deemed to be within the custody and protection of the Government of the United States, and shall not be destroyed or taken contrary to regulations hereinafter provided therefor....
It shall be unlawful to shoot or by any device kill or seize and capture migratory birds within the protection of this law during said closed seasons....
Done at the city of Washington, this first day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirteen and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-eighth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.> 1856WW006
On October 23, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
<The season is at hand in which it has been our long respected custom as a people to turn in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His manifold mercies and blessings to us as a nation.
The year that has just passed has been marked in a peculiar degree by manifestations of His gracious and beneficent providence. We have not only had peace throughout our borders and with the nations of the world but that peace has been brightened by constantly multiplying evidences of genuine friendship, of mutual sympathy and understanding, and of the happy operation of many elevating influences both of ideal and of practice.
The nation has been prosperous not only but has proved its capacity to take calm counsel amidst the rapid movement of affairs and deal with its own life in a spirit of candor, righteousness, and comity. We have seen the practical completion of a great work at the Isthmus of Panama which not only exemplifies the nation's abundant capacity of its public servants but also promises the beginning of a new age, of new contacts, new neighborhoods, new sympathies, new bonds, and new achievements of co-operation and peace.
"Righteousness exalteth a nation" and "peace on earth, good will towards men" furnish the only foundation upon which can be built the lasting achievements of the human spirit. The year has brought us the satisfaction of work well done and fresh visions of our duty which will make the work of the future better still.
Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday the twenty-seventh of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease from their wonted occupations and in their several homes and places of worship render thanks to Almighty God.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-eighth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.> 1856WW007
On February 3, 1914, in a Proclamation Revoking the Prohibition of Exportation of Arms or Munitions of War to Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, hereby declare and proclaim that, as the conditions on which the Proclamation of March 14, 1912, was based have essentially changed, and as it is desirable to place the United States with reference to the exportation of arms or munitions of war to Mexico in the same position as other Powers, the said proclamation is hereby revoked....
Done at the city of Washington this third day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-eighth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.> 1856WW008
On April 28, 1914, in a Proclamation for Protection Against Domestic Violence in Colorado, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, do hereby admonish all good citizens of the United States and all persons within the territory and jurisdiction of the United States against aiding, countenancing, abetting, or taking part in such unlawful proceedings; and I do hereby warn all persons engaged in or connected with said domestic violence....
Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-eighth day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-eighth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.> 1856WW009
On May 9, 1914, in a Proclamation of Mother's Day, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the said Joint Resolution, do hereby direct the government officials to display the United States flag on all government buildings and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the Second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.
Done at the City of Washington this ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-eighth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.> 1856WW010
On May 11, 1914, in an address delivered at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, at the Funeral Service over the remains of seventeen Sailors and Marines who lost their lives at the taking of Vera Cruz, Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<They did not give their lives for themselves. They gave their lives for us....And what greater thing could you serve than a nation such as this we love and are proud of? Are you sorry for these lads? Does it not quicken your pulses to think of the list of them? I hope to God none of you may join the list, but if you do, you will join an immortal company....
We do not want to fight the Mexicans. We want to serve the Mexicans if we can...
May God grant to all of us that vision of patriotic service which here in solemnity and grief and pride is borne in upon our hearts and consciences.> 1856WW011
On June 5, 1914, in addressing the graduating class of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<You are champions of your fellow men, particularly of that great body one hundred million strong whom you represent in the United States. What do you think is the most lasting impression that those boys down in Vera Cruz are going to leave? They have had to use some force - I pray God it may not be necessary for them to use any more - but do you think that the way fought is going to be the more lasting impression?...The things that show the moral compulsions of the human conscience, those are the things by which we have been building up civilization, not by force. And the lasting impression that those boys are going to leave is this.> 1856WW012
On July 4, 1914, in an address at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<The way to success in this great country, with its fair judgments, is to show that you are not afraid of anybody except God and His final verdict. If I did not believe that, I would not believe in democracy. If I did not believe that, I would not believe that people can govern themselves. If I did not believe that the moral judgment would be the last judgment, the final judgment, in the minds of men as well as the tribunal of God, I could not believe in popular government.> 1856WW013
On September 8, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Prayer and Supplication:
<Whereas great nations of the world have taken up arms against one another and war now draws millions of men into battle whom the counsel of statesmen has not been able to save from the terrible sacrifice;
And Whereas in this as in all things it is our privilege and duty to seek counsel and succor of Almighty God, humbling ourselves before Him, confessing our weakness and our lack of any wisdom equal to these things;
And Whereas it is the especial wish and longing of the people of the United States, in prayer and counsel and all friendliness, to serve the cause of peace;
Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do designate Sunday, the fourth day of October next, a day of prayer and supplication and do request all God-fearing persons to repair on that day to their places of worship there to unite their petitions to Almighty God that, overruling the counsel of men, setting straight the things they can not govern or alter, taking pity on the nations now in the throes of conflict, in His mercy and goodness showing a way where men can see none, He vouchsafe His children healing peace again and restore once more that concord among men and nations without which there can be neither happiness nor true friendship nor any wholesome fruit of toil or thought in the world; praying also to this end that He forgive us our sins, our ignorance of His holy will, our wilfulness and many errors, and lead us in the paths of obedience to places of vision and to thoughts and counsels that purge and make wise.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this eighth day of September in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fourteen and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-ninth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.> 1856WW014
On October 24, 1914, in an address titled "The Power of Christian Young Men," delivered at the Anniversary Celebration of the Young Men's Christian Association in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<I am more interested in it because it is an association of young men who are Christian. I wonder if we attach sufficient importance to Christianity as a mere instrumentality in the life of mankind....If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.
The only way your powers can become great is by exerting them outside the circle of your own narrow, special, selfish interests. And that is the reason of Christianity. Christ came into the world to save others, not to save himself; and no man is a true Christian who does not think constantly of how he can lift his brother, how he can assist his friend, how he can enlighten mankind, how he can make virtue the rule of conduct in the circle in which he lives.
An association merely of young men might be an association that had its energies put forth in every direction, but an association of Christian young men is an association meant to put its shoulders under the world and life it, so that other men may feel that they have companions in bearing the weight and heat of the day; that other men may know that there are those who care for them, who would go into places of difficulty and danger to rescue them, who regard themselves as their brother's keeper.
And, then, I am glad that it is an association. Every word of its title means an element of strength. Young men are strong. Christian young men are the strongest kind of young men, and when they associate themselves together they have the incomparable strength of organization.
The Young Men's Christian Association once excited, perhaps it is not too much to say, the hostility of the organized churches of the Christian world, because the movement looked as if it were so nonsectarian, as if it were so outside the ecclesiastical field, that perhaps it was an effort to draw young men away from the churches and to substitute this organization for the great bodies of Christian people who joined themselves in the Christian denominations. But after a while it appeared that it was a great instrumentality that belonged to all the churches; that it was a common instrument for sending the light of Christianity out into the world in its most practical form, drawing young men who were strangers into places where they could have companionship that stimulated them and suggestions that kept them straight and occupations that amused them without vicious practice; and then, by surrounding themselves with an atmosphere of purity and simplicity of life, catch something of a glimpse of the great ideal which Christ lifted when He was elevated upon the cross.
I remember hearing a very wise man say once, a man grown old in the service of a great church, that he had never taught his son religion dogmatically at any time; that he and the boy's mother had agreed that if the atmosphere of that home did make a Christian of the boy, nothing that they could say would make a Christian of him. They knew that Christianity was catching, and if they did not have it, it would not be communicated. If they did have it, it would penetrate while the boy slept, almost; while he was unconscious of the sweet influences that were about him, while he reckoned nothing of instruction, but merely breathed into his lungs the wholesome air of a Christian home. This is the principle of the Young Men's Christian Association-to make a place where the atmosphere makes great ideals contagious. That is the reason that I said, though I had forgotten that I said, what is quoted on the outer page of the program-
that you can test a modern community by the degree of its interest in its Young Men's Christian Association. You can test whether it knows what road it wants to travel or not. You can test whether it is deeply interested in the spiritual and essential prosperity of its rising generation. I know of no test that can be more conclusively put to a community than that.
I want to suggest to the young men of this association that it is the duty of young men not only to combine for the things that are good, but to combine in a militant spirit. There is a fine passage in one of Milton's prose writings which I am sorry to say I can not quote, but the meaning of which I can give you, and it is worth hearing. He says that he has no patience with a cloistered virtue that does not go out and seek its adversary. Ah, how tired I am of the men who are merely on the defensive, who hedge themselves in, who perhaps enlarge the hedge enough to include their little family circle and ward off all the evil influences of the world from that loved and hallowed group! How tired I am of the men whose virtue is selfish because it is merely self-protective! And how much I wish that men by the hundred thousand might volunteer to go out and seek the adversary and subdue him!
I have had the fortune to take part in affairs of a considerable variety of sorts, and I have tried to hate as few persons as possible, but there is an exquisite combination of contempt and hate that I have for a particular kind of person, and that is the moral coward. I wish we could give all our cowards a perpetual vacation. Let them go off and sit on the side lines and see us play the game; and put them off the field if they interfere with the game. They do nothing but harm, and they do it by that most subtle and fatal thing of all, that of taking the momentum and the spirit and the forward dash out of things. A man who is virtuous and a coward has no marketable virtue about him. The virtue, I repeat, which is merely self-defensive is not serviceable even, I suspect, to himself. For how a man can swallow and not taste bad when he is a coward and thinking only of himself I can not imagine. Be militant! Be an organization that is going to do things!...
When I think of an association of Christian young men I wonder that it has not already turned the world upside down. I wonder, not that has done so much, for it has done a great deal, but that it has done so little; and I can only conjecture that it does not realize its own strength. I can only imagine that it has not yet got its pace. I wish I could believe, and I do believe, that at 70 it is just reaching its majority, and that from this time on a dream greater even than George Williams ever dreamed will be realized in the great accumulating momentum of Christian men throughout the world. For, gentlemen, this is an age in which the principles of men who utter public opinion dominate the world. It makes no difference what is done for the time being. After the struggle is over the jury will sit, and nobody can corrupt that jury....
Now, is it not very important that we who shall constitute a portion of the jury should get our best judgments to work and base them upon Christian forbearance and Christian principles, upon the idea that it is impossible by sophistication to establish that a thing that is wrong is right? And yet, while we are going to judge with the absolute standard of righteousness, we are going to judge with Christian feeling, being men of a like sort ourselves, suffering the same passions; and while we do not condemn we are going to seek to say and to live the truth. What I am hoping for is that these 70 years have just been a running start, and that now there will be a great rush of Christian principle upon the strongholds of evil and of wrong in the world. Those strongholds are not as strong as they look. Almost every vicious man is afraid of society, and if you once open the door where he is, he will run. All you have to do is to fight, not with cannon but with light....
That, in my judgment, is what the Young Men's Christian Association can do. It can point out to its members the things that are wrong. It can guide the feet of those who are going astray; and when its members have realized the power of the Christian principle, then they will not be men if they do not unite to see that the rest of the world experiences the same emancipation and reaches the same happiness of release.
I believe in the Young Men's Christian Association because I believe in the progress of moral ideas in the world....Eternal vigilance is the price, not only
of liberty, but of a great many other things. It is the price of everything that is good. It is the price of one's own soul. It is the price of the souls of the people you love; and when it comes down to the final reckoning you have a standard that is immutable. What shall a man give in exchange for his own soul? Will he sell that? Will he consent to see another man sell his soul? Will he consent to see the conditions of his community such that men's souls are debauched and trodden under foot in the mire? What shall he give in exchange for his own soul, or any other man's soul? And since the world, the world of affairs, the world of society, is nothing less and nothing more than all of us put together, it is a great enterprise for the salvation of the soul in this world as well as in the next.
There is a text in Scripture that has always interested me profoundly. It says godliness is profitable in this life as well as in the life that is to come; and if you do not start it in this life, it will not reach the life that is to come. Your measurements, your directions, your whole momentum, have to be established before you reach the next world. This world is intended as the place in which we shall show that we know how to grow in the stature of manliness and of righteousness.
I have come here to bid Godspeed to the great work of the Young Men's Christian Association.> 1856WW015
On October 28, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
<It has long been the honored custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for his many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. The year that is now drawing to a close since we last observed our day of national thanksgiving has been, while a year of discipline because of the mighty forces of war and of change which have disturbed the world, also a year of special blessing for us.
It has been vouchsafed to us to remain at peace, with honour, and some part to succour the suffering and supply the needs of those who are in want. We have been privileged by our own peace and self-control in some degree to steady the counsels and shape the hopes and purposes of a day of fear and distress. Our people have looked upon their own life as a nation with a deeper comprehension, a fuller realization of their responsibilities as well as of their blessings, and a keener sense of the moral and practical significance of what their part among the nations of the world may come to be.
The hurtful effects of foreign war in their own industrial and commercial affairs have made them feel the more fully and see the more clearly their mutual interdependence upon one another and has stirred them to a helpful cooperation such as they have seldom practiced before. They have been quickened by a great moral stimulation. Their unmistakable ardour for peace, their earnest pity and disinterested sympathy for those who are suffering, their readiness to help and to think of the needs of others, has revealed them to themselves as well as to the world.
Our crops will feed all who need food; the self-possession of our people amidst the most serious anxieties and difficulties and the steadiness and resourcefulness of our business men will serve other nations as well as our own.
The business of the country has been supplied with new instrumentalities and the commerce of the world with new channels of trade and intercourse. The Panama Canal has been opened to the commerce of the nations. The two continents of America have been bound in closer ties of friendship.
New instrumentalities of acquaintance, intercourse, and mutual service. Never before have the people of the United States been so situated for their own advantage or the advantage of their neighbors or so equipped to serve themselves and mankind.
Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday the twenty-sixth of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease from their wonted occupations and in their several homes and places of worship render thanks to Almighty God.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this twenty-eighth day of October in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-ninth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Acting Secretary of State.> 1856WW016
On December 8, 1914, in his Second Annual Address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<We are champions of peace and concord. And we should be very jealous of this distinction which we have sought to earn. Just now we should be particularly jealous of it because it is our dearest present hope that this character and reputation may presently, in God's providence, bring us an opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in the world and reconciliation and a healing settlement of many a matter that has cooled and interrupted the friendship of nations.> 1856WW017
On January 8, 1915, in an address delivered before Governor Ralston, in Indianapolis, Indiana, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<I will borrow a very interesting phrase from a distinguished gentleman of my acquaintance and beg that you will "keep your moral powder dry."...
May we not look forward to the time when we shall be called blessed among the nations, because we succored the nations of the world in their time of distress and of dismay? I for one pray God that that solemn hour may come, and I know the solidity of character and I know the exaltation of hope, I know the big principle with which the American people will respond to the call of the world for this service. I thank God that those who believe in America, who try to serve her people, are likely to be also what America herself from the first hoped and meant to be-the servant of mankind.> 1856WW018
On May 10, 1915, before the mayor and a gathering of 4,000 naturalized American citizens in Convention Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God-certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great Government....
A man does not hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. That is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome. If I have in any degree forgotten what America was intended for, I will thank God if you will remind me.> 1856WW019
On July 1, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation to commemorate the achievements of the Negro race during the fifty years of freedom:
<A national exposition in commemoration of the achievements of the Negro race during the last fifty years will be held in Richmond, Virginia, July fifth to twenty-fifth, 1915. The occasion has been recognized as of national importance by Congress through an appropriation of $55,000 to aid in its promotion and consummation. This sum is being expended by the terms of the appropriation under the direction of the Governor of Virginia. The exposition is under the auspices of the Negro Historical and Industrial Association. The action of Congress in this matter indicates very happily the desire of the nation, as well as of the people of Virginia, to encourage the Negro in his efforts to solve his industrial problem. The National Negro Exposition is designed to demonstrate his progress in the last fifty years and to emphasize his opportunities. As President of the United States,
I bespeak the active interest of the nation in the exposition and trust that every facility will be extended to the leaders whose earnest work has made the undertaking possible.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this first day of July in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirty-ninth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW020
On October 11, 1915, before the Daughters of the American Revolution, in Memorial Continental Hall, Washington, D.C., President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<I am in a hurry to have an opportunity to have a line-up and let the men who are thinking first of other countries stand on one side-Biblically, it should be on the left-and all those that are for America, first, last and all the time on the other side....
I believe that the glory of America is that she is a great spiritual conception and that in the spirit of her institutions dwells not only her distinction but her power, and that the one thing that the world cannot permanently resist is the moral force of great and triumphant convictions.> 1856WW021
On October 20, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
<It has long been the honored custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. The year that is now drawing to a close since we last observed our day of national thanksgiving has been, while a year of discipline because of the mighty forces of war and of change which have disturbed the world, also a year of special blessing for us.
Another year of peace has been vouchsafed us; another year in which not only to take thought of our duty to ourselves and to mankind but also to adjust ourselves to the many responsibilities thrust upon us by a war which has involved almost the whole of Europe.
We have been able to assert our rights and the rights of mankind without breach of friendship with the great nations with whom we have had to deal; and while we have asserted rights we have been able also to perform duties and exercise privileges of succour and helpfulness which should serve to demonstrate our desire to make the offices of friendship the means of truly disinterested and unselfish service. Our ability to serve all who could avail themselves of our services in the midst of crisis has been increased, by a gracious Providence, by more and more abundant crops; our ample financial resources have enabled us to steady the markets of the world and facilitate necessary movements of commerce which the war might otherwise have rendered impossible; and our people have come more and more to a sober realization of the part they have been called upon to play in a time when all the world is shaken by unparalleled distress and disasters.
The extraordinary circumstances of such a time have done much to quicken our national consciousness and deepen and confirm our confidence in the principles of peace and freedom by which we have always sought to be guided. Out of darkness and perplexity have come firmer counsels of policy and clearer perceptions of the essential welfare of the nation. We have prospered while other people were at war, but our prosperity has been vouchsafed us, we believe, only that we might the better perform the functions which war rendered it impossible for them to perform.
Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday the twenty-fifth of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease from their wonted occupations and in their several homes and places of worship render thanks to Almighty God.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this twentieth day of October in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fortieth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW022
On November 5, 1915, in an address celebrating the fiftieth Anniversary of the Manhattan Club, at the Biltmore Hotel, New York, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<The mission of America in the world is essentially a mission of peace on earth and good will among men (Lk. 2:14)....
May I not say, while I am speaking of this, that there is another danger we should guard against? We should rebuke not only manifestations of racial feeling here in America where there should be none, but also every manifestation of religious and sectarian antagonism. It does not become America that within her borders, where every man is free to follow the dictates of his conscience and worship God as he pleases, men should raise the cry of church against church. To do that is to strike at the very spirit and heart of America.
We are a God-fearing people. We agree to differ about methods of worship, but we are united in believing in Divine Providence and in worshipping the God of Nations. We are the champions of religious right here and everywhere that it may be our privilege to give in our countenance and support....
Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. What shall we do with it? Who is there who does not stand ready at all times to act in her behalf in a spirit of devoted and disinterested patriotism? We are yet only in the youth and first consciousness of our power. The day of our country's life is still but in its fresh morning. Let us lift up our eyes to the great tracts of life yet to be conquered in the interest of righteous peace.> 1856WW023
On December 7, 1915, in his Third Annual Address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<We do believe in a body of free citizens ready and sufficient to take care of themselves and of the governments which they have set up to serve them. In our constitutions themselves we have commanded that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," and our confidence has been that our safety in times of danger would lie in the rising of the nation to take care of itself, as the farmers of Lexington.> 1856WW024
On January 11, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a Contribution Day for the aid of stricken Jewish people:
<Whereas, I have received from the Senate of the United States a Resolution, passed January 6, 1916, reading as follows:
"Whereas in the various countries now engaged in war there are nine millions of Jews, the great majority of whom are destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; and
"Whereas millions of them have been driven from their homes without warning, deprived of an opportunity to make provision for their most elementary wants, causing starvation, disease and untold suffering; and
"Whereas the people of the United States of America have learned with sorrow of this terrible plight of millions of human beings and have most generously responded to the cry for help whenever such an appeal has reached them;
"Therefore be it Resolved, That, in view of the misery, wretchedness, and hardships which these nine millions of Jews are suffering, the President of the United States be respectfully asked to designate a day on which the citizens of this country may give expression to their sympathy by contributing to the funds now being raised for the relief of the Jews in the war zones."
And Whereas, I feel confident that the people of the United States will be moved to aid the war-stricken people of a race which has given to the United States so many worthy citizens;
Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, in compliance with the suggestion of the Senate thereof, do appoint and proclaim January 27, 1916, as a day upon which the people of the United States may make such contributions as they feel disposed for the aid of the stricken Jewish people.
Contributions may be addressed to the American Red Cross, Washington, D.C., which will care for their proper distribution.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this eleventh day of January, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fortieth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW025
On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a National Proclamation of Flag Day:
<It has therefore seemed to me fitting that I should call your attention to the approach of the anniversary of the day upon which the flag of the United States was adopted by the Congress as the emblem of the Union, and to suggest to you that it should this year and in years to come be given special significance as a day of renewal and reminder, a day upon which we should direct our minds with a special desire of renewal to thoughts of the ideals and principles of which we have sought to make our great Government the embodiment.
I therefore suggest and request that throughout the nation and if possible in every community the fourteenth day of June be observed as Flag Day with special patriotic exercises, at which means shall be taken to give significant expressions to our thoughtful love of America, our comprehension of the great mission of liberty and justice to which we have devoted ourselves as a people, our pride in the history and our enthusiasm for the political program of the nation, our determination to make it greater and purer with each generation, and our resolution to demonstrate to all the world its vital union in sentiment and purpose, accepting only those as true compatriots who feel as we do the compulsion of this supreme allegiance.
Let us on that day rededicate ourselves to the nation, "one and inseparable," from which every thought that is not worthy of our fathers' first vows in independence, liberty, and right shall be excluded and in which we shall stand with united hearts, for an America which no man can corrupt, no influence draw away from its ideals, no force divide against itself,-a nation signally distinguished among all the nations of mankind for its clear, individual conception alike of its duties and its privileges, its obligations and its rights.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this thirtieth day of May, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fortieth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW026
On November 17, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
<It has long been the custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. The year that has elapsed since we last observed our day of thanksgiving has been rich in blessings to us as a people, but the whole face of the world has been darkened by war. In the midst of our peace and happiness, our thoughts dwell with painful disquiet upon the struggles and sufferings of the nations at war and of the peoples upon whom war has brought disaster without choice or possibility of escape on their part. We cannot think of our own happiness without thinking also of their pitiful distress.
Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do appoint Thursday, the thirtieth of November, as a day of National Thanksgiving and Prayer, and urge and advise the people to resort to their several places of worship on that day to render thanks to Almighty God for the blessings of peace and unbroken prosperity which He has bestowed upon our beloved country in such unstinted measure. And I also urge and suggest our duty in this our day of peace and abundance to think in deep sympathy of the stricken peoples of the world upon whom the curse and terror of war has so pitilessly fallen, and to contribute out of our abundant means to the relief of their suffering. Our people could in no better way show their real attitude towards the present struggle of the nations than by contributing out of their abundance to the relief of the suffering which war has brought in its train.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this seventeenth day of November, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-first. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW027
On February 3, 1917, in a message to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson announced that diplomatic relations with Germany were severed:
<We seek merely to stand true alike in thought and in action to the immemorial principles of our people, which I sought to express in my address to the Senate only two weeks ago-seek merely to vindicate our rights to liberty and justice and an unmolested life.
These are the bases of peace, not war. God grant we may not be challenged to defend them by acts of willful injustice on the part of the Government of Germany.> 1856WW028
On Monday, March 5, 1917, in his Second Inaugural Address, delivered on the Front Portico of the Capitol, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<We are being forged into a new unity amidst the fires that now blaze throughout the world. In their ardent heat we shall, in God's Providence, let us hope, be purged of faction and division, purified of the errant humors of party and of private interest, and shall stand forth in the days to come with a new dignity of national pride and spirit. Let each man see to it that the dedication is in his own heart, the high purpose of the nation in his own mind, ruler of his own will and desire.
I stand here and have taken the high and solemn oath to which you have been audience because the people of the United States have chosen me for this august delegation of power and have gracious judgment named me their leader in affairs.
I know now what the task means. I realize to the full the responsibility which it involves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to do my duty in the true spirit of this great people.> 1856WW029
On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson delivered his War Message to Congress:
<To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.> 1856WW030
On April 16, 1917, in an address to his fellow countrymen, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance. Let every man and every woman assume the duty of careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate of patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused or forgiven....And I hope that the clergymen will not think the theme of it an unworthy or inappropriate subject of comment and homily from their pulpits. The supreme test of the nation has come. We must all speak, act, and serve together!> 1856WW031
As soldiers went to fight 'the Hun,' George M. Cohen wrote the popular song, "Over There," for which he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. The Chorus went:
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming everywhere.
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware -
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over, over there.
On May 30, 1917, in an address before the Grand Army of the Republic at Arlington Cemetery, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<There are times when words seem empty and only actions seem great.
Such a time has come, and in the providence of God, America will once more have an opportunity to show the world that she was born to serve mankind.> 1856WW032
On August 1, 1917, Pope Benedict XV, in his offer of mediation to the European Powers involved in World War I, wrote from the Vatican:
<Do not, then, turn a deaf ear to our prayer, accept the paternal invitation which we extend to you in the name of the Divine Redeemer, Prince of Peace. Bear in mind your very grave responsibility to God and man; on your decision depend the quiet and joy of numberless families, the lives of thousands of young men, the happiness, in a word, of the peoples to whom it is your imperative duty to secure this boon. May the Lord inspire you with decisions conformable to His very holy will. May Heaven grant that in winning the applause of your contemporaries you will also earn from the future generations the great titles of pacificators. As for us, closely united in prayer and penitence with all the faithful souls who yearn for peace, we implore for you the divine spirit, enlightenment, and guidance.> 1856WW033
On September 3, 1917, in a message to the National Army, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<My affectionate confidence goes with you in every battle and every test. God keep and guide you!> 1856WW034
On October 19, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Supplication and Prayer:
<Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by a concurrent resolution adopted on the fourth day of the present month of October, in view of the entrance of our nation into the vast and awful war which now afflicts the greater part of the world, has requested me to set apart by official proclamation a day upon which our people should be called upon to offer concerted prayer to Almighty God for His divine aid in the success of our arms;
And, Whereas, it behooves a great free people, nurtured as we have been in the eternal principles of justice and of right, a nation which has sought from the earliest days of its existence to be obedient to the divine teachings which have inspired it in the exercise of its liberties, to turn always to the Supreme Master and cast themselves in faith at His feet, praying for His aid and succor in every hour of trial, to the end that the great aims to which our fathers dedicated our power as a people may not perish among men, but be always asserted and defended with fresh ardor and devotion and, through the Divine blessing, set at last upon enduring foundations for the benefit of all the free peoples of the earth:
Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, gladly responding to the wish expressed by the Congress, do appoint October twenty-eighth, being the last Sunday of the present month, as a day of supplication and prayer for all the people of the nation, earnestly exhorting all my countrymen to observe the appointed day, according to their several faiths, in solemn prayer that God's blessing may rest upon the high task which is laid upon us, to the end that the cause for which we give our lives and treasure may triumph and our efforts be blessed with high achievement.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the District of Columbia this nineteenth day of October, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-second. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW035
On November 7, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
<It has long been the honored custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. That custom we can follow now even in the midst of the tragedy of a world shaken by war and immeasurable disaster, in the midst of sorrow and great peril, because even amidst the darkness that has gathered about us we can see the great blessings God has bestowed upon us, blessings that are better than mere peace of mind and prosperity of enterprise.
We have been given the opportunity to serve mankind as we once served ourselves in the great day of our Declaration of Independence, by taking up arms against a tyranny that threatened to master and debase men everywhere and joining with other free peoples in demanding for all the nations of the world what we then demanded and obtained for ourselves. In this day of the revelation of our duty not only to defend our own rights as a nation but to defend also the rights of free men throughout the world, there has been vouchsafed us in full and inspiring measure the resolution and spirit of united action. We have been brought to one mind and purpose. A new vigor of common counsel and common action has been revealed in us. We should especially thank God that in such circumstances, in the midst of the greatest enterprise the spirits of men have ever entered upon, we have, if we but observe a reasonable and practicable economy, abundance with which to supply the needs of those associated with us as well as our own.
A new light shines about us. The great duties of a new day awaken a new and greater national spirit in us. We shall never again be divided or wonder what stuff we are made of.
And while we render thanks for these things let us pray Almighty God that in all humbleness of spirit we may look always to Him for guidance; that we may be kept constant in the spirit and purpose of service; that by His grace our minds may be directed and our hands strengthened; and that in His good time liberty and security and peace and the comradeship of a common justice may be vouchsafed all the nations of the earth.
Wherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-ninth day of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease upon that day from their ordinary occupations and in their several homes and places of worship to render thanks to God, the great Ruler of Nations.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the District of Columbia this 7th day of November, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-second. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW036
On December 4, 1917, in an address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters of Germany. Not until that has been done can right be set up as arbiter and peacemaker among the nations. But when that has been done-as, God willing, it assuredly will be-we shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusions of all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors....
A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy.> 1856WW037
On Sunday, January 20, 1918, in an Executive Order to the Army and Navy enjoining Sabbath observance, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<The President, commander in chief of the Army and Navy, following the reverent example of his predecessors, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service of the United States. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. Such an observance of Sunday is dictated by the best traditions of our people and by the convictions of all who look to Divine Providence for guidance and protection, and, in repeating in this order the language of President Lincoln, the President is confident that he is speaking alike to the hearts and to the consciences of those under his authority.> 1856WW038
On March 12, 1918, in writing to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets meeting at Moscow, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<The whole heart of the people of the United States is with the people of Russia in the attempt to free themselves forever from autocratic government and become masters of their own life.> 1856WW039
On May 11, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting:
<Whereas the Congress of the United States, on the second day of April last, passed the following resolution:
"Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That, it being the duty peculiarly incumbent in a time of war humbly and devoutly to acknowledge our dependence on Almighty God and to implore His aid and protection, the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, respectfully requested to recommend a day of public humiliation, prayer and fasting, to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity and the offering of fervent supplications to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of our cause, His blessings on our arms, and a speedy restoration of an honorable and lasting peace to the nations of the earth;"
And Whereas it has always been the reverent habit of the people of the United States to turn in humble appeal to Almighty God for His guidance in the affairs of their common life;
Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Thursday, the thirtieth day of May, a day already freighted with sacred and stimulating memories, a day of public humiliation, prayer and fasting, and do exhort my fellow-citizens of all faiths and creeds to assemble on that day in their several places of worship and there, as well as in their homes, to pray Almighty God that He may forgive our sins and shortcomings as a people and purify our hearts to see and love the truth, to accept and defend all things that are just and right, and to purpose only those righteous acts and judgments which are in conformity with His will; beseeching Him that He will give victory to our armies as they fight for freedom, wisdom to those who take counsel on our behalf in these day of dark struggle and perplexity, and steadfastness to our people to make sacrifice to the utmost in support of what is just and true,
bringing us at last the peace in which men's hearts can be at rest because it is founded upon mercy, justice and good will.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the District of Columbia this eleventh day of May, in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and eighteen and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-second. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW040
On May 18, 1918, at the opening of the Second Red Cross Drive in New York City, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<We are members, by being members of the American Red Cross, of a great fraternity and fellowship which extends all over the world, and this cross which these ladies bore here today is an emblem of Christianity itself....
When you think of this, you realize how the people of the United States are being drawn together into a great intimate family whose heart is being used for the service of the soldiers not only, but for the long night of suffering and terror, in order that they and men everywhere may see the dawn of a day of righteousness and justice and peace.> 1856WW041
On May 28, 1918, four U.S. divisions were deployed with French and British and won the Battle of Cantigny, the first American offensive of World War I.
On September 1, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson wrote a letter to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise in New York City, endorsing the Zionist Movement:
<My Dear Rabbi Wise:
I have watched with deep and sincere interest the reconstructive work which the Weizmann commission has done in Palestine at the instance of the British Government, and I welcome an opportunity to express the satisfaction I have felt in the progress of the Zionist movement in the United States and in the allied countries since the declaration of Mr. Balfour, on behalf of the British Government, of Great Britain's approval of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and his promise that the British Government would use its best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of that object, with the understanding that nothing would be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish people in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in other countries.
I think that all Americans will be deeply moved by the report that even in this time of stress the Weizmann commission has been able to lay the foundation of the Hebrew University at Jerusalem, with the promise that that bears of spiritual rebirth. Cordially and sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson.> 1856WW042
On November 16, 1918, just 5 days after Germany signed the armistice with the Allies, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
<It has long been our custom to turn in the autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation.
This year we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to rejoice. God has in His good pleasure given us peace. It has not come as a mere cessation of arms, a relief from the strain and tragedy of war. It has come as a great triumph of Right. Complete victory has brought us, not peace alone, but the confident promise of a new day as well, in which justice shall replace force and jealous intrigue among nations. Our gallant armies have participated in a triumph which is not marred or stained by any purpose of selfish aggression. In a righteous cause they have won immortal glory and have nobly served their nation in serving mankind. God has indeed been gracious. We have cause for such rejoicing as revives and strengthens in us all the best traditions of our national history. A new day shines about us, in which our hearts take new courage and look forward with new hope to new and greater duties.
While we render thanks for these things, let us not forget to seek the Divine guidance in the performance of those duties, and divine mercy and forgiveness for all errors of act or purpose, and pray that in all that we do we shall strengthen the ties of friendship and mutual respect upon which we must assist to build the new structure of peace and good-will among the nations.
Wherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-eighty day of November next, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease upon that day from their ordinary occupations and in their several homes and places of worship to render thanks to God, the Ruler of Nations.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the District of Columbia this sixteenth day of November, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-third. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW043
On December 2, 1918, in his Sixth Annual Address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our men went in force into the line of battle just at the critical moment when the whole fate of the world seemed to hang in the balance and threw their fresh strength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole tide and sweep of the fateful struggle,-turn it once for all....
And what shall we say of the women....Besides the immense practical services they have rendered the women of the country have been the moving spirits in the systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted to supply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies upon every front with food and everything else that we had that might serve the common cause. The details of such a story can never be fully written, but we carry them at our hearts and thank God that we can say that we are the kinsmen of such.> 1856WW044
On December 8, 1918, in an appeal of support for the American Red Cross just a month after the fighting in World War I had ceased, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<One year ago, twenty-two million Americans, by enrolling as members of the Red Cross at Christmas time, sent to the men who were fighting our battles overseas a stimulating message of cheer and good-will....Now, by God's grace, the Red Cross Christmas message of 1918 is to be a message of peace as well as a message of good-will.> 1856WW045
On December 25, 1918, in an address delivered to General Pershing and the American troops still stationed on the battle-front in France, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<While it is hard far away from home, confidentially, to bid you a Merry Christmas, I can, I think, confidentially, promise you a Happy New Year, and I can from the bottom of my heart say, God bless you.> 1856WW046
On January 7, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation announcing the death of former President Theodore Roosevelt:
<It becomes my sad duty to announce officially the death of Theodore Roosevelt....In his death the United States has lost one of its most distinguished and patriotic citizens....In the War with Spain, he displayed singular initiative and energy and distinguished himself among the commanders of the army in the field. As President he awoke the Nation to the dangers of private control which lurked in our financial and industrial systems....
I hereby direct that the flags of the White House and the several Departmental Buildings be displayed at half staff for a period of thirty days, and that suitable military and naval honors under the orders of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy may be rendered on the day of the funeral.
Done this seventh day of January, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-third. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW047 On January 25, 1919, in his remarks at the opening of the Peace Conference on the project of a League of Nations, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<We are here to see, in short, that the very foundations of this war are swept away. Those foundations were the private choice of small coteries of civil rulers and military staffs. Those foundations were the aggression of great powers upon the small. Those foundations were the holding together of empires of unwilling subjects by the duress of arms. Those foundations were the power of small bodies of men to work their will upon mankind and use them as pawns in a game. And nothing less than the emancipation of the world from these things will accomplish peace.
You can see that the representatives of the United States are, therefore, never put to the embarrassment of choosing a way of expediency, because they have laid down for them the unalterable lines of principle. And, thank God, those lines have been accepted as the lines of settlement by all the high-minded men who have had to do with the beginnings of this great business.> 1856WW048
On May 1, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Boy Scout Week:
<The Boy Scouts of America have rendered notable service to the Nation during the world war. They have done effective work in the Liberty Loan and War Savings campaigns, in discovering and reporting upon the black walnut supply, in cooperating with the Red Cross and other war work agencies, in acting as dispatch bearers for the Committee of Public Informations, and in other important fields. The Boy Scouts have not only demonstrated their worth to the Nation, but have also materially contributed to a deeper appreciation by the American people of the higher conceptions of patriotism and good citizenship.
The Boy Scout movement should not only be preserved, but strengthened. It deserves the support of all public-spirited citizens. The available means for the Boy Scout movement have thus far sufficed for the organization and training of only a small proportion of the boys of the country. There are approximately 10,000,000 boys in the United States between the ages of twelve and twenty-one. Of these only 375,000 are enrolled as members of the Boy Scouts of America.
America cannot acquit herself commensurately with her power and influence in the great period now facing her and the world unless the boys of America are given better opportunities than heretofore to prepare themselves for the responsibilities of citizenship.
Every nation depends for its future upon the proper training and development of its youth. The American boy must have the best training and discipline our great democracy can provide if America is to maintain her ideals, her standards, and her influence in the world.
The plan, therefore, for a Boy Scout week during which a universal appeal will be made to all Americans to supply the means to put the Boy Scouts of America in a position to carry forward effectively and continuously the splendid work they are doing for the youth of America should have the unreserved support of the Nation.
Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby recommend that the period beginning Sunday, June 8th, to Flag Day, June 14th, be observed as Boy Scout Week through the United States for the purpose of strengthening the work of the Boy Scouts of America.
I earnestly recommend that, in every community, a Citizens' Committee, under the leadership of a National Citizen's Committee, be organized to cooperate in carrying out a program for a definite recognition of the effective services rendered by the Boy Scouts of America; for a survey of the facts relating to the boyhood of each community, in order that with the cooperation of churches, schools and other organizations definitely engaged in work for boys, adequate provisions may be made for extending the Boy Scout program to a larger proportion of American boyhood.
The Boy Scout movement offers unusual opportunity for volunteer service. It needs men to act as committeemen and as leaders of groups of boys. I hope that all who can will enlist for such personal service, enroll as associate members and give all possible financial assistance to this worthy organization of American boyhood. Anything that is done to increase the effectiveness of the Boy Scouts of America will be a genuine contribution to the welfare of the Nation.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done this first day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-third. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW049
On May 30, 1919, in a Memorial Day Address delivered among the graves of American soldiers in Suresnes Cemetery, near Paris, France, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<It is delightful to learn from those who saw these men fight, and saw them waiting in the trenches for the summons for the fight, that they had a touch of the high spirit of religion....We all believe, I hope, that the spirits of these men are not buried with their bones. Their spirits live!> 1856WW050
On July 10, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson addressed the Senate regarding the Treaty of Peace with Germany which was signed at Versailles, France, June 28, 1919:
<It is thus that a new role and a new responsibility have come to this great nation that we honor and which we would all wish to lift to yet higher levels of service and achievement. The stage is set, the destiny disclosed. It has come about by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of God who led us into this way. We cannot turn back. We can only go foward, with lifted eye and freshened spirit, to follow the vision. It was of this that we dreamed at our birth. America shall in truth show the way. The light streams upon the path ahead, and nowhere else.> 1856WW051
On September 17, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson spoke regarding the League of Nations treaty in San Francisco:
<My fellow citizens, I believe in Divine Providence. If I did not I would go crazy. If I thought the direction of the disordered affairs of this world depended upon our finite intelligence I should not know how to reason my ways to sanity, and I do not believe that there is any body of men however they concert their power of their influence, that can defeat this great enterprise, which is the enterprise of Divine Mercy and Peace and Goodwill.> 1856WW052
On November 5, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
<The season of the year has again arrived when the people of the United States are accustomed to unite in giving thanks to Almighty God for the blessings which He has conferred upon our country during the twelve months that have passed. A year ago our people poured out their hearts in praise and thanksgiving that through divine aid the right was victorious and peace had come to the nations which had so courageously struggled in defense of human liberty and justice. Now that the stern task is ended and the fruits of achievement are ours, we look forward with confidence to the dawn of an era where the sacrifices of the nations will find recompense in a world at peace.
But to attain the consummation of the great work to which American people devoted their manhood and the vast resources of their country they should, as they give thanks to God, reconsecrate themselves to those principles of right which triumphed through His merciful goodness. Our gratitude can find no more perfect expression than to bulwark with loyalty and patriotism those principles for which the free peoples of the earth fought and died.
During the past year we have had much to make us grateful. In spite of the confusion in our economic life resulting from the war, we have prospered. Our harvests have been plentiful, and of our abundance we have been able to render succor to less favored nations. Our democracy remains unshaken in a world torn with political and social unrest. Our traditional ideals are still our guides in the path of progress and civilization.
These great blessings, vouchsafed to us, for which we devoutly give thanks, should arouse us to a fuller sense of our duty to ourselves and to mankind to see to it that nothing that we may do shall mar the completeness of the victory which we helped to win. No selfish purpose animated us in becoming participants in the World War, and with a like spirit of unselfishness we should strive to aid by our example and by our cooperation in realizing the enduring welfare of all peoples and in bringing into being a world ruled by friendliness and good will.
Wherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-seventh day of November next, for observance as a day of thanksgiving and prayer by my fellow-countrymen, inviting them to cease on that day from their ordinary tasks and to unite in their homes and in their several places of worship in ascribing praise and thanksgiving to God, the Author of all blessings and the Master of our destinies.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the District of Columbia this fifth day of November, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-fourth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.> 1856WW053
On Monday, May 24, 1920, in a special message to Congress asking permission to assume the mandate for Armenia under the League of Nations, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<Testimony adduced at the hearings conducted by the sub-committee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has clearly established the truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered....The people of the United States are deeply impressed by the deplorable conditions of insecurity, starvation and misery now prevalent in Armenia....
I received and read this document with great interest and with genuine gratification, not only because it embodied my own convictions and feelings with regard to Armenia and its people, but also, and more particularly, because it seemed to me the voice of the American people expressing their genuine convictions and deep Christian sympathies and intimating the line of duty which seemed to them to lie clearly before us....
In response to the invitation of the council at San Remo, I urgently advise and request that the Congress grant the Executive power to accept for the United States a mandate over Armenia. I make this suggestion in the earnest belief that it will be the wish of the people of the United States that this should be done. The sympathy with Armenia has proceeded from no single portion of our people, but has come with extraordinary spontaneity and sincerity from the whole of the great body of Christian men and women in this country, by whose free-will offerings Armenia has practically been saved at the most critical juncture of its existence. At their hearts this great and generous people have made the cause of Armenia their own....
I am conscious that I am urging upon Congress a very critical choice, but I make the suggestion in the confidence that I am speaking in the spirit and in accordance with the wishes of the greatest of the Christian peoples. The sympathy for Armenia among our people has sprung from untainted consciences, pure Christian faith and an earnest desire to see Christian people everywhere succored in their time of suffering and lifted from their abject subjection and distress and enabled to stand upon their feet and take their place among the free nations of the world.> 1856WW054
On August 4, 1920, President Woodrow Wilson addressed his fellow- countrymen at the Tercentenary of the Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth:
<The influences which the ideals and principles of the Pilgrims with respect to civil liberty and human rights have had upon the formation and growth of our institutions and upon our development and progress as a nation merit more than a local expression of our obligation, and make fitting a nationwide observance of the day....
I recommend that the day be fittingly observed in the universities, colleges and schools of our country, to the end that salutary and patriotic lessons may be drawn from the fortitude and perseverance and the ideals of this little band of church-men and -women who established on this continent the first self- determined government based on the great principle of just law and its equal application to all, and thus planted the seeds from which has sprung the mighty nation.> 1856WW055
On November 12, 1920, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer:
<The season again approaches when it behooves us to turn from the distractions and preoccupations of our daily life, that we may contemplate the mercies which have been vouchsafed to us, and render heartfelt and unfeigned thanks unto God for His manifold goodness.
This is an old observance of the American people, deeply imbedded in our thought and habit. The burdens and the stresses of life have their own insistence.
We have abundant cause for thanksgiving. The lesions of the war are rapidly healing. The great army of freemen which America sent to the defense of Liberty, returning to the grateful embrace of the nation, has resumed the useful pursuits of peace, as simply and as promptly as it rushed to arms in obedience to the country's call. The equal justice of our laws has received steady vindication in the support of a law-abiding people against various and sinister attacks, which have reflected only the baser agitations of war, now happily passing.
In plenty, security and peace, our virtuous and self-reliant people face the future, its duties and its opportunities. May we have vision to discern our duties; the strength, both of hand and resolve, to discharge them; and the soundness of heart to realize that the truest opportunities are those of service.
In a spirit, then, of devotion and stewardship we should give thanks in our hearts, and dedicate ourselves to the service of God's merciful and loving purposes to His children.
Wherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of November next, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and I call upon my countrymen to cease from their ordinary tasks and avocations upon the day, giving it up to the remembrance of God and His blessings, and their dutiful and grateful acknowledgment.
In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the District of Columbia this twelfth day of November, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and twenty, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-fifth. Woodrow Wilson.
By the President: Bainbridge Colby, Secretary of State.> 1856WW056
On December 7, 1920, in his Eighth Annual Message to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<I have not so much laid before you a series of recommendations, gentlemen, as sought to utter a confession of faith, of the faith in which I was bred and which it is my solemn purpose to stand by until by last fighting day. I believe this to be the faith of America, the faith of the future, and of all the victories which await national action in the days to come, whether in America of elsewhere.> 1856WW057
Woodrow Wilson stated at the New York Press Club, September 9, 1912, (reported in The papers of Woodrow Wilson, 25:124):
<Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.> 1856WW158
President Woodrow Wilson stated:
<The history of Liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it. When we resist, therefore, the concentration of power, we are resisting the powers of death, because concentration of power is what always precedes the destruction of human liberties.> 1856WW058
<There are a good many problems before the American people today, and before me as President, but I expect to find the solution to those problems just in the proportion that I am faithful in the study of the Word of God.> 1856WW059
<A man had deprived himself of the best there is in the world who has deprived himself of this, a knowledge of the Bible.>
President Woodrow Wilson wrote the foreword for a New Testament published by the New York Bible Society, July 23, 1917, which was given to soldiers during World War I:
<The Bible is the Word of Life. I beg that you will read it and find this out for yourselves, – read, not little snatches here and there, but long passages that will really be the road to the heart of it. You will find it full of real men and women not only but also of the things you have wondered about and been troubled about all your life, as men have been always; and the more you read the more it will become plain to you what things are worth while and what are not, what things make men happy, – loyalty, right dealing, speaking the truth, readiness to give everything for what they think their duty, and, most of all, the wish that they may have the approval of the Christ, who gave everything for them, – and the things that are guaranteed to make men unhappy, – selfishness, cowardice, greed, and everything that is low and mean. When you have read the Bible you will know that it is the Word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty. > 1856WW061
<I am sorry for the men who do not read the Bible every day. I wonder why they deprive themselves of the strength and of the pleasure.> 1856WW062
<Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord's Prayer the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.> 1856WW063
In his last public address, titled "The Road Away from Revolution," President Woodrow Wilson concluded:
<The sum of the whole matter is this, that our civilization cannot survive materially unless it is redeemed spiritually. It can be saved only by becoming permeated with the spirit of Christ, and being made free and happy by the practices which spring out of that spirit. Only thus can discontent be driven out and all the shadows lifted from the road ahead.> 1856WW064
In 1924, knowing death was imminent, Woodrow Wilson, who was a Presbyterian, remarked to his physician, Dr. Grayson:
<Doctor, the devil is a busy man. [Later that day, Dr. Grayson read to the President from 2nd Corinthians] "We are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed."
[Wilson replied] Doctor, if I were not a Christian, I think I should go mad, but my faith in God holds me to the belief that He is in some way working out His own plans through human perversities and mistakes.> 1856WW065
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1856WW001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, 1911, in a remark at a Denver rally. Martin, Our Public Schools-Christian or Secular (1952), p. 65. Charles E. Rice, The Supreme Court and Public Prayer (New York: Fordham University Press, 1964), pp. 61-62. Robert Flood, The Rebirth of America (Philadelphia: The Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986), pp. 12, 37. Roger Lundin and Mark A. Noll, eds., Voices from the Heart of Four Centuries of American Piety (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), p. 235. Steve C. Dawson, God's Providence in America's History (Rancho Cordova, CA: Steve C. Dawson, 1988), p. 11:7. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 2.3. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), pp. 60, 121. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 6. Alan R. Crippen II, "Reel Politics-Ideals with Illusions" (Colorado Springs, CO: Focus on the Family Citizen Magazine, August 21, 1995), Vol. 9, No. 8, p. 5.
1856WW002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson. May 7, 1911, New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, Denver, Colorado, at the Tercentenary Celebration of the Translation of the Bible into the English Language. George Otis, The Solution to the Crisis in America, Revised and Enlarged Edition (Van Nuys, CA.: Fleming H. Revell Company; Bible Voice, Inc., 1970, 1972, foreword by Pat Boone), p. 28.
1856WW003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, March 4, 1913 in his Inaugural Address. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 7871. Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States-From George Washington 1789 to Richard Milhous Nixon 1969 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office; 91st Congress, 1st Session, House Document 91-142, 1969), pp. 199-202. Ray Stannard Baker and William E. Dodd, eds., The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson (New York and London, 1926), Vol. IV, p. 414. Paul M. Angle, By These Words (NY: Rand McNally & Company, 1954), p. 318. Davis Newton Lott, The Inaugural Addresses of the American Presidents (NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961), p. 201. Charles E. Rice, The Supreme Court and Public Prayer (New York: Fordham University Press, 1964), p. 189. Benjamin Weiss, God in American History: A Documentation of America's Religious Heritage (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1966), p. 125. Thomas A. Baily, The American Pageant-A History of the Republic (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1971), p. 729. Willard Cantelon, Money Master of the World (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1976), p. 125. Ronald Reid, ed., Three Centuries of American Rhetorical Discourse-An Anthology and a Review (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 1988), p. 638. J. Michael Sharman, J.D., Faith of the Fathers (Culpeper, Virginia: Victory Publishing, 1995), p. 86. 1856WW004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 31, 1913, in a Proclamation for the Preservation and Protection of Fur Seals and Sea Otters. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 7877-7879.
1856WW005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, July 4, 1913, in a message delivered at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 7883-7884. Christine F. Hart, One Nation Under God (NJ: American Tract Society, reprinted by Gospel Tract Society, Inc., Independence, Mo.), p. 3. D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God-How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 16. [see also: President Woodrow Wilson, November 5, 1915, in an address celebrating the fiftieth Anniversary of the Manhattan Club, at the Biltmore Hotel, New York. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 8087.]
1856WW006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, October 1, 1913, in a Proclamation for the Protection of Migratory Birds. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 7895-7901.
1856WW007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, October 23, 1913, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 7902-7903.
1856WW008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, February 3, 1914, in a Proclamation Revoking the Prohibition of Exportation of Arms or Munitions of War to Mexico. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 7929-7930.
1856WW009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, April 28, 1914, in a Proclamation for Protection Against Domestic Violence in Colorado. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 7937.
1856WW010. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 9, 1914, in a Proclamation of Mother's Day. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 7941.
1856WW011. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 11, 1914, in an address delivered at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, at the Funeral Service over the remains of seventeen Sailors and Marines who lost their lives at the taking of Vera Cruz, Mexico. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 7939-7941.
1856WW012. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, June 5, 1914, in addressing the graduating class of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 7951.
1856WW013. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, July 4, 1914, in an address at Independence Hall, Philadelphia. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 7957.
1856WW014. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, September 8, 1914, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Prayer and Supplication. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 8007.
1856WW015. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, October 24, 1914, in an address titled "The Power of Christian Young Men," delivered at the Anniversary Celebration of the Young Men's Christian Association in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 7993-8000. Charles J. Herold, The Wisdom of Woodrow Wilson: Being Selections from his Thoughts and Comments on Political, Social and Moral Questions (NY: Brentano's, 1919), p. 122.
1856WW016. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, October 28, 1914, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 8012-8013.
1856WW017. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, December 8, 1914, in his Second Annual Address to Congress. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 8021.
1856WW018. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, January 8, 1915, in an address delivered before Governor Ralston, in Indianapolis, Indiana. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 8024, 8034.
1856WW019. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 10, 1915, before the mayor and a gathering of 4,000 naturalized American citizens in Convention Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 8066- 8067.
1856WW020. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, July 1, 1915, in a Proclamation to commemorate the achievements of the Negro Race during the fifty years of freedom. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 8064.
1856WW021. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, October 11, 1915, before the Daughters of the American Revolution, in Memorial Continental Hall, Washington, D.C. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 8080-8081.
1856WW022. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, October 20, 1915, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 8088-8089.
1856WW023. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, November 5, 1915, in an address celebrating the fiftieth Anniversary of the Manhattan Club, at the Biltmore Hotel, New York. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 8083-8087. [see also: President Woodrow Wilson, July 4, 1913, in a message delivered at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, pp. 7883-7884.]
1856WW024. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, December 7, 1915, in his Third Annual Address to Congress. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVI, p. 8105.
1856WW025. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, January 11, 1916, in a Proclamation of a Contribution Day for the aid of stricken Jewish people. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8174-8175.
1856WW026. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 30, 1916, in National Proclamation of Flag Day. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8173-8174. 1856WW027. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, November 17, 1916, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8182.
1856WW028. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, February 3, 1917, in a message to Congress announcing that diplomatic relations with Germany were severed. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8209, 8296.
1856WW029. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, March 5, 1917, Monday, in his Second Inaugural Address, delivered on the front portico of the Capitol. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8221-8223. Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States-From George Washington 1789 to Richard Milhous Nixon 1969 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office; 91st Congress, 1st Session, House Document 91-142, 1969), pp. 203-206. Frederick C. Packard, Jr., ed., Are You an American?-Great Americans Speak (NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951), p. 86. Davis Newton Lott, The Inaugural Addresses of the American Presidents (NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961), p. 20. Charles E. Rice, The Supreme Court and Public Prayer (New York: Fordham University Press, 1964), p. 189. Benjamin Weiss, God in American History: A Documentation of America's Religious Heritage (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1966), p. 125. Lillian W.Kay, ed., The Ground on Which We Stand-Basic Documents of American History (NY: Franklin Watts., Inc, 1969), p. 254. Willard Cantelon, Money Master of the World (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1976), p. 125. Proclaim Liberty (Dallas, TX: Word of Faith), p. 2. William Safire, ed., Lend Me Your Ears-Great Speeches in History (NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992), p. 117. J. Michael Sharman, J.D., Faith of the Fathers (Culpeper, Virginia: Victory Publishing, 1995), p. 87. 1856WW030. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, April 2, 1917, in his War Message to Congress. Congressional Record, 65th Congress, 1 Session, Senate Document No. 5. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8233. The Annals of America 20 Vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1976), Vol. 14, p. 82. Richard D. Heffner, A Documentary History of the United States (New York: The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., 1961), p. 243. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 682. Frederick C. Packard, Jr., ed., Are You an American?-Great Americans Speak (NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951), p. 86. Lillian W.Kay, ed., The Ground on Which We Stand-Basic Documents of American History (NY: Franklin Watts., Inc, 1969), p. 254. William Safire, ed., Lend Me Your Ears-Great Speeches in History (NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992), p. 117.
1856WW031. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, April 16, 1917, in an address to his fellow countrymen. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8252.
1856WW032. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 30, 1917, in an address before the Grand Army of the Republic at Arlington Cemetery. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8266.
1856WW033. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, August 1, 1917, Pope Benedict XV, in his offer of mediation to the European Powers involved in World War I, wrote from the Vatican. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8341.
1856WW034. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, September 3, 1917, in a message to the National Army. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8352.
1856WW035. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, October 19, 1917, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Supplication and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8377-8378.
1856WW036. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, November 7, 1917, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8382-8383.
1856WW037. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, December 4, 1917, in an address to Congress. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8400-8401, 8406. Charles J. Herold, The Wisdom of Woodrow Wilson: Being Selections from his Thoughts and Comments on Political, Social and Moral Questions (NY: Brentano's, 1919), p. 183.
1856WW038. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, January 20, 1918, in an Executive Order to the Army and Navy enjoining Sabbath observance. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8433.
1856WW039. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, March 12, 1918, in writing to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets meeting at Moscow. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8469.
1856WW040. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 11, 1918, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8495-8496.
1856WW041. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 18, 1918, at the opening of the Second Red Cross Drive in New York City. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8503-8504.
1856WW042. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, September 1, 1918, in a letter to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise in New York City, endorsing the Zionist Movement. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8575.
1856WW043. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, November 16, 1918, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8633-8634.
1856WW044. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, December 2, 1918, in his Sixth Annual Address to Congress. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8638- 8640.
1856WW045. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, December 8, 1918, in an appeal of support for the American Red Cross just a month after the fighting in World War I had ceased. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8648.
1856WW046. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, December 25, 1918, in an address delivered to General Pershing and the American troops still stationed on the battle-front. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8654.
1856WW047. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, January 7, 1919,in a Proclamation announcing the death of former President Theodore Roosevelt. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8685-8686.
1856WW048. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, January 25, 1919, in his remarks at the opening of the Peace Conference on the project of a League of Nations. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8667-8668.
1856WW049. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 1, 1919, in a Proclamation of a National Boy Scout Week. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8708-8709.
1856WW050. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 30, 1919, in a Memorial Day Address delivered among the graves of American soldiers in Suresnes Cemetery, near Paris, France. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty- Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, pp. 8721-8723. 1856WW051. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, July 10, 1919, in an address to the Senate regarding the Treaty of Peace with Germany which was signed at Versailles, France, June 28, 1919. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVII, p. 8737. Excerpt from one of four quotations chosen by the Wilson family to be engraved of the Woodrow Wilson's tomb in the Washington National Cathedral; New York Times, June 4, 1956. James Beasely Simpson, Best Quotes of '54, '55, '56 (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1957), p. 294. 1856WW052. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, September 17, 1919, in a speech given in San Francisco. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 180.
1856WW053. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, November 5, 1919, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVIII, pp, 8801-8802.
1856WW054. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, May 24, 1920, in a special message to Congress asking permission to assume the mandate for Armenia under the League of Nations. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVIII, pp. 8853-8855. 1856WW055. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, August 4, 1920, in an address at celebrating the Tercentenary of the Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVIII, p. 8861.
1856WW056. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, November 12, 1920, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVIII, pp. 8876-8877.
1856WW057. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, December 7, 1920, in his Eighth Annual Message to Congress. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 20 vols. (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of the House and Senate, pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States, 1893, 1923), Vol. XVIII, pp. 8881-8887.
1856WW058. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson. Robert Flood, The Rebirth of America (Philadelphia: The Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986), p. 131.
1856WW158. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson. September 9, 1912, as the New York Press Club, (reported in The papers of Woodrow Wilson, 25:124).
1856WW059. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 60.
1856WW060. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson. Alfred Armand Montapert, Distilled Wisdom (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1965), p. 36. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 47. Charles E. Jones, The Books You Read (Harrisburg, PA: Executive Books, 1985), p. 117. George Herbert Walker Bush, February 22, 1990, at the request of Congress, Senate Joint Resolution 164, in a Presidential Proclamation declaring 1990 the International Year of Bible Reading. Courtesy of Bruce Barilla, Christian Heritage Week Ministry (P.O. Box 58, Athens, W.V. 24712; 304-384-7707, 304-384-9044 fax). D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God- How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 16.
1856WW061.
1856WW062. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson. Bless Your Heart (series II) (Eden Prairie, MN: Heartland Sampler, Inc., 1990), 9.8.
1856WW063. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson. Herbert V. Prochnow, 5100 Quotations for Speakers and Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), p. 499.
1856WW064. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, In his last public address, titled "The Road Away from Revolution." Edward L.R. Elson, D.D., Lit.D., LL.D., America's Spiritual Recovery (Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1954), p. 175. Excerpt from one of four quotations chosen by the Wilson family to be engraved of the Woodrow Wilson's tomb in the Washington Naitonal Catherdral; New York Times, June 4, 1956. James Beasely Simpson, Best Quotes of '54, '55, '56 (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1957), pp. 294-295.
1856WW065. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, 1924, in a remark to his physician, Dr. Grayson, realizing his death was imminent. Arthur S.Link, Woodrow Wilson (NY: World, 1963), pp. 173-174. Pat Robertson, America's Dates with Destiny (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986), p. 184.