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GEORGE McLEAN HARPER
GEORGE McLEAN HARPER
Illustration Introduction First Inaugural Address First Address to Congress Address on the Banking System Address at Gettysburg Address on Mexican Affairs Understanding America Address before the Southern Commercial Congress The State of the Union Trusts and Monopolies Panama Canal Tolls The Tampico Incident In the Firmament of Memory Memorial Day Address at Arlington Closing a Chapter Annapolis Commencement Address The Meaning of Liberty American Neutrality Appeal for Additional Revenue The Opi
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
These addresses of President Woodrow Wilson represent only the most recent phase of his intellectual activity. They are almost entirely concerned with political affairs, and more specifically with defining Americanism. It will not be forgotten, however, that the life of Mr. Wilson as President of the United States is but a short period compared with the whole of his public career as professor of jurisprudence, history, and politics, as President of Princeton University, as Governor of New Jersey
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FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS
[Delivered at the Capitol, in Washington, March 4, 1913.] There has been a change of government. It began two years ago, when the House of Representatives became Democratic by a decisive majority. It has now been completed. The Senate about to assemble will also be Democratic. The offices of President and Vice-President have been put into the hands of Democrats. What does the change mean? That is the question that is uppermost in our minds to-day. That is the question I am going to try to answer
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FIRST ADDRESS TO CONGRESS
FIRST ADDRESS TO CONGRESS
[Delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, at the beginning of the first session of the Sixty-third Congress, April 8, 1913.] Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Congress: I am very glad indeed to have this opportunity to address the two Houses directly and to verify for myself the impression that the President of the United States is a person, not a mere department of the Government hailing Congress from some isolated island of jealous power, sending messages, not spe
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ADDRESS ON THE BANKING SYSTEM
ADDRESS ON THE BANKING SYSTEM
[Delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, June 23, 1913.] Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Congress: It is under the compulsion of what seems to me a clear and imperative duty that I have a second time this session sought the privilege of addressing you in person. I know, of course, that the heated season of the year is upon us, that work in these chambers and in the committee rooms is likely to become a burden as the season lengthens, and that every consideration
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ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG
ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG
[Delivered in the presence of Union and Confederate veterans, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, July 4, 1913.] Friends and Fellow Citizens: I need not tell you what the Battle of Gettysburg meant. These gallant men in blue and gray sit all about us here. [C] Many of them met upon this ground in grim and deadly struggle. Upon these famous fields and hillsides their comrades died about them. In their presence it were an impertinence to discourse upon how the battle went, h
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ADDRESS ON MEXICAN AFFAIRS
ADDRESS ON MEXICAN AFFAIRS
[Delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, August 27, 1913.] Gentlemen of the Congress: It is clearly my duty to lay before you, very fully and without reservation, the facts concerning our present relations with the Republic of Mexico. The deplorable posture of affairs in Mexico I need not describe, [D] but I deem it my duty to speak very frankly of what this Government has done and should seek to do in fulfillment of its obligation to Mexico herself, as a friend and neighbor,
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UNDERSTANDING AMERICA
UNDERSTANDING AMERICA
[Delivered at Philadelphia, Pa., on the occasion of the rededication of Congress Hall, Oct. 25, 1913. The United States Congress met in this hall till 1800. Here Washington was inaugurated the second time, and here he made his farewell address to the American people. Here John Adams took the oath of office when he succeeded Washington. The hall, after being long disused, was now restored and reopened. Before Mr. Wilson spoke, Mr. Frank Miles Day, representing the committee of architects, had ref
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ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONGRESS
ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONGRESS
[Delivered at Mobile, Alabama, October 27, 1913.] Your Excellency, Mr. Chairman: It is with unaffected pleasure that I find myself here to-day. I once before had the pleasure, in another southern city, of addressing the Southern Commercial Congress. I then spoke of what the future seemed to hold in store for this region, which so many of us love and toward the future of which we all look forward with so much confidence and hope. But another theme directed me here this time. I do not need to spea
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THE STATE OF THE UNION
THE STATE OF THE UNION
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, December 2, 1913.] Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Congress: In pursuance of my constitutional duty to "give to the Congress information of the state of the Union," I take the liberty of addressing you on several matters which ought, as it seems to me, particularly to engage the attention of your honorable bodies, as of all who study the welfare and progress of the Nation. I shall ask your indulgence if I venture t
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TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES
TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, January 20, 1914.] Gentlemen of the Congress: In my report "on the state of the Union," which I had the privilege of reading to you on the 2d of December last, I ventured to reserve for discussion at a later date the subject of additional legislation regarding the very difficult and intricate matter of trusts and monopolies. The time now seems opportune to turn to that great question; not only because the currency legislation,
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PANAMA CANAL TOLLS
PANAMA CANAL TOLLS
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, March 5, 1914.] Gentlemen of the Congress: I have come to you upon an errand which can be very briefly performed, but I beg that you will not measure its importance by the number of sentences in which I state it. No communication I have addressed to the Congress carried with it graver or more far-reaching implications as to the interest of the country, and I come now to speak upon a matter with regard to which I am charged in a
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THE TAMPICO INCIDENT
THE TAMPICO INCIDENT
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, April 20, 1914.] It is my duty to call your attention to a situation which has arisen in our dealings with General Victoriano Huerta at Mexico City which calls for action, and to ask your advice and coöperation in acting upon it. On the 9th of April a paymaster of the U.S.S. Dolphin landed at the Iturbide Bridge landing at Tampico with a whaleboat and boat's crew to take off certain supplies needed by his ship, and while engage
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IN THE FIRMAMENT OF MEMORY
IN THE FIRMAMENT OF MEMORY
[Address at the Services in Memory of those who lost their lives at Vera Cruz, Mexico, delivered at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, May 11, 1914. The roster, of fifteen sailors and four marines, was presented by the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Daniels.] Mr. Secretary: I know that the feelings which characterize all who stand about me and the whole Nation at this hour are not feelings which can be suitably expressed in terms of attempted oratory or eloquence. They are things too deep for ordinary speech.
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MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS
MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS
[Delivered at the National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 30, 1914.] Ladies and Gentlemen: I have not come here to-day with a prepared address. The committee in charge of the exercises of the day have graciously excused me on the grounds of public obligations from preparing such an address, but I will not deny myself the privilege of joining with you in an expression of gratitude and admiration for the men who perished for the sake of the Union. They do not need our praise. They do not need that
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CLOSING A CHAPTER
CLOSING A CHAPTER
[Address in which President Wilson accepted the Monument in Memory of the Confederate Dead, at Arlington National Cemetery, June 4, 1914.]. Mr. Chairman, Mrs. McLaurin Stevens, Ladies and Gentlemen: I assure you that I am profoundly aware of the solemn significance of the thing that has now taken place. The Daughters of the Confederacy have presented a memorial of their dead to the Government of the United States. I hope that you have noted the history of the conception of this idea. It was sugg
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ANNAPOLIS COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
ANNAPOLIS COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
[Delivered before the Graduating Class of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, June 5, 1914.] Mr. Superintendent, Young Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen: During the greater part of my life I have been associated with young men, and on occasions it seems to me without number have faced bodies of youngsters going out to take part in the activities of the world, but I have a consciousness of a different significance in this occasion from that which I have felt on other similar occas
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THE MEANING OF LIBERTY
THE MEANING OF LIBERTY
[Address at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 4, 1914.] Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens: We are assembled to celebrate the one hundred and thirty-eighth anniversary of the birth of the United States. I suppose that we can more vividly realize the circumstances of that birth standing on this historic spot than it would be possible to realize them anywhere else. The Declaration of Independence was written in Philadelphia; it was adopted in this historic building by which we stand. I have just
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AMERICAN NEUTRALITY
AMERICAN NEUTRALITY
[An appeal to the citizens of the Republic, requesting their assistance in maintaining a state of neutrality during the European War, August 20, 1914.] My Fellow-Countrymen: I suppose that every thoughtful man in America has asked himself, during these last troubled weeks, what influence the European war may exert upon the United States, and I take the liberty of addressing a few words to you in order to point out that it is entirely within our own choice what its effects upon us will be and to
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APPEAL FOR ADDITIONAL REVENUE
APPEAL FOR ADDITIONAL REVENUE
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, September 4, 1914.] Gentlemen of the Congress: I come to you to-day to discharge a duty which I wish with all my heart I might have been spared; but it is a very clear duty, and therefore I perform it without hesitation or apology. I come to ask very earnestly that additional revenue be provided for the Government. During the month of August there was, as compared with the corresponding month of last year, a falling off of $10,
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THE OPINION OF THE WORLD
THE OPINION OF THE WORLD
[Address before the American Bar Association, in Continental Hall, October 20, 1914.] Mr. President, Gentlemen of the American Bar Association: I am very deeply gratified by the greeting that your president has given me and by your response to it. My only strength lies in your confidence. We stand now in a peculiar case. Our first thought, I suppose, as lawyers, is of international law, of those bonds of right and principle which draw the nations together and hold the community of the world to s
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THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN
[Address at the Young Men's Christian Association's Celebration, Pittsburgh, October 24, 1914.] Mr. President, Mr. Porter, Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel almost as if I were a truant, being away from Washington to-day, but I thought that perhaps if I were absent the Congress would have the more leisure to adjourn. I do not ordinarily open my office at Washington on Saturday. Being a schoolmaster, I am accustomed to a Saturday holiday, and I thought I could not better spend a holiday than by showin
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ANNUAL ADDRESS TO CONGRESS
ANNUAL ADDRESS TO CONGRESS
[Delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, December 8, 1914.] Gentlemen of the Congress: The session upon which you are now entering will be the closing session of the Sixty-third Congress, a Congress, I venture to say, which will long be remembered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive work which it has done, in loyal response to the thought and needs of the country. I should like in this address to review the notable record and try to make adequate assessment of i
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A MESSAGE
A MESSAGE
[Returning to the House of Representatives without approval an act to regulate the immigration of aliens to and the residence of aliens in the United States.] To the House of Representatives: It is with unaffected regret that I find myself constrained by clear conviction to return this bill (H.R. 6060, "An act to regulate the immigration of aliens to and the residence of aliens in the United States") without my signature. Not only do I feel it to be a very serious matter to exercise the power of
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ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
[Delivered in Washington, February 3, 1915.] Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel that it is hardly fair to you for me to come in in this casual fashion among a body of men who have been seriously discussing great questions, and it is hardly fair to me, because I come in cold, not having had the advantage of sharing the atmosphere of your deliberations and catching the feeling of your conference. Moreover, I hardly know just how to express my interest in the things you are undertaking. Wh
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TO NATURALIZED CITIZENS
TO NATURALIZED CITIZENS
[Address delivered at Convention Hall, Philadelphia, May 10, 1915. The audience included four thousand newly naturalized citizens. This speech attracted great attention because in it no reference was made to the sinking of the "Lusitania," three days before.] Mr. Mayor, Fellow-Citizens: It warms my heart that you should give me such a reception; but it is not of myself that I wish to think to-night, but of those who have just become citizens of the United States. This is the only country in the
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ADDRESS AT MILWAUKEE
ADDRESS AT MILWAUKEE
[Between January 27 and February 3, 1916, President Wilson made a series of speeches in New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Des Moines, Topeka, Kansas City, and St. Louis. The address made at Milwaukee, on January 31, has been chosen as representing the general tenor and spirit of the whole series.] Mr. Chairman And Fellow-Citizens: I need not inquire whether the citizens of Milwaukee and Wisconsin are interested in the subject of my errand. The presence of this great body in th
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THE SUBMARINE QUESTION
THE SUBMARINE QUESTION
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, April 19, 1916.] Gentlemen of the Congress: A situation has arisen in the foreign relations of the country of which it is my plain duty to inform you very frankly. It will be recalled that in February, 1915, the Imperial German Government announced its intention to treat the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland as embraced within the seat of war and to destroy all merchant ships owned by its enemies that might be found
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AMERICAN PRINCIPLES
AMERICAN PRINCIPLES
[Address delivered at the First Annual Assemblage of the League to Enforce Peace, May 27, 1916.] When the invitation to be here to-night came to me, I was glad to accept it,—not because it offered me an opportunity to discuss the program of the League,—that you will, I am sure, not expect of me,—but because the desire of the whole world now turns eagerly, more and more eagerly, towards the hope of peace, and there is just reason why we should take our part in counsel upon this great theme. It is
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THE DEMANDS OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES
THE DEMANDS OF RAILWAY EMPLOYEES
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, August 29, 1916.] Gentlemen of the Congress: I have come to you to seek your assistance in dealing with a very grave situation which has arisen out of the demand of the employees of the railroads engaged in freight train service that they be granted an eight-hour working day, safeguarded by payment for an hour and a half of service for every hour of work beyond the eight. The matter has been agitated for more than a year. The p
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SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE
SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE
[On being offered the nomination for President by the Democratic Party. Delivered at Shadow Lawn, Sea Girt, N.J., Saturday, September 2, 1916.] Senator James, Gentlemen of the Notification Committee, Fellow-Citizens: I cannot accept the leadership and responsibility which the National Democratic Convention has again, in such generous fashion, asked me to accept without first expressing my profound gratitude to the party for the trust it reposes in me after four years of fiery trial in the midst
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LINCOLN'S BEGINNINGS
LINCOLN'S BEGINNINGS
[Address delivered September 4, 1916, on the acceptance of a deed of gift to the Nation, by the Lincoln Farm Association, of the Lincoln Birthplace Farm, at Hodgenville, Kentucky.] No more significant memorial could have been presented to the nation than this. It expresses so much of what is singular and noteworthy in the history of the country; it suggests so many of the things that we prize most highly in our life and in our system of government. How eloquent this little house within this shri
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THE TRIUMPH OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE
THE TRIUMPH OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE
[Address at the Suffrage Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey, September 8, 1916.] Madam President, Ladies of the Association: I have found it a real privilege to be here to-night and to listen to the addresses which you have heard. Though you may not all of you believe it, I would a great deal rather hear somebody else speak than speak myself; but I should feel that I was omitting a duty if I did not address you to-night and say some of the things that have been in my thought as I realized the
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THE TERMS OF PEACE
THE TERMS OF PEACE
[Address to the Senate of the United States, delivered January 22, 1917.] Gentlemen of the Senate: On the eighteenth of December last I addressed an identic note to the governments of the nations now at war requesting them to state, more definitely than they had yet been stated by either group of belligerents, the terms upon which they would deem it possible to make peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and of the rights of all neutral nations like our own, many of whose most vital interests the
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MEETING GERMANY'S CHALLENGE
MEETING GERMANY'S CHALLENGE
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, February 3, 1917.] Gentlemen of the Congress: The Imperial German Government on the thirty-first of January announced to this Government and to the governments of the other neutral nations that on and after the first day of February, the present month, it would adopt a policy with regard to the use of submarines against all shipping seeking to pass through certain designated areas of the high seas to which it is clearly my duty
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REQUEST FOR AUTHORITY
REQUEST FOR AUTHORITY
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, February 26, 1917.] Gentlemen of the Congress: I have again asked the privilege of addressing you because we are moving through critical times during which it seems to me to be my duty to keep in close touch with the Houses of Congress, so that neither counsel nor action shall run at cross purposes between us. On the third of February I officially informed you of the sudden and unexpected action of the Imperial German Governmen
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SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS
SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS
[Washington, March 4, 1917.] My Fellow-Citizens: The four years which have elapsed since last I stood in this place have been crowded with counsel and action of the most vital interest and consequence. Perhaps no equal period in our history has been so fruitful of important reforms in our economic and industrial life or so full of significant changes in the spirit and purpose of our political action. We have sought very thoughtfully to set our house in order, correct the grosser errors and abuse
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THE CALL TO WAR
THE CALL TO WAR
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, April 2, 1917.] Gentlemen of the Congress: I have called the Congress into extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsibility of making. On the third of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that o
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TO THE COUNTRY
TO THE COUNTRY
[President Wilson's Address to his Fellow-Countrymen, April 16, 1917.] My Fellow-Countrymen: The entrance of our own beloved country into the grim and terrible war for democracy and human rights which has shaken the world creates so many problems of national life and action which call for immediate consideration and settlement that I hope you will permit me to address to you a few words of earnest counsel and appeal with regard to them. We are rapidly putting our navy upon an effective war footi
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THE GERMAN PLOT
THE GERMAN PLOT
[Speech in Washington Monument Grounds, June 14, 1917.] We know now clearly, as we knew before we ourselves were engaged in the War, that we are not enemies of the German people, and they are not our enemies. They did not originate, or desire, this hideous war, or wish that we should be drawn into it, and we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting their cause, as they will some day see it themselves, as well as our own. They themselves are in the grip of the same sinister power that has stret
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REPLY TO THE POPE
REPLY TO THE POPE
[This important and eloquent document, though signed by the Secretary of State, was of course authorized by the President, and indeed bears internal marks of being his own composition. The Pope had made a plea for peace, which was by our government deemed premature.] AUGUST 27, 1917. To His Holiness Benedictus XV, Pope: In acknowledgment of the communication of Your Holiness to the belligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the President of the United States requests me to transmit the following
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LABOR MUST BE FREE
LABOR MUST BE FREE
[Address to the American Federation of Labor Convention, Buffalo, New York, November 12, 1917.] Mr. President, Delegates of the American Federation of Labor, Ladies and Gentlemen: I esteem it a great privilege and a real honor to be thus admitted to your public counsels. When your executive committee paid me the compliment of inviting me here I gladly accepted the invitation because it seems to me that this, above all other times in our history, is the time for common counsel, for the drawing to
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THE CALL FOR WAR WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
THE CALL FOR WAR WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, December 4, 1917.] Gentlemen of the Congress: Eight months have elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded with events of immense and grave significance for us. I shall not undertake to retail or even to summarize those events. The practical particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before you in the reports of the Executive Departments. I shall discuss only our present
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GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION OF RAILWAYS
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION OF RAILWAYS
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, January 4, 1918.] Gentlemen of the Congress: I have asked the privilege of addressing you in order to report to you that on the twenty-eighth of December last, during the recess of the Congress, acting through the Secretary of War and under the authority conferred upon me by the Act of Congress approved August 29, 1916, I took possession and assumed control of the railway lines of the country and the systems of water transporta
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THE CONDITIONS OF PEACE
THE CONDITIONS OF PEACE
[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, January 8, 1918.] Gentlemen of the Congress: Once more, as repeatedly before, the spokesmen of the Central Empires have indicated their desire to discuss the objects of the war and the possible bases of a general peace. Parleys have been in progress at Brest-Litovsk between Russian representatives and representatives of the Central Powers to which the attention of all the belligerents has been invited for the purpose of ascerta
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FORCE TO THE UTMOST
FORCE TO THE UTMOST
[Speech at the Opening of the Third Liberty Loan Campaign, delivered in the Fifth Regiment Armory, Baltimore, April 6, 1918.] Fellow-Citizens: This is the anniversary of our acceptance of Germany's challenge to fight for our right to live and be free, and for the sacred rights of freemen everywhere. The nation is awake. There is no need to call to it. We know what the war must cost, our utmost sacrifice, the lives of our fittest men, and, if need be, all that we possess. The loan we are met to d
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ENGLISH READINGS FOR SCHOOLS
ENGLISH READINGS FOR SCHOOLS
"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." Bacon . "'Tis the good reader that makes the good book." Emerson ....
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