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men, especially Senators and Representatives, making clear the President's attitude on some particular question, and thus endeavoring to affect the minds of Congress.

are the letter to Senator Culberson on a pending nomination to the Supreme Court, in 1916; to Representative Webb on censorship, in 1917; to Senator Stone on foreign difficulties in 1916.

More than half of this volume is chosen from the numerous public addresses of the President on occasions of all sorts. Like his immediate predecessors, he has taken the ground that a President is the President of the whole people, and ought to set forth his policies in all parts of the country and to groups of every kind. Hence such addresses as that on the Union soldier and the Confederate soldier in 1914; to graduating classes of the Naval and Military Academy; before the American Bar Association; at a Y. M. C. A. celebration; to the United States Chamber of Commerce; to the Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church; to the Associated Press meeting; to naturalized citizens; to the Pan-American Scientific Congress; to the Gridiron Club; to the Convention of the American Federation of Labor; to a Woman's Suffrage delegation. These addresses set forth the difficulties of the President, often point the moral of some desirable proposition or action then pending, and always appeal to patriotic sentiment.

Among the most important documents are the despatches to Germany, upon the relation of the United States to the great war. These are usually signed by the Secretary of State; but those reproduced in this volume were well known at the time to proceed from the President's pen. Among them are several despatches on the submarine and Lusitania questions, and the snappy communications of October and November, 1918, on peace.

The year and a half since war broke out with Germany has called out so many striking and powerful expressions from the President that nearly half of the ninety-two numbers have been taken from that period. For several years previous, the President had been reflecting and speaking on the European war, the neutral duties of the United States, and the questions of defense. Upon his mind, as

upon the mind of the country at large, the necessity of taking a part in the war grew up gradually, though from the start the conviction was clear that the United States must defend itself if necessary. Throughout 1916 the speeches dwell on the question of preparedness and the general situation of the United States as a world power; then come numerous war speeches, on world duty and enforcing world peace, throughout 1917 and 1918.

The question of peace is tied up with that of war. It begins to come to the front in the President's mind in a speech of May, 1916; and then takes form in a succession of despatches stating what a proper peace ought to bring to mankind, which have now become the text book of the Allies, and therefore are quoted nearly in full. These are the despatches of December 18, 1916; January 22, 1917; August 27, 1917; January 4, 1918; January 8, 1918; July 4, 1918; October 14, 1918; and November 11, 1918.

This outline does not bring out all the main topics upon which the President has chosen to dwell, but it shows sufficiently the range and spirit of these utterances. Considrations of space have made it necessary to omit parts of nany addresses which were meant especially for the audience that listened to them, or dealt with questions which are not of permanent significance. The more important papers are printed substantially in full. Some of the short pieces are also the full texts; others are extracts from longer discourses. The purpose has been to make the volume representative of the different fields of presidential energy and at the same time to furnish an insight of the President's habits of speech and argument.

Throughout, there is a high standard of dignity, of courtesy when expressing a rebuke; of personal conviction. On the other hand, the President has been a hard hitter against men whom he held to be doing less than their duty. He has the great man's capacity of learning something from his own experiences, and on many public questions, such as neutrality, preparedness, Latin-American questions, world trade, and world peace, the later utterances show a decided advance in tone and intensity over the earlier. President Wilson is sometimes a sermonizer, and occasionally ex

presses hmself as the party leader, as in the Jackson Day speech of January, 1915. The usual attitude is that of an elder brother of the nation, taking the people into counsel with him.

The practical uses of this volume are self-evident. It may be used as a book to read, for it is phrased in high literary and forensic style; it is a record of the policies of a President of the United States; it is a summary of great historical questions and discussions. The book may also be used by school and college classes, as a source book, as an adjunct to the study of government and international relations, or as a speaker; for many of the addresses are expressed in a stirring and concentrated form and come up to a climax. The book is also a contribution to an understanding of the character and action of the head of the nation in a great crisis.

The principles of these papers were intended to be a guide to the nation in its internal development and in its relations to the rest of the world. The nation has grown under the tremendous struggle of the great war; and its policies, its aims, its influences upon other nations have grown accordingly. The President has grown, too, and some of the remedies for political ills and international woes, suggested in earlier speeches, have been replaced by later views and larger remedies. The speeches of the President at such a crisis are a part of the life and expression of the people, and should be read and considered by thinking Americans. ALBERT BUSHNELL HART.

ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON

YEAR 1913

1. A NEW PRESIDENT'S PRINCIPLES

(March 4, 1913)

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS

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, in order, if I may, to interpret the occasion.

It means much more than the mere success of a party. The success of a party means little except when the Nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose. No one can mistake the purpose for which the Nation nov. seeks to use the Democratic party. It seeks to use it to interpret a change in its own plans and point of view. Some old things with which we had grown familiar, and which had begun to creep into the very habit of our thought and of our lives, have altered their aspect as we have latterly looked critically upon them, with fresh, awakened eyes; have dropped their disguises and shown themselves alien and sinister. Some new things, as we look frankly upon them, willing to comprehend their real character, have come to assume the aspect of things long believed in and familiar,

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