tunity, and of service. We are to beware of all men who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the Nation to their own private profit or use them for the building up of private power; beware that no faction or disloyal intrigue break the harmony or embarrass the spirit of our people; beware that our Government be kept pure and incorrupt in all its parts. United alike in the conception of our duty and in the high resolve to perform it in the face of all men, let us dedicate ourselves to the great task to which we must now set our hand. For myself I beg your tolerance, your countenance, and your united aid. The shadows that now lie dark upon our path will soon be dispelled and we shall walk with the light all about us if we be but true to ourselves,—to ourselves as we have wished to be known in the counsels of the world and in the thought of all those who love liberty and justice and the right exalted. ADDRESS RECOMMENDING THE DECLARA- 2, 1917 In the interval between February 26th and April 2d, the President had come to the conclusion that neutrality was incompatible with the undoubted rights, and therefore the best interests, of the United States. Germany had already drawn the sword and was in a state of war, although not declared, with the United States. President Wilson decided that this situation should be regularized by a declaration on the part of the United States that a state of war existed between the Imperial German Government and the United States. He therefore recommended such action in his address of April 2d, and on the 6th instant the Congress passed the following joint resolution, carrying into effect his recommendation: "Whereas the Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America: Therefore be it "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial Government which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States." 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. |