Download Woodrow Wilson`s Declaration of Neutrality

Woodrow Wilson’s
Declaration of Neutrality
Delivered before the U.S. Senate
on August 19, 1914
Reprinted from the World War I Document Archive,
available online at http://www.lib.byu.edu/
~rdh/wwi/1914/wilsonneut.html
I
n early August 1914, the nations of Europe took up arms
against one another in a war that came to be known as World
War I. While tensions in Europe had been growing for many
years, the armed conflict was triggered by a single event that
occurred in a distant corner of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
On June 28, 1914, Serbian-backed terrorists assassinated the
crown prince of Austria in the provincial town of Sarajevo.
Austria-Hungary and Serbia prepared to go to war. But treaty
obligations between the major European powers soon made
matters much worse: Germany promised its support to AustriaHungary; Russia backed Serbia; and France backed Russia.
What should have been a small war in the Balkans soon turned
into a big war between the major European powers.
“The United States must
be neutral in fact, as well
as in name, during these
days that are to try
men’s souls.”
Woodrow Wilson
Americans watched the events unfolding in Europe
with horror. They could not comprehend why so many people
would rush into war for so little reason. Most Americans were
quite happy that their country had a long tradition of avoiding European conflicts. They did not want to waste American
lives on a war most considered pointless, and they did not
want to disrupt their economy just to preserve a treaty. But
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A 1916 Nelson Harding
political cartoon depicts
Woodrow Wilson’s efforts to
keep the U.S. out of World
War I. President Wilson
swinging the bat of
“demand” misses the ball of
“evasion” pitched by Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany.
(Archive Photos. Reproduced
by permission.)
Americans also had strong ties to Europe. Many of them had
parents or grandparents who had come from European countries, and many Americans still had close relatives living in
Europe. Immigrants and descendants of immigrants from the
various warring countries could not help but feel sympathy for
“their” side. How would America handle itself in the face of
these conflicting emotions? President Woodrow Wilson
offered a plan.
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World War I: Primary Sources
Wilson knew that many Americans felt strongly about
the war. After all, one-third of the American population was
either foreign-born or had parents living in a foreign country.
But Wilson had a vision of how the United States should
behave during the war. He believed that if the United States
could act impartially, not favoring one side or the other, it
could actually benefit from the war. It could keep its economy
strong by providing the European countries with food and
supplies, and when the warring countries had had enough
fighting, the United States could play the role of peacekeeper.
Wilson spelled out this vision for the American people in a
message he gave before Congress on August 19, 1914, just over
two weeks after the war had started.
Things to remember while reading President
Wilson’s Declaration of Neutrality:
• Presidential addresses before Congress are important documents of foreign policy. Such speeches announce the goals
and programs of the government. Wilson’s speech was not
only read by ordinary American citizens in their daily newspapers, but also by the leaders of powerful foreign nations.
• In 1914, when President Wilson gave this speech, there
were no televisions or radios. Americans learned of presidential speeches in their newspapers, which were much
more widely read than they are today.
• One of President Wilson’s main concerns was that Americans might fight among themselves over European politics. He knew that there were large communities of Americans with family roots in Germany, France, England, and
other combatant countries. He wanted to make sure that
these Americans would put aside their European loyalties
and conform to a single American approach to the war.
• Woodrow Wilson was well known as an orator, a skilled and
eloquent public speaker. His speeches were carefully designed
to persuade people to share his opinion, and they consisted of
carefully constructed arguments. Note how Wilson uses certain techniques to emphasize his points, such as pairing similar words or using dramatic phrases in key sections of his
speeches. Because Wilson was highly educated, he also used a
variety of difficult and even old-fashioned words.
America’s Emergence As A World Power: Declaration of Neutrality
85
Declaration of Neutrality
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. . . .
The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon
what American citizens say and do. Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit
of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned. The spirit
of the Nation in this critical matter will be determined largely by what
individuals and society and those gathered in public meetings do and
say, upon what newspapers and magazines contain, upon what ministers utter in their pulpits, and men proclaim as their opinions on the
street.
The people of the United States are drawn from many nations,
and chiefly from the nations now at war. It is natural and inevitable
that there should be the utmost variety of sympathy and desire among
them with regard to the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some
will wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous
struggle. It will be easy to excite passion and difficult to allay it. Those
responsible for exciting it will assume a heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than that the people of the United States . . .
may be divided in camps of hostile opinion, hot against each other,
involved in the war itself in impulse and opinion if not in action.
Such divisions amongst us would be fatal to our peace of mind
and might seriously stand in the way of the proper performance of our
duty as the one great nation at peace, the one people holding itself
ready to play a part of impartial mediation and speak the counsels of
peace and accommodation, not as a partisan, but as a friend.
Allay: Calm, or relieve
the intensity of.
Speak the counsels of peace
and accommodation: Wilson
is offering to defend the cause
of peace and reason when
others can speak only of war.
Partisan: Strong supporter
of one side of an argument
or dispute.
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I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn
word of warning to you against that deepest, most subtle, most
essential breach of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship,
out of passionately taking sides. The United States must be neutral in
fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men’s souls.
We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb
upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be
construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.
World War I: Primary Sources
My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel sure, the earnest
wish and purpose of every thoughtful American that this great country of ours [. . .] should show herself in this time of peculiar trial a
Nation fit beyond others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency of dispassionate action;
a Nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in
her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is
honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the
world. . . .
What happened next . . .
America did stay officially neutral for nearly two and a
half years, but it was not easy. From the very beginning, the
United States was inclined to support the Allied cause. Most
Americans sympathized with the Allies, and many provided
monetary and moral support for relatives living in England
and France. President Wilson and many of his advisors had
close ties with British diplomats. As the war went on, American economic ties with the Allies, especially England, became
even stronger. England relied more and more on goods from
America as European economies went into decline, and the
English blockade of German ports meant that it was much less
profitable and more difficult to trade with Germany.
Remaining neutral toward Germany also became
increasingly difficult. Americans’ feelings toward the Germans
had hardened during the first years of the war, when German
submarine attacks damaged neutral shipping and when newspapers reported on German atrocities in neutral Belgium. In
early 1917 Germany stepped up submarine attacks once more;
at that point, the U.S. entrance into the war became almost
inevitable.
Did you know . . .
• The American economy boomed between 1914 and 1917.
According to historian Daniel M. Smith, author of The
Great Departure: The United States and World War I,
1914–1920, the value of American goods shipped overseas
America’s Emergence As A World Power: Declaration of Neutrality
87
rose from $500 million in 1914 to $3.5 billion in 1917.
America built a powerful weapons industry, and trade with
the Allied countries nearly doubled from what it had been
during peacetime.
• Many Americans wanted to serve in the war even though
the United States had declared its neutrality. Some, such as
poet Alan Seeger, joined the French foreign legion, a
branch of the French army that accepted foreigners. Others served as ambulance drivers or medics with the Red
Cross, an international aid agency. Famous American
authors Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and John
Dos Passos all participated in some kind of alternative service in the war.
For More Information
Books
Clare, John D., ed. First World War. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1995.
Esposito, David M. The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson: American War Aims in
World War I. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.
Jannen, William, Jr. Lions of July: How Men Who Wanted Peace Went to War
in 1914. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1996.
Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Kent, Zachary. World War I: “The War to End Wars.” Hillside, NJ: Enslow,
1994.
Link, Arthur Stanley. Woodrow Wilson: Revolution, War, and Peace. Arlington Heights, IL: AHM Publishing, 1979.
Osinski, Alice. Woodrow Wilson: Twenty-Eighth President of the United States.
Chicago: Children’s Press, 1989.
Rogers, James T. Woodrow Wilson: Visionary for Peace. New York: Facts on
File, 1997.
Ross, Stewart. Causes and Consequences of World War I. Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1998.
Smith, Daniel M. The Great Departure: The United States and World War I,
1914–1920. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.
Articles
Wilson, Woodrow. Message to Congress, 63rd Cong., 2d sess., Senate Doc.
566. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1914, pp. 3–4.
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World War I: Primary Sources
Web sites
“Neutrality: Woodrow Wilson, Appeal for Neutrality.” [Online]
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/seminar/unit10/wilson1.htm (accessed
April 2001).
World War I Document Archive. [Online] http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/
wwi/1914/wilsonneut.html (accessed February 2001).
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