" One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian autocracy wee not and could never be our friend is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspectiag oommunitie and even our offices of government, with spies and set intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace within and without, our industriee and our commerce. Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were here even before the war began; and it is =happily not a matter of conjecture but a fact proved in our courts of justice. that the mtriguee which have more than once come penlously near to disturbing the peaoe and dislocating. the industries af the country. have been carried on at the mitigation, with the support, and even under the personal direction of official agents of the Imperial Govern ment accredited to the Government of the United States.
' Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we have sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them because we knew that their source lay, not m any hostile feeling or of the German peopn toward us (who were, no dou t, as • t of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish miens of a government that did what it pleased and told its people nothing. But they have played their part in serving to convince us at last that that government entertains no real friendship for us, and means to act against our peace and security at its con venience. That it means to stw up enemies against us at our very.doors the intercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence.
We are accegerag this challenge of hostile purpose because we know that in such a government, following such methods, we can never have a friend; eind that in the presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what otrpose, can be assured security for the deinoceatic government of the world. We are IIOW about to accept the gage of battle with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad. now that we see the facts, no veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of ita peoples, the German peoples included; for the rights of nations. great and small, and the privilelge of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience.
• The world mast be made sails Ia. democracy. Its peace moat be planted upon the Wed foundations of political liberty We have no selfiM enda to servo- desire no conquest, no dominion. We scek no indemnities for onr
selves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the right* of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of natious can make them.
"Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seekbig nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples. we shall. I feel confident, con duct our operations as bedigerenta without passion and ourselves observe wiaproud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we ess to be fighting for.
" I have said no • of the governmenta allied with the Imperial Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor. The Austro-Hunganan government has, indeed. avowed its loafed indorsement and acceptance of the reckless and law submarine warfare, adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it has therefore not been possible for this government to receive Count Tarnowski. the Ambassador recently accredited to this government by the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary. but that government has not actuany engaged in warfa're against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty. for the present at least, of a discussion of our relations with the authorities iirt+)ieTnengi. We enter this war only where we are cleariV forced into it because there are no other means of defending ref rights.
' It will be all the eaider for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairnees because we act without animus, not with enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, laut only. in armed opposition to an irresponnble goverrunent which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck.
' We ace, let me say again, the sincere friends of the Ger rnan people, and shell desire nothing so much as the earty re-estabhshment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, however hard it may be for them for the time being to believe that this is spoken from our hearts. We heve borne with their present government through all these bitter months because of that friendship, exereasing a patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible.