His effort failed. On the last day of Janu ary the German Ambassador in Washington handed the government a note in which the German government announced its intention to declare a submarine blockade about England. France and Italy and warned all nations to beware on penalty of having their ships and their people sunk without notice Wilson s reply was to dismiss the German Ambassador and re quest Congress to declare the country in a state of armed neutrality Congress failed to grant the request and Wilson set about pre paring for American entrance into the conflict. When the regular session of that Congress came to an end, he promptly summoned the new Congress in extra session for 2 April •to receive a communication concerning grave matters of national On 2 April be addressed Congress in a great speech recom mending that Congress declare 'the recent course of the Imperial German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States' On 6 April war was declared by large major ities. But Wilson took pains to insist to the country and all the world that the United States did not go to war for any material interests or any imperialistic purposes of any of the powm concerned It was to be a war to the world safe for democracy' He endeavored to convince the people of the United States that annexations and commercial exploitation were the natural causes of war; and he sought to impress Europe with the idea that democracy was the only safe rule for governments and that absolute equality among all peesples, great and small, was the only safe rule of inter national conduct. From 2 April 1917 to 11 Nov 1918., Wilson's career is in great world history; he swayed the whole workr no other statesman had ever swayed it. An English Liberal has said that 'it was like the voice of tOssl talking over our beads to the continent and to the nations of the wee'd The sum of it all was expressed on $ Ian NIX. in the marvelous address in which the Footle en Points, now so well known to the world, were laid down. He wished to commit all men to the freedom of the seas, the self determination of peoples, open diplomacy. the freest possible trade among nations. access of inland nations to harbors, disarmament every where and a League of Nations that should lead and guide mankind into better ways. Upon such a basis would the United States conclude peace. From public statements of European leaders and from the avowals of responsible diplomats, these points were accepted, although thoughtful men everywhere doubted whether, at the end. the greater European powers would actually abide by such a program of self-denial.
There was a strenuous protest in the indus trial centres of the United States against the possibility of free trade. Colonel Roosevelt denied in a vigorous campaign in the autumn of 1917 that the United States fought to make the world safe for democracy. In January 1918 be and many other prominent leaders, both Democratic and Republican. tried to press through Congress a bill which would have set up a war cabinet to assist the President. Wil son opposed the movement and it failed. But the fight upon the President and his war plat form was continued till the Congressional elec tion of 1918. Wilson asked the country in a formal statement in return Democrats to Congress in on.
carry the war to a conclusion. It was a clo, election in which the Republicans won a major • ity in the Senate by two votes and in the House by a larger mat, ;• • in the campaign anu one of Inc SC11.11101! W•b
still defending himself in court, late in 1919, against the charge of corrupt use of money. It Was the first time that was confronted with the prospect of a host a fact which appeared the more .. ..s the near approach of a breakdown of Germany and her allies became known. When an armis tice was proposed by Germany, the Allied government. of tat Wilson should he the common spokesma• ; but Colonel Roosevelt and Senator Lodge g. ye out a statement of Republican c, edition - of peace which were supposed to tie more nostile to Germany than Wilson's Fourteen Points. The Republicans an nounced that they were unwilling to allow Wil son to represent the country in the peace confer ence.
In his annual message of December 1918, Wilson announced that he would go in person to Paris to aid in the negotiation of a world peace. The leaders of the Senate warned him against this course and many of the greatest papers in the North took the view that it was inexpedient it not improper and unconstitu tional for the President to attend the peace conference in person. A former senator and a former attorney-general of the United States gave it as their matured opinions that Wilson would cease to be President the moment his ship passed beyond the boundary of the country. Nevertheless Wilson sailed for Europe on 4 December, and arrived in Paris on the 14th. lie received an ovation that surpassed anything witnessd in France since the days of Napoleon I In London a similar demonstration was made when he arrived there just after Christ mas Early in January he visited Rome where he was counted as a sort of Inc....lab, come to save Furope from the terrors of future wars. These shit. were made at the request of the g.verti Incnts concerned and during the dtlays incident to the gathering of the peace conference. Still, he was not unaware of the risks of his position. He had remarked to a friend in September preceding that he almost dreaded to think of the end of the war, for then every nation of Europe and every group of interests in the United States would begin to think of selfish ends.
When the peace conference opened. it was promptly discovered that the first of the Four teen Points, open covenants openly arrived at, could not be realized. Men simply would not discuss in public the graver issues involved. lest the very ends they sought should be jeopardized. The conference decided to sit behind closed doors. Then it was found that the conference was too large for rapid work and a council of five, including Wilson. Lloyd George, Clemen ceau. Orlando of Italy and Makino of Japan took its place. This was later changed to a council of four, the Japanese representative simply absenting himself. Wilson labored a month to induce his colleagues to accept the Fourteen Points, including the proposed league of nations, the most important of all. The other repre sentatives endeavored for a month to arrange the preliminaries of a peace without applying the Wilson principles and without accepting the league idea. But unable to agree, the whole conference met on the 14th of February and accepted the idea of a league as a part of the treaty. Wilson returned to America and in public addresses warned his opponents that the covenant of the League of Nations would be so interwoven with the Treaty of Peace that the rejection of the former would involve the rejection of the latter. How little this state ment availed its author was revealed in the months that followed.