The Government of Germany (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Government of Germany

The President of the United States in his address to Congress on April 2 announced that our object in entering the war against Germany was "to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power;" declared that the menace to the world's peace and freedom "lies in the existence of autocratic governments, backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people;" announced that "a steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations," as "no autocratic government could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants;" stated the grounds for his conviction that "the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend;" said that we were now about to accept the gauge of battle with "this natural foe to liberty," and that we would if necessary "spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power." He referred to the German Government as "an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck;" and declared that the war was a war for democracy and elementary human rights and for the liberation of the peoples, including the German peoples.

Was the President speaking soberly and fairly when he described the Prussian Government as an autocracy and the German Government as irresponsible Was this arraignment as accurate and just, as it certainly was scathing

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.