| Chapter 1: | The Struggle For World Order |
|
|
This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.
Meeting with Congressional leaders to discuss the right of Americans to travel openly upon the seas, Wilson declared that the loss of American life by attacks on merchant ships would draw the United States into the conflict in Europe. He told them, one Senator later reported, “that a state of war might not be of itself and of necessity an evil, but that the United States by entering the war now might be able to bring it to a conclusion by midsummer, and thus render a great service to civilization.”
Mention of the possibility of war threw the Congressmen into a commotion, and the conversation became openly contentious. Senator William Stone (D-MO), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pounded his fist on the table and declared, “You have no right to ask me to follow such a course. It may mean war for my country. I must follow my conscience in this matter.”19
Senator Stone spoke for most lawmakers that day when he retorted, “Mr. President! I have followed you in your domestic policies but—By God! I shall not follow you into war with Germany!”
Democratic Party leaders—members of Wilson’s own party—met in conference and were in agreement, as one put it, “that our Chief Executive was headed directly for a war with Germany, not only unnecessarily, but over a very questionable matter. One agitated legislator had to be dissuaded by colleagues from introducing a resolution of censure against the President.
President Wilson was undeterred. The following morning, he met with leaders of the House of Representatives, each of whom came away from the meeting convinced that war with Germany loomed as a real possibility. When told that Congress would never vote for a Declaration of War, the President replied that if the United States broke off diplomatic relations, it would be Germany that made the Declaration.
Wilson knew that a democracy could not wage war successfully without public support, and backed off. Furthermore, he deeply regarded the United States as a model for a new humanitarian politics, international as well as domestic; it must give peace every possible opportunity to succeed. While continuing to warn of the dangers of a militaristic, undemocratic German state, he advocated peace.