tter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is
about, and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization
of their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and
intention.

I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices
of dissent--who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the
noisily thoughtless and troublesome. I also see men here and there
fling themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomitable
power of the Nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neither
its nature nor the way in which we may attain it, with uplifted eyes
and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speaks for the
Nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be
left to strut about their uneasy hour and be forgotten.

WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR

But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say
plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be
for, and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching
issues. We are the spokesmen of the American people, and they have a
right to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the
overcoming of evil, but the defeat once and for all of the sinister
forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish
to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we
propose. They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort
of compromise--deeply and indignantly impatient--but they will be
equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our
objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make
conquest of peace by arms.

I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that
this intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us
the ugly face, this menace of combined intrigue and force, which we
now see so clearly as the German power, a Thing without conscience or
honor or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed, and, if it
be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly
intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its
power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss
peace--when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can
believe, and when those spokesmen are ready, in the name of their
people, to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall
henceforth be the bases of