ressional support to the
Administration, and the dooming of the Gore resolution to certain
failure. After a couple of days' debate the resolution was put to the
vote and defeated March 3, 1916, by sixty-eight to fourteen. But this
only meant an overwhelming rejection of the intent of the Gore
resolution, for its proposer, foreseeing that it could not pass,
confused the President's supporters at the last minute by resorting to
a parliamentary maneuver changing its purport. The resolution, as put
before the Senate, had been reversed; instead of forbidding Americans
to travel on belligerent vessels, it had become a hypothetical
declaration of war against Germany--a bellicose affirmation in
irreconcilable contrast with the senator's well-known pacifism.
Originally the resolution read:

"Whereas a number of leading powers of the world are now engaged in a
war of unexampled proportions; and

"Whereas the United States is happily at peace with all of the
belligerent nations; and

"Whereas it is equally the desire and the interest of the American
people to remain at peace with all nations; and

"Whereas the President has recently offered fresh and signal proofs of
the superiority of diplomacy to butchery as a method of settling
international disputes; and

"Whereas the right of American citizens to travel on unarmed
belligerent vessels has recently received renewed guarantees of
respect and inviolability; and

"Whereas the right of American citizens to travel on armed belligerent
vessels rather than upon unarmed vessels is essential neither to their
life, liberty, or safety; nor to the independence, dignity, or
securing of the United States; and

"Whereas Congress alone has been vested with the power to declare war,
which involved the obligations to prevent war by all proper means
consistent with the honor and vital interest of the nation; therefore
be it

"Resolved, by the Senate (the House of Representatives, concurring),
That it is the sense of the Congress, vested as it is with the sole
power to declare war, that all persons owing allegiance to the United
States should, in behalf of their own safety and the vital interest of
the United States, forbear to exercise the right of travel as
passengers upon any armed vessel of any belligerent power, whether
such vessel be armed for offensive or defensive purposes; and it is
the further sense of the Congress that no passport should be issued or
renewed by the Secretary