rinciple we hold dearest is to be
vindicated and made secure for the salvation of the nation. We are ready
to plead at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster.
Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great faith
to which we are born, and a new glory shall shine in the face of our
people.

REPLY TO THE POPE

[This important and eloquent document, though signed by the Secretary of
State, was of course authorized by the President, and indeed bears
internal marks of being his own composition. The Pope had made a plea
for peace, which was by our government deemed premature.]

AUGUST 27, 1917.

TO HIS HOLINESS BENEDICTUS XV, POPE:

In acknowledgment of the communication of Your Holiness to the
belligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the President of the United
States requests me to transmit the following reply:

Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this terrible war
must be touched by this moving appeal of His Holiness the Pope, must
feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous motives which
prompted it, and must fervently wish that we might take the path of
peace he so persuasively points out. But it would be folly to take it if
it does not in fact lead to the goal he proposes. Our response must be
based upon the stern facts and upon nothing else. It is not a mere
cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable and enduring peace. This
agony must not be gone through with again, and it must be a matter of
very sober judgment that will insure us against it.

His Holiness in substance proposes that we return to the status quo ante
bellum, and that then there be a general condonation, disarmament, and a
concert of nations based upon an acceptance of the principle of
arbitration; that by a similar concert freedom of the seas be
established; and that the territorial claims of France and Italy, the
perplexing problems of the Balkan States, and the restitution of Poland
be left to such conciliatory adjustments as may be possible in the new
temper of such a peace, due regard being paid to the aspirations of the
peoples whose political fortunes and affiliations will be involved.

It is manifest that no part of this program can be successfully carried
out unless the restitution of the status quo ante furnishes a firm and
satisfactory basis for it. The object of this war is to deliver the free
peoples of the world from the menace and the actual power of a v