dged or denied by any such action, we should, it seems to me, have
in honor no choice as to what our own course should be.

"For my own part I cannot consent to any abridgment of the rights of
American citizens in any respect. The honor and self-respect of the
nation is involved. We covet peace, and shall preserve it at any cost
but the loss of honor. To forbid our people to exercise their rights
for fear we might be called upon to vindicate them would be a deep
humiliation indeed. It would be an implicit, all but an explicit,
acquiescence in the violation of the rights of mankind everywhere and
of whatever nation or allegiance. It would be a deliberate abdication
of our hitherto proud position as spokesmen even amid the turmoil of
war for the law and the right. It would make everything this
Government has attempted, and everything it has achieved during this
terrible struggle of nations, meaningless and futile.

"It is important to reflect that if in this instance we allowed
expediency to take the place of principle the door would inevitably be
opened to still further concessions. Once accept a single abatement of
right and many other humiliations would certainly follow, and the
whole fine fabric of international law might crumble under our hands
piece by piece. What we are contending for in this matter is of the
very essence of the things that have made America a sovereign nation.
She cannot yield them without conceding her own impotency as a nation
and making virtual surrender of her independent position among the
nations of the world."

The leaders in Congress were so impressed by this uncompromising
declaration of the President that they set about allaying the revolt
against the Administration's policy, which, it was feared, was drawing
the United States into war. Efforts were made to smother in committee
the resolutions pending in both the House and Senate forbidding
Americans to travel on armed merchant ships. But the President later
saw that much harm had already been done. An impression became current
abroad that Congress and the President were at cross purposes
regarding the attitude the United States should take toward the new
submarine policy of the Teutonic Powers. In the belief that the
country was with him in his stand, the President decided that such an
impression ought not to be permitted to prevail, and that the question
should be determined as to whether Congress upheld him also. In almost
irreconc