e the Thirty Years' War, the sack of
Louvain, [cries of "Shame!"] with its buildings, its pictures, its
unique library, its unrivaled associations--a shameless holocaust of
irreparable treasures lit up by blind barbarian vengeance. [Prolonged
cheers.] What account should we, the Government and the people of this
country, have been able to render to the tribunal of our national
conscience and sense of honor if, in defiance of our plighted and solemn
obligations, we had endured, nay, if we had not done our best to
prevent, yes, and to avenge, [renewed cheers,] these intolerable
outrages? For my part I say that sooner than be a silent witness--which
means in effect a willing accomplice--of this tragic triumph of force
over law and of brutality over freedom, I would see this country of ours
blotted out of the pages of history. [Prolonged cheers.]

Germany's Aim--to Crush Freedom.

That is only a phase--a lurid and illuminating phase in the contest in
which we have been called by the mandate of duty and of honor to bear
our part. The cynical violation of the neutrality of Belgium was, after
all, but a step--the first step--in a deliberate policy of which, if not
the immediate, the ultimate, and the not far distant aim, was to crush
the independence and autonomy of the free States of Europe. First
Belgium, then Holland, then Switzerland, countries, like our own, imbued
and sustained with the spirit of liberty, were one after another to be
bent to the yoke, and these ambitions were fed and fostered by a body of
new doctrines and new philosophies preached by professors and learned
men. The free and full self-development which to these small States, to
ourselves, to our great and growing dominions over the seas, to our
kinsmen across the Atlantic, is the well-spring and life-breath of
national existence--that free self-development is the one capital
offense in the code of those who have made force their supreme divinity,
and who upon its altars are prepared to sacrifice both the gathered
fruits and the potential germs of the unfettered human spirit. [Cheers.]
I use this language advisedly. This is not merely a material; it is also
a spiritual conflict. [Cheers.] Upon its issues everything that contains
promise and hope, that leads to emancipation and a fuller liberty for
the millions who make up the mass of mankind will be found sooner or
later to depend.

Our Efforts for Peace.

Let me now just for a moment turn to the actu