act, there was no dissent from this statement.
Most of our leading men, including Taft, Roosevelt, and Lodge, were
committed to the idea of a league of nations for the maintenance of law
and international peace. The League to Enforce Peace, which had
branches in all the Allied countries, had done a great work in
popularizing this idea. The President came before the Senate, he said,
"as the council associated with me in the final determination of our
international obligations," to formulate the conditions upon which he
would feel justified in asking the American people to give "formal and
solemn adherence to a League for Peace." He disclaimed any right to a
voice in determining what the terms of peace should be, but he did
claim a right to "have a voice in determining whether they shall be
made lasting or not by the guarantees of a universal covenant." First
of all, the peace must be a "peace without victory," for "only a peace
between equals can last." And, he added, "there is a deeper thing
involved than even equality of right among organized nations. No peace
can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the
principle that governments derive all their just powers from the
consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand
peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were
property." He cited Poland as an example, declaring that statesmen
everywhere were agreed that she should be "united, independent, and
autonomous."

He declared that every great people "should be assured a direct outlet
to the sea," and that "no nation should be shut away from free access
to the open paths of the world's commerce." He added: "The freedom of
the seas is the _sine qua non_ of peace, equality, and cooeperation."
This problem, he said, was closely connected with the limitation of
naval armaments. "The question of armaments, whether on land or sea,
is the most immediately and intensely practical question connected with
the future fortunes of nations and of mankind."

The Russian revolution, which came in March, 1917, and resulted in the
overthrow of the Czar's government, cleared the political atmosphere
for the time being, and enabled President Wilson in his address to
Congress on April 2 to proclaim a war of democracy against autocracy.
The new Russian government repudiated all imperialistic aims and
adopted the formula: "Self-determination, no annexations, no
indemnities." Poland