was given her freedom and the demand for
Constantinople was abandoned. The Allies were thus relieved from one
of their most embarrassing secret treaties.

Even after America entered the war, President Wilson continued to
advance the same ideas as to the ultimate conditions of peace. His
attitude remained essentially different from that of the Allies, who
were hampered by secret treaties wholly at variance with the
President's aims. In his war address he declared that we had "no
quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towards them but
one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse that
their government acted in entering this war." Prussian autocracy was
the object of his attack. "We are now about to accept gauge of battle
with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the
whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its
power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false
pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world
and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included: for
the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men
everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world
must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the
tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to
serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for
ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely
make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We
shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the
faith and the freedom of nations can make them."

About the time that the United States declared war, Austria and Germany
began another so-called "peace offensive." Overtures were made by
Austria to France in March, and in August the Pope made a direct appeal
to the Powers. This move was unmasked by President Wilson in a public
address at the Washington Monument, June 14, 1917. "The military
masters under whom Germany is bleeding," he declared, "see very clearly
to what point fate has brought them: if they fall back or are forced
back an inch, their power abroad and at home will fall to pieces. It
is their power at home of which they are thinking now more than of
their power abroad. It is that power which is trembling under their
very feet. Deep fear has entered their hearts. Th