nestly desire to remain at peace with the Government which speaks for
them. * * * God grant we may not be challenged by acts of willful
injustice on the part of the Government of Germany."

[Sidenote: Submarine order must be withdrawn.]

In this address of the President, and in its indorsement by the Senate,
there was a solemn warning; for we still had hope that the German
Government might hesitate to drive us to war. But it was soon evident
that our warning had fallen on deaf ears. The tortuous ways and means of
German official diplomacy were clearly shown in the negotiations opened
by them through the Swiss Legation on the 10th of February. In no word
of their proposals did the German Government meet the real issue between
us. And our State Department replied that no minor negotiations could be
entertained until the main issue had been met by the withdrawal of the
submarine order.

[Sidenote: President Wilson advises armed neutrality.]

By the 1st of March it had become plain that the Imperial Government,
unrestrained by the warning in the President's address to Congress on
February 3, was determined to make good its threat. The President then
again appeared before Congress to report the development of the crisis
and to ask the approval of the representatives of the nation for the
course of armed neutrality upon which, under his constitutional
authority, he had now determined. More than 500 of the 531 members of
the two houses of Congress showed themselves ready and anxious to act;
and the armed neutrality declaration would have been accepted if it had
not been for the legal death of the Sixty-fourth Congress on March 4.

No "overt" act, however, was ordered by our Government until Count
Bernstorff had reached Berlin and Mr. Gerard was in Washington. For the
German Ambassador on his departure had begged that no irrevocable
decision should be taken until he had had the chance to make one final
plea for peace to his sovereign. We do not know the nature of his report
to the Kaiser; we know only that, even if he kept his pledge and urged
an eleventh-hour revocation of the submarine order, he was unable to
sway the policy of the Imperial Government.

[Sidenote: Armed guards on American merchant ships.]

And so, having exhausted every resource of patience, our Government on
the 12th of March finally issued orders to place armed guards on our
merchant ships.

With the definite break in diplomatic relations there vani