autiful to a party of Americans
before. The strains of the Star Spangled Banner, as they echoed over the
waters of the bay, were never sweeter nor more inspiring. As the
Philadelphia approached quarrantine, the notes of the American anthem
swelled until, as she slowed down to await the coming of the physicians
and customs officials, it rose to a great crescendo which fell upon the
ears of all within many hundred yards and brought an answering chorus
from the throngs who waited to extend their hands to relatives and
friends.

There was prophecy in the minds of men and women aboard that ship. Some
of them had been brought into actual contact with the war; others very
near it. In the minds of all was the vision that liberty, enlightenment
and all the fruits of progress were threatened; that if they were to be
saved, somehow, this land typified the spirit of succor; somehow the aid
was to proceed from here.

Liberty never had a more cherished meaning to men of this Republic. In
the minds of many the conviction had taken root, that if autocracy and
absolute monarchy were to be overthrown; that "government of the people,
by the people, for the people" should "not perish from the earth," it
would eventually require from America that supreme sacrifice in devotion
and blood that at periods in the growth and development of nations, is
their last resort against the menace of external attack, and, regardless
of the reflections of theorists and philosophers, the best and surest
guarantee of their longevity; that the principles upon which they were
builded were something more than mere words, hollow platitudes, meaning
nothing, worthy of nothing, inspiring nothing. It was the dawning of a
day; new and strange in its requirements of America whose isolation and
policy, as bequeathed by the fathers, had kept it aloof from the
bickerings and quarrels of the nations that composed the "Armed Camp" of
Europe, during which, as subsequent events proved, the blood of the
Caucasian and the Negro would upon many a hard fought pass; many a
smoking trench in the battle zone of Europe, run together in one rivulet
of departing life, for the guarantee of liberty throughout all the
earth, and the establishment of justice at its uttermost bounds and
ends.

CHAPTER IV

AWAKENING OF AMERICA

PRESIDENT CLINGS TO NEUTRALITY--MONROE DOCTRINE AND WASHINGTON'S
WARNING--GERMAN CRIMES AND GERMAN VICTORIES--CARDINAL MERCIER'S
LETTER--MILITARY OPER