ssian oppression, for liberal
ideas and right and truth and freedom, so do we stand now. In fighting
for the cause of America as loyal Americans, we are fighting at the
same time for the deliverance of the country of our birth from those
unrighteous powers which hold it enthralled and feed upon its soul.

If ever a nation entered a war after having maintained infinite
forbearance in the face of grave menace and dangers and the most
intolerable affronts, and from motives as pure and high as the great
blue dome of heaven, America is that nation.

We seek no reward whatsoever of a material nature. We seek no "place
in the sun"--to use the German Chancellor's term--except the sun of
liberty, and that we do not seek selfishly, but to share with all the
world.

America is not waging a war of vengeance, notwithstanding all the
injuries and measureless provocations that we have received. We have
lighted a fire to purify, not to burn at the stake.

America is incapable of hating an entire people, but we do hate, we
are fighting and we shall fight with every ounce of our might, the
spirit which has power over the people of Germany, and which, if it
were to prevail--as, under God, it never will--would destroy liberty,
justice and plighted faith. It was not the people of Great Britain
which America fought in the War of the Revolution, but the spirit and
the ruling caste which then held sway over them. America fought then
for an ideal and for liberty and independence, and sacrificed blood
and treasure and suffered and endured and won. And so it will be now.

The spirit of Prussianism and the spirit of Americanism cannot live in
the same world. One or the other must conquer.

In the mad pride of its contempt for democracy, Prussianism has thrown
down the gauntlet to us. We have taken up the challenge and now stand
arrayed by the side of the other freedom-loving nations of the world,
giving our fresh strength and our boundless resources to them, who,
heroically striving, have borne the heat and burden of a dreadfully
long and exhausting struggle, yet stand unwearied, erect and resolute.

The enemy is of formidable strength. But even if he were far stronger
than he is, even if we did not have the men and the means which are
ours, even if our comrades-in-arms had not demonstrated their superb
and indomitable prowess, still must our cause prevail--for there is
fighting with us a force which has ever proved itself stronger than
an