f submarines for the destruction of an enemy's
commerce is of necessity, because of the very character of the vessels
employed and the very methods of attack which their employment of course
involves, incompatible with the principles of humanity, the long
established and incontrovertible rights of neutrals, and the sacred
immunities of non-combatants.

I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Imperial German
Government that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless and
indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of
submarines, notwithstanding the now demonstrated impossibility of
conducting that warfare in accordance with what the Government of the
United States must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of
international law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity,
the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion
that there is but one course it can pursue; and that unless the Imperial
German Government should now immediately declare and effect an
abandonment of its present methods of warfare against passenger and
freight carrying vessels this Government can have no choice but to sever
diplomatic relations with the Government of the German Empire
altogether.

This decision I have arrived at with the keenest regret; the possibility
of the action contemplated I am sure all thoughtful Americans will look
forward to with unaffected reluctance. But we cannot forget that we are
in some sort and by the force of circumstances the responsible spokesmen
of the rights of humanity, and that we cannot remain silent while those
rights seem in process of being swept utterly away in the maelstrom of
this terrible war. We owe it to a due regard for our own rights as a
nation, to our sense of duty as a representative of the rights of
neutrals the world over, and to a just conception of the rights of
mankind to take this stand now with the utmost solemnity and firmness.

I have taken it, and taken it in the confidence that it will meet with
your approval and support. All sober-minded men must unite in hoping
that the Imperial German Government, which has in other circumstances
stood as the champion of all that we are now contending for in the
interest of humanity, may recognize the justice of our demands and meet
them in the spirit in which they are made.

AMERICAN PRINCIPLES

[Address delivered at the First Annual Assemblage of the League to
Enforce P