who are at peace and who are desirous of exercising none but the rights
of peace to follow the pursuits of peace in quietness and good
will,--rights recognized time out of mind by all the civilized nations
of the world. No course of my choosing or of theirs will lead to war.
War can come only by the wilful acts and aggressions of others.

You will understand why I can make no definite proposals or forecasts
of action now and must ask for your supporting authority in the most
general terms. The form in which action may become necessary cannot yet
be foreseen. I believe that the people will be willing to trust me to
act with restraint, with prudence, and in the true spirit of amity and
good faith that they have themselves displayed throughout these trying
months; and it is in that belief that I request that you will authorize
me to supply our merchant ships with defensive arms, should that become
necessary, and with the means of using them, and to employ any other
instrumentalities or methods that may be necessary and adequate to
protect our ships and our people in their legitimate and peaceful
pursuits on the seas. I request also that you will grant me at the same
time, along with the powers I ask, a sufficient credit to enable me to
provide adequate means of protection where they are lacking, including
adequate insurance against the present war risks.

I have spoken of our commerce and of the legitimate errands of our
people on the seas, but you will not be misled as to my main thought,
the thought that lies beneath these phrases and gives them dignity and
weight. It is not of material interests merely that we are thinking. It
is, rather, of fundamental human rights, chief of all the right of life
itself. I am thinking, not only of the rights of Americans to go and
come about their proper business by way of the sea, but also of
something much deeper, much more fundamental than that. I am thinking of
those rights of humanity without which there is no civilization. My
theme is of those great principles of compassion and of protection which
mankind has sought to throw about human lives, the lives of
non-combatants, the lives of men who are peacefully at work keeping the
industrial processes of the world quick and vital, the lives of women
and children and of those who supply the labor which ministers to their
sustenance. We are speaking of no selfish material rights but of rights
which our hearts support and whose foundati