affairs, our present duties, and the immediate means of accomplishing
the objects we shall hold always in view.

I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable
wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany
have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true
American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again
and with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which
we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion here in this place
is action, and our action must move straight towards definite ends. Our
object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer
ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But it is worth while asking
and answering the question, When shall we consider the war won?

From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental
matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is
about and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of
their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and intention.
I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of
dissent,--who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the
noisily thoughtless and troublesome. I also see men here and there fling
themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomitable power of
the nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neither its nature
not the way in which we may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken
spirits. But I know that none of these speaks for the nation. They do
not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be left to strut their
uneasy hour and be forgotten.

But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say
plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for
and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues.
We are the spokesmen of the American people and they have a right to
know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming
of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinister forces that
interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how
closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose. They
are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of
compromise,--deeply and indignantly impatient,--but they will be equally
impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives
are