We know now that the German Government had prepared for war as only people who plan can prepare.  This is the fourth time within living memory that Prussia had made war in Europe.  In the Schleswig-Holstein war, in the war against Austria in 1866, in the war against France in 1870, as we now know from all the documents that have been revealed, it was Prussia who planned and prepared these wars.  The same thing has occurred again, and we are determined that it shall be the last time that war shall be made in this way.

We had assured Belgium that never would we violate her neutrality so long as it was respected by others.  I had given this pledge to Belgium long before the war.  On the eve of the war we asked France and Germany to give the same pledge.  France at once did so.  Germany declined to give it.  When, after that, Germany invaded Belgium we were bound to oppose Germany with all our strength, and if we had not done so at the first moment, is there any one who now believes that when Germany attacked the Belgians, when she shot down combatants and non-combatants in a way that violated all the rules of war of recent times and the laws of humanity of all time—­is there any one who thinks it possible now that we could have sat still and looked on without eternal disgrace?

Now what is the issue for which we are fighting?  In due time the terms of peace will be put forward by our Allies in concert with us—­in accordance with the alliance that exists between us—­and published to the world.  One essential condition must be the restoration to Belgium of her independence, national life, and free possession of her territory, and reparation to her as far as reparation is possible for the cruel wrong done to her.  That is part of the great issue for which we, with our allies, are contending, and the great part of the issue is this—­We wish the nations of Europe to be free to live their independent lives, working out their own form of government for themselves, and their own national developments, whether they be great nations or small States, in full liberty.  This is our ideal.  The German ideal—­we have had it poured out by German professors and publicists since the war began—­is that of the Germans as a superior people, to whom all things are lawful in the securing of their own power, against whom resistance of any sort is unlawful—­a people establishing a domination over the nations of the Continent, imposing a peace which is not to be liberty for every nation, but subservience to Germany.  I would rather perish or leave the Continent altogether than live on it under such conditions.

After this war we and the other nations of Europe must be free to live, not menaced continually by talk of “supreme war lords,” and “shining armor,” and the sword continually “rattled in the scabbard,” and heaven continually invoked as the accomplice of Germany, and not having our policy dictated and our national destinies and activities controlled by the military caste of Prussia.  We claim for ourselves and our allies claim for themselves, and together we will secure for Europe, the right of independent sovereignty for the different nations, the right to pursue a national existence, not in the shadow of Prussian hegemony and supremacy, but in the light of equal liberty.