US Presidency
1917

We have been obligedto arm ourselves to make good our claim to a certain minimum of right andof freedom of action. We stand firm in armed neutrality since it seemsthat in no other way we can demonstrate what it is we insist upon and cannotforget. We may even be drawn on, by circumstances, not by our own purposeor desire, to a more active assertion of our rights as we see them anda more immediate association with the great struggle itself. But nothingwill alter our thought or our purpose. They are too clear to be obscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles of our national life to bealtered. We desire neither conquest nor advantage. We wish nothing thatcan be had only at the cost of another people. We always professed unselfishpurpose and we covet the opportunity to prove our professions are sincere.