The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1917-03-08
PRESIDENT WILSON DELIVERS
INAUGURAL ADDRESS; STATES
AMERICAS HOPES AND FEARS

serve; but we realize that the greatest
things that remain to be done must
be done with the whole world for a
stage and in cooperation with the wide
and universal forces of mankind, and
we are making our spirits ready for
those things. They will follow in the
immediate wake of the war itself and
will set civilization up again. We are
provincials no longer. The traglcal
events of the thirty months of vital
turmoil through which we have just
passed have made us. citizens of the
world There can be no turning back.
Our own fortunes as a nation are in
volved, whether we would have it so
or not.
And yet we are not the less Amer
leans on that account. We shall be
the more American if we but remain
true to the principles in which we
have been bred. They are not the
principles of a province or of single
continent. We have known and boast
ed all along that they were the prin-
ciples of liberated mankind. These,
therefore. are the things we shall
stand for, whether in war on in peace.
THAT all nations are equally inter-
ested in the peace of the world and in
the political stability of free peoples,
and equally responsible for their main
tenance;
THAT the essential principle Of
peace is the actual equality of ma
tions in all matters of right or privi-
lege;
THAT peace can not securely Or
justly rest upon an armed balance OF
power;
THAT governments derive all their
just powers from the consent of the
governed and that no other powers
should be supported by the common
thought, purpose, or power of the fam
lily of nations.
THAT the seas should be equally
free and safe for the use of all peoples,
under rules set up by common agree
ment and consent. and that, so far AS
practicable, they should be accessible
to all upon equal terms;
THAT national ornaments should be
limited to the necessities of national
order and domestic safety;
THAT the community of interest and
power upon which peace must hence
forth depend imposes upon each nd
ton the duty of seeing to it that all
influences proceeding from its own
citizens meant to encourage or assist
revolution in other states should be
sternly and effectually suppressed and
81 need not argue these principles to
you, my fellow countrymen. They are
your own, part and parcel of your
own thinking and our own motive IN
affairs. They spring up native amongst
us. Upon this as a platform OF our
purpose and action, we can stand to-
gether.
"And it is imperative that we should
stand together. We are being forced
into a new unity amidst the fires that
now blaze throughout the world. In
their ardent heat we shall, in Gods
providence, let us hope, be purged Of
faction and division, purified of the
errant humors of party, of private in
terest, and shall stand for the days TO
come with a new dignity of national
pride and spirit Let each man see
to it that the dedication is in his own
heart, the high purpose of the nation
in his own mind, ruler of his own will
and desire.
81 stand here and have taken the
high and solemn oath to which you
have been audience because the peo-
pie of the United States have chosen
me for this august delegation of pow
err and have by their gracious judg-
ment named me leader in affairs. l
know now what the task means. l
realize to the full the responsibility
which it involves. I pray God I may
be given the wisdom and the prudence
to do my duty in the true spirit of this
great people. l am their servant and
can succeed only as they sustain and
guide me by their confidence and their
counsel. The thing shall count upon,
the thing without which neither coul-
sci nor action will avail, is the unity o.
America united in feel
ing, in purpose, and in it's vision CT
duty, of opportunity, and of service.
We are to beware Of all men who
would turn the tasks and the neces-
stiles of the nation to their own pri-
vate profit or use them for the build
ing up of private power; beware that
no faction or disloyal intrigue break
The harmony or embarrass the spirit
IF our people; beware that our gov
be kept pure and incorrupt in
Ill it's parts. United alike in the con-
ception of our duty and in the high
resolve to perform it in the face of all
men, let US dedicate ourselves to the
great task to which we must now set
our hand. For myself, I beg your toll
your countenance, and your
united aid. The shadows that now lie
lark 11nnn n1lr nafh will soon he dis.