Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1918-10-16
President Wilson's Reply to
Germany's Second Peace
Note.

ed the 18th instant, which you hand
ed me today, I have the honor to re-
guest you to transmit the following
answer:
"The unqualified acceptance by
the present German government and
by a large majority of the reichstag
Of the terms laid down by the presi-
dent of the United States of Ameri-
ca in his address to the congress of
the United States on the 9Th Of JAN
uary, 1918, and in his subsequent ad-
dresses justifes the president in
making a frank and direct statement
of his decision with regard to the
communications of the German gov
eminent of the Sth and 18th Of Oc-
tober, 1918.
at must be clearly understood
that the process of evacuation and
the conditions of an armistice are
matters which must be left to the
judgment and advice of the military
advisers of the government of the
United States and the allies govern
ments and the president feels it his
duty to say that no arrangements
can be accepted by the government
of the United States which does not
provide absolutely satisfactory safe
guard and guarantees of the mainte-
nance of the present military supre-
macy of the armies of the United
States and the allies in the field.
"He feels confident that he can
safely assume that this will also be
the judgment and decision of the al
hes governments.
''The president feels that it is al
so his duty to add that neither the
government of the United States nor,
he is quite sure the governments
with which the government of the
United States is associated as a bel
ligerent, will consent to consider an
armistice so long as the armed fore
es of Germany continue the illegal
and fnhumane practices which they
still persist in.
Sat the very time that the Ger
man government approaches the gov
eminent of the United States with
proposals of peace its submarines
are engaged in sinking passenger
ships at sea and not the ships alone,
but the very boats in which their pas
sengers and crews seek to make their
way to safety, and in their present
enforced withdrawal from Flanders
and France the German armies are
pursuing a curse Of wanton de-
struction which has always been re-
sarded as in direct violation of the
rules and practices Of civilized a
fare. Cities and villages, if not de-
stroyed, are being stripped Of all
they contain, not only, but often Of
their very inhabitants.
"The nations associated against
Germany cannot be expected to agree
to a cessation of war while acts OF
inhumanity, spoliation and desola-
ton are being continued which they
justly look upon with horror and
burning hearts.
at is necessary, also III order that
there may be no possibility of mis-
understanding that the president
should very solemnly call the atten-
ton of the government of Germany
to the language and plain intent Of
one of the terms which the German
government has now accepted. 1t IS
contained in the address Of the pres
ident delivered at Mount Vernon on
the Fourth of July, last.
at is as follows:
" The destruction of every arbi-
trary power anywhere that can sep
arately, secretly and of its single
choice, disturb the peace of the
world, or if it can not be presently
destroyed, at least its reduction to
virtual impotency.'
'The power which has hitherto
controlled the German nation is of
the sort here described. 1t is within
the choice of the German nation to
alter it. The presidents words just
quoted naturally constitute a condl-
ton precedent to peace, if peace is
to come by the action of, the German
people themselves. The president
feels bound to say that the whole
process of peace will, in his judg-
ment, depend upon the definiteness
and the satisfactory character of the
guarantees that can be given in this