Historical Anecdote of the Day

President Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany (1917)

At night on April 2, armed cavalry restrained a seething multitude outside the Capitol, while in front of a subdued Congress, with a  packed gallery listening, the President delivered his war message. The Supreme Court justices were present. They and most of the Congressmen wore small American flags in their lapels.

The President said: “There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making; we will not choose the path of submission.” The passage touched Chief Justice Edward Douglass White, a Civil War veteran. He raised his hands above his hoary thatch and collapsed in tears…

… The President continued to a more meaningful expression of purpose. “The world must be made safe for democracy. ITs peace must be founded upon the trusted foundations of political liberty.” The sentenced that reflect his trial-of-soul as an individual, though oft-quoted, are of little importance. In crisis, it was the nation that counted. For the sake of that nation, he asked the Congress for a joint resolution declaring war against Germany.

On leaving the rostrum, Wilson got the greatest ovation of his life. Later, at the White House he said to his Secretary, Joseph Tumulty: “Think of what it was they were applauding. my message of today was a message of death for our young men. how strange it seems to applaud that.”

At three o’clock in the morning on April 6, after an 82 to 6 vote in the Senate, the House voted 373 to 50 to support the President, and the nation was at war.

- from the American Heritage History of World War I