such a thing as a man being too proud to fight.1 There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

You have come into this great Nation voluntarily seeking something that we have to give, and all that we have to give is this: We can not exempt you from work. No man is exempt from work anywhere in the world. We cannot exempt you from the strife and the heartbreaking burden of the struggle of the day—that is common to mankind everywhere; we cannot exempt you from the loads that you must carry. We can only make them light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of justice.

When I was asked, therefore, by the Mayor and the committee that accompanied him to come up from Washington to meet this great company of newly admitted citizens, I could not decline the invitation. I ought not to be away from Washington, and yet I feel that it has renewed my spirit as an American to be here. In Washington men tell you so many things every day that are not so, and I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body of my fellow-citizens, whether they have been my fellow-citizens a long time or a short time, and drink, as it were, out of the common fountains with them and go back feeling what you have so generously given me the sense of your support and of the living vitality in your hearts of the great ideals which have made America the hope of the world.

1 This address was delivered three days after the sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine. The phrase, "too proud to fight," was interpreted by some as a statement that this country would not fight under any provocation. Nothing could have been further from the meaning of the speaker. It was no doubt meant to counsel moderation. Its purpose was to allay excitement and to put people on their guard against rashness of thought and action.

ADDRESS TO WEST POINT CADETS

WOODROW WILSON

[From an address to the graduating class at West Point, on June 13, 1916.]

No man can certainly tell you what the immediate future is going to be either in the history of this country or in the history of the world. It is not by accident the present great war came in Europe. Every element was there and the contest had to come sooner or later, and it is not going to be by accident that the results are worked out, but by purpose, by the purpose of the men who are strong enough to have guiding minds and indomitable wills when the time for decision and settlement comes. And the part that the United States is to play has this distinction in it, that it is to be in any event a disinterested part.

There is nothing that the United States wants that it has to get by war, but there are a great many things that the United States has to do. It has to see that its life is not interfered with by anybody else who wants something.

These are days when we are making preparations, when the thing most commonly discussed around every sort of table, in every sort of circle, in the shops and in the streets, is preparedness, and undoubtedly that is the present imperative duty of America, to be prepared. . . .

America fortunately does know what she wants to do with her force. America came into existence for a particular reason. When you look about upon these beautiful hills and up this stately stream, and then let your imagination run over the whole body of this great country from which you youngsters are drawn, far and wide, you remember that while it had aboriginal inhabitants, while there were people living here, there was no civilization which we displaced. It was as if in the providence of God a continent had been kept unused and wait

ing for a peaceful people who loved liberty and the rights of men more than they loved anything else, to come and set up an unselfish commonwealth. It is a very extraordinary thing. You are so familiar with the general character of American history that it does not seem strange to you, but it is a very strange history. There is none other like it in the whole annals of mankind, of men gathering out of every civilized nation of the world on an unused continent, and building a policy exactly to suit themselves, not under the domination of any ruling dynasty or of the ambitions of any royal family, doing what they pleased with their own life on a free space of land which God had made rich with every resource which was necessary for the civilization they meant to build up.

Now, what we are preparing to do is to see that nobody mars that. We are not in for anything selfish, and we want the whole mighty power of America thrown into that scale and not into any other. You know that the chief thing that is holding many people back from enthusiasm for what is called preparedness is the fear of militarism. I want to say a word to you young gentlemen about militarism.

You are not a militarist because you are military. Militarism does not consist in the existence of an army, not even in the existence of a very great army. Militarism is a spirit. It is a point of view. It is a system. It is a purpose. The purpose of militarism is to use armies for aggression. The spirit of militarism is the opposite of the civilian spirit, the citizen spirit. In a country where militarism prevails, the military man looks down upon the civilian, regards him as inferior, thinks of him as intended for his use, and just so long as America is America that spirit and point of view is impossible with us. There is as yet in this country, so far as I can discover, no taint of the spirit of militarism.

You young gentlemen are not preferred in promotion because of the families you belong to. You are not drawn into the academy because you belong to certain influential circles.

You do not come here with a long tradition of military pride back of you. You are picked out from the citizens of the United States to be that part of the force of the United States which make its policy safe against interference. You are the part of American citizens who say to those who would interfere, “You must not, and you shall not." But you are American citizens, and the idea I want to leave with you to-day is this: No matter what comes, always remember that first of all you are citizens of the United States before you are officers, and that you are officers because you represent in your particular profession what the citizenship of the United States stands for. There is no danger of militarism if you are genuine Americans, and I for one do not doubt that you are. When you begin to have the militaristic spirit, not the military spirit, that is all right, then begin to doubt whether you are Americans or not.

You have read a great deal in the books about the pride of the old Roman citizen, who always felt like drawing himself to his full height when he said: "I am a Roman," but as compared with the pride that must have risen to his heart, our pride has a new distinction, not the distinction of the mere imperial power of a great empire, not the distinction of being masters of the world, but the distinction of carrying certain lights for the world that the world has never so distinctly seen before, certain guiding lights of liberty and principle and justice.

We have drawn our people, as you know, from all parts of the world, and we have been somewhat disturbed recently, because some of those, though I believe a very small number, whom we have drawn into our citizenship have not taken into their hearts the spirit of America, and have loved other countries more than they loved the country of their adoption, and we have talked a great deal about Americanism. It ought to be a matter of pride with us to know what Americanism really consists of. Americanism consists in utterly believing

in the principles of America, and putting them first as above anything that might by chance come into competition with it.

Now we ought to put this test to every man we know. We ought to let it be known that nobody who does not put America first can consort with us. We ought to set them the example. We ought to set them the example by thinking American thoughts, by entertaining American purposes, and those thoughts and purposes will stand the test of example anywhere in the world, for they are intended for the betterment of mankind. So I have come to say these few words to you to-day, to remind you how we must all stand together in one spirit as lovers and servants of America. And that means something more than lovers and servants merely of the United States.

You have heard of the Monroe Doctrine. You know that we are already spiritual partners with both continents of this hemisphere, and that America means something which is bigger even than the United States, and that we stand here with the glorious power of this country ready to swing it out into the field of action whenever liberty and independence and political integrity are threatened anywhere in the western hemisphere. And we are ready. me to say this, but I am sure of it. the other nations of the world in seeing prevails anywhere that we believe in. ating to-day into a new distinction. those men whose names we love to recount who have made the annals of the American army distinguished. They played the part they were called upon to play with honor, and with extraordinary character and success.

Nobody has authorized We are ready to join with that the kind of justice So that you are graduGlory attaches to all

I am congratulating you not because you will be better than they, but because you have a wider world of thought and conception to play your part in. I am an American, but I do not believe that any of us loves a blustering nationality, a nationality with a chip on its shoulder, a nationality with its elbows out, and with its swagger on. We love that quiet,