War Addresses 19151917 Author:Henry Cabot Lodge General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1917 Original Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Subjects: World War, 1914-1918 United States History / Military / World War I History / United States / General History / United States / 20th Century Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no il... more »lustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: XVIII WAR WITH GERMANY SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE SENATE ON THE DECLARA- TION OF WAR WITH GERMANY, APRIL 4, 1917 xvm WAR WITH GERMANY No one is more conscious than I that this is a moment for action and not for debate. But, as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, and having taken part in framing this resolution, I wish briefly to state why I support it with the greatest earnestness of which I am capable. The most momentous power entrusted to Congress by the Constitution is the authority to dot-Lire war, and never has Congress been called to a more solemn exercise of this great function than at this moment. We have submitted to wrongs and outrages from the Central Powers of Eu rope -- wrongs which involve not only injury to property, but the destruction of American lives -- with a long patience. We have borne and forborne to the very limit of endurance. Now the inevitable end is here and we are about to declare war against Germany. Speaking for myself and, I hope, for my associates generally on this side of the Chamber, I desire to say that in this crisis, and when the country is at war, party lines will disappear, and this disappearance of the party line will, I am confident, not be confined to the minority. Both Democrats and Republicans must forget party in the presence of the common danger. This is not, and cannot be, a party war. It is a war in which all Americans must be united, and no one...« less