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Signed book: The President's War Message: Delivered at a Joint Session of the Two Houses of Congress, April 2, 1917. NY: Edward J. Clode, 1917. Cloth-bound hardcover with title stamped in blue on front cover, 4 x 6, 47 pages. Signed on the first free end page in ink as president, “Woodrow Wilson, 18 Jan’y, 1918.” Housed in a custom-bound slipcase with matching chemise. Autographic condition: fine. Book condition: VG/None, with a couple light stains to the front board and rubbing to spine ends.
‘As hostilities broke out between several nations of Europe in 1914, President Wilson almost immediately declared America’s intent to stay neutral and called on all Americans to remain impartial in thought as well as deed. However, Wilson and the United States found it increasingly difficult to remain neutral. The series of events between 1915 and 1917 led Wilson to finally deliver his war message to Congress on April 2, 1917. German submarine warfare had resulted in the sinking of several ships and the loss of American lives. Most remarkable was the attack against the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, when 128 Americans died. While that ship carried some 1,962 passengers and crew, it also carried several thousand cases of ammunition and shrapnel headed to Britain.
On the heels of the German announcement to renew unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, the British, on February 24th, revealed the Zimmermann Telegram. When Wilson released the message to the press on March 1st, Americans were shocked and angered. With the support of his entire cabinet, Wilson, who had been reelected in 1916 on the slogan ‘He kept us out of war,’ reluctantly concluded that war was inevitable. In his speech before a special session of Congress, Wilson, as usual, took the moral high ground and declared that not only had America’s rights as a neutral been violated but that ‘The world must be made safe for democracy.’ Americans must fight ‘for the rights and liberties of small nations’ and to ‘bring peace and safety to make the world itself at last free.’’
