I cannot express my admiration of the President's management, so
far at least, of his colossal task of leading us right. He has
shown his supreme wisdom up to this point and I have the
profoundest confidence in his judgment. But I hope he doesn't fool
himself about the future; I'm sure he doesn't. I see no possible
way for us to keep out, because I know the ignorance and falseness
of the German leaders. They'll drown or kill more Americans--on the
sea and in America. They _may_ at last even attack one of our own
passenger ships, or do something that will dramatically reveal them
to the whole American people. Then, of course, the tune will be
called. It's only a question of time; and I am afraid the war will
last long enough to give them time. An early peace is all that can
prevent them from driving us at last into war; and I can see no
chance of an early peace. You had as well prepare as fast as the
condition of public opinion will permit.

There could be no better measure of the immeasurable moral advance
that the United States has made over Europe than the incredulity of
our people. They simply can't comprehend what the Napoleonic legend
can do, nor the low political morality of the Continent--of Berlin
in particular. Hence they don't believe it. We have gone on for 100
years working might and main to better our condition and the
condition of people about us--the greatest effort made by the
largest number of people since the world began to further the mood
and the arts of peace. There is no other such chapter in human
history as our work for a hundred years. Yet just a hundred years
ago the Capitol at Washington was burned by--a political oligarchy
in the freest country of Europe--as damnable an atrocity as you
will find in history. The Germans are a hundred years behind the
English in political development and political morality.