end the present war. We are that much nearer the discussion of the
international concert which must thereafter hold the world at peace.

In every discussion of the peace that must end this war it is taken
for granted that that peace must be followed by some definite concert
of power which will make it virtually impossible that any such
catastrophe should ever overwhelm us again. Every lover of mankind,
every sane and thoughtful man, must take that for granted.

I have sought this opportunity to address you because I thought that
I owed it to you, as the council associated with me in the final
determination of our international obligations, to disclose to you,
without reserve, the thought and purpose that have been taking form in
my mind in regard to the duty of our Government in these days to come
when it will be necessary to lay afresh and upon a new plan the
foundations of peace among the nations.


DECLARES PEACE IS NOT FAR OFF

It is inconceivable that the people of the United States should play
no part in that great enterprise. To take part in such a service will
be the opportunity for which they have sought to prepare themselves by
the very principles and purposes of their polity and the approved
practices of their Government, ever since the days when they set up a
new nation in the high and honorable hope that it might in all that it
was and did show mankind the way to liberty.

They cannot, in honor, withhold the service to which they are now
about to be challenged. They do not wish to withhold it. But they owe