Woodrow Wilson: Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War against Germany

Woodrow Wilson's Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War against Germany, delivered to a joint session of Congress on April 2, 1917, asked the legislature to recognize that a state of war existed between the United States and Germany. In addition to Congress, Wilson directed his speech to the American people, offering a rationale as to why the United States must enter the conflict. Notably, Wilson called for a war to make the world “safe for democracy.” This idealistic declaration set the United States apart from the other warring nations, which fought for specific territorial goals they had outlined in secret treaties with one another. Wilson’s address met with strong congressional approval. On April 6 he signed the war resolution that Congress drafted and passed in the wake of his speech, thereby leading his country into World War I.

One could argue that World War I formally began on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Throughout the previous month, the European continent had experienced ever-increasing tension owing to the assassination of the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand by Serbian nationalists on June 28. Within days of the Austrian move, Germany had declared war on Russia and France, England had declared war on Germany, and Austria had declared war on Russia. By 1915 two major alliances were locked in deadly embrace: the Allies (the major powers being England, France, Russia, and Italy) and the Central powers (the major powers being Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire). On August 19, 1914, President Wilson delivered his Message on Neutrality, calling upon Americans to be “impartial in thought as well as in action,” by which he meant that, regardless of their sentiments, they should keep the interests of the United States primary in their thinking.

For several years Wilson preserved his nation's neutrality and indeed sought to mediate the conflict. His task was made most difficult by German U-boat sinking of Allied ships carrying American passengers and goods and by a British blockade that involved seizures of American ships and goods, confiscation of American mail, and a blacklist of American firms doing business with the Central powers. On May 4, 1916, in what was known as the Sussex pledge (named after a passenger ferry that had been torpedoed by the Germans in the English Channel), Germany announced it would no longer sink Allied merchant ships without warning. Furthermore, in any such attack at sea, it would attempt to save human lives, unless the besieged ship sought to escape or offer resistance. At the same time, Germany said it would resume submarine warfare if the Allies refused to respect international law, which in effect meant that the Allies had to lift their blockade of food and raw materials bound for the Central powers.

Affairs remained in uneasy tension until February 1, 1917, when Germany announced that it was renewing unrestricted submarine assaults against all shipping—neutral as well as Allied. Germany's leadership acted on the assumption that by this action it could defeat England within several months, certainly before any American intervention could come to the rescue. By March 21 German U-boats had sunk five American merchant ships. On March 1 the U.S. State Department released the Zimmermann Telegram to the press; in this cable the German foreign secretary suggested to Mexico that they form a military alliance against the United States. After great introspection, particularly acute during the period March 12 to 20, Wilson delivered his Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War against Germany.