Poem ~ War Speech - Saturday, 7 April 1917 - Monday, 9 April 1917

Source: File: President Woodrow Wilson asking Congress to declare war on Germany, 2 April 1917. See an original image at: <http://historylearning.com/american-politics/president-and-congress/> [Accessed 07 April 2017]

A serious cloud hung above the two assemblies

Of United States Congress, who were called

To a session 2 April 1917 with formalised

Decisions to make; Mr Champ Clark was speaker.

President Wilson paced, impatient to give his

Address; he would not wait until morning

3 April, though he informed the house

Preparations would not be ready before 7 p.m.

A president had never before made any address

To congress in the evening - Wilson

Made insistence for a chosen hour as

8.00 p.m. - in Britain this would be the early hours.

On entering the grand chamber President

Wilson made a heavy step to podium

And looked about the array of alert

Members - the time had approached 8.30 p.m.

Without any further ceremony, the grave speaker

Began to advise Congress of reluctant

Reasons to follow severed relations

With Germany - Woodrow Wilson read his paper.

Explanation was for an extraordinary session,

Due to the serious nature of immediate

Policy to be put into place - a decision

That President Wilson could not take alone.

Events stemmed from 3 February, to follow

From 1 February, when imperial

Germany laid aside all restraints

To sink any vessel about European Ports.

This applied to all Irish, British, and Western

Europe or Mediterranean ports;

Restraint from April 1916, had given

Warnings and exemptions to all civilian boats.

President went on to explain how even those

Hospital ships carrying wounded,

Despite an identification by ensign

Or flag, were being sunk without compassion.

A quiet congress listened to expectant words,

Spoken by a president that had

Sought peace, tell of German

Policy devoid of restriction to all sea users.

A picture was built; 'Warfare against mankind' -

Wilson advised against excitement

At the deaths of non combatants,

And American lives lost by submarine attacks.

German submarine actions had devolved

All discrimination for neutral

Nations - revenge should not be

Motivation, but vindication of human rights.

A statement unfolded to the quiet listeners

Who had already guessed

The speaker’s conclusion:

To add constitutional duty for mobilisation.

The United States of America would move

To cooperation with those other

Governments at war with Germany,

To organise and add to their war resources.

Naval equipment would be openly supplied.

Recruitment of 500,000 universal

Able men to be trained, ready

For the time when they might be needed.

President Wilson added his clarification

To vindicate need for world peace

And justice against all autocratic

Powers, not against the German people.

With structure of a speech, Wilson reiterated

By employment of persuasion,

In emphasis and repetition,

To draw his purpose and final conclusions.

By argument of examples President

Wilson pertained the objective

Of a nation - to express personal

Distress of America's future sacrifices.

War that existed already recognised to be

Seen as disastrous, yet civilisation

Hung in balance: the rights of free

People would ultimately create world peace.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1917. Declaration By President Wilson - A State Of War - Address to Congress. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 3 April 1917. P.5. Col.4. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214427/Daily-Telegraph-April-3-1917.html> [Accessed: 07 April 2017].

Source: File: Wilson's War Message To Congress. Available at: <https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wilson%27s_War_Message_to_Congress> [Accessed 07 April 2017]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 07 April 2017). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214427/Daily-Telegraph-April-3-1917.html

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Poem ~ Broken Isolationism - Monday, 12 March 1917 - Thursday, 15 March 1917

Source: File: Woodrow Wilson is sworn in to his second term as President of the United States by Chief Justice Edward Douglass White. See an original image at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WilsonInauguration1917.jpg> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Sunday 4 March 1917, the day

President Wilson made an oath

To enter a second term in post.

Entering a more somber period

Of his presidency - expectancy

Awaited an inaugural speech.

The talk centered around an

'Armed Neutrality Bill,' when

President Wilson would gain

Powers, to arm all merchant

Vessels, against the piracy

Being carried out by Germany.

96 members of the senate

Saw total of 83 supporting

Moves to armed neutrality -

For all intent and purposes

America was acting out war,

As seen in correspondence.

While from reliable sources

Representatives, Senators

Any kind of declaration lay

In the hands of congress;

The Representatives house

Of 416 votes saw 403 united.

They favoured 'Armed Ship

Bill,' to note how events

And the timing of, perhaps

Declaring war, had become

Shadowed by fact in armed

Ships, making a declaration.

An isolationism that USA

Had maintained for more

Than two years had altered,

After a German submarine

Covered the great distance

Of sailing the Atlantic ocean.

A new reality had been born,

To show how United States of

America was part of the world.

Overriding the people's beliefs

In refraining from any meddling

In European continent's affairs.

With the revealed plot aimed

Towards USA - to set attempts

To utilize Japanese forces on

An Mexican platform, intent

To invade American soil - akin

To the 1914 Belgium invasion.

A German telegram effectively

Declared themselves as enemy

To the USA, sentiments were

Swiftly stirred to fight on allies

Side - rather than to fight as a

Completely separate nation.

The propaganda machine

Of Germany within the USA

Reached a crossroads - they

Could not deny discovery

Of the German plot - though

Newspapers attempted a ploy.

New Yorker, Staats-Zeitung

And Gaelic American, gave

The idea to their readers that

The Zimmermann Note was

In fact an English forgery,

Planted to create conflict.

Flying in the face of Berlin,

Admissions and sentiments

Inflamed a majority among

People of America, which

Awaited Vienna’s response

In supporting Germany.

Yet the feeling of situation

Being all out of proportion

To lay in a certain minority -

If memebers in the senate

Might block the bill, Woodrow

Wilson could override them.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Second Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson. Yale Law School - The Avalon Project. Available at: <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson2.asp> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Source: File: U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: Woodrow Wilson. Available at: <https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/inaugurations/wilson/index.html> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Source: File: The Washington times., March 05, 1917, Complete Afternoon Edition, Image 1. Available at: <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1917-03-05/ed-1/seq-1/> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

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