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

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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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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Poem ~ Sussex Pledge Broken - Wednesday, 7 March 1917- Thursday, 8 March 1917

Source: File: torpedoed Cross-channel ferry Sussex at Boulogne, March 1916. The entire forepart of the ship was destroyed in the attack. See an original image at: <http://study.com/academy/lesson/sussex-pledge-definition-lesson.html> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Within hours of the Laconia's loss, survivor

Reporter Floyd Gibbons of Chicago Tribune,

Composed his account of certain night, February

25 1917 - over the next few days newspaper

Debates expressed American opinions.

Only 11 months before a diplomatic crisis 

Had threatened America's neutrality; German
UB 29 in a grave error of judgment, had attacked 
What was believed to be a Mine Sweeper - 
A daily passenger ferry left Folkestone.

The situation at sea had seen declared

War zones; German frustrations at land-war

Stalemate turned towards the sea - from 1916

Unrestricted U Boat policy of attacks were

Made against shipping, though restricted.

The Lusitania that had been torpedoed

In May 1915 had initially riled America with

The deaths of 128 Americans - in order to pacify

USA, Germany curbed U-boat attacks; armed

Merchant ships again valid targets by 1916.

March 1916 the Sussex carried civilians;

Being a cross channel ferry sighted by UB 29

Believed to be a mine layer the ferry was targeted.

The Sussex did not sink yet damage was heavy;

Amid the 80 casualties were 25 Americans.

President Woodrow Wilson's reaction

Was a threat to cut off all diplomacy with

Germany - actions were swift to Wilson's angry

April speech - on 4 May came a promise

With Germany's 'Sussex Pledge.'

The Sussex Pledge promised that no

Passenger ships would be targeted - while

Merchant ships would only be sunk; after being

Searched for weaponry passengers and crew

Would be made safe - rescinded by 1917.

Germany confidently believed that

They might win the war swiftly by an act

At sea, whereby unrestricted warfare would
Defeat allied forces, before any chance

Of the USA joining in conflict.

The Laconia attack sparked debate,

As daily American newspapers endorsed

The Governments view, to see the Laconia

Sinking as an overt act - such event

Were changing opinions in USA.

Tuesday 27 February an address

Made by President Wilson saw mixed

Reactions, about ambiguous nature of armed

Neutrality; 'peace at all costs' had then

Been the central policy of USA.

President Woodrow Wilson, along

With legal advisor Robert Lansing, met

To confer how blatantly Germany had gone

Against their word of the 'Sussex Pledge,'

Resulting in a new congress policy.

A quote from the New York Times

Called on all Americans to defend their

Liberties of the nation - a right to sail the seas

Securely and without risk - any surrender

Would show a nation lacking courage.

Debates in arming of American shipping

Were yet to be tested - to stretch the mind

How America might enter a war centered purely 

In Europe - President Wilson believed only

An invasion of the US would cause war.

Only time might tell any future 
Direction; in the meantime all American

Consular officers, along with all diplomats,

Started a process of leaving Austria,

Breaking with the central powers.

At the foot of America on Mexican 

Border, stretching from Tijuana across

To Brownsville, had been brewing a line

Of adversity - although regarding war

The country shared USA neutrality.

Mexico itself was in the throws

Of lengthy revolution - with strained

Politics openly made the hispanic country

An ideal sideline for German intent -

To entice Venustiano Carranza.

The President of Mexico held key

To deflect the USA; the Zimmerman

Telegram decoded message had revealed

German intent to restart their submarine

Warfare, to curtail 'Sussex Pledge.'

Ideal was that America remained

Neutral - if this did not happen then

Germany proposed a Mexico alliance -

The carrot being financial support

For regaining all lost territories.

Arizona, Texas and New Mexico taken

In the 1848 Mexican cession in the treaty

Of Guadalupe Hidalgo; von Eckardt was given

Free reign to gain Mexico as an ally,
By a settlement to retake territory.

Von Eckardt instructions was to distract 

President's attention; that in a few months

England would be compelled to make peace.

'Make war together make peace together,'

Was motto of an alliance with Mexico.

Although the telegram kept options

Open, von Eckardt was requested to use

His initiative; also to mediate some agreement

With Japan, who was then fighting alongside

The allied powers; signed Zimmerman.

Strains of mutual dislike lay all around;

America was anti Mexican, with element

Of anti British - with anti Germany in Mexico

Was anti America - German held hopes

For a Mexico-American war to break.

So a scene was set - with the 'Sussex

Pledge' trashed, to see by start of March
Defensive arms to be carried by American ships.

A direct result of overt act; diplomacy ties

With Germany fell - time might tell.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: US Department Of State: American Entry into World War I, 1917. Available at: <https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/82205.htm> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: Wikipedia: Sussex Pledge. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_pledge> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: The First World War, East Sussex. The Sussex Pledge. Available at: <http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk/the-sussex-pledge/> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

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Poem ~ America: Ready for War - Wednesday, 17 May 1916

Source: File: 150 000 Americans march past the New York Public Library in the, lets get ready to fight, parade. [online] See an original image at: <https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/4j65k6/150_000_americans_march_past_the_new_york_public/?> [Accessed: 17 May 2016]

From across the pond

In the city of New York,

A parade overtook streets,

In estimated numbers -

To reach some 150,000

People from all walks.

In unity they marched,

Looked on by a million

New Yorkers - to number

24 abreast - the streets

Filled by stars and stripes.

The procession took

Some hours to pass on

Its way, to declare a virtual

Holiday - the thoughts

Behind the spectacle

Was call 'Ready For War.'

The American people

Had by knowledge of

Europe’s war, realised

Their country had lacked

Defence of aggressors,

From any foreign lands.

A people's movement

Had acted, to prompt

USA's President Wilson

To listen - with Congress

Taking note to concerns

To defend Americans.

Representatives and

Senate agreed to form

A bill - in time of peace,

An army of defensive

To be 25,000 militia

And 206,000 regulars.

With all the windows

Of Fifth Avenue taken,

And banners flying, stars

and stripes flagged

out a unified message;

America, Ready For War?

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. Preparedness for War - Huge New York Demonstration. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 8 May 1916. P.10. Col.1. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12210082/Daily-Telegraph-May-15-1916.html>  [Accessed: 17 May 2016].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 17 May 2016). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12210082/Daily-Telegraph-May-15-1916.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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Poem ~ Pretence Of Peace - Wednesday, 10 May - Thursday, 11 May 1916

Impression sketch of President Thomas Woodrow Wilson - by Jamie. [online] See original image at: <https://kentuckypress.wordpress.com/2015/05/07/remembering-the-rms-lusitania-and-its-impact-on-america-during-world-war-i/> [Accessed: 10 May 2016]

The detailed telegraph broadsheet,

Provided 6th day of 39th

Week, in the second year of war.

Battles of Verdun, alongside Italian

Front, together with arrest

Of Russian General Sukhomlinoff.

Beside Court Martial on Irish Rebels

While 'Power to Win,'

Is discussed by Mr Lloyd George.

In the column squeezed between

These story headings of war,

Was the faint suggestion of peace.

Under an American report from

Washington USA, were

15 lines in talk of German peace.

6 May, a Saturday, told of lengthy

Report of Berlin situation

To Mr James Gerard, US diplomat.

Acting as Ambassador to Berlin,

Gerard informed state

Department of German peace note.

The talk in Germany was a move

Towards idea of peace;

As Kaiser looked to US as mediator.

Seeking negotiations with the allies,

The notion of peace

In their note was not without purpose.

President Woodrow Wilson wanted

To see himself as mediator,

In a treaty of status quo ante vellum.

For a state existing before the war,

Wilson sent Colonel House

To Europe to find a peace avenue.

May 1916, Wilson set to gain states

To accept US mediation,

For a post war security organisation.

Too many factors stood against

The concepts - each side

Stuck in long standing system.

Both sides believed their greater

Force to win - both sides

Had insecurities and uncertainties.

Germany intended to split allies,

By offering peace, while

British considered a great July plan.

A massive offence about Somme

Against Germany, would

Surely smash their enemy down.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. Talk Of Peace From Germany - An American Report. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 8 May 1916. P.9. Col.5. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12209758/Daily-Telegraph-May-8-1916.html>  [Accessed: 11 May 2016].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 11 May 2016). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12209758/Daily-Telegraph-May-8-1916.html

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Poem ~ The Acona Event - Monday 15 November 1915

Source: File: SS Ancona.jpeg, [online] An original image can be seen at: <http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?134717> [Accessed: 11 November 2015].

With one more unrepentent blow

At sea, another effect started to grow

Amid the opinions of American people -

This came on top of murder of Cavell,

By German execution and Lusitania

Sinking from six months before.

The SS Ancona was built in Ireland,

Operated in Genoa, by Italian Steamers

Navigation Society as a passenger liner.

Stopping at Messina, on the toe of Italy,

The liner took on more passengers -

To leave Sunday evening, 5 p.m.

With 163 crew, out a total of 446

Aboard, the Ancona began her voyage.

By Monday 8 November to sail south East

Of Sardinia by Cape Carbonara - under

The lead of Captain Massardo - varied

nationalities included Americans.

Among the cargo, entrusted to a civil

Servant, was a shipment of silver and

12 trunks of gold - believed to be intended

To purchase arms for Italy - as morning

Moved on an explosion hit the sea -

Some twenty yards from the ship.

At the same time a submarine shape

Was spotted, several kilometers distant -

The Ancona was steaming as the German

Boat gave chase - although it was flying

Austrian flag - shells were being fired

To destroy the onboard wireless.

The passengers were thrown

into panic - the time was closing

Towards 1p.m. as boats were lowered -

With the Ancona moving, the first

boat capsized and they fell into

Water - all to be drowned.

The second boat touched water,

Only to be hit by a torpedo - the third

Lowered, during which several people fell

Overboard; still the firing continued until

finally the Ancona halted at rest - then

Came the submarine at 200 yards.

From prow to stern, shells had then

Peppered the boat - Captain Massardo

Rushed through the Ancona, still to find

Some 30 aboard - he ordered the last

Boat down with rest of the crew, final

Passengers and the 2nd officer.

Captain Massardo stood on deck,

As the submarine with Austrian flag,

Fired a torpedo, he awaited the shock which

Struck; to leaving a gaping hole - Ancona

Began inevitable movements down -

Another enemy flag was hoisted.

The steamer lurched and prompted

Captain and his first officer begin a climb

Down, by use of a cable, towards the sea -

But as the ship rose they were forced

To jump - they made it to a lifeboat,

To aid others as the Ancona sank.

American reactions to Captain's

Account, caused a perception, from

Fact that the Ancona came under attack,

Without any warning - silence cracked

By protests, with the New York Times

To exclaim downright murder.

Outrage was fueled by fact 

That some Americans had been

On board the SS Ancona - President

Maintained neutrality - this was

Strained by people and press,

Echoed by a dinner speaker.

Joseph Hodges Choate, who had

Once been an ambassador in Britain,

Made it known, despite the Government

Stance, he totally supported the allies -

Fighting against 'barbaric atrocities' -

The US had given one warning.

In the event of the Lusitania case,

Washington had spelt out a promise -

That such persistent German deeds would

Be considered intended acts of hostility -

If Austrian or a German disguise - that

Warning stood as quoted by a paper -

USA patience was not limitless.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915 American Patience - 'Not Inexhaustable'. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 15 November. P.10. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11994274/Daily-Telegraph-November-15-1915.html [Accessed: 15 November 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 15 November 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11994274/Daily-Telegraph-November-15-1915.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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