Second Inaugural Address

Summary

Wilson delivered his second inaugural on 5 March 1917 from the East Portico; because 4 March fell on a Sunday, he had taken the oath privately the day before. Germany had resumed unrestricted submarine warfare on 1 February, the United States had broken diplomatic relations, and on 1 March the Zimmermann telegram, a German proposal of alliance to Mexico, had been made public. Wilson had been re-elected in November 1916 by a narrow margin over Charles Evans Hughes. Within a month he would ask Congress to declare war. The address begins by declining to review the reforms of the first term: "This is not the time for retrospect." The war, he says, has drawn the country into its current despite every wish to stay free, because Americans are "a composite and cosmopolitan people" of the blood of all the warring nations. Wronged on the seas, the nation has not wished to wrong in return. It now stands "firm in armed neutrality," may yet be drawn into "a more active assertion" of its rights, and desires "neither conquest nor advantage." The turning sentence is "We are provincials no longer." Thirty months of turmoil have made Americans citizens of the world, yet they will be more American by holding to principles that were never "the principles of a province." Wilson lists them: the equal interest of nations in peace, their equality in right, no armed balance of power, government by consent, free seas, and limited armaments. The close asks for unity. Wilson hopes the nation will be purged of faction "in God's Providence," warns against those who would turn national necessity to private profit, and calls himself the people's servant. The speech shows the principles of the later Fourteen Points taking shape on the eve of war.

Plot or Argument

• No time for retrospect

  Wilson notes the domestic reforms of 1913-1917 and declines to review them, turning instead to the present and the immediate future.

• Drawn into the current

  The European war has marked American minds, trade, and politics; the nation has been wronged at sea but has sought nothing for itself it would not ask for all mankind.

• Armed neutrality and the principles of peace

  Armed to defend a minimum of right, the country may be drawn further into the struggle; Wilson lists the principles Americans will stand for in war or in peace.

• Unity and service

  He hopes to see faction purged, warns against private profit from national necessity, calls himself the people's servant, and promises light beyond present shadows.

Lessons

• Citizens of the world, still Americans

  "We are provincials no longer" does not tell Americans to stop being American. Wilson argues they will be "the more American" by holding to principles he calls those of "a liberated mankind." Students can test whether universal principles and national loyalty strengthen or strain each other.

  • What events does Wilson say have made Americans "citizens of the world"?
  • How can a nation be bound by principles that "are not the principles of a province or of a single continent"?
  • Does Wilson's universal language make American interests clearer or harder to see?

• Armed neutrality

  Wilson describes a narrow middle path: arming to defend "a certain minimum of right" while seeking neither conquest nor advantage. The speech admits the path may fail, since the nation "may even be drawn on, by circumstances," and within five weeks it was at war.

  • What does Wilson mean by "a certain minimum of right and of freedom of action"?
  • Why does he say any deeper involvement would come "by circumstances, not by our own purpose or desire"?
  • Is armed neutrality a stable position or only a pause before decision? Use the speech and the events of March and April 1917.

• Unity without faction

  Wilson hopes the fires of the world war will purge Americans of "faction and division" and warns against anyone who would turn national necessity to "private profit." Students can ask what unity a free people may rightly be asked for in a crisis, and what disagreement it must still allow.

  • Which dangers to unity does Wilson name in the closing paragraphs?
  • Why does he call himself the people's "servant" who can succeed only with their confidence and counsel?
  • When does a call for national unity become pressure to silence disagreement?

Context

Wilson won re-election in November 1916 partly on the slogan "He kept us out of war." In January 1917 he called for a "peace without victory"; days later Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare, and on 3 February the United States broke relations. In the last days of the outgoing Congress a Senate filibuster blocked his bill to arm merchant ships. On 2 April he asked Congress for war, declared on 6 April.

Composition

Because 4 March 1917 was a Sunday, Wilson took the oath privately that day at the Capitol and repeated it publicly before delivering this address on 5 March; Chief Justice Edward Douglass White administered both. The text stored here follows the Project Gutenberg transcription (#4938).

Reception

The list of principles anticipates the Fourteen Points of January 1918 and the later League of Nations debate. The address is less quoted than the war message of 2 April but records Wilson's last inaugural statement of neutrality.

Comparisons

• First Inaugural Address

  In 1913 Wilson spoke almost entirely of domestic restoration; in 1917 he sets the domestic record aside and speaks of the world. Reading both shows how the war redirected a reform presidency.

• Third Inaugural Address

  Roosevelt in January 1941, like Wilson in March 1917, addressed a nation formally at peace while a world war widened; Roosevelt frames the stakes as the survival of democracy itself, Wilson as principles for a just peace.

• Farewell Address and Selected Letters

  Washington warned against permanent alliances and passionate attachments to foreign nations; Wilson's statement that "there can be no turning back" from world involvement marks a deliberate departure from that counsel.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The refusal to review the first term: "This is not the time for retrospect."
• The description of Americans as "of the blood of all the nations that are at war."
• The phrase "armed neutrality" and the admission that circumstances may draw the nation further in.
• The list of principles introduced as things to stand for "whether in war or in peace."

Key terms and names

Armed neutrality

Staying out of the war while arming merchant ships and forces to defend neutral rights.

Unrestricted submarine warfare

Germany's policy, resumed on 1 February 1917, of sinking ships in declared war zones without warning.

Freedom of the seas

The principle that the oceans should be open and safe for the shipping of all nations.

Balance of power

An order in which rival alliances deter one another by armed strength; Wilson says peace cannot securely rest on it.

Consent of the governed

The Declaration of Independence's principle of legitimate government, which Wilson applies to all nations.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why does Wilson decline to review the reforms of his first term?
2. Comprehension What principles does Wilson say Americans will stand for "whether in war or in peace"?
3. Interpretation How does Wilson use the mixed ancestry of Americans to explain why the war could not be ignored?
4. Interpretation What is the logical relation between "We are provincials no longer" and "we are not the less Americans"?
5. Interpretation Why might Wilson warn at this moment against men who would turn national tasks to "private profit"?
6. Big Question Should a nation's foreign policy rest on principles it claims for all mankind, or on its own interests narrowly defined?
7. Big Question Wilson hopes the war's "ardent heat" will purge faction. Does suffering more often make a people united and just, or hard and suspicious?

Faith Connections

• Micah 4:3 (Scripture)

  Micah's vision of nations beating swords into plowshares stands behind much Christian hope for peace; Wilson's call for limited armaments borrows that hope while resting it on a compact of nations rather than on the Lord's reign.

• Augustine, City of God XIX (Church Fathers)

  Augustine's account of earthly peace as real but fragile, never secure apart from the heavenly city, tempers Wilson's confidence that right principles can make peace secure.

• Kant, Perpetual Peace (1795) (Great Conversation)

  Kant's proposals for republican government, a federation of free states, and the gradual end of standing armies anticipate several of Wilson's principles and show the Enlightenment roots of the 1917 list.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The war has made Americans citizens of the world whether they wish it or not; they must therefore arm to defend a minimum of right, stand for principles of peace that apply to every nation, and unite behind a servant-leader without faction or private profit.

Rhetorical device: anaphora. The list of principles repeats "that" clauses: "that the essential principle of peace is the actual equality of nations ... that peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed balance of power."

Debate: Resolved: that armed neutrality was the wisest American policy in March 1917.

Memory Work

We are provincials no longer

My Fellow Citizens: THE four years which have elapsed since last I stood in this place have been crowded with counsel and action of the most vital interest and consequence

Writing Prompts

Essay: Using two quotations, explain how Wilson prepares Americans for possible war while still speaking as a man of peace.

Comparison with First Inaugural Address: Compare what Wilson asks of citizens in 1913 and in 1917: how has the task changed, and what remains of the reform spirit?

Medical Lens

Presidential inaugurals concern constitutional politics and national crisis; they have no medical content for this library's lens.

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Set Wilson's principles of March 1917 beside the Fourteen Points of January 1918 and mark which reappear, which change, and which vanish.

• Dialogue

  A German-American shopkeeper in Milwaukee and a New York shipping clerk whose cousin sailed on a torpedoed freighter argue over what "We are a composite and cosmopolitan people" asks of them.

• Essay

  Is Wilson's claim that "peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed balance of power" realistic? Argue from the address and one later event.

Further Reading

• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, Avalon Project / GPO

  Parallel official texts for classroom comparison.

• The Rhetorical Presidency, Jeffrey K. Tulis

  A study of how inaugural and other presidential speech reshaped the office.

• Wilson: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace, 1916-1917, Arthur S. Link

  The volume of Link's multivolume biography covering re-election, armed neutrality, and the road to war.