Five-minute digest
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.
Top 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.
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.
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.
Verified Quotes
Frequently cited
“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”
“Perhaps no equal period in our history has been so fruitful of important reforms in our economic and industrial life or so full of significant changes in the spirit and purpose of our political action”
“It is a record of singular variety and singular distinction”
“It speaks for itself and will be of increasing influence as the years go by”
“We are a composite and cosmopolitan people”
“We stand firm in armed neutrality since it seems that in no other way we can demonstrate what it is we insist upon and cannot forget”
“We desire neither conquest nor advantage”
Medical Lens
Presidential inaugurals concern constitutional politics and national crisis; they have no medical content for this library's lens.