Stephen Samuel Wise

“ Our appeal is to America at its highest. The America of Washington and Lincoln, of Roosevelt and Wilson -- the America of Lexington and Gettysburg and Château-Thierry --- the America of noblest vision and faith and great illusion. If the League of Nations be not helped by America to come to pass, it is not President Wilson who will have been defeated, but America -- not America, but the world -- not mankind alone, but mankind's hope of peace and justice. ”

“ But for moral leadership of mankind which we have abdicated for a time, we would and we shall reclaim. It shall not be brought to pass but all of these services and sacrifices are to be forgotten by Europe and that nothing will be remembered of America, save but at the last moment we shrank from an imperative duty which it was the part of courage and nobleness to accept. As Americans, we have the right to demand that the presidential election of next November be forgotten for a moment, and the world's need of peace and healing be remembered for more than a moment. ”

“ The achievements of the President, his great services, the unequalled clarity and power with which he molded and applied the ideals of America -- all these things many of my fellow Americans for a time seem, alas, to forget. The real difficulty of the situation has been that the President thinks straight, that he is an honest man, that he does not resort to political subterfuge, that he will not indulge in political equivocation, and the President is blamed on these grounds. ”