tecision 



The Days of a Man [1917 



Milholland handed me a note stating that Mr. Wilson 

 had formally pronounced in favor of war. I read it 

 aloud, but added that the United States was not 

 actually at war until Congress should so declare. 

 The Presi- The President's address, read evidently under great 

 stress of feeling and now become historic, was deliv- 

 ered at the earliest possible moment in order to 

 support a Joint Resolution declaring war against 

 Germany which had been introduced only a few 

 hours before by Senator Martin of Virginia. As 

 amended by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, it 

 was next day reported to the Senate by Hitchcock of 

 Nebraska (the chairman, Stone of Missouri, appar- 

 ently declining to act) and adopted by that body, in 

 due season also by the House of Representatives. 1 

 It read as follows: 



DECLARING THAT A STATE OF WAR EXISTS BETWEEN THE IMPE- 

 RIAL GERMAN GOVERNMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT AND THE 

 PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES AND MAKING PROVISIONS TO 

 PROSECUTE THE SAME 



Whereas the Imperial German Government has committed 

 repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of 

 the United States of America: Therefore be it 



Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 

 United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state 

 of war between the United States and the Imperial German Gov- 

 ernment which has thus been thrust upon the United States is 

 hereby formally declared; and that the President be, and he is 

 hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and 



1 Six adverse votes were recorded in the Senate, these being cast by Gronna, 

 La Follette, Lane, Norris, Stone, and Vardaman. The terms of some of the other 

 "willful" Senators of March 3 Clapp, O'Gorman, and Works had expired 

 on March 4. Senator Kenyon, one of the three remaining representatives of this 

 group, explained his vote in a speech to which I listened; the President having 

 spoken, the Senate had no recourse save to follow, as Congress must present " an 



