The Spectator

The Spectator at war: President Wilson’s mistake

From ‘President Wilson’s Mistake’, The Spectator, 27 March 1915:

President Wilson’s attitude can only be described as a tragedy. We do not believe that there was a man more determined than he was when he entered office to conduct his administration on moral lines, and to show the world that morality and politics are not incompatible, and that cynicism need not really be the rule for statesmen. Alas for the President that he did not follow his own natural instinct for the right instead of his reason. It would never have betrayed him. Instead, it would have led him on the road which he really wants to travel. It would not in the least have risked involving him or his country in war, and he would have gone down to history as the man who kept his country at peace while at the same time he had the courage to speak out in the name of the Republic on the side of right and justice.

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