The Spirit of Washington
President Wilson's answer to Hertling.
"Woodrow Wilson is in no sense a herald. The revolution
of betrayed idealism has been in progress for more than a
century, and in the last decade particularly there has been
steady assault upon evil and outworn institutions. These passionate gropings
of the spirit in the direction of ideals professed and not practised
have merely lacked great leadership and authoritative expression. This
is what Woodrow Wilson gives. He comes as a leader, as a nucleating
force, as a clear, rallying cry to the almost mystic passions that are peculiarly
the dominant note of the day. He fits the need of the bloodless
revolution as skin fits the hand, bringing purpose and courage to the
struggle for nobler fulfilment of the hopes and aspirations that thrilled
those who first sought refuge in the New World from the oppressions
of the Old—the struggle for real democracy."
—From George Creel's "Wilson and the Issues."
