1. The morality of individuals is the same for people and nations.
2. The ideal of brotherly love has no limit.
3. All life must be duly respected.
4. Human rights are the same for one and all.
5. Love of country coincides with love of humanity.
Such principles and such a definition of patriotism were upheld by the makers and preservers of America, at the greatest cost of treasure and life, and they are the life-interest of every one worthy of the name American. It moved Bishop J. P. Newman to say of Lincoln in his anniversary oration of 1894, “Lincoln’s mission was as large as his country, vast as humanity, enduring as time. No greater thought can ever enter the human mind than obedience to law and freedom for all.... Time has vindicated the character of his statesmanship, that to preserve the Union was to save this great nation for human liberty.”
American faith has at last come to the conditions when it can realize itself in fulfilling the moral work of the world. That vision came into full view during the Great European War.
President Wilson, in his address to Congress, April 2, 1917, said:
“We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong shall be observed among nations and their Governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states.”
Congress acted upon this reaffirmation of the responsibility of Americans and the mission of America. Concerning the monstrous invasion of humanity and ruthless denial of international law, he said:
“Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic Governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances.”
The Way of Peace, as the morality of democracies, he clearly defined, so that even the worst prejudice could not becloud the issue with irrelevant or contradictory assertions.
“A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic Government could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must be a league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plotters of inner circles who could plan what they would and render account to no one would be a corruption seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.”