Even when the German submarines had sunk the "Lusitania" and drowned over 1000 Americans, President Wilson did not take any action beyond practically asking Germany to frame any "old excuse." He was a man of peace. He seemed to have forgotten that the foundations of the U.S.A. were carved with a sword, and that Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence was militant and resistant. "For the support of this declaration," he wrote, "we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
President Wilson had previously informed the Allies that he was "too proud to fight," so when the message requesting the terms of peace came through Wilson, the Allies received it in a cold and formal fashion.
There are some phrases in the world's history that will live for ever. There is Kitchener's reply to General Cronje in the Boer War: "Not a minute"—there is Nelson's immortal message on the "Victory" of "England expects——"; so the reply of the Allies to America will long endure:—
"They who conquer can dictate the terms of peace."
Next day Germany and Austria pleaded for cessation of war.
Within fifteen months a world's war had begun and ended, and the events at its close had moved as swiftly as those at its beginning.
CHAPTER XVIII.
A Campaign of Errors.
So the Great War had ended.