First World War CentennialFirst World War Centennial

Chapter III: Before The United States Senate: Addresses in the United States by M. René Viviani and Marshal Joffre

III

BEFORE THE UNITED STATES SENATE

SUNDAY, APRIL 29TH

SINCE I have been granted the supreme honour of speaking before the representa­tives of the American people, may I ask them first to allow me to thank this magnificent capital for the welcome it has accorded us. Ac­customed as we are in our own free land to popular manifestations, and though we had been warned by your fellow countrymen who live in Paris of the enthusiasm burning in your hearts, we are still full of the emotions raised by the sights that awaited us. I shall never cease to see the proud and stalwart men who saluted our passage; your women, whose grace adds fresh beauty to your city, their arms outstretched full of flowers, and your children, hurrying to meet us at the call of their masters as if our coming were looked upon as a lesson for them, all with one accord acclaiming in our perishable persons immortal France. And yet I predict there will be a yet grander mani­festation on the day when your illustrious Presi­dent, relieved from the burden of power, shall come among us, bearing the salute of the Re­public of the United States to a free Europe, whose foundations from end to end shall be based on Right. It is with unspeakable emotion that we crossed the threshold of this legislative palace, where prudence and boldness meet, and that I for the first time in the annals of America, though a foreigner, speak in this hall which only a few days since resounded with words of virile force. You have set all the democracies of the world the most magnificent of examples. So soon as the common peril was made manifest to you, with simplicity and within a few short days, you voted a formidable war credit and proclaimed that a formidable army was to be raised. The commentary on his acts which President Wilson gave before acting, and which you made yours, remains in the history of free peoples the weightiest of lessons. Doubtless you were resolved to avenge the insults offered your flag, which the whole world respected: doubtless through the thickness of these massive walls the mournful cry of all the victims whom criminal hands hurled into the depths of the sea, has reached and stirred your souls: but it will be your honour in history that you also heard the cry of humanity, and invoked against autocracy the rights of democracies. And I can only wonder as I speak, what, if they still have any power to think, are the thoughts of the autocrats who. three years ago against us, three months ago against you, unchained this conflict. Ah! doubt­less they said among themselves that a democracy is merely an ideal government that showers re­forms on mankind, that can in the domain of labour quicken all economic activities but that from a military point of view is impotent. And yet now we see the French Republic fighting efficiently in defence of its territory and the liberty of nations and opposing to the avalanche let loose by Prussian militarism, the union of all its children, who are still capable of striking many a weighty blow. And now we see England, far removed like you from conscription, who has also, by virtue of a discipline all accept, raised from her soil millions of fighting men. And we see other nations ac­complishing the same act; and that liberty can not only inflame all hearts, but can coordinate and bring into being all needed efforts. And now we see all America rise and sharpen her weapons in the midst of peace for the common struggle. Together we will carry on that struggle. And when by force we have at last imposed military victory, our labours will not be concluded. Our task will be, I quote the noble words of President Wilson, to organize the Society of Nations. I well know that the gibes of our enemies, who have never seen before them anything but horizons of carnage, will never cease to jeer at so noble a dream. Such has always been the fate of ideas at their birth; and if thinkers and men of action had allowed themselves to be dis­couraged by sceptics, mankind would still be in its infancy, and we should still be slaves. After material victory we will win this moral victory. We will shatter the ponderous sword of militarism: we will establish guarantees for peace; and then we can disappear from the world's stage since we shall leave at the cost of our common immolation the noblest heritage future generations can possess.