Stephen Samuel Wise to Woodrow Wilson

Free Synagogue,
New York City

My dear Mr. President
I am moved by your message of April 2nd to the Congress and the American people to pioint out what of course you clearly understand -- how regrettable it is that there should be any element of discord among the American people, which makes impossible a unanimous support of our Government in its decision on behalf of the American people to co-operate with the Allied Peoples. I have in mind the altogether explicable attitude of those elements of the American population, which cannot reconcile the British championship of democracy the world over with the facts that onbtain touching the denial of self-government to the Irish people. I venture to ask the question whether this were not an opportune time to appeal in such a way as may commend itself to you to the British Government to do that which the best thought of the Britain has long been prepared to do, - namely, to accord home rule to the Irish people. Such an act at this time on the part of Great Britain would not merely answer the question touching Britain's right to stand out as the champion of smaller and oppressed nationalities, would not only end disaffection among the Irish people as well as compose the unrest which obtains among the Irish elements of the American people, but would, like the self-liberation of Russia, justify anew the position taken by you on behalf of our country, that we are battling for the freedom and democracy of the peoples of earth.

Have we not by our entry into the war, not for profit and not for conquest, but in order to serve and to liberate, have we not earned the right to speak in the terms of understanding and comradeship to the heads of the British Government? Has not the recent action of the Cuban Government shown forth how true it is that “nobleness enkindleth nobleness,” and that an act of justice on the part of the British Government at this time, though unhappily belated, would give a new meaning and a new dignity to the warfare of the Allied Peoples, including our own, for the liberation of those people whose freedom is yet to be achieved.
It is not treuue that the leadership of the British Government is such as to offer every reason for confidence that it will be prepared to solve this problem in the spirit of statesmanship and magnanimity, knowing that no sacrifice is too great to be made upon the altar of national unity and to the end of regaining the complete loyalty of a great and long-wronged people? All men know how deeply you are concerned with the hope of freedom for the lesser peoples, how real is your passion for freedom for all nations. You have led the way with such high wisdom that you have earned, as no man of our day and generation, the right to set forth, in the terms of friendship to an allied nation, the wisdom and rightfulness of an act which would do more than aught else to unite the peoples of Great Britain and all the groupings of the American people in an irresistible struggle for the precious things of democracy and self-determination.
I belong to a people, who, for centuries, have known the meaning and burden of this struggle. Every liberty-loving and liberty-seeking people has a peculiar place in the sympathy of my own people, which hail with unique joy your message to the Congress of the United States, destined to become a Magna Charta for all the peoples and races of earth.

Faithfully yours,
Stephen S. Wise