Melancthon W. Jacobus to Woodrow Wilson

The heart of every true American has gone out to you for the magnificent stand you have taken in the leadership of this people through the great ordeal it is facingI could have said this in a telegram: but I wanted to say it in a letter, for I want to add to it something which, with increasing power, has been pressing upon me in these months.
For the last three hundred years Humanity has been making its quest for political liberty, and it seems as though this was coming now to its full realization.
For this century past Humanity has been in search for human solidarity, and there is evidence abundant of how well it has succeeded in its effort.
But unless Humanity is through with its ideals and Civilization has nothing more to adventure, there is one other quest upon which we must enter, and if I do not mistake the signs of the times, it is the quest for authority; for without authority political liberty and human solidarity will disintegrate and disappearWhat kind of authority are we to find?Confronted as we are on the battlefields of Europe with the breakdown of the greatest assertion of human authority the world has ever seen, we are saying to ourselves we must put in its place the authority of the people - human Government - Democracy.
But I do not need to assure you that Democracy is safe only as it is Christian Democracy, and as Christianity reminded Civilization that there could be no political liberty without religious liberty - and, as a result, we had the Pilgrim Fathers – and again reminded Civilization that there could be no human solidarity without human sympathy – and, as a consequence, we are realizing to day the brotherhood of man, so it must say now to Civilization that there can be no authority that will hold together the freedom and the brotherhood we have secured, unless it be an authority caught up into the authority of the justice and the righteousness of God and, as such, taken into human lives and expressed in human GovernmentThat is the quest upon which the peoples of the world have entered. May God bless you in what you are doing to lead them to its realization – The life of America is behind you to the end -