Colonel House to Woodrow Wilson

You have again written a declaration of human liberty.

I endorse every word of it. I am sure it is the wise, the statesmanlike and the right way to answer the Pope's peace overtures. England and France will not like some of it, notably, where on page three you say that "no peace can rest upon political or economic restrictions meant to benefit some nations and cripple others, upon vindictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge or deliberate injury".

And again on page four where you say: "Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, the establishment of selfish and economic leagues, we deem childish etc.". But you have the right of it, and are fully justified in laying down the fundamentals of a new and greater international morality. America will not and ought not to fight for the maintenance of the old, narrow and selfish order of things. You are blazing a new path, and the world must follow, or be lost again in the meshes of unrighteous intrigue.

I am cabling Balfour expressing my personal hope that England, France and Italy will accept your answer as also theirs. I am, with an abiding affection,