Woodrow Wilson, Speech, September 5, 1919
When
you read Article X, therefore, you will see that it is nothing but the
inevitable, logical center of the whole system of the Covenant of the League of
Nations, and I stand for it absolutely. If it should ever in any important
respect be impaired, I would feel like asking the Secretary of War to get the
boys who went across the water to fight, . . . and I would stand up before them
and say, Boys, I told you before you went across the seas that this was a war
against wars, and I did my best to fulfill the promise, but I am obliged to
come to you in mortification and shame and say I have not been able to fulfill
the promise. You are betrayed. You have fought for something that you did not
get.