Woodrow Wilson , 1919 (Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs digital ID cph.3f06247.)
President Woodrow Wilson “Fourteen Points” address to Congress (January 8, 1918)
What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The programme of the world’s peace, therefore, is our programme; and that programme, the only possible programme, as we see it, is this:
Source: Avalon Project-Yale law School
This speech outlining Wilson’s 14 point peace plan, was made after a Paris Peace Conference aimed at ending what would become known as World War I and introduced the idea of a League of Nations. (Point 14)
XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.
The Treaty of Versailles, ending the war, codified these points and would have crested the League. It was rejected by the United States Senate in 1919, shortly after Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke.
For his peace-making efforts, Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.
