.jpg?w=1)
Details
WILSON, Woodrow. Typed draft Proclamation signed ("Woodrow Wilson"), as President, Washington, 8 September 1914. 1 page, 4to, five holograph additions.
"TAKING PITY ON THE NATIONS NOW IN THE THROES OF CONFLICT," WILSON PROCLAIMS A DAY OF PRAYER FOR PEACE
One month into the cataclysmic world war that "now draws millions of men into battle," Wilson corrects this draft Proclamation, most likely drawn up by his pacifist and deeply religious Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. In one crucial change Wilson alters the summons to "all Christians" to the more ecumenical "all God Fearing persons": "I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do designate Sunday, the fourth day of October next, a day of prayer and supplication and do request all God fearing persons to repair on that day to their places of worship there to unite their petitions to Almighty God that, overruling the counsel of men, setting straight the things they cannot govern or alter, taking pity on the nations now in the throes of conflict, in His mercy and goodness showing a way where men can see none, He vouchsafe His children healing peace again and restore once more that concord among men and nations without which there can be neither happiness nor true friendship nor any wholesome fruit of toil or thought in the world..." The fervent religious language of this draft strongly suggests Bryan's authorship. A committed pacifist, he resigned as Secretary of State in 1915 when he deemed Wilson's protest of the Lusitania sinking too provocative.
"TAKING PITY ON THE NATIONS NOW IN THE THROES OF CONFLICT," WILSON PROCLAIMS A DAY OF PRAYER FOR PEACE
One month into the cataclysmic world war that "now draws millions of men into battle," Wilson corrects this draft Proclamation, most likely drawn up by his pacifist and deeply religious Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. In one crucial change Wilson alters the summons to "all Christians" to the more ecumenical "all God Fearing persons": "I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do designate Sunday, the fourth day of October next, a day of prayer and supplication and do request all God fearing persons to repair on that day to their places of worship there to unite their petitions to Almighty God that, overruling the counsel of men, setting straight the things they cannot govern or alter, taking pity on the nations now in the throes of conflict, in His mercy and goodness showing a way where men can see none, He vouchsafe His children healing peace again and restore once more that concord among men and nations without which there can be neither happiness nor true friendship nor any wholesome fruit of toil or thought in the world..." The fervent religious language of this draft strongly suggests Bryan's authorship. A committed pacifist, he resigned as Secretary of State in 1915 when he deemed Wilson's protest of the Lusitania sinking too provocative.