Слике страница
PDF
ePub

ADDRESSES

EDITED BY

GEORGE MCLEAN HARPER

PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY; AUTHOR OF "MASTERS OF FRENCH
LITERATURE," "LIFE OF SAINTE-BEUVE," AND WILLIAM

[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][graphic][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

INTRODUCTION

These addresses of President Woodrow Wilson represent only the most recent phase of his intellectual activity. They are almost entirely concerned with political affairs, and more specifically with defining Americanism. It will not be forgotten, however, that the life of Mr. Wilson as President of the United States is but a short period compared with the whole of his public career as professor of jurisprudence, history, and politics, as President of Princeton University, as Governor of New Jersey, as an orator, and as a writer of many books.

Surprise has been expressed that a man, after reaching the age of fifty, should be able to step from the "quiet" life of a teacher and author into the resounding regions of politics; but Mr. Wilson's life as a scholar, professor, and author was not at all quiet in the sense of being easy or untouched with exciting chances and changes, and, in the second place, he carried into politics the steadying ideals and the methodical habits of his former occupation.

As these addresses themselves prove, he has retained something of the teacher's interest in showing the relation between specific instances and the general forms of thought or action of which they are a part. Not fact alone, but principle, is what he seeks to discover to his audiences. In the addresses made in 1913 it is apparent that his main effort was to fasten attention upon the principles of international justice and good will and to restrain the impulses of those Americans who were inclined to hasty action with reference to Mexico. From the

« ПретходнаНастави »