11 February, 1918: President Wilson's Address to Congress,
Analyzing German and Austrian Peace Utterances (Delivered in
Joint Session, February 11, 1918) Gentlemen of the Congress: On
the eighth of January I had the honor of addressing you on the
objects of the war as our people conceive them. The Prime
Minister of Great Britain had spoken in similar terms on the
fifth of January. To these addresses the German Chancellor
replied on the twenty-fourth and Count Czernin, for Austria, on
the same day. It is gratifying to have our desire so promptly
realized that all exchanges of views on this great matter should
be made in the hearing of all the world. Count Czernin's reply,
which is directed chiefly to my own address of the eighth of
January, is uttered in a very friendly tone. He finds in my
statement a sufficiently encouraging approach to the views of
his own Government to justify him in believing that it furnishes
a basis for more detailed discusssion of purposes by the two
Governments. He is represented to h