Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality In World War I

World War One was started when Franz Ferdinand of the Austrian-Hungary empire was assassinated on June 28, 1914 by a group of Yugoslavic nationalists in Serbia, Serbia was tired of being in the Austrian-Hungary empire, The Austrian- Hungary empire quickly declared war on Serbia, starting the international conflict. The strife between these two nations escalated when Russia, an ally of Serbia, joined the war. Subsequently, other powers of Europe got involved because it was an agglomeration of allegiances and old rivalries. The Great War was known as the first modern war due to the use of chemical and industrial weaponry such as aircrafts, machine guns, and mustard gas. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, promoted neutrality
In the first paragraph, Wilson uses asyndeton to emphasize his examples. He says, “...we have still been clear that we wish nothing for ourselves that we were not ready to demand for all mankind-- fair dealing, justice, the freedom to live and to be at ease against organized wrong.” By using asyndeton, he speeds through the first part of his speech faster to get to his argument. Wilson also uses juxtaposition in the second paragraph when he says, “They are too clear to be obscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles of our national life to be altered.” In these two sentences, the words “clear” and “obscured” as well as “deeply rooted” and “to be altered” are opposites of each other. Through the parallelism and the juxtaposition, Wilson creates an emphasis on the solidity of our duty to uphold peace in the
He makes an understatement in the following two paragraphs, as to touch quickly on the obligatory topic and move on. Wilson has his strongest piece of persuasion in the fifth paragraph. He uses repetition, allusion, and multiple appeals in this section. Wilson uses ethos in the lines, “We shall be the more American if we but remain true to the principles in which we have been bred.” By using ethos here, President Wilson adds a unifying feeling due to the patriotism in the word “American”- bolstering his goal of uniting the citizens to take action. Wilson also creates ethos when he makes an allusion to the Declaration of Independence. He quotes, “that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed…” furthering that appeal to authority and nationalism. Following these strong lines of ethos, Wilson has repetition when he uses the word “principles” and different forms of the word “equal”. By using powerful diction, he carries the feelings of ethical appeal throughout the whole paragraph. The word principle connects to the quote at the beginning of paragraph five: “...principles in which we have been bred.” “not the principles of a province”, “principles of a liberated mankind”, and “principles of peace” were all phrases used in paragraph 5. Besides the continuation of ethos, repetition also allows Wilson to stress the principles’