Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis

19 April, 1916

Wilson on the Sussex Case
United States, 64th Cong., 1st Sess., House Document 1034.

President Wilson's remarks before Congress concerning the German attack on the unarmed Channel steamer Sussex on March 24, 1916.

...I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Imperial German Government, that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines, notwithstanding the now demonstrated impossibility of conducting that warfare in accordance with what the Government of the United States must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of international law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue; and that unless the Imperial German Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels this Government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the Government of the German Empire altogether.
This decision I have arrived at with the keenest regret; the possibility of the action contemplated I am sure all thoughtful Americans will look forward to with unaffected reluctance. But we cannot forget that we are in some sort and by the force of circumstances the responsible spokesmen of the rights of humanity, and that we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in process of being swept utterly away in the maelstrom of this terrible war. We owe it to a due regard to our own rights as a nation, to our sense of duty as a representative of the rights of neutrals the world over, and to a just conception of the rights of mankind to take this stand now with the utmost solemnity and firmness....

U-boats and the Zimmerman Note
Source: Official German Documents Relating to the World War,

Translated under the supervision of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1923), II: 1320-1321. Present at the conference:

1. Dr. v. Bethmann-Hollweg, Imperial Chancelor.

2. General Field Marshal v. Beneckendorff and v. Hindenburg, Chief of the General Staff.

3. Lieutenant General Ludendorff, First Quartermaster General.

Note: the transcript includes both direct quotes and paraphrases as recorded by v. Bartenwerffer for the Chancelor.

From the records of the Supreme High Command of the Army.

PLESS CASTLE, January 9, 1917.
The Chancelor:

If His Majesty commands that a ruthless U-boat war shall be launched, the Chancelor will endeavor to succeed in keeping America "out of it." For this purpose, certain concessions already taken up previously with the Admiralty staff would have to be made. But we will have to calculate upon America's entrance into the war against us.

The Chancelor feels more assurance about the attitude of the European neutrals. Our peace note has brought good results. Holland and Denmark will not enter the war, at least not as long as they do not see that the U-boat war brings us no success.

With regard to Switzerland, we shall have to bear in mind the possibility that the Entente will bring pressure to bear on Switzerland if food becomes scarce in that country, to make it possible for French armies to march through or even for Switzerland to join the cause of the Entente.

Denmark will possibly lay up its shipping.

The Chancelor requests that the military measures which are to be taken with regard to the neutral boundaries, and particularly with regard to the Danish boundary, be such as not to carry the implication of excessive menace.

General Ludendorff:

The purpose is just to detail a few regiments of cavalry to the borders.

Chancelor:

The determination to launch the unrestricted U-boat war depends, then, upon the results which we may expect. Admiral von Holtzendorff assumes that we will have England on her knees by the next harvest. The experiences of the U-boats during the last few months, the increased number of U-boats, and England's bad economic situation, will at least increase our chances of success.

On the whole, the prospects for the unrestricted U-boat war are very favorable.

Of course, it must be admitted that those prospects are not capable of being demonstrated by proof.

We should be perfectly certain that, so far as the military situation is concerned, great military strokes are insufficient as such to win the war.

The U-boat war is the "last card." A very serious decision. "But if the military authorities consider the U-boat war essential, I am not in a position to contradict them."

Field Marshal:

We are ready to meet all eventualities and to meet America, Denmark, Holland, and Switzerland too.

The restricted U-boat war on commerce will only bring about a slight increase in the results reached up to this time. We need the most energetic, ruthless methods which can be adopted. For this reason, we need the ruthless U-boat war to start from February 1, 1917.

The war must be brought to an end rapidly, although we would be able to hold out still longer, but haste is needed on account of our allies.

Chancelor:

It may be imagined that the U-boat war might postpone the end of hostilities.

General Ludendorff:

The U-boat war will also bring our armies into a different and better situation. Through the lack of wood needed for mining purposes and for lack of coal, the production of ammunition is hard-pressed. It means that there will be some relief for the western front. We must spare the troops a second battle of the Somme. That this relief will come about will be proved by our own situation and the effects of our transportation crisis. And, too, Russia's power of initiative will be detrimentally affected by the lack of ammunition which will result from shortage in tonnage. The Siberian railroad alone will not be sufficient for Russia's needs.

Chancelor:

America's assistance, in case she enters the war, will consist in the delivery of food supplies to England, financial support, delivery of airplanes and the dispatching of corps of volunteers.

Field Marshal:

We can take care of that. The opportunity for the U-boat war is such that it can perhaps never become as favorable again; we can carry it on and we must carry it on.

Chancelor:

Of course, if success beckons, we must follow.

Field Marshal:

We would reproach ourselves later if we let the opportunity pass by.

Chancelor:

The situation is certainly better than it was in September.

General Ludendorff:

The measures of security taken against the neutrals will have nothing about them in the nature of a challenge; they will be purely defensive measures.

Chancelor:

And suppose Switzerland came into the war, or that the French were to come through Switzerland.

Field Marshal:

That would not be unfavorable from a military standpoint.

For the Chancelor,
v. BARTENWERFFER

19 January, 1917:

The Zimmerman Note

to the German Minister to Mexico

Berlin, January 19, 1917
On the first of February we intend to begin submarine warfare unrestricted. In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor to keep neutral the United States of America.
If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together make peace. We shall give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement....
You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with the United States and suggest that the President of Mexico, on his own initiative, should communicate with Japan suggesting adherence at once to this plan; at the same time, offer to mediate between Germany and Japan.
Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few months.
Zimmerman

(Secretary of State)

President Woodrow Wilson's War Message
We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their government acted in entering this war. It was not with their previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their fellow men as pawns and tools. Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbour states with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make conquest. Such designs can be successfully worked out only under cover and where no one has the right to ask questions. Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, carried, it may be, from generation to generation, can be worked out and kept from the light only within the privacy of courts or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a narrow and privileged class. They are happily impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon full information concerning all the nation's affairs.
A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic government could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must be a league of honour, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they would and render account to no one would be a corruption seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honour steady to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.
Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.
We are now about to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretence about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included: for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.
From President Wilson's War Message to Congress, April 2, 1917.

The Espionage Act of May 16, 1918
Be it enacted, That section three of the Act . . . approved June I5, 1917, be . . amended so as to read as follows:
SEC. 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports, or false statements, or say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor . . . with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds . . . or the making of loans by or to the United States, or whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause . . . or incite . . . insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct . . . the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag . . . or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States, or any language intended to bring the form of government . . . or the Constitution . . . or the military or naval forces . . . or the flag . . . of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute . . . or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things . . . necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war . . . and whoever shall willfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both....

Letters of Black Migrants in the Chicago Defender, 1916-1918
From "Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916-1918," Journal of Negro History. 4:3 (1919). 291, 293; and "Additional Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916-1918," Journal of Negro History. 4:4 (1919) 412-413, 418, 420, 442-443, 457-460.
Note: This transcription preserves the spellings, grammar, and syntax of the letters.
Dallas, Tex., April 23, 1917

Dear Sir: Having been informed through the Chicago Defender paper that I can secure information from you. I am a constant reader of the Defender and am contemplating on leaving here for some point north. Having your city in view I thought to inquire of you about conditions for work, housing, wages and everything necessary. I am now employed as a laborer in a structural shop, have worked for the firm five years.

I stored ears for Armour packing co. 3 years, I also claims to know something about candy making, am handy at most anything for an honest living. I am 31 yrs. Old have a very industrious wife, no children. If chances are available for work of any kind let me know. Any information you can give me will be highly appreciated.
Mobile, Ala., April 27, 1917

Sir: Your advertisement appearing in the Chicago Defender have influenced me to write to you with no delay. For seven previous years I bore the reputation of a first class laundress in Selma. I have much experience with all of the machines in this laundry. This laundry is noted for its skillful work of neatness and ect. We do sample work for different laundries of neighboring cities, viz. Montgomery, Birmingham, and Mobile once or twice a year. At present I do house work but would like to get in touch with the Chicago . . . . I have an eager desire of a clear information how to get a good position. I have written recommendation from the foreman of which I largely depend upon as a relief. You will do me a noble favor with an answer in the earliest possible moment with a description all about the work.

Marcel, Miss., 10/4/17

Dear Sir: Although I am a stranger to you but I am a man of the so called colored race and can give you the very best or reference as to my character and ability by prominent citizens of my community by both white and colored people that knows me although am native of Mississippi. Now I am a reader of your paper the Chicago Defender. After reading your writing ever week I am compelled & persuade to say that I know you are a real man of my color you have I know heard of the south land & I need not tell you any thing about it. I am going to ask you a favor and at the same time beg you for your kind and best advice. I want to come to Chicago to live. I am a man of a family wife and I child can do just any work in the line of common labor & I have for the present sufficient means to support us till I can obtain a position. Now should I come to your town, would you please to assist me in getting a position I am willing to pay whatever you charge I don't want you to loan me not 1 cent but help me to find an occupation there in your town now I has a present position that will keep me employed till the first of Dec. 1917. now please give me your best advice on this subject. I enclose stamp for reply.

Jacksonville, Fla., April 4, 1917

Dear Sir: I have been taking defender for sevel months and I have seen that there is lots of good work in that section and I want to say as you are the editor of that paper I wish that you would let me know if there is any wheare up there that I can get in with an intucion that I may get my wife and my silf from down hear and can bring just as miney more as he want we are suffing to hear all the work is giveing to poor white peples and we can not get anything doe at all I will go to pennsylvania or n y state or N J or Ill. Or any wheare that I can surport my wife I am past master of son of light in Mass. Large Royal arch and is in good standing all so the good Sancer large no.18. I need helpe my wife cant get any thing to due eather can I so please if you can see any body up there that want hands let me no at once I can get all they need and it will allow me to get my wife away from down hear so please remember and ans I will appreciate it.

Looking for ans at once. Please let me no some thing thease crackers is birds in south.
Alexandria, La., June 6, 1917

Dear Sirs: I am writing to you all asking a favor of you all. I am a girl of seventeen. School has just closed I have been going to school for nine months and now I feel like I aught to go to work. And I would like very well for you all to please forward me to a good job. But there isn't a thing here for me to do, the wages here is from a dollar and a half a week. What could I earn Nothing. I have a mother and father my father do all he can for me but it is so hard. A child with any respect about her self or his self wouldn't like to see there mother and father work so hard and earn nothing I feel it my duty to help. I would like for you all to get me a good job and as I haven't any money to come in please send me a pass and I would work and pay every cent of it back and get me a good quite place to stay. My father have been getting the defender for three or four months but for the last two weeks we have failed to get it. I don't know why. I am tired of down hear in this. . . I am afraid to say. Father seem to care and then again don't seem to but Mother and I am tired of all of this. I wrote to you all because I believe you will help I need your help hopeing to here from you all very soon.

Sumter, S.C., May 12, 1917

Dear Sir: Courd you get me a job in the . . . Tin Plate Factory at . . ., Pa. A job for (3) three also a pass from here for (3) I am a common laborer and the other are the same. If you could we will be ever so much ablige and will comply with your advertisement. If you can't get a job where we wish to go we will thank you for a good job any where in the state of Pa. or Ohio. I am in my 50 the others are my sons just in the bloom of life and I would wish that you could find a place where we can make a living and I also wish that you could find a place where we all three can be together. If you will send us a pass we will come just as soon as I receive it. If you find a place that you can send us please let us hear what the job will pay. Nothing more. I am yours respectfully.

Troy, Al., 3/24/17

Dear Sir: I received you of Feb. 17 and was very delighted to hear from you in regards of the matter in which I writen you about. I am very anxious to get to Chicago and realy believe that if I was there I would very soon be working on the position in which I writen you about. Now you can just imagine how it is with the colored man in the south. I am more than anxious to go to Chicago but have not got the necessary fund in which to pay my way and these southern white peoples are not paying a man enough for his work down here to save up enough money to leave here with. Now I am asking you for a helping hand in which to assist me in getting to Chicago. I know you can do so if you only will.

Hoping to hear from you at an early date and looking for a helping hand and also any information you choose to inform me of, I remain as ever yours truly.
Palestine, Tex., 1/2/17

Dear Sir: I hereby enclose you a few lines to find out some few things if you will be so kind to word them to me. I am a southerner lad and has never ben in the north no further than Texas and I has heard so much talk about the north and how much better the colard people are treated up there than they are down here and I has ben striveing so hard in my coming up and now I see that I cannot get up there without the ade of some one and I wants to ask you Dear Sir to please direct me in your best manner the stept that I shall take to get there and if there are any way that you can help me to get there and if there are any way that you can help me to get there I am kindly asking you for your ade. And if you will ade me please notify me by return mail because I am sure ancious to make it in the north because these southern white people are so mean and they seems to be getting worse and I wants to get away and they won't pay enough for work for a man to save up enough to get away and live to. If you will not ade me in getting up there please give me some information how I can get there I would like to get there in early spring, if I can get there if posible. Our southern white people are so cruel we collord people are almost afraid to walke the streets after night. So please let me hear from you by return mail. I will not say very much in this letter I will tell you more about it when I hear from you please ans. Soon to Yours truly

Chicago, Illinois

My dear Sister: I was agreeably surprised to hear from you and to hear from home. I am well and thankful to say I am doing well. The weather and everything else was a surprise to me when I came. I got here in time to attend one of the greatest revivals in the history of my life over 500 people joined the church. We had a Holy Ghost shower. You know I like to have run wild. It was snowing some nights and if you didn't hurry you could not get standing room. Please remember me kindly to any who ask of me. The people are rushing here by the thousands and I know if you come and rent a big house you can get all the roomers you want. You write me exactly when you are coming. I am not keeping house yet I am living with my brother and his wife. My sone is in California but will be home soon. He spends his winter in California. I can get a nice place for you to stop until you can look around and see what you want. I am quite busy. I work in Swifts packing co. in the sausage department. My daughter and I work for the same company-We get $1.50 a day and we pack so many sausages we don't have much time to play but it is a matter of a dollar with me and I feel that God made the path and I am walking therein.

Tell your husband work is plentiful here and he won't have to loaf if he want work. I know unless old man A----- changed it was awful with his sould and G----- also.
Well I am always glad to hear from my friends and if I can do anything to assist any of them to better their condition. Please remember me to Mr. C----and his family I will write them all as soon as I can. Well, I guess I have said about enough. I will be delighted to look into your face once more in my life. Pray for me for I am heaven bound. I have made too many rounds to slip now. I know you will pray for prayer is the life of any sensible man or woman. Well goodbye from your sister in Christ.
P.S. My brother moved the week after I came. When you fully decide to come write me and let me know what day you expect to leave and over what road and if I don't meet you I will have some ther to meet you and look after you. I will send you a paper as soon as one come along they send out extras two and three times a day.
Pittsburg, Pa., May 11, 1917

My dear Pastor and wife: It affords me great pleasure to write you this leave me well & O.K. I hope you & sis Hayes are well & no you think I have forgotten you all but I never will how is ever body & how is the church getting along well I am in this great city & you no it cool here right now the trees are just peeping out. fruit trees are now in full bloom but its cool yet we set by big fire over night. I like the money O.K. but I like the South betterm for my Pleasure this city is too fast for me they give you big money for what you do but they charge you big things for what you get and the people are coming by cal Loads every day its just pack out the people are Begging for some whears to sta. If you have a family or children & come here you can buy a house easier than you can rent one if you rent one you have to sign up for 6 months or 12 month so you see if you don't like it you have to stay you no they pass that law because the People move about so much I am at a real nice place and stay right in the house of a Rve.----- and family his wife is a state worker I mean a missionary she is some class own a plenty rel estate & personal Property they has a 4 story home on the mountain, Piano in the parlor, organ in the sewing room, 1 daughter and 2 sons but you no I have to pay $2.00 per week just to sleep and pay it in advance. . . .