The Armistice with Germany. An Address delivered to Congress on November 11, 1918, by Woodrow Wilson , President of the United States of America, 1913-21.
I AN example of eloquence occasioned by the outbreak of the War was presented in this series last Sunday. This Sunday, a speech made on the occasion of the signing of the Armistice, forms the last in the series of eloquence in English, The one was delivered by a Prime Minister of England on account of a catastrophe, the deliverance from which is announced in the other by a President of the United States of America. Yet although the feelings animating them are so different, both these speeches display much the same qualities of style.
Of their authors, H. H. Asquith was a great classic, while Woodrow Wilson was the first avowed scholar to occupy the Presidency. They both provide examples of the same tradition of English public speaking. In the history of style, therefore, the announcement of the beginning of the War and of its end are scarcely differentiated. On November 11, 1918,President Wilson spoke with the fine words to which he had been accustomed all his life.
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