Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points"
Long before the armistice, President Woodrow Wilson advocated a peace settlement in Europe based on what he viewed as sound principle and humane justice. Wilson's "Fourteen Points" address of January 8, 1918, in which he laid out a vision of a peaceful international order, was one of his most famous speeches. Wilson's vision included freedom of the seas, arms limitations, the return of territory conquered by Germany, autonomy for nationalities ruled by the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, and a new association of nations to guarantee the political independence and territorial integrity of all states. Wilson drafted many of his speeches in shorthand—displayed here with the typed reading copy.