July 28, 2011
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924) the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921.
On July 28, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson gave the following message
to the American people. It was read in churches throughout the country
and published in virtually all major newspapers. The Serbian flag was
raised over the White House and all public buildings in the nation's
capital. The message read:
To the People of the United States:
On Sunday, 28th of this present month, will occur the fourth
anniversary of the day when the gallant people of Serbia, rather than
submit to the studied and ignoble exactions of a prearranged foe, were
called upon by the war declaration of Austria-Hungary to defend their
territory and their homes against an enemy bent on their destruction.
Nobly did they respond. So valiantly and courageously did they oppose
the forces of a country ten times greater in population and resources
that it was only after they had thrice driven the Austrians back and
Germany and Bulgaria had come to the aid of Austria that they were
compelled to retreat into Albania. While their territory has been
devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people
has not been broken. Though overwhelmed by superior forces, their love
of freedom remains unabated. Brutal force has left unaffected their firm
determination to sacrifice everything for liberty and independence.
One of the posters as an appeal for help to the Serbian people during the First World War.
It is fitting that the people of the United States, dedicated to the
self-evident truth that is the right of the people of all nations, small
as well as great, to live their own lives and choose their own
Government, and remembering that the principles for which Serbia has so
nobly fought and suffered are those for which the United States is
fighting, should on the occasion of this anniversary manifest in an
appropriate manner their war sympathy with this oppressed people who
have so heroically resisted the aims of the Germanic nations to master
the world. At the same time, we should not forget the kindred people of
the Great Slavic race--the Poles, the Czechs and Jugo-Slavs, who, now
dominated and oppressed by alien races yearn for independence and
national unity.
This can be done in a manner no more appropriate than in our churches.
I, therefore, appeal to the people of the United States of all faiths
and creeds to assemble in their several places of worship on Sunday July
28, for the purpose of giving expression to their sympathy with this
subjugated people and their oppressed and dominated kindred on other
lands, and to invoke the blessings of Almighty God upon them and upon
the cause to which they are pledged.
Woodrow Wilson, President
The White House, July 1918