keep an open wire constantly available between Paris and the Department of State and another between France and the Department of War.  In order that this might be done with the least possible interference with the other uses of the cables, I have temporarily taken over the control of both cables in order that they may be used as a single system.  I did so at the advice of the most experienced cable officials, and I hope that the results will justify my hope that the news of the next few months may pass with the utmost freedom and with the least possible delay from each side of the sea to the other.

May I not hope, Gentlemen of the Congress, that in the delicate tasks I shall have to perform on the other side of the sea, in my efforts truly and faithfully to interpret the principles and purposes of the country we love, I may have the encouragement and the added strength of your united support?  I realize the magnitude and difficulty of the duty I am undertaking; I am poignantly aware of its grave responsibilities.  I am the servant of the nation.  I can have no private thought or purpose of my own in performing such an errand.  I go to give the best that is in me to the common settlements which I must now assist in arriving at in conference with the other working heads of the associated governments.  I shall count upon your friendly countenance and encouragement.  I shall not be inaccessible.  The cables and the wireless will render me available for any counsel or service you may desire of me, and I shall be happy in the thought that I am constantly in touch with the weighty matters of domestic policy with which we shall have to deal.  I shall make my absence as brief as possible and shall hope to return with the happy assurance that it has been possible to translate into action the great ideals for which America has striven.

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State of the Union Address
Woodrow Wilson
December 2, 1919

To the Senate and house of representatives: 

I sincerely regret that I cannot be present at the opening of this session of the Congress.  I am thus prevented from presenting in as direct a way as I could wish the many questions that are pressing for solution at this time.  Happily, I have had the advantage of the advice of the heads of the several executive departments who have kept in close touch with affairs in their detail and whose thoughtful recommendations I earnestly second.

In the matter of the railroads and the readjustment of their affairs growing out of Federal control, I shall take the liberty at a later date of addressing you.