Peace and Covenant
Upon presenting the Versailles Treaty to the United States Senate, Wilson
described it as having been produced “by the hand of God.”
civil religion did not originate with the war, neither did it end with the conclusion of
hostilities. Having defeated the militaristic government of Germany and made the world
“safe for democracy,” Wilson, with the arrival of the peace in Europe that he had long
sought (albeit with limited success), believed that he was at last in a position to bring
about a just and stable peace through world democratization, again deploying the
language of civil religion to buttress his arguments. As he did when changing his
message from one of peace and neutrality to one of a readiness for war, Wilson reoriented
himself while retaining the same set of civic religious symbols and ideas that he had put
forth during the whole of his presidency. In his November 17, 1918 Thanksgiving
proclamation (the full title is “A Proclamation of Thanksgiving for Victory”), Wilson
attributes the end of hostilities ultimately to “God… in His good pleasure.” God’s
pleasure, he continues, has brought not only peace, “but the promise of a new day as well,
in which justice shall replace force and jealous intrigue among the nations.”
come through the war, Wilson believed that the providential mission charged to America
was only partly complete, and now that the world was safe for democracy, it was time for
democracy to make the world safe from war.
In his February 24, 1919 address at Mechanics Hall in Boston, Wilson uses
imagery almost identical to that found in the poster for Pershing’s Crusaders.
Describing the initial European reaction to the arrival of American forces, Wilson says
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The image is in fact something of a workhorse for Wilson, appearing in no less than four different
speeches delivered between February and August 1919.
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Convention