For example, he was troubled by reports of mass hunger in Germany. He and other Americans felt the British food blockade was cruel. They also were shocked by the way British forces brutally crushed a rebellion in Ireland at the time.

Most of all, the American people were sickened by reports of what was happening on the battlefields of Europe. The armies were using poison gas and other terrible weapons. Soldiers on both sides were dying by the millions. The war had become a bloodbath.

President Woodrow Wilson in 1916

KAY GALLANT: The United States had a presidential election in nineteen sixteen. President Wilson won the nomination of the Democratic Party to seek re-election. Democrats around the country shouted their support with these words: "He kept us out of war!" Wilson himself did not like the words. He felt it raised false hopes. But people continued to say it, because they did not want war.

HARRY MONROE: The Republican Party nominated Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes as its candidate for president. Hughes was a moderate Republican. He supported a number of social reforms.

Like Wilson, Hughes promised to keep the United States neutral. However, one of his supporters was former President Theodore Roosevelt. And Roosevelt called for strong American policies that could lead to war. Roosevelt's words led many Americans to see Wilson as the candidate of peace....and Hughes as the candidate of war.