The Allies replied demanding restorations, reparation and indemnities.
On the 22nd of January the president appeared before the senate in his famous "peace without victory" address, in which he advocated a world league for peace.

His views were received sympathetically, though the Allies pointed out that no peace based on the condition of things before the war could be durable, and that as matters stood it would be a virtual victory for Germany.

It was the president's last effort to bring peace to the world without resorting to armed force.
The most biased historian is bound to affirm that Woodrow Wilson exhausted every effort not only to keep the United States honorably at peace, but to bring about a pacific attitude and understanding among the belligerents.

When finally he saw that no argument save that of the sword would avail, when finally the hour struck, he became the man of the hour courageously and nobly.
After President Wilson's failure to bring about even a pacific attitude among the warring nations, no peace appeal from any quarter calculated to receive respectful attention was made, excepting that issued by Pope Benedict August 15, four months after the United States had declared war.

The President summarized the Pope's proposals as follows: "His Holiness in substance proposes that we return to the status existing before the war, and that then there be a general condonation, disarmament, and a concert of nations based upon an acceptance of the principle of arbitration; that by a similar concert freedom of the seas be established; and that the territorial claims of France and Italy, the perplexing problems of the Balkan States and the restitution of Poland be left to such conciliatory adjustments as may be possible in the new temper of such a peace, due regard being paid to the aspirations of the peoples whose political fortunes and affiliations will be involved." The president's reply to the Pope forcibly stated the aim of the United States to free the world from the menace of Prussian militarism controlled by an arrogant and faithless autocracy.