June 9, 1915: William Jennings Bryan officially resigned as Secretary of State of the United States over a disagreement with President Woodrow Wilson regarding the American response to the German sinking of the British ship Lusitania. Bryan cited his commitment to preventing war, which he felt Wilson was abandoning with his Lusitania response. As the Washington Times reported that day, “Mr. Bryan announced that his resignation takes effect when the note to Germany is sent this afternoon.” This so-called Second Lusitania Note forcefully condemned German actions. It asserted: “Whatever may be the contentions of the Imperial German Government regarding the carriage of contraband of war on board the Lusitania or regarding the explosion of that material by the torpedo, it need only be said that in the view of this Government these contentions are irrelevant to the question of the legality of the methods used by the German naval authorities in sinking the vessel.” The note continued by chastising Germany for its submarine warfare, emphasizing “that men women, and children were sent to their death in circumstances unparalleled in modern warfare.”
Citations: Editorial Comment, “The Resignation of Mr. Bryan as Secretary of State,” The American Journal of International Law 9, no. 3 (July 1915): 659; “U.S. NOTE OFF TO BERLIN,” Washington Times, June 9, 1915, 1, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1915-06-09/ed-1/seq-1/; “Second Lusitania Note,” 437, https://americainclass.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/wilson-secondlusitanianote.pdf; Harris & Ewing, “[William Jennings Bryan],” photograph (location unknown, c. 1913), https://www.loc.gov/item/2016864425/.
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