The correct answer to this open question is the following.
I agree with President Wilson's claim about the "recent course of the "Imperial German Government." The evidence I can cite to support my position is the following.
United States President Woodrow Wilson had tried to stay away from the political issues of Europe, supporting the foreign policy of neutrality. However, due to recent events of that time, he had to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany because its actions represented a threat to the citizens of the United States. That is why he considered that the US had to enter World War 1. Incidents such as the interception of the Zimmerman telegraph in which Germany asked the help of Mexico and the sinking of the Lusitania ship, forced President Wilson to ask for a declaration of war.
When President Lincoln first proposed the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet in the summer of 1862, many of the cabinet secretaries were apathetic, or worse, worried that the Proclamation was too radical.
