"But wher on see a rattlesnake poised to strike you do not wait, until struck before you crush him," he added.
"Nazi submarines and raiders are rattlesnakes in the Atlantic. They menace the free pathways of the high seas, challenge our sovereignty and hammer at our most precious rights when they attack ships of the American flag—symbols of our independence, our freedom, our very life."
Mr. Roosevelt recalled that President John Adams ordered the Navy to clean out European privateers and warships from the Caribbean Sea and South American waters while President' Thomas Jefferson ordered the Navy to end the attacks by North African Corsairs.
"It is no act of war on our part when me decide to protect the seas vital to American defence. Aggression is not ours, Ours is solely defence. But let this warning be clear. From now on, if German and Italian vessels of war enter waters, protection of which 15 necessary to American defence, they do so at their own peril," he added.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.