On July 10, 1919, the president of the United States, for the first time since 1789, personally delivered a treaty to the Senate. This was no ordinary treaty; it was the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I and establishing the League of Nations. As Secret Service agents and Capitol Police officers sealed off the Senate wing to everyone without a special pass, President Woodrow Wilson walked into the chamber lugging the oversized document under his right arm. Recently returned from Paris and his unprecedented self-assigned role as leader of the American negotiating team, Wilson hoped for prompt Senate approval but feared trouble from Republicans, newly restored as the chamber's majority party. Show
The president's address set his ratification campaign off to a stumbling start, as he strained to read from typewritten notes on small index cards. Perhaps suffering from the effects of a small stroke, Wilson inadvertently omitted words as he proceeded. Realizing this, he stopped and repeated the garbled sentence, only to drop more words and repeat more sentences. Only near the end of his 40-minute address did Wilson approach eloquence. Setting aside his cards, the president turned to the Republican side of the chamber, where members sat in sullen hostility. He declared that treaty approval was their only option. "The stage is set, the destiny disclosed. It has come about by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of God. We cannot turn back. The light streams on the path ahead, and nowhere else." His conclusion evoked only scattered applause. Wilson's worsening medical condition, including a major stroke the following October, robbed him of the resiliency that had brought significant legislative victories earlier in his presidency. Refusing to agree to the "reservations" necessary to gain vital support from moderate Republicans, Wilson suffered major defeats as the Senate rejected the treaty in November and again the following March. When members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee learned of former president Woodrow Wilson’s death in 1924, they asked their chairman, Henry Cabot Lodge, to represent them at the funeral. Learning of this plan, the president’s widow sent Lodge the following note: “Realizing that your presence would be embarrassing to you and unwelcome to me, I write to request that you do not attend.” Democrat Wilson and Republican Lodge had disliked each other for years. Among the first to earn doctoral degrees from the nation’s newly established graduate schools, each man considered himself the country’s preeminent scholar in politics and scorned the other. The emergence of World War I intensified their rivalry. By 1918, Wilson had been president for nearly six years, while Lodge had represented Massachusetts in the Senate for a quarter century. Both considered themselves experts in international affairs. In setting policy for ending the war, Wilson, the idealist, sought a “peace without victory,” while Lodge, the realist, demanded Germany’s unconditional surrender. When the 1918 midterm congressional elections transferred control of the Senate from the Democrats to the Republicans, Lodge became both majority leader and Foreign Relations Committee chairman. Whether Wilson liked it or not, he needed Lodge’s active support to ensure Senate approval of the Treaty of Versailles and its provision for a League of Nations on which he had staked so much of his political prestige. Wilson chose to ignore Lodge. He offended the Senate by refusing to include senators among the negotiators accompanying him to the Paris Peace Conference and by making conference results public before discussing them with committee members. In a flash of anger against what he considered Senate interference, Wilson denounced Lodge and his allies as “contemptible, narrow, selfish, poor little minds that never get anywhere but run around in a circle and think they are going somewhere.” After Lodge’s committee added numerous “reservations” and amendments to the treaty, the frustrated president took his campaign to the nation. During a cross-country tour in October 1919, he suffered a physical collapse that further clouded his political judgment. In November Lodge sent to the Senate floor a treaty with 14 reservations, but no amendments. In the face of Wilson’s continued unwillingness to negotiate, the Senate on November 19, 1919, for the first time in its history, rejected a peace treaty. Recommended textbook solutions U.S. History1st EditionJohn Lund, Paul S. Vickery, P. Scott Corbett, Todd Pfannestiel, Volker Janssen 567 solutions America's History for the AP Course9th EditionEric Hinderaker, James A. Henretta, Rebecca Edwards, Robert O. Self 961 solutions
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Western Heritage Since 1300, AP Edition12th EditionDonald Kagan, Frank M. Turner, Steven Ozment 490 solutions Why did the U.S. Senate reject the Treaty of Versailles quizlet?The U.S. Senate refused to ratify Wilson's Treaty of Versailles because, among other reasons, Senators feared that U.S. involvement in the League of Nations would mean that American troops might be sent into Europe and settle European disputes. By the late summer of 1918, American troops had arrived in France.
What did Woodrow Wilson want in the Treaty of Versailles?Wilson desired to create a system that would keep future wars from happening, as well as promoting a U.S. vision of democracy and peace. He believed that the best way to accomplish this goal was through the creation of an international organization called the League of Nations.
What was the primary objection that American senators had to the Treaty of Versailles quizlet?What was the primary objection that American senators had to the Treaty of Versailles? It committed the United States to the League of Nations.
Why did President Wilson allow the Allies to include reparations and the guilt clause in the Treaty of Versailles?Why did President Wilson allow the Allies to include reparations and the guilt clause in the Treaty of Versailles? He made these concessions in order to secure what he believed was the most important accomplishment of the treaty--the League of Nations.
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How did President Wilson try to convince the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles quizlet?
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