Wilson Reads Treaty of Versailles Into Senate Record July 10 1919

Written by: Nib of Rights Institute

By the end of this section, you volition:

• Explain the causes and consequences of U.Southward. involvement in World War I

Suggested Sequencing

Use this Decision Signal at the terminate of Chapter 10 to permit students to explore the U.S. part in the determination of Globe War I.

---

From 1914 to 1917, the president and Congress debated America's opinion toward the war in Europe. One time the United states of america had been drawn into the conflict in April 1917, their attention turned to debating how all-time to execute the war and to shape the peace to come after the successful conclusion to the conflict. Guided by progressive ideals, President Woodrow Wilson's vision was to create a new globe gild every bit function of the Treaty of Versailles, in which a league of nations would ensure that this, indeed, was "the war to finish all wars." During the treaty ratification process, Wilson had to decide whether he would fight for this goal without compromising or whether he would piece of work with the Senate to go near of what he wanted.

Wilson'south idealistic vision was challenged in Congress past Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. Lodge had opposed Wilson'due south neutrality policy during the war and opposed the Treaty of Versailles afterward the state of war. During the peacemaking process, the conservative Society was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and led the fight against the ratification of the Wilson peace plan, which he viewed every bit unconstitutional and threatening to American national sovereignty and traditional strange policy principles. Lodge had to make up one's mind whether to obstruct the ratification of the treaty or find areas of compromise with the president.

Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Social club, pictured here in 1916, led the group in Congress whose members opposed President Wilson's peace program.

The outbreak of war in August 1914 had prompted President Wilson to urge Americans to exist "impartial in thought as well every bit in activity." Lodge thought neutrality was unsound and impractical and wanted to back up the Allied powers. In May 1915, a German U-boat (submarine) sank the passenger linerLusitania, killing i,200 people, including 128 Americans. Wilson asserted that Americans were "too proud to fight" and instead pursued peace for the proficient of the globe. Club and his friend Theodore Roosevelt thought the president'due south response was feeble idealism inappropriate to the tragedy.

In 1916, Wilson spoke at a meeting of the League to Enforce the Peace. In that spoken language, he articulated a vision of an association of nations that would continue the peace and end warfare. An international body of nations would stop aggression rather than relying on the existing balance-of-power affairs and system of alliances among sovereign nations. Wilson's ideas culminated in his "peace without victory" speech of Jan 22, 1917, in which he promoted "the future security of the world confronting wars." The new earth lodge was to be rooted in a community of power to achieve peace.

Only a week later, Germany announced information technology would unleash unrestricted U-boat warfare, gambling that information technology could starve Great Britain and the Allies into submission before the Us entered the disharmonize. On Apr 2, the president went to Congress and asked for a declaration of war. Wilson said the United States must "brand the globe prophylactic for democracy" by destroying autocracy in Europe and vindicating "the principles of peace and justice" in the globe. Congress obliged by declaring war a few days later.

The American Expeditionary Forces were made up of approximately two million troops and helped support the war-weary English and French troops when the The states entered World War I. Pictured are officers of the AEF c. 1918.

As American troops fought in Europe, Wilson worked out his vision of a just and peaceful postwar order. In January 1918, he delivered his 14 Points speech communication, in which he argued for liberty of the seas, a reduction in artillery, and national self-determination of ethnic minorities. Most important, Wilson developed his idea of a league of nations. The covenant, or agreement, of the League was the "key to the whole settlement," as he saw it.

Wilson made several blunders preparing for the peace briefing in Versailles. During the 1918 midterm congressional elections, he had made blatantly partisan appeals, stating that Republican dissent with assistants policies was unpatriotic. Republicans then won control of both houses of Congress, making Club the Senate's majority leader and the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which considered the peace treaty. Wilson fabricated boosted missteps past not inviting any Republicans or senators onto the Versailles peace conference delegation and not consulting with Lodge before he left for Paris. Yet he needed the support of two-thirds of the Senate for the peace treaty to exist ratified.

Wilson had a sense of providential destiny about his vision for the League of Nations and his own leadership. Against the recommendations of his advisors, he decided to be the starting time president to travel overseas to negotiate a peace treaty, because he believed no ane else could achieve his goals. When he arrived in Europe in Dec 1918, millions celebrated him in Paris, London, and Rome, which fed his vanity and sense of moral purpose.

The president briefly returned to the United States in February 1919. On the evening of February 26, Senator Lodge and other members of the Foreign Relations Committee attended a dinner at the White House. Order sat impassively while the president spoke about a league of nations to keep the peace. And then he asked Wilson a serial of questions. The answers confirmed Gild's fear that Article X of the Treaty of Versailles would commit the U.s. to a war against an attacker nation that attacked some other nation, thus bypassing the constitutional requirement that Congress retain the power to declare war.

Lodge believed in this ramble principle and opposed committing U.S. troops to conflicts around the world based on the vote of an international body. He and other senators also feared that the League would supplant the Monroe Doctrine, which had asserted American preeminence in the western hemisphere for a century. Wilson was adamant that "yous cannot dissect the Covenant from the treaty without destroying the whole vital structure."

On the evening of March 2, Club worked at his home with two other senators to draft a Senate resolution expressing their opposition to the League of Nations. Thirty-nine Republicans signed it, and fifty-fifty some Democrats supported the measure. Nigh a dozen senators were "irreconcilables," who refused to support the treaty regardless of a compromise, and 40 were "reservationists" who were willing to ratify if Wilson compromised on Article X.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pictured here in 1919, was led by Henry Cabot Lodge (fifth from the left) and worked to garner support from boyfriend senators to block Wilson'due south peace plan.

On March 3, Club delivered an important oral communication opposing the League of Nations. He criticized Article 10 for violating the United States' national sovereignty and Congress's prerogative to declare war, and he cited the danger that Americans would be forced to send their young men overseas to stop aggressor nations. He stated, "I want to keep America as she has been—non isolated, not prevent her from joining other nations for these great purposes—but I wish her to be master of her fate." In the Senate, Lodge packed the Foreign Relations Committee with handpicked opponents of the League of Nations.

When President Wilson returned to the United States that summer, he broke with precedent and on July ten presented the treaty to the Senate in person while addressing the body. As he walked into the bedroom with the bulky treaty under his arm, Society jokingly asked, "Mr. President, tin I comport the treaty for you?" Wilson retorted, "Not on your life." In his speech communication, President Wilson asked the Senate rhetorically, "Dare we reject it and intermission the eye of the earth?"

During committee hearings in Baronial, Lodge repeated his business concern that Article Ten violated the principles of the Constitution. He asserted that no American soldier or sailor could exist sent overseas to fight a state of war "except by the ramble authorities of the United states of america." In addition, Society worried that membership in the League of Nations would bind the The states to fight in wars effectually the globe. He thought the chief goal of American strange policy was to protect American national interests. He said, "Our outset ideal is our country. . . We would not have our country's vigor exhausted or her moral force abated, by everlasting meddling and muddling in every quarrel, slap-up and minor which affects the world."

In September, Wilson further provoked Society and other opponents by taking the example for the League of Nations directly to the American people. His speaking tour was consistent with his view of American politics, in which congressional authorities was messy and the separation of powers an outdated principle. Instead, a potent president needed to deed as a national leader who guided the nation in right principles through rhetoric. Large crowds applauded his message that the League was the "cause of mankind," simply the tour was presently cut brusk when the president suffered a debilitating stroke on October 2, which incapacitated him for months. From his sickbed, he refused any compromise because removing Article Ten "cuts the very heart out of the treaty."

Early in the morning time of November 19, 1919, spectators flooded the Senate gallery, jockeying for a good vantage point to view the celebrated debate and the vote on the treaty. Members of the press were there to study the outcome for their newspapers. The 68-twelvemonth-old Senator Society captivated near people's attention.

This political cartoon, created by John T. McCutcheon in 1918, depicts the U.S. Senate objecting to a marriage between the United States and its "foreign entanglement" helpmate via the League of Nations. (credit: The Ohio Country University, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum)

The senators debated the treaty during a 10-hour marathon, hearing from all sides, and and so prepared to vote. Prodded by Wilson, who told them non to compromise, they rejected the treaty with reservations by a vote of 55–39. A vote was then taken on the treaty without reservations, as the Wilson administration wanted. It was likewise defeated, by a almost identical vote of 53–38. Several Democrats begged Wilson to compromise, simply he refused. The president deluded himself that he could "bring this country to a sense of its great opportunity and greater responsibility" if only his health improved. When the treaty came up for another vote in mid-November, Wilson obstinately said, "Allow Lodge compromise. Let Lodge hold out the olive branch." The treaty was voted downward once more, and so for a final fourth dimension on March 19, 1920.

Throughout the contend over the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations, President Wilson and Senator Lodge rooted their positions in very different visions of American diplomacy. Wilson idea the merely mode to achieve a lasting peace and new earth order was a league of nations. Guild wanted to preserve American national sovereignty and protect American national interests. This argue between idealism and realism continued to define the course of American foreign relations during the twentieth century.

---

Review Questions

i. Woodrow Wilson'south plans for the postwar peace was most strongly challenged past

1. Henry Cabot Social club, caput of the Senate Strange Relations Commission
2. Theodore Roosevelt, sometime president of the United States
3. the U.s.a. House of Representatives
4. supporters of the League of Nations

ii. For President Woodrow Wilson, the "hereafter security of the world against wars" most likely centered on

1. restoration of a balance of ability between French republic and Germany
2. creation of a new world order based on a community of nations
3. dominance of the United States in European politics
4. retreat from American interventionism and internationalism

3. President Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points included all the post-obit except

1. self-determination for ethnic minorities
2. freedom of the seas
3. a league of nations
4. promotion of European autocracy

iv. A major misstep in President Wilson'due south promotion of his peace plan after World State of war I was his

1. failing to invite any Republicans or members of the Senate to the Versailles Peace Briefing
2. publicly outlining his 14 Points peace plan
3. asking Congress for a proclamation of war in 1917
4. travelling overseas to attend the Versailles Peace Conference

five. The main objection of the U.S. Senate to the Treaty of Versailles was

1. the war reparations clause demanded by the European allies
2. the war guilt clause aimed at Germany
3. the self-decision proposal for ethnic minorities
4. Article Ten of the League Covenant calling for collective security

vi. Ultimately, the U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, stating that it violated

1. the Senate'southward constitutional power to negotiate treaties
2. the President's constitutional power to declare state of war
3. national sovereignty
4. a Supreme Court decision

7. Senate ratification of the Treaty of Versailles required President Wilson to proceeds the support of

1. the "irreconcilables"
2. the isolationists
3. the internationalists
4. the reservationists

Gratis Response Questions

1. Compare President Woodrow Wilson'south and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge'due south foreign policy goals at the end of World War I.
2. Analyze the reasons the U.South. Senate ultimately refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.

AP Practice Questions

"Resolved (two-thirds of the senators present concurring therein), that the Senate advise and consent to the ratification of the treaty of peace with Germany concluded at Versailles on the 28th day of June, 1919, subject area to the following reservations and understandings . . .

ane. . . . The U.s. shall be the sole judge as to whether all Its international obligations and all its obligations nether the said Covenant have been fulfilled . . .

2. The U.s.a. assumes no obligation to preserve the territorial integrity or political independence of any other country or to interfere in controversies between nations . . .

4. The United states of america reserves to itself exclusively the right to determine what questions are within its domestic jurisdiction . . .

9. The United States shall not exist obligated to contribute to whatsoever expenses of the League . . . unless and until an cribbing of funds . . . shall have been fabricated by the Congress of the United states of america."

Henry Cabot Gild, "Reservations with Regard to the Versailles Treaty," Nov 19, 1919

Refer to the excerpt provided.

1. The position outlined in the excerpt is nearly consequent with

1. the bulletin of Washington's Farewell Address
2. the establishment of the Monroe Doctrine
3. the Us' entry into the Castilian-American War
4. the treaty ending the war with Mexico

two. What was a direct result of the trend evident in the excerpt?

1. An stop to Progressive economic reforms
2. Growing support for American isolationism in the 1920s
3. Ratification of the women'due south suffrage amendment
4. The U.s. taking the lead in the League of Nations

3. Which of the following statements best supports the position outlined in the excerpt?

1. Changing world weather necessitated American internationalism.
2. States' rights did not extend to international relations.
3. The U.South. Constitution established a system of checks and balances.
4. Direct election of U.Southward. senators freed the Senate from the influence of special interests.

---

Primary Sources

Lodge, Henry Cabot. "Constitution of the League of Nations." February 28, 1919. https://world wide web.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/LodgeLeagueofNations.pdf

Wilson, Woodrow. "Articulation Accost to Congress Leading to a Proclamation of War Confronting Germany." April 2, 1917. https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=61&page=transcript

Wilson, Woodrow. "Peace Without Victory." Jan 22, 1917. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3898

Wilson, Woodrow. "President Woodrow Wilson'due south Fourteen Points." Jan 8, 1918. https://avalon.police force.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson14.asp

Suggested Resources

Berg, A. Scott.Wilson. New York: G.P. Putnam'due south Sons, 2013.

Cooper, John Milton Jr.Breaking the Heart of the Globe: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Cooper, John Milton Jr.The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.

Cooper, John Milton Jr.Woodrow Wilson: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 2009.

O'Toole, Patricia.The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018.

Widenor, William C.Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Strange Policy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1980.

ebysteaking.blogspot.com

Source: https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-treaty-of-versailles

Share this post