Part 35 (2/2)
_The President_: There is a national good conscience in such a s that could possibly happen When I speak of a legal obligation, Iunder certain sanctions That is a legal obligation, and, if Iforce; only there always rement as to whether it is indeed incu In every al obligation there is no element
Never before did the President show himself more tactful or more brilliant in repartee Surrounded by twenty or thirty e, who hated him with a bitterness that was intense, the President, with quiet courtesy, parried every blow aimed at him
No question, no matter how pointed it was, seemed to disturb his serenity
He acted like a laho knew his case froreat cause he was representing His cards were frankly laid upon the table and he appeared like a fighting champion, ready to meet all comers Indeed, this very attitude of frankness, openness, sincerity, and courtesy, one could see froe and the Republicans grouped about him, and one could also see written upon the faces of the Democratic senators in that little room a look of pride that they had a leader who carried hiht of the enemy The President anticipated an abrupt adjournment of the conference with a courteous invitation to luncheon Senator Lodge had just turned to the President and said: ”Mr President, I do not wish to interfere in any way, but the conference has now lasted about three hours and a half, and it is half an hour after the lunch hour” Whereupon, the President said: ”Will not you gentlehtful”
It was evident that this invitation, so cordially conveyed, broke the ice of for, and like boys out of school, forgetting the great affair in which they had all played pro rooe Instead of fisticuffs, as some of the newspaper ether at the dining table, and for an hour or two the question of the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles was forgotten in the telling of pleasant stories and the play of repartee
Although, at this conference of August 19, 1919, the President had frankly opened his mind and heart to the ene seerow more intense and passionate The President had done everything humanly possible to soften the opposition of the Republicans, but, alas, the inforht to him from the Hill by his Democratic friends only confir and could not be overcome by personal contact of any kind between the President and n Relations Committee
It is plain now, and will become plainer as the years elapse, that the Republican opposition to the League was primarily partisan politics and a rooted personal dislike of the chief proponent of the League, Mr Wilson
His reelection in 1916, the first reelection of an incureatly disturbed the Republican leaders The prestige of the Republican party was threatened by this Democratic leader His reception in Europe added to their distress For the sake of the sacred cause of Republicanism, this menace of Deh in destroying it the leaders should s their oords and reverse their own former positions on world adjustment
An atteive the impression to the country that an association of nations was one of the ”fool ideas” of Woodrow Wilson; that infree rein to his idealisinate with Woodrow Wilson If its Ain were traced, it would be found that the earliest supporters of the idea were Republicans
I remember hat reluctance the President accepted the invitation of the League to Enforce Peace, tendered by Mr Taft, to deliver an address on May 27, 1916, at the New Willard Hotel, Washi+ngton, aat which one of the principal speakers was no less a personage than Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, with Mr Taft presiding Forthis idea in histime he was reluctant to accept any invitation that would seeive approval to the idea He patiently waited to make a complete survey of the whole world situation, to be convinced that the permanent participation of the United States in world affairs was a necessity if peace was to be secured
It was not an easy thing to draw the President away from the traditional policy of aloofness and isolation which had characterized the attitude of the United States in all international affairs But the invitation to discuss universal peace, urged upon the President by ex-President William H Taft, was finally accepted
In that speech he said: ”We are participants, whether ould or not, in the life of the world, and the interests of all nations are our own; henceforth, there reement for a common object, and at the heart of that cohts of peoples and of s: First, that every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live
Second, that the sht to enjoy the santy and for their territorial integrity that great and powerful nations expect and insist upon [This idea was substantially eht to be free froression and disregard of the rights of peoples and nations”
These statee and applauded by Mr Taft and his Republican associates gathered at the banquet
The President, continuing his address, then gave expression to his views regarding the means to attain these ends He was convinced that there should be an ”universal association of the nations to hway of the seas for the common use of all nations of the world, and to prevent any war begun either contrary to treaty agree and full subuarantee of territorial integrity and political independence” And he ventured to assert, in the presence of Senator Lodge, who afterward became the leader of the opposition to these very ideas, ”that the United States is willing to become a partner in any feasible association of nations forainst violation”
Woodrow Wilson believed that the League of Nations was the first modern attempt to prevent war by discussion in the open and not behind closed doors or ”within the cloistered retreats of European diploue of Nations was the essence of Christianity Yet when he took up the advocacy of the League of Nations, Senator Lodge, the spokesue to Enforce Peace, becae at this very dinner on May 27, 1916, delivered the following address:
I know, and no one, I think, can know better than one who has served long in the Senate, which is charged with an important share of the ratification and confirmation of all treaties; no one can, I think, feel more deeply than I do the difficulties which confront us in the hich this league--that is, the great association extending throughout the country, known as the League to Enforce Peace-- undertakes, but the difficulties cannot be overcome unless we try to overcome them I believe much can be done Probably it will be impossible to stop all wars, but it certainly will be possible to stop some wars, and thus diminish their number The way in which this probleue and to those who are giving this great subject the study which it deserves I know the obstacles I kno quickly we shall be erous question which you are putting into your argu not to attempt too much I know the difficulties which arise e speak of anything which seems to involve an alliance, but I do not believe that when Washi+ngton warned us against entangling alliances he meant for one moment that we should not join with the other civilized nations of the world if a e peace
It was a year ago in delivering the chancellor's address at Union College I ument on this theory, that if ere to promote international peace at the close of the present terrible war, if ere to restore international law as it must be restored, we must find some way in which the united forces of the nations could be put behind the cause of peace and law I said then thata Utopia, but it is in the search of Utopias that great discoveries are ue certainly has the highest of all aims for the benefits of humanity, and because the pathway is soith difficulties is no reason that we should turn from it
Theodore Roosevelt, in his nobel Prize thesis, also expressed himself as folloith reference to an association of nations:
The one perested with any reasonable chance of obtaining its object is by an agreee itself not only to abide by the decisions of a common tribunal, but to back with force the decision of that coreat civilized nations of the world which do not possess force, actual or ireehteousness
Upon the President taking up the League of Nations fight, Senator Lodge dreay fro our responsibilities abroad, evidencing a coenerous and fearless, but said:
The hearts of the vast ly without any quickening if the League were to perish altogether
The first objection to the League of Nations, urged by Senator Lodge, was that it involved the surrender of our sovereignty There is a striking analogy between the arguentleton's day who feared that the proposed Constitution which was designed to establish a federal union would letary of Massachusetts, Mr Lowndes of South Carolina, Mr Grayson of Virginia, even Patrick Henry hih a Constitution which at that time was often called the Treaty between the Thirteen States