Part 37 (1/2)

On Septee to the President:

On May 17th, Bullitt resigned by letter giving his reasons hich you are familiar I replied by letter on the 18th without any comment on his reasons Bullitt on the 19th asked to see ood-bye and I saw hination and said that he could not conscientiously give countenance to a treaty which was based on injustice I told hi since he put it on conscientious grounds, and that I recognized that certain features of the Treaty were bad, as I presumed most everyone did, but that was probably unavoidable in view of conflicting claiht to be done to prevent the speedy restoration of peace by signing the Treaty Bullitt then discussed the numerous European commissions provided for by the Treaty on which the United States was to be represented I told him that I was disturbed by this fact because I was afraid the Senate and possibly the people, if they understood this, would refuse ratification, and that anything which was an obstacle to ratification was unfortunate because we ought to have peace as soon as possible

When the President received this explanation fro, he sent for me to visit with him in his compartment At the tied in preparing his speech for the night's , he said: ”Read that, and tell me what you think of a man as my associate on the other side and who confidentially expressed himself to an outsider in such a fashi+on? Were I in Washi+ngton I would at once denation! That kind of disloyalty le minute The testimony of Bullitt is a confirmation of the suspicions I have had with reference to this individual I found the sa on the other side I could find his trail everywhere I went, but they were only suspicions and it would not be fair for me to act upon them But here in his own state I have suspected Think of it! This froreat office of Secretary of State of the United States My God! I did not think it was possible for Lansing to act in this way When ere in Paris I found that Lansing and others were constantly giving out stateed a settlement, there would appear fro the correspondents not to take things too seriously; that a compromise would be made, and this news, or rather news of this kind, was harmful to the settleave the Conference the i for ”

I am convinced that only the President's illness a few days later prevented an ination of Mr

Lansing

That there was no real devotion on the part of Mr Lansing for the President is shown by the following incident

A few days after the President returned from the West and lay seriously ill at the White House, with physicians and nurses gathered about his bed, Mr Lansing sought a private audience with me in the Cabinet Rooest that in view of the incapacity of the President we should arrange to call in the Vice- President to act in his stead as soon as possible, reading to ht from the State Department, which I afterward learned was ”Jefferson's Manual,” the following clause of the United States Constitution:

In case of the renation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the sa this, I coldly turned to Mr Lansing and said: ”Mr Lansing, the Constitution is not a dead letter with the White House I have read the Constitution and do not findat your hands of the provision you have just read” When I asked Mr Lansing the question as to who should certify to the disability of the President, he intimated that that would be a job for either Doctor Grayson or nificance of what he intimated and said: ”Youin the White House on the broad of his back I will not be a party to ousting him He has been too kind, too loyal, and too wonderful to me to receive such treatment at my hands” Just as I uttered this statement Doctor Grayson appeared in the Cabinet Room and I turned to him and said: ”And I am sure that Doctor Grayson will never certify to his disability Will you, Grayson?” Doctor Grayson left no doubt in Mr Lansing's ested I then notified Mr Lansing that if anybody outside of the White House circle attempted to certify to the President's disability, that Grayson and I would stand together and repudiate it I added that if the President were in a condition to know of this episode he would, in my opinion, take decisive measures That ended the interview

It is unnecessary to say that no further attes against his chief

I never attempted to ascertain what finally influenced the action of the President perement is that the demand came as the culmination of repeated acts of what the President considered disloyalty on Mr Lansing's part while in Paris, and that the situation was aggravated by Mr Lansing's notes to Mexico during the President's illness

When I received fro, inti to the President, I conferred with the President at once and argued with hi ti At the time the President was seated in his invalid chair on the White House portico

Although physically weak, he was mentally active and alert Quickly he took hold of my phrase and said, with a show of the old fire that I had seen on sotiht to oust me, I was upon my back I am on my feet now and I will not have disloyalty about nation was ates of fury broke about the President; but he was serene throughout it all

When I called at the White House on the following Sunday, I found hied in the not arduous task of cutting his hair Looking at me with a smile in his eye, he said: ”Well, Tumulty, have I any friends left?” ”Very few, Governor,” I said Whereupon he replied: ”Of course, it will be another two days'

wonder But in a few days what the country considers an indiscretion on otten, but when the sober, second thought of the country begins to assert itself, ill stand out will be the disloyalty of Lansing to me Just think of it! Raised and exalted to the office of Secretary of State,in all the conferences and affixing his signature to a sole before the Foreign Relations Co to which he had given his assent”

During the illness of the President his political eneht to convey the impression that he was incapacitated for the duties of his office As one who came in daily contact with him I kne baseless were these insinuations As ahis entire illness that he was not in touch with every matter upon which he was called to act and upon which he was asked to render judg his interest in all matters to which depart his illness One of the s upon which he passed was the question of thefrom an injunction suit by the Attorney General, Mr Pal out their purpose to strike This was one of thehis illness and hich he daily kept in touch

Uncoly the President applied himself to the difficult tasks of the Western trip While the firstat Columbus was a disappointrew in numbers and the enthusiasue spread and spread as we neared the coast Contrary to the impression in the East, the President's trip West was a veritable triumph for him and was so successful that we had planned, upon the completion of the Western trip, to invade the eneland States, and particularly Massachusetts This was our plan, fully developed and arranged, when about four o'clock in theof September 26, 1919, Doctor Grayson knocked at the door ofcompartment and told me to dress quickly, that the President was seriously ill As alked toward the President's car, the Doctor told me in a feords of the President's trouble and said that he greatly feared it ht end fatally if we should attempt to continue the trip and that it was his duty to inform the President that by all means the trip est it to the President without having my cooperation and support When we arrived at the President's drawing rooreat difficulty he was able to articulate His face was pale and wan One side of it had fallen, and his condition was indeed pitiful to behold Quickly I reached the same conclusion as that of Doctor Grayson, as to the necessity for the immediate cancellation of the trip, for to continue it, inatdown his face, he said: ”My dear boy, this has never happened toon yesterday I do not knohat to do” He then pleaded with us not to cut short the trip Turning to both of us, he said: ”Don't you see that if you cancel this trip, Senator Lodge and his friends will say that I am a quitter and that the Western trip was a failure, and the Treaty will be lost” Reaching over to him, I took both of his hands and said: ”What difference, my dear Governor, does it make what they say? nobody in the world believes you are a quitter, but it is your life that we must now consider We must cancel the trip, and I am sure that when the people learn of your condition there will be no ” He then tried to ainst the cancellation of the trip; but he found he was unable to do so His left ar refused to function

I then realized that the President's whole left side was paralyzed

Looking at ht and that I am not afraid Just postpone the trip for twenty-four hours and I will be all right”

But Doctor Grayson and I resolved not to take any risk, and an i newspaper men that the Western trip was off

Never was the Presidentthe greatest pain, paralyzed on his left side, he was still fighting desperately for the thing that was so close to his heart--a vindication of the things for which he had so gallantly fought on the other side Griht to the death for the League of Nations

In the dispatches carried to the country, prepared by the fine newspaper men who accompanied us on the trip, it was stated that evidences of a breakdown on the part of the President were plainly visible in the speech he delivered at Pueblo

I had talked to him only a few minutes before the delivery of that speech, and the only apparent evidence that he was approaching a breakdoas in his re headache, and that he would have to cut his speech short As a matter of fact, this last speech he est speeches delivered on the Western trip and, if I may say so, was one of the best and ue of Nations