Part 37 (2/2)
Many things in connection with the Puebloimpressed themselves upon me In the peroration of the speech he drew a picture of his visit on Decoration Day, 1919, to what he called a beautiful hillside near Paris, where was located the ceiven over to the burial of the American dead As he spoke of the purposes for which those departed Areat wave of e, swept through the whole amphitheatre As he continued his speech, I looked at Mrs Wilson and saw tears in her eyes I then turned to see the effect upon soreat speeches were ordinary things, and they were alike deeply moved Down in the amphitheatre I saw men sneak their handkerchiefs out of their pockets and wipe the tears fro upon the heart emotions of the thousands of people ere held spell-bound by what he said
It is possible, I pray God it may not be so, that the speech at Pueblo was the last public speech that Woodrow Wilson will everinto this story the concluding words of it:
What of our pledges to the men that lie dead in France? We said that they went over there not to prove the prowess of America or her readiness for another war but to see to it that there never was such a war again It always see, my fellow citizens, when I think of my clients in this case
My clients are the children; eneration They do not knohat promises and bonds I undertook when I ordered the armies of the United States to the soil of France, but I know, and I intend to redeees to the children; they shall not be sent upon a siain, my fellow citizens, mothers who lost their sons in France have co my hand, have shed tears upon it not only, but they have added: ”God bless you, Mr President!” Why, my fellow citizens, should they pray God to bless ress of the United States to create the situation that led to the death of their sons I ordered their sons overseas I consented to their sons being put in the most difficult parts of the battle line, where death was certain, as in the ionne Why should they weep upon s of God uponthat vastly transcends any of the immediate and palpable objects of the war They believe, and they rightly believe, that their sons saved the liberty of the world They believe that wrapped up with the liberty of the world is the continuous protection of that liberty by the concerted powers of all the civilized world They believe that this sacrifice was made in order that other sons should not be called upon for a siift of all that died-- and if we did not see this thing through, if we fulfilled the dearest present wish of Gerside e fought in the ould not soun over the mantelpiece, or the sword? Would not the old unifornificance? These ht of justice and right, and all the world accepted them as crusaders, and their transcendent achievement has made all the world believe in Aanized in the modern world There seems to me to stand between us and the rejection or qualification of this treaty the serried ranks of those boys in khaki, not only those boys who cahosts that still deploy upon the fields of France
My friends, on last Decoration Day I went to a beautiful hillside near Paris, where was located the ceiven over to the burial of the American dead BehindA before me on the levels of the plain was rank upon rank of departed Aht by the side of the stand where I spoke there was a little group of French woraves, hadflowers every day upon those graves, taking them as their own sons, their own beloved, because they had died in the same cause--France was free and the world was free because America had co the settlement for which these men died could visit such a spot as that I wish that the thought that coraves could penetrate their consciousness I wish that they could feel the o back on those boys, but to see the thing through, to see it through to the end andless depends upon this decision, nothing less than the liberation and salvation of the world
Now that the reat question have cleared away, I believe that men will see the trust, eye to eye and face to face There is one thing that the American people always rise to and extend their hand to, and that is the truth of justice and of liberty and of peace We have accepted that truth and we are going to be led by it, and it is going to lead us, and through us the world, out into pastures of quietness and peace such as the world never dreamed of before
CHAPTER XLIII
RESERVATIONS
On June 25, 1919, I received froe:
My clear conviction is that the adoption of the treaty by the Senate with reservations will put the United States as clearly out of the concert of nations as a rejection We ought either to go in or stay out To stay out would be fatal to the influence and even to the coive her a leading place in the affairs of the world Reservations would eitheror postpone the conclusion of peace, so far as America is concerned, until every other principal nation concerned in the treaty had found out by negotiation what the reservations practically meant and whether they could associate themselves with the United States on the terms of the reservations or not
WOODROW WILSON
The President consistently held to the principle involved in this statee constituted a virtual nullification on the part of the United States of a treaty which was a contract, and which should be a parties He did not argue or assume that the Covenant was a perfected document, but he believed that, like our American Constitution, it should be adopted and subsequently subh the constitutional processes of debate He was unalterably opposed to having the United States put in the position of seeking exereement which he believed was in the interest of the entire world, including our own country Furthermore, he believed that the advocacy for reservations in the Senate proceeded fro popular opinion in the country in favour of reservations it proceeded froanda Before the war pro-Gerht to keep us out of the conflict, and after the war it sought to separate us in interest and purpose froovernments hich ere associated
By his opposition to reservations the President was seeking to prevent Gerh diploet by her armies
The President was so confident of the essential rightness of the League and the Covenant and of the inherent right-mindedness of the American people, that he could not believe that the people would sanction either rejection or emasculation of the Treaty if they could be made to see the issue in all the sincerity of its motives and purposes, if partisan attack could beIt was to present the case of the people in what he considered its true light that he undertook the Western tour, and it hile thus engaged that his health broke Had he kept well and been able to lead in person the struggle for ratification, he ht have won, as he had previously by his determination and conviction broken down stubborn opposition to the Federal Reserve syste was his faith in his cause and the people that even after he fell ill he could not believe that ratification would fail What his enehteousness of the treaty and in the reasonableness of the proposition that the time to make amendments was not prior to the adoption of the Treaty and by one nation, but after all the nations had agreed and had ether for sober, unpartisan consideration of alterations in the interest of all the contracting parties and the peace and welfare of the world
Even when he lay seriously ill, he insisted upon being taken in his invalid chair along the White House portico to theofthe controversy in the Senate over the Treaty
There day after day in the coldest possible weather I conferred with hiht on the Hill He would sit in his chair, wrapped in blankets, and though hardly able, because of his physical condition, to discuss these matters with me, he evidenced in every way a tre in the Capitol that had to do with the Treaty Although I arned by Doctor Grayson and Mrs Wilson not to alarht, in thethe atmosphere of the Hill to hihtest rise in the tide for the League of Nations a smile would pass over the President's face, and weak and broken though he was, he evidenced his great pleasure at the news Tiht the President would appear outside arding the progress of the Treaty fight on Capitol Hill
One of the peculiar things about the illness from which the President suffered was the deep eht to him that this senator or that senator on the Hill had said soone to his defense when so his attitude in the Treaty fight Never would there come from hi hiht For Senator Borah, the leader of the opposition, he had high respect, and felt that he was actuated only by sincere motives
I recall how deeply depressed he ord was carried to him that the defeat of the Treaty was inevitable On this day he was lookinghis illness After I had read to hi a report on the situation in the Senate, I dreay fro very well to-day” He shook his head in a pathetic way and said: ”I a his head he gave way to the deep emotion he felt
A few days later I called to notify him of the defeat of the Treaty His only comment was, ”They have sha to keepsituation, I smiled and said: ”But, Governor, only the Senate has defeated you The People will vindicate your course You may rely upon that” ”Ah, but our enemies have poisoned the wells of public opinion,” he said ”They have reat Juggernaut, the object of which is to bring war and not peace to the world If I only could have reh to have convinced the people that the League of Nations was their real hope, their last chance, perhaps, to save civilization!”
I said, by way of trying to strengthen and encourage him at this, one of the critical moments of his life--a moment that I kneas one of despair for him--”Governor, I want to read a chapter from the third volume of your 'History of the Aave his assent and I took fro an account of the famous John Jay treaty, in the defense of which Alexander Ha it on the steps of the New York City Hall There was, indeed, a reht over the John Jay treaty and the Versailles Treaty I read an entire chapter of Woodrow Wilson's ”History of the Ae:
Slowly the storained more than it had conceded, and tardily saw the debt it owed Mr Jay and to the administration, whose firmness and prudence had s had been said which could not be forgotten Washi+ngton had been assailed with unbridled license, as an eneed with e the Revolution; was madly threatened with impeachment, and even with assassination; and had cried amidst the bitterness of it all that ”he would rather be in his grave than in the presidency”
The country knew its real ain when the end of his term came and it was about to lose him He refused to stand for another election His farewell address, with its unmistakable tone of majesty and its solemn force of affection and admonition, seemed an epitome of the man's character and achievements, and every ton was actually gone fro this chapter, the President's coenerous of you to compare ton's _You have placed ood company_”