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The Harding Administration, the League of Nations, and the Separate Peace Treaty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Kurt  and
Sarah Wimer
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Extract

President Woodrow Wilson spent over one-half year in Paris to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles. Upon his return he submitted the Treaty to the Senate for confirmation. A deadlock between the Executive and the Legislature twice prevented passage of the Treaty. The issue extended to the presidential election of 1920 when many voters supported Warren G. Harding convinced that he was more likely to bring about the entry of the United States into the League than his Democratic opponent.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 1967 , pp. 13 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1967

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References

1 See particularly the “statement of the 31,” New York Times, 10 15, 1920. For interpretation see Link, Arthur S., Wilson the Diplomatist (Baltimore, 1957), p. 153.Google Scholar

2 Memorandum of Beerits, Henry C., Papers of Charles Evans Hughes. Library of Congres.Google Scholar

3 Beveridge to Harvey, George, 12 22, 1920.Google ScholarQuoted in Bowers, Claude G., Beveridge and the Progressive Era (Cambridge, 1932), p. 522. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge expressed “anxiety” to the President-elect. Lodge to Harding, 12 24, 1920. Papers of Harding, Warren G., Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio.Google Scholar

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9 Ferrell, Robert H., American Diplomacy (NewYork, 1959), p. 315. A draft passage begins: “We stand ready, if need be to initiate, an association of nations.⃛” Folder of inaugural address of President Harding. Harding PapersGoogle Scholar

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11 Letter of Hughes to George Wickersham, 03 28, 1923. Harding Papers. For senatorial threats of noncooperation see Beerits MemorandumHughes Papers. This controversy was aired publicly in an exchange of open letters between Hughes and Hamilton Holt. See Holt to Hughes, 07 7 and 18, 1922, and Hughes to Holt, 07 13 and 19, 1922. Hughes Papers.Google ScholarA critical analysis of Hughes's policy toward the League is in Wickersham, George W. “The Senate and Our Foreign Relations” Foreign Affairs, II (1923), pp. 177–192. For Hughes's defense see Beerits Memorandum which Hughes approved. Hughes Papers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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13 S. J. Resolution 16, Congressional Record, 67th Congress, 1st Session, p. 3299. President Wilson vetoed a similar resolution a year earlier (H. J. Resolution 327, Congressional Record, 66th Congress, 2nd Session, House Document 799).Google ScholarThe latter is discussed in Bailey, Thomas A., Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal (NewYork, 1947), pp. 290–294.Google Scholar

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16 A full discussion is in Pusey, Merlo J., Charles Evans Hughes (NewYork, 1951), II, Chapter 42.Google Scholar

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21 The Committee adopted the reservation by a vote of 8:2. Unable to contact the White House, two Republicans (New and Kellogg) voted against it. New York Times, 09 24, 1921. Views of the State Department regarding submission to Germany are on p. 2, Ibid.. The reservation was introduced by Lodge and corresponded closely to the 7th Lodge reservation to the Treaty of Versailles. The latter is in the Congressional Record, 66th Cogress, 2nd Session, p. 4599.

22 Letter of Wilson to Glass, delivered to Glass by John Randolph Boiling on 09 25, 1921. Papers of Carter Glass, University of Virginia. Wilson wrote the letter himself. Glass permitted Boiling to make a copy. Wilson Papers. See also letter of Wilson to Glass, 09 15, 1921. Wilson Papers.Google Scholar

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24 New York Times, 07 27, 1921. For Williams' explanation, see Williams to E. S. Tennent, 10 3, 1921, and Wilson to Williams, 10 4, 1921. Papers of Williams, John S., Library of Congress.Google Scholar

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26 Glass to Wilson, 09 29, 1921. Wilson Papers.Google Scholar

27 The first session of the 67th Congress had 59 Republicans and 37 Democrats. If all Senators voted 64 were needed for Treaty approval.

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32 Republican leaders appealed to Harding because of strained relations between Governor Sproul and Senator Penrose. Sproul promptly appointed Crow, William E.. New York Times, 10 14 to 16, 1921.Google Scholar

33 Congressional Record, 67th Congress, 1st Session, p. 6434. For the vote on the Reed amendment see ibid., p. 6382. For the vote on the Walsh amendment see ibid., p. 6367.

34 New York Times, 09 25, 1921.Google Scholar

35 See note 23 and New York Times, 09 28, 1921.Google Scholar

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37 Congressional Record, 67th Congress, 1st Session, p. 6410.Google Scholar

38 Ibid., p. 6439. The final vote shows a fraction more than eight votes in excess of the required two-thirds majority. It masks the precarious status of the Treaty shortly before the voting and merely gives the formal record after hope for defeat of the Treaty had vanished.

39 Hughes to his son, 08 27, 1921. Quoted in Pusey, Charles Evans Hughes, II, 442.Google Scholar

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41 Wilson to Long, 12 20, 1921. The Diary of Breckinridge Long, Library of Congress.Google Scholar

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43 New York Times, 09 27, 1921. Officials of the State Department admitted that the subject matter of the reservation was in the “twilight zone” between executive and legislative powers. New York Times, 09 25, 1921. Wilson ignored a similar directive of Congress of 03 4, 1913, as an encroachment on executive prerogative.Google Scholar For details see Leopold, Richard W., The Growth of American Foreign Policy (NewYork, 1962), pp. 246–47.Google Scholar