1919] Treaty of Versailles Rejected 



Inasmuch as the "Fourteen Points" as declared by the 

 President of the United States, and announcing the position 

 assumed by him as executive, were accepted as the basis of 

 peace by all the chief belligerent nations, the sole reservation 

 being the interpretation on the part of Great Britain of the 

 clause relating to the freedom of the Seas, the Senate of the 

 United States reserves the right to interpret the League Cove- 

 nant and the Treaty of Peace in harmony with the principles laid 

 down in the said " Fourteen Points." It will therefore consider 

 this Covenant and Treaty as in no wise binding the United 

 States to any line of conduct, financial or military, which may 

 run counter to the "Fourteen Points." It is further understood 

 that under the Constitution of the United States, hostilities, 

 either economic or military, cannot be automatically declared, 

 but require positive action on the part of Congress. 



In the end, the Senate declined to ratify the Treaty, R fasons 

 even with reservations, and for two unrelated reasons: for fail- 

 its badness, which alienated many of the League's u j 

 ablest supporters, some of whom joined the ranks of 

 "irreconcilables," and the determination of partisan 

 Senators to discredit Mr. Wilson's handiwork. 

 Meanwhile, increasing experience with the aberra- 

 tions of British and French politics had rendered us 

 more and more averse to entangling associations 

 until equilibrium should be reached. To add to our 

 deflections those of our allies would aggravate the 

 general confusion. 1 Yet toward a genuine "Council 



1 In a spirit of cynical disillusionment at the close of 1919, I proposed a 

 doggerel toast to the New Year: 



Here's to nineteen hundred twenty! 

 Soc ft tuum good and plenty! 

 Let the Devil take the hindmost 

 And the foremost as he will. 

 Sure the Master Driver loves us 

 As into our graves he shoves us; 

 Starving takes away the chill! 

 A year later, in similar vein, William Allen White (whose racy Western wit 



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