Wildow Wilson
The strength of the liberal forces desired a stronger treaty and conservative isolationists and opposed the treaty on all grounds combined. This was done to help defeat the Treaty of Versailles. The final blame for the defeat of the treaty lies with Woodrow Wilson's stubborn resistance to compromise. Woodrow Wilson was the son of a Presbyterian Minister. He carried his own personal religious and academic beliefs over into his political career. Wilson promised "a war to make the world safe for democracy." Wilson incorporated fourteen points into the Treat of Versailles that would supposedly achieve his aforementioned goal-among these an end to protective trade barriers, self-determination for people of all nations, and the very controversial world organization, The League of Nations (Article X). Article "X" stipulated that all league members would come to the aid of any member nation faced with naked aggression. "Article X is nothing but the inevitable, logical center of the whole system," argued Wilso
Minority groups such as Italians demanded self-determination for the Austrian controlled by Italian-national Fume province, and other immigrant groups who believed that their other nations had been cheated the right to self-determination (Serbian-Americans, Armenian-Americans, Ethnic Slavs in German and Austrian territory) joined liberal forces in opposing the treaty; while their grounds for opposition were self-centered, they were guise in internationalism. " The very liberal newspaper, New Republican, editorialized that the treaty "(does) much to intensify and nothing to heal the old and ugly dissentions" that plague civilization (Document B). Still unwilling to compromise, Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke. When the treaty finally arrived before the Senate, Senator Lodge tacked on his reservations. At the same time, the conservatives mounted a propaganda campaign to defeat the league. However, despite opposition from the far right and radical left, a majority of Americans and a majority of the Senate were at first amenable to the treat with reservations. In preparing the original treaty at a Conference in Paris with Britain's Lloyd-George, France's Clemenceau, and Italy's Vittorio Orlando, he blundered right and left in an attempt to salvage the league. Theses reservationists, headed by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, would have accepted the treaty if Article X had been removed; without the removal of several internationalist-minded articles (including American participation in the league), the treaty would be unable to pass the senate. Leftists also challenged the Versailles Treaty on both the grounds that Wilson had sold out a majority of his fourteen points and that the league would become an ineffective puppet organization that would not make the world "truly safe for democracy. Wilson toured the country during the Congressional Elections of 1920 in an attempt to get the people to elect a Democratic, pro-league Congress. Wilson however, was unwilling to compromise. Jane Addams' Women's Peace Party, another relatively moderate group, stood divided in the present league but did not altogether object to an international organization in some form. n who believed that his methods were right and all others were wrong (Document C). Thus, during the course of the negotiation, France and Britain were permitted to demand reparations, carve up German's colonies and violate many of Wilson's fourteen points in order to maintain the European Power's support for the league.
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Acceptance Essays
