Although Wilson had succeeded in creating the League of
Nations and meeting many of the goals outlined in his Fourteen
Points speech, his battles were not yet over. Indeed, at that point
they had barely begun. According to the Constitution, Wilson still
had to convince the required two-thirds of the Senate to ratify
the Treaty of Versailles. If he failed to acquire the necessary
sixty-seven votes, the peace that he had fought so ardently for
would most likely die.
Wilson's fight with the Senate was uphill all the way.
The Senate did not like the idea of the League of Nations and was
still bitter about having been excluded from representation in
Wilson's delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. Moreover, the
Senate at the time was primarily Republican. Many of its members
were isolationists, and few were unwilling to entangle the United
States in international agreements that could either challenge
American sovereignty or draw the nation into another European war.
Many in the Senate had deep reservations to say the least.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, held hearings on the Versailles Treaty for six weeks
during the summer of 1919. These hearings proved to be fatal for
the treaty. Although Lodge himself was not entirely opposed to
the treaty, the six-week debate allowed many other Senators more
opposed to the League and the treaty to speak out and persuade
their colleagues. The more powerful of these senators included Hiram
W. Johnson of California and William E. Borah of Idaho, both isolationists.
As the summer drew to a close, Wilson realized that he was losing
support and that his dream would die unless he did something drastic.
Wilson's solution was to take the treaty and the League
to the American people. Wilson believed that if he convinced enough Americans
that only the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations could
prevent all other future catastrophic wars, then the Senate would
have no choice but to ratify the treaty. The President boarded
his campaign train and set out for the Midwest and the West, the
places where isolationist tendencies were strongest. Wilson's plan
worked, at least for the month of September 1919. Though Wilson
often received a lukewarm reception each time he arrived in a new
Midwestern city, by the time he had spoken to the citizens, they
almost invariably gave him roaring cheers. Toward the end of the
month, however, Wilson was beginning to tire. He had delivered
nearly forty speeches in half as many days over, 8,000 miles of
America. He finally collapsed in Pueblo, Colorado, on September
25, 1919. A week later, back in Washington, D.C., Wilson suffered
a stroke. He was paralyzed on the left side of his entire body
and remained half paralyzed for the rest of his life.
Confined to bed for much of the remainder of his Presidential term,
Wilson could do little but watch as the Senate prepared to vote
on the treaty. By this time, over a dozen modifications had been made
to the treaty, the most damaging of which required a joint resolution
from the House and the Senate to participate in the League of Nations.
Wilson ordered the Democrats in the Senate to vote "nay" for that
particular version of the treaty. Because of this and the Republican
opposition, the Senate voted down the Treaty of Versailles. Wilson
tried to revive it in the spring of 1920, but it failed again.
The rest of Wilson's time in office was uneventful. His
wife Edith stayed by his bedside and relayed his orders, but the
President could not seriously work on anything else. Despite the
treaty's failure in the Senate, Wilson believed until the day he
died that he had been in the right to fight for it. He also believed
that the United States and the rest of mankind would regret the
Senate's decision. Although the League of Nations was created
under the Treaty of Versailles, it was never taken seriously as
a forum of discussion or as a protector of peace because it lacked
American support.
The issue of American ratification resurfaced in during
the Presidential election in the autumn of 1920. The Republicans,
led by candidate Warren G. Harding, opposed the League, while the
Democrats, led by James M. Cox, supported it. The Republicans won that
year by an overwhelming majority and thus sealed the fate of American
involvement in the League of Nations. Wilson's work, however, did
not go entirely unrecognized: in 1919 he became the second President,
after Theodore Roosevelt, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Wilson spent the remainder of his life in retirement in
Washington, D.C. Shortly after he stepped down as President, he
returned to practicing law. Along with Bainbridge Colby, his third
Secretary of State, he founded a law firm in the city. However,
his paralysis continued to prevent him from seriously working. He
gave his last speech on November 11, 1923, again pledging his support
for the League of Nations. Then, on February 23, 1924, Wilson died
in his sleep, and was buried in Washington two days later. He was
sixty-seven years old.
