American History - Part 157 - Wilson - Crippled - Treaty Rejected - Harding Elected
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 2013-07-29

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
The President's advisers kept his condition secret from almost everyone. They told reporters only that Wilson was suffering from a nervous breakdown.
For the next few days, the medical reports from the White House were always the same. They said Mr. Wilson's condition had not changed.
People began to wonder. Were they being told the truth. Some people began to believe that the President was, in fact, dead. Vice President Thomas Marshall was worried. If the President died or could not govern, then he -- Marshall -- would become President. But even Vice President Marshall could get no information from Wilson's doctors.
  After several weeks, the President seemed to get a little stronger. He was still very weak. He could not work, except to sign several bills. This simple act took most of his strength.
Wilson's wife Edith guarded her husband closely. She alone decided who could see him. She alone decided what information he could receive. All letters and messages to Woodrow Wilson were given first to Edith Wilson. She decided if they were important enough for him to see. Most, she decided, were not. She also prevented members of the cabinet and other government officials from communicating with him directly.
Mrs. Wilson's actions made many people suspect that she -- not her husband -- was governing the country. Some spoke of her as the nation's first woman President.

There was one issue Mrs. Wilson did discuss with her husband: the League of Nations.
The Senate was completing debate on the Treaty of Versailles. That was the WWI peace agreement that contained Wilson's plan for the league. It seemed clear the Senate would reject the treaty. 
 The Senate voted. Hitchcock's fears proved correct. The treaty was defeated. The defeat ended Wilson's dream of American membership in the League of Nations.
Mrs. Wilson gave the news to her husband. He was silent for a long time. Then he said: "I must get well."
Woodrow Wilson was extremely sick. Yet he was not the kind of man who accepted opposition or defeat easily. From his sick bed, he wrote a letter to the other members of the Democratic Party. He urged them to continue debate on the League of Nations. He said a majority of Americans wanted the treaty approved.
Wilson probably was correct about this. Most Americans did approve of membership in the League of Nations. But they also wanted to be sure membership would not restrict American independence.
The long battle over the Treaty of Versailles ended with political defeat for Woodrow Wilson. Yet history would prove him correct.
Wilson had warned time and again during the debate that a terrible war would result if the world did not come together to protect the peace. Twenty years later, war came. The 1st World War had been called 'the War to End All Wars'. But it was not. And the 2nd World War would be far more destructive than the first.
 The debate over the Treaty of Versailles was the central issue in American politics during the end of Woodrow Wilson's administration. It also played a major part in the Presidential election of 1920.
Wilson himself could not be a candidate again. He was much too sick. So the Democratic Party nominated a former governor of Ohio, James Cox. Cox shared Wilson's opinion that the United States should join the League of Nations. He campaigned actively for American membership.
The Republican Party chose Senator Warren Harding as its candidate for president. Harding campaigned by promising a return to what he called 'normal times'. He said it was time for America to stop arguing about international events and start thinking about itself again.

The two presidential candidates gave the American people a clear choice in the election of 1920.
On one side was Democrat James Cox. He represented the dream of Woodrow Wilson. In this dream, the world would be at peace. And America would be a world leader that would fight for the freedom and human rights of people everywhere.
On the other side was Republican Warren Harding. He represented an inward-looking America. It was an America that felt it had sacrificed enough for other people. Now it would deal with its own problems.
Warren Harding won the election.
 The results of the election shocked and hurt Woodrow Wilson. He could not understand why the people had turned from him and his dream of international unity and peace. But the fact was that America was entering a new period in its history. For a long time, it would turn its energy away from the world beyond its borders.
That will be our story next week.