The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-06-20
WHAT LODGE THINKS or LODGE

We sometimes wonder what Henry
Cabot Lodge, the historian. thinks Of
Henry Cabot Lodge, senator in the
congress of the United States from
Massachusetts,, and what Mr.. Lodge.
the historian, would have to say
about Mr.. Lodge, the senator, If he
were to deal with that gentleman in
the calm. judicial manner in which
he has dealt with other eminent per
sons in the affairs of the republic.
For example, in his life of George
Washington, Henry Cabot Lodge, the
historian, discusses certain aspects
of the opposition to the Jay treaty
in a manner that must make Henry
Cabot Lodge, the senator, thankful
that Mr., Lodge, the historian, will
probably never find the time and in
clination to deal dispassionately with
the antics of Mr.. Lodge, the senator,
during the last week.
This treaty with England was ne
gotiated by John Jay, who was chief
justice of the United States supreme
court According to Henry Cabot
Lodge, the historian:
The treaty reached Philadelphia on
March 4 Nothing was said of its ar.
rival, which does not seem to have
been known to anyone but the pres
/ ident and Randolph, who had mean
time succeeded Jefferson as secre
tary of state Three months later,
on June 8, the senate was called to-
| gether in special session. and the
treaty was laid before them.
| So far, so good The senate rati-
fed the treaty by exactly the neces-
sary two-thirds vote, with a proviso
that related to the modification of the
West Indian article. But although
the treaty was raified it was not
made public, and now we come again
to Henry Cabot Lodge, the historian,
who is stern and unbending cham
pion OF senatorial proprieties. Lis
ten to this just and upright Judge the
while he pronounces sentence upon
one Stevens Thomson Mason, a mis-
cradle anti-federalist from Virginia:
Bache had the substance of the
treaty in the Aurora" on June 20,
and Mr.. Stevens Thomson Mason,
senator from Virginia was so pain
ed by some slight inaccuracies in
this version that he wrote Mr.. Bache
"a note and sent him a copy of the
treaty despite the injunction of Sc
crecy by which he as a senator was
bound. Mr.. Mason gained great pres
ent glory by this frank breach of
promise, and curiously enough this
single discreditable act is the only
thing that keeps his name and mem
DRY alive in history. All that he
achieved at the moment was to hurry
the inevitable disclosure of the con-
tents of treaty which no one desir-
ed to conceal except in Difference to
official form.
Yet the treaty which Senator Ma.
son made public in so scandalous a
fashion, as narrated by Henry Cabot
Lodge, the historian, was a treaty
which had already been negotiated
by the president and ratified by the
senate. Senator Mason did not rise
in his seat in the senate while the
negotiations were in progress, dra-
matically declare that friend in
New York had shown him copy Of
the tentative draft of the treaty, that
this draft had been sent to private
persons in cIandestine manner by
order of the president of the United
States. obviously from improper mo
tives, and by false accusations that
the senate was being deprived of it's
constitutional rights, endeavor to the
best of his ability to embarrass the
president in the final negotiation /of
the treaty.
AS we said before, all that Stevens
Thomson Mason did was to make
public a treaty that had already been
negotiated and ratified Yet when
we read the scattering Judgment
passed upon his conduct by Henry
Cabot Lodge, the historian, we won
der more than ever what Mr.. Lodge,
the historian, would say about the
recent performance of Henry Cabot
Lodge, senator in the congress of the
United States Possibly the fact that
Mr.. Lodge, the senator, is republi-
can of irreproachabIe federaIist ante
cedents and not wretched demo,
crat of anti-federalist extractinn
might soften and temper the Ian
guage of Mr. Lodge, the biographer
Of George Washington Otherwise,
the official hide of Henry Cabot
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