Henry Cabot Lodge

[[File:Henry Cabot Lodge.jpg|165px|thumb|right|Henry Cabot Lodge]]
{{uspolitics}}
'''Henry Cabot Lodge''' {{lived|1850|1924}} was a historian, lawyer, and [[Republican]] politician who most famously served as the [[Senate]] Majority Leader during the end of the Presidency of [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref name=Lodge>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Cabot-Lodge-United-States-senator-1850-1924 Henry Cabot Lodge]</ref> 

==Civil rights==
Early in his career, he supported the {{wpl|Lodge Bill}} that would have protected the voting rights of African-Americans, but the bill failed to pass.<ref>[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/abs/federal-elections-bill-of-1890-the-continuation-of-reconstruction-in-america/C9B3B97D9B77310759EA2C70A8802897 The Federal Elections Bill of 1890: The Continuation of Reconstruction in America], Colin McConarty, ''The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'' 2020;19(3):390-405 doi:10.1017/S1537781420000067</ref> Beyond that, though, his record was fairly awful: following the {{wpl|1891 New Orleans lynchings}} in which 11 Italian-Americans were killed, he [[victim blaming|blamed the victims]] and used the opportunity to advocate against Italian immigration.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25102181 Lynch Law and Unrestricted Immigration], Henry Cabot Lodge, ''The North American Review'', Vol. 152, No. 414 (May, 1891), pp. 602-612</ref> He was also an opponent of women's suffrage.<ref>[https://library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides/l/lodge_hc.htm Henry Cabot Lodge Correspondence], ''Syracuse University''</ref>

==League of Nations==
Lodge is most known for his efforts to stop the ratification of [[Treaty of Versailles | a treaty]] which would have the United States enter the [[League of Nations]]. After the [[First World War]], many world diplomats and politicians were interested in making sure such an event never occurred again, with one of their proposed methods of doing so setting up a place where the countries of the world could meet up with one another and talk out their issues.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/League-of-Nations League of Nations]</ref> Lodge was willing to go along with the treaty on the condition that specific amendments, known as the Lodge Reservations, were added,<ref name=Lodge/> although these did little more than demand the United States government be given more power.<ref>[https://inside.sfuhs.org/dept/history/US_History_reader/Chapter8/lodge%20reservations.htm The Lodge Reservations, 1919]</ref> Given that allowing the United States to have special powers would kind of go against the point of creating a place where all nations were on equal terms, President Wilson refused to go along with this idea, causing Lodge to make sure that ratification failed in the Senate.<ref name=Lodge/>

===Isolationist?===
{{main|Isolationism}}
One of the greatest misconceptions regarding this event stems from how Lodge "ultimately came to be regarded as an isolationist".<ref>[https://npg.si.edu/exh/brush/lodge.htm Henry Cabot Lodge]</ref> Although this did show Republicans to have little interest in Wilson's foreign policy, eventually leading to the isolationism of the 1920s,<ref>[https://online.norwich.edu/isolationism-and-us-foreign-policy-after-world-war-i Isolationism and U.S. Foreign Policy After World War I]</ref> Lodge himself was less opposed to the treaty due to some [[Pat Buchanan]]-style dislike of international government, but more out of a [[Dick Cheney]]-style belief that the United States should be the one who makes all the rules. Remember, he was not opposed to the treaty on principle, he just wanted the United States to be given more power.

Lodge was actually more of a hawk regarding [[Germany]] after the war than Wilson was,<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/wilson-henry-cabot-lodge/ Henry Cabot Lodge]</ref> demanding an unconditional surrender from Germany which Wilson was uninterested in obtaining.<ref>[https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/treaties/senate-rejects-treaty-of-versailles.htm Senate Rejects the Treaty of Versailles]</ref> On his way to vote for getting the United States involved with the war, he even assaulted a [[pacifist]] who protested his doing such.<ref>[https://www.boston.com/news/history/2017/04/06/100-years-ago-the-us-entered-wwi-and-a-senator-from-massachusetts-punched-a-protester-in-the-face-over-it/ 100 years ago, the US entered WWI—and a senator from Massachusetts punched a protester in the face over it]</ref>{{efn|For his part, [[chickenhawk|Lodge never served in the military]]}} Before that, he had shown a long streak of being fine with [[imperialism]], and even outright supporting it at times, such as during the [[Spanish-American War]].<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.7249/j.ctt1287m9t.11.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aad6110bf729a29b6183c98d8186a49f8 Chapter Title: The American Decision to Go to War with Spain, 1898]</ref>

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Chickenhawks]]
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Former United States Representatives]]
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[[Category:United States politicians]]
[[Category:Xenophobes]]

Categories: Chickenhawks, Former United States Senators, Former United States Representatives, Historians, Imperialists, Lawyers, Sexists, United States politicians, Xenophobes