Indecent Assaults on the President

Title

Indecent Assaults on the President

Creator

O'Sullivan's Weekly

Identifier

WWP15881

Date

1919 October 4

Source

Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia

Language

English

Text

One of the most shameful attacks ever made on President Wilson came from the lips of United States Senator Poindexter in a recent speech in New York. He denounced the President as “pro-German,” and proclaimed him “the greatest menace” that threatened the peace and welfare of the country. It was a disgraceful exhibition of partisan malice by a man whose career in the Senate gave promise of better things.

Borah, Johnson and Sherman, the unspeakable, on the Republican side, have caused their personal hatred of the President to blind them to the worth of the League of Nations, the sole hope of the world in its fight against autocracy and bolshevism.

Among the Democrats, Senator Reed of Missouri is the most unreasonable, although Gore of Oklahoma and Thomas of Colorado are not far behind him. Reed was formerly Prosecuting Attorney in the criminal court, and he has all the ingrained bitterness, and lack of human sympathy that so often characterizes the products of that environment. His speeches have been wanting in fairness, lacking in logic and truth, the product of a vicious mind set on fire of hell with a personal dislike of the President.

There is another sinister motive driving Reed out of his party and inspiring his attacks on the League of Nations and the Chief Executive. The brewery interests of St. Louis and Kansas City are behind him to a man, and every pro-German and disloyal citizen of Missouri applaud his assaults and encourage him in his apostasy.

The President’s trip through the West was one continuous triumph. California repudiated the leadership of Hiram Johnson, questioned the wisdom of his course, and expressed themselves in favor of the League of Nations without qualification.

The people of this nation on this particular question are with the President. They know the trials he has gone through and the burdens he has borne that peace might come to a distressed world. They have faith in his sincerity; in his power to consider these vital matters and determine them with mercy and justice; in his surpassing intellectual gifts that make him master of any assemblage; in his pure patriotism, so unquestioned and so unsullied that it lifts him a tower of light above the mean and sordid natures that decry and slander him.

Original Format

Article

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/D00483C.pdf

Citation

O'Sullivan's Weekly, “Indecent Assaults on the President,” 1919 October 4, WWP15881, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.