William G. McAdoo to Woodrow Wilson

Title

William G. McAdoo to Woodrow Wilson

Creator

McAdoo, W. G. (William Gibbs), 1863-1941

Identifier

WWP16254

Date

1920 May 14

Source

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

Language

English

Text

Dear Governor

I thought your letter to your Oregon friend on the League of Nations was very timely because I think it most important now to sharpen the issue between the Republicans and yourself to the utmost possible limit.

I have decided to write you about this matter notwithstanding my unwillingness to worry you with anything while you are not entirely well but we are at a point now where I think you can take a course which will not only strengthen your position enormously with the people of the country, but put the Republicans at the very sort of disadvantage which they ought to suffer for their insincere and obstructionist policy.

You would be surprised, if you could mingle with the pepople of the country unknown, to learn how far the Republicans have succeeded in convincing them that you are responsible for the defeat of the Treaty and that this defeat is due solely to your “obstinacy”. It is all so grossly unfair that I never think of it without indignation but we must face the facts.

I believe you can correct these erroneous impressions and gain a tremenduous strategic and actual advantage if you should take the following course; return the Treaty immediately to the Senate with another message, enumerate the reservations which are unobjectionable, - because there are a number of them which I think you would be willing to pass over to get the Treaty ratified;- then enumerate the particular reservations to which you object, taking each in its order and answering each in its order, with such a calm logical and demolishing statement of the reasons why each is objectionable that you will carry conviction to the great masses of the American people.

By this course you will show, first, that you are not “obstinate” or insisting that the Treaty shall be ratified without “a dotting an i or crossing a t”, as is repeated by your adversaries ad nauseam; and, second, that the controversy with the Senate is limited to a few reservations and that your objections to these are reasonable, proper and necessary if the League of Nations is to function with satisfaction.

You will, by this means, also dispel an immense amount of confusion that now exists in the public mind as to the exact issue between yourself and your opponents in the Senate. Your message would be published in every paper in the United States, - Republican and Democratic alike and, therefore, you will get a hearing before the entire public. For this reason, I should make the message as short, as compact, as direct as possible in its statement of the objections to the particular reservations which are in controversy.

After covering the objections I should then say, in effect, that you have no pride of opinion about the League of Nations Covenant, or the Treaty, - that your only concern is to secure peace and to establish an effective instrumentality for the prevention of future wars; that you earnestly hope that the Senate will reconsider the Treaty in the light of the objections you have presented and that no partisan consideration of any sort will be permitted to enter into the discussion or consideration of this grave question.

I should conclude with an appeal in that lofty and noble phrase, which you alone can so well employ, for a prompt ratification of the Treaty in the interest of humanity, christianity and the welfare of mankind everywhere. I should point out briefly the terrible distress and suffering which now pervades Europe and which must soon pervade our own shores unless peace and security are soon reestablished because of the reduced production of the essential supplies to maintain life throughout the world. I should refer to its reaction upon our own domestic situation – the unrest and uncertainty which face us here and the alarming reduction indicated by the preliminary reports on agriculture in this country, and I should draw a picture again, not only of America’s great opportunity for service to suffering humanity everywhere, but of her moral obligation to help lift humanity out of the terrible abyss of suffering and misery into which it has been thrown for the past five years.

I can only offer a suggestion. I know that you can do so well in your own matchless way this message that I do not for a moment undertake to suggest any of the phraseology.

I should not, if I were you, suggest alternative reservations for those to which you object because the politicians and obstructionists in the Senate would purposely reject any specific proposal from you, but, if you hand the Treaty back to them with a statement of the kind I have outlined, and a clear exposition of the objections to those reservations which are offensive and nullifying, you will force the Republican majority to meet these objections and public opinion will rally behind you on such a message and compel the Senate either to remove the objectionable reservations or to propose substituteds which, in the final analysis might not be objectionable.

If the Senate adjourns without taking action on such a message, the great majority of public opinion in the country will be back of you because you will have shown that you are perfectly willing to take unobjectionable reservations and that you have done your duty in outlining your objections to those reservations which would render the League of Nations meaningless or impotent to serve its great purpose.

Again, the Treaty will then be in the Senate and not in the White House and the whole logic of the situation will be with you and against the Senate. It will be easy for the advocates of the Treaty to show that, after such a message, the fault is with the Senate for non-action and that the Senate adjourned without doing its duty in acting upon the Treaty one way or the other.

Again, the Republicans will be tremendously embarrassed at their National Convention in adopting a plank on the League of Nations Covenant and Treaty if you take this course.

I can see enormous advantages to your cause in every way by sending promptly such a message as I have suggested and I hope, earnestly, that you will give it your immediate consideration. If you decide to take this course, it ought to be done at the very earliest possible moment. You add tho the embarrassment of your enemies, yourstrengthen yourself not only with your own Party, but with the great mass of men and women in this country who still have souls and consciences, and, at the same time, you bring the issues, - let me repeat, , down to date, clarified and reduced to the smallest possible limit so that the public will understand what it is all about.

No one but the President has access to all the papers of the Nation and, therefore, the message from you will carry everywhere and will do more good than anybody else who had the same access and will do more good, of course, because of your authority as President and as leader of the moral forces of the world.

I know that some of those near you are urging that you come out in favor of beer and light wines. I hope sincerely that you will not do so. I think that it would be a grave mistake for you to do it, not alone for yourself but for the Party. You are regarded as the leader of the great moral forces of the Nation and I think it would shock those forces which are certainly tremenduously in the ascendent if you should take such a position. Again, I think it would be disastrous to the Party at the polls. Some of the big cities of the country, like New York, Newark, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia, are making a great deal of noise about this matter but I am sure that every day that passes, the number of those who advocate beer and light wines, is lessened.

While I was Secretary of the Treasury, I found the utmost difficulty in enforcing the law which provided that patent medicine containing in excess of a certain percentage of alcohol should be taxed as spirits. We had neither the appropriation nor the force that would to enable us to test the patent medicines in the country with sufficient frequency or to prevent the grossest kind og frauds. I believe that the same thing will happen if beer and light wines are to be sanctioned. As an administration question I believe that it would be impossible to enforce the law and I think it would open the door to such frauds that the Eighteenth Amendment would be practically nullified.

I regard this as a great moral question, whereas I regard the suggestion of favoring the use of beer and light wines as one purely of political expediency.

Doubtless you know that I have consistently refused to seek, and that I am not seeking, the nomination. I have declined to permit my name to be entered in primaries in every State where I had the right to withdraw it. I have stated repeatedly, and am stating every day to friends, that I do not want the nomination and that I hope my name will not be considered at the Convention. I ought not, for one moment, to consider returning to public life, even thought I had the opportunity, because of my family obligations and private circumstances.

Even if I desired to be President, I would, in no circumstances, permit my name to be considered if I thought that you desired to have your name placed before the Convention. I say this because I should like you to understand that the suggestions I make about the Treaty and about the beer and light wine questions are absolutely disinterested. I am thinking only of the welfare of the country and of the success of the Party.

If reaction, now so blatant and over confident succeeds in winning the next election, then much that you have accomplished for the country will be lost and it is doubtful whether the League of Nations Covenant, whether it should be ratified now with, or without, reservations, would survive the inhospitable and unsympathetic treatment it would receive at the hands of a reactionary Republican President. We must defeat these forces of reaction, not only for this reason, but because I honestly believe that the great domestic problems now facing the Nation, out of which so much unrest and agitation is daily arising, will be agriavated by a reactionary President to such a degree that we shall certainly have to face in a few years calamitous and disastrous times.

I wish you could see the new baby. She is a darling little girl and we are very happy to have her. Nell joins me in dearest love for you and Edith. We are glad to get good reports about your improvement.

Affectionately yours,



The President,
The White House,
Washington, DC

Original Format

Letter

To

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/D01936.pdf

Citation

McAdoo, W. G. (William Gibbs), 1863-1941, “William G. McAdoo to Woodrow Wilson,” 1920 May 14, WWP16254, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.