Cary T. Grayson Diary
Title
Cary T. Grayson Diary
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP17079
Date
1919 February 26
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
WEDNESDAY.
The President devoted all of today to meeting various individuals with whom he had previously arranged appointments, to signing a number of bills that had been passed and sent down from the Capitol. In the evening he had as his guests at dinner the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The absentees were Senator Borah and Fall and Representative Borah had previously announced that he would not attend because he believed his presence would bind him to refreain from using the information given him by the President. However, before the dinner had even started the President let it be known that there was nothing confidential in the information which he was furnishing to members of the two Committees, and that they could use such information in any manner they saw fit. The dinner and following conference lasted until nearly midnight. The conference itself was held in the East Room, with the members of the two Committees sitting in a semi-circle about the President. He explained to them at some length the various difficulties he had encountered in Paris and related in detail the steps by which the tentative constitution of the League of Nations finally was arrived at. The meeting was more or less of a free and easy character inasmuch as the President invited questioning, and his invitation was taken advantage of by many of those present, chiefly Senators Lodge and Hitchcock and Representative Cooper. Following the conference no official statement was issued from the White House, and the various Senators who were interviewed by the newspaper correspondents failed to agree in their stories of what actually transpired. As a result it was necessary for the White House later to issue two denials: first, that the President had declared that the Irish Republic question was entirely a domestic one for Great Britain to settle; and, secondly, that he had stated that after the 4th of March, 1921, he would be a historian only. It was explained that neither subject was touched upon during the conference.
The President devoted all of today to meeting various individuals with whom he had previously arranged appointments, to signing a number of bills that had been passed and sent down from the Capitol. In the evening he had as his guests at dinner the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The absentees were Senator Borah and Fall and Representative Borah had previously announced that he would not attend because he believed his presence would bind him to refreain from using the information given him by the President. However, before the dinner had even started the President let it be known that there was nothing confidential in the information which he was furnishing to members of the two Committees, and that they could use such information in any manner they saw fit. The dinner and following conference lasted until nearly midnight. The conference itself was held in the East Room, with the members of the two Committees sitting in a semi-circle about the President. He explained to them at some length the various difficulties he had encountered in Paris and related in detail the steps by which the tentative constitution of the League of Nations finally was arrived at. The meeting was more or less of a free and easy character inasmuch as the President invited questioning, and his invitation was taken advantage of by many of those present, chiefly Senators Lodge and Hitchcock and Representative Cooper. Following the conference no official statement was issued from the White House, and the various Senators who were interviewed by the newspaper correspondents failed to agree in their stories of what actually transpired. As a result it was necessary for the White House later to issue two denials: first, that the President had declared that the Irish Republic question was entirely a domestic one for Great Britain to settle; and, secondly, that he had stated that after the 4th of March, 1921, he would be a historian only. It was explained that neither subject was touched upon during the conference.
Original Format
Diary
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Cary T. Grayson Diary,” 1919 February 26, WWP17079, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.