Woodrow Wilson, A Plea for Justice

Woodrow Wilson, A Plea for Justice

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WWP16312

1920 October 26

Woodrow Wilson struggled to uplift his fellow countrymen and create a covenant with other countries through the League of Nations. However, when he returned to find that his own people were repudiating him, the physical man broke under the strain and the withdrawn spiritual support.

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

English

For nearly two years a great and cruel injustice has been pressed against a great and good man. For that long time the fires of partisan hate have flamed against President Wilson—a man who perhaps loves no man above his fellow, yet in whose great heart lives the love for all men, the love for humanity in the mass. Because all personal love is swallowed up in this vast affection it may be no man loves him, because it is human that we love only those who single us out as the individual object of affection. In this respect it may be said our president has no personal following. He has had no favorites save those who could further his vast tasks and the ends of his matchless vision. Because of the bigness of that vision and the nature of the great task which has fallen to his lot to accomplish, he has found himself incapable of stooping to ordinary means to bend men to his will. For this he has scorned compromises. This may be the reason why he has felt compelled to live in a lonely isolation.

It was inevitable that he should be misunderstood. It was inevitable that the cohorts of partisan hate should be arrayed against him, because the realization of his dreams meant the destruction of their personal ambitions. So they have charged him with taking advice of no man, of calling no man of weight into his counsels. They have charged him with refusal to form a coalition cabinet, to call a committee of senators to his aid. They make the unfair charge that he did not use the talent of the oppositon, and in partisan bitterness descend to falsehood and slander. They refuse to remember that he worked hand-in-hand with the great and lovable but vacillating Taft. They forget that: General Pershing, a son-in-law of Senator Warren, republican, of Wyoming, was given supreme command of our armies;

That Admiral Sims was placed in charge of our navy in English waters;

That Mr. Garfield, a son of President Garfield, was made fuel administrator;

That Mr. Hoover was made food administrator;

That Mr. Requa was called to control the fuel oil department;

That Howard E. Coffin was made head of the aircraft board;

That Charles E. Hughes was entrusted with the task of investigating charges of fraud against the aircraft board;

That Crowell, Keppel and Scott were appointed assistant secretaries of war;

That Stettinus of J. P. Morgan’s firm was made special assistant to the secretary of war;

That Generals March, Goethals and Crowder were given high places;

That the fleet corporation was turned over to such republicans as Charles Schwab and Charles Piez and five members of the war trade board were republicans of prominence;

That on the council of nation defense were five prominent republicans, two democrats and one independent;

That Vanderlip, Rowe and Leffingwell were given positions of large responsibility,

And that, broadly speaking, he sought aid and counsel and wisdom from all sources. And so they make, and have persistently made, cruel war on a great and good man appointed by the nation to perform a superhuman task. So blind is their hate and envy that they forget they committed themselves in a thousand ways to his greatest dream which he made come true—the league of nations. The world was sick of war and sicker of permanent armaments. This he proposed to end, and by his genius he induced 40 nations of the earth into such a covenant. Only Germany, Russia, Turkey and Mexico and his own beloved country have refused to join.

It is a fact known of all who had the chance to learn that he throve and fattened on his labors so long as he was conscious that his own country was holding up his hands. When he returned to find that his own people were repudiating him, the physical man broke under the strain and the withdrawn spiritual support.

Lincoln, the now beloved, was slain by a crazed assassin. Garfield and McKinley were victims of lunatics. These three are counted martyrs. Wilson they have crucifed. Sane men of his own country have crucified him, and while yet he hangs upon the cross of his martydom they nag him and spit upon him and revile him. The co-ordinate bodies whose duty it was and is to aid him in his great labors did not even pass a resolution of sympathy while he lay at the point of death. He nearly gave his life. He certainly gave his health to the great cause. Is he not a greater martyr than Lincoln and Garfield and McKinley? What will a just people say when they think of these things? Americans love fair play. How will the body of voters, unbiased by partisan hate, conduct themselves in the presence of this monstrous injustice?

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