Fall and Hitchcock Interview with the President on the Peace Treaty
Title
Fall and Hitchcock Interview with the President on the Peace Treaty
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP16100
Date
1919 December 5
Description
Notes by Dr. Cary T. Grayson describing the reaction to Republicans on news about President Woodrow Wilson’s illness following his stroke.
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
INTERVIEW OF SENATORS FALL AND HITCHCOCK
WITH THE PRESIDENT.
From the time the President was taken sick necessitating the abandonment of the Western trip, the Republican majority in the Senate took advantage of every possible opportunity to belittle his illness. They made no effort to fight in the open, conetenting themselves with a campaign of innuendo and “whispering slander.” The general feeling among the Republicans was that the President must certainly be the big issue in the next Presidential campaign, and they were willing to go any length if possible to disarm him. A score of Senators, notably New and Watson of Indiana, Poindexter of Washington, Johnson of California, Sherman and McCormick of Illinois, Lodge of Massachusetts, Hale of Maine, Penrose of Pennsylvania, and Moses of New Hampshire took occasion every time they conversed with the newspaper correspondents to declare the President was unable to discharge his duties under the Constitution. The wish always was father to the thought. On several occasions these Senators made statements privately that had they been made publicly it would have driven them out of public life.Moses wrote a letter to a constituent in which he declared that the President had suffered a brain lesion and that his right side was paralyzed; but it was not alone the political opponents of the President who sought to mislead the public in statements regarding the actual illness of the Executive. Washington’s “high society”, always on the alert for morsels of misleading information, took great delight in declaring that the President’s sickness was far more serious than I had indicated in any of my bulletins. Many of these so-called leaders of society professed to have information that came directly from the White House showing that the President would never again be able to resume work. These people took it upon themselves to declare that I had been the leader in a conspiracy to keep the actual truth from being known to the people. Some of them even went so far as to say that the President had not received the King and Queen of the Belgians or the Prince of Wales when they visited him in the White House. Although fully aware of the various stories that were in circulation, I made no effort to deny them. I had my own plan to meet this situation when the time came. The opportunity of putting the plan of campaign into operation was averted when the Foreign Relations Committee took it upon itself to interfere with the Executive handling of the Mexican situation. A Consular official named Jenkins had been kidnapped in Mexico and released upon the payment of a ransom. The Mexican government, through the instrumentality of President Carranza, had Jenkins arrested on a charge that he himself had conspired to bring about the kidnapping in order to discredit the government. A demand for his release had been made in the regular diplomatic manner. Senator Fall, of New Mexico, introduced a resolution calling on the President to sever diplomatic intercourse with the Carranza government. When the resolution came up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Republican members seized upon it as a vehicle, if possible, to discredit the President. They adopted a resolution directing that a committee composed of Senator Fall and Senator Hitchcock (the Democratic leader in the Senate) call upon the President and ask him what action he wanted taken upon the Fall Resolution, and at the same time commissioned Senator Fall to give certain information he claimed to have dealing with Mexico to the President direct. This resolution was not adopted in an open manner. It was part of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of Senator Lodge and other Senators to endeavor to put the President in the position of refusing to receive a committee of the Senate.
Senator Moses was the prime spirit in initiating the plan. Moses wanted to vindicate his published statement the President was unable to transact business.I made no public statement as to what the President would or would not do. In fact, I adopted a non-commital attitude that had the effect of making a number of Republicans believe that I would not let the President receive the committee. Meanwhile, however, I had told the President about the enitire proposition, and he had said that he would be very glad to recieve the committee.
In consequence, when the committee sent word to the White House that Senators Fall and Hitchcock were desirous of seeing the President, the former was dumfounded when I let it be known that I had no objection to their coming, and that the President would be very glad to receive them. I had told all who asked me that the President was undergoing a rest cure and that personally I would prefer that he be not compelled to devote attention to anything of a controversial nature, but that if it was necessary there was no real reason why the President could not transact any business, he having responded so wonderfully to the continued treatment previously referred to.
When the Senators asked what time they were to come to see the President, they were told “2:30 this afternoon.” They had said that they would be willing to wait until Monday, when the committee was to resume its consideration of the Fall Resolution, but there was no real reason for delay.
Consequently, the two Senators put in an appearance at 2:30 in the afternoon. When I met them, Senator Fall wanted to know how long they could stay. I had no intention of taking any responsibility for Senator Fall’s actions, so I told him that he would be the best judge of that. This was another staggering blow, because there is no doubt the Republican majority of the Senate was hopeful that I would, even if I permitted the committee to see the President, limit the time and make it very brief. In consequence of my failure to fix any limit the two Senators were with the President for more than forty-five minutes.
The President received the Senators reclining in his bed. By his direction, all of the electric-lights in the room were turned on so that there would be plenty of opportunity for the Senators to see everything that was to be seen. It was a gloomy day outside but very bright in the President’s bed-room.The President conversed with the the two Senators at great length. He accepted from them the papers which they submitted, and they admittedly were amazed at his wonderful grasp of the entire Mexican problem and his complete knowledge of even the most minute developments.
When they entered the room Senator Fall shook hands with the President and told him that he hoped that he was getting along well and that he would soon recover. The President laughingly assured the Senator that he was getting along nicely and expressed the opinion that he soon would be able to get on his feet and go to the Capitol and take up personally problems affecting the Government. He then told Senator Fall that he hoped he would convey this information to his colleague, Senator Moses, laughingly saying that he hoped the New Hampshire Senator would be “reassured” although he might be “disappointed.” Senator Fall told the President that he wanted him to know that he was not one of this group. The New Mexico Senator declared that he was in earnest when he told the President that he was praying for him daily.After the two Senators went back to the Capitol they issued a statement in which they described the President’s condition as reassuring. Senator Fall took occasion specifically to declare that the President was mentally alert and that it was plain to be seen that he was capable of handling any problem of government that might be brought before him. Senator Fall’s action in emphasizing the clearness of the President’s mental processes had the effect of completely puncturing the various rumors that had been so carefully circulated by the Senators throughout the Capitol. Not alone this, but it also had the effect of destroying a reputation for “inside information” possessed by certain Washington social leaders. In this connection, the Washington POST carried a very interesting article showing just how this was done. It was as follows:
[A page was numbered and left empty, but no newspaper clipping was affixed.]
There was no question whatever that the manner in which the conference between the Senators and the President was indulged had been of enormous benefit to the nationaat large. There had been so many word-of-mouth lies circulated, professing to tell the exact facts in connection with the President’s illness, that many sane Americans had been misled. When the truth came out as the result of what Senator Fall saw and what he afterwards told he saw, many of these scandal-mongers suffered a very material loss in their reputation for truth and veracity.
One of the incidents of the conference that gave me a little personal satisfaction was to be called to the telephone while the President was talking with Senators Fall and Hitchcock and to be informed by the State Department that it had received word that Consul Jenkins had been released last night (December 4th). I interrupted the conference long enough to impart this information to the President and the two Senators. It developed afterwards that the release of Jenkins ended that particular phase of the Mexican crisis.
WITH THE PRESIDENT.
From the time the President was taken sick necessitating the abandonment of the Western trip, the Republican majority in the Senate took advantage of every possible opportunity to belittle his illness. They made no effort to fight in the open, conetenting themselves with a campaign of innuendo and “whispering slander.” The general feeling among the Republicans was that the President must certainly be the big issue in the next Presidential campaign, and they were willing to go any length if possible to disarm him. A score of Senators, notably New and Watson of Indiana, Poindexter of Washington, Johnson of California, Sherman and McCormick of Illinois, Lodge of Massachusetts, Hale of Maine, Penrose of Pennsylvania, and Moses of New Hampshire took occasion every time they conversed with the newspaper correspondents to declare the President was unable to discharge his duties under the Constitution. The wish always was father to the thought. On several occasions these Senators made statements privately that had they been made publicly it would have driven them out of public life.Moses wrote a letter to a constituent in which he declared that the President had suffered a brain lesion and that his right side was paralyzed; but it was not alone the political opponents of the President who sought to mislead the public in statements regarding the actual illness of the Executive. Washington’s “high society”, always on the alert for morsels of misleading information, took great delight in declaring that the President’s sickness was far more serious than I had indicated in any of my bulletins. Many of these so-called leaders of society professed to have information that came directly from the White House showing that the President would never again be able to resume work. These people took it upon themselves to declare that I had been the leader in a conspiracy to keep the actual truth from being known to the people. Some of them even went so far as to say that the President had not received the King and Queen of the Belgians or the Prince of Wales when they visited him in the White House. Although fully aware of the various stories that were in circulation, I made no effort to deny them. I had my own plan to meet this situation when the time came. The opportunity of putting the plan of campaign into operation was averted when the Foreign Relations Committee took it upon itself to interfere with the Executive handling of the Mexican situation. A Consular official named Jenkins had been kidnapped in Mexico and released upon the payment of a ransom. The Mexican government, through the instrumentality of President Carranza, had Jenkins arrested on a charge that he himself had conspired to bring about the kidnapping in order to discredit the government. A demand for his release had been made in the regular diplomatic manner. Senator Fall, of New Mexico, introduced a resolution calling on the President to sever diplomatic intercourse with the Carranza government. When the resolution came up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Republican members seized upon it as a vehicle, if possible, to discredit the President. They adopted a resolution directing that a committee composed of Senator Fall and Senator Hitchcock (the Democratic leader in the Senate) call upon the President and ask him what action he wanted taken upon the Fall Resolution, and at the same time commissioned Senator Fall to give certain information he claimed to have dealing with Mexico to the President direct. This resolution was not adopted in an open manner. It was part of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of Senator Lodge and other Senators to endeavor to put the President in the position of refusing to receive a committee of the Senate.
Senator Moses was the prime spirit in initiating the plan. Moses wanted to vindicate his published statement the President was unable to transact business.I made no public statement as to what the President would or would not do. In fact, I adopted a non-commital attitude that had the effect of making a number of Republicans believe that I would not let the President receive the committee. Meanwhile, however, I had told the President about the enitire proposition, and he had said that he would be very glad to recieve the committee.
In consequence, when the committee sent word to the White House that Senators Fall and Hitchcock were desirous of seeing the President, the former was dumfounded when I let it be known that I had no objection to their coming, and that the President would be very glad to receive them. I had told all who asked me that the President was undergoing a rest cure and that personally I would prefer that he be not compelled to devote attention to anything of a controversial nature, but that if it was necessary there was no real reason why the President could not transact any business, he having responded so wonderfully to the continued treatment previously referred to.
When the Senators asked what time they were to come to see the President, they were told “2:30 this afternoon.” They had said that they would be willing to wait until Monday, when the committee was to resume its consideration of the Fall Resolution, but there was no real reason for delay.
Consequently, the two Senators put in an appearance at 2:30 in the afternoon. When I met them, Senator Fall wanted to know how long they could stay. I had no intention of taking any responsibility for Senator Fall’s actions, so I told him that he would be the best judge of that. This was another staggering blow, because there is no doubt the Republican majority of the Senate was hopeful that I would, even if I permitted the committee to see the President, limit the time and make it very brief. In consequence of my failure to fix any limit the two Senators were with the President for more than forty-five minutes.
The President received the Senators reclining in his bed. By his direction, all of the electric-lights in the room were turned on so that there would be plenty of opportunity for the Senators to see everything that was to be seen. It was a gloomy day outside but very bright in the President’s bed-room.The President conversed with the the two Senators at great length. He accepted from them the papers which they submitted, and they admittedly were amazed at his wonderful grasp of the entire Mexican problem and his complete knowledge of even the most minute developments.
When they entered the room Senator Fall shook hands with the President and told him that he hoped that he was getting along well and that he would soon recover. The President laughingly assured the Senator that he was getting along nicely and expressed the opinion that he soon would be able to get on his feet and go to the Capitol and take up personally problems affecting the Government. He then told Senator Fall that he hoped he would convey this information to his colleague, Senator Moses, laughingly saying that he hoped the New Hampshire Senator would be “reassured” although he might be “disappointed.” Senator Fall told the President that he wanted him to know that he was not one of this group. The New Mexico Senator declared that he was in earnest when he told the President that he was praying for him daily.After the two Senators went back to the Capitol they issued a statement in which they described the President’s condition as reassuring. Senator Fall took occasion specifically to declare that the President was mentally alert and that it was plain to be seen that he was capable of handling any problem of government that might be brought before him. Senator Fall’s action in emphasizing the clearness of the President’s mental processes had the effect of completely puncturing the various rumors that had been so carefully circulated by the Senators throughout the Capitol. Not alone this, but it also had the effect of destroying a reputation for “inside information” possessed by certain Washington social leaders. In this connection, the Washington POST carried a very interesting article showing just how this was done. It was as follows:
[A page was numbered and left empty, but no newspaper clipping was affixed.]
There was no question whatever that the manner in which the conference between the Senators and the President was indulged had been of enormous benefit to the nationaat large. There had been so many word-of-mouth lies circulated, professing to tell the exact facts in connection with the President’s illness, that many sane Americans had been misled. When the truth came out as the result of what Senator Fall saw and what he afterwards told he saw, many of these scandal-mongers suffered a very material loss in their reputation for truth and veracity.
One of the incidents of the conference that gave me a little personal satisfaction was to be called to the telephone while the President was talking with Senators Fall and Hitchcock and to be informed by the State Department that it had received word that Consul Jenkins had been released last night (December 4th). I interrupted the conference long enough to impart this information to the President and the two Senators. It developed afterwards that the release of Jenkins ended that particular phase of the Mexican crisis.
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Fall and Hitchcock Interview with the President on the Peace Treaty,” 1919 December 5, WWP16100, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.