Cary T. Grayson Diary
Title
Cary T. Grayson Diary
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP17240
Date
1919 September 30
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
Insert A
ADMIRAL GRAYSON.
WESTERN TRIP.
It was the President’s intention on the continental tour to ignore the Senate, to say in effect to his audiences: “I am not here to discuss with you the controversies in the United States Senate. I shall leave those gentlemen to their own consciences. I shall not undertake to explore their motives. I am here for altogether a different purpose. I am here to tell you why my own conscience would not permit me to remain in Washington, even though I was urged to do so, because I must acquit myself before my own conscience. I could not face the possibility of spending an old age with a conscience that accused me of playing false to my people at a time when they had a right to acc expect from me the utmost exertion in behalf of a cause than which there can be in my opinion no cause that lies nearer to the conscience of man. I am here to tell you why this Treaty should be ratified and to tell you what it is that this Treaty means. I am here to tell you how the experience which I have had on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean has shown me that there is no other arrangement by which it is possible for wars to be averted in the future that by some such agreement between the nations as is involved in this Treaty. I am here to tell you how I saw little children waving flags in the crowded streets of the European cities and along the highways of European countries, and how I took a vow with myself that I should leave no effort unexpended in conference and collaboration with others to arrange the future that these children should not have to go through the experience which their fathers and their older brothers have just passed through. That is what I am here for – to tell you why how necessary this Treaty is to preserve the peace of the world in the future. And I am here to explain to you in very plain language and without any subtleties and without any partisan distortions precisely what it is this Treaty means. A great many things are being said about the meaning which are not true, a great many interpretations are being put upon it which are not so – I am here to tell you in plain colloquial language precisely what it is that Treaty means, why there should be a Treaty at all and what the Treaty is. That is the sum and substance of the mission which I have at present to the American people.” It was this, in substance, which Mr. Wilson intended to take from Columbus, Ohio, to San Francisco and back. But he had had no time to prepare his speeches before leaving Washington, or even to consider in any detail what he should say. He had been so driven with work and responsibility that Admiral Grayson found it impossible even to persuade him to act with his usual good sense in the matter of exercise. Several days previous to his departure he even neglected his golf, which had been his salvation during the period of the actual war before he went to Europe. He complained to Admiral Grayson that he felt very stale at the start of the journey and hardly knew just how he coul should develop the thoughts which he wished to present to the people. His political advisers on the train felt that the people were expecting from the President a strong counter blow to the hard licks that were being hit in the Senate. They remembered how President Roosevelt had made his strong appeal to the American public by hitting and hitting hard. They said to President Wilson: “That’s what the people want. They want a lively fight. Go to it.” These practical advisers fel that in some of the speeches the President was aiming over the heads of his audience. The President told them that they should remember that he was not speaking simply to the physical audience that faced hm; that he was speaking to all the world, and that he wished very much that he could talk just to those people if the speeches would not be reported, but he said: “You must realize that what I am saying in some comparatively small American town is going to be read across the Atlantic Ocean, and I ought to speak with that in mind as well as with my actual audience in mind.” But the practical advisers felt that he should at least gratify his audience’s instinct for a fight; that he who had been hit so hard and so often in the Senate should show his fighting spitrit by hitting back. And, hence, the President, weary, unprepared for the long speaking ordeal, and being in a poor physical condition, acceded to his advisers and dealt in a form of debate which was very unusual with him. This is the explanation of the tone of the speeches, a tone which some of his warmest friends rather regretted.- - -
ADMIRAL GRAYSON.
WESTERN TRIP.
It was the President’s intention on the continental tour to ignore the Senate, to say in effect to his audiences: “I am not here to discuss with you the controversies in the United States Senate. I shall leave those gentlemen to their own consciences. I shall not undertake to explore their motives. I am here for altogether a different purpose. I am here to tell you why my own conscience would not permit me to remain in Washington, even though I was urged to do so, because I must acquit myself before my own conscience. I could not face the possibility of spending an old age with a conscience that accused me of playing false to my people at a time when they had a right to acc expect from me the utmost exertion in behalf of a cause than which there can be in my opinion no cause that lies nearer to the conscience of man. I am here to tell you why this Treaty should be ratified and to tell you what it is that this Treaty means. I am here to tell you how the experience which I have had on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean has shown me that there is no other arrangement by which it is possible for wars to be averted in the future that by some such agreement between the nations as is involved in this Treaty. I am here to tell you how I saw little children waving flags in the crowded streets of the European cities and along the highways of European countries, and how I took a vow with myself that I should leave no effort unexpended in conference and collaboration with others to arrange the future that these children should not have to go through the experience which their fathers and their older brothers have just passed through. That is what I am here for – to tell you why how necessary this Treaty is to preserve the peace of the world in the future. And I am here to explain to you in very plain language and without any subtleties and without any partisan distortions precisely what it is this Treaty means. A great many things are being said about the meaning which are not true, a great many interpretations are being put upon it which are not so – I am here to tell you in plain colloquial language precisely what it is that Treaty means, why there should be a Treaty at all and what the Treaty is. That is the sum and substance of the mission which I have at present to the American people.” It was this, in substance, which Mr. Wilson intended to take from Columbus, Ohio, to San Francisco and back. But he had had no time to prepare his speeches before leaving Washington, or even to consider in any detail what he should say. He had been so driven with work and responsibility that Admiral Grayson found it impossible even to persuade him to act with his usual good sense in the matter of exercise. Several days previous to his departure he even neglected his golf, which had been his salvation during the period of the actual war before he went to Europe. He complained to Admiral Grayson that he felt very stale at the start of the journey and hardly knew just how he coul should develop the thoughts which he wished to present to the people. His political advisers on the train felt that the people were expecting from the President a strong counter blow to the hard licks that were being hit in the Senate. They remembered how President Roosevelt had made his strong appeal to the American public by hitting and hitting hard. They said to President Wilson: “That’s what the people want. They want a lively fight. Go to it.” These practical advisers fel that in some of the speeches the President was aiming over the heads of his audience. The President told them that they should remember that he was not speaking simply to the physical audience that faced hm; that he was speaking to all the world, and that he wished very much that he could talk just to those people if the speeches would not be reported, but he said: “You must realize that what I am saying in some comparatively small American town is going to be read across the Atlantic Ocean, and I ought to speak with that in mind as well as with my actual audience in mind.” But the practical advisers felt that he should at least gratify his audience’s instinct for a fight; that he who had been hit so hard and so often in the Senate should show his fighting spitrit by hitting back. And, hence, the President, weary, unprepared for the long speaking ordeal, and being in a poor physical condition, acceded to his advisers and dealt in a form of debate which was very unusual with him. This is the explanation of the tone of the speeches, a tone which some of his warmest friends rather regretted.- - -
Original Format
Diary
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Cary T. Grayson Diary,” 1919 September 30, WWP17240, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.