Woodrow Wilson to John R. Thornton

Thank you sincerely for having let me see the enclosed.
Let me say that I fully recognize the difficulty of your position in the matter of the sugar schedule and do not wish to minimize it in any degree. You will, I am sure, understand me, however, if I say that the conclusion I, myself, draw from the circumstances is different from that which you evidently draw. Undoubtedly, you should have felt yourself perfectly free in the caucus to make every effort to carry out the promises you had made to your own people, but when it comes to the final action, my own judgment is perfectly clear. No party can ever for any length of time control the Government or serve the people which can not command the allegiance of its own minority. I feel that there are times, after every argument has been given full consideration and men of equal public conscience have conferred together, when those who are overruled should accept the principle of party government and act with the colleagues through whom they expect to see the country best and most permanently well served. I felt that I owed it to you that I should express my own judgment as frankly as you have done me the honor of expressing yours.