Margaret Woodrow Wilson to Woodrow Wilson
Title
Margaret Woodrow Wilson to Woodrow Wilson
Creator
Wilson, Margaret Woodrow, 1886-1944
Identifier
WWP19601
Date
1923 November 6
Description
Margaret A. Wilson writes Woodrow Wilson regarding some money she had lent to a friend.
Source
Eleanor Wilson McAdoo Papers, University of California, Santa Barbara
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence
Language
English
Text
My darling Father,
I am distressed because, as I feared, this Brouillet matter has made you uneasy. Please, dear Father, don't worry. It has taught me a lesson which will make me more careful in the future. I am willing to wager that every tender hearted person has to learn a bitter lesson of this sort. Many of my friends have had like experiences relative to lending money. However I do admit that I was too trusting. Helen by the way with whom I have talked the last few days, much to her relief for she was unhappy over what Sarah had told her-- unhappy, mark you, not about me but about Sarah, thought, not realizing that she was dealing with an out and out liar, that I was being merciless and hard. Even now, so convinced is she of Sarah's sincerity, she pleads for leniency and says that she believes that Sarah really thinks she can pay. When I point out to her the succession of lies and broken promises to Sarah's credit she says that Sarah probably believes what she says, but she, Helen, thinks she is crazy. I answer that Roosevelt believed what he said and yet he was certainly a liar of the most dangeous kind. I think that Sarah is unbalanced and that she is the same kind of self-hypnotised and unbalanced liar that he was. In other words I think that she is innately dishonest, not deliberately and cold bloodedly so. I think that there is more hope for the latter kind of liar, dont you?
I have cut Sarah and Meurice out of my life, after worrying myself sick for days because of Helen's pleadings. I had to convince myself all over again that I was right about Sarah. Don't worry I am not to be moved.
You say that you hope that I will "cut away" from "all" the persons my letter concerned. I cannot believe that you really mean that I should let lies, dastardly lies, influence me to be disloyal and unjust-- you who were loyal to your cabinet and your friends though you were told that your political career and your whole future usefulness was being endangered by them. You must have referred just to Meurice and Sarah. At any rate I could not even to please you be unfair and disloyal to a friend, for that would be wrong.
Now Father dear I am going to beg that you do something to help me. I had almost succeeded in cutting out of my consciouness all the heartbreak and disillusionment relative to Sarah until your letter, inclosing Meurices came. When I finish setting my friends straight I wish to absolutely cut the whole matter out of my memoury even, as much as possible. I cannot do my work otherwise. Now if I believe that you are harbouring suspicions of Mr Pritchett I shall feel that you are being unfair both to him and to me, for your suspicions will be based on what I have given you my word is a tissue of lies. I ask you, therefore, to try to forget this whole matter too and to keep your mind as unprejudiced against Mr Pritchett, or for him if you please, as if Meurice had never written you. If you do not do this I will not be able to keep Meurice's letter and your suspicions from rankling in my mind and so causing me irreparable harm. Will you help me to get back my peace of mind? Please darling Father don't be uneasy-- I don't want you uneasy for your own sake and for mine. Your warnings and my own experience will make me much more careful but not cynical!
Some experienced piano movers have undertaken to get my piano in today. When I have begun to work again on songs which has been impossible without the piano, with my mind calm I shall be able to tell more about the future. At any rate when you see me again I shall have begun singing in public or I shall have another job! I shall be happy in either case.
I love you and adore you more than you will ever know, darling Father.
Your devoted,
Margaret.
I am distressed because, as I feared, this Brouillet matter has made you uneasy. Please, dear Father, don't worry. It has taught me a lesson which will make me more careful in the future. I am willing to wager that every tender hearted person has to learn a bitter lesson of this sort. Many of my friends have had like experiences relative to lending money. However I do admit that I was too trusting. Helen by the way with whom I have talked the last few days, much to her relief for she was unhappy over what Sarah had told her-- unhappy, mark you, not about me but about Sarah, thought, not realizing that she was dealing with an out and out liar, that I was being merciless and hard. Even now, so convinced is she of Sarah's sincerity, she pleads for leniency and says that she believes that Sarah really thinks she can pay. When I point out to her the succession of lies and broken promises to Sarah's credit she says that Sarah probably believes what she says, but she, Helen, thinks she is crazy. I answer that Roosevelt believed what he said and yet he was certainly a liar of the most dangeous kind. I think that Sarah is unbalanced and that she is the same kind of self-hypnotised and unbalanced liar that he was. In other words I think that she is innately dishonest, not deliberately and cold bloodedly so. I think that there is more hope for the latter kind of liar, dont you?
I have cut Sarah and Meurice out of my life, after worrying myself sick for days because of Helen's pleadings. I had to convince myself all over again that I was right about Sarah. Don't worry I am not to be moved.
You say that you hope that I will "cut away" from "all" the persons my letter concerned. I cannot believe that you really mean that I should let lies, dastardly lies, influence me to be disloyal and unjust-- you who were loyal to your cabinet and your friends though you were told that your political career and your whole future usefulness was being endangered by them. You must have referred just to Meurice and Sarah. At any rate I could not even to please you be unfair and disloyal to a friend, for that would be wrong.
Now Father dear I am going to beg that you do something to help me. I had almost succeeded in cutting out of my consciouness all the heartbreak and disillusionment relative to Sarah until your letter, inclosing Meurices came. When I finish setting my friends straight I wish to absolutely cut the whole matter out of my memoury even, as much as possible. I cannot do my work otherwise. Now if I believe that you are harbouring suspicions of Mr Pritchett I shall feel that you are being unfair both to him and to me, for your suspicions will be based on what I have given you my word is a tissue of lies. I ask you, therefore, to try to forget this whole matter too and to keep your mind as unprejudiced against Mr Pritchett, or for him if you please, as if Meurice had never written you. If you do not do this I will not be able to keep Meurice's letter and your suspicions from rankling in my mind and so causing me irreparable harm. Will you help me to get back my peace of mind? Please darling Father don't be uneasy-- I don't want you uneasy for your own sake and for mine. Your warnings and my own experience will make me much more careful but not cynical!
Some experienced piano movers have undertaken to get my piano in today. When I have begun to work again on songs which has been impossible without the piano, with my mind calm I shall be able to tell more about the future. At any rate when you see me again I shall have begun singing in public or I shall have another job! I shall be happy in either case.
I love you and adore you more than you will ever know, darling Father.
Your devoted,
Margaret.
Original Format
Letter
To
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Files
Citation
Wilson, Margaret Woodrow, 1886-1944, “Margaret Woodrow Wilson to Woodrow Wilson,” 1923 November 6, WWP19601, Eleanor Wilson McAdoo Collection at the University of California-Santa Barbara, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.