Wilson's Failure To Ratifying The Treaty Of Versailles In 1919

Many factors contribute to a group of people failing to accomplish a goal, but the stubbornness of participants is often a leading cause. This can be seen in the Senate’s failure to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, due to the feud between President Woodrow Wilson and the Internationalists, and Henry Cabot Lodge and the Reservationists. The Internationalists believed that the Treaty of Versailles, specifically Article Ten, should be passed the way it was, with no changes to the Collective Security Clause, whereas the Reservationists believed it was necessary to change. Similarly, Borah and the Irreconcilables believed that the League of Nations was in conflict with one of the ideals the nation was founded on; to not engage in foreign
Wilson’s egoism lead to his refusal to become a leader in the negotiations to change the terms of Article Ten. Ultimately, this lead to the Treaty of Versailles’ death. Before the first Senate vote on the Treaty of Versailles, President Wilson and Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock privately worked out a series of reservations that would allow for a compromise between the Reservationists and the Internationalists. Continuously, Hitchcock urged Wilson to go public with the reservations they had worked out (Bailey, 188). Instead of taking Hitchcock’s advice, Wilson simply said, “let Lodge compromise” (Bailey, 189). Wilson refused to be the one to step-up and start the discussion between the Reservationists and Internationalists to get the Treaty passed. In fact, Wilson believed that Lodge should have started to compromise first. If Wilson had put his ego aside and focused on what was important, the Treaty of Versailles would have been passed, but his stubbornness and refusal to become the leader he should have been caused the Treaty’s death. For the same reason Wilson did not step up and start negotiations between the two sides, he also did not step up to try to continue negotiations Lodge started. After the first vote on the Treaty of Versailles, Senator Lodge started secret discussions with Democrats in order to negotiate a compromise. However, Senator Borah found out that Lodge was taking part in these negotiations and accused him of treachery. Lodge had to stop the negotiations because of Borah’s accusations and his threat to re-elect a majority leader (Bailey, 189-199). If Wilson had stepped in between Borah and Lodge, the negotiations could have continued between the two parties and the majority of the Senate would have been able to agree on a version of the Treaty. If Wilson had put aside his ego and desire for Article Ten to be exactly as he had written it,