Treaty of Versailles Failure to Compromise US Senate -- Train

The Irreconcilables were a group of 12 to 18 United States Senators who opposed the United States ratifying the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

. The group, largely Republican but also including some Democrats, fought intensely to defeat the ratification of the treaty by the Senate in 1919. They succeeded, and the United States never ratified the Treaty of Versailles and never joined the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

History

The Republican Party controlled the United States Senate after the election of 1918, but the Senators were divided into multiple positions on the Versailles question. It proved possible to build a majority coalition, but impossible to build a two thirds coalition that was needed to pass a treaty. One bloc of Democrats strongly supported the Versailles Treaty. A second group of Democrats supported the Treaty but followed President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

in opposing any amendments or reservations. The largest bloc, led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, comprised a majority of the Republicans. They wanted a treaty with reservations, especially on Article 10, which involved the power of the League of Nations to make war without a vote by the United States Congress. The closest the Treaty came to passage, came in mid-November 1919, was when Lodge and his Republicans formed a coalition with the pro-Treaty Democrats, and were close to a two-thirds majority for a Treaty with reservations, but Wilson rejected this compromise and enough Democrats followed his lead to permanently end the chances for ratification.

Members

Those who have been identified as members of the faction include: * George W. Norris of NebraskaBailey, (1945) p. 53.Stone (1963). * William Borah of Idaho * Robert La Follette of Wisconsin *

Hiram Johnson Hiram Warren Johnson (September 2, 1866August 6, 1945) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 23rd governor of California from 1911 to 1917 and represented California in the U.S. Senate for five terms from 1917 to 1945. Johns ...

of California * James A. Reed of Missouri * Thomas Gore of Oklahoma * David I. Walsh of Massachusetts * Frank B. Brandegee of Connecticut *

Albert B. Fall Albert Bacon Fall (November 26, 1861November 30, 1944) was a United States senator from New Mexico and United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior under President of the United States, President Warren G. Harding who becam ...

of New Mexico * Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania * Lawrence Yates Sherman of Illinois * George H. Moses of New Hampshire * Asle J. Gronna of North Dakota * Joseph I. France of Maryland * Bert M. Fernald of Maine * Medill McCormick of Illinois * Charles S. Thomas of Colorado * Miles Poindexter of Washington With the exception of Reed, Walsh, and Gore, all of the Irreconcilables were Republicans. McCormick's position can be traced to his Anglophobia and nationalistic attitudes, Sherman's to personal antipathy to President

and his domestic policies. Walsh, the Massachusetts Democrat, argued that the Treaty failed to address the " Irish question". Most of the Irreconcilables were bitter enemies of President Wilson, and he launched a nationwide speaking tour in the summer of 1919 to refute them. However, Wilson collapsed midway with a serious stroke that effectively ruined his leadership skills. According to Stone's 1970 book, the Irreconcilables in the Senate fell into three loosely defined factions. One group was composed of isolationists and nationalists who proclaimed that America must be the sole commander of its destiny, and that membership in any international organization that might have power over the United States was unacceptable. A second group, the "realists", rejected isolationism in favor of limited cooperation among nations with similar interests. They thought the League of Nations would be too strong. A third group, the "idealists", called for a League with far reaching authority. The three factions cooperated to help defeat the treaty. All of them denounced the League as a tool of Britain and its nefarious empire. Among the American public as a whole, the Irish Catholics and the

German Americans German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

were intensely opposed to the Treaty.Duff (1968)

History

Members

See also

Notes

Further reading