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Incredible Presidents Woodrow Wilson & William Howard Taft Original Archive of Correspondence from - writing to the Boston Evening Record Editor Concerning the Senate Debate on Treaty of Versailles Ratification
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT (1857-1930). WOODROW WILSON (1856-1924). Twenty-Seventh and Twenty-Eighth Presidents of the United States.
Historic Archive, Consisting of Two (2) Woodrow Wilson Typed Letters Signed, “Woodrow Wilson” as President of the United States, and Seventeen (17) Typed Letters Signed, “Wm H Taft.” by former President William Howard Taft, a total of Nineteen (19) Letters, all of which are written to Edward E. Whiting, the Editor of “The Boston Evening Record” Newspaper. These Letters are all concerning the “Treaty of Versailles” and the “League of Nations.” Wilson's Letters are written in response to an editorial in The Boston Evening Record entitled, "The President Should Act Now," which stated that the Senate "ratified the Versailles Treaty (which) President Wilson refused to sign...". ( Please see our Online Auction Catalog having significant additional historical information and content.)

Seventeen (17) Letters are from William H. Taft. They begin dated on April 9, 1919 and run through November 27, 1920. They exhibit outstanding, incredible content, concerning the political situation between President Wilson and the Senat historicae about the Ratification of the “Treaty of Versailles,” as well as the “League of Nations.” The Woodrow Wilson Letters include:

Woodrow Wilson - Letter #1: Historic Typed Letter Signed as President, "Woodrow Wilson", 1 page, Octavo, on official "The White House Washington" letterhead stationery, dated November 19, 1920. Written to, "The Editor of The Boston Evening Record" (Edward E. Whiting). Here, Wilson writes, in full:

"My dear Sir: --- I have before me an editorial from the Evening Record entitled, "The President Should Act Now!," and in that editorial I find the following statements: 'The Senate of the United States ratified the Versailles Treaty with the League of Nations with reservations at the last session. This Treaty President Wilson refused to sign, objecting to the reservations, etc. Whereupon the Treaty failed.' I feel it to be my duty to correct what is evidently a very serious misapprehension on your part as to the facts. The fact is that the Senate never returned the Treaty to me in any form except with the official notification that it had failed to receive a sufficient number of votes for ratification. It seems to me very important that this point should be clearly understood and that misapprehension should be guarded against. --- Very truly yours, --- (Signed) Woodrow Wilson".

Woodrow Wilson - Letter #2: Typed Letter Signed, "Woodrow Wilson" as President, One page, Octavo, on official "The White House Washington" letterhead stationery, dated December 1, 1920, to Edward E. Whiting, Editor of The Boston Weekly Record. Here, President Wilson writes, in full:

My dear Mr. Whiting: ---- I am sincerely obliged to you for your frank letter of November twenty-sixth. It fulfills my expectation entirely of your sense of honor and of justice. I wrote because I knew you would be glad to correct any error that had crept into the paper upon so important a matter. I am very much indebted to you for your correction of the error, and hope that it will be widely noticed. With much respect, --- Sincerely yours, --- (Signed) Woodrow Wilson”.

In addition: the following portions are “Key Excerpts,” having been taken from the Seventeen (17) Typed Letters Written and Signed by former President William H. Taft, that he also sent to, “The Boston Evening Record” Editor, Edward E. Whiting. Here, William H. Taft writes, in part:

Typed Letter Signed, One page, dated May 5, 1919. On the Treaty of Versailles, Taft asserts, "It will be suicidal policy, from a party standpoint, for the Republicans to withhold enough votes to prevent ratification, and I doubt if they will resort to such a policy ... they are entitled to the credit of making the treaty acceptable so that it can be ratified ... "

Typed Letter Signed with 43-word handwritten postscript, One page, dated May 20, 1919. On the League of Nations, Taft assails Republican Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge's assertion that the majority of the senate was in favor of amending the covenant of the league in the Treaty of Versailles, predicting that when Wilson returns from Paris with "the treaty, he [Lodge] may find he is reckoning without his fist. "

Typed Letter Signed, two pages, dated June 4, 1919. One of the finest Taft letters we have encountered. Within, Taft asserts "the leadership of Lodge and Knox and Borah and Johnson would lead the Republican party to a policy that would seriously endanger its winning the campaign of 1820 ... pressure from the country to ratify will become so strong that [Republican Senators] will conclude the best thing to do is to ratify, and thus the Republican party will be saved from the blunder of its Senate leaders ... The men who are opposed [to the League of Nations] are the machine men of the Republican party who hate Wilson and would have nothing succeed which comes from him ...

Typed Letter Signed with 16-word handwritten postscript, one page, dated July 15, 1919. Taft here evokes Theodore Roosevelt's opposition to "hyphenated Americanism" during Irish leader Eamon De Valera's speaking tour of the United States urging Irish-Americans to oppose the League of Nations because of the harm it would bring Ireland. In the postscript, Taft pens, "The Irish are going to such extremes that they will rouse the country again against hyphenated Americanism."

Typed Letter Signed, two pages, dated September 12, 1919. Here, Taft criticizes President Wilson's tactics during his coast-to-coast speaking tour to rally support for the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, "One of the greatest difficulties that we have had to contend with in supporting the treaty is Wilson. It is pretty hard when you are supporting a magnificent cause to find it to be imperiled by the attitude and course of one's titular leader. It is impossible, schoolmaster as he is, to make speeches on the subject and explain the League without framing contemptuous phrases to characterize his opponents ... whose votes he must depend for getting the treaty through in a possible form."

Typed Letter Signed with 34-word handwritten postscript, one page, dated December 15, 1919. Here, in the handwritten postscript, Taft sharply reacts to President Wilson's statement that he "has no compromise or concession of any kind in mind" following the Senate's rejection of the Treaty of Versailles, "What a mountain of Egotism Wilson is -- He is showing the same personal feeling as the rest and is a fool not to see that he is smirching his own career in his present attitude."

Typed Letter Signed, One page, dated March 25, 1920. Even though a bipartisan vote in the Senate rejected the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles six days earlier, Taft blames President Wilson for its defeat, " ... the truth is that even though the Senate put the Treaty in a dangerous position, Wilson was in a place to save it and declined to do so. He is next in proximate cause and is therefore to be blamed.

Typed Letter Signed with 6-word handwritten postscript, one page, dated November 12, 1920. Ten days after the presidential election, Taft pins his hopes on Harding, "Mr. Wilson will not call the senate in extra session, and even when it meets in regular session, I doubt if he will submit the treaty at all. If the senators voted as they did of course the thing could go through, with the additional democrats who would follow his suggestion if he made it with reference to accepting reservations; but he will not accommodate himself to this, and I doubt if the Republican reservationists would make any effort to force the thing through." In a handwritten postscript, Taft pens, "Our sole hope is in Harding."

Typed Letter Signed, one page, dated November 27, 1920. Following a speech delivered by Henry Cabot Lodge, Taft hopes that President-elect Harding does not view his election as referendum against the League of Nations, "I agree that Mr. Lodge's speech is not only discouraging but quite unfair in the assumption that the majority of seven million in this last election was a majority against the League, and I feel very hopeful that Mr. Harding will take no such view."

This highly important historic Archive provides a fascinating glimpse into the political wrangling concerning one of the greatest controversies of the 20th century. The ultimate failure to reach a comprehensive and enforceable resolution to the end of the First World War set into motion the chain of events leading to the Second World War. These Letters exhibit even overall light toning from previous display mounting. They have each been archivally cleaned and stabilized for long-term preservation. All are very clear and fully readable, many having personal edits and various original notations by the writer. All signatures, by both President “Woodrow Wilson” and former President “William H. Taft” are prominent and clear. (19+ item Archive). ( Please see our Online Auction Catalog having significant additional historical information and content. )


The U.S. Senate, on November 19, 1919, for the first time in its history, rejected a Peace Treaty. The Senate rejected the Treaty with 14 “Reservations” added by Republican Senate Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge, by a vote of 39-55. The original Treaty of Versailles, with the League of Nations Covenant, was then rejected by the Senate, 38-53. After a motion to reconsider, the vote was 41-50, with fully 61 votes, or Two-Thirds of the Senators present, being needed for Ratification.

The treaty's defeat prompted a public outcry and made Senator Lodge the target of much criticism. In February 1920, the Senate felt compelled to take up the matter again. After lengthy debate, the Senate voted on the treaty with 15 Reservations on March 19. President Wilson had communicated his displeasure to Democratic Senators, but his control over his party was waning. A number of Democrats deserted the President's position and voted in favor of the proposal, but the final tally of 49 in favor and 35 opposed, proved seven votes short of the required Two-Thirds total for Ratification. In this instance, the Loyalist Democrats teamed with the “Irreconcilables” to stop the measure.

The Ratification of the Versailles Treaty and its provision for the League of Nations had become a bitter partisan issue. Many authorities believe that if a Republican had occupied the White House, or perhaps a Democrat other than Woodrow Wilson, that Treaty would have gained approval.

In May, Congress enacted a measure declaring a formal end to the war, but Wilson promptly vetoed it. The President remained resolute. He chose to take the matter to the electorate, asking that the election of 1920 be a "Solemn Referendum" on the treaty. Wilson's recent history of taking issues to the public had not been successful, and this effort failed here, as well. Warren G. Harding and the Republicans won a smashing victory on a pledge of returning the country to "normalcy." Wilson slipped into a bitter and short retirement. A Congressional joint-resolution officially ended the War with Germany and Austria-Hungary in July of 1921.